GHANA
Twitter to set up Africa HQ
Twitter announced on Monday it was recruiting 11 people in the nation, its first hires on the African continent, and plans to open an office there later. The social media giant joins Facebook and other tech companies moving into Africa, where founder Jack Dorsey spent a month in 2019. “Africa will define the future,” Dorsey said at the time, after visiting Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa. The jobs advertised in Ghana include positions for engineering, marketing and communications specialists. “The choice of Ghana as HQ for Twitter’s Africa operations is EXCELLENT news,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said on Twitter on Monday. “This is the start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana, which is critical for the development of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector.” Facebook has several offices in Africa, including in Nigeria.
UNITED STATES
Wests agree on joint custody
Kanye West agrees with Kim Kardashian West that they should have joint custody of their four children and neither of them need spousal support, new divorce documents showed. His attorneys filed his response on Friday in the Los Angeles Superior Court to Kardashian West’s divorce filing seven weeks earlier, which began the process of ending their six-and-a-half-year marriage. His filing was virtually identical to Kardashian West’s original petition, agreeing that the marriage should end over irreconcilable differences, and that the two should share custody of their children: North, 7; Saint, 5; Chicago, 3; and Psalm, who turns two next month.
UNITED STATES
‘The Rock’ eyes presidency
Fast & Furious star Dwayne Johnson on Monday said that he would run for president if he felt he had enough support from Americans. Johnson, 48, one of the highest-paid and most popular actors in the nation, has been flirting with a possible White House bid for several years. “I do have that goal to unite our country and I also feel that if this is what the people want, then I will do that,” said, when asked about his presidential ambitions in an interview broadcast on the Today show on Monday. The former professional wrestler, known as “The Rock,” did not say which party he would represent or when he might launch any bid for the White House. His remarks follow an online public opinion poll released last week by consumer trends company Piplsay that found about 46 percent of Americans would consider voting for him. “I don’t think our Founding Fathers EVER envisioned a six-four, bald, tattooed, half-Black, half-Samoan, tequila drinking, pick-up truck driving, fanny-pack wearing guy joining their club — but if it ever happens it’d be my honor to serve you, the people,” Johnson said in an Instagram posting.
UNITED STATES
Biden’s dog trained, again
President Joe Biden’s rambunctious young dog Major is leaving the White House again, this time for extra schooling in how to behave more like a presidential canine. Major would “undergo some additional training to help him adjust to life in the White House,” said Michael LaRosa, a spokesman for first lady Jill Biden. “The off-site, private training will take place in the Washington, DC area, and it is expected to last a few weeks.” The transition to the White House has been tricky for the German shepherd, a former rescue pup. Last month, Major was briefly sent back to the Biden family home in Delaware after at least one biting incident. Major’s fellow German shepherd companion, Champ, is staying with his masters.
On a beach in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, just a few kilometers from Taiwan’s Kinmen, life is carefree, despite some of the worst cross-strait tensions in decades. Ignoring warnings from Beijing, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit the nation in 25 years — sparking a diplomatic firestorm. China yesterday launched some of its largest-ever military drills — exercises set to disrupt one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. However, on Xiamen’s palm-fringed beach, there was little concern. “A war? No, I don’t care,” a young IT worker surnamed
According to Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates because “you never know what you’re going to get.” Now, an Indian remake of the movie has been hit by boycott calls over years-old comments by its Muslim star, Aamir Khan. It is the latest example of how Bollywood actors, particularly minority Muslims such as Khan, are feeling increased pressure under Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Modi. Laal Singh Chaddha, an Indian spin on the 1994 Hollywood hit with Tom Hanks, is expected to be one of India’s biggest films of the year. This is due in large part to its
ACROPORA REVIVAL: A marine science official said that the results of recent studies showed that the reef can still recover in periods that are free of intense disturbances Parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover in decades, an Australian government report said yesterday. Portions of the UNESCO heritage site showed a marked increase in coral cover in the past year, reaching levels not seen in 36 years of monitoring, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. Scientists surveying 87 sites said that northern and central parts of the reef had bounced back from damage more quickly than some had expected, thanks mainly to fast-growing Acropora — a branching coral that supports thousands of marine species. “These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover
Screams from soldiers being tortured, overflowing cells, inhuman conditions, a regime of intimidation and murder. Inedible gruel, no communication with the outside world and days marked off with a home-made calendar written on a box of tea. This is what conditions are like inside Olenivka, a notorious detention center where dozens of Ukrainian soldiers burned to death late last month, said a former prisoner of the camp outside Donetsk in the Russian-occupied east of Ukraine. Anna Vorosheva — a 45-year-old Ukrainian entrepreneur — gave a harrowing account to the Observer of her time inside the jail. She spent 100 days in Olenivka
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