WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it hit Russian military base in annexed Crimea

Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency said on Friday a Ukrainian drone attack had hit a Russian military base deep inside annexed Crimea, while residents reported casualties, explosions and a road closure.

Early on Friday, Russia reported one of the biggest coordinated Ukrainian air raids yet over Russian-controlled territory but said air defence systems had downed all 42 drones attacking Crimea before they could hit their targets.

Ukrainian intelligence officials said the attack struck Russia's 126th Coastal Defence Brigade based in Perevalnoye, a town more than 200 km (120 miles) from Ukraine-controlled territory.

"We confirm that there was a hit," said GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov, according to Ukrainian media outlet Liga.Net.

Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, declaring it Russian territory. The United States says it supports Ukrainian attacks on Russian military targets on the Black Sea peninsula of because it should be demilitarised.

"People - not only on the Ukrainian mainland but also in Crimea - need to remember and believe that our victory and their liberation are not far away," Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said of Friday's strike.

Perevalnoye residents, posting on the Telegram messaging app, reported hearing blasts from the military base and cited casualties.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

"Two people died on a firing range, one was taken to a hospital in a severe condition. This is information from above, from the firing range," said a user nicknamed Abdul Has, whose profile picture shows a man in camouflaged uniform.

Another user, Vlad the Local, said roughly one person was dead.

"Why was a gate to the military town closed?" user Julia Julia asked.

Another resident with the call sign Lis asked others not to disclose information.

"Residents of Perevalnoye, I strongly recommend - don't write here what happened and how," Lis wrote. "We help them to direct fire in the future with that."

** Russia downs drone near Moscow, suspends flights

Russia reported a new drone attack on Moscow in the early hours of Saturday, which again forced the authorities to temporarily shut down all three major airports serving the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that a drone was brought down by air defence systems over the Istra district of the Moscow region. The district is some 50 km (31 miles) west of the Kremlin.

Three major Moscow airports, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo, suspended flights for couple of hours on Friday, TASS news agency reported.

Aerial attacks on Moscow and other Russian-held territory have intensified in recent weeks, including 42 drones intercepted over the Russia-held Crimean Peninsula on Friday - one of the biggest reported air assaults since the war began.

Although the attacks have not caused extensive damage, their intensity has forced the Russian authorities to temporarily shut down airports serving the capital several times this week.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the Friday attack and all the previous assaults that intensified after two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.

Ukraine did not immediately comment and almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military has said previously, however, that destroying Russia's military infrastructure helps a counteroffensive that Ukraine began in June.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘Total lie’ Russia killed Prigozhin – Kremlin

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday dismissed what he called unfounded speculation by some media in the West that Moscow may have been behind the crash of Wagner head Evgeny Prigozhin’s plane.

“There is a lot of speculation about that plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers, among whom was Evgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters at the daily press briefing. “In the West, all that speculation is being presented from a certain angle. It’s all a total lie.”

Peskov asked the media to rely on facts, “which as of this moment are few, as they have to be uncovered by the ongoing investigation.” He also reminded reporters that President Putin had promised a thorough investigation, including the DNA testing of the remains.

“There are no official results as of yet. The moment they are ready to be made public, they will be,” Peskov said.

The Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600 private jet was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Wednesday when it crashed in Tver Region. There were ten people on board, seven passengers and three crew members. None survived. Authorities are still working to identify the bodies.

Prigozhin’s name was on the passenger manifest, along with Dmitry ‘Wagner’ Utkin, whose call sign gave the private military company its moniker. Officially, however, the Wagner Group PMC does not exist. 

Putin commented on Prigozhin’s reported death on Thursday, calling him a man of “complicated destiny” whom he had known since the early 1990s. The Russian president touched on Prigozhin’s business deals in both Russia and Africa and thanked him and Wagner for what they had done in the Ukraine conflict. 

He did not touch on the failed Wagner mutiny at the end of June, after which much of the outfit was disbanded, with the remainder moving to Belarus, along with Prigozhin. 

** Drone destroyed en route to Moscow – mayor

An enemy drone has been destroyed as it was flying towards Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in the early hours of Saturday. He added that there was no damage on the ground and that no one was hurt. The Russian capital has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian attack drones in recent weeks.

The UAV was shot down in Istra Region west of the city, the mayor said, adding that emergency services were responding to the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry later released a statement, saying that a Ukrainian drone was on mission to “conduct a terrorist attack” in the capital and the greater Moscow area.

Ukraine stepped up drone and missile attacks deep into Russian territory as its much-anticipated ground offensive, launched in early June, has failed to yield significant results.

