Russia said its forces shot down five of six missiles fired at a military facility in the Bryansk region, while debris of one hit the facility, causing no casualties or damage.

Ukraine said it had struck a Russian arms depot around 110 km (70 miles) inside Russia and caused secondary explosions. It did not specify what weapons it had used.

President Joe Biden approved just this week for Ukraine to use the medium-range U.S. missiles for such attacks, which Moscow has described as an escalation that would make Washington a direct combatant in the war and prompt retaliation.

It came amid plans for vigils to mark 1,000 days of war, with weary troops at the front, Kyiv besieged by airstrikes, and doubts about the future of Western support as Donald Trump heads back to the White House.

Military experts say U.S. missiles can help Ukraine defend a pocket it has captured as a bargaining chip inside Russia but are not likely to change the course of the 33-month-old war. 

Moscow said the strikes used U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles inside Russia, over 110 km (70 miles) from Ukraine in the Bryansk region.

Potentially more consequential changes in the U.S. posture are expected when Trump returns to power in two months, having pledged to end the war quickly without saying how.

In an address to parliament, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the war’s “decisive moments” would come in the next year.

“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail. Whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians… and Europeans. And everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator.”

A candle-lit commemoration was planned for later on Tuesday.

Thousands of Ukrainian citizens have died, over six million live as refugees abroad and the population has fallen by a quarter since Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion by land, sea and air that began Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two.

Military losses have been catastrophic, although casualty figures remain closely guarded secrets. Public Western estimates based on intelligence reports say hundreds of thousands have been wounded or killed on each side.

“In the frozen trenches of the Donetsk region and in the burning steppes of the Kherson region, under shells, hail, and anti-aircraft guns, we are fighting for the right to live,” Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrkyi wrote on Telegram.

Tragedy has touched families in every corner of Ukraine, where military funerals are commonplace in major cities and far-flung villages, and people are exhausted by sleepless nights of air raid sirens and anguish.

In the first year after the invasion, Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory with surprise military successes against a larger and better-armed foe.

But since then, the enemies have settled into relentless trench warfare that has ground eastern Ukrainian cities to dust. Russian forces still occupy a fifth of Ukraine and for the past year they have slowly but steadily gained ground.

The return of Trump, who has criticised the scale of U.S. aid, calls into question the united Western front against Putin, while also raising the prospect of talks to end the fighting. No such negotiations are known to have been held since the war’s first months.

PROSPECT OF TALKS PROMPTS ESCALATION

A sense of escalation has been palpable as Moscow and Kyiv push to improve their battlefield positions ahead of any talks.

Already boosted by Iranian attack drones and North Korean artillery shells and ballistic missiles, Russia has now deployed 11,000 North Korean troops, some of whom Kyiv says have clashed with Ukrainian forces who have seized a part of Russia’s Kursk region. Zelenskiy said Pyongyang could send 100,000 soldiers.

Russia continues to advance village by village in the east, claiming another Ukrainian settlement on Tuesday.

With winter setting in, Moscow on Sunday renewed its aerial assault on Ukraine’s struggling power system, firing 120 missiles and 90 drones in the biggest barrage since August.

Moscow has denounced the U.S. decision to let Ukraine attack deep into its territory with missiles, saying this would make the United States a direct combatant.

Putin signed a new nuclear doctrine on Tuesday apparently intended as a warning to Washington, lowering the threshold under which Russia might use atomic weapons to include responding to attacks that threaten its territorial integrity.

TALKS, BUT ON WHAT TERMS?

Zelenskiy has said Ukraine must do its best to end the war next year through diplomatic means. But publicly there has been no narrowing of the gulf in the enemies’ negotiating positions.

Kyiv has long demanded full Russian withdrawal from all occupied territory, and security guarantees from the West comparable to membership in NATO’s mutual defence treaty, to prevent future Russian attacks.

The Kremlin says Ukraine must drop all ambitions to join NATO and withdraw all troops from the provinces Russia claims to have annexed since its invasion.

With a change of U.S. administration, European countries are preparing for a bigger role defending the continent.

