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News_Naija

VIDEO: Sanwo-Olu Shows Off DJ Skills At Lagos Carnival

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, left many Lagos youths shocked when he mounted the DJ booth to thrill guests at the Lagos Fanti Carnival on Monday. A viral video on social media showed the DJ Sanwo-Olu ‘scratching’ to Asake’s ‘Fuji Vibe’ and hyping the crowd, earning loud cheers and admiration from young Lagosians. In the short clip, Governor Sanwo-Olu—dressed casually—was fully immersed in the moment as he showcased his DJ skills alongside popular Disk Jockey, DJ Spinall, with the crowd vibing to his selection. Click here to watch the video

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Worldnews

What Is The Resistance Front, The Group Claiming The Deadly Kashmir Attack?

Founded in 2019, the little-known group has now taken centre stage in the conflict between India and the rebels. New Delhi, India — Even as news of the deadliest attack on Indian-administered Kashmir’s tourists in decades filtered in on social media platforms and television screens, a message appeared on Telegram chats. The Resistance Front (TRF), a little-known armed group that emerged in the region in 2019, claimed responsibility for the attack in which at least 26 tourists were killed and more than a dozen others were injured on Tuesday. Armed rebels, who have been fighting for Kashmir’s secession from India, had largely spared tourists from their attacks in recent years. Tuesday’s killings changed that. But what is TRF, and what influence does it wield in Kashmir? And what is at stake for the Indian administration in Kashmir now? On a pleasant, sunny afternoon in the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam town in Kashmir, tourists came under attack from gunmen who emerged from a nearby forest. The men armed with automatic rifles shot at least 26 tourists dead and injured several others. All those killed were men. India’s home minister, Amit Shah, reached Srinagar, the summer capital of the disputed region, as condolences poured in from world leaders, including United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media that “those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice … they will not be spared!” By then, TRF had claimed responsibility for the attack, even as the armed attackers who carried out the killings remained on the run. In a message that appeared on Telegram, TRF opposed the granting of residency permits to “outsiders”, who critics say could help India change the demography of the disputed region. “Consequently, violence will be directed toward those attempting to settle illegally,” it said. Though the targets of the attack were tourists — not newly arrived residents making Kashmir their home — the group’s choice of Telegram to claim responsibility did not surprise security officials. TRF is still, at times, referred to as “the virtual front” inside the security apparatus in Kashmir, for that is how it started. After the Indian government unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s partial autonomy in August 2019 and imposed a months-long clampdown, the group first took shape by starting messaging on social media. In reorganising Kashmir, the government also extended domicile status, which allows land owning rights and access to government-sponsored job quotas, to non-locals — the purported justification for the Pahalgam attack. The name The Resistance Front is a break from traditional rebel groups in Kashmir, most of which bear Islamic names. This, Indian intelligence agencies believe, was aimed at projecting “a neutral character, with ‘resistance’ in name focused on Kashmiri nationalism”, said a police officer, who has worked on cases involving armed groups for nearly a decade, requesting anonymity. However, Indian officials have consistently maintained that, in reality, TRF is an offshoot — or just a front — of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based armed group. India says Pakistan supports the armed rebellion in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad. Pakistan says it provides only diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people. It also condemned the attack on tourists in Pahalgam. Some Indian officials said they believe Tuesday’s attack may actually have been the handiwork of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, with TRF fronting responsibility to muddy India’s investigations into the killings. By 2020, the group started taking responsibility for minor attacks, including targeted killings of individuals. Its recruits consisted of fighters from an amalgam of splinter rebel groups. Since then, Indian security agencies have busted multiple groups of TRF fighters. But the group survived and grew. By 2022, a majority of the armed fighters killed in gunfights in Kashmir were affiliated with TRF, according to government records. TRF members were increasingly using small arms such as pistols to carry out targeted killings, including those of retired security personnel and people accused of being informers. The group also made headlines that year after it named Kashmiri journalists on a “traitor hit list” for allegedly colluding with the Indian state. At least five of the named journalists resigned immediately, as there is a history of such attacks. Shujaat Bukhari, a prominent Kashmiri journalist and editor of the Rising Kashmir publication, was assassinated on June 14, 2018, outside his office in Srinagar. The Kashmir police have attributed the killing to the Lashkar-e-Taiba. In June 2024, TRF also claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims, killing at least nine people and injuring 33, in Jammu’s Reasi area. The bus had plunged into a gorge during the attack. As TRF made its mark with its deadly attacks, it also used a mix of old and new strategies. Its English name stood out, as did its social media usage. But in other ways, it relied on more traditional techniques. Before TRF’s arrival, Kashmiri rebel commanders had, since 2014, increasingly adopted more public personas. Their groups would post videos on social media of their commanders casually walking through apple orchards, playing cricket, or riding a bike in Srinagar. This social media outreach led to a surge in recruitment. Among the commanders who adopted this method was Burhan Wani, whose killing in July 2016 led to an uprising, during which more than 100 civilians were killed in street protests. But after the 2019 crackdown, this approach no longer worked. TRF fighters, the newcomers on the scene, returned to tried and tested ways. “The faces were again hidden; the number of attacks fell, but the intensity became sharper,” said the police officer who requested anonymity. Under the leadership of Mohammad Abbas Sheikh, one of the oldest Kashmiri fighters — he is reported to have joined the rebellion in 1996 — the group focused its attacks on Srinagar. After his killing in 2021, and the killings of many other armed rebels in the subsequent year, TRF retreated with its fighters to jungles higher up in the mountains, a central intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. In January 2023, the Indian government declared TRF a “terrorist organisation”, citing the recruitment of rebels and smuggling of weapons from Pakistan into Kashmir. As more and more TRF fighters were killed by security agencies, their numbers dwindled. The rebels, according to the police and intelligence officials, were well trained but largely stayed in their high-altitude hideouts. Yet, if Indian security and intelligence agencies were caught off guard by the attack, some experts believe that is the outcome of holes in the Modi government’s Kashmir policy. Modi and Home Minister Shah, who is responsible for law and order and widely seen as Modi’s deputy, have repeatedly made claims of “normalcy” in Kashmir since the region’s semi-autonomous status was revoked in 2019. It was that assurance and the promotion of tourism by the Indian government that drove Kailash Sethi to Kashmir this summer with his family. Now, he is frantically looking to leave the region as soon as possible. “We were in Pahalgam just two days ago, at the same place where the attack happened,” Sethi, who is from Jamnagar in the western state of Gujarat, told Al Jazeera from Srinagar. “I cannot tell you how scared I am right now. I just want to take out my family.” On Wednesday, panic gripped tour and travel operators as visitors rushed to cancel their bookings and return home. Traffic jammed the roads to Srinagar airport, and prices to fly out of Kashmir increased by more than 300 percent. “There is no normalcy in Kashmir. And this ‘normalcy’ narrative is the most unfortunate thing about the Kashmir policy of this government,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director of South Asia Terrorism Portal, a platform that tracks and analyses armed attacks in South Asia. “First, zero militancy in Kashmir is an impossible objective to realise, at least in the absence of a political solution within the state,” said Sahni. “Secondly, the ‘normalcy narrative’ creates a situation where groups are encouraged to engineer attacks.” That, he said, is because they know that “even if a small attack occurs, it is not normal any more”. Apart from occasional attacks, rebel groups had largely spared the tourism industry so far, added Sahni. “This also led to a level of complacency, perhaps, in the security apparatus,” he said, adding that “this is a very abrupt escalation on the part of TRF”. By Tuesday evening, as the dead and injured were brought down on horseback and military vehicles, the police had sealed the resort town of Pahalgam. Several areas in Kashmir, including Srinagar, witnessed a shutdown after traders’ associations and political parties called for collective mourning. Raul, who works in the hospitality sector in Pahalgam and requested he be identified by his first name only, said he remains anxious for the future. “There will be crackdowns and the increased presence of armed forces in the area again,” he said. “Everyone, my clients, just wants to get out of Kashmir.” Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Worldnews

