All from Madagascar
— The death toll from tropical Cyclone Freddy that lashed the eastern coast of Madagascar has risen to four, officials said on Wednesday.
The storm, which packed winds of around 130 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour), affected 16,600 people, according to the national risk and catastrophes bureau BNGRC. —
Source: Nam News Network
(AFP) – Powerful tropical Cyclone Freddy tore through parts of Madagascar on Wednesday, killing four people on the Indian Ocean island, disaster management authorities said.
A 27-year-old man drowned in rising sea waters on Tuesday just before the storm, which packed winds of around 130 kilometres per hour (80 miles per hour), made landfall.
But on Wednesday authorities put the toll at four.
The storm has affected 16,600 people, according to the country’s National Risk Management Office (BNGRC).
It brought less rains than feared, but strong winds ripped roofs off buildings and flattened rice fields and fruit trees.
The storm landed north of Mananjary, a coastal town of 25,000 people that remains devastated by last year’s Cyclone Batsirai, which killed more than 130 people across Madagascar.
“It’s a dry cyclone compared to Batsirai, so it brought less rains, but the winds were stronger, this why infrastructure was badly affected,” risk management senior official Faly Aritiana Fabien told AFP.
“The recorded damage is almost only related to the wind,” said Fabien.
– ‘Can’t take this’ –
By daybreak in Mananjary residents were out on the streets to assess the damage and salvage what they could, witnesses said.
Despite thousands of sandbags used to reinforce roofs, metal sheets were strewn onto the ground by the force of the wind.
The 27-year-old man drowned near the port of Mahanoro, to the north of Mananjary, said the BNGRC.
Fabien said Freddy was “one of the strongest cyclones” to hit the island, which is typically lashed several times during the annual November-April storm season.
Pascal Salle, from Mananjary, sobbed as he assessed the damage after hardly recovering from last year’s cyclone Batsirai.
“I didn’t think there was a more powerful cyclone than Batsirai,” he said. “My fence is down, my 1,000-litre plastic water tank smashed against the neighbour’s wall”.
A window was ripped off his house and the garden transformed into “a sandy field”, he said.
“I can’t take this every year, it’s not possible,” he said.
– Mozambique next –
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) estimates more than 2.3 million people in Madagascar could be affected by Freddy and that the cyclone will then pass through Mozambique and Zimbabwe on the African mainland.
Authorities said that Madagascar, which is accustomed to cyclones and tropical storms, had put measures in place to minimise loss of lives.
Several regions on Tuesday suspended school classes for the rest of the week, the education ministry said.
At least 8,000 people were evacuated as a precaution in the Mananjary district but were expected to return to their homes in a day or two.
Freddy is the first cyclone and the second tropical weather system to hit during the current season, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Monitors have described Freddy as one of the longest lasting storms of recent times, skirting past Reunion Island and Mauritius late Monday without causing major damage.
Freddy developed during the first week of February in the northwest of Australia and south of Indonesia and is in its third week trekking across the Indian Ocean.
Mozambique is forecast to take a direct hit by Friday, according to the UN disaster coordination, where an estimated 500,000 people could be impacted.
Source: Seychelles News Agency
Maritime safety and security within the Indian Ocean are set to increase and will benefit Seychelles as two centres dealing with and coordinating maritime information exchange signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday.
The MoU was signed by the director of the Seychelles-based Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC), Sam Gonthier, and done virtually by the director of the India-based Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), Rohit Bajpai.
Effective for two years from the date of signing, the agreement aims to promote maritime safety and security collaboration, as well as exchange cooperation of personnel, information, technology, and best practices.
Both parties will be able to share information and develop capabilities through training in operational information-sharing, maritime domain awareness, and sharing of best practices through the conduct of seminars, workshops, and or tabletop exercises on maritime security, safety, and information sharing.
Gonthier said that since the pirates in the Indian Ocean have changed their operations from piracy to drug and human trafficking, the collaboration will allow for more presence in the region, and benefit Seychelles.
“We have seen an increase in drug trafficking, illegal migration, human trafficking, and illegal wildlife trade, as well as IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated ) fishing. Having more partners in maritime security means that we get more information coming in, allowing us to know where these illegal vessels are and respond. We already have partners such as the EUNAVFOR, the UK as well as all the signatory countries. India has a lot more vessels than all the partners put together and as such, they can help us with patrolling when we need such,” said Gonthier.
He said that as Seychelles has a vast territory of 1.4 million square kilometres ,”we are unable to patrol all this territory and as such with new partners, we have the ability to patrol more.”
In his address at the virtual signing of the MoU, IFC-IOR’s Bajpai acknowledged the pivotal role being played by RCOC in coordination with the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre towards strengthening the regional maritime security architecture in the western Indian Ocean region.
He outlined that with “the Indian Ocean’s status as an international trade highway becoming more significant than ever before” the number of challenges that accompany this are also increasing.
