The National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme Mrs Gertrude Quashigah has been reported dead.

Mrs Quashigah, who was the widow of the late stalwart of the the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former Minister of Agriculture Courage Quashigah died on November 12, 2023, at age 63

Mrs Quashigah, a heavyweight of the NPP in her own right, was until her death the head of the National School Feeding Programme.

Born on February 1, 1960, in Dzelukope in the Volta Region, Mrs Quashigah, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, was the founder and CEO of Ambar Quality Foods Limited.

. Tributes have begun pouring in thick and fast following her demise.

“The death is reported of Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah, national coordinator of the School Feeding Programme and, wife of former Agric Minister, the late Major Courage Quashigah. May she rest in peace.

Ivan Quashigah, Daniel Quashigah and family be comforted in these trying times,” journalist Johnnie Hughes wrote on social media.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is scheduled to present the government’s 2024 Annual Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

Ahead of the presentation, there have been calls for the government to significantly reduce its expenditure to rescue the ailing economy.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited, Kenneth Thompson, issued a warning last week of a looming economic downturn in 2024 if the government continues its current pattern of ever-increasing and large expenditures.

In an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV, Mr. Thompson said: “As a country, what we must focus on now is how to protect the poor. If you talk about cutting expenditure, there’s a long list of things we can cut, but we need to protect the poor, and we need to focus on health, education, infrastructure, food, and everything else because we are in a very bad place.”

Meanwhile, the Finance Minister has indicated that long-term relief measures for the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage will be taken into consideration during the formulation of the 2024 budget.

Addressing journalists after touring the affected communities a few days ago, Mr. Ofori-Atta mentioned that while the government had already provided some relief items to the victims, they were committed to doing more, and this commitment would be reflected in next year’s budget.

“We have mobilized a few things that we would like to share but I think we are also in the budget season and therefore it will not just be numbers that we are working on but true feelings in the field and therefore the need to look at these social interventions in a real way. We will certainly give this an expression immediately and also in the budget,” he stated.

The Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed, has said the United Nations is gradually becoming a body that is incapable of implementing its own resolutions.

He said the time has come for discussions to be taken to end the UN  because it is becoming a useless body.

Commenting on the Israel and Hamas war while addressing the media in Parliament last week, Muntaka said “This thing that is happening to Palestinians today can happen in any part of Africa. If the Holocaust ended in 1945 and today this is happening, remember, the last country in Africa got its independence just in the 1990s, so it means that it can still happen to any of us.

“What is happening now is about people blocking between we and them but every life matters, a Jewish life matters, a Palestinian life matters, an American life matters, a Ghanaian life matters, all lives are lives, we cannot cherish one life over the other.

“The UN, unfortunately, is gradually becoming a useless body because a United Nations that cannot enforce its resolution, what is?  Maybe, just as the League of Nations ended,  we should probably be thinking of ending the United Nations because it is gradually becoming a useless organization, that is incapable of doing anything. Once those superpowers, Russia, America, and China, are doing something,  all others can. But if it is any other country then that is where they find their voice, I don’t think you can run a world organization the way they are running the organization. I hope that the UN will begin getting tougher if really they want the world to unite.”

The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel on Saturday, with hundreds of gunmen infiltrating communities near the Gaza Strip.

At least 1,300 Israelis have been killed, while dozens of soldiers and civilians, including women and children, are being held in Gaza as hostages.

More than 1,300 Palestinians have also been killed in numerous air strikes on Gaza that Israel’s military is carrying out in response, and Israel has imposed a total blockade on the territory, denying it food, fuel and other essentials.

It is also massing its forces along the Gaza border and Palestinians are bracing themselves for a ground operation which could cost many more deaths.

Britain took control of the area known as Palestine after the ruler of that part of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, was defeated in World War One.

The land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority, as well as other, smaller ethnic groups.

Tensions between the two peoples grew when the international community gave the UK the task of establishing a “national home” in Palestine for Jewish people.

This stemmed from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a pledge made by then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Britain’s Jewish community.

The declaration was enshrined in the British mandate over Palestine and endorsed by the newly-created League of Nations – forerunner of the United Nations – in 1922.

To Jews Palestine was their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and opposed the move.

Between the 1920s and 1940s, the number of Jews arriving there grew, with many fleeing from persecution in Europe, especially the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two.

Violence between Jews and Arabs, and against British rule, also increased.

In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city.

That plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side and never implemented.

In 1948, unable to solve the problem, Britain withdrew and Jewish leaders declared the creation of the State of Israel.

It was intended to serve as a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution, as well as a national homeland for Jews.

Fighting between Jewish and Arab militias had been intensifying for months, and the day after Israel declared statehood, five Arab countries attacked.