Senior officials killed in coup attempt in Ethiopia

Ethiopia's chief of staff and at least three other senior officials have been killed during a coup attempt by an army general in the northern state of Amhara, state television said on Sunday.

Amhara's state president Ambachew Mekonnen and his advisor were also killed, according to state media, which named the region's security head, General Asamnew Tsige, as the orchestrator of the attempted coup.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government faces growing pressure from regional strongmen, including in Amhara, a flashpoint in growing ethnic violence in Ethiopia.

The shooting occurred when federal officials were meeting the state president - an ally of Abiy - to discuss how to rein in the open recruitment of ethnic militias by Asamnew, one Addis-based official told Reuters.

A week earlier, Asamnew had openly advised the Amhara people, one of Ethiopia's larger ethnic groups, to arm themselves, in a video spread on Facebook and seen by a Reuters reporter.

Abiy donned military fatigues to announce on state television late on Saturday that there had been an attempted coup in Amhara's capital Bahir Dar earlier that day and that Ethiopia's Chief of Staff General Seare Mekonnen was among thecasualties. State media reported that Seare had been shot dead by his bodyguard.

Since coming to power last year, Abiy has tried to spearhead political reforms, to open up the once isolated, security-obsessed country of 100 million people on the Horn of Africa.

Abiy has released political prisoners, removed bans on political parties and prosecuted officials accused of gross human rights abuses, but his government is battling mounting violence.

Ethnic bloodshed - long held in check by the state's iron grip - has flared up in many areas, including Amhara, where the regional government was led by Ambachew Mekonnen.

According to Abiy, regional government officials were in a meeting when a coup attempt occurred.

"There are a few people who were killed while others were injured," Abiy said.

A regional television broadcaster affiliated with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a member of Abiy's coalition, reported Seare had been killed, alongside another senior military official, Gize Abera.

The U.S. Embassy said on Saturday that it was aware of reports of gunfire in Addis Ababa, though Reuters could not confirm those reports.

"Chief of Mission personnel are advised to shelter in place," the Embassy said on its website.

People in many parts of Ethiopia reported being unable to access the Internet beginning late Saturday although the government has not stated whether it had cut it off. Authorities have cut off the internet several times in the past for security and other reasons.

Early on Sunday, Brigadier General Tefera Mamo, the head of special forces in Amhara, told state television that "most of the people who attempted the coup have been arrested, although there are a few still at large."

Residents in Amhara's capital Bahir Dar said late on Saturday there was gunfire in some neighbourhoods and some roads had been closed off.

Ethiopia is due to hold a national parliamentary election next year. Several opposition groups have called for the polls to be held on time despite the unrest and displacement.

Girl, 17, who can't be left alone as she has 50 seizures a day forced to quit school

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A 17-year-old who can't be left alone because she has between 50 and 60 seizures a day has had to drop out of school, has been praised for her remarkable optimism. When she was little, Freya Williams, from Plymouth, suffered with severe back pain but wanted to eventually join the British Army, so she pushed through the pain and continued to train for the forces.

Freya went on to pick the appropriate A-Levels and was well on her way to achieving her life-long dream. But her hopes were shattered after a visit to the doctor in October last year, which led to her being diagnosed with a number of health conditions.

The 17-year-old now relies on a wheelchair and cannot be left alone as she suffers between 50 and 60 seizures a day, which led to her having to abandon her studies, , reports PlymouthLive. But despite this set-back, Freya remains positive and wants to raise awareness of hidden health conditions and even hopes to write a book to inspire other unwell teenagers.

Freya has functional neurological disorder (FND), non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), hyper-mobility syndrome, chronic fatigue and scoliosis. She said the long list of conditions have "caused various mental health issues as well", but the teen hopes by speaking out she will help other people who are going through a similar situation.

The former Hele's School pupil said: "I have suffered horrific back pain for around three years and in October I got diagnosed with scoliosis. This is a curvature of the spine, so my spine is the shape of a 'c’.

"This was pretty tough to deal with as my life long dream was to join the army, but I continued to train for the forces and and do my A-levels." Freya also has many allergies and after her GP tried her on a neuropathic pain killer called Duloxetine, she ended up severely ill and was "paralysed from the waist down" for around 10 days.

She continued: "I also had very little movement on my upper body. I was like a young child, I had to be fed, showered, carried. "I felt like I’d lost everything. After 11 days I got discharged from the hospital after finally walking with a lot of aid." But around a week later, Freya was back in hospital, paralysed again, when she got another diagnosis.

She was told she had FND and NEAD, which Freya said "can't really be fixed" other than having intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation, which often has no guarantee that you will be able to get "back to the way you were prior to getting sick".

Freya said when she goes to bed at night, she doesn't know which part of her body she will be unable to move the following day, which sometimes makes it difficult to carry out daily activities, such as eating.

She said: "Living with FND means that when I go to bed I’m the evening I don’t know which part of my body won’t work the next day - so I often can’t swallow foods, I struggle with walking and I went from being army fit to using a wheel chair when I leave the house." Freya also gets memory loss, constant nausea, joint pain and other debilitating symptoms due to the condition.