“Maritime security in the Indian Ocean region necessitates continued collaboration and information sharing,” he said.
In 2018, seven neighbouring states of the western Indian Ocean signed two agreements to establish an architecture for maritime security to promote collaboration and improve maritime security in the region.
This led to the establishment of the Regional Coordination operation Centre and the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Centre based in Madagascar. The MAZE agreements as they are called, make provision for partnership with the wider region.
It is within this context that the MAZE Agreement steering committee approved the signature of an MoU with the IFC-IOR in December 2021.
Gonthier shared that countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, and Namibia are also interested in entering the MAZE Programme.
Source: Seychelles News Agency
One of the UK’s leading supercar hire companies has just launched a cryptocurrency payment system to rent the world’s most impressive supercars.
LONDON, Feb. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — One of the UK’s leading supercar hire companies has just launched a cryptocurrency payment system to rent the world’s most impressive supercars. Customers can now choose to pay to for selection of over 100 supercars from 28 luxury marques in Bitcoin or Ethereum cryptocurrency as well as in Pound Sterling. One of the cars available at their showrooms in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, is the £2.4m Bugatti Chiron, which costs £200,000 a day to rent, or 220.75 ETH, or 11.696 BTC.
Classic Parade founder and owner Andrew Brown said: “Our clientele are international and want to be able to pay to rent our supercars without the hassle and cost of exchange rates and transfer fees. “Many of our clientele have significant holdings in cryptocurrency and so it makes sense to offer this option for them. The transactions are immediate, and we can also take the deposits in crypto as well, and then it’s easy to return the deposit after the rental has expired as well.”
Crypto payments are made to Classic Parade’s secure wallet and all necessary steps are taken to ensure the safety of the financial transfers. Once the funds have transferred and the rental agreements are signed the supercar is either collected or delivered to the customers address in the UK.
Andrew Brown added: “We have to go through the usual identity checks needed to hire a vehicle, but these are easy to process, and it becomes much easier with every repeat transaction. “This way we can also provide adequate “know your customer” checks.” One of Classic Parade’s most popular cars for summer rentals is the Lamborghini Huracan Spyder which costs £1,100 a day to rent, or 1.21 ETH or 0.064 BTC. Andrew Brown said: “We are expecting a great deal of interest from crypto investors in the next few months to rent out our incredible supercars. Many investors are relatively young and want to show their wealth and so the interest in supercars is very strong for this market.”
You can see the full range of supercars and their prices at https://www.classicparade.
Media contact details:
James Goble, Classic Parade
+44 (0) 333 355 3595
rent@classicparade.co.uk
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/
GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1000783903
Federal environmental regulators on Tuesday took charge of the cleanup from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical burn and ordered Norfolk Southern to foot the bill.
The Environmental Protection Agency told Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water, and also said the company would be required to reimburse the federal government for a new program to provide cleaning services for impacted residents and businesses.
The EPA warned Norfolk Southern that if failed to comply with its order, the agency would perform the work itself and seek triple damages from the company.
“The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement ahead of a planned news conference with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community,” he said.
“In no way shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess they created,” Regan said at the press conference.
He added that he knows the order “cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much needed comfort for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.”
The agency said it would release more details on the cleanup service for residents and businesses this week.
The EPA said its order marks the end of the “emergency” phase of the derailment and the beginning of long-term remediation phase in the East Palestine area.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday also acknowledged the community’s concern that it will be left to handle the aftermath on its own once the news cameras leave and public attention turns elsewhere, and he assured residents that won’t be the case.
Separately, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a package of reforms Tuesday, calling on railroad operators to take immediate steps to improve safety, such as accelerating the planned upgrade of tank cars.
Some 50 freight cars derailed on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, prompting persistent environmental and health concerns. The derailment prompted an evacuation as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.
Officials seeking to avoid the danger of an uncontrolled blast chose to intentionally release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke again billowing high into the sky. That left people questioning the potential health impacts for residents in the area and beyond, even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.
Source: Voice of America
Jill Biden arrives in Namibia Wednesday for her first visit to Africa as U.S. first lady.
Biden will focus on women’s empowerment, children’s issues and food insecurity that has ravaged parts of the continent.
“Dr. Biden’s trip builds on last year’s U.S.- Africa Leaders summit and as another demonstration of President Biden’s commitment that the United States is all-in on Africa and all-in with Africa,” Judd Devermont, senior director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, told reporters Tuesday morning.
“The U.S. strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa, which we released last August, starts with the conviction that Africa is critical to advancing our shared global priorities,” Devermont added. “We believe that we are in the early years of a decisive decade which will determine the rules of the road on a host of vital issues from trade and economics, cybersecurity and technology.”
With this visit, Jill Biden also becomes the first U.S. first lady to visit Namibia since the southwest African nation gained independence in 1990.
