LONDON MAIDEN FLIGHT: How we fought restriction of Air Peace return flight to rejected part of MMIA — Onyema

Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Dr Allen Onyema, said yesterday that when his airliner returned from its maiden flight to London, some staff of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, tried to restrict its landing to a rejected part of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos, far from the new terminal.

Onyema noted that such an action would have exposed passengers to difficulties, saying it would have taken them up to nine hours to get to the terminal building.

Speaking on The Morning Show, an Arise TV programme, he said despite the fact that gate C-23 at the new terminal was inactive, the officials chose to reserve it for a foreign carrier at the expense of an indigenous airline.

His words: “When our aircraft landed, thank God I was there because this thing had happened before. Let me excuse the leadership of FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku; and the Director of Air Operations, Captain Abdullahi Mahmood, both doing fantastically well.

“The wickedness in the system is stinking. The only carrier doing international operations in Nigeria landed and it was kept somewhere in the bush, a disused side of the airport. They expect us to use rickety buses to take international passengers to the new terminal which the international airlines rejected when it was opened.

“For those on that plane which landed yesterday (Sunday), it would have taken about six hours for people to exit the airport. They put us near Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO, which is very far. And nobody is using that end. No aircraft, not even foreign or local. Meanwhile, Gate C-23 at the new terminal was opened.

“When my captain called, he said it was reserved for a foreign airline at the expense of a Nigerian airline. Our aircraft, coming from London, was to be packed in one bush about two kilometres to our terminal.

”Can you imagine the time it would take us to take people from there to the terminal building? It would have taken about nine hours and Nigerians would have hated Air Peace because they wouldn’t know.”

 

Trump posts $175m bond in New York fraud case

Former US President Donald Trump has posted a $175m (£140m) bond in his New York civil fraud case, staving off asset seizures by the state.

Mr Trump was originally ordered to pay the full $464m judgement against him, but an appeals court said he could pay the smaller sum within 10 days.

He was found in February to have fraudulently inflated property values.

The Republican denies wrongdoing and says the case is a political witch hunt by the Democratic prosecutor.

If he loses his appeal, Mr Trump will have to come up with the $464m. His lawyers had argued before the appellate court that securing a bond for that amount would be a “practical impossibility”.

Monday’s bond payment will – for now at least – spare Mr Trump the humiliation of seeing his real estate assets such as Trump Tower in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida taken away from him.

In a statement, his lawyer Alina Habba said: “As promised, President Trump has posted bond. He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict.”

The fraud case against Mr Trump was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, in 2022.

Justice Arthur Engoron, also a Democrat, broadly sided with Ms James’ argument that Mr Trump should pay a steep price for fraudulently misrepresenting his assets in order to get more favourable loans and interest rates over the course of years.

Mr Trump argued the case had no victims because the banks got repaid with interest and no financial institution sued him for the exaggerated estimates of his net worth.

Justice Engoron also barred Mr Trump from running a New York business for three years.

He was also prohibited from getting loans from New York financial institutions over the same period.

The ruling placed Mr Trump, who has said in depositions and on social media that he has $400m or $500m in cash on hand, under a serious financial crunch.

Forbes Magazine currently estimates his net worth at $5.7bn – it soared after the parent company of his social media platform Truth Social went public last week.

Around the same time he lost the fraud case, Mr Trump had to secure a $91m bond after losing an unrelated defamation lawsuit brought by the writer E Jean Carroll.

To delay enforcement of the penalty while he appealed the civil fraud case, Mr Trump initially sought a bond from 30 companies but was unable to secure one, his lawyers wrote in court filings.

In addition to reducing the amount he would need to post last week, the appeals court also suspended the ban on Mr Trump’s ability to run a business and get loans while they consider his challenge to Justice Engoron’s ruling.

It could take months, or longer, for the case to be decided.

In the meantime, Mr Trump’s first criminal trial – over his alleged attempt to fraudulently conceal hush-money payments to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election – is scheduled to begin on 15 April in Manhattan.

He has also been charged in two additional cases with trying to overturn his 2020 election loss against President Joe Biden and over his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of those cases.

 

Florida’s top court ushers in six-week abortion ban, but voters will have their say

Florida’s top court has paved the way for the state’s six-week abortion ban to take effect, but is allowing voters to have their say on the issue.

The justices have upheld the state’s 15-week ban on abortion, in a ruling that means a subsequently passed six-week ban can soon begin.

But the court will also let Floridians decide in November if abortion rights should be sealed in the state charter.

Most Americans back legalised abortion, but most also favour restrictions.

