Thirty-eight people were rescued, including children aged 12 to 16, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

An estimated 100 people, mostly from Senegal and Sierra Leone, were said to have been on board the boat and had been at sea for a month.

It is not immediately clear when the incident occurred.

The vessel was first spotted on Monday, police told the AFP news agency. Initial reports suggested the boat sank, but it was later clarified that the boat was found drifting.

The wooden pirogue-style boat was seen almost 320km (200 miles) off the island of Sal by a Spanish fishing boat, which alerted authorities, police said.

Senegal’s foreign ministry said in a statement issued late on Tuesday that the boat had left Senegal on 10 July with 101 passengers on board.

The ministry said it was liaising with authorities in Cape Verde for the repatriation of survivors, one of whom was from Guinea-Bissau.

Cape Verde is around 600km off the coast of West Africa on a maritime migration route to the Spanish Canary Islands, often used as a gateway to the European Union.

IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said: “Safe and regular pathways to migration are sorely lacking, which is what gives room to smugglers and traffickers to put people on these deadly journeys.”

At least 559 people died trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, according to figures from the IOM, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year with 15 shipwrecks recorded.

At least 15 people drowned when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of the Senegalese capital Dakar in late July.

Source: BBC

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A powerful blast hit the US embassy in downtown Nairobi on August 7, 1998, killing 213 people and injuring over 5,000 — most of them pedestrians or office workers in the adjacent buildings.

Minutes later, another explosion rocked the US mission in Dar es Salaam, in neighbouring Tanzania.

The twin bombings, claimed by Al-Qaeda, killed a total of 224 people and went on to shape how a generation thinks about personal security.

The attack “still feels fresh” a quarter century later, said Anisa Mwilu, who lost her husband in the blast.

“What we can ask is for compensation,” she said to applause from several hundred people gathered for a remembrance ceremony for those killed, held at a memorial park in the Kenyan capital.

Caroline Muthoka, a member of a victims’ group, urged the US Congress to approve legislation to cover medical expenses and education costs for survivors and their families.

Muthoka described the failure of the US government to compensate victims as an “injustice”.

Redempta Kadenge Amisi, who was in a building flattened by the explosion, said she needed financial assistance to cover the costs of her twice-daily medication.

Revenge attacks
“The three people I was with were killed instantly. I didn’t realise it but my back was on fire,” she said of injuries that hospitalised her for over a month.

“Since the attack, I haven’t received anything… but I still hope to get some.”

Both Kenyan and US officials attended the ceremony, where the names of all the victims were read out aloud, and candles lit in memory.

The 1998 attack thrust Al-Qaeda onto the global stage and was the first in a series of bloody assaults in the East African nation.

Since the deployment of the Kenyan military in Somalia in October 2011 to fight the Al-Qaeda-affiliate Al-Shabaab, there has been an upsurge in revenge attacks over the border.

In September 2013, Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, killing at least 67 people.

Another Al-Shabaab attack in April 2015 at a university in the eastern Kenyan city of Garissa left 148 people dead.

In January 2019, the group laid siege to a hotel complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people.

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The indictment, which was handed down and unsealed Tuesday, describes the plot to overturn the 2020 election which culminated in the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Even before that, Trump engaged in a pressure campaign on state election workers, lawmakers and others, the indictment said.

You can read the entire document here.

As part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, Trump was charged with:

1.Conspiracy to defraud the United States
2.Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
3.Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
4.Conspiracy against rights
Here’s what else we learned today:

Co-conspirators: Six co-conspirators are included in the indictment. In the documents, they are not named because they have not been charged with any crimes, but based on quotes in the indictment and other context, CNN can identify five of the six. Those include former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell as well as former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.

January 6 insurrection: Trump and co-conspirators “exploited” the January 6 attack by continuing efforts to convince members of Congress to delay the certification of the election that day, the indictment alleges. Smith, in public remarks Tuesday, called the insurrection an “unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy” that was “fueled by lies” told by the former president.

Calls during the insurrection: In a phone call the evening of the riot, Trump refused a request from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to withdraw his objections and allow for Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, the indictment said. It also describes phone calls that Co-Conspirator 1 — who appears, based on the description, to be Giuliani — made to members of Congress that evening asking senators to “object to every state.”

Knowingly spreading lies: According to the indictment, prosecutors said that Trump knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and voting machines allegedly switching votes — despite state and federal officials telling the former president the claims were wrong. The indictment said Trump continued to repeat these claims for months despite being told and knowing they were false.

Fake electors: Trump and his co-conspirators effectively tricked individuals from seven targeted states into creating and submitting certificates asserting they were legitimate electors, the indictment said. The goal was to create a “fake controversy” at the certification proceeding on December 14, 2020, and position the vice president “to supplant legitimate electors” with Trump’s fake ones.

