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By António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
In this pivotal year for humanity, now is the time for bold climate action.
The article `Climate action for people and planet: the time is now’ appeared first on Stabroek News.
\t While no one claimed responsibility for the attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed the finger at Israel, calling the killing an act of ``\"state terror.''
\t ``Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice _ with serious indications of Israeli role _ shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,'' Zarif wrote on Twitter.
On November 6, after a speech by Donald Trump in which he baselessly claimed the 2020US presidential election was fraudulent, ABC journalist Leigh Sales critici...
Let’s face it: as we celebrate this season of Thanksgiving 2020, America has just come through a very serious political... View Article
The post On this Thanksgiving Day let’s give thanks for 'We the Black People' appeared first on TheGrio.
… certain racial and ethnic populations. African-Americans and Hispanics are two to … from it as are whites.
African-Americans, Hispanics and other segments of … illness and death rates among African Americans or Hispanics from COVID-19 …
It was late on the first Tuesday in November, and Captain Hussen Besheir, an Ethiopian federal soldier, was on duty at a guard post outside the military camp in Dansha.
It was close to midnight when he saw headlights approaching.
Ten armed members of the Tigrayan special forces got out of the vehicle and demanded to see the camp's commander.
\"'We're not here for you',\" Hussen recalled them saying. \"'We want to talk to the leaders.'\"
Hussen refused. An argument ensued and gunfire rang out.
They were the first shots in a conflict that has since engulfed northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, killing many hundreds of people and forcing tens of thousands from their homes.
This week AFP visited the Dansha barracks, home to the Fifth Battalion of the Northern Command of the Ethiopian military, after gaining rare access to Tigray, where a near-complete communications blackout has been in place since the fighting began.
Shell casings littered the camp's grounds, and bullet holes were punched in the walls of buildings and sides of military trucks.
A metal sign at the entrance reading, \"We need to protect the constitution from anti-development forces and lead our country to renaissance,\" was so perforated with gunfire as to be almost illegible.
'Betrayal'
Hussen and others described hours-long rifle and grenade battles against fighters loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), including special forces and militiamen, joined by some federal soldiers of Tigrayan ethnicity who turned against their comrades.
Echoing a statement from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Hussen said soldiers \"were killed in their pyjamas\", adding, \"What happened here is even worse than that.\"
\"Betrayal alone wouldn't describe the feeling that I have. These are soldiers who have been eating and drinking with us,\" he said of those former federal troops who allegedly turned their guns against them.
The government in Addis Ababa has claimed the attack on Dansha - and a simultaneous assault on another barracks in the regional capital Mekele - as justification for its military offensive in Tigray since November 4.
It points to an interview on Tigrayan media in which a prominent TPLF supporter, said a pre-emptive strike was \"imperative\".
\"Should we be waiting for them to launch attacks first? No,\" said Sekuture Getachew, in the interview, which Abiy's office has called a \"confession\".
Confrontation between Abiy and the TPLF was a long time coming. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades until anti-government protests swept Abiy to power in 2018.
Since then the TPLF has complained of being sidelined and scapegoated for the country's woes.
The rift widened after Ethiopia postponed national elections because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tigray went ahead with its own vote, then branded Abiy an illegitimate ruler.
Ethnic forces
Tadilo Tamiru, a sergeant in the government-aligned Amhara special forces, was 50 kilometres to the south with his 170-strong unit, in a small town along the bo
From the first death in December 2019 and world-wide quarantine to the development of vaccine, here are 2020's COVID-19 milestones.
For comedian Bill Cosby, his chance for freedom and possible exoneration comes down to his attorneys' oral arguments before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Today is the 332nd day of 2020. There are 34 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS2009: Star golfer Tiger Woods is slightly injured in an early morning car accident outside his mansion, the start of one of the swiftest descents ever in public esteem for a major celebrity after reports emerge of serial marital infidelity that lead to a divorce from his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren.OTHER EVENTS
In France, clementine producers in Corsica are delighted that Moroccan seasonal workers are able to step in and help save their crops. Overwhelmed by the harvest and a shortage of labor, French farmers do seek services from the North African country every year during harvests.
The Moroccan workers tested for Covid-19 before departure and upon arrival in relation to French Covid-19 guidelines.
\"It was really very, very important to have this labour force now, to be able to collect all these fruits which must not remain on the tree for very long, otherwise we will reach over-ripeness,\" Christophe Fouilleron, Clementine producer said.