The abortion ballot initiative could energise liberal voters in a presidential swing state that has been trending conservative in recent election cycles.

On Monday, Florida’s Republican-appointed justices decided by 6-1 that the state’s constitution – specifically its privacy protections – did not apply to abortion access.

The ruling upheld Florida’s existing 15-week abortion ban, passed in 2022.

A year ago Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a six-week abortion ban, but that bill was written so as to be placed on hold until the 15-week ban had cleared legal challenges.

Following Monday’s ruling, the six-week ban can take effect within 30 days. Many women do not realise they are pregnant at six weeks.

Planned Parenthood, which runs clinics that provide abortions, and the American Civil Liberties Union were among groups that filed the lawsuit challenging the ban.

In a separate ruling on Monday, the Florida Supreme Court decided 4-3 that a proposed constitutional amendment that would protect access to abortion in the state could be included on ballots this November, when the US general election is held.

The ballot question will ask Floridians to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a statement that reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health.” Viability refers to when a foetus, or unborn child, might survive outside the uterus, which is usually around 24 weeks.

It adds that “this amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion”.

The ballot question was opposed by Governor DeSantis and Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody, also a Republican.

Ohio, Michigan and Kansas are among states that have passed ballot measures in favour of abortion rights since the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a longstanding nationwide right to abortion.

A constitutional amendment in Florida needs to be approved by 60% of voters – a higher threshold than in other states.

If it does pass, voters could effectively reverse both the 15-week and six-week bans on the procedure.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, reportedly believes Florida’s abortion debate could offer a path to victory for him in that state this November.

In a memo shared with NBC News, his campaign said Florida is “winnable” for the president if he campaigns on the issue.

Mr Biden’s Republican challenger, former US President Donald Trump, won Florida in 2016 and 2020.

 

Country Garden: China property giant suspends shares in Hong Kong

Crisis-hit Chinese property developer Country Garden has suspended trade in its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after delaying the publication of its annual financial results.

The firm said last week that it needed more time to collect information as it restructures its debts.

It defaulted on its overseas debt last year and faces a winding-up petition.

In January, rival real estate giant China Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court.

Country Garden said “due to the continuous volatility of the industry, the operating environment the Group confronting is becoming increasingly complex”, when it announced its earnings report would be delayed.

The first hearing for Country Garden’s winding-up petition, which was filed by Ever Credit Ltd, is scheduled for 17 May.

Ever Credit is a unit of Kingboard Holdings, a laminates maker and property investor.

The suspension of Country Garden’s shares came as the Hong Kong stock market reopened after the Easter weekend.

Also on Tuesday, shares in Chinese state-backed property developer China Vanke fell to a record low.

On Friday, the firm reported a fall of more than 50% in its annual profit and told investors that it aimed to boost its cash flow by slashing debt over the next two years.

China’s real estate industry has been facing a major financial squeeze since 2021 when the government introduced measures to curb the amount big developers could borrow.

Several large Chinese property developers, including Evergrande and Country Garden, have defaulted on their debts in the last few years.

Problems in the country’s property market are having a major impact as the sector accounts for around a third of the economy.

Beijing has announced various measures in a bid to boost housing demand.

Last month, the country’s financial markets regulator accused Evergrande and its founder, Hui Ka Yan, of inflating revenues by $78bn (£62.2bn) in the two years before the firm defaulted on its debt.

The company’s mainland business Hengda Real Estate was fined $583.5m while Mr Hui faces being banned for life from China’s financial markets.

 

Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital in ruins after two-week Israeli raid

Israel’s military has pulled out of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City after a two-week raid that has left most of the major medical complex in ruins.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said dozens of bodies had been found and locals said nearby areas were razed.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had killed 200 “terrorists”, detained over 500 more and found weapons and intelligence “throughout the hospital”.

The IDF said it raided al-Shifa because Hamas had regrouped there.

The two-week operation saw intense fighting and Israeli air strikes in nearby buildings and the surrounding area.

Wards were attacked because Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were using them as a base, the IDF said, accusing them of fighting inside medical departments, setting off explosives and burning hospital buildings.

Images published following the Israeli withdrawal showed Palestinians walking near the charred main buildings with chunks of wall missing and carrying bodies wrapped in blankets. Graphic photos showed corpses partially exposed on the churned ground.

The health ministry said dozens of bodies, some decomposed, had been found in and around the medical complex, which was now “completely out of service”.

A doctor told AFP news agency more than 20 bodies had been recovered, some crushed by withdrawing vehicles.

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil emergency service said Israeli forces had used bulldozers to dig up the grounds of the complex and exhume buried bodies.