“Moscow’s escalating hybrid activities against NATO and EU countries are unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risk,” the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain and Britain said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

-Reuters

Trump, 78, recaptured the White House on Wednesday by securing more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, Edison Research projected, following a campaign of dark rhetoric that deepened the polarization in the country.

The former president’s victory in the swing state of Wisconsin pushed him over the threshold.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said early on Wednesday to a roaring crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida.

Trump’s political career had appeared to be over after his false claims of election fraud led a mob of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 defeat.

But he swept away challengers inside his Republican Party and then beat Democratic candidate Kamala Harris by capitalizing on voter concerns about high prices and what Trump claimed, without evidence, was a rise in crime due to illegal immigration.

Harris did not speak to supporters who had gathered at her alma mater Howard University. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, briefly addressed the crowd after midnight, saying Harris would speak publicly later on Wednesday.

“We still have votes to count,” he said.

Republicans won a U.S. Senate majority, but neither party appeared to have an edge in the fight for control of the House of Representatives where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.

JOBS AND ECONOMY

Voters identified jobs and the economy as the country’s most pressing problem, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls. Many Americans remained frustrated by higher prices even amid record-high stock markets, fast-growing wages and low unemployment. With the administration of President Joe Biden taking much of the blame, a majority of voters said they trusted Trump more than Harris to address the issue.

Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and lower-income households hit hardest by inflation helped fuel Trump’s election victory. His loyal base of rural, white and non-college educated voters again showed up in force.

Trump prevailed despite persistently low approval ratings. Impeached twice, he has been criminally indicted four times and found civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation. In May, Trump was convicted by a New York jury of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.

His victory will have major implications for U.S. trade and climate change policies, the war in Ukraine, Americans’ taxes and immigration.

His tariff proposals could spark a fiercer trade war with China and U.S. allies, while his pledges to reduce corporate taxes and implement a spate of new cuts could balloon U.S. debt, economists say.

Trump has promised to launch a mass deportation campaign targeting immigrants in the country illegally.

He has said he wants the authority to fire civil servants he views as disloyal. His opponents fear he will turn the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement agencies into political weapons to investigate perceived enemies.

A second Trump presidency could drive a bigger wedge between Democrats and Republicans on issues such as race, gender, what and how children are taught, and reproductive rights.

HARRIS FALLS SHORT

Vice President Harris fell short in her 15-week sprint as a candidate, failing to galvanize enough support to defeat Trump, who occupied the White House from 2017-2021, or to allay voters’ concerns about the economy and immigration.

Harris had warned that Trump wanted unchecked presidential power and posed a danger to democracy.

Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to Edison Research exit polls, underscoring the polarization in a nation where divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race.

Trump ran a campaign characterized by apocalyptic language. He called the United States a “garbage can” for immigrants, pledged to save the economy from “obliteration” and cast some rivals as the “enemy within.”

His diatribes were often aimed at migrants, who he said were “poisoning the blood of the country,” or Harris, whom he frequently derided as unintelligent.

Despite legal woes and controversies, Trump is only the second former president to win a second term after leaving the White House. The first was Grover Cleveland, who served two four-year terms starting in 1885 and 1893.

UNPRECEDENTED CAMPAIGN

In May, Trump was convicted by a New York jury of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star. Two months later, a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear during a campaign rally, exacerbating fears about political violence. Another assassination attempt was thwarted in September at his Florida golf course. Trump blamed both attempts on what he claimed was the heated rhetoric of Democrats including Harris.

Barely eight days after the July shooting, Biden, 81, dropped out of the race, finally bowing to weeks of pressure from his fellow Democrats after a poor performance during his debate with Trump called into question his mental acuity and the viability of his reelection bid.

Biden’s decision to step aside turned the contest into a sprint, as Harris raced to mount her own campaign in a matter of weeks, rather than the typical months. Her rise to the top of the ticket reenergized despondent Democrats, and she raised more than $1 billion in less than three months while erasing what had been a solid Trump lead in opinion polls.

Harris’ financial advantage was partly countered by the intervention of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who poured more than $100 million into a super PAC mobilizing Trump voters and used his social media site X to amplify pro-Trump messaging.

