Liz Truss Shock Resignation

United Kingdom Prime Minister (PM) Mary Elizabeth Truss has resigned just after 45 days in office, making her the shortest-serving PM in UK history.

Speaking outside Number 10 yesterday afternoon, Liz Truss said the environment she is working in was not condusive to achieve the set goals.

She said, "We set out a vision on low tax and high growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. I recognise now, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Consevative Party. I therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party."

A leadership election will be completed next week and according to the chairman of the influential 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady, the new Tory leader will be in office by next Friday.

The United Kingdom will now have at least four Prime Minsters in six years, signalling a tempestuous political system leading the country to an almost inevitable shipwreck. The casualties will be, as always, the ordinary person in the street.

Queen Elizabeth II Has Died At Balmoral

Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom's longest reigning monarch has died at Balmoral castle aged 96. She's been on the throne for 70 years. Buckingham Palace said the Queen "died peacefully" on Thursday afternoon at her Scottish Estate where she had spent most of her summer this year. The Queen was head of state of the U.K. and 14 other countries including Australia, Canada and Jamaica.

A total of 15 Prime Ministers served under the queen with her last being Liz Truss, whom she met just two days ago at Balmoral as opposed to the traditional Buckingham Palace.

Senior members of the royal family rushed to Balmoral earlier in the day, amidst the Queen's doctors expressing great concern for her health. Her first son King Charles; her grandson William and now heir to the throne and his brother Prince Harry also gathered there. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.

People have been gathering at Buckingham Palace in reverance of the monarch and expressing their deepest sympathies of the her passing. The country and the world at large are in great shock as for many, Queen Elizabeth II was the only British Monarch they knew. The United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth brace up for a pendulum shift in the constitution.

King Charles III pays tribute to his 'beloved' and 'cherished' mother

The new king has paid tribute to his 'beloved' and 'cherished' mother saying her death "is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family."

The statement said, "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world."

Amidst speculations on the title the new monarch will hold, Clarence House confirmed he will be known as King Charles III. He could have opted by didn't choose any of his other names such as Philip, Arthur or George. He also takes on other titles as Head of the Commonwealth, Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, Supreme Governor of The Church Of England.

The Duke of Cambridge, also known as Prince William becomes the Duke of Cornwall and Cambrigde, as being Charles' eldest son, inherits the dukedom to now oversee the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall.

Catherine his wife will now be known as The Dutchess of Cornwall and Cambridge.

At some stage, with due processes from King Charles III, they will be known as the Duke and Dutchess of Wales.

Prince William also inherited the Scottish titles, The Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are now the Princes and Princess of Cornwall and Cambrigde to eventually become of 'Wales'.

Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is now technically a prince due to the rules made by King George V in 1917. This is by virtue of Archie being the son of a son of a sovereign.

Similarly, his sister Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor is now a princess and would be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Lilibet of Sussex.

Prince Edward, being the youngest child of the late Queen Elizabeth II and the late Prince Philip of Edinburgh still, retains the title Earl of Wessex.

Their only daughter Princess Anne of Edinburgh is now 16th in line of succession to the British throne and has been Princess Royal since 1987.

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York becomes eighth in the line of succession to the British throne. Picture Credits: King Charles III - insider.com; Queen Elizabeth II and family on balcony - mirror.co.uk; Prince Harry, Meghan and family - Alexi Lubomirski; Prince Edward - smoothradio.com; Princess Anne - brides.com; Prince Andrew - dw.com

Easter : A Revival Of Hope For Ukrainians

Ukrainian Easter Basket (Holidappy)

Eating sumptuous meals of meat, dairy and egg and beautifully decorated houses, was the order of a typical Ukrainian Easter celebration, but amidst the on-going crisis these celebrations are likely to be marred with grief, fear anxiety and uncertainty. 

In Ukrainian, Easter is called Velykden which means The Great Day. 

With a population of up to 40 million people, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia. Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in the country with between 65.4 percent to 76.6 percent of the population practising / identifying with it which accounts for between 27.8 million to 34.8 million people. According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), the level of religiosity in Ukraine is highest in Western Ukraine (91 percent) and the lowest in Donbas (57 percent) and Eastern Ukraine (56 percent). 

2019 statistics showed that 82 percent of Ukrainians were Christians out of which 72.7 percent declared themselves to be Orthodox, 8.8 percent Greek Rite Catholics, 2.3 percent Protestants and 0.9 percent Latin rite Catholics. Other Christians comprised 2.3 percent. 

