Richard Hugh Montgomery has been appointed as the new British high commissioner to Nigeria. The United Kingdom government announced his appointment in a statement on Tuesday. The high commissioner is the UK government’s representative in a commonwealth nation. They are responsible for the direction and work of the consulate, including political relations, trade and investment, press and cultural relations, and visa and consular services. Montgomery succeeds Catriona Laing who has been been the UK’s representative in Nigeria since 2018. The statement said Laing will be transferred to another diplomatic service appointment. Montgomery served as the counsellor (development) and head of…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Wagner chief reports progress in key Donbass city Russian forces are in full control of the eastern part of the strategic Donbass city of Artyomovsk, or Bakhmut as it’s called by Ukraine, head of the Wagner Group private military company Evgeny Prigozhin has said. “The units of the Wagner Group PMC have taken over the entire eastern part of Artyomovsk. Everything east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of the Wagner Group,” Prigozhin announced in an audio message published by his press service on Wednesday. The Wagner Group chief also posted a video of himself…

About 2,100 babies are born every day in Germany, and more than 2,500 people die. Immigration is the reason Germany’s population has been level for 20 years. What’s true for Germany is true for Europe as a whole: In 2019, Europe’s population grew by one-tenth of 1%. Europe’s growth rate has been headed toward zero steadily for a decade, and a new report out of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates that Europe’s population has peaked. The continent begins its steady depopulation today. “The era of rapid population growth is coming to an end,” write Fed economists Amy…

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Investigators find vessel involved in Nord Stream sabotage German authorities probing explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines have identified a vessel that appears to have been involved in what is widely regarded as an act of sabotage, a host of German media outlets revealed on Tuesday. The yacht, which was reportedly used in the attack on the pipelines, belongs to a Polish-based company owned by two Ukrainians, according to the reports. Germany’s ARD broadcaster SWR radio and Die Zeit newspaper launched what they called their own joint journalistic investigation into the activities of the German law enforcement…