As the campaign drew to a close, Harris increasingly focused on warning Americans about the perils of reelecting Trump and offered an olive branch to disaffected Republicans.

She highlighted remarks from several former Trump officials, including his former chief of staff and retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, who described Trump as a “fascist.”

Trump’s victory will broaden the fissures in American society, given his false claims of election fraud, anti-immigrant rhetoric and demonization of his political opponents, said Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University who studies voter behavior and party politics.

A TRUMP SECOND TERM

Trump has vowed to reshape the executive branch, including firing civil servants he views as disloyal and using federal law enforcement agencies to investigate his political enemies, violating what has been a longstanding policy of keeping such agencies independent.

During his first term, Trump’s most extreme demands were sometimes stymied by his own cabinet members, most notably when Vice President Mike Pence refused to block Congress from accepting the 2020 election results.

Once the 2024 vote is certified by Congress on Jan. 6, Trump and his vice president, U.S. Senator JD Vance, are due to take office on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. Throughout his two-year-long campaign, Trump has signaled he will prioritize personal fealty in staffing his administration. He promised roles in his administration to Musk and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., both avid supporters.

-Reuters

According to a media release issued by Evangelist Evelyn Childs, the public relations officer of the Imo Women Elite Club (IWEC), are in forefront of advancing the progress of the female gender.

Through their foundation, they have been supporting women and girls in navigating mental and health problems.

A robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on Thursday morning on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, 2 1/2 miles (4 km) beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters.

The Titan, operated by the U.S.-based company OceanGate Expeditions, had been missing since it lost contact with its surface support ship on Sunday morning about an hour, 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck.

Five major fragments of the 22-foot (6.7-meter) Titan were located in the debris field left from its disintegration, including the vessel’s tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, Coast Guard officials said. No mention was made of whether human remains were sighted.

“The debris field here is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle,” Mauger said.

Even before the Coast Guard’s press conference, OceanGate issued a statement saying there were no survivors among the five men aboard the Titan, including the company’s founder and chief executive officer, Stockton Rush, who was piloting the Titan.

The four others were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who had visited the wreck dozens of times.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the company said. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”

Search teams and support personnel from the U.S., Canada, France and Britain had spent days scanning thousands of square miles of open seas with planes and ships for any sign of the Titan.

Intense worldwide media coverage of the search largely overshadowed the aftermath of a far greater maritime disaster stemming from the wreck of a migrant vessel off the coast of Greece last week, killing hundreds of people

SOUNDS FROM THE DEEP

Mauger said it was too early to tell when Titan met its fate. Search teams had sonar buoys in the water for more than three days in the area without detecting any loud, violent noise that would have been generated when the submersible imploded, Mauger said.

But the position of the debris field relatively close the shipwreck and the time frame of the last communication with the Titan seemed to suggest the failure occurred near the end of its descent on Sunday.

The U.S. Navy separately acknowledged that an analysis of its own acoustic data had detected “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” near the submersible’s location when its communications were lost.

“While not definitive, this information was immediately shared” with commanders of the search mission, a senior Navy official said in a statement first quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal, citing unnamed U.S. defense officials, said the sound was picked up by a top-secret system designed to detect enemy submarines.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, filmmaker James Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning movie “Titanic” and has ventured to the wreck in submersibles himself, said he learned of the acoustic findings within a day, and knew what it meant.

“I sent emails to everybody I know and said we’ve lost some friends. The sub had imploded. It’s on the bottom in pieces right now. I sent that out Monday morning,” he recounted.

Sonar buoys dropped by aircraft had picked up some sounds on Tuesday and Wednesday that temporarily offered hope that the Titan was still intact and that its occupants were alive and trying to communicate by banging on the hull.

But officials said analysis of the sound was inconclusive and that the noises probably emanated from something else.

“There doesn’t appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the sea floor,” Mauger said on Thursday.

REMOTE-CONTROLLED VEHICLES

Robotic craft on the seabed will continue to gather evidence, Mauger said, but it was not clear whether recovering the victims’ remains will be possible given the nature of the accident and extreme conditions at those depths.

“We will begin to demobilize personnel and vessels from the scene over the course of the next 24 hours,” the admiral said.