The Hamas government media office said Israeli forces had killed 400 Palestinians in al-Shifa and the surrounding area, including a female doctor and her son, who was also a doctor.

In an update, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said the IDF had taken “special efforts not to harm any patients, any medical staff, or any civilians in the area.

“Patients who remained in the compound were provided with medical supplies and water.”

He added that 200 people he described as “terrorists” had been killed. Over 900 people were detained, of whom more than 500 were, he said, subsequently found to be affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – which Israel, the UK and other countries proscribe as terrorist organisations. Interrogation of the suspects had yielded “significant intelligence”, he added.

Earlier, the IDF said “forces found large quantities of weapons, intelligence documents throughout the hospital, encountered terrorists in close-quarters battles and engaged in combat while avoiding harm to the medical staff and patients”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday night that 21 patients had died, with patients moved a number of times and held without medical care.

Dr Amira al-Safady at al-Shifa told the BBC’s Gaza Lifeline radio that about 16 people who were in the intensive care unit died after being moved, because she and other doctors no longer had the equipment to treat them.

Three days later, troops told medical staff to bury them outside, she said.

The IDF has been asked for comment. It says troops set up temporary infrastructure for medical treatment at al-Shifa, with video showing troops setting up a small number of beds.

Patient Barra al-Shawish told Reuters news agency that the Israeli troops had allowed in a “very small amount of food”. “No treatment, no medicine, nothing, and bombing for 24 hours that didn’t stop and immense destruction in the hospital,” he said.

Some of the patients were being moved to al-Ahli hospital, about 3km (1.8 miles) to the south-east, a medic at al-Shifa told Reuters.

Gaza’s hospitals have been a main focus of the current war, with thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter from Israeli bombardment in their grounds and Israeli forces storming the facilities because they say Hamas fighters are present there.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian health infrastructure as a cover to launch its operations, which the group denies.

Two weeks ago, it took hundreds of Israeli forces just a few hours to approach and enter the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital. That was in marked contrast to their first controversial raid there in November, when it took several weeks for large numbers of tanks and vehicles, backed by heavy air strikes, to close in on the site.

For supporters of the Israeli military, this has been evidence of the gains it has made during the war and its tactical success, launching a surprise attack on the enemy to strike it hard. An IDF spokesman previously referred to the operation as “one of the most successful of the war so far” because of the intelligence gleaned, as well as numbers killed and detained.

However, some commentators suggest the second al-Shifa raid highlights flaws in Israel’s military strategy for the war. They argue that it shows the ease with which Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters were able to regroup after Israel pulled its forces out of northern Gaza and the urgent need to come up with a convincing post-war plan to govern the territory.

On Monday, the Gaza health ministry appealed for international help to restart medical care at Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The biggest hospital in southern Gaza has been out of action since the Israeli military stormed it in February.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. About 130 of the hostages remain in captivity, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.

More than 32,800 Palestinians have been killed and 75,000 injured in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It says 70% of those killed were women and children.

 

Murder suspect loses council re-election bid in Australia

An Australian politician accused of murdering his stepfather has failed in his attempt to be re-elected as a city councillor, officials say.

Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden faced heavy criticism for standing given the serious criminal charge against him.

Ahead of the vote, he had defiantly told the BBC that it was for the public to decide if he served again.

Despite his unusual situation he was still the first choice for almost 22% of voters, the official count shows.

But he only came third in a ballot for the City of Gold Coast council seat that he had won convincingly four years earlier.

The 31-year-old is charged with allegedly killing his stepfather, Robert Lumsden, at the family’s home in August last year.

Further details about the proceedings can’t be reported for legal reasons, but his lawyers have indicated at a pre-trial hearing that he will plead not guilty.

He is believed to be the only Australian in recent history to have been fighting a political battle and a murder charge simultaneously.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland on Tuesday said Joe Wilkinson had been elected.

Mr Bayldon-Lumsden was able to able to campaign in person ahead of the election because he is on bail – albeit while wearing a GPS electronic ankle bracelet.

After being charged, Mr Bayldon-Lumsden was suspended from the council, while still receiving his full salary of A$160,000 (£82,700; $105,000) a year.

This meant that almost 50,000 people in his area have not had a voice on the local council.

“It’s really important that we have a councillor who can represent the community at council – when he was knocked out, that was already a win,” runner-up Jenna Schroeder told the BBC on Tuesday.

Mr Bayldon-Lumsden previously told the BBC he had no regrets about taking part in the election, despite the decision being labelled as “bizarre”, “selfish” and “entitled”.

“I believe democracy is the most important thing, and voters always get it right,” he said.