Latest news with #Ashanti
Black America Web
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Happy Birthday, KK! Nelly And Ashanti Celebrate Their Son's 1st Birthday With ‘Kunda & Friends'-Themed Party
Nelly and Ashanti went all out for their son's first birthday! Source: Araya Doheny / Getty The couple looked over-the-moon to celebrate their son's first birthday on July 19 on Long Island, New York. The singer and rapper welcomed their first child together, born Kareem Kenkaide Haynes, last year on July 18. The party was themed after Kunda & Friends , a musical preschool show that aims to introduce toddlers to Africa through play, celebrating friendship, and family values while incorporating Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Reggae. According to reports from PEOPLE , the bash featured a dual slide and playpen, a race track with cars and trucks featuring the 'KK Turns One' logo on each vehicle, a stage setup with Kunda and the Lion waving to guests, and a bounce house for the children. Louisa Kiwana Olafuyi–the co-creator of Kunda & Friends –flew from Uganda to surprise the family with a special presentation of an animated version of Kunda & Friends , which included Ashanti, Nelly and KK. Other attendees also included Simone Smith and Todd 'LL Cool J' Smith, singer Lloyd, and more friends and family members, many of whom wore custom shirts detailing their relationship with KK. KK made a grand entrance into the Long Island venue, driving in a miniature white Lamborghini while sporting sunglasses and a crown, waving and giggling to guests. 'We cannot believe KK is 1,' Nelly and Ashanti told PEOPLE . 'This year has flown by, and we have enjoyed every minute of seeing his milestones, funny moments, and growth. He brings us and our family so much joy.' After giving birth last year, Ashanti explained her decision not to show his face on Instagram during a panel at the American Black Film Festival earlier this summer. 'I haven't even posted him on Instagram or anything like that,' she explained. 'I just feel like those moments are very sacred to me, and we'll make the decision on when he's ready to pop out and show.' Nelly, however, has a more laid-back approach, telling the outlet last month that his wife is 'motherly overprotective,' while he considers himself more 'safety overprotective.' 'I know if they don't learn certain things by the time they reach a certain age, we're going to pay for that, I promise you,' he explained. 'And it's going to backfire on us in a big way.' The post Happy Birthday, KK! Nelly And Ashanti Celebrate Their Son's 1st Birthday With 'Kunda & Friends'-Themed Party appeared first on Bossip. SEE ALSO Happy Birthday, KK! Nelly And Ashanti Celebrate Their Son's 1st Birthday With 'Kunda & Friends'-Themed Party was originally published on
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Blue gold: how a Ghana mine's troubles hit workers and UK politicians – and could cost British taxpayers
In late 2020, amid the economic maelstrom unleashed by Covid-19, there were few better places to be than sitting on top of a goldmine. In Ghana, the west African country once called the Gold Coast by British colonisers, the Bogoso-Prestea mine was producing 4,000 ounces of the precious metal a month, valued at $6m (£4.5m). As gold prices reached record highs, London-based Blue International Holdings – a seasoned investor in African energy projects, pounced to buy the mine for $95m. Blue International promised 'attractive financial returns while having a positive impact on the communities and countries in which it operates, and the planet as a whole', according to its website. It enjoyed the backing of a trio of British political heavyweights, including two members of the House of Lords and a government minister. Yet, a few short years later, its future appears to have tarnished. And, as the Guardian reveals now, the venture appears to have resulted in collateral damage to everyone from Ghanaian mineworkers to a member of the British royal family, a billionaire backer of the GB News TV channel and, possibly, UK taxpayers. 'Blue Gold is a scam' read a placard, as protesters, backed by a brass band, voiced their discontent in February 2024. It was the latest in a string of demonstrations as miners and suppliers in the resource-rich Ashanti gold belt demanded to know why they were seeing no benefit from the precious metal buried beneath their feet. Four years earlier, when Blue International arrived, the future had seemed promising. The company boasted a track record of African investment stretching back to 2011, steered by its co-founders Andrew Cavaghan and Mark Green, professional investors with financial pedigree. As well as its new goldmine in southern Ghana, the company also owned a promising hydroelectric power project in Sierra Leone, a partnership with the government in Freetown. It came with a phalanx of prestige backers, drawn from the British political and business elite. Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British army, and Lord Triesman, a Foreign Office minister with responsibility for UK diplomatic relations in Africa, served on its advisory board. So, too, did Philip Green, who was rebuilding his reputation after the implosion of the government outsourcer Carillion, which collapsed during his time as chair in 2018. John Glen, a Treasury minister between 2018 and 2023, held shares in the company. The UK taxpayer was also significantly exposed. In early 2024, it emerged that the Treasury had lent Blue International £3.3m of taxpayers' money via the 'Future Fund' the previous year. Glen, the MP for Salisbury in Wiltshire, said he was not aware of the loan application when he served at the Treasury and there is no suggestion that he did. The Future Fund was designed, in the words of then chancellor Rishi Sunak, to support 'start-ups and innovative firms' survive the pandemic by extending them loans that converted into equity. In this case, the money supported a company engaged in extracting valuable minerals from African soil. In mining, all can appear calm on the surface, even as things fall apart below ground. By the time British taxpayers' money was pumped into Blue International, its Ghanaian venture was on the brink of a financial collapse whose tremors reached from rural west Africa to the City of London. Within two years of Blue International's takeover, operations at Bogoso-Prestea had been shut down several times, according to corporate filings and contemporary reports. Mineworkers blamed lack of investment from Blue, which owned and operated the mine via a local subsidiary, Future Global Resources (FGR). Lack of output choked off cashflow and increased costs, as equipment failed or required maintenance, according to one corporate filing. FGR failed to pay local suppliers, including the Ghanaian state electricity company, while mineworkers were left out of pocket, according to filings, fuelling local protests. 'It had devastating consequences,' said Abdul-Moomin Gbana, the general secretary of the Ghana Mineworkers' Union (GMWU). He said workers' salaries went unpaid for months, hitting the community hard. 'General conditions declined because they had no income. The communities virtually became ghost towns,' he said. 'It became obvious that if nothing was done, there was no way there could be a future for the mine.' Blue Gold declined to answer questions about the claims of unpaid wages, and directed questions to FGR. FGR did not respond to requests for comment. Eventually, in 2024, the Ghanaian government issued an ultimatum. Blue International must restore the mine to working production or hand back its lease, the right to own and operate the site. The company tried to issue bonds – a form of IOU – in Ghana to raise cash that could be invested in bringing the mine back to production but the fundraising effort stalled. The directors behind Blue International, Cavaghan and Green, restructured the debt-laden mine's ownership, moving it into a new entity called Blue Gold, also owned and incorporated by them, as part of a plan to raise new investment in the US. Despite this, in late 2024, the government of Ghana made good on its threat to seize back the Bogoso-Prestea lease. A legal challenge from the company failed earlier this year in Ghana's high court and the mine was handed over to a new operator. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Blue International's travails were not felt only by Ghanaian miners and the surrounding community. The British taxpayer's investment in the business now appeared to be under threat too. But it was blue-blooded lenders that suffered the more profound consequences. In 2021, at the start of its Ghanaian venture, Blue International had borrowed about $5m from Devonport Capital, a bespoke lender specialising in 'high-risk' jurisdictions, offering short-term loans at relatively high interest rates. Devonport, headquartered in Plymouth, was founded by Paul Bailey, a corporate lawyer who had carved out a niche advising investors in postwar Iraq. His partner was Thomas Kingston, who had also worked in Iraq conducting hostage negotiations for the UK Foreign Office in Baghdad, where he had witnessed first-hand the horrors of sectarian violence. In the UK, Kingston was better known for his marriage, in 2019, to Lady Gabriella Windsor, a second cousin of King Charles III. With this experienced and well-connected duo at the helm, Devonport thrived, recording pre-tax profit of £6m in 2023. But as Blue