Orthodox Easter falls a week after the conventional christian easter, meaning this year their Easter will be on the 24th of April as opposed to the conventional that falls on the 17th of April. This is because the Orthodox Church uses a different calendar called the Julian calendar which was originally designed by Julius Caesar in 45BC, basing a year on the time it takes the sun to go around the earth. The conventional calendar is Gregorian, created by Pope Gregory in 1582 to fix some of the shortcomings in the Julian calendar. Also in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Easter must take place after the Jewish Festival of Passover. 

The Easter season begins with Great Lent; which is 40 days of reflection, fasting and praying which starts on Clean Monday also known as Pure, Ash or Green Monday which refers to believers being cleansed of their sins during the lenten season. It is also known as Wet Monday  and ends on Lazarus Saturday which celebrates the raising of Lazarus at Bethany.

Orthodox Easter Traditions 

On Easter Sunday, families go to church and greet each other saying, 'Khrystos Voskres' which means Christ is Risen, and 'Volstynu Voskres' - which means Indeed He Is Risen.  The celebrations begin with a blessing in church of a special food basket. Depending on the schedule of the church, the blessing can also take place on Saturday night before the Easter Sunday.

Easter baskets ready for church blessing (Olena Senteno: Bilingual Kids Rock)

A priest blessing the Easter baskets (Suburban Grandma)

The following food items are a mandatory contents of the basket; and can add other food stuffs if you so wish, for example fruit and vegetables etc. 

Pysankas, which are nicely decorated hard-boiled eggs. They are symbolic of new life. 

Kiwi Pysanky (Pysanky.info)

Paska, which is sweet egg bread with raisins, elaborately decorated with a braided cross and rosettes. It symbolises the joy of the new life given to us by Jesus Christ.

Paska (Korena In The Kitchen)

Meat Products

This consists of sausages (mostly garlic ones), ham and smoked bacon. The Ham is symbolic of the great joy and abundance of Easter. It can at times also be lamb or veal.

Ham (Picante Cooking)

The spicy pork garlic sausages known as kielbasa are symbolic of God's love and generosity.

Sausages known as Kielbasa (European Specialties) 

Horseradish roots or horseradish with beets is symbolic of he passion and death of Christ.

Horseradish (Panning The Globe)

Dairy Products  

Cottage cheese or farmer cheese has a bland taste which reminds believers of the moderation they should cultivate in their lives.

Cottage Cheese (Cupcakes And Kale Chips)

Butter - often shaped into a lamb or a cross reminds believers of the goodness of  Christ and the importance of sharing with others.

Butter (Suburban Grandma)

Salt - reminds believers of their commitment to follow Christ and to do his word. 

Salt

The blessing ceremony is attended by all members of the family including parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren. The Food in the basket is then eaten for breakfast alongside other delicacies specially prepared of that day like mashed potatoes, gravy and desserts like cheesecake and meringue tortes. 

Perhaps this year's Easter for the Ukrainians will bring with it hope that God is still with them regardless of the war and instability in their country. 

'Theresa May Will Lose Tonight' - Liz Kendall

By Tino Okere

Theresa May (Source: AP: Alastair Grant)

In what has been dubbed 'the meaningful vote', Members of Parliament (MPs) will this evening vote FOR or AGAINST Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal.

Statistics from Sky News Analysis states that 192 of Conservative MPs indicated that they will vote for Mrs. May's deal but the rest 111 of her MPs would vote against it. Other MPs voting against are 10 of the Democratic Unionist Party, 248 from the Labour Party, 35 of the Scottish National Party, 11 Liberal Democrats, one from the Green and four of the Plaid Cymru. Others expected to vote for the deal are three rebel Labour MPs and three Independent, giving a defeat gap of 227 against Theresa May. 

The hugely resilient Prime Minister is not thought to resign after the imminent defeat with some political analysts saying she doesn't draw her strength form the parliamentarians but from the 'will of the British public who voted to leave the European Union'. 

On the brink of defeat, Theresa May this afternoon in Parliament asked MPs to, "give this deal a second look" but Labour MP Liz Kendall had earlier indicated that the EU and Brexit are "not the answers to people's genuine problems' but a second referendum is the answer.

Liz Kendall (Source: AP)

"The people's vote may be the only way out of the logjam because what is on offer now is completely different from what people voted for in the referendum," she said during an interview with Sky News. 

