Author: The Albertine Journal.com

BY NANGAYI GUYSON Last week, state officials accompanied by security forces swept through the Lubigi wetlands on the outskirts of Kampala in a long-awaited operation. They made numerous arrests, evicted hundreds of people, and destroyed markets, lorry parks, and many other structures. The action followed repeated presidential directives to remove people from the country’s wetlands. As businesses, farms and homes have increasingly encroached on these environmentally precious zones, they have gone from covering 15.5% of Uganda’s land in 1994 to 8.4% in 2019. If factors remain constant, scientists predict they could cover just 1% of Uganda by 2040. The government’s plans to clear the wetlands have…

The Supreme Court of Kenya on Monday confirmed the election of William Ruto as the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya. Reading the verdict on Monday, Chief Justice Martha Koome said Ruto garnered 50 percent plus one votes cast. Ruto had garnered 7.1m while Raila Odinga garnered 6.9m as declared by the IEBC. But the petitioners claimed that Ruto had not attained 50 percent plus one votes cast. “It is not mathematical sound and that the rounding off of IEBC was correct. The petitioners did not offer a water tight case,” Koome said. Koome said rejected votes cannot be…

Chileans on Sunday rejected a proposal for a new constitution to replace the one adopted during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Although the population voted for changes to Chile’s constitution in 2020, the proposed changes had proved unpopular with a large share of voters. An overwhelming rejection With almost all of the votes counted, the reject camp led with over 61.9% compared to almost 38.1% of those who voted yes. The result is a far greater margin of victory than was predicted by opinion polls. These had suggested that voters would reject the constitution by up to 10 percentage points. Leftist President Gabriel Boric, who supported the new…

Serena Williams has walked off the tennis court one last time. Williams, now 40 and having hardly played consistent, regular tennis in years, played her last match with the same joy of a child. Her US Open ended on Friday when she was eliminated in the third round by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1. At the end of Friday’s lengthy match, Williams waved to the crowd, putting her hand over her heart. Williams’ career goes beyond 23 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, 14 women’s doubles slams, nearly $100 million (€100 million) in career earnings and over 850 wins.…

Former pontiff John Paul I, once dubbed the “smiling pope,” has been beatified at a ceremony at the Vatican in front of thousands of Catholic faithful. John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, is widely remembered more for his sudden, strange death than for his life. He was pope for just 33 days before dying of a heart attack on September 28, 1978. On Sunday, Pope Francis declared him to be “blessed,” the necessary prelude to full sainthood. “With a smile, Pope John Paul managed to communicate the goodness of the Lord,” Francis said in his homily. “How beautiful is a Church with a happy,…

Venezuelan Jose Camargo is the one who decided who the President of Kenya would be, lawyer Julie Soweto has told the Supreme Court. Soweto on Friday demonstrated to the court how the staging of results was happening in the IEBC portal. “You are tech savvy and you can access the IEBC portal. I’m asking that we go to the forms portal,” she said. In Murang’a county, in Gacharaigu Primary school, Soweto showed the court how Camargo made maneuvers in the server. The foreigner was one of the Venezuelans who was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on charges of interfering…

The United States has imposed movement restrictions in Kisumu as the country awaits the presidential petition verdict on Monday. The court is expected to give a judgement on September 5 on whether to nullify the win of William Ruto as president-elect or to uphold it. In an advisory on Thursday, the US said the ruling might occasion post-election violence. “Election-related demonstrations and rallies regularly take place after elections, at times blocking key intersections and causing traffic jams,” the US said. “Demonstrations may occasionally be violent, requiring police intervention. Strikes and other protest activities related to economic conditions occur regularly.” The US…

Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) said on Thursday it will invest about $15 billion over the next 10 years in a new memory-chip manufacturing facility in Boise, Idaho, where it is based. The investment takes into account anticipated federal grants and credits under the CHIPS and Science Act and will create 17,000 jobs by the end of the decade. President Joe Biden last month signed a bill to provide $52.7 billion in subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production and research and to boost efforts to make the country more competitive. The capacity expansion comes at a time of weakness in the memory chip market.…

By Reuters A team of U.N. experts arrived at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia atomic plant complex on Thursday to assess the risk of a radiation disaster after being delayed several hours by shelling near the site. Russia and Ukraine accused each other of trying to sabotage the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the plant in southern central Ukraine, which is controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff. Conditions at the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, have been unravelling for weeks, with Moscow and Kyiv regularly trading blame for shelling in the vicinity and fuelling fears of a…

Ukraine announced on Monday the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive to retake territory in the south seized by Russian forces since their invasion six months ago, a move reflecting Kyiv’s growing confidence as Western military aid flows in. The news came as a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog headed to Ukraine to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – captured by Russian forces in March but still run by Ukrainian staff – that has become a hotspot in the war. Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations of shelling in the vicinity of the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest and close to…