On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved 42 constitutional amendment bills for second reading.
The bill that would remove the vice president’s, governors, and their deputies’ immunity from prosecution would be one of the bills that would improve accountability in public office, combat corruption, and promote impunity.
This came after 39 bills for constitutional amendments passed the green chamber on Tuesday for second reading.
Ezekwesili’s encounter with Nwebonyi demonstrates What Women Endure In Many Cases.
Among the notable suggestions that came up for second reading on Wednesday are:
A bill to amend the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution to increase accountability in public office, reduce impunity, and remove the president’s immunity from the vice president, governors, and their deputies, and to end corruption.
A bill to change the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution to separate the minister of justice from the governor of a state and the commissioner for justice from the governor of a state.
The minimum number of youths and women who can be appointed to specific positions are specified in a bill for an act to change the provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution of 1999 to grant citizenship to spouses of women from Nigeria.
The bills that would create Ijebu, Ife-Ijesa, Tiga, Orlu, and Etiti were also introduced.
Hurstville Oval, Sydney, hosts the first Women’s T20.
Australia A 117-6 (20 overs): Penna 27 (34), Gaur 2-10, Davis 2-16
England A 119-7 (19.1 overs): Scholfield 36 (29), Scrivens 35 (38), Flintoff 2-16
Three wickets separated England A.
In their first T20 match of their multi-format tour, England A held their resolve to defeat Australia A by three wickets.
The tourists needed 10 runs in the final three overs to win, but England only needed three after England’s tight bowling.
However, Bess Heath scored a four on the opening play of the 20th over to win.
Before Heath’s unbeaten 18 off 16 and her stand of 63 with Paige Scholfield, who hit 36 off 29, put England to victory, which was completed by Captain Grace Scrivens, who made 35 off 38 balls.
Given the turmoil surrounding the senior XI, this is a promising victory for a young England side, especially in the first of three T20s before three 50-over games and a four-day game.
After Australia humiliatingly won the Women’s Ashes 16-0 clean sweep, England are searching for a new coach and captain.
The younger England players have a chance to compete for seats in the senior side under the new leadership.
The 6’4″ and left-arm pace bowler Gaur, 19, has already shown signs of how dangerous her special abilities are in 26 senior white-ball games.
In a bowling total of just 10 runs, she hit Tahlia Wilson with the first delivery of the game before dismissing the hosts’ other opener Courtney Webb.
With Maddie Penna and Rhys McKenna removed, off-spinner Davis, who has only made one one-day international appearance, went for 16 from her three overs.
Issy Wong, a fast bowler who has struggled in form since 2023, attempted to rekindle her English career with a 0-30 record on four of her overs.
Even in chasing relatively low targets, England and Australia have struggled against them, but Scrivens and Scholfield, who are more experienced, largely eased any tension before being both dismissed by Lauren Cheatle in successive overs.
Heath didn’t feel alarmed despite three wickets being quickly lost and Wong being dismissed on the final ball of the 19th over.
Bryony Smith, who did not join the core group, has been declared out of the tour due to illness, but no replacement will be called up. England has confirmed this.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), has expressed concern about the legal system in Nigeria and lamented the decline in ethical standards in the legal profession.
She noted that the legal profession is facing significant challenges in addition to a declining standard of conduct.
The Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee’s report was presented in public on Wednesday by the CJN at the Body of Benchers’ Complex in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital.
Justice Kekere-Ekun argued that law practitioners must reaffirm their commitment to the fundamental principles of ethics, discipline, and professional responsibility in response to this trend.
The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), which the CJN recommended, should be followed with fairness, transparency, and unwavering resolve, in order to enforce professional discipline among legal practitioners.
Ezekwesili’s encounter with Nwebonyi demonstrates What Women Endure In Many Cases.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun
She continued, “It is instructive to note that the Body of Benchers is the apex institution of the legal profession in Nigeria is uniquely positioned to lead the charge in this regard.
I have no doubt that the legal profession will continue to rise to the occasion and bear the cost of upholding its sanctity.
The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) is a crucial role that needs to be pursued with fairness, transparency, and unwavering resolve, according to the statement.
The CJN applauded the Body of Benchers’ Chairman, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), and the body’s entire members for their foresight and dedication in launching the lecture. She chaired the inaugural edition of the Body of Benchers’ annual lecture and the body’s public presentation of the Body of Benchers’ Law Report.
She claimed that the lecture provided a much-needed forum for thought-provoking reflections on the role of the Body of Benchers within the Nigerian legal system as well as a testament to the body’s continued evolution.
The lecture initiative was developed as a quarterly event, according to the chief justice, with the intention of providing information on how the Body of Benchers functions both nationally and internationally to promote greater understanding. of its crucial function in legal practice and professional discipline by providing a forum for lively, critical, and thoroughly researched discussions about successes.
The CJN added that the lecture would address the body’s problems and prospects, evaluate the ethical standards of the legal profession in Nigeria, and lay out a plan for advancing both strengthening the legal profession and boosting public trust in the judiciary and legal practice.
She requested that the initiative be continued and expanded, and that it serve as a forum for reflection and discussion as well as a tool for establishing concrete standards for professional ethics, ongoing legal education, and reforms in the justice system.
The wildfires that once scorched the forests above the Spanish village of Barro each summer have all but disappeared since Lucia Perez began grazing wild horses in the area.
“There used to be fires every year, but since 2019 when we started coming here, we’ve had one small fire in the first year and nothing since,” Perez, 37, said. She explained that the horses help reduce the risk of wildfires by clearing the undergrowth between trees, preventing fires from igniting and spreading.
Fire prevention is just one of the ecological benefits wild horses provide in Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain known for its delicate ecosystems.
