Bifwoli Wakoli, former Assistant Minister, narrates his political journey.
This programme was produced on 21st March, 2021.
Author: KBC Digital
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Lake Maggiore boat accident: Questions remain over spy deaths
The story of a boat that sank on Lake Maggiore on 28 May has elements of a spy novel.
Four people tragically drowned on the picturesque and popular lake south of the Swiss Alps.
One was a former agent from Israel’s spy agency Mossad, two were Italian intelligence officers and the fourth victim was a Russian woman.
They were among 23 people aboard the small boat that set out to cruise the lake.
It is no doubt a traumatic event for the survivors and for the families who lost loved ones – but a number of facts about the case have prompted speculation about what exactly happened.
Lake Maggiore and its shoreline are divided between the Italian regions of Lombardy and Piedmont, and the Swiss canton of Ticino.
Several companies that produce technology capable of both military and civilian use are located in Lombardy – and Switzerland is considered a transit country for many intelligence members.
And some of the people on the boat, of both nationalities, had apartments and houses there.
While some reports say the boat ride was an innocent pleasure trip, several major Italian news outlets are reporting that it was a secret work meeting between Italian and Israeli agents.
‘An apocalypse descended upon us’
There is huge interest in the accident and public prosecutor Carlo Nocerino has been tasked with finding out what happened. He says 13 of those on board were Italian agents and eight were Israeli agents. Only the captain, Claudio Carminati, and his Russian wife did not work in intelligence.
The cruise was planned to celebrate the birthday of someone on board. The 15m boat was an apt choice – it was called “Good…uria”, a play on words that means “pleasure”.
But this boat was suddenly hit by a fierce storm with gusts of over 70km (43m) per hour.
“In a matter of 30 seconds, an apocalypse descended upon us,” was how Mr Carminati described the incident, according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera. “The boat immediately capsized, and we fell into the water.”
Mr Carminati told investigators that no bad weather had been forecast. The boat was still on the lake after the scheduled return time.
He is now being investigated for the possible crimes of causing a shipwreck and culpable homicide.
His wife, Anna Bozhkova, was a 50-year-old Russian woman who had a residence permit to live in Italy.
The other victims were Tiziana Barnobi, 53, and Claudio Alonzi, 62 – both members of the Italian secret service.
An Israeli man, 50-year-old Simoni Erez, also died. He was a retired Mossad agent. His name was published in the Italian media, even as media outlets in Israel continued to refrain from reporting it.
The others who were aboard the boat managed to swim to shore or were pulled from the water by other vessels that were dispatched to help or happened to be in the area.
The cause of all deaths is drowning, although Italian news outlets report that no post-mortem examinations have been carried out.
The disappearing survivors
One other aspect to the mystery is that, according to Italian media, the survivors of the disaster seemingly rushed to leave immediately afterwards.
The Italian press reports that the survivors quickly collected their belongings from their hotel rooms and from the hospital where they had received treatment and left.
There is no paperwork about those who received medical treatment.
The Israelis abandoned their rental cars and on Monday they were flown back home on an Israeli plane that picked them up in Milan.
Their identities have not been disclosed, but Mr Nocerino, the public prosecutor, told the BBC it was normal to release only the names of victims and not the survivors.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Wednesday that the Israeli man who died was a retired member of Mossad.
“The Mossad lost a dear friend, a devoted and professional member who dedicated his life to the security of the State of Israel for decades,” the office said in a statement.
“Given his service with the agency it is not possible to elaborate on his identity,” it added.
An overcrowded boat?
The vessel involved in the incident has not yet been taken ashore. This means the investigation cannot properly begin, Mr Nocerino told the BBC.
“At the moment, it’s entangled at the bottom of the lake and it might take two or three days to bring it up.”
Mr Nocerino added that the boat only had capacity for 15 passengers, but there were eight more than that aboard.
It is being reported that the overcrowding made it harder for the captain to manoeuvre the boat in adverse weather conditions.
Magistrates are investigating why there were more people than permitted aboard – and whether it should have been sailing on the lake at all given the bad weather.
Mr Nocerino said the investigation would examine compliance with security measures, maintenance, certification and insurance of the vessel.
Of course, with so much of the story remaining uncertain, speculation is likely to continue.
The Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, are assisting the investigation. They told the BBC it would examine the boat and the weather conditions – but not what the people were doing on board.
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Tanzania declares Marburg outbreak over
Tanzania says its outbreak of the Marburg virus is over. Presence of the haemorrhagic fever was first confirmed in March, in the north-western Kagera region.
There were nine cases and six people died.
The World Health Organisation said its joint action with Tanzania on an emergency response had enabled the authorities to limit the impacts of a highly infectious disease.
The Marburg virus can have a fatality rate of up to 88%.
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Zinga: Edward Mwasi asisitiza umuhimu wa kusherehekea Madaraka
Kenya inasherehekea miaka 60 ya kujitawala yaani Madaraka Dei. Je, ni muhimu? Rashid Mwamkondo Na Dorah Manya wamhoji Edward Mwasi Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Kenya Yearbook.
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Leaders Talk: Exclusive with DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi
CGTN
How can an African developing country endowed with an exceptional abundance of natural resources, including minerals such as cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, and immense biodiversity, move up the value chain toward growth and prosperity?
How can China’s modernization path provide a template? In this edition of Leaders Talk, CMG’s Wang Guan sat with Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on his state visit to China.
Both countries have elevated their relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in a bid to provide the DRC with infrastructure and technologies, help the country make the most of its resources, and achieve win-win outcomes.
President Tshisekedi says that China’s leap toward modernization is impressive and praises President Xi Jinping’s vision as “praiseworthy” and “forward-looking,” saying that the DRC can emulate the Chinese’s model.
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More than 120 dead in India train crash
BBC
More than 120 people are now known to have been killed and 850 injured in a multiple train collision in India’s eastern Odisha state, officials say.
More than 200 ambulances were sent to the scene in Balasore district, says Odisha’s chief secretary Pradeep Jena.
One passenger train is thought to have derailed before being struck by another on the adjacent track late on Friday.
Indian Railways said the two services involved were the Coromandel Express and the Howrah Superfast Express.
Speaking to reporters at the crash site, Odisha Fire Services official Sudhanshu Sarangi said: “We have now recovered more than 120 dead bodies.”
He warned that the figures “might go up as we complete the process” of checking the overturned carriages.
Mr Jena earlier said that about 850 were injured, and more than 100 additional doctors have been mobilised. Rescue efforts were “in full swing”, he added.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was distressed by the incident, and his thoughts were with the bereaved families.
“Rescue ops are underway at the site of the mishap and all possible assistance is being given to those affected,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah labelled the incident “deeply agonising”.
One male survivor said that “10 to 15 people fell on me when the accident happened and everything went haywire. I was at the bottom of the pile.
“I got hurt in my hand and also the back of my neck. When I came out of the train bogie, I saw someone had lost their hand, someone had lost their leg, while someone’s face was distorted,” the survivor told India’s ANI news agency.
It is believed that several carriages from the Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express derailed at around 19:00 local time (13:30 GMT), with some of them ending up on the opposite track.
Another train – the Howrah Superfast Express travelling from Yesvantpur to Howrah – is then thought to have hit the overturned carriages.
Indian officials said that a goods train – which was stationary at the site – was also involved in the incident. They provided no further details.
Some surviving passengers were seen rushing in to help rescue those trapped in the wreckage.
Local bus companies were also helping to transport wounded passengers.
There are fears that the death toll will rise further.
India has one of the largest train networks in the world, and accidents are common despite successive governments investing hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the infrastructure, says the BBC’s South Asia regional editor Anbarasan Ethirajan.
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Senegal shuts social media as protesters die after Sonko sentencing
BBC
Social media and messaging platforms have been blocked in Senegal after unrest erupted over the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
At least nine people were killed when Sonko’s supporters clashed with police in several cities on Thursday.
Sonko was not in court when he was given a two-year jail term for immoral behaviour, but cleared of rape charges.
The justice minister said he could be arrested at any time – and police are surrounding his house in the capital.
His supporters fear the conviction could prevent the 48-year-old politician from contesting next year’s presidential election.
Hundreds of officers are blocking his supporters from reaching his home in Dakar – and even his lawyers have been unable to visit him.
When the court handed down its verdict on Thursday, Sonko’s Pastef party called on people to “take to the streets”.
Interior Minister Antoine Félix Diome said the government had imposed restrictions on social media to stop the “dissemination of hate and subversive messages”.