Many of the drone raids targeted Moscow, including its high-end financial district, where several UAVs had crashed into office buildings, without causing any casualties. 

According to the MOD, a Ukrainian S-200 missile was intercepted in Kaluga Region, southwest of Moscow, on Friday. Kiev has remodeled some of its Soviet-era S-200 missiles, originally designed to strike airborne targets, into projectiles capable of striking targets on the ground, the Russian military said.

Also on Friday, Ukraine sent more than 40 drones to attack Crimea, all of which were either destroyed mid-air or veered off course due to signal-jamming, the Russian MOD said.

Reuters/RT

Lauren Mechlina

In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called ‘one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history’

The ever-proliferating grifter-lit bookshelf is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight. But Yepoka Yeebo’s contribution to the category stands out. Her meticulously researched Anansi’s Gold isn’t set in Silicon Valley or a swishy enclave such as Nantucket or Noto. Anansi’s Gold offers a tangled and mesmerizing history of Ghanaian-born John Ackah Blay-Miezah, architect of an Accra-based scam that American prosecutors called “one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history”.

The result of what the author calls a “six-year-long treasure hunt”, Anansi’s Gold involved countless hours at the library, trawls through hotel and military archives, and off-the-cuff conversations with Lyft drivers. Yeebo first heard about the story of Blay-Miezah when her mother sent her a video on WhatsApp showing a charismatic man who claimed to be the guardian of billions of dollars. “I was like, well, obviously not – that’s ridiculous,” Yeebo, 38, said by video call from her plant-filled apartment in London. “But every time I told a friend they were like, well, I’ve heard crazier stories. And I got obsessed with it.”

Her book is a tale of a man who had a Ripley-like talent for identifying and parroting the habits of the privileged class – be they people he met while working at a private club in Philadelphia or while in prison, serving time for petty fraud.

For nearly two decades, Blay-Miezah managed to convince thousands of investors all over the world that he had access to the gold, diamonds and cash that the Ghanian government had hidden from British colonists. He’d struck up a friendship with Ghana’s ousted president Kwame Nkrumah, you see. And Blay-Miezah was with him at his deathbed and granted oversight of a trust fund, worth $27bn. Anyone who believed in this fiction and wished to invest would see their investment grow tenfold. Blay-Miezah was a trickster whose self-delusion, shamelessness and unflagging popularity call to mind the ways of Donald Trump.

There are shades of Anna Delvey, too, to the story, given Blay-Miezah’s affinity for world-class luxury hotels, where he racked up bills that he had no intention of settling himself. But his scheme was larger in scope and far longer-running than Delvey’s experiment in being Manhattan’s worst houseguest. “When you’re staying somewhere really fancy, people make assumptions about you,” Yeebo said of her subject’s affinity for five-star hotels. “But he also just had ridiculously good and specific taste. It was developed by watching people who were born wealthier.”

It wasn’t until 1989, when the American news program 60 Minutes ran a humiliating interview with the cigar-chomping, jewelry-laden man, that his believers grew uneasy.

Diplomats, Nixon associates and businessmen – as well as humble mom-and-pop investors – had bought into Blay-Miezah’s claims. He said that he had been in Bucharest, at the deathbed of Nkrumah, who entrusted him with the hidden riches of Ghana, which declared independence in 1957. (At the time of Nkrumah’s death, Blay-Miezah was actually thousands of miles away, serving time in a prison outside Philadelphia.)

But details can be such a nuisance! He had an uncanny ability to befriend people in high places, forge documents and play the press. He set up satellite offices in Philadelphia and London, and used his combination of chutzpah, cunning and self-importance to keep the grift afloat. He didn’t just appeal to marks’ greed; his program was benevolent. Once the money was freed, he was going to funnel funds back into Ghana, for much-needed improvement projects. His lucre spelled out a direct route to dignity and liberation, and people were all too primed to buy into the con. “Even when he didn’t give them money, he gave them a tension or excitement,” Yeebo said. “He gave them a reason to keep taking risks.”

There were a few skeptics – notably, as it happens, Shirley Temple Black. The former child star was serving as a US ambassador in Accra and had her doubts about the so-called Oman Ghana Trust Fund. As she put in a cable to the secretary of state, Henry Kissinger: “Those who believe Blay-Miezah a fraud are worried he might just have the money and then they would look extremely foolish.” Victims’ reluctance to identify as suckers only helped shield Blay-Miezah and breathe life into his scam. People wanted to believe.

“He was magnetic and charming and handsome,” Yeebo said. “He also seemed to charm even the people who would come to hate him.”