In addition to focusing on women and children, the first lady will draw attention to the dire food insecurity that is again gnawing at East Africa as she visits Kenya.
“In Kenya, Dr. Biden will very specifically draw attention to the food security crisis impacting the Horn of Africa, which is noted as the worst drought that this region has experienced in decades,” said NSC spokesperson Becky Farmer. “Over 20 million people are increasingly experiencing acute food insecurity with many more at risk of increased hunger over the last year.”
President Biden highlighted the situation in December when he announced a large humanitarian aid package at a summit that brought African leaders to Washington. And he discussed it again Tuesday as he highlighted the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine on global food supplies.
“Putin tried to starve the world, blocking the ports of the Black Sea to stop Ukraine from exporting its grain exacerbating a global food crisis that hit the developing nations of Africa especially hard. Instead, the United States and the G-7, and partners around the world answered the call with historic commitments to address the crisis and to bolster global food supplies. And this week my wife, Jill Biden, is traveling to Africa to help bring attention to this critical issue,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday.
The Biden administration has been seen as trying to woo Africa to support Ukraine over Russia, recently dispatching Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Senegal, Zambia and South Africa.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister has visited multiple nations that have historic or ideological ties to Russia or the former Soviet Union, such as Mali, Sudan and Angola.
China sent its new foreign minister to Africa for his maiden voyage — a sign of that nation’s deep interest in the continent.
Warm receptions are the norm
Presidential-spouse visits often provide a contrast to the strategic, muscular approach of the presidency — partly because, as Biden herself points out, she has no executive authority and no mandate from American voters.
“I wasn’t elected — but I had a part to play,” she said in December, at a gathering of spouses of African leaders. “As spouses, we serve the people of our countries, too. Don’t we? We see their hearts and hopes. We witness the small miracles of compassion and generosity between neighbors. We know what can happen when communities come together — how much can change when we work towards a cause that’s bigger than ourselves.”
U.S. first ladies are generally well-received on the African continent, said Katherine Jellison, a professor of U.S. women’s history and gender history at Ohio University.
“There’s just going to be warmer feelings toward a nonpolitician who’s visiting than a politician, because there may be strings attached,” she said.
U.S. first lady Laura Bush was well received during her multiple visits to the continent, where she promoted the Bush administration’s HIV and malaria initiatives and attended the inauguration of the continent’s first female president, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in 2006.
And for first Black first lady, Michelle Obama, trips to the continent were fraught with deep significance. She also used her platform to push for girls’ education.
And then there was first lady Melania Trump, whose 2018 visit to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt was overshadowed by one, highly examined fashion choice.
For a safari in Nairobi National Park, the former model donned headgear that, for many Africans, evoked the continent’s painful history.
“She wore a pith helmet and looked like she was out of some movie about colonial-era Africa and so that didn’t go over well,” Jellison said. “And instead, the visual images very much played up the idea of Western colonization of Africa — absolutely the opposite of Michelle Obama, the daughter of Africa returning.”
Jill Biden visited Africa five times as second lady, highlighting the plight of the powerless. In 2011, when visiting the continent’s largest refugee camp at Dadaab in Kenya, she made an earnest plea, one she is likely to repeat on this trip as the region again descends into crisis.
“Mothers are bringing their children from Somalia, walking sometimes 15, 20, 25 days and they lose their children along the way, the children die,” she said. “So what I’m asking is for Americans just to be, maybe reach out and help and because the situation here is dire.”
Source: Voice of America
VILNIUS, LITHUANIA / ACCESSWIRE / February 19, 2023 / Encryptus, a licensed and compliant crypto-fiat trading platform, is thrilled to announce its soft entry into the African Continent, starting with Kenya.
Encryptus will mark their exploratory journey in the upcoming Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. As a trailblazer in the crypto industry, Encryptus is dedicated to providing crypto and non-crypto companies its infrastructures for Crypto < > Fiat; including Compliances, Coin Monitoring, Fiat and Crypto Liquidity via API to enable institutions to plug into their ecosystem. The fiat services would only be available via Bank wires to KYCed users only.
Encryptus is licensed as a VASP (Virtual Assets Service Provider) in Lithuania and Licensed as a “Proprietary Trading in Crypto Commodities” trading desk in Dubai, UAE.
Africa Pushing Through to the Global Scale
Africa has been a rapidly growing market for international companies and is attracting many global corporations to the continent, such as Amazon, Google, and Uber. In the crypto ecosystem, Cardano’s founding partners EMURGO and IOG have built a considerable presence in Africa along with CELO Foundation and LBank Exchange.
With the rise of digital assets and cryptocurrencies, regulations for digital assets are becoming increasingly important in Africa. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for cryptocurrencies and digital assets in Africa, leading to a need for regulations to ensure the security and stability of these investments.