The search had grown increasingly desperate on Thursday, when the submersible’s estimated 96-hour air supply had been expected to run out if the Titan were still intact, a countdown that proved irrelevant.

The RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people aboard, lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The undersea expedition to the wreck, which OceanGate has been operating since 2021, cost $250,000 per person, according to the company’s website.

Questions about Titan’s safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit by OceanGate’s former head of marine operations, which was settled later that year.

The sweeping search covered more than 10,000 square miles of ocean. On Thursday, the deployment of two specialized deep-sea robot vehicles expanded the search farther into the ocean’s depths, where immense pressure and pitch-black darkness complicated the mission.

The fate of the tourist submersible captured global attention in part due to the mythology surrounding the Titanic. The “unsinkable” British passenger liner has inspired both nonfiction and fiction accounts for a century, including the blockbuster 1997 “Titanic” movie, which rekindled popular interest in the story.

-Reuters

The African delegation, which includes leaders from South Africa, Senegal, the Comoros and Egypt, was expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and then hold talks Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday.

A Reuters witness in central Kyiv said he heard two explosions. Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reported explosions in the central Podil district, and warned that more missiles were headed towards the capital.

Another Reuters correspondent in the capital saw the smoke trail of two missiles in the air. It was not clear if those missiles were fired by Russia or by Ukrainian air defences.

A Reuters television crew saw the African leaders arriving in Kyiv in a convoy of cars and entering a hotel to use its air-raid shelter.

The leaders had begun their visit with a trip to Bucha, near Kyiv, which is one several places where Ukraine says Russian troops committed large-scale atrocities following their full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia denies the allegations.

The African peace mission, which includes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senagal President Macky Sall, could propose a series of “confidence building measures” during initial efforts at mediation, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters.

The document states that the objective of the mission is “to promote the importance of peace and to encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process of negotiations”.

Those measures could include a Russian troop pull-back, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of implementation of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting Putin, and sanctions relief, it indicated.

A cessation of hostilities agreement could follow and would need to be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document stated.

The mission is being launched shortly after the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has pushed Russian forces back in some areas though Kyiv has regained only a fraction of the territory Russian forces occupy in Ukraine.

Kyiv says its own peace initiative, which envisages the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian land, must be the basis for any settlement of the war.

-Reuters

The meeting resolved to establish the fundamental frameworks for enhancing cultural cooperation among African nations and to deliberate on the necessary mechanisms for the development of common cultural efforts for Africans both for the present and  the future.

The role of the Moroccan monarch, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in enhancing South-South cooperation and supporting the inclusive development in the African continent was well acknowledged by the gathering.

The meeting of the African ministers of culture emphasise the leading role of Morocco in countering violence and preventing extremism, and fighting against separatism, as well as in establishing a continent wide-peace and security.

It underlined the strategic importance of culture in building inclusive knowledge societies, fostering understanding and convergence, and contributing to inclusive and sustainable growth efforts in Africa.

It also acknowledged the capital role of cultural co-operation in combating poverty and reinforcing social cohesion among the citizens of Africa.

Regarding the health situations, the African ministers acknowledged the efforts undertaken by governments and cultural bodies in African in alleviating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also noted is the strong cooperation between Morocco and UNESCO regarding the fields of protection and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in  African countries. The ministers emphasised the importance of respecting cultural diversity, linguistic plurality, and promoting inter-cultural dialogue, as well as guaranteeing free movement rights for artists and professionals to travel and work across the African continent.

It reaffirmed the commitment to fighting illicit trafficking of African cultural properties and works of art and processing to their recovery.

The African culture ministers in Morocco called for the need to consolidate the role of African youth in Africa and in the diaspora  regarding issues related to African cultural heritage preservation and safeguarding.

Tagged “Every Woman Wins Initiative”, it was launched at the weekend in Atlanta Georgia in the United States.

The leader of the group, Mrs Nkemdi Onyirimba unfolded the agenda of the group, Imo Women Elite Cub (IWEC) which origin dates back to 2020 when Imo women in the US decided to foster a common forum.  