Her blow-by-blow narrative comes to assume a cyclical quality. It happened again and again: skepticism led to criticism led to accusation led to defensive tactics that discredited any doubters and led to Blay-Miezah’s purchase on a higher social or political rung. A master of dog-ate-my-homeworking and squeezing lemonade out of lemons, he convinced a great many that he was the one man who held the key to restoring Ghana’s wealth. He was audacious and brave, inviting chief investors to congregate at international retreats where he would dole out the money they’d long waited for – only for a death of a business associate, or a sudden illness, or a new bureaucratic hurdle to present itself and render the gathering moot. Everybody was a little complicit. Yeebo cites a study from the 1950s, in which scholars looked at members of a cult whose leader had promised that the end of the world was nigh. When the apocalypse failed to materialize, “their belief became stronger”.

Yeebo’s book is also an evocative portal to a world that mixed mid-century glamor with futurism. “I actually have a giant folder of photos from the 50s all the way to the 90s,” Yeebo said. “I was really hungry for these images, because I hadn’t seen enough of them anywhere. It was almost like I could step into my grandparents’ photo album.”

She began digging around the story in 2016, after her mother sent her the WhatsApp video of Blay-Miezah’s notorious 60 Minutes appearance. His screen presence was startling and his gravity-defying narrative felt of a piece with the spirit of Ghana, where Yeebo’s parents were born and where political unrest and economic instability often gave rise to creativity. “You could have the most secure government job and, for some reason, you still wouldn’t get your salary for like six months,” she said.

Raised in London, Yeebo was living part-time in Ghana, filing freelance stories to British and American magazines, when she embarked on the project. Researching her book, she came to see the overlap between truth and fabrication. “I’d be randomly talking to someone in London or Philly or Accra. They tell me something just that couldn’t have been true at all. And then I’d go look it up and it was actually true,” she said. “You start to think about the stories people tell a lot more carefully.”

Decades after Blay-Miezah’s death, the con is still thriving, and other people are out there collecting investments for the supposed fund. If they’re any good, they probably don’t think what they’re doing is beyond the pale. “You can’t just be a liar,” Yeebo said. “You actually have to believe in it a little bit yourself.”

The Guardian, UK

According to Columbia University, in 2020, 1 in 10 Americans reported feeling depressed. So, since it's Mental Health Awareness Month, I thought it would be important to share the answers from this Reddit thread where Reddit user u/Folded_Towel_ asked: "Depressed people of Reddit, what are your hobbies that keep you balanced?" Here's what they had to say:

1. "Washing dishes on a regular basis [to avoid] sink clutter and blasting my favorite music so I remember how to be a human."

—u/ziinoe

2. "One thing that worsens my depression is routine and monotony, so I do one new thing every month. Going somewhere I've never visited (could be anything from a local coffee shop to a day trip), trying a new craft, baking or cooking something I've never eaten, etc. This keeps me maintaining a sense of awe and curiosity."

—u/Orange-Enough

3. "Video games always helped me escape the depressing real world."

—u/a-village-idiot

4. "Crocheting. It's repetitive, calming, and creative and you get the feeling of at least a bit of productivity."

—u/fkkgoclsbvh9009

5. "Reading fiction (which kind of sounds counterproductive to sanity)."

—u/WattebauschXC

"I used to adore reading and would get through two or three books per week. My depression then got much worse, and I just couldn’t seem to focus/felt like I didn’t deserve to enjoy anything anymore (that came from my counselor). I have adapted it now by listening to audiobooks! I’ll play them whilst out with my dog, doing housework and driving, etc. Music isn’t good for me, as I worry over the melody and don’t concentrate, whereas I have to pay attention to the words of the story."

—u/Bellamiles85

6. "Looking at the ceiling is just the best hobby."

—u/F4RR4M4H

"Glad I'm not the only one that does this all day. I tried explaining to my therapist last week and she looked so confused."

—u/robertofozz

7. "I recently started wood carving, it's calming and pretty fun. So far I've made a little duck."

—u/Octopuswearingahat

8. "I just sit outside in the sun for hours."

—u/lovelxy74

9. "Sometimes, when it's quiet in the house and I can hear the steady rhythm of my wife's knitting needles clicking away, it sends me to a very peaceful place. Just knowing she's there and happy to be with me, working away on her next incredible project, fills my heart up so much."

—u/Horrible_Harry

10. "Gardening and growing food is so incredibly satisfying for the body and the soul. It's a sort of meditation when you are out in nature with your hands in the dirt."