Freya said due to her POTS, which causes her to faint due to her heart rate being really high and her blood pressure being really low, that she "recognises different places by what the ceiling looks like".  The teenager has spent around two months in Derriford Hospital so far this year and for many of those weeks she has been in a state of paralysis.

Freya has praised the "phenomenal" health care professionals that look after her during her stays. She said: "I’ve had to leave my job and my education and basically put everything on hold. As a result of all of these conditions I now suffer very badly with chronic fatigue along with a lot of mental illnesses that are very difficult to cope with.

"The NHS and Livewell staff are just so phenomenal and it is safe to say that without them I would probably still be in a state or paralysis. This and amazing support from my

She said: "Living with FND means that when I go to bed I’m the evening I don’t know which part of my body won’t work the next day - so I often can’t swallow foods, I struggle with walking and I went from being army fit to using a wheel chair when I leave the house." Freya also gets memory loss, constant nausea, joint pain and other debilitating symptoms due to the condition.

Freya said due to her POTS, which causes her to faint due to her heart rate being really high and her blood pressure being really low, that she "recognises different places by what the ceiling looks like".  The teenager has spent around two months in Derriford Hospital so far this year and for many of those weeks she has been in a state of paralysis.

Freya has praised the "phenomenal" health care professionals that look after her during her stays. She said: "I’ve had to leave my job and my education and basically put everything on hold. As a result of all of these conditions I now suffer very badly with chronic fatigue along with a lot of mental illnesses that are very difficult to cope with.

"The NHS and Livewell staff are just so phenomenal and it is safe to say that without them I would probably still be in a state or paralysis. This and amazing support from my wonderful family and close friends. "Since I have gotten sick my life has been turned around. But I now see the world in a new light and I have become a person that I am proud to be.

When you are chronically ill you can wake up some days and not see the point of life anymore, and I think it is so acceptable to feel that way because it sucks, and I feel like that a lot, but I am trying to channel my illness into a positive thing.

"I met some wonderful NHS staff that inspired me to go into nursing. I have also found an inner voice since getting ill. I am so passionate about raising awareness for chronic illnesses and mental illness and sharing the passivities of my experiences and what I have learnt this year. "I try to stay as positive as I can, it’s inevitable to have the bad days and to not be OK all of the time.

"There is no amount of medicine that is going to make you happy, you’ve got to just try and stay positive and stay upbeat and do everything that you can to make it feel a little bit better and a little bit easier."

Forget China – it's America's own economic system that's broken

Xi Jinping might possibly agree next weekend on further steps to bring down China’s trade imbalance with the US, giving Donald Trump a face-saving way of ending his trade war.

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But Xi won’t agree to change China’s economic system. Why should he?

The American economic system is focused on maximizing shareholder returns. And it’s achieving that goal: on Friday, the S&P 500 notched a new all-time high.

But average Americans have seen no significant gains in their incomes for four decades, adjusted for inflation.

China’s economic system, by contrast, is focused on maximizing China. And it’s achieving that goal. Forty years ago China was still backward and agrarian. Today it’s the world’s second-largest economy, home to the world’s biggest auto industry and some of the world’s most powerful technology companies. Over the last four decades, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty.

The two systems are fundamentally different.

At the core of the American system are 500 giant companies headquartered in the US but making, buying and selling things all over the world. Half of their employees are non-American, located outside the US. A third of their shareholders are non-American.

These giant corporations have no particular allegiance to America. Their only allegiance and responsibility is to their shareholders.

They’ll do whatever is necessary to get their share prices as high as possible – including keeping wages down, fighting unions, reclassifying employees as independent contractors, outsourcing anywhere around world where parts are cheapest, shifting their profits around the world wherever taxes are lowest, and paying their top CEOs ludicrous sums.

At the core of China’s economy, by contrast, are state-owned companies that borrow from state banks at artificially low rates. These state firms balance the ups and downs of the economy, spending more when private companies are reluctant to do so.

They’re also engines of economic growth making the capital-intensive investments China needs to prosper, including investments in leading-edge technologies.

China’s core planners and state-owned companies will do whatever is necessary both to improve the wellbeing of the Chinese people and become the world’s largest and most powerful economy.

Since 1978, the Chinese economy has grown by an average of more than 9% per year. Growth has slowed recently, and American tariffs could bring it down to 6% or 7%, but that’s still faster than almost any other economy in the world, including the US.

The American system relies on taxes, subsidies and regulations to coax corporations to act

in the interest of the American public. But these levers have proven weak relative to the overriding corporate goal of maximizing shareholder returns.

Last week, for example, Walmart, American’s largest employer, announced it would lay off 570 employees despite taking home more than $2bn courtesy of Trump and the Republican corporate tax cuts. Last year, the company closed dozens of Sam’s Club stores, leaving thousands of Americans out of work.

