Tag Archives: extremists

Entertainment

Britney Spears Returns to Instagram With Racy Photo After Deleting Account

Maravi Post Reporter

Oops, she did it again! Britney Spears has returned to Instagram with a sexy photo less than a week after seemingly deleting her account.

The “Toxic” singer, 43, reactivated her Instagram on Friday, November 8, to pose in black-and-white lingerie while giving her followers a sneak peek at her closet. Spears also got a bit philosophical as she reflected on her whirlwind year.

“So much has happened this year, it’s crazy … I try to live within my means and the book, Draw the Circle is an incredible perspective. Get your ballerina 🩰, circle, and own your boundaries,” Spears wrote.

The Grammy Award winner continued, “It’s incredibly strict and somewhat of a form of prayer but with so many endless possibilities in life, it’s important to do you and keep it simple. I know there is a confusing side too. The devil is in the details but we can get to that later.”

Britney Spears Returns to Instagram With Racy Photo After Deleting Account
Britney Spears poses in lingerie. Courtesy Instagram / @britneyspears

Spears’ social media return came six days after she appeared to deactivate her Instagram account on Sunday, November 2. Fans who tried accessing her Instagram received the message: “The profile you’re looking for doesn’t exist.”

Us Weekly reached out to Spears for comment at the time.

Spears has been embroiled in controversy over the publication of her ex-husband Kevin Federline’s tell-all memoir You Thought You Knew in October. Federline, 47, specifically raised concerns about Spear’s Instagram posts both in his book and in promotional interviews.

In an excerpt from the book obtained by Us, Federline worried “history [was] repeating itself” as he drew comparisons to Spears’ public behavior following their 2007 divorce. Spears was ultimately placed under a 13-year conservatorship that was only terminated amid public pressure from the “Free Britney” movement in 2021.

Britney Spears Worries Kevin Federline’s Book Will Build ‘Barrier’ With Sons

“With her newfound freedom, I saw history repeating itself,” Federline wrote. “Her social media posts became more erratic. There were the infamous videos of her dancing with knives, cryptic rants and wild behavior that was impossible to ignore.”

Federline alleged that his and Spears’ two sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, “quickly learned to avoid social media” because of the backlash they’d face by responding to their mother’s fans.

“They knew what [responding] would bring: endless negativity and blame aimed at them from fans who didn’t understand the full story,” he claimed. “The Free Britney extremists were brutal. The boys understood that it was better to form a relationship with their mom on their own terms.”

GettyImages-106869973 kevine Britney Spears Returns to Instagram With Racy Photo After Deleting Account
Kevin Federline and Britney Spears in 2006. Getty Images/Jason Merritt/FilmMagic

A spokesperson for Spears condemned Federline for promoting “sensationalism” and suggested he’d timed the release of his memoir “after child support has ended.” Spears eventually released her own response, in which she insisted “gaslighting from [her] ex-husband” was “extremely hurtful and exhausting.”

“Trust me, those white lies in that book, they are going straight to the bank and I am the only one who genuinely gets hurt here,” she wrote. “I will always love [my kids] and if you really know me, you won’t pay attention to the tabloids of my mental health and drinking. I am actually a pretty intelligent woman who has been trying to live a sacred and private life the past 5 years. I speak on this because I have had enough and any real woman would do the same.”

Speaking exclusively to Us, Federline clapped back at his ex-wife’s accusation that You Thought You Knew was an attempt to make quick cash.

6 Revelations From Britney Spears’ Ex Kevin Federline’s Book

“Money’s not the root of this thing,” he insisted. “I feel like, if she has the right to tell her story, why don’t I?”

Federline referenced Spears’ own New York Times Bestselling 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, adding: “Everybody’s entitled to their point of view. Her perspective is what it is, and I have my perspective, and I feel that I’m entitled to that as well.”

The dancer admitted he “couldn’t even remember the last conversation” he’d had with Spears, though he insisted he held no grudges.

“All I really want is for her to be able to have a wonderful relationship with her children,” Federline told Us. “I want her to be happy, healthy and all of the things. I want nothing but greatness for her.”

Lifestyle

Red Cross escorts hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers from rebel-controlled city to capital

Maravi Post Reporter

Hundreds of stranded Congolese soldiers and police officers, along with their families, were being transferred from the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo to the capital, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Wednesday.

The soldiers and police officers have been taking refuge at the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Congo’s base since January, when the decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic Goma.

The operation is the result of an agreement reached between the Congolese government, the rebels, the U.N. mission and the ICRC, which was called upon as a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross said in a statement. Upon arrival in Kinshasa, the soldiers, police officers and their families will be taken in by Congolese authorities, it added.

Myriam Favier, the ICRC chief in Goma, said during a press briefing Wednesday that the transfer from Goma to Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the west, is expected to last several days.

The announcement was greeted with profound relief.

“We were disarmed because we had no choice, but we hope to reach Kinshasa,” a Congolese soldier told The Associated Press over the phone, ahead of his transfer. “As soldiers, we are always ready to defend our homeland. We lost a battle, not the war,” he said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was still in the rebel-controlled area and not allowed to speak to reporters.

Sylvain Ekenge, spokesperson for Congo’s armed forces, welcomed the initiative in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Congolese Armed Forces hopes that this operation will be carried out in strict compliance with the commitments made,” he said, thanking the ICRC for its role.