—u/Daavok

11. "My wife and I do try to get out of the house for the occasional day trip every couple of weeks, which is the one thing that actually feels good for us. We either accompany my family to take our little niece somewhere, or we'll go for a walk around a lake or something. We love taking our niece to farms and sometimes we'll just go to a farm even without her — it's a bit weird being two adults wandering around a children's petting farm without a child, but being outside around animals is good for our mental health."

—u/Ginger_Beer_11

12. "Bird photography. I get into a meditative state that takes my mind off things that are troubling me."

—u/somastars

13. "Get a big coffee and take a long train or bus to nowhere while listening to music and crying and pretending I'm the main character."

—u/danii21j

14. "So much guitar."

—u/DuhJeffmeister

"Playing an instrument in general is very therapeutic. People just have to stick with it through the learning curve and then the fun truly starts. I’m still kinda new but it makes me happy when I play guitar and I’m really on it. I play drums here and there but that’s therapeutic because you get to smash shit that hardly breaks."

—u/nflspwndbgoxpw

15. "Interacting with animals. Adopt a shelter animal. Or if that's too much of a commitment, foster some babies, like puppies or kittens. Try feeding stray cats and birds. Nothing brightens up a dull day than seeing an animal fed and happy and purring on your lap."

—u/Kadakumar

16. "Motorcycles. I find the playfulness of riding combined with the focus and attention needed to operate safely, a welcome break from office work."

—u/whiskeyalpha7

17. "I am a writer. When I start to get into a depressive spiral, I start worldbuilding and/or plotting my next novel. It doesn’t always work, but even a 30% success rate is way better than nothing."

—u/Ferretthimself

18. "Fish. It's hard to be depressed watching a happy wee fish just relax in life. Fish don't need any shit to relax."

—u/MaievSekashi

19. "No longer depressed, but I’d like to throw this out there in case it helps anyone. Solo traveling really boosted my self-confidence and made me feel like I could do anything. I met tons of people from other cultures while bouncing around Europe staying in hostels in my early/mid-20s. I highly recommend giving it a try if you’re around that age and feeling stuck in your hometown."

—u/FrenchBowler

BuzzFeed

President Bola Tinubu says a clerical error is responsible for discrepancies on the certificate issued to him by the Chicago State University.

According to filings by Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, Tinubu’s lawyers, an unidentified clerk of the university made the error about the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating “the appearance of differences”.

The claim is in their response to a suit filed by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar seeking the disclosure of Tinubu’s academic records from the university.

A US court had given Tinubu up until August 23 to make a formal filing on why his records should not be released to the former vice president.

The president claimed that he holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the Chicago State University.

But Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February presidential election, alleged that Tinubu’s academic records were forged.

“Unfortunately, in responding to the illegal and invalid subpoena, CSU made several errors,” the president’s lawyers said.

“CSU issued a new diploma for Bola A. Tinubu, but incorrectly wrote the date of graduation as June 27, 1979.

“The correct date was June 22, 1979, but that scrivener’s error – along with a change in the CSU logo, the font on the diploma, and leadership at CSU who signed the diploma created the appearance of differences between an earlier issued diploma and the one issued in response to the 2022 subpoena.”

The former vice-president is also seeking the credentials Tinubu submitted to CSU before he was admitted into the university.

The Cable

Google, Netflix, Facebook and other foreign companies operating in Nigeria have paid over N1.98tn in taxes to the account of the Federal Government in 15 months, according to findings by The PUNCH.

The figure includes both Company Income Tax and Value Added Tax, and is based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, CIT is a 30 per cent tax imposed on the profit of companies, and VAT is a 7.5 per cent consumption tax paid when goods are purchased, and services rendered and borne by the final consumer.

Earlier in 2020, it was reported that the Federal Government planned to tax foreign digital service providers offering services to Nigerians and earning revenue in naira.

Some of these service providers, which are video streaming sites, social media platforms, and companies that offer downloads of digital content are expected to pay digital tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

Former Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had issued the Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order, 2020 as an amendment of the Finance Act 2019.

The order aimed to impose a tax on a foreign entity with respect to certain services or digital transactions if it had a Significant Economic Presence in Nigeria.

It further stated that the finance minister might, by order, determine what constitutes SEP in Nigeria.

Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, among others, are some of these foreign companies that offer digital video and advertising services to Nigerians.

Others, like Alibaba and Amazon, generate revenue from Nigeria by processing and transmitting data collected about users in Nigeria, provision of goods or services directly or through a digital platform, or offering intermediate services that link suppliers and customers in Nigeria.

The new regulation would apply to companies with income of N25m or equivalent in other currencies from Nigeria in a year and those with a Nigerian domain name (.ng) or a website address in the country.