People are upset about the move, which is affecting popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube.
They can be accessed using a virtual private network (VPN), but not everyone is aware about such software and how it works.
Several districts of the capital saw clashes – some of the worst confrontations were at the university campus in the city centre where police fired tear gas as vehicles burned and black smoke billowed over the area.
Many businesses closed – and some remained shut on Friday.
There was also violence in the southern city of Ziguinchor, where Sonko is mayor.
Sonko is very popular among unemployed youth and has undergone a meteoric political rise in the last few years.
After his dismissal as a tax inspector in 2016, he was elected to parliament and became mayor of Ziguinchor.
The government has rejected accusations that this case against the opposition leader, as well as others he has faced, were politically motivated.
He was accused of sexually assaulting and threatening a massage therapist at a beauty salon in 2021, which he denied.
Adding to the political tension is the belief that President Macky Sall plans to stay in office for an unconstitutional third term, though he has made no mention of such intentions.
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Women activists make case for gender-responsive approaches to climate change
By Emily Kenik
A section of women activists in Africa now argue that women bear the greatest brunt of climate change, and yet not so much is said as to why that was the case.
Amid heightened conversation on climate change and its impacts, the activists decry what they described as “false solutions” imposed on Africans by international institutions and multinationals on the pretext of helping communities adapt to extreme weather patterns.
Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), a non-governmental organization operating under the auspices of the Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) program, is concerned that the continued absence of such voices especially on policy, reinforces existing barriers to guaranteeing that ongoing climate change solutions are contextual and applicable.
“Women carry the disproportionate burden of the climate crisis because they already face peculiar social, economic, and political barriers that limit their coping capacity,” argues AMwA Executive Director Eunice Musiime.
Musiime reiterates that Governments, policymakers, climate activists, and environmentalists should recognize that the climate crisis is gendered, and the humanitarian impacts of the crisis fall squarely to the women.
Addressing a conference organized by the organization under the theme “Friends Of The Earth” in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Musiime asserts that women should be well informed particularly while engaging in popularized before them by ‘elites’ from the global north if they are to make informed decisions.
They say if women are not well informed, then there is a huge possibility that they’ll fall into a trap. They in fact claimed, that some funding provided by some of the Western institutions involved, if not carefully interrogated, might “tie them to poverty” urging African countries to remain keen on what is being offered.
For instance, she cited the introduction of hybrid and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO seeds) as one of the false solutions being introduced to the global south by the North propounding that with this Africa risks losing out on her indigenous seed varieties, biodiversity, and food sovereignty.
The activities, in their own view, insist that Hybrid seeds cannot be replanted from year to year like traditional seeds because they lose their vigor.
“This way Contracts or “technology agreements” between farmers and seed companies dictate how farmers should grow their crops and force farmers to buy new genetically modified seeds each year. In addition, these seeds also require the use of expensive and environmentally damaging chemical inputs,” averred Musiime
They stated their case even as the Principal Secretary, of the State Department of Gender and Affirmative Action Veronica Nduva, who was in attendance, indicated that her ministry is keen on integrating gender issues in policy-making through capacity building like conferences, engaging women and girls at the grass-root level to help them make an informed decision that will not affect them later.
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Governor Sang announces launch of Nandi County digital markets
Nandi County Governor Stephen Sang has unveiled the Nandi County Digital Markets, an innovative platform aimed at revolutionizing the county’s business ecosystem and foster economic growth.
This groundbreaking initiative will provide local businesses with a virtual marketplace to connect, promote, and sell their products and services online.
According to Sang, the Nandi County Digital Markets platform is a testament to our commitment to harnessing the power of technology and enhancing the livelihoods of our residents.
“By embracing digital solutions, we are creating new opportunities for our entrepreneurs, empowering them to reach a wider customer base and expand their businesses beyond geographical limitations,” he said
“This initiative comes at a crucial time when the world is witnessing a rapid digital transformation. As a forward-thinking county, we recognize the need to adapt to these changing times and leverage technology for the benefit of our citizens.” Added the county chief
He further expressed optimism that the platform will bridge the gap between traditional markets and the digital economy, allowing local businesses to thrive in the online marketplace.Some of the Key features of the Nandi County Digital Markets platform include:
Online storefronts for businesses: Each registered business will have a dedicated space on the platform to showcase their products and services, providing a seamless online shopping experience for customers.