For security reasons, no media outlets were allowed to film or photograph the operation.

The news of the ICRC’s escort comes amid persistent tensions in eastern Congo, where fighting between Congo’s army and M23 continues, despite both sides having agreed to work toward a truce earlier this month.

On Saturday, residents of Kaziba in the South Kivu province reported clashes between Congolese armed forces, supported by an allied militia, and M23.

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.

The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Kinshasa.

In Feburary, the U.N. Human Rights Council launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.

Conflict in eastern Congo is estimated to have killed 6 million people since the mid-1990s, in the wake of the Rwanda genocide. Some of the ethnic Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 killing of an estimated 1 million of Rwanda’s minority ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates later fled across the border into eastern Congo, fueling the proxy fighting between rival militias aligned to the two governments.

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

Bomb Blast Kills 26 in Northeast Nigeria

Maravi Post Reporter

Improvised explosive devices detonated on a road in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 26 people in several vehicles, including women and children, police said Tuesday. An Islamic State group affiliate in the West African country claimed responsibility for the Monday attack.

The blasts happened on a busy road connecting the towns of Rann and Gamboru in Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, Nigerian police spokesperson Nahum Daso told The Associated Press. Multiple explosives planted along the route ripped into several civilian commercial vehicles coming from Rann, killing at least 26 people, he said.

Most of those killed were local farmers and traders crowded in a Toyota pick up van that drove over a land mine, Daso said. He said the mine was buried by suspected militants from the Islamic State affiliate known as IS West Africa Province. Besides the dead, at least three people were injured and were taken to nearby medical facilities for treatment. Security forces have since secured the area and begun clearance operations.

Abba Modu, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a vigilante group that supports the military in the fight against Islamic militants, said the explosives may have been intended for security operatives who regularly patrol the highway. “Terrorists often plant IEDs in craters or under sand on severely damaged sections of roads, typically targeting soldiers,” Modu said.

The Islamic State West Africa Province, also known as ISWAP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday. The IS-linked group is an offshoot of Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis who took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. In 2016, ISWAP broke away from Boko Haram following a dispute over leadership and the strategy of attacking civilian targets such as mosques and marketplaces. The conflict between Nigeria and Islamic extremists is Africa’s longest struggle with militancy.

It has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon, and has left some 35,000 civilians dead and more than 2 million displaced, according to the U.N. Nigeria’s northeastern region has been particularly hard hit by Islamic militant violence. Earlier this month, a roadside bomb suspected to have been planted by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria struck a passenger bus and killed eight people. On Tuesday, the Nigerian military appointed a new commander, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, in the fight against Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province insurgencies in the northeast, the spokesperson for the operation said in a statement.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/13/60/43/05/ED_PYR_1360435_20250429191821.mp4
Lifestyle

Harris in Texas, Georgia On Edge, Menendez Brothers Case

Maravi Post Reporter

T​he presidential candidates are racing around the seven swing states and today they’re both in Texas — one of the reddest states in the country. Swing states like Georgia are on edge as the FBI warns state and local officials that extremists with election grievances could turn to violence in the coming weeks. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is recommending that the Menendez brothers be resentenced and released from prison. And President Biden is set to make a formal apology for the federal government’s Native American Boarding schools.

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Regional

Covid: French President cancels trip to Mali over new wave

Maravi Post Reporter
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President of France, Emmanuel Macron has cancelled his trip to Mali from December 20 to 21.

He was expected in the West African nation to visit French troops who are withdrawing from the country.

But Macron’s office said the trip has been canceled due to France’s deteriorating health situation over the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

“This decision was taken in order for there to be coherence between national measures and the president’s international agenda, and in order not to expose troops,” Macron’s office said in a statement on Friday.

The office said a Christmas meal prepared by the president’s chef would be flown over to French military personnel stationed in Mali.

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Mali is currently dealing with a political transitional crisis amid security concerns and is now preparing to take charge of the fight against extremists following France’s decision to withdraw troops from the Sahel region.

The French government announced this year that by 2022 it will close all of its military bases in Mali.

This is part of a bigger plan by France to finally withdraw troops fighting Islamist extremists in the Sahel region.

France operated military bases in Kidal, Tessalit et Tombouctou, helping to fight militants wrecking havoc in those places.

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“The shutdowns of these sections will start in the second half of 2021 and be completed by early 2022,” Macron told reporters at a summit with some West African leaders in July.

France to close all military bases in Mali by 2022

Source: Africafeeds.com

Source: Africa Feeds

Regional

Journey of young Africans into violent extremism marked by poverty and deprivation: UNDP

Maravi Post Reporter

Based on hundreds of interviews with extremists, first-of-its-kind study pinpoints key factors triggering decisions to join violent extremist groups in Africa

New York, USA, 7 September 2017 – Deprivation and marginalization, underpinned by weak governance, are primary forces driving young Africans into violent extremism, according to a comprehensive new study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – the first study of its kind.

Based on interviews with 495 voluntary recruits to extremist organizations such as Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, the new study also found that it is often perceived state violence or abuse of power that provides the final tipping point for the decision to join an extremist group.

Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment presents the results of a two-year UNDP Africa study on recruitment in the most prominent extremist groups in Africa. Continue reading Journey of young Africans into violent extremism marked by poverty and deprivation: UNDP →