The SEP order mandated foreign companies with sustained interactions with persons in Nigeria and customising their digital platforms to target persons in Nigeria by stating the prices of their products or services in naira to pay taxes.

According to the Act, a foreign entity providing technical services such as training, advertising, supply of personnel, professional, management, or consultancy services shall have a SEP in Nigeria in any accounting year if it earns any income or receives any payment from a person resident in Nigeria or a fixed base or agent of a foreign entity in Nigeria.

However, payments made to employees of a foreign entity or for teaching in an educational institution are exempt.

Also, in January 2022, the Federal Government disclosed that it would charge offshore companies providing digital services to local customers in Nigeria a six per cent tax on turnover as provided in the 2021 Finance Act.

Speaking further on the tax on digital services, the former finance minister, Ahmed, explained that it includes apps, high-frequency trading, electronic data storage, and online advertising, adding that “this is introducing turnover tax on a fair and reasonable basis.”

The policy was contained in Section 30 of the Finance Act, which amended the provisions of Sections 10, 31, and 14 on VAT obligations for non-resident digital companies.

Ahmed said, “Section 30 of the Finance Act designed to amend sections 10, 31 and 14 of VAT is in relations to VAT obligations for non-resident digital companies and the mechanism that will be used is to restrict VAT obligations mainly to digital non-resident companies who supply individuals in Nigeria who can’t themselves self-account for VAT.

“So if you visit Amazon, we are expecting Amazon to add VAT charge to whatever transaction you are paying for. I am using Amazon as an example. We are going to be working with Amazon to be registered as a tax agent for FIRS.

“So Amazon will now collect this payment and remit to FIRS and this is in line with global best practices, we have been missing out on this stream of revenue.”

According to her, the new law applies to foreign companies that provide digital services such as apps, high-frequency trading, electronic data storage, online and advertising, among others.

She noted that in line with Section 4 of the Finance Act, non-resident companies are now expected to pay tax at six per cent on their turnover.

The minister, who stated that the government was desirous of modernising taxes for its digital economy and to improve compliance, noted that digital non-resident companies do not need to be registered locally but would have an arrangement with the FIRS to collect and remit taxes in a bid to reduce the compliance burden.

Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers had said earlier that some of the affected foreign digital companies would be required to register for income taxes in Nigeria and file annual tax returns even if they did not have a physical presence in Nigeria.

They added that Nigerian resident businesses (as well as the fixed bases of non-resident companies) that have transactions with the affected non-resident companies would also be required to account for withholding tax on some of the payments made to these foreign companies.

PwC raised concerns as to how the FIRS would enforce compliance without international consensus, as a number of the companies affected might be outside the territorial reach of the agency.

According to the consulting firm, the problem will also be exacerbated where the companies sell their products and services directly to individual consumers in Nigeria.

However, findings by the PUNCH showed that these firms have paid over N1.98tn in taxes between the first quarter of 2022 and Q1 2023.

Within the period under review, the Federal Government earned N1.32tn through CIT and N661.93bn through VAT from foreign companies.

A breakdown on CIT showed that Nigeria earned N342.4bn in Q1 2022, N80.39bn in Q2 2022, N327.02bn in Q3 2022, N399.98bn in Q4 2022, and N168.23bn in Q1 2023.

On a year-on-year analysis, there was a decline of 50.87 per cent (-N174.17bn) in CIT from foreign firms.

On a quarterly basis, the decline was a bit higher at 57.94 per cent (-N231.75bn).

A breakdown on VAT showed that Nigeria earned N117.99bn in Q1 2022, N11.13bn in Q2 2022, N121.85bn in Q3 2022, N159.83bn in Q4 2022, and N151.13bn in Q1 2023.

On a year-on-year analysis, there was an increase of 28.09 per cent (N33.14bn) in CIT from foreign firms.

However, on a quarterly basis, there was a decline of 5.44 per cent (-N8.7bn).

Punch

The five BRICS developing nations will admit Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, they said on Thursday, a move aimed at growing the clout of the bloc as it pushes to rebalance the prevailing world order.

The expansion could also pave the way for dozens more countries to seek admission to the grouping, which has pledged to address their grievances over a world order many feel is rigged against them.

BRICS - whose acronym was originally coined by an economist at Goldman Sachs, currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Deepening geopolitical polarisation in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's declining relations with the United States are spurring efforts by Beijing and Moscow to forge BRICS into a viable counterweight to the West.

"BRICS has embarked on a new chapter in its effort to build a world that is fair, a world that is just, a world that is also inclusive and prosperous," said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is hosting a summit of BRICS leaders.