Trump Accuses Ukraines Zelenskyy Of Harming Russia Negotiations

US president claims a peace deal is close, but accuses Ukrainian leader of making ‘inflammatory statements’. US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing the Ukrainian leader of making “very harmful” statements after he pushed back on ceding occupied Crimea to Russia in a potential peace deal. President Zelenskyy on Tuesday ruled out the idea of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia in any deal before talks on Wednesday in London among US, European and Ukrainian officials. “There is nothing to talk about – it is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy said. His comments came after US media reports that the Trump administration was ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory. In a post on the Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump accused Zelenskyy of stoking tension by “boasting” that Kyiv would not legally recognise ceding Crimea to Russia. “This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,” Trump said, adding that Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula and annexed it back in 2014 “without a shot being fired”. “It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said. “He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.” Earlier, US Vice President JD Vance told reporters in India that the US has “issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians”. “It’s time for them to either say ‘yes’, or for the United States to walk away from this process,” he added. Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal. “That means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own,” he added. In London, the US, Ukrainian and European officials held “substantive” truce talks despite US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancelling his trip. Rubio’s no-show on Wednesday prompted a broader meeting with foreign ministers from Ukraine, the UK, France and Germany to be replaced by discussions at an official level, underscoring the tension between Washington, Kyiv and its European allies over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy said the talks had been marked by emotions and expressed hope that future joint work would lead to peace. “Emotions have run high today. But it is good that 5 countries met to bring peace closer,” he wrote on the X social media platform. “The American side shared its vision. Ukraine and other Europeans presented their inputs.” Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said talks with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak were positive. “It’s time to move forward on President Trump’s UKR-RU war directive: stop the killing, achieve peace, and put America First,” he said in a statement on X. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer played down any disappointment over Rubio’s abrupt cancellation, saying the talks involved “substantive technical meetings with European, US and Ukrainian officials on how to stop the fighting” triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion. “We remain absolutely committed to securing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, and these talks today are an important part of that,” the spokesperson said. A foreign office spokesperson said “all agreed to continue their close coordination and looked forward to further talks soon.” At the heart of Wednesday’s talks was an attempt to establish what Kyiv can possibly accept after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff presented proposals that appeared to demand more concessions from Ukraine than Russia. Reuters reported that several sources said Witkoff’s proposals included recognising Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Washington beginning to lift sanctions on Russia and ruling out Ukrainian membership of NATO. Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said Ukrainians found the US stance “simply unacceptable”. “Ukraine’s position is that it boggles the mind that … the US would ask an ally to give up sovereign territory of its own after an invasion,” he said. Mattia Nelles, who heads the German-Ukrainian Bureau think tank in Dusseldorf, told Al Jazeera that Europe now finds itself in the position of drawing red lines and trying to prevent Ukraine from being “thrown under the bus”. What was particularly worrisome to Europe was the US position on sanctions. “What the US is also throwing in the mix is sanctions relief, and this is very dangerous because it allows Russia to rearm very quickly while leaving Ukraine in a weaker position,” Nelles said, adding that this would remain unacceptable to both Kyiv and other European nations. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Futbol