Easy-to-use interface: The platform has been designed to be user-friendly, ensuring that both businesses and customers can navigate and utilize its features effortlessly.
Secure transactions: Robust security measures are in place to protect the integrity of all transactions conducted on the platform, instilling trust and confidence among buyers and sellers.
Enhanced visibility: By being part of the Nandi County Digital Markets, local businesses will gain increased exposure and visibility, allowing them to attract new customers and expand their market reach.
Governor Stephen Sang emphasized that the initiative is part of a broader digital transformation strategy for Nandi County, which aims to position the county as a leader in technology-driven innovation.“The Nandi County Government will continue to invest in digital infrastructure, skills development, and business support programs to create an enabling environment for the growth of the digital economy,” he said
“We invite all local businesses to embrace this opportunity to propel their ventures to new heights. Together, we can build a thriving digital ecosystem that drives economic prosperity and improves the quality of life for our residents,” said the Governor.
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IBM Launches Watsonx to Power Next-Generation AI Foundation Models for Businesses
IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced IBM watsonx, a new AI and data platform that will enable enterprises to scale and accelerate the impact of the most advanced AI with trusted data. Enterprises turning to AI today need access to a full technology stack that enables them to train, tune and deploy AI models, including foundation models and machine learning capabilities, across their organization with trusted data, speed, and governance – all in one place and to run across any cloud environment.
The company has also announced further planned advancements, including a GPU-as-a-service infrastructure offering designed to support AI-intensive workloads, an AI-powered dashboard to measure, track, manage, and help report on cloud carbon emissions, and a new practice for watsonx and generative AI from IBM Consulting that will support client deployment of AI.
With watsonx, IBM is offering an AI development studio with access to IBM-curated and trained foundation models and open-source models, access to a data store to enable the gathering and cleansing of training and tuning data, and a toolkit for governance of AI into the hands of businesses that will provide a seamless end-to-end AI workflow that will make AI easier to adapt and scale.
“With the development of foundation models, AI for business is more powerful than ever,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO. “Foundation models make deploying AI significantly more scalable, affordable, and efficient. We built IBM watsonx for the needs of enterprises, so that clients can be more than just users, they can become AI advantaged. With IBM watsonx, clients can quickly train and deploy custom AI capabilities across their entire business, all while retaining full control of their data.”
“With the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), African organizations are seizing the opportunities and are increasingly looking to be in multiple markets,” said Julia Carvalho, General Manager of IBM Africa Growth Markets. “A scalable and trusted AI for business platform such as IBM watsonx can play a crucial role. It can ensure that regional bodies and governments create central trade information portals and cross-border payment infrastructure to help increase trade for inclusive and sustainable development in the region.”
Clients will have access to the toolset, technology, infrastructure, and consulting expertise to build their own — or fine-tune and adapt available AI models — on their own data and deploy them at scale in a more trustworthy and open environment to drive business success. Competitive differentiation and unique business value will be able to be increasingly derived from how adaptable an AI model can be to an enterprise’s unique data and domain knowledge.
The IBM watsonx platform consists of three unique product sets to address these needs:
IBM watsonx.ai: A next-generation enterprise studio, expected to be generally available in July 2023, for AI builders to train, test, tune, and deploy both traditional machine learning and new generative AI capabilities powered by foundation models through an open and intuitive user interface.
- The AI studio provides a range of foundation models, training and tuning tools, and cost-effective infrastructure that facilitate the entire data and AI lifecycle, from data preparation to model development, deployment, and monitoring.
- The studioalso includes a foundation model library that gives users easy access to IBM curated and trained foundation models. The IBM foundation models use a large, curated set of enterprise data backed by a robust filtering and cleansing process and auditable data lineage. These models are being trained not just on language but on a variety of modalities, including code, time-series data, tabular data, geospatial data, and IT events data. An initial set of foundation models will be made available in beta tech preview to select clients. Examples of model categories include:
- code: Models built to automatically generate code for developers through a natural-language interface to boost developer productivity and enable the automation of many IT tasks.
- NLP: A collection of large language models (LLMs) for specific or industry-specific domains that utilize curated data where bias can be mitigated more easily and can be quickly customized using client data.