Corsica’s farms are suffering from a lack of workers that worries farmers facing real prospects of seeing their crops rotting on trees.
Corsica produces 20,000 to 30,000 tons of clementine annually. Seasonal workers usually sign a contract of three to four months.
900 Moroccan seasonal workers have so far travelled to Franc this year.
The government allowed them to bring in labourers during the pandemic but further directed that they should respect the safety measures.
\"The clementine harvest is not too affected by barrier gestures in the orchard because in fact each worker will be at his post, a little far from each other. Once the worker is working inside the tree, they are rarely on top of each other, so in the end they work normally, but with protective equipment, masks, etc,\" Christophe Fouilleron, Clementine producer said.
In response to the economic crisis of 1973/74 the French government had banned the admissions of seasonal foreign workers.
In 2010, France authorized under exceptional circumstances admissions of seasonal foreign workers.
The UAE Has Supposedly Halted Travel Visas
In light of an as yet unconfirmed and unexplained alleged ban on foreign visitors by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reports are coming out of several travel agencies located in countries on the African continent and the Middle East who claim that the issuing of new visas to citizens on their soil has been momentarily stopped.
The news — or speculation, comes amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the UAE's normalisation deal with Israel.
According to a document which surfaced this week and was leaked this week from Dubai’s state-owned airport free zone, restrictions against a range of nationalities have been declared and it appears that the supposed ban is confusingly aimed at 11 Muslim majority nations - in addition to Kenya and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, citing an order from the country’s immigration authorities, the note to companies operating in Dubai’s airport free zone announced a pause in issuing all new employment, long and short-term visit visas “until further notice” from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Tunisia.
No Official Response From UAE Authorities
No reason has been offered and Emirati authorities are yet to acknowledge the suspension of issuing travel visas.
When asked by The Associated Press (AP) about the order, the country's immigration department said it’s “not aware of any formal list of nationalities requiring visa suspension.” Dubai’s airport free zone confirmed the veracity of the document to the AP and said it was waiting for further clarification from officials.
Meanwhile, across the region, agencies and authorities say their citizens are forbidden from entering the UAE.
Rumours and Speculations
The reports have reached social media where network feeds and news outlets worldwide with many foreigners wondering about the news concerning the country where expat workers and visitors outnumber locals nearly nine to one.
In Kenya, locals are speculating over the supposed travel-ban and some people assume that the East African nation has made it onto the list over an incident involving forged certificates of “negative” coronavirus test results that were used in an attempt to travel to the region and resulted in 21 arrests on Thursday.
People Want Answers
On a more official level, four travel agencies in Nairobi, the capital city, stated that they were seeking clarification from Emirati authorities after dozens of tourist visas were rejected.
According to one of the aforementioned agencies, Travel Shore Africa, 40 of its clients travelling to for Dubai had been blocked from boarding their flights at the last-minute on Thursday.
All this comes as the UAE welcomes Israeli tourists for the first time in history and right in the middle of the pandemic that sees a surge in confirmed cases across the region. In addition, foreigners looking for work in the federation of seven sheikhdoms increasingly overstay their tourist visas amid a cascade of business shutdowns and lay-offs.
The NYC based fashion house, Tier is utilizing today to reintroduce the brand and remerge itself into another entity of fashion.
THE CULINARY industry has been one of the most affected by this pandemic, as well as the people working in this sector. Such is the case of Caribbean countries, where thousands of jobs have been lost by business closures and economic activity...
Black Friday officially kicked off the 2020 holiday shopping season, but the coronavirus pandemic has affected consumers' spending habits considerably in myriad ways. Black consumers have not been exempt from that truth.
