The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Equatorial Guinea’s financial crime boss Baltasar Ebang Engonga caught in s3x scandal

    Equatorial Guinea’s financial crime boss Baltasar Ebang Engonga caught in s3x scandal

    Baltasar Ebang Engonga, Director General of Equatorial Guinea’s National Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF), has been exposed in one of the country’s largest s3x scandals.

    During an investigation by the country’s security authorities for alleged fraud, over 300 tapes of Baltasar, showing encounters with multiple women, including some married were recovered and circulating online.

    The videos reportedly include encounters with high-profile individuals, such as his brother’s wife, his cousin and the sister of the President of Equatorial Guinea.

    The footage, discovered in his personal office, was said to have been recorded with consent and leaked online, causing a media uproar.

    Equatorial Guinea’s Vice President, Teodoro Nguema, addressed the scandal in a public statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) where he condemned inappropriate conduct within government offices.

    He stressed that s3xual relations are strictly prohibited in administrative workplaces and warned of repercussions for violations.

    Read Also: I’ve never had s3x with male teenagers – Suspended RCCG Pastor

    “Given the abuse that has been shown on social media in Equatorial Guinea in recent days, and remembering that ministries are solely and exclusively for carrying out administrative work in support of the country’s development, sexual relations in offices are prohibited.

    “Control mechanisms are already in place, and anyone who violates this rule again will be subject to disciplinary proceedings for indecent conduct and will be dismissed from their job,” Nguema stated.

    Here are few things to know about him:

    Baltasar Ebang Engonga is the Director General of ANIF, Equatorial Guinea’s National Financial Investigation Agency.

    He is in charge of overseeing financial investigations and managing activities aimed at curbing financial corruption in the country.

    He is married with six children.

  • Trial for murder of Samuel Paty begins in France

    Trial for murder of Samuel Paty begins in France

    Eight people who allegedly helped the perpetrator in the brutal murder of history teacher Samuel Paty are set to stand trial in a Paris court on Monday, four years after the incident.

    The crime, classified as an Islamist-motivated terrorist act, shocked France and sparked international outrage.

    In October 2020, the suspect, an 18-year-old with Russian-Chechen origins, killed and beheaded the 47-year-old Paty in a Paris suburb. French security forces subsequently shot and killed the assailant.

    Before the killing, the history teacher had been targeted online for showing caricatures of the prophet Mohammed during a class on the subject of freedom of expression.

    Read Also: Gunmen murder lawmaker’s mother-in-law and brother-in-law in Jos

    Seven men and one woman are charged, including two friends of the perpetrator who, according to the indictment, were privy to his plans.

    Both are said to have accompanied him when purchasing weapons, and one is also alleged to have driven him to the crime scene.

    Also accused is the pupil’s father, who is said to have circulated accusations against Paty, and a man who reportedly posted videos about it on social networks.

    The trial is expected to last until December 20.

    Almost a year ago, in a separate trial, six pupils were convicted in a juvenile court for their involvement in the events leading up to the bloodshed.

    Five of them received suspended sentences and one pupil was sentenced to six months in prison. (dpa/NAN)

  • Former president Trump ‘regrets’ leaving White House

    Former president Trump ‘regrets’ leaving White House

    Former U.S. president Donald Trump said he regreted leaving the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election, which he never conceded.

    “We had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left. I shouldn’t have left.

    “I mean, honestly, because we did so well,” the Republican presidential candidate said at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

    Trump added that there were now “hundreds of lawyers” at every voting booth for the upcoming presidential election.

    Trump spoke about the achievements of his presidency.

    “We had the best economy ever. We had that wall. We had everything,” he added.

    Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

    To this day, he refuses to admit defeat.

    Read Also: Harris, Trump goes head-to-head in final campaign

    The former president filed dozens of lawsuits after Biden won in 2020, which failed in court.

    On January 6, 2021, his insistence that he won and that his “victory” was stolen from him led to the storming of the Capitol in Washington, the seat of the U.S. Congress, by his supporters.

    Trump ultimately stayed away from Biden’s swearing-in ceremony later that month, breaking with tradition.

    He left the White House a few hours before the inauguration.

    Trump is running against Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

    He has been casting doubt on the integrity of the upcoming vote.

    (dpa/NAN)

  • Harris, Trump goes head-to-head in final campaign

    Harris, Trump goes head-to-head in final campaign

    Kamala Harris and Donald Trump fought it out in the swing states on the final weekend of the tensest U.S election of modern times, with the Democrat urging voters to “turn the page” on the Republican’s scorched-earth brand of politics.