Pressure on elected officials: Trump “lied” to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “to induce him” to overturn the election, prosecutors said. The indictment also highlights how Trump “disparaged” election workers and “raised allegations” of voter fraud that had already been debunked by Georgia officials.

Connection to January 6 rioters: Two of the counts Trump is facing are brought under provisions included in a federal witness tampering statute that has also been used to prosecute some of the rioters who breached the Capitol. The judge assigned Trump’s case, US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, is known for being among the harshest sentencers in the January 6 Capitol riot cases.

Reaction: Leaders in Congress are so far split along partisan lines in their reaction to Trump’s indictment. Lawmakers loyal to Trump have released statements defending him and attacking the Department of Justice. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the special counsel and his team “have followed the facts and the law.” The White House declined to comment, according to a spokesperson.

What happens next: Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday afternoon. Smith said his office will seek a speedy trial. The legal process is also already underway in two other cases in which the former president faces criminal charges.

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Mr. Zelensky said attacks on Russian territory were an “inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process” of the war between the two countries.

Russia’s defence ministry said three Ukrainian drones were downed on Sunday, with two crashing into offices.

Vnukovo Airport, southwest of the city centre, was also briefly shut.

The drone attack in the early hours of Sunday is the latest that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

And in a video address on Sunday from the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine was getting stronger.

“Today is the 522nd day of the so-called ‘Special Military Operation’, which the Russian leadership thought would last a couple of weeks,” he said.

“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process.”

This characterisation is certainly a level up from Kyiv’s normal approach of not admitting responsibility for attacks inside Russia.

It may be far from a confession, but President Zelensky clearly feels confident enough to pile on the pressure, and not just on the Kremlin.

Drone attacks like these are also an opportunity for him to address the Russian population, the majority of whom appear to believe Moscow’s invasion is just and righteous.

If they connect explosions close to home with what’s going on in Ukraine, as per Mr. Zelensky’s suggestion, it makes it a bit harder for Vladimir Putin to justify his invasion, which he is only looking to expand.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Moscow would have to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv’s ongoing counter-offensive was a success.

Mr. Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council – a body chaired by Mr. Putin – said on social media there would be “no other option” if Ukraine took what he described as “our land”.

Officials said there were no injuries following Saturday’s drone attack, and the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the facades of two office buildings were slightly damaged.

Photos from the scene show that several windows have been damaged at the corner of the buildings, with debris scattered on the ground below.

One eyewitness, who only gave her first name as Liya, told Reuters news agency she could see fire and smoke.

“We heard an explosion and it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” she said.

“Then there was a lot of smoke and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”

Flights were briefly suspended from Vnukovo Airport, southwest of the city centre, and incoming planes were redirected to other airports.

In a statement, the defence ministry said the “attempted terrorist attack” had been “thwarted”.
Moscow, located about 500km (310 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has rarely been targeted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a series of drone strikes on its territory in recent months, including several on the capital.

The most notable was in May when Russia claimed Ukraine used two drones to attack the Kremlin – the heart of the city. Ukraine denied attacking the Kremlin or targeting President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s defence ministry says Ukraine also carried out an overnight drone attack on Crimea – territory which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Officials say 16 drones were destroyed and a further nine were suppressed, Tass news agency reports.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy, in the northeast of the country, has left one person dead and five injured.

A building was destroyed in an explosion at about 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT), according to public broadcaster Suspilne.

Officials also say two people were killed in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday.

Source: BBC

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Although French will be the working language, 13 other national languages spoken in the country will receive official language status.

Mali which has about 70 other local languages spoken in the country and some of them, including Bambara, Bobo, Dogon, and Minianka, were granted national language status under a 1982 decree.

Recall that, Mali’s junta leader Col. Assimi Goita put the country’s new constitution into effect, marking the beginning of the Fourth Republic in the West African nation.

According to the Presidency, Mali’s military since taking power in an August 2020 coup, has maintained that the constitution would be critical to rebuilding the country.

Mali witnessed two subsequent coups in recent years, one in August 2020 and the other in May 2021.

The junta had initially promised to hold elections in February 2022 but later delayed them to February 2024.

The decision by Mali to drop French comes at a time of growing anti-France sentiments across West Africa due to its perceived military and political interference.

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They said they had dissolved the constitution, suspended all institutions, and closed the nation’s borders.

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum has been held by troops from the presidential guard since early on Wednesday.

He was promised Washington’s “unwavering support” in a call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said he had spoken to the president and offered the UN’s full support.

Mr. Bazoum is a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militancy in West Africa.

Two neighboring countries, Mali and Burkina Faso, have experienced coups triggered by jihadist uprisings in recent years.

In both countries, the new military leaders have fallen out with France, the former colonial power, which also formerly ruled Niger.