LOCAL digital storyteller and founder of FotoKulture, a conceptual and portraiture art company Ernest Muvunzi says through his photographic skills he seeks to inspire and remind people living in the high-density suburbs (ghetto) that there is nothing shameful about their daily lifestyle. BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA High-density suburbs across the country have for long been branded havens of crime and drug abuse among other sorts of immoral activities. In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Muvunzi said using one perspective to depict life in the high-density suburbs had tainted the beauty they convey. “Photography can be used to dispel widespread and often baseless negative perceptions that ghettos are dingy, filled with decadence and retrogressive behaviour,” he said. “My main wish is to inspire the ghetto demographic that there is nothing wrong or shameful about living in the ghetto and I want my work to show them how beautiful their life is so that no one should define the narrative better than them.” The 25-year-old Dzivarasekwa-bred artist who is a product of the ghetto, said he was a self-taught photographer whose work was highly concept, portrait art-based and used grungy township motifs. “In an attempt to reflect the beauty from what is generally viewed as unpleasant, my main drive is to rewrite the African narrative because those who have made it in life have made those who have not, most particularly in the ghetto, lose the belief in where they belong,” he said. “Many people shy away from associating with the ghetto and always want to capture their moments only when they are miles from the dusty township surfaces.” Muvunzi, who is also a professional graphic designer, said living his early life in the rural areas before coming to live in the ghetto exposed him to the dynamic nature of life. “People, who do not come from where we come from think that because we are living in poverty and marginalised communities we are always sad and gloomy, but actually that is the opposite. That energy got me inspired and my work tries to portray the happy side of the ghetto,” he said. Muvunzi worked with the National Gallery of Zimbabwe as creative designer in 2016 before doing photographic work for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and later joined the National Taskforce on Command Agriculture as their photographer and graphic designer. Follow Kennedy on Twitter @ken_nyavaya
The post The Best Dressed Black Creatives On Instagram This Week appeared first on Essence.
An immense portrait of a child in Yorkshire England aims to highlight the plight of children in war-torn Yemen.
The project is the work of a group of artists known as ‘’Sand In Your Eye’’ in the United Kingdom.
\"We watched the report and the report was telling us how children in the Yemen were really under pressure from climate change and war, but then COVID-19 and it was disrupting food supplies and medication as well. And so we looked into it a little bit further. And then UNICEF said that 6,000 children could pass away every single day because of this, these same reasons\", Jamie Wardley, sand artist and founder of Sand In Your Eye said.
The portrait is made up of 6,000 real-sized figures of playing children, symbolizing the 6,000 that UNICEF warned could die each day because of Yemen’s dire situation.
\"You know, you can't look at a child who is really, really poorly and not be affected by it, and then I think art also helps to visualize, make visual representations of things that are quite difficult to understand. And so behind me on my screen, I've got the images that we drew\", he added.
According to a recent report by UNICEF, millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the covid-19 pandemic sweeps across the country, amid a fall in global aid.
Yemen's poor healthcare infrastructure is unprepared to battle the pandemic after five years of war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The ANC in Mpumalanga came under fire for welcoming the former MEC back, despite the allegations of rape he faces
… L. Fudge of Ohio, an African-American Democrat from Ohio.
Mr. Clyburn … owes a special debt to African-American voters, and that he wants …
By Julianne Malveaux (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Economic recovery will be a long time coming. The Federal Reserve Bank says our corona recession will last into 2021, and perhaps even into 2022. If a vaccine is developed, a distribution plan still needs to be worked out, and there is still so much we don’t know about COVID. […]
The post Covid Halts Women's Workplace Progress appeared first on The Toledo Journal.
SO much was expected from Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2021 national budget, which was presented yesterday. Yet he delivered very little. Zimbabwe has been badly battered by multiple hardships stemming out of sheer mismanagement, misgovernance and corruption. And when authorities pretend to be delivering policies that help people, but end up glossing over their incompetencies as happened yesterday, we wonder where our citizens will go to get their challenges addressed. Blueprints like the national budget are no laughing matter. They lay a foundation on which over 16 million Zimbabweans live and how future generations will also survive. The budget must not be turned into a machine that generates money for the elite, and takes everything from the poor. This is not how it should be. But it appears Mthuli has chosen to pursue this long chosen path, punishing the poor through policies that ignite price hikes, and taking everything that they have through hostile taxes and fees. In the end, it is the poor and defenceless majority people who suffer. That is why we were so disappointed by yesterday’s budget. Zimbabweans expected a well-considered hike in tax free threshold of up to $20 000, for instance, for people’s wages to make an impact during this festive season when so much is required in terms of preparations for Christmas and budgeting for expenses in January. Yet, Mthuli placed the figure at a paltry $10 000. It means the few who are still formally employed and earning less than $10 000 per month will always be broke before they earn their wages. This is a recipe for disaster in many ways. Poverty levels will remain steep, food insecurity rates will remain high, and millions of people will continue to struggle finding food because the workers who normally support them won’t afford. While inflation has been decelerating, it remains extremely high at 471%, which explains why prices remain high and spending power has been subdued. This in itself is another recipe for disaster. A nation that does not spend is as good as dead and so is its industry. It lacks the catalyst that is vital for stimulating demand to expand businesses, which employ people, encouraging more spending. Clearly, yesterday’s