Author: TheScrutinyNG

A Hamas leader in the West Bank died in Israeli custody, Palestinian authorities and the militant group said Friday. Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara, 63, died after being moved from a prison in southern Israel to a hospital, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Authority’s prisoners affairs body and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club watchdog. “We mourn the passing of the leader and prisoner Sheikh Mustafa Muhammad Abu Ara and hold the occupation responsible for his assassination through deliberate medical neglect,” Hamas said in a statement. Abu Ara was arrested in October while suffering severe health problems, the Palestinian body…

Journalists at some of Australia’s largest newspapers launched a rare five-day strike Friday, downing tools ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony due to a rancorous pay dispute. The strike hit the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Financial Review, in one of the most significant acts of industrial defiance to hit Australia’s troubled news sector in years. It is estimated hundreds of journalists employed under the umbrella of Nine Entertainment have deserted newsrooms in major cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Several sports writers sent to Paris for the Olympics will also strike, despite parent company Nine paying US$200…

Britain’s new Labour government launched its flagship green energy infrastructure plan on Tuesday, announcing a multi-billion-pound partnership with the business arm of the royal family to develop offshore wind farms. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is establishing a publicly owned body called Great British Energy to spearhead funding in domestic renewable energy projects as the UK weans itself off fossil fuels. “There is a massive prize within our reach, and make no mistake the race is on to get there,” Starmer said of his pledge to ensure Britain’s energy “independence”. His government has allocated £8.3 billion ($10 billion) of public money…

French security authorities have thwarted a plot against the Paris Olympics, the country’s interior minister said Wednesday, two days before the official start of the Summer Games. France has been on high alert over the past few weeks as preparations to host the 2024 Olympics hit the final stretch. The Games officially kick off with a lavish and high-security opening ceremony on the River Seine on Friday. The Games’ organisers face security challenges, including cyberattack concerns, amid high international tensions because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. There are also elaborate disinformation campaigns orchestrated out…

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Omoba Tunde Ajibulu has cautioned Nigerians against the danger in protests, saying it can be hijacked by undemocratic elements. Speaking in an interview with TheScrutinyNG, Ajibulu, a member of the 2023 APC presidential campaign council said rather than protests, there should be dialogue between the federal government and Nigerians. He also commended President Bola Tinubu for appealing to Nigerians to shelve the strike and give him more time to address their grievances. “On my part, i do not support the protest..Even though the people have a God-given right to protest, however…

Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday he will run to be chancellor again in Germany’s 2025 election despite his party’s poor performance in recent surveys, as a September date was confirmed for the vote. “I will run as chancellor, to become chancellor again,” Scholz told journalists at his annual summer press conference in Berlin. The cabinet had earlier signed off September 28, 2025 as the date for the election. Scholz became chancellor after his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won Germany’s last general election in 2021. The SPD formed a coalition with the Greens and the liberal FDP, but the parties have…

Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. That compares with a marginal two-point deficit Biden faced against Trump in last week’s poll before his Sunday exit from the race. The new poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted the nomination and Biden’s announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris. Harris, whose campaign says she has secured the Democratic nomination, led…

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after acknowledging that the agency failed in its mission to prevent an assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Cheatle was facing bipartisan calls to step down after a 20-year-old gunman wounded the former Republican president and current White House candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “It is overdue, she should have done this at least a week ago,” Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters. “I’m happy to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats.” President…

By Olawale Olaleye In societies where national pride derives from thriving democratic ethos and strong institutions, some character quotients are clearly not negotiable. Just as in an open or representative electoral process, a debate among candidates of participating parties is a basic minimum standard. In serious democracies, debate is a major event – a carnival of sort with serious contents. Candidates and their parties invest a lot of resources, including engaging the services of experts in different fields, particularly in communications and strategies, to help prep their standard bearers. By the time the first round of the debate is done,…

Ugandan police detained several demonstrators in the capital Kampala on Tuesday, according to an AFP journalist, as scattered anti-corruption rallies began despite being banned by authorities. President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist for almost four decades, had warned the demonstrators at the weekend they were “playing with fire”. On the eve of the rally, Ugandan authorities had cracked down on the opposition, besieging the headquarters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) of former presidential candidate Bobi Wine and arresting several of his party’s MPs. Police were out in force across Kampala on…