Author: The Albertine Journal.com

Six months after invading Ukraine, Russia is bogged down in a war of attrition it didn’t anticipate but it is having success on another front — its oil-dependent economy is in a deep recession but proving far more resilient than expected. “I’m driving through Moscow and the same traffic jams are there as before,” says Andrey Nechaev, who was Russia’s economy minister in the early 1990s. The readiness of China and India to snap up cheap Russian oil has helped, but Nechaev and other analysts say Russia’s economy has started to decline and is likely facing a prolonged period of stagnation as a consequence of…

By Reuters Pope Francis, who has often said he may step down in the future if bad health impedes him from leading the Catholic Church, on Sunday praised the humility of one of the few popes in history to resign willingly instead of ruling for life. L’Aquila, a central Italian city which Francis visited briefly, is the burial place of Celestine V, who resigned as pope in 1294 after only five months to return to his life as a hermit, establishing a papal prerogative. Pope Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff in about 600 years to resign…

By Reuters Two U.S. Navy warships sailed through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the first such operation since a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged China which regards the island as its territory. The U.S. Navy, confirming a Reuters report, said cruisers Chancellorsville and Antietam were carrying out the ongoing operation. Such operations usually take eight to 12 hours to complete and are closely monitored by China’s military. In recent years U.S. warships, and on occasion those from allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have routinely sailed through the strait, drawing the…

By Our Reporter Young Elephant FC beat Black Tiger Wilacic FC by 2-0 to win this year’s TotalEnergies EP Uganda Nwoya Mini-League final held at Anaka Primary School playground on Saturday. The success for Young Elephant FC made them receive a prize sponsorship award to the Fifth Division of the 2023 Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) League. This is the first time that Young Elephant FC is winning the Mini-League title. Lions Power FC took the third place in the League after beating Stallion FC in a penalty shoot-out in the losers’ match after a two all-draw in play…

By BBC NEWS The green memo sent out by the production team of the programme Poldark asked that the location department use low-carbon suppliers of lighting and reusable batteries wherever possible. The request was vague and the expectations unclear. But such requests are increasingly mainstream and point to the growing awareness in the film and TV industry of its carbon dioxide emissions. In film and TV production, the main sources of carbon emissions are transport and energy. According to the report Screen New Deal, the average big budget film production produces 2,840 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. It would take 3,709…

President-elect William Ruto has continued with his day-to-day activities seemingly unperturbed by the ongoing court process that threatens his presidency. On Monday as his main challenger Raila Odinga filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge his win at the August polls, Ruto was meeting an Israeli envoy at his Karen office. “We look forward to growing our relationship with the people of Israel and working together on key areas such as universal healthcare, agriculture and water provision. We appreciate Israel’s support in these fields,” Ruto said in a tweet. This was happening as the Azimio la Umoja One…

By Nick Westcott Since 1960, Africa has received billions of dollars in aid. In the last 30 years alone, one estimate puts aid to the continent at $1.2 trillion, though distributed very unevenly across the continent. In this time, African economies have developed. Life expectancy and populations have both risen dramatically, and absolute poverty has fallen. Yet the rise in living standards has been relatively meagre, and few African countries have achieved the rapid economic growth seen in much of Asia – in South Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India or Bangladesh – in the same period. Why has so much…

The Confederation for African Football (CAF) recently announced plans for a continent-wide Africa Super League. It will kick off with 24 clubs from 16 countries in August 2023. The new tournament will run annually from August to May, with 197 games in a format much like the UEFA Champions League. It starts off with the teams grouped in three zones – North Africa, West/Central Africa and East/Southern Africa. The top 16 clubs move into a knockout phase. The enticement is a projected $200 million windfall from CAF, with 25% of the funds going to the development of women’s and youth football. The rest goes into…

Scientists have developed floating ‘artificial leaves’ that generate clean fuels from sunlight and water. They could eventually operate on a large scale at sea. The ultra-thin, flexible devices, which take their inspiration from photosynthesis – the process by which plants convert sunlight into food – were designed by researchers from the University of Cambridge. Since the low-cost, autonomous devices are light enough to float, they could be used to generate a sustainable alternative to gasoline without taking up space on land. Outdoor tests of the lightweight leaves on the River Cam showed that they can convert sunlight into fuels as…

By CNN Full self-driving,” the controversially named driver-assist feature from Tesla, may have finally met its match. Tesla’s foil isn’t a silver-haired US Senator, world-class autonomous driving experts, or some of the country’s preeminent safety advocates. They’ve all warned that “full self-driving” isn’t really full self-driving. The technology is designed to navigate local roads with steering, braking and acceleration, but it requires an attentive human driver who’s ready to take control and correct the system, which “may do the wrong thing at the worst time,” Tesla warns. But while these critics may have the traditional bully pulpit of the Senate…