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Global Citizen Announces ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’

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Today Global Citizen, the world’s leading international advocacy organization on a mission to end extreme poverty NOW, announced its return to the iconic Champ de Mars in Paris on Thursday, June 22 with ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’. A free, ticketed event, ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ will feature performances from Lenny Kravitz, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Jon Batiste and special guests Ben Harper, FINNEAS, and Mosimann to drive commitments from world leaders and the private sector to confront the climate crisis head on.

Under the high patronage of Mr. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ will rally global leaders attending the New Financial Pact Summit, chaired by President Macron. The Power Our Planet campaign, which is co-chaired by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, is calling for a seismic shift in the way the world’s financial systems work to give the world’s poor and developing nations access to the financing they urgently need to quicken their transition to clean energy, strengthen their resilience against natural disasters, and address their most urgent needs.

Global Citizen’s Power Our Planet campaign is galvanizing millions of people around the world to take action, raise their voices and demand urgent changes from governments, Multilateral Development Banks, and major corporations, including:

  • Keep Promises Already Made: Deliver the outstanding $16.7 billion of the committed $100 billion in climate financing for lower-income countries; transfer $100 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights from wealthy countries to poor countries; increase foreign aid budgets; and enact global carbon emissions taxes.
  • Free Up Funding: Make up to $1 trillion in financing available to countries in need through policy reforms at the World Bank and other multilateral development banks; and include natural disaster and pandemic clauses in loans to poorer nations.
  • Transition to Clean Energy: Corporations should commit to join the United Nations’ Race-to-Zero by setting science-based targets; publish time-bound action plans for climate transitions; and make transformative investments for a lower-carbon transition in emerging economies.

Increased access to financing would help bolster governments’ ability to resist climate change by, for example: helping 1.5 million farmers in Zambia withstand climate disasters like droughts and floods; protecting 1.8 million hectares of land in Ghana by 2030; ending deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 2030; and strengthening the resilience of national electric grids in island nations like Antigua and Barbuda to withstand Category 5 hurricanes.

‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ will pave the way for this urgent funding to be delivered throughout the year, including at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India in September; the Global Citizen Festivalheld during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, USA in September; the IMF and World Bank meetings in October; and culminating at COP28 in Dubai, UAE in November.

“Our world needs urgent change. Outdated global financial systems are perpetuating the conditions that keep vulnerable countries and their citizens trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty,” said Hugh Evans, Co-founder and CEO, Global Citizen. “We congratulate Ajay Banga on his appointment as President of the World Bank, and there is an urgent and immediate opportunity for him to show leadership the world truly needs.”

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“We need a world with more solidarity. Crises are multiplying and the number of those who place their hope in peace and multilateralism will only grow if we, as a global community, demonstrate that we are there to help the most vulnerable,” said Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic. “Because inequality and poverty are the grounds of today’s and tomorrow’s wars. Because there will be no climate transition worldwide if we don’t fight for more justice and equity. Halfway to the sustainable development objectives, we need a new financial pact between all countries, so that the world of tomorrow is more united.”

“This year – and this summit – are critical for the restoration of justice and equity within the global financial systems that continue to abandon and overlook poor and climate-vulnerable countries,” said Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. “We need the presence and commitments of world leaders at the New Financial Pact Summit in Paris. I call on leaders of the G7, G20 and wealthy nations across the globe to step up, and let us act together in the interest of our planet and humanity. Join us in Paris.”

“The next generation are inheriting a planet that’s being devastated by climate change,” said Lenny Kravitz. “We have the power to change things with our voices and our actions. Join me on June 22, from wherever you are, and act today to save tomorrow.”

An alliance of world leaders representing both Global North and Global South countries has joined the Power Our Planet campaign alongside Global Citizen and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, including supporters Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone; Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain; José Ramos-Horta, President of Timor Leste; Biman Prasad, Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, the Government of Ghana, the Government of Namibia, the Government of Zambia, and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Power Our Planet’s coalition of supporters also includes leading activists, philanthropic foundations, nonprofit organizations, and private sector leaders, including Dr. Rajiv Shah, President, Rockefeller Foundation; Mark Malloch Brown, President, Open Society Foundations; Benedict Oramah, President of AfreximBank; Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi; Kate Higgins, CEO, Cooperation Canada; Jennifer Jones, President of Rotary International;  Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations;  Eloise Todd, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network; and Ineza Umuhoza Grace, Co-Founder of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition and 2023 Global Citizen Prize winner.