West Ham became just the third team to take points off Chelsea in the Women's Super League this season, Shekiera Martinez scoring a late equaliser to rescue a 2-2 draw. Chelsea appeared to be cruising towards their 17th win of the campaign after scoring twice in the opening 21 minutes. However, Martinez's 42nd-minute strike dragged West Ham back into the game, before the Blues were left to rue their own missed opportunities in front of goal when the German forward levelled in stoppage time. The draw moves West Ham up to seventh and cuts Chelsea's lead at the top of the WSL to six points. However, Sonia Bompastor's side remain unbeaten and on course for the title despite the "disappointing result". Speaking to Sky Sports, Bompastor said: "This block of fixtures has been crazy. Eight games in 28 days - we travelled a lot, we played four games in a row against Manchester City where the players left everything on the pitch. "It is hard to have the energy but at Chelsea, we have enough depth and quality to finish this block of fixtures with a better result. "We conceded too many situations defensively but when you look at the bigger picture, we are six points ahead of the second-placed team. Every team would wish to be in our position." Chelsea flew out of the blocks at Kingsmeadow, having five shots in the opening 10 minutes before Maika Hamano made the breakthrough, volleying home on the turn after Ashley Lawrence headed a cross back across the box. Aggie Beever-Jones doubled their lead five minutes later, linking up with Sjoeke Nusken and Catarina Macario before guiding the ball beyond Kinga Szemik with the outside of her boot. Chelsea could have added several more, with Macario, Erin Cuthbert - who saw a long-range effort hit the bar - and Nusken all going close. Martinez pulled a goal back for West Ham on the stroke of half-time, hammering home from inside the box after being picked out by Riko Ueki. The visitors grew into the game in the second period, with Hannah Hampton forced into a couple of sharp saves before Martinez headed back across the goal to rescue a deserved point for West Ham. After 21 minutes at Kingsmeadow, a Chelsea victory looked inevitable. The Blues had cruised into a 2-0 lead and were flexing their squad depth, with Hamano and Beever-Jones - two of the seven changes from Thursday's Champions League victory over Manchester City - on the scoresheet. As half-time approached they continued to pepper the visitors' goal, and even when Martinez pulled one back in the 42nd minute, it remained Chelsea's game to lose. They had 73% possession and 16 shots to West Ham's four. However, they were left to rue their missed opportunities, with West Ham the better side for much of the second half and Martinez's late equaliser, scored in the first minute of added time, coming as no surprise. Chelsea boss Bompastor may rue her side's wastefulness in front of goal but the result will likely have little impact on the title race, with the Blues comfortably clear of Arsenal and Manchester United. For West Ham, however, whose manager Rehanne Skinner punched the air with delight at the final whistle, it continues a marked upturn in form since the winter break. West Ham have picked up 11 points from a possible 24 since the beginning of January, winning three and drawing two of their eight matches, and are unbeaten in their past three league games. In mid-December the Hammers sat 10th in the table, three points above the relegation zone, but are now seventh, with a 10-point buffer over 12th-placed Crystal Palace. Speaking to Sky Sports, Skinner said: "I'm delighted with the character and the way the team has gone about the game. The confidence has grown so much in the team and we are getting late goals in games. I'm delighted with the point. "We got a lot of players in September and it took time for the team to gel. Now we are in a position where we are able to get results. There is just a belief." Head here to get involved