Mr Bazoum’s whereabouts are unclear but in a statement on Twitter on Thursday morning he said the “hard-won gains will be safeguarded” and that Nigeriens who love democracy will see to it.

Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou has declared himself the head of state and called on all democrats to “make this adventure fail”.
In the TV announcement on Wednesday, Col Maj Amadou Abdramane, alongside nine other uniformed soldiers behind him, said: “We, the defence and security forces… have decided to put an end to the regime you know.

“This follows the continuing deterioration of the security situation and poor economic and social governance.”

He also said that all of the country’s institutions had been suspended and that the heads of the ministries would take care of day-to-day business.

“All external partners are asked not to interfere,” he went on. “Land and air borders are closed until the situation has stabilised.”

He added a night curfew would take effect from 22:00 until 05:00 local time until further notice.

Col Maj Abdramane said the soldiers were acting for the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

After the soldiers’ TV announcement, Mr. Blinken called for the release of President Bazoum.

He told a news conference in New Zealand that “what it constitutes is an effort to seize power by force and to disrupt the constitution”.
In neighboring Mali, heavily armed Russian Wagner mercenaries are helping the military regime to fight jihadist insurgents. Niger’s unrest comes on top of existing Western anxiety about Wagner operations and the Sahel region’s instability.

President Vladimir Putin, keen to expand Russian influence in Africa, is hosting African leaders in St Petersburg on Thursday.

The West African economic bloc Ecowas has said it “condemns in the strongest terms the attempt to seize power by force” in Niger.

On behalf of Ecowas, Benin’s President Patrice Talon has arrived in the capital Niamey on a mediation mission.

Mr. Talon said “all means” would be used, if necessary to restore constitutional order in Niger, “but the ideal would be for everything to be done in peace and harmony”.

Earlier on Wednesday, crowds in Niamey took to the streets in support of Mr Bazoum. A BBC reporter also saw heavily armed forces loyal to the president stationed around the national broadcaster.

The city was mostly peaceful, although soldiers behind the coup fired shots to break up the protests.

Niger is grappling with two Islamist insurgencies – one in the southwest which swept in from Mali in 2015, and the other in the southeast, involving jihadists based in north-eastern Nigeria.

Militant groups allied to both al-Qaeda and Islamic State are active in the country.

President Bazoum, who was democratically elected in 2021, is a close ally of France, and other Western nations.

Niger has experienced four coups since independence from France in 1960, as well as numerous attempted coups.

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The year-old agreement was “a lifeline for global food security and a beacon of hope in a troubled world,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in New York.

“Ultimately, participation in these agreements is a choice,” Guterres said.
“But struggling people everywhere and developing countries don’t have a choice. Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis.”

Guterres said he was “deeply disappointed” that a letter he sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week with proposals to save the agreement went unheeded.

The United Nations and Turkey-brokered agreement allowing grain exports from Ukraine, despite a Russian naval blockade, was due to expire at the end of Monday after several extensions since it was first signed last July.

Millions of tons of grain and other foods were freed up to leave Ukraine’s ports and enter the global market.

But for months, the Kremlin indicated that it wasn’t satisfied with the way the pact was being implemented and threatened to withdraw.

On Monday morning, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was suspending its participation and would only return once conditions relating to Russian produce are met.

Moscow says it wants obstacles to exports of Russia’s own food and fertilizer lifted in exchange for further cooperation. The Kremlin, in particular, is seeking relief from Western sanctions on payments, logistics, and shipping insurance.

The United States and European countries have dismissed Moscow’s complaints as without merit, saying their sanctions do not target Russian grain and fertilizers.

“I have to blame Russia for this decision,” the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said, describing the move as “completely unjustified.”

The EU foreign policy chief rejected Russian claims that sanctions prevent agricultural exports as “complete nonsense.”

“While Russia plays political games, real people will suffer,” criticized the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s biggest grain exporters to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, which began with its all-out invasion in February 2022, pushed up grain prices around the world.

The deal was struck to help secure supply for countries that rely on grain from the war-torn region.

On Sunday, possibly one of the last ships cleared for travel under the Black Sea deal set off from the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine.

According to the United Nations, it was loaded with more than 15,000 tons of rapeseed.

Speaking from New York, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Putin “to refrain from once again using hunger as a weapon in this brutal war of aggression … for the sake of peace in the world.”

Putin’s actions make it clear that the Russian president “has no regard for the most vulnerable around the world,” Baerbock said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was instrumental in forging the deal, said he thinks Putin still intends to return to it.

“I believe Russian President Putin wants continuation of this humanitarian bridge, despite today’s statement,” Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul.

Erdoğan said he would hold talks with his Russian counterpart ahead of Putin’s anticipated visit to Turkey in August.