Scientists said Europe’s largest herd of wild horses plays a key role in maintaining these landscapes although the population has dropped dramatically. In the 1970s, about 22,000 wild horses roamed the region’s mountains, forests and heathlands. Today, only half remain.
A Galician wild horse grazes on spiny gorses in the Serra da Groba near Baiona, Spain. [Nacho Doce/Reuters]
On the Serra da Groba heathland, located 80km (50 miles) southwest of Barro, wild horses feed on the yellow flowers of gorse – a highly combustible plant. “By selectively clearing [gorse], the horses help prevent wildfires,” said Laura Lagos, a researcher at the University of A Coruna.
Horse grazing allows other plants, such as purple-flowering heather and white asphodels, to flourish, Lagos explained. “It also helps preserve the heather around peat bogs, which are abundant in sphagnum mosses – one of the most effective ecosystems for capturing carbon,” she said.
A 2021 study by the University of A Coruna in which Lagos participated found that wild horse grazing was the most effective method for preventing wildfires, promoting plant biodiversity and capturing carbon. The study compared this method with other land uses, including planting long-term pine forests, short-term eucalyptus plantations and grazing by domesticated animals.
Although sheep and cattle can also help reduce wildfire risks through grazing, Lagos noted that wild horses are uniquely adapted to Galicia’s rugged terrain. She highlighted one distinctive characteristic: “moustaches that appear designed to protect their lips from the prickly gorse.”
Hotter, drier weather due to climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in Galicia. From 2001 to 2023, fires burned through 970sq km (375sq miles) in the region, according to Global Forest Watch.
This trend has coincided with the proliferation of eucalyptus trees, brought to Galicia from Australia by a missionary in the 19th century. The trees are pyrophytes, meaning they rely on fire to release and disperse their seeds. Their spread has contributed to heightened fire risks while also reducing grazing pastures for wild horses because only ferns grow beneath them.
Galicia’s eucalyptus forests now account for 28 percent of the region’s total tree population, according to a local government study. The demand for eucalyptus wood from regional pulp mills has driven the expansion of these plantations.
Veronica Rubial Gandara, 39; Sara Mourino Esperon, 29; and Judit Moraleda Garrido, 25, hold down a wild horse as they cut its mane. [Nacho Doce/Reuters]
The history of wild horses in Galicia dates back thousands of years. Rock carvings of horses being hunted by humans suggest their presence in the region during the Neolithic period.
Over time, humans and horses developed a symbiotic relationship. Known as “besteiros” in the Galician dialect, people traditionally monitored the health of free-roaming horses in exchange for occasionally domesticating or selling them for meat.
Once a year, the horses were rounded up during events called “rapa das bestas”, or “shearing of the beasts”. During these gatherings, the animals were deloused, vaccinated and had their manes trimmed to prevent wolves from catching them.
Today, the “rapa das bestas” has evolved into a cultural festival. The most famous event in Sabucedo draws thousands of tourists annually, who gather to watch locals wrestle wild horses to the ground for treatment.
While these traditions continue to honour the connection between Galicia and its wild horses, the growing risks of climate change, habitat loss and declining herd numbers highlight the urgent need to protect both the horses and the ecosystems they sustain.
A court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has convicted 23 Ukrainians on “terrorism” charges in a trial that Kyiv has denounced as a sham and a violation of international law.
The defendants include 12 captured members of Ukraine’s elite Azov Brigade, which led the defence of the city of Mariupol in the early months of Russia’s war.
The prisoners were found guilty on Wednesday on charges of trying to stage a violent coup and organising activities for a “terrorist” organisation. Some also faced charges of overseeing illegal military drills as part of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
They were given sentences ranging from 13 to 23 years in prison, to be served in penal colonies with the harshest regimes, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.
Independent news outlet Mediazona said that besides the 12 Avoz members, 11 other people whom Russia had already returned to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges were sentenced in absentia. They included nine women who had worked as army cooks.
Mediazona said the Azov members would appeal the verdicts and that some of them had denied wrongdoing or had said that testimony they had given had been obtained under duress.
Wednesday’s verdict comes a day after Russia and Ukraine agreed to halt military strikes on vessels in the Black Sea with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire that would bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war.
‘Sham trial’
Memorial, a prominent Russian rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated the Ukrainian defendants as political prisoners.
According to Memorial, some of them were captured in 2022 during fighting in Mariupol, where they held out at the Azovstal steel mill, besieged by Russian troops.
Others were detained as they tried to leave the city after it was overrun by Russian forces, the group said.
The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, denounced the proceedings when they began in June 2023 as “another sham trial” held for Russia’s “own amusement”.
“Russia and fair justice have nothing in common. The world must respond to such shameful sham trials of Ukrainian defenders,” Lubinets said.
He added: “It is obvious to everyone that those who should be in the dock are not those defending themselves but those who initiated the aggression, those who invaded foreign land with weapons and those who arrived with tanks on the territory of an independent state.”
The Azov Brigade is banned inside Russia and is characterised by Moscow as a fanatical grouping of Russia-hating neo-Nazis. Ukraine rejects Russia’s description of Azov as a “terrorist” organisation.
The regiment was founded by a hardline nationalist, Andriy Biletskiy, but subsequently dissociated itself from his politics. From 2014, it was folded into Ukraine’s National Guard.
Donald Trump, the president of the US, has urged world powers to boost mineral production.
Essential minerals are essential for the manufacture of defense and clean energy technologies. Their demand is growing quickly, as is the supply of rare earths from leading nations.
However, China is the country’s main supplier. The United States is trying to reduce its dependence on Beijing for crucial minerals.
From potential tariff threats against Canada and Greenland to potential agreements with Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Washington is accused of obtaining the elements through economic coercion. Additionally, the US wants to increase domestic production.
Could President Prabowo Subianto’s plans aid in the expansion of Indonesia’s economy?