- geospatial: Modelbuilt on climate and remote sensing data to help organizations understand and plan for changes in natural disaster patterns, biodiversity, land use, and other geophysical processes that could impact their businesses.
- As part of a new collaboration between IBM and Hugging Face, the aistudio will build upon Hugging Face’s open-source libraries and offer thousands of Hugging Face open models and datasets. This is part of IBM’s commitment to delivering to clients an open ecosystem approach that allows them to leverage the best models and architecture for their unique business needs.
IBM watsonx.data: A fit-for-purpose data store built on open lakehouse architecture that is optimized for governed data and AI workloads, supported by querying, governance, and open data formats to access and share data. The solution is expected to be generally available in July 2023 and:
- The solution can manage workloads both on-premise and across multi-cloud environments.
- Through workload optimization, with this solution, an organization can reduce data warehouse costs by up to 50 percent.1
- data will allow users to access their increasingly robust data through a single point of entry while applying multiple fit-for-purpose query engines to uncover valuable insights.
- It will also provide built-in governance tools, automation and integrations with an organization’s existing databases and tools to simplify set-up and user experience.
IBM watsonx.governance: An AI governance toolkit to enable trusted AI workflows. The solution, expected to be generally available later this year:
- Operationalizes governance to help mitigate the risk, time and cost associated with manual processes and provides the documentation necessary to drive transparent and explainable outcomes.
- Provides the mechanisms to protect customer privacy, proactively detect model bias and drift, and help organizations meet their ethics standards.
With the watsonx platform, clients are enabled to meet the needs of their organization in five key areas of their business: interacting and conversing with customers and employees; automating business workflows and internal processes; automating IT processes; protecting against threats; and tackling sustainability goals.
IBM also plans to infuse watsonx.ai foundation models throughout all its major software products going forward, for example:
- Watson Code Assistant: A solution, expected later this year, that taps generative AI to allow developers to generate code with a straightforward English language command.
- AIOps Insights: AI Operations (AIOps) capabilities enhanced with foundation models expected for code and NLP to provide greater visibility into performance across IT environments, helping IT operations (ITOps) managers and Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) resolve incidents in a more expedient and cost-efficient way.
- Watson Assistant and Watson Orchestrate: IBM’s digital labor products are expected to be combined with an NLP foundation model to enable enhanced employee productivity and customer service experiences.
- Environmental Intelligence Suite: IBM EIS Builder Edition is planned to be enabled by the geospatial foundation model and available in preview later this year, allowing organizations to create tailored solutions that address and mitigate environmental risks based on their unique goals and needs.
Additionally, IBM has announced several additional offerings to help drive AI adoption, including:
- New GPU offering on IBM Cloud: Addressing the global need for foundation models, IBM is announcing new GPU offerings on IBM Cloud, an AI-tailored infrastructure designed to support enterprise compute-intensive workloads. Later this year, IBM is expected to offer full stack high-performance, flexible, AI-optimized infrastructure, delivered as a service on IBM Cloud, for both training and serving foundation models.
- IBM Consulting Center of Excellence for Generative AI: IBM Consulting announces a Center of Excellence for generative AI with over 1,000 generative AI experts and plans to build a watsonx-focused practice which will actively build and deploy watsonx for clients. IBM Consulting has completed dozens of client engagements infusing generative AI with IBM Watson and a portfolio of ecosystem partners through its proven IBM Garage method.
- IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator: An AI-informed dashboard to enable clients to measure, track, manage and help report their carbon emissions associated with their hybrid multi-cloud journey. Based on technology from IBM Research, IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator is expected to be generally available later this year. The dashboard complements IBM’s existing sustainability solutions with a comprehensive portfolio of technology and expertise, including the IBM Envizi ESG Suite, IBM Turbonomic, IBM Planning Analyticsand IBM LinuxONE, that help organizations accelerate their sustainability and business objectives.
- New study revealing generative AI is among seven trends shaping business: A new report from the IBM Institute for Business Value, titled Seven Bets, shares seven trends impacting business today and describes the seven bets worth making to enhance their business, including insights on why businesses should adopt an “AI-first” mindset and how leaders can most effectively capitalize on AI’s opportunities now and in the future, as well as manage the enhanced risks across their organizations.