Five things to know to start your Tuesday

An earthquake claimed at least nine lives in China

On Tuesday morning, a powerful earthquake hit Xigaze City in Tibet, China. According to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency, the quake brought down buildings and caused deaths.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the earthquake at 7.0 magnitude and said it happened at 1:05 am UTC (02:05 WAT) near Lobuche, Nepal, about 56 miles away from the city.

Officials in the area are now checking with local towns in Dingri County to determine the extent of the damage caused by the earthquake. China’s state TV network, CCTV, reported that nine people died in the disaster.

Ghana’s lawmakers returned Alban Bagbin as Speaker of Parliament

Ghana’s parliament has chosen to keep Alban Bagbin as its Speaker. Lawmakers unanimously voted to support him staying in this role for another four years.

The decision had support from all political parties in parliament during their first meeting. Bagbin belongs to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, which won by a large margin in the December 7 elections.

The incoming president, John Dramani Mahama, worked with NDC party leaders to nominate Bagbin again. Bagbin has been serving as Speaker since 2021.

National Assembly will begin budget defence today

Nigeria’s House of Representatives will start reviewing the 2025 budget with government agencies today (Tuesday, January 7, 2025).

The head of the budget committee, Abubakar Bichi, says they’ll combine all their findings from these reviews on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. The committee plans to present its final report during a special meeting on January 31.

Bichi shared these details with reporters after his committee’s first meeting on Monday.

This budget review process started when President Bola Tinubu showed his N49.74 trillion budget plan to the National Assembly on December 18, 2024. The next day, the House approved the budget’s basic framework and sent it to various committees to look at it more closely.

France identified its first case of a new Mpox variant

France has found its first case of a new version of mpox virus, according to the French health ministry as reported by AFP news agency.

The infected person hadn’t travelled to Central Africa, where this new variant started, but had been in contact with two people who had recently returned from that area.

French health officials are now trying to figure out exactly how the person got infected and are working to find anyone who might have been exposed to the virus.

According to a local newspaper called Ouest France, the patient is a woman who was diagnosed at a hospital in Rennes, in France’s northwestern region of Brittany.

This new form of mpox is called the “clade 1b variant”. Neighbouring Germany reported its first case in October, as did Britain.

Airtel Nigeria’s CEO said a tariff hike is inevitable

The CEO of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, said phone companies need to raise their prices because their operating costs have gone up by 300% in the past year and a half to two years. He said this via a message to The Punch on Monday.

He claimed that phone service prices haven’t changed in over ten years, even though companies are spending much more to operate.

Nigerian telcos have asked the Nigerian Communications Commission for permission to double their prices.

Balsingh believes these price increases are necessary to keep phone companies running while still providing good service to Nigerians.

He explained: “For over a decade, tariffs have remained static despite the dramatic increase in operating expenses, which have surged by over 300 per cent in the last 18 to 24 months alone. To continue providing high-quality services and meeting the growing demand for digital connectivity, it has become essential to realign our pricing structure with economic realities.”