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.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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