International's Ghanaian woes mounted, it began defaulting on the interest payments it owed to Devonport. Another of Devonport's important borrowers also defaulted at the same time, leaving the lender increasingly unable to repay its own creditors. Then, in February 2024, personal tragedy struck. Thomas Kingston died from a gunshot wound at his parents' home in the Cotswolds on 25 February. A coroner ruled that he had taken his own life. Torn apart by a combination of personal tragedy and the ongoing inability to recover its debts, Devonport fell into administration a year later. A report published in March by the administrator, RG Insolvency, lists creditors who had lent money to Devonport. Among them is Christopher Chandler, a New Zealand businessman and founder of Dubai-based investment company Legatum, which funds UK media channel GB News. Chandler declined to comment. Creditors also include HM Revenue and Customs, which is owed more than £788,000. RG Insolvency estimates that, of the £49m owed by Devonport, as little as £11.2m could be recovered. Much will depend on whether administrators can recoup about £13.5m owed by Blue International. Earlier this year, the team behind Blue International completed a $114.5m combination with a US 'blank cheque' investment firm called Perception Capital, and floating the combined entity on the US Nasdaq stock exchange under the Blue Gold name. What comes next is murky at best. Blue Gold's new website outlines ambitious plans to reopen the Bogoso-Prestea mine. But Ghana appears to be sticking by its decision to strip Blue of the lease. The dispute is now the subject of international arbitration, according to a stock market filing by Blue Gold, leaving the mine's future up in the air. In an annual report filed in the US, Blue Gold admits that the leases may never be returned, which would reduce the value of the company's assets from $368m to less than $45m. A section on the company website offers little further clarity, stating: 'Subject to resolving legal dispute with the government of Ghana, first gold pour is expected.' The Guardian approached the Foreign Office to ask if the UK government had intervened on Blue Gold's behalf with ministers in Accra. The department declined to comment. Dannatt and Triesman also declined to comment. Glen said he had not discussed the company's Ghanaian dispute with any UK government department, official or diplomat. On the ground in Ghana,local sources say little has changed, with operations still shut down under a new owner and mineworkers still left unpaid. The uncertainty means that, for everyone from local mineworkers to members of the British establishment, the dream of blue gold remains a mirage, tantalisingly out of reach. The Guardian approached Blue Gold for comment. The company referred the Guardian to its website and shareholder filings but did not address questions directly. Paul Bailey did not return requests for comment. RG Insolvency declined to comment.
Buzz Feed
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Celebrity Parenting Controversies That Sparked Outrage
Jana Kramer is not a fan of giving her kids sunscreen. 'I don't use sunscreen on my kids unless it's going to be for hours outside because I know they don't burn," Jana said on a recent episode of the Whine Down podcast. "And there's so much bad stuff in sunscreen that if we're not going to be out there for more than a couple hours, listen, come at me. But I'm just not putting it on.' 'I will if we're on the beach for hours… Like, I'll put it on his neck, his ears — the baby — but the kids, I haven't put on any on them because I'm like, they're not getting burned. What's worse, the burn or the suntan lotion?' Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard would lock their then-3-year-old daughter in her room until she fell asleep, but it's not as harsh as it sounds. "[Delta] decided to stop sleeping about nine months ago," Kristen said in a 2018 interview with Parents, via Today's Parent. "And every night, when we put her to bed, she turns the lights on, which annoys the 4-year-old [Lincoln], and she will move furniture, and she bangs on the door with different, hard toys. We switched the doorknob. We turned the lock on the outside." "I'm sorry, I know that's controversial," she continued. "But we lock [the door] when she gets in there, and we stand outside and say, 'We love you, we will talk to you in the morning, but now, it's time for sleep.' Then, after about 10 minutes, she'll wind herself down. And then, before we go to bed, obviously, we unlock it." Alicia Silverstone preferred to bird-feed her son when he was younger — as in, she would pre-chew his food and then pass the food from her mouth to his. "I just had a delicious breakfast of miso soup, collards and radish steamed and drizzled with flax oil, cast iron mochi with nori wrapped outside, and some grated daikon," Alicia wrote in 2012 on her The Kind Life blog. "Yum! I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his." "It's his mine. He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I'm eating. This video was taken about a month or 2 ago when he was a bit wobbly. Now he is grabbing my mouth to get the food!"The post was accompanied by a video of her performing the act. Nelly isn't interested in parenting his child with Ashanti until he's able to walk and talk. 