    With only three days left in the campaign, 73 million people have already cast early ballots, with many more expected to go to the polls ahead of the Election Day climax tomorrow.

    The country and the world could then face a nail-biting wait to know whether Harris becomes the first US woman president or Trump secures a spectacular return to power after his unprecedented and at times violent campaign to overturn his 2020 reelection loss to Joe Biden.

    They literally crossed paths Saturday, with Harris’s official vice-presidential Air Force Two and Trump’s personal jet sharing the airport tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    Both held rallies in North Carolina, while Harris also spoke to supporters in Georgia, another of the seven swing states seen as the keys to victory in an otherwise dead-even nationwide contest. Trump also added in a stop in Virginia.

    The rounds of high-stakes speeches before thousands of people at each stop will continue Sunday when Harris holds multiple events in the swing state of Michigan and Trump rallies with supporters in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

    Read Also: Presidency: Atiku’s alternate economic plan a cheap talk

    With less than three days left before last polls close, Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, are scrapping for a tiny number of undecided voters and, crucially, trying to energize their bases to get out and vote.

    For Harris, a key electorate is women voters partly because of her own historic role, but mostly due to widespread fury over the ruling by Trump-appointed justices on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, ending a decades-long constitutional right to abortion.

    “Donald Trump’s not done. He will ban abortion nationwide. He wants to restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk and… force states to monitor women’s pregnancies,” Harris said in Atlanta, Georgia.

    She painted Trump as “increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge” and “out for unchecked power.”

  • Early voting surges in storm-hit North Carolina

    Early voting surges in storm-hit North Carolina

    A record number of voters have cast their ballots early in the swing state of North Carolina, according to the State Board of Elections.

    As of today, 4.2 million voters or 57 percent of those registered have already voted, up from the previous record of 3.6m early votes set in the 2020 election.

    North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

    Read Also: British-Nigerian Kemi Badenoch elected UK Conservative Party leader

    Turnout has been the highest in the western parts of the states that were hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene, with officials setting up tents to serve as makeshift voting stations to replace damaged sites.

    “I am proud of all of our 100 county boards of elections and the thousands of election workers who are making this happen in their communities,” State Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.

    “And I am especially proud of the workers and voters of western North Carolina. You are an inspiration to us all.”

  • Harris, Trump goes head-to-head in final campaign

    Harris, Trump goes head-to-head in final campaign

    Kamala Harris spoke yesterday for approximately 10 minutes here in Detroit where she asked the churchgoers to act on God plans.

    In remarks, she quoted the prophet Jeremiah, who she said told “hard truths”.

    “God has a plan for us,” she said. “But we must act on the plans he has in store for us.”

    Read Also: Presidency: Atiku’s alternate economic plan a cheap talk

    About halfway through her speech, she pivoted toward a more traditional campaign message, including calls for turning the page on “hate and division.”

    “What kind of country do we want our children and grandchildren to live in?” she asked.

    Frequently during her speech, members of the congregation nodded and voiced their approval.

    The band has now kicked back up, as the bishop has finished his own remarks. People are dancing in their pews.

  • Trump calls U.S a ‘crooked country’ as he attacks electoral process

    Trump calls U.S a ‘crooked country’ as he attacks electoral process

    Donald Trump launches into many of his usual attacks, arguing that he is running to take down “a corrupt machine”

    He says Democrats “ripped the election away from this poor, stupid guy”, referring to President Joe Biden.

    “They ripped it away, like candy from a baby,”

    Read Also: British-Nigerian Kemi Badenoch elected UK Conservative Party leader

    He then complains at length about the electoral process, from the duration of voting periods to false claims of non-citizen voting, before saying that pollsters “can make the polls sing”

     Trump also responds a poll from Iowa last night, which suggested Kamala Harris was leading him by three points in the Republican-leaning state.

    He calls it “a fake poll” conducted by “one of his enemies”

    For context: The poll, released by highly regarded pollster Ann Selzer, questioned 808 likely voters in Iowa. It’s just one poll – so we should be cautious in interpreting the results. Iowa isn’t regarded as a swing state – Trump won it by nearly 10 points in each of the last two elections.

  • Trump: Robert Kennedy to have a big role in my govt

    Trump: Robert Kennedy to have a big role in my govt

    Former President Donald Trump yesterday said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have a “big role in the administration” if he wins tomorrows, telling NBC News in a phone interview that he was open to some of his more controversial ideas.

    Kennedy, who ran for president as an independent this year before dropping his bid and endorsing Trump, has long spread conspiracies and falsehoods about vaccines and other public health matters.