At the same time, Walmart has plowed more than $20bn into buying back shares of its own stock, which boosts the pay of Walmart executives and enriches wealthy investors but does nothing for the economy.

It should be noted that Walmart is a global company, not adverse to bribing foreign officials to get its way. On Thursday it agreed to pay $282m to settle federal allegations of overseas corruption, including channeling more than $500,000 to an intermediary in Brazil known as a “sorceress” for her ability to make construction permit problems disappear.

Across the American economy, the Trump tax cut did squat for jobs and wages but did nicely for corporate executives and big investors. Instead of reinvesting the savings into their businesses, the International Monetary Fund reports that companies used it to buy back stock.

But wait. America is a democracy and China is a dictatorship, right?

True, but most Americans have little or no influence on public policy – which is why the Trump tax cut did so little for them.

That’s the conclusion of professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues before Congress and found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy”.

Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations, those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.

Don’t blame American corporations. They’re in business to make profits and maximize their share prices, not to serve America.

But because of their dominance in American politics and their commitment to share prices instead of the wellbeing of Americans, it’s folly to count on them to create good American jobs or improve American competitiveness.

I’m not suggesting we emulate the Chinese economic system. I am suggesting that we not be smug about the American economic system.

Instead of trying to get China to change, we should lessen the dominance of big American corporations over American policy.

China isn’t the reason half of America hasn’t had a raise in four decades. The simple fact is Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by big American corporations, organized to boost their share prices but not boost Americans.

Wijnaldum: Liverpool have evolved

Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum says Liverpool's ability to win matches when they were not at their best last season is an indication of the club's evolution.

The Champions League victory in May secured manager Jurgen Klopp his first trophy since taking charge in 2015, while the Reds finished just one point behind Manchester City in the Premier League with 97 points.

Despite struggling to consistently challenge for trophies in recent years, Wjinaldum believes their last campaign showed how far Liverpool have progressed both technically and mentally.

"But this season we managed to win those games. We learned a lot. Everyone is a better player than they were before."

Much of the improvement will be credited to manager Klopp, but Wijnaldum believes one of his team-mates was key to Liverpool's success.

Virgil van Dijk played a major role in the league's best defence and went on to claim the PFA Players' Player of the Year award.

"What has impressed me the most with Virgil is that he's consistent, he barely makes a mistake," Wijnaldum said of his fellow Netherlands international.

"He developed really well at Celtic and Southampton and Liverpool, he developed a lot.

"What also impressed me is that other players play better when he plays; the defenders next to him defend better, the players in front of him play better because when you play and you know he's behind you, you have a safe feeling."

Toy Story 4 Is Giving The Internet All The Feelings

Toy Story isn't like other film franchises. We all know that most sequels struggle to capture the magic of the original movie, and by the time we get to film four in the series, the story tends to feel a little bit tired.

But Toy Story 4, which arrives in UK cinemas this weekend, a full nine years after the completely wonderful Toy Story 3, seems to be defying the law of diminishing returns.

It currently holds a 98 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, signalling that nearly every review has been predominantly positive. Critics from all different kinds of publications are being charmed by its heart, laughs and pretty incredible voice cast which includes everyone from Tom Hanks to Christina Hendricks.

Writing for Refinery29, Kelsea Stahler concluded: "While Toy Story 4 won’t ever outrank the original film, it earns its spot in the pantheon of Woody and Buzz’s many adventures. For the fourth outing from a group of cartoon characters who’ve been at it since 1995, it’s a pretty decent ride.

"And by the time Woody finds his way and the credits roll, you’ll either be reaching for the nearest tissue or scrambling for your phone to give your parents — who might understand a thing or two about what Woody’s going through — a call."

The internet definitely agrees that Toy Story 4 is an emotional journey. "My god, pack tissues for Toy Story 4," one fan tweeted after leaving the cinema. "Absolutely sobbing, snot bubbles the lot."

Another fan even claimed that the movie's central love story is "better than Twilight and Titanic " – big, big words there.

Check out a selection of reactions being shared on Twitter below. Some of them contain minor spoilers.

I didn’t copy Adekunle Gold’s song, Sade – Usman Trips

Up and coming singer, Mayowa Usman, aka Usman Trips, says his new song, Sade, doesn’t share similarities with Adekunle God’s hit song, Sade, beyond the title.

In a chat with Sunday Scoop, Trips said, “Zlatan Ibile recently released a song, titled, This Year, and Jaywon has a song with the same title too. If you listen to my song and Adekunle’s own, the beat and lyrics are completely different. I named my song Sade because that’s the name of the girl who inspired it.”

Trips said while he was passionate about music, he hoped to make money from it too. He stated, “I have always been passionate about music but one should be able to make money from his or her songs. My intention is to make money from music eventually. I started singing at the age 16 after my secondary school education. I released my first official single in 2015 while I was in Ghana.”

The graduate of psychology also explained that he didn’t just sing about women. “My EP is ready and there are 13 tracks on it. I sing about my experience and experiences of people around me. I also have a track titled, Opposite Side, where I sampled the late Fela,” he said.