'Well, listen," Nelly said during an episode of their new reality series Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together. "It's all you, I ain't even gon' lie. You know, I ain't got nothing for him.' Ashanti replied, 'Absolutely not, I know.' 'Until he can say 'I'm hungry,' until he can say, 'I need to use the bathroom,' it's gonna be a lot in your lap… As soon as he gets to walking and talking, he with the crew.'Nelly went on to joke about being able to sleep through their baby crying and fussing in the middle of the night, and later followed up with this comment: 'Baby, I'll give you the world… I just ain't changing no diaper." Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher don't belive in bathing their children everyday. During a 2021 episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis got into a discussion with hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman about their and their children's bathing how often they use soap. Dax theorized that people "should not be getting rid of the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day.""I didn't have hot water growing up as a child, so I didn't shower much anyway," Mila said. "But when I had children, I also didn't wash them every day," Mila added. "I wasn't the parent that bathed my newborns — ever.""Now here's the thing," Ashton chimed in. "If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there's no point." Ice-T and Coco Austin still push their daughter in a stroller. The famous couple received a lot of backlash for allowing her then-6-year-old daughter Chanel to sit in a stroller. Many people in the comments believed Chanel was too old to be pushed around by her parents. The family was vacationing in the Bahamas when Coco shared this photo."Why do they have a 6-year-old in a stroller?" someone asked. While another person commented, "SHE IS SO CUTE BUT LOOKS MISERABLE IN THAT STROLLER."Many news outlets picked up the story, including CNN, which got caught in the crossfire when Ice-T decided to respond: "Lol… CNN? Really?" the rapper tweeted in 2022. "MFs ain't got shit else to talk about.. F em all. Smh. Lol." Jamie Oliver made his kids eat chili peppers as a form of punishment. 'I give them chillies for punishment,' the popular TV chef said. 'It is not very popular beating kids anymore, it's not very fashionable, and you are not allowed to do it, and if you are a celebrity chef like me, it does not look very good in the paper. So you need a few options.' '[My daughter] Poppy was quite disrespectful and rude to me and she pushed her luck,' he continued. 'In my day I would have got a bit of a telling-off but you are not allowed to do that. She ran up to mum and said, 'This is peppery'. I was in the corner laughing. [Jools] said to me, 'Don't you ever do that again.'' Madonna made her daughter Lourdes wear the same outfit every single day, until she was obedient. Whenever her daughter left clothes on the floor, Madonna had an interesting method to prevent her from doing it again. "We take all of her clothes and put them in a bag, and she has to earn all of her clothes back by being tidy," she told USA Today in 2005. She wears the same outfit every day to school until she learns her lesson." Lourdes once described her icon of a mother as a "control freak" in Interview magazine in 2021."The list of things I wasn't allowed to do is never-ending. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school." Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder isolated themselves and their newborn daughter from the world for the first 30 days of their child's life. 'After the baby arrives, we're doing one month of silence," Nikki said in 2017. "Just the three of us, no visitors, and we're turning off our phones too, so there's no expectation for us to communicate.' She added that she didn't want to feel the pressure of having to give multiple people updates about the baby and share photos of the baby. 'You don't get those first 30 days back, and we want to be fully present." Did you grow up in a household with interesting or controversial parenting methods that might seem uncommon to others? Share it with me below!