"You can't believe that what people are being offered in Brexit is the same thing they were promised by the leave campaign in 2016...it's completely different. We're not gaining greater sovereignty, we are actually giving it up, we're not getting billions (of Pounds) more in the National Health Service - we're actually giving that up so when the facts change, we have to give it back to the people", she added.

Kendall intimated that the Prime Minister was to lose the vote today. 

Political analysts and politicians alike feel that crucial legally binding assurances like Article 50 have not been met which are crucial if Brexit is to work in favour of the United Kingdom. 

The politics of Harare’s open spaces

By Aiden Musarurwa
Harare; Zimbabwe

Harare City Council bulldozing houses

The fear of open spaces is called agoraphopia. It is a strange sensation of feeling detached and alone, so various definitions go.

It appears some sections of the local authority and leading political players have a deep seated fear of open spaces, if the number of housing developments that went up in virtually every vlei, hill and open ground over the last five years or so is anything to go by.

How else could one explain where once there were restrictions on construction, housing projects now grace the land? From the ubiquitous two-roomed cement breeze block flat roof structures, to tiled houses that look like they cost a pretty penny to put up, these have strung up in Harare and Chitungwiza and are now the subject of hot debate involving the local authority, the house owners, so-called land barons and the inevitable politicians.

Some of the houses before demolition 

When the City of Harare announced plans to demolish the illegal structures there was a feeling that they would not follow through on their threat - mainly because the city councillors are largely from the MDC-T party, which is the opposition to the ruling Zanu PF party.

Letters sent out by City of Harare to warn residents to move off the land (Source: 263Chat)

The Mayor of Harare, Bernard Manyenyeni who has acquired a reputation as a straight talker, led from the front once his bulldozers got rolling. He is also in touch with today’s trends, announcing his council’s position on Facebook.

“We are very keen to protect the city’s superior town planning and in doing that, we discourage any form of unplanned settlements. Where this has gone ahead without authority, we first seek opportunities for regularising as many of the structures as we possibly can,” Manyenyeni said.

Mayor of Harare - Bernard Manyenyeni (Source: nehandaradio.com)

The council spokesman Michael Chideme weighed in.

“Harare residents should learn to respect land uses. There is land meant for schools, clinics and recreation. We should make sure we do not tamper with such land.”

Most of the land has been distributed by people with links to the ruling party. These are the so-called land barons. In Zimbabwe, you know you have acquired notoriety once you are a baron. In the mid 2000s anyone dealing in foreign currency as the Zimdollar plummeted to new depths was called a cash baron.

To the casual observer, these are a bunch of speculators keen to make a quick dollar off the residents, for whom ownership of property is a lifelong dream.

The reality seems to lie a bit deeper.

Sources close to the land developers have said there is a deliberate attempt to create pockets of people loyal to the ruling party in various constituencies in order to wrest control of Harare and Chitungwiza from the MDC-T.

In Harare South, for example, the ruling party has been winning the seat ever since thousands of people were resettled on Hopley Farm. The same scenario almost rang true in Harare East with the settlement of people on Caledonia Farms leading to a close race there, before eventually leading to Zanu PF winning the seat in a by-election.

The constituency boundaries are getting murkier and murkier as once elite suburbs like Borrowdale are now joined with Hatcliffe, while Mandara is now linked with Caledonia.

The political hand was finally played last week when Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said the council should regularise the settlements and let people live on the land, while the political issues in the background were settled.

Local Government Minister - Saviour Kasukuwere (Source: nehandaradio.com)

“Harare City Council will take over this land and ensure that it is serviced and the houses here are not demolished,” Kasukuwere said after touring an area near Mufakose with businessman Billy Rautenbach, whose links to the ruling party are well documented and who was claiming ownership of the land.

Billy Rautenbach - Businessman (Source: www.newsday.co.zw)

A political show of strength was also exposed here as the land was allegedly traded between Rautenbach and a Zanu PF MP which has collected millions of dollars from the residents without passing on the money to the local authority.

"The councils are seized with issue. Whoever received cash will have to account for it and to explain on whose authority they carried out the allocation," he said.

The Chairman of the Council’s Environmental committee is in no doubt to blame.

Herbert Gomba trained his guns on residents and politicians.

“I have seen residents associations blasting council for acting but never heard them educating residents about good citizenship, which includes abiding by the laws of the country. I have heard council being asked questions like ‘why did you allow them to settle there?’ but never heard these illegal settlers being asked questions like ‘why do you do illegal things being misled by politicians?’” Gomba said in an interview with a local weekly.