The six candidate countries will formally become members on Jan. 1, 2024. Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left the door open to the possibility of admitting other countries in future.

"We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process and other phases will follow," Ramaphosa said at a media briefing.

Lula said globalisation's promises had failed, adding that it was time to revitalise cooperation with developing countries as "there is a risk of nuclear war", an apparent allusion to growing tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine conflict.

United Arab Emirates' President Mohammed bin Zayed, whose country is already a shareholder of the bloc's New Development Bank, said he appreciated the inclusion of his country in the expansion.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called the BRICS leaders' decision to invite Ethiopia to join "a great moment".

PLEDGE TO REBALANCE WORLD ORDER

In a reflection of the bloc's growing influence, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended Thursday's expansion announcement.

He echoed a recurring plea by BRICS for reforms of institutions like the U.N. Security Council, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, stating that global governance structures "reflect yesterday's world".

"For multilateral institutions to remain truly universal, they must reform to reflect today's power and economic realities. In the absence of such reform, fragmentation is inevitable," he said.

The debate over enlargement has topped the agenda at the three-day summit taking place in Johannesburg. And while all BRICS members publicly expressed support for growing the bloc, there were divisions among the leaders over how much and how quickly.

Though home to about 40% of the world's population and a quarter of global gross domestic product, BRICS members' failure to settle on a coherent vision for the bloc has long left it punching below its weight as a global political and economic player.

"This membership expansion is historic," China's President Xi Jinping said in remarks following the announcement on enlargement. "It shows the determination of BRICS countries for unity and cooperation with the broader developing countries."

More than 40 countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, say South African officials, and 22 have formally asked to be admitted.

They represent a disparate pool of potential candidates motivated largely by a desire to level a global playing field and attracted by BRICS' promise to rebalance world bodies dominated by the United States and other wealthy Western states.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the bloc's expansion should be an example to other global institutions.

"The expansion and modernization of BRICS is a message that all institutions in the world need to mould themselves according to changing times," he said.

Reuters

Three people have been declared dead after a two storey building collapsed in the early hours of Thursday in Garki village, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja.

According to government officials undertaking rescue operations at the venue, the building came crashing down on unsuspecting residents shortly after midnight while it was raining non-stop, killing two at venue while one later died in the hospital.

FCT Minister who arrived the venue to assess the situation, ordered the immediate arrest of owners of the property and an investigation into the remote and immediate causes of the building collapse.

Nyesom Wike who warned that enough is enough of indiduals building without approved building plan and use of substandard materials, said “We will identify and arrest owners of the building.”

The minister assured that government will take care of the hospital bill and treatment of those rescued and are receiving treatment for various degree of injuries in hospitals.

A resident of the collapsed building, gift Eze, who survived the accident, said they escaped the accident with only the clothes on their bodies. She called on the government to provide immediate relief and support for them.

“I escaped with only these clothes on me, the house, property, everything is gone, please we need immediate help. Where do we sleep tonight and where do we live?

Ireti Kingibe, senator representing the FCT, who arrived at the venue shortly after the departure of the FCT minister, decried the spate of building collapse in the FCT and the attendant loss of lives and property.

She tasked regulatory bodies to conduct periodic checks on buildings across the FCT to avoid a repeat of the incident.

She said although the area is a local Gbagyi setting, it is important to follow standards when setting up any building structure to avoid building collapse.

“Everyone intending to build should get proper approval before doing so. This is an old building but the agencies should have a process where they go regularly to assess old buildings like this and while they do that, we the public should comply.”

Officials of the FCT Development Control, FCT, FERMA and the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), among others, all agreed that the about 30 years old building was already distressed and therefore no longer fit for people to live in.

District Head, Garki, Stephen Yakubu, explained that the owner of the building had already given the occupants quit notice for a while now because the building had already depreciated and is almost collapsing but some of occupants still stayed back for lack of where to immediately move to and were unfortunately caught up in the disaster.

He said “Based on the information we were told, the owner had already given them quit notice when he realised that the building was depreciating and it was almost collapsing but for over two months now, they have refused to leave perhaps the reason could be that they didn’t have accommodation anywhere.

“We are deeply saddened over the loss of lives there. Nobody is happy because losing a life, even if it is a baby, it is something that is quite worrisome. We are working with the authorities to prevent these from happening again,” he said.

The Guardian

Residents of a village near the site of a plane crash which is believed to have killed Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said they had heard a bang, then saw the jet plummet to the ground.