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nelly and Ashanti Reveal the Marriage Rule That Keeps Their Rekindled Romance Going Strong (Exclusive)
Nelly and Ashanti are opening up about what keeps their rekindled romance going strong "You definitely want to listen, definitely want to hear people," Nelly tells PEOPLE The pair stars on Peacock's new reality series, Nelly and Ashanti: We Belong TogetherNelly and Ashanti know what makes their marriage work. The spouses, who share 1-year-old son KK, are chronicling their rekindled relationship on Peacock's new reality show Nelly and Ashanti: We Belong Together, streaming now, and getting candid about what keeps their romance going strong more than 20 years after they first met. "Just try to do the right thing with one another, man," Nelly tells PEOPLE. The "Hot in Herre" rapper and Ashanti first met and began dating in 2003, broke up a decade later and spent another decade apart before reuniting in September 2023 and quietly marrying three months later. They welcomed KK, whose full name is Kareem Kenkaide Hayes, in July 2024. Nelly says of their dynamic, "You definitely want to listen, definitely want to hear people. I think if you can bear it down to the facts, sometimes the facts may not be in your favor. And that's a hard thing to find a foundation about." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He continues, "It is like, 'Yo, okay, well, this is not making me look good.' But I'm willing to say, 'You're right about that, but this is how that made me feel.' And you got to be able to take the good with the bad in that conversation." Ashanti agrees. "Communication is extremely important, especially with us traveling," says the "Foolish" musician. "Sometimes, he's on the other side of the world. And sometimes, I'm on the other side of the world. So, communicating is really important." Looking back on the first round of their relationship in the 2000s, Ashanti recognizes they needed "time" to come back to one another. "You grow. It's about the good outweighing the bad," explains Nelly. "What you thought mattered a lot, once you go through other scenarios, you realize that's not really as big of a deal as you thought it would be." He adds, "Or you get something that you thought you was missing, and it still doesn't compensate or fill a void, and you're like, 'Damn, I thought that would mean more,' but that doesn't. It's just growth." Nelly recently dropped a song, "Spin the Block," inspired by his true feelings about finding his way back to Ashanti. "Everybody don't get a chance to, if you could say, take a test drive," he says with a laugh. "It's like when people say, 'You should always test drive a car before you buy it.' I hate to minimize that because this is real life, so you don't want it to feel like that." Ashanti, chuckling, chimes in, "It's a good metaphor." Her husband explains, "It's almost the defining factor, we had a chance to test drive a relationship to understand that, 'Yo, that car was the best thing I had riding around that thing, man. Fire it back up, baby.'" Read the original article on People
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Young Elephant Tosses Salad Like a Pro Chef and Now It's Dinner and a Show
Young Elephant Tosses Salad Like a Pro Chef and Now It's Dinner and a Show originally appeared on PetHelpful. Baby elephants have to be some of the most adorable animals on the planet. As they learn about the world around them, they are also developing their personalities. In some cases, we are lucky enough to have a bird's-eye view of their fun-loving and carefree spirit. Ashanti is a 4-year-old African elephant. She is a member of the herd at the Voi Reintegration Unit in Africa. Recently, during dinner, Ashanti decided that her greens needed to be tossed like a salad before she could eat them! She pulled up a long, stringy branch with her trunk and then started to fling them around. She dropped the bunch and then picked it up again. This time she really starts flinging it around. Up, down, and all around. The vine becomes a toy, and Ashanti becomes a full-fledged toddler playing with her food! At one point, she lets it land on the top of her head, and she leaves it there like a crown. This funny elephant put her full soul into playing with her food—with her head bobbing and her ears flapping—we can't get enough of the cuteness! Human toddlers are notorious for playing with their food, and it appears that young elephants need the same reminder!The many fans of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust loved Ashanti's antics as well. A few of the favorite comments were: 'Nothing better than playing with your food and making a lovely mess!' 'Well little Ashanti, you have certainly brightened my dreary day. Your green veggies make a very lovely headdress too! You are a very clever, adorable little stinker!' 'It's not just food, it's fashion.' 'Ashanti is just tossing her salad to make sure it's all mixed well & she's not sharing with her camera person.' While the video is cute to see, many noticed that Ashanti is missing the two little 'fingers' on the end of her trunk. She is a former orphan who was rescued by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust when she was about two years old. They suspect her trunk had been partially severed by a poacher's snare. Thankfully, she has adapted and overcome her injuries. She has learned to use her trunk to eat, drink, and apparently—even how to play with her food! Young Elephant Tosses Salad Like a Pro Chef and Now It's Dinner and a Show first appeared on PetHelpful on Jun 13, 2025 This story was originally reported by PetHelpful on Jun 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