The African startup scene has also seen significant rise, with a record $5.4 billion raised in 2022, according to a report by Briter Bridges. Startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt accounted for 75% of all funding in 2022. This highlights the growing potential of the African startup scene and the increasing number of investors who are taking an interest in this market.
Crypto adoption in Africa has also been expanding in recent years. According to Chainalysis, Africa has the fastest-growing crypto market in the world.
Encryptus is well integrated with Industry leaders for self custody, coin monitoring and KYC providers for compliant onboarding. The Institutions can make use to the infrastructure by simply plugging into the Encryptus APIs. Encryptus services are also available on their platform for HNWIs and Institutions who simply want to use their services.
Encryptus will mark their soft launch at one of the largest African Tech event; “Africa Summit in Nairobi”
Encryptus’s Founder & CEO, Shantnoo Saxsena will also be sharing the stage with some industry leaders from Polygon, CELO Foundation and Nestcoin. When asked for comments for why Encryptus chose Africa, Shantnoo replied ” I started my crypto journey with a Kenyan startup in 2016. The Kenyan ecosystem is getting exciting and we have the right infrastructure ranging from Compliance to Fiat and Crypto Liquidity to empower other potential partners to build on top of our ecosystem. Encryptus is in the exploratory stage, but we are committed to bring innovative Crypto < > Fiat on-ramps and off-ramps solutions to the Kenyan ecosystem. The fiat and cryptos must coexist and we will work with the regulators and the banks to build the infrastructure together”
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EncryptusGlobal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/encryptus/
Website: https://encryptus.io/
Please free to contact Abhi@encryptus.io for any queries.
SOURCE: Encryptus
The disappearance of a star Chinese dealmaker has left his bank struggling to reassure clients and staff, people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, and has heightened concerns about “key man risk” for investors.
Shares of China Renaissance Holdings 1911.HK fell by as much as 5% on Monday, following a record low in the previous session after the investment bank said it could not contact its founder, chairman and CEO Bao Fan.
The stock ended the day up 0.1% in the Hong Kong market that rose 0.8%.
Though the reasons for Bao’s disappearance are unclear, his case follows a series of incidents in which high-profile executives in China have gone missing with little explanation during a sweeping anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.
Some of them reappeared as abruptly as they disappeared.
China Renaissance said on Thursday in a stock exchange filing that it had no information that Bao’s “unavailability” was related to its business, and that its operations were continuing normally.
China Renaissance co-founder Kevin Xie and its investment banking head, Wang Lixing, who are running the company in Bao’s absence, have asked staff not to believe or spread rumours, according to two sources and copies of their messages to staff seen by Reuters.
“At such a critical moment, everyone should trust the company. Don’t fret and stumble. It’s OK to encounter some difficulties in the short term,” Wang said in his message posted on the company’s Wechat group on Friday.
According to two sources and some media reports, authorities took Bao away earlier this month to assist in an investigation into a former colleague, Cong Lin, the company’s former president.
All the sources, who have knowledge of the matter, declined to be identified due to its sensitivity.
A spokesperson for Beijing-based China Renaissance declined to comment on specific details and referred Reuters to its exchange filing made on Thursday.
Xie and Wang did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on Monday.
Beijing’s public security bureau also did not respond to request for comment. Asked during a daily news conference on Friday whether the banker had been detained, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was not aware of the situation.
The Hong Kong-listed stock, which climbed as much as 3.5% early on Monday, gave up all those gains and fell to as low as HK$6.82. It hit an all-time low of HK$5 on Friday but later recovered some ground to close at HK$7.18, down 28%.
‘Key man risk’
Bao, also China Renaissance’s controlling shareholder, started the firm in 2005 as a two-person team, seeking to match capital-hungry startups with venture capitalist and private equity investors.
It firm later expanded into services including underwriting, sales and trading.
Known to be well connected in the corporate world, Bao was involved with tech mergers including the tie-up of ride-hailing firms Didi and Kuaidi, food delivery giants Meituan 3690.HK and Dianping, and travel platforms Ctrip 9961.HK and Qunar.
“What happened to China Renaissance highlighted the key man risk with some Chinese companies,” Li Nan, professor of Finance at Shanghai Jiaotong University, said.
“A group of Chinese financial institutions rose quickly over the past few years on one to two controllers’ efforts, while it makes these companies particularly vulnerable to any negative headlines that show the controllers are in trouble.”
Key man risk generally refers to the threat posed to a company from over-reliance on a limited number of personnel for decision making.
While it is not uncommon in China for authorities to take away business executives for various reasons, Bao’s disappearance comes against the backdrop of more than two years of sweeping regulatory crackdown on technology companies.
“This should once again remind foreign investors of the relative level of regulatory and governance risk associated with Chinese equities,” said Propitious Research analyst Wium Malan, who publishes on Smartkarma platform.
Source: Voice Of America