The plane, an Embraer Legacy 600private jet, crashed on Wednesday near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia's Tver region on its way from Moscow to St. Petersburg and killed all 10 people on board - seven passengers and three crew members.

There has been no official comment from the Kremlin or the Defence Ministry on the fate of Prigozhin but a Telegram channel linked to his Wagner mercenary group, Grey Zone, pronounced him dead.

A Reuters reporter at the crash site early on Thursday saw men taking away black body bags on stretchers.

Part of the plane's blue-and-white liveried tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area.

Forensic investigators had erected a tent and lighting gear. Parts of the wreckage lay near what appeared to be a half-built abandoned structure.

Kuzhenkino resident Vitaly Stepenok, 72, told Reuters: "I hear an explosion or a bang. Usually, if an explosion happens on the ground then you get an echo, but it was just a bang and I looked up and saw white smoke."

"One wing flew off in one direction and the fuselage went like that," he said, gesturing with his arms to show how the plane headed down towards the ground.

"And then it glided down on one wing. It didn't nose-dive, it was gliding."

Standing in a village street, Stepenok said he was afraid the plane would fall onto houses there.

"I was over there. I jumped on my bike and was there (at the site) in about 20 minutes. Everything was on fire. People were walking around. They dragged someone out, their remains... I couldn't make it out. I just saw the number on the plane, which I told them, and that was it."

Another villager, who gave his name as Anatoly, said: "In terms of what might have happened, I'll just say this: it wasn't thunder, it was a metallic bang - let's put it that way. I've heard things like that before."

"Over there by that mast. And it fell over there," he said pointing towards a farm.

The crash occurred two months to the day since Prigozhin led an abortive mutiny against the army top brass, accusing them of incompetence in their handling of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russian investigators said they had opened a criminal investigation. Some unnamed sources told Russian media they believed the plane had been shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles. Reuters could not confirm that.

** Putin breaks silence on Prigozhin plane crash as bodies taken to medical examiner's office

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his first comments Thursday on the mysterious plane crash that presumably killed Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin and the private military company's co-founder Dmitry Utkin along with eight others near Kuzhenkino, Russia, on Wednesday.

The comments were made hours after the bodies of the crash victims were moved to the Tver Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, ABC News learned.

"As for the aviation tragedy, first of all, I want to express my sincerest condolences to the families of all the victims," Putin said in an on-camera address, adding that Wagner Group made a "significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine."

"I knew (Yevgeny) Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 1990s. He was a man with a complex destiny, and he made serious mistakes in life," Putin said. "He achieved the results he needed both for himself and, when I asked him, for the common cause, as in these last months."

He added on the investigation, "But what is absolutely clear - the head of the Investigative Committee reported to me this morning, they have already launched a preliminary investigation into this incident. And it will be carried out in full and to the end. There is no doubt about that here. Let's see what the investigators say in the near future. Tests -- technical and genetic tests -- are being carried out now. This takes some time."

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg -- Prigozhin’s home town -- dozens of people have been arriving to light candles and drop flowers at a pop-up memorial.

Reuters/Yahoo News

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Pro-Kyiv Russians urge Wagner Group to revenge Prigozhin's death

A group of Russian militants who fight on the Ukrainian side called on the Wagner Group of mercenaries to switch sides and join their ranks to revenge the deaths of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and their commander Dmitry Utkin.

Russian air authorities have said Prigozhin, Utkin and eight other people were on a private plane that crashed with no survivors north of Moscow on Wednesday.

"You are facing a serious choice now - you can stand in a stall of Russia's defence ministry and serve as watchdogs for executors of your commanders or take revenge," commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) Denis Kapustin said in a video address published late on Thursday.

"To take revenge you need to switch to Ukraine's side," the commander said.

The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries staged a mutiny against Russian military commanders in which they took control of a southern city, Rostov, and advanced towards Moscow before turning around 200 kilometers far from the capital.

Russia has opened an investigation into the crash, but its outcome is unlikely to shake a widespread belief that Prigozhin was killed as an act of vengeance for staging the mutiny.

Reuters had cited two U.S. officials earlier on Thursday saying a surface-to-air missile likely hit the plane. Pentagon later said it had no evidence to support that.

After 24 hours of silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid "sincere condolences" to the families of all 10 people on the plane, and praised Prigozhin as a "talented businessman".

RVC commander Kapustin, a far-right Russian national, founded the armed group a year ago. RVC fights on the Ukrainian side and has said it was behind several military attacks on Russian border regions.

"Let's end the bloody meat grinder of the special military operation," Kapustin said in his address to Wagner fighters using the Russian official name for the invasion of Ukraine.