An agreement to extend the grain deal “without interruptions” could still be possible before Putin’s visit in August, Erdoğan said, adding that negotiations were underway.

Ukraine meanwhile said that it was possible to go it alone, despite the lack of security guarantees from Russia.

“Even without Russia, everything must be done so that we can use this Black Sea corridor,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told African journalists on Monday, according to a statement by his spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov on Facebook.

According to Zelensky, ship owners are ready to call at Ukrainian ports for grain deliveries. The international agreement between Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN is still in force without Moscow, he argued.

Source: DPA

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“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew,” the statement continued.

In a press conference on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that an ROV discovered debris 1,600 feet from the bough of the tailbone of the ‘Titanic’ wreckage on the sea floor.

The Coast Guard said that the debris that they found was consistent with the catastrophic loss of pressure in the ‘Titan’ chamber.

“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss,” read the company statement. “The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organisations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.”

“We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families. This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea,” the statement concluded. “We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.”

The OceanGate Expedition submersible named Titan went missing on Sunday while venturing into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean to view the Titanic wreckage.

The Coast Guard announced just before noon ET on Thursday that a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) had discovered “a debris field” within the search area near the Titanic.

OceanGates’s statement was shared shortly before the conference began.

The search for the Titan began shortly after the sub “lost all communication” with Canadian expedition vessel Polar Prince “approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes” into its dive, United States Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a press conference in Boston on Tuesday.

The Titan was equipped with an estimated 96 hours of oxygen at the start of the expedition, according to Frederick.

PEOPLE has confirmed the passengers on the vessel were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding, who serves as chairman for Action Aviation.

Action Aviation said the sub “had a successful launch” at 4 a.m. on Sunday. The company also shared an image of Harding before boarding the Titan.

The U.S. Coast Guard admiral leading the search for the Titan, which is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, confirmed on Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar buoys detected noise in the water on Tuesday.

“It’s a target, it’s a focus for us to look at,” Rear Admiral John Mauger told CBS Mornings of the noises, though he added, “We don’t know the source of that noise.”

“This is an incredibly complex case,” Mauger added when asked if he was optimistic about the rescue mission.

On Tuesday, retired NASA astronaut Colonel Terry Virts shared the final text message he received from Harding during an appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, according to the New York Post.

“Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this,” the 58-year-old billionaire wrote, according to Virts.

In a statement released after the tragic news was shared, the Explorers Club shared a statement mourning the loss of the five men.

“Our hearts are broken. I am so sorry to have to share this tragic news. Our friends and fellow Explorers Club members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are lost, along with Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman, while trying to reach the RMS Titanic,” read a statement from President Richard Garriott de Cayeux that was obtained by PEOPLE.

“Hamish Harding is a dear friend to me personally and to The Explorers Club. He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes. Paul-Henri was elected to the Club in 2001 and was one of the foremost experts on submersible expeditions to the Titanic. They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind,” the president added.

“They pushed themselves in their entrepreneurial pursuits as they did in exploration. Stockton Rush was a friend of The Explorers Club and conducted lectures at our headquarters.”

“While we did not know Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman personally, their desire to explore as a family would have led them to our doorstep at some point in their futures, where we would have welcomed them,” the statement continued. “We’re heartbroken for the families, friends, and colleagues of those who were lost. Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration.”

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He said the tree, which stood for hundreds of years, wasn’t just a tree, but “a connection between the past, present, and the future and we must strive to immortalise it”.

The preservation of the tree will be led by the tourism and cultural affairs ministry, he said and would serve as a reminder of the country’s shared heritage and history.

Mr. Bio spoke when he visited the site of the fallen tree in the centre of the city.

Earlier, the president had described the tree “as a great loss for the nation” and said the tree was a symbol of liberty for early settlers. It also appears on Sierra Leone banknotes.

The 70m (230 ft)-high cotton tree was said to be the oldest of its kind in the country – a government statement estimated it to be 400 years old.

Just 300m away are the Freedom Steps, climbed by newly arrived freed slaves who offered prayers at the tree before making Freetown their home.

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Kishida arrived in Ghana on Monday on the second leg of a tour of Africa and met President Akufo-Addo in the capital, Accra.

During their one-hour meeting, the two agreed on the importance of maintaining a free and open international order based on the rule of law.

The leaders confirmed that Japan and Ghana — both non-permanent members of the Security Council — will join forces in reinforcing the functionality of the United Nations.

They also agreed to closely coordinate on the issue of Sudan, where military clashes continue.

At a joint news conference after the talks, Kishida said Ghana is a major economic hub in West Africa and an important partner that shares basic values and principles with Japan, including the rule of law. Kishida says he hopes his latest trip will be a catalyst for the countries to boost cooperation across a range of fields, such as the economy, development, and human resources.

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