It is enough to make one’s head spin, and this is just one of the areas where the background to open spaces runs deeper than the surface.

As the bulldozers ran through the community, the old saying about the grass suffering when elephants fight rings louder and truer.

All the residents’ interviews say they got documentation to prove they own the land and that council inspectors came and checked all stages of construction.

The City of Harare’s Head of Water, Engineer Christopher Zvobgo has been suspended pending an investigation into how settlements now being declared illegal were connected to the Council water supply.

City of Harare's Head of Water - Engineer Christopher Zvobgo (Source: www.herald.co.zw)

“We did not just bring ourselves here. Most of us spent over $40 000 building our houses. Money which was hard to get, and now we are sleeping outside. Surely someone must make up for this. Someone has to pay for this.

Remnants of demolished houses 

“At the moment nobody wants to be accountable. Council says it is the MP, MDC says it is Zanu and Zanu says it is MDC.

“This doesn’t help me. My family and household property are being rained on every day and nobody can tell me what I did wrong,” says Dickson Madamombe, fists clenched and eyes red with frustrated fury.

He is a victim of the apparent desire by some people to see any open space filled with housing and people, even if that comes at such a high cost to the people who give their all to populate these spaces.

Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour Leadership Race... things can and will change

Jeremy Corbyn (MP) - right with Tom Watson at the conference today (Source: www.itv.com)

MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn has today emerged as Labour leader. Corbyn garnered a overwhelming 251.417 votes which constituted 59.5%, which was 40% more than his closest rival Andy Burnham who got 19%. Following very closely was Yvette Cooper with 17% and last being Liz Kendall with just 4.5% of the votes.

In his victory speech, Corbyn spoke strongly against the current government's Trade Union bill that will be put forward on Monday. The bill, he said is designed to "shackle the unions who are working to defend the people's rights," and will stifle people's democratic rights to demostrate against unfair practices by employers towards employees. Corbyn highlighted that Labour is a party organically linked together between the unions and party membership and all the affiliated organisations - that is where it gets its strength from. 

Corbyn also attacked an unfair welfare system in Conservative's Welfare reform bill which he said "will bring such misery and poverty to so many of the poorest in the society." The newly elected Labour leader spoke of the party which is united and absolutely determined in its quest for a decent and better society for all.    

Jeremy Corbyn strongly shunned Britain's foreign policy which was destabilising many parts of the world - one such - being the war in Syria. He said, "Let us realise that going to war creates a legacy of bitterness and problems. Let us be a force for change, humanity, peace in the world realising that we cant go on with grotesque levels of inequality, threats to our environment all around the world without the rich and powerful governments stepping up to the plate to make sure our world becomes safer and better."

He said, "They should make sure these people  don't end up in poverty, refugee camps wasting away their lives who could be contributing so much to the good of all of us on this planet. We are one world."

For his first assignment as Labour leader Mr. Corbyn will go out this afternoon to support and demonstrate the way refugees must and should be treated in the UK. He said the immigrants are inter-generational and generational victims of war who have ended up in desperation and terrible places. He called for the government and all to deal with the refugee crisis with humanity, support and compassion because they are after all 'human beings like the rest of us.'

West Bromwich East MP, Tom Watson is going to be deputising Corbyn.

The newly elected Labour leader also congratulated the newly elected mayor of London, Sadik Khan and promised that they will work together particularly on the housing issue in London. He said; "I'm fed-up with the social cleansing of London by the Tory government and its policies. We will ensure the end in sky-high rents in London and the insecurity of those living in the private rented sector."

Sadik Khan (MP) (Source: www.dailymail.co.uk)

Jeremy Corbyn also thanked former Labour leader Ed Milliband, and the acting leader Harriet Hammond as well as his contenders; Andy Burnham for his position as shadow health secretary 'who advocated for a free health service under the NHS at the point of use and his stand for a comprehensive education and to ensure that all children have a fair and decent start to life.'

He also showed his gratitude to Yvette Cooper for the part she played in the last few weeks in helping to shape and turn round public opinion to show sympathy and humanity towards refugees and the way they are treated. Cooper received a resounding standing ovation at this. Corbyn also thanked Liz Kendell for her friendship even if they both had 'some moderate differences'.

The Labour party has presented itself as representing the democratic rights of the people, justice, equality and peace.