"After that, we will march to Moscow and this time we will not stop 200 kilometers before the Moscow ring road but go to the end," he said.

** Top US general says Ukraine to get F16 jets soon

The United States' top general said on Thursday that Ukraine was likely to get F-16 fighter jets soon, and said its counter-offensive against the Russian invasion has been going slowly and had partial success.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said it was too early to say whether the counter-offensive had failed.

"F-16s. That is moving forward, actually. So there's a training program in place and they'll likely receive F-16s ... in the not-too-distant future," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said in an exclusive interview with Jordan's Al-Mamlaka public service TV news channel.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy recently said he had received pledges from Denmark and the Netherlands to deliver F-16s, saying they would strengthen Ukraine's air defences and help its counter-offensive against Russian forces.

Milley said the counter-offensive faced heavy Russian reinforcements with many months to prepare minefields, tank ditches and dragon's teeth tank obstacles "in a very complex set of defensive preparations that the Ukrainians are fighting through ...

"The Ukrainians have a significant amount of combat power remaining; this is not over yet," he said. "So I think it’s frankly too early to say whether it (has) succeeded or failed."

"Clearly it’s had partial success to date. Now the speed at which the offensive has been undertaking is slower than the planners had thought," Milley added in the interview in Amman.

Ukrainian forces were being trained intensively in various parts of Europe on "command and control of offensive formations and combined arms maneuver and to break complex obstacles that will bolster its capabilities," the four-star U.S. Army general said.

"Again, it's bloody, it's long and it's slow. And we had predicted that several months ago," he said.

Washington was still deliberating providing long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems known as ATACMS that Ukraine wants and which reach behind enemy lines, including Russia, Milley told Al-Mamlaka.

"They've gotten long-range artillery with the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) and the Brits have provided other types of capabilities that other countries have as well. So they've gotten a lot of artillery," he said. "But the ATACMS is a controversial topic.

"And for a lot of reasons, they haven't received those yet. They're still on the table. President Biden has not said no or yes at this time," Milley said.

Milley, who is slated to retire later this year, again cautioned against the likelihood of an outright Ukrainian military victory in the near term while highlighting the possibility of a political solution to end the fighting.

"It’s an offensive that is been going on for about, I guess, eight weeks or so. It’s very bloody, slow, high casualty- producing and its very difficult. So the idea of militarily kicking out two or three hundred thousand Russian troops is going to be very difficult and challenging.

"A different way of getting out of this is through negotiations and may be that will happen too."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian missile intercepted in western Russia – MOD

A Ukrainian S-200 missile has been intercepted and destroyed mid-air in Kaluga Region, southwest of Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Friday.

According to the MOD, the air defenses have “thwarted an attempt by the Kiev authorities to conduct terrorist attacks on civilian sites on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The Soviet-era S-200 missiles were originally designed to strike airborne targets. However, Russian officials have warned that Ukraine has repurposed some of them for use against targets on the ground. 

According to reports on Telegram, loud explosions were heard in Obninsk, a city roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Moscow.

Two of Moscow’s three main airports – Domodedovo and Vnukovo – have been briefly shut down, news agency TASS reported, citing aviation services.

Hours later, the Defense Ministry said that 42 drones attacked Crimea overnight, nine of which were destroyed in the air, while the rest veered off course due to signal-jamming and crashed.

Ukraine has stepped up drone and missile attacks deep inside Russian territory in recent months, as its much-anticipated ground offensive has failed to yield significant results.

According to the Russian military, earlier this month Kiev’s forces fired an S-200 missile into the long bridge that connects Crimea with mainland Russia, but the projectile was shot down before reaching its target. The MOD said that a missile of this type was also used in the July 28 strike on the Russian southern city of Taganrog. More than 20 people were injured in that attack.

** Russian Armed Forces destroy Ukrainian ammunition depot — Defense Ministry

Battlegroup East units supported by aviation and artillery destroyed an ammunition depot, a stronghold and a vehicle with Ukrainian army fighters near Urozhainoe settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Battlegroup spokesman Oleg Chekhov told TASS.

"Leading units of the Battlegroup East with the support of artillery and aviation delivered a fire strike against the enemy in the vicinity of Urozhainoe. Two temporary stationing points of the Ukrainian army were hit; an ammunition depot, a stronghold, and a vehicle with fighters were destroyed. Concentrated manpower was hit. A strike UAV destroyed an armored personnel carrier with Ukrainian army infantry," Chekhov said.

Servicemen of the Battlegroup are demonstrating courage and dedication when accomplishing combat missions, the spokesman added.

Reuters/RT/Tass