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The Power Our Planet campaign is supported by: Aspire Artemis Foundation Inc.; Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens; BASICS International; Beyond Bretton Woods; the Center for Environmental Peacebuilding; Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean; Common Good Marketplace; Connected Development; Don’t Gas Africa; E3G; Education Cannot Wait: Focus 2030; Germanwatch; Glasgow Actions Team; Global Alliance for a Green New Deal; The Global Fund; The UN Global Fund for Education in Emergencies; Green Republic Farms; Hungry for Action; International Climate Change Development Initiative;  International Climate Financing WG; International Fund for Agricultural Development; Jane Goodall Institute France; Malala Fund; The ONE Campaign; OWIT Brussels – Organization of Women in Trade; Oxfam; Plastic Punch; Power to Girls Foundation; Primavera Zur; Project Everyone; Re:Wild, SDG2 Advocacy Hub; Sustainable Development Solutions Network; Shamba Centre for Food and Climate; She Leads Climate Action; Stage For Change; Strategic Youth Network for Development; Sungulo Comm NPC; Support Humanity Cameroon (SUHUCAM); United Nations Foundation.

The Power Our Planet campaign and the ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ event is hosted in partnership with the City of Paris, is produced by Live Nation, and supported by Cisco and Citi as well as Afrexim Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Seadream Family Foundation. ​​A series of thought leadership events focused on driving action from the private sector is being supported by Cisco and Citi. The ‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ broadcast will be produced by Done and Dusted.

‘Power Our Planet: Live in Paris’ will be livestreamed globally across Global Citizen’s platforms on Thursday, June 22. Global Citizen is grateful for the support of leading media companies across the world including: AIM Group, Arena Holdings, Bella Naija, Brut. Media, EIB Network, Vanguard Media, Zikoko, and Amazon Music who will host the livestream on their Twitch channel “Amazon Music on Twitch,” with more streaming and broadcast platforms to be announced.

For more information visit globalcitizen.org/powerourplanet, download the Global Citizen app, and follow Global Citizen on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Meryl Streep Guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes

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Meryl Streep © Brigitte Lacombe
Meryl Streep © Brigitte Lacombe

Meryl Streep will be the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes which will take place on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Tuesday, May 14. A celebrated figure in American cinema, the American actress will kick-off the upcoming edition which will draw to a close on Saturday, May 25th with the awards’ list given by the President of the Jury, Greta Gerwig.

After Jeanne Moreau, Marco Bellocchio, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jane Fonda, Agnès Varda, Forest Whitaker or Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep will receive the Festival’s Honorary Palme d’or. 35 years after winning the Best Actress award for Evil Angels, her only appearance in Cannes to date, Meryl Streep will be making her long-awaited return to the Croisette.

“I am immeasurably honored to receive the news of this prestigious award. To win a prize at Cannes, for the international community of artists, has always represented the highest achievement in the art of filmmaking. To stand in the shadow of those who have previously been honored is humbling and thrilling in equal part. I so look forward to coming to France to thank everyone in person this May!” Meryl Streep stated.

 

“We all have something in us of Meryl Streep!” Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux said. “We all have something in us of Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison County, The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia! Because she has spanned almost 50 years of cinema and embodied countless masterpieces, Meryl Streep is part of our collective imagination, our shared love of cinema.”

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After her drama studies and initial success on New York City stages, Meryl Streep’s career took off on the big screen in 1978 with The Deer Hunter, starring Robert De Niro. In Michael Cimino’s film, Meryl Streep wrote all her lines to give her character nuance and depth. This marked both her first Oscar nomination — now reaching a record 21 — and her demand to play strong, ambivalent women. For example, when she starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer, she refused to let the film revolve around the male lead and rewrote a crucial monologue. She went on to win her first Oscar, and quickly gained recognition from the audiences and the industry alike.

Meryl Streep uses her intuition and hard work to reinvent herself with every appearance. Even on the scale of a film: in Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, she played two roles. In Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice, her acting addresses a mother’s inconceivable moral dilemma. For this character, she studied German and Polish to take on the accent — impeccable according to Andrzej Wajda — and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Sidney Pollack’s unforgettable historical, romantic epic Out of Africa (1985) marked a new turning point, in which she and Robert Redford formed one of cinema’s most legendary couples. Far from confining herself to the register of passionate love, Meryl Streep also ventured into darker characters. In Fred Schepisi’s 1988 Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark), she played a mother accused of infanticide. Her performance earned her the Best Actress Award at the 1989 Festival de Cannes.

In the 1990s, she tried her hand at gritty comedy: she challenged female stereotypes in Mike Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge and Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her. In The Bridges of Madison County, she captured the screen alongside Clint Eastwood in a love story as impossible as it is timeless, that went down in cinema history.

Throughout her career, Meryl Streep has never shied away from publicly denouncing the precarious position of women in the film industry. Aware of the issues surrounding the representation of women in Hollywood movies, and keen to embody all their facets in all their complexity and fragility, Meryl Streep plays a wide variety of roles and genres. After Stephen Daldry’s The Hours and Robert Altman’s The Last Show, it was in two roles as funny as unexpected that she once again made her mark: as the cantankerous editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine in The Devil Wears Prada and Donna, a hippie who marries off her daughter in the musical Mamma Mia! She went on to star in biopics (The Iron Lady, Florence Foster Jenkins, Julie & Julia), political satyres (Lions for Lambs, Pentagon Papers, Don’t Look Up) and family films such as Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig, who serves as President of the Jury at this year’s Festival de Cannes.