“The Every Woman Wins Initiative is a project that we have structured to support the women and also help every girl child to navigate through various mental issues that the society throws up to the women,” Onyirimba stated.

She expressed her profound gratitude to the executive members of the club and all members for their tireless efforts towards ensuring that IWEC makes a positive impact on the society through the foundation.

Hear her: “Today we share our ideas with everyone who has identified with us, hoping that together we can make this great impact planned.

She enjoined all members to come together to ensure the success of the project the club is embarking on even as she thanked them of their immense contributions.

While thanking all for their immense contribution in any capacity, the president urged all to join hands with the members of the club as they swing into action, towards making the whole idea of the project a success

The club also elected a new executive council that will run the affairs of the association for the next three years.

At the head is Mrs Onyirimba as the president while she is being assisted by Mrs Juliana Egbezien. The spokesperson for the club is Envangelist Evelyn Childs.

Mrs Uche Chigozie – Secretary ably assisted by Lolo Carol Offor as assistant secretary.

Others are Mrs Patience Ejim and Mrs Ugboaku Onuoha as financial and assistant financial secretary respectively.

Dr. Edith Okwandu was elected treasurer, Lolo Victoria Maduako as Provost, assisted by Ogechi Anyasor.

The others are Chief Agnes Obasi and Mrs Christy Obilor both of whom were elected as Social director and assistant social director while Nkeiru Anusionwu got elected as the assistant public relations officer.

At the prompting of the president, members observed a minute’s silence for the soul of Chief Tony Offor, the husband of one of their members, Lolo Carol Offor, who died in the year 2020, while the club was at its formative stage.

According to a media release issued by Evangelist Evelyn Childs, the public relations officer of the Imo Women Elite Club, the event holds on Sunday 22 April at the Jazzy J Banquet Hall, Old National HWY  College Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

The event will also witness the induction and inauguration of the Imo Elite Club and the launching of the Imo Elite International Foundation.

The president of the club, Mrs Nkemdi Onyirimba  explains further that the theme of the event is :”Every Woman Wins Global Health Initiative”.

Other officers of the club are Mrs. Mary E. Chigozie, Secretary and Mrs Chika Durueke, the Chairwoman, Planning Committee.

He was aged 89. The founder of Crescent University, Abeokuta reportedly died Saturday midnight after a long-time illness as a result of old age.

His death was disclosed by his eldest child, Segun Ajibola, in a statement on Sunday in Abeokuta.

Here are some things to know about the late jurist:

• He was Nigeria’s Attorney General and the Minister of Justice from 1985 to 1991.
• He was the president of the Nigerian Bar Association between 1984 and 1985.
• Prince Ajibola served as a Judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994.
•  The late judge was the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2002.5. Prince Ajibola was also one of the five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, set up by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
•  He was the chairman of the panel set up by the Plateau State Government to investigate the 2008 Jos riots.
• . One of his achievements is also the establishment of an Islamic and co-educational institution, Crescent University, in 2005.
• Ajibola, a prince from Owu, was born on March 22, 1934, in Owu, near Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. He was born to the Owu royal family of Oba Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II.
•  He attended Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys’ High School in Abeokuta between 1942 and 1955, and obtained his bachelor’s degree in Law at the Holborn College of Law, University of London, between 1959 and 1962.
•  Ajibola was called to the English Bar at the Lincoln’s Inn in 1962 but also came back to Nigeria to practise.

Across the continent, television views are eagerly awaiting the winner of the ultimate prize – a $100,000 jackpot.

With population obviously skewed in Nigeria’s favour, a Nigerian is anticipated to win.

The last Nigerian men standing are Ebubu, an actor and model from Anambra State. He is the first albino to make it to the last stage of the competition and could even further raise the bar.

Another Nigerian in the trio finalists ia Kanaga who shares professional traits with Ebubu. He is an actor and model from Abia State.

The duo will slug it out with South Africa’s Tsatasil.

One of the highlights of Kanaga’s stay in the house was Kanaga’s relationship with South African Tsatsil.

The South African is an Engineering, Biotechnology and Microbiology student, her profile described her as ‘cerebral and grounded, yet equally curious about life’.