    He has, for example, frequently claimed that vaccines are linked to autism, even though for decades, studies have debunked this theory.

    When asked whether banning certain vaccines would be an option during a second term, the former president didn’t rule it out.

    “Well I’m going to talk to [Kennedy] and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” Trump said.

    Trump declined to talk about specific roles Kennedy might play in his administration, but in recent public appearances, Trump has made clear that he is envisioning a prominent role for him.

    Read Also: Presidency: Atiku’s alternate economic plan a cheap talk

    “He can do anything he wants,” Trump said during an event Thursday in Arizona.

    He said that Kennedy was “going to work on health and women’s health,” and two sources close to the Trump campaign have told NBC News that he might play a prominent role in battling “chronic childhood disease.”

    On Friday, Kennedy tweeted that on its first day in office, a Trump administration would push to ban fluoride in water, claiming it is “industrial waste” that leads to problems like cancer and other diseases.

    “Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds okay to me,” Trump said Sunday when asked about that plan. “You know, it’s possible.”

    Major public health groups support water fluoridation, and health groups also emphasize that the practice is safe.

  • The woman Kemi Badenoch

    The woman Kemi Badenoch

    It has been a long and bumpy journey for Kemi Badenoch to come this far in British  politics.

    Not with her gender nor the colour of her skin. And definitely not with what some people who know her call her combative nature.

    “Her forthright views on issues from gender identity to institutional racism have thrilled supporters on the right while outraging critics on the left in equal measure,” the London Mail said of her yesterday.

    It recalled how, during her tenure as Business Secretary, she  clashed with civil servants over her insistence that public buildings should have separate men’s and women’s toilet facilities and faced accusations of bullying her own officials.

    Read Also: My unforgettable battle with traditionalists in Ota, by cleric

    She even ruffled some feathers back home in Nigeria recently when she narrated to the Mail  why she relocated from Nigeria.

    “It was very much fate, and I would do anything for this country – I would go to war for this country, I would fight for this country. I would die for this country,” she said.

    “This is my country. I love it the way it is. I don’t want it to become like the place I ran away from. I want it to get better and better, not just for me, but for the next generation.”

    Her comments drew flak from former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode who said:“A very s****d little girl and notoriously self-righteous b***h barks. Ever considered staying in the place you ‘ran away from’ and trying to fix it? You are worse than Aunty Jemima, the female version of Uncle Tom.

    “By all means try your luck at being elected leader of the British Conservative party but leave my country out of your pretty yet stinking mouth.”

    She insists that her political outlook is firmly rooted in her Nigerian heritage.

    Her first bid for the London Assembly in  2012 ended in a defeat.

    But that initial setback was over in 2015 when she was appointed an Assembly Member after Victoria Borwick resigned upon becoming a member of parliament in 2015.

    And there has been no looking back since then.

    In 2017,she was  elected to the House of Commons.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed her Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families in July 2019.

    She was promoted Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities in the February 2020 reshuffle and appointed Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities in September 2021.

    However, she fell out with Johnson in July 2022 and had to resign.

    Her bid to  replace Johnson in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election failed but she did not wait for too long in the political wilderness as Prime Minister Liz Truss made her Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade in September 2022 .She was also  sworn in to the Privy Council.

    She was reappointed Trade Secretary by Truss’ successor, Rishi Sunak.

    She later became Minister for Women and Equalities, Secretary of State for Business and Trade following the merging of the Department for International Trade with elements of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

    She was  appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in Sunak’s Shadow Cabinet following the defeat of her party earlier this year and immediately  launched her bid to become leader of the Conservative Party.

  • U.S. authorities warn of Russian interference in election campaign

    U.S. authorities warn of Russian interference in election campaign

    Just days before the U.S. presidential election, intelligence agencies in Washington are warning of targeted disinformation from Russia.

    The agencies blamed Russia for a video that “falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia.”

    Another fabricated video falsely accused “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a US entertainer.”

    The agencies did not elaborate in their statement. But US media said the video that began circulating late this week suggested Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband received a 500,000-dollar-bribe from the performer Sean “Diddy” Combs.

    In the joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency blamed “Russian influence actors” for the videos.

    These instances were part of a “broader effort” by Moscow “to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans,” the agencies said.

    Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is responsible for elections in the swing state, said the video about Georgia “is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen in this and other elections.

    It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 presidential election.”

    Raffensperger called on X owner Elon Musk and the leaders of other social media platforms to remove the video.

    The clip was originally posted by an anonymous account that had previously been reported to have spread disinformation of suspected Russian origin.

    The video has since been deleted. (dpa/NAN)