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Two women, two generations, two aspirations, and the same passion for the Seventh Art, brought together on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

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Former US Army Servicemember, Sanda G. Frimpong Sentenced to Prison in Money Laundering Romance Scam

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Former US Army Servicemember, Sanda G. Frimpong Sentenced to Prison in Money Laundering Romance Scam

Sanda G. Frimpong, 33, was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to victims for laundering the illicit proceeds of an elaborate series of romance scams. Frimpong pled guilty to three counts of money laundering on September 14, 2023.

“Romance scammers exploit our most vulnerable citizens, even our seniors and military veterans, sometimes leaving them financially and emotionally devastated,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley.  “The fact that an Army servicemember was involved in romance scams while serving as a soldier is appalling.  We are partnering with the Department of Defense to drum out fraudsters and money launderers like Frimpong from our military ranks and put them in prison where they belong.”

Read Also: US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey Found Guilty After He Smuggled Guns to Ghana in Blue Barrels of Rice and Home Goods

“Integrity is a core tenet of the armed forces and when servicemembers choose to compromise their integrity for greed, it tarnishes the reputation of all others serving in uniform,” stated Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard, Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “DCIS and its law enforcement partners will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to hold those accountable who cheat government programs and use online scams to prey on the most vulnerable.”

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Frimpong and other conspirators, engaged in elaborate scams, impersonating romantic love interests, diplomats, customs personnel, military personnel, and other fictitious personas for the purpose of ensnaring their victims by earning their confidence, including promises of romance, sharing of an inheritance or other riches, or other scenarios intended to fraudulently induce the victims to provide money or property to the conspirators.  Frimpong then laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds of these frauds through his various bank accounts across state lines and through his contacts in Ghana.  Frimpong was also an active-duty Army servicemember stationed at Fort Bragg during the commission of the offenses up until shortly after his arrest in 2023.

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III announced the sentence. Defense Criminal Investigative Service led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David G. Beraka prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:23-CR-0035-D.

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US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey Found Guilty After He Smuggled Guns to Ghana in Blue Barrels of Rice and Home Goods

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US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, was convicted for smuggling firearms to Ghana in blue barrels disguised as containing rice and household goods.

The incident, which took place in April 2024, has sparked widespread discussion on social media platforms. Dartey, involved in a marriage fraud scheme, faces a maximum sentence of 240 months and is scheduled for sentencing on July 23, 2024. The case has raised questions about the motives behind the smuggling and the potential implications for national security.

A federal jury convicted a United States Army Major, currently assigned to Fort Liberty, on charges of dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States, illegally exporting firearms without a license, making false statements made to an agency of the United States, making false declarations before the court, and conspiracy. Kojo Owusu Dartey, age 42, faces a maximum penalty of 240 months when sentenced on July 23, 2024.

Read Also: Abena Korkor says she’s found love in  a bipolar American army officer

“We are partnering with law enforcement agencies across the globe to expose international criminals – from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad,” said U.S Attorney Michael Easley.  “Through a partnership with Ghanaian officials, this rogue Army Major was convicted at trial after smuggling guns to Ghana in blue barrels of rice and household goods. I want to thank the Ghana Revenue Authority and the International Cooperation Unit Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana for their assistance in the investigation. I also commend the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attachés to U.S. Embassy Accra and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance to this prosecution.”

“Far from being a victimless crime, firearms trafficking threatens public safety across our nation and beyond,” said Toni M. Crosby, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division. “The Baltimore Field Division is proud to partner with the Ghana Revenue Authority and ATF’s Charlotte and Louisville Field Divisions for this investigation, which has kept firearms off the streets — preventing them from being used in any number of killings and other crimes — and ended this international firearm trafficking scheme.”

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According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Dartey purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area and tasked a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to purchase three firearms there and send them to Dartey in North Carolina.  Dartey then hid all the firearms, including multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun inside blue barrels underneath rice and household goods and smuggled the barrels out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on a container ship to the Port of Tema in Ghana.  The Ghana Revenue Authority recovered the firearms and reported the seizure to the DEA attaché in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division.  At the same time, Dartey was a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong. A case that involved a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana that Dartey had tipped off officials to. In preparation for the trial, Dartey lied to federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defense witness and lied on the stand and under oath about the relationship.

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II accepted the verdict. The ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted it with technical assistance from David Ryan, DOJ Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

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Ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou announces death of his 15-month-old son

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Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou announced the death of his 15-month-old son Kobe on Monday. (more…)

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Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad shot dead outside Baghdad home

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Iraqi social media influencer Om Fahad has been shot dead outside her home in Baghdad, according to local media reports. (more…)

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Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death for protesting

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Iranian Dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi has been given a death sentence for his involvement in the widespread protests that swept Iran in 2022, according to his lawyer. (more…)

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