Russia has said that 63 of its troops were killed during a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on a makeshift barracks in the partly-occupied Donetsk region. The ministry said in a statement on Monday that Ukraine’s military had launched six projectiles at the “provisional base” in the eastern city of Makiivka using the HIMARS guided rocket system supplied by the United States. Two of the missiles were shot down by Russian air defences, it added, but four struck the building. The ministry’s statement came after the Strategic Communications Department of Ukraine’s armed forces said late on Sunday that 400 Russian…
Author: National Tone
Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with throat and breast cancer.The former world No 1 previously underwent treatment for early-stage breast cancer in 2010.Navratilova, winner of 59 grand slam singles and doubles titles, will not travel to this month’s Australian Open, where she was intending to work as a TV pundit.”This double whammy is serious but still fixable, and I’m hoping for a favourable outcome. It’s going to stink for a while, but I will fight with all I have got,” Navratilova said.A statement from the 66-year-old’s representative confirming the diagnosis described Navratilova’s prognosis as good.”Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with…
SANTOS, Brazil (AP) — Fans lined up early Monday outside the Vila Belmiro Stadium ahead of Pele’s funeral in his hometown of Santos. The Brazilian soccer great died Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 82. Pele scored scored some of the best goals of his career at the 16,000-seat stadium outside Sao Paulo. His funeral is scheduled start at 10 a.m. local time, and the burial will take place in a vertical cemetery only 600 meters away on Tuesday. Fans started arriving at the stadium in the early hours of Monday to pay their last respects to Edson…
The US Trade Representative’s office said the decision was due to concerns over ‘unconstitutional change’ in government.The United States has dropped Burkina Faso from its trade preference programme citing deep concerns over “unconstitutional change” in government in the West African country, the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said on Sunday. Frustrations over the government’s inability to curb activity by armed groups spurred two military coups in Burkina Faso in 2022. The previous and current military governments have made efforts to beef up security, but the attacks have continued. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides sub-Saharan African nations with…
Novak Djokovic made a losing return to Australia but received an enthusiastic welcome from fans at the Adelaide International.Twelve months after he was deported as a risk to public health because of his refusal to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, Djokovic has returned to the country following the decision to overturn his visa ban. His first match was a low-key doubles encounter alongside close friend Vasek Pospisil which the pair lost 4-6 6-3 (10-5) to Bosnian Tomislav Brkic and Ecuador’s Gonzalo Escobar. Image: Novak Djokovic is greeted by fans at his doubles match at the Adelaide International tournament (AP Photo/Kelly Barnes)…
Gaza City – “What are your wishes for the New Year?” It is a typical question, but you do not ask it in the Gaza Strip. If you did, you would open yourself up to strange or angry looks, or someone might think you were making fun of them. So instead, I have asked the question to myself. I am a journalist, but I am from Gaza; I have lived through its daily reality, its hardships, and its challenges. Being a journalist here is a heavy burden. You report news that can leave you despondent, but it is news that…
Thousands are expected to pay their last respects to the former pope, whose body will lie in state for three days.Tens of thousands of visitors are expected to pay their last respects in the Vatican to former Pope Benedict XVI, whose body is lying in state for three days starting Monday at St Peter’s Basilica before his funeral. The German theologian, who died on Saturday aged 95, led the Catholic Church for eight years before becoming the first pope in six centuries to step down in 2013. His successor Pope Francis will lead the funeral on Thursday in the vast…
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia – Made, an Airbnb host who manages a luxury villa on Bali’s sultry west coast, spent two months looking for a gardener after the last one quit without notice. “I advertised on Facebook five times, gradually increasing the salary until the fifth time when I found someone,” Made, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, told Al Jazeera. “By then I had increased the salary by 60 percent.” Made’s experience is far from unique on the popular island resort. As tourism in Bali roars back to life after the scrapping of most COVID-19 restrictions, workers…
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva says one-third of world’s economies expected to be in recession this year.This year will be tougher than 2022 for most of the global economy as the United States, European Union and China see slowing growth, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said 2023 will be a “tough year”, with one-third of the world’s economies expected to be in recession. “Why? Because the three big economies, [the] US, EU, China, are all slowing down simultaneously,” Georgieva said during an appearance on the CBS program “Face the Nation”…
Like millions of people around the world, I have been closely following the debacle at Twitter since Elon Musk took the company over. Not only do I fear the loss of a space for free debate and access to information – especially valuable for those of us from not-so-free places. But as a political cartoonist, I am also afraid of losing the platform where I and many of my peers started our activism during the Arab Spring, which made Twitter what it is today. Perhaps this turn of events was inevitable. For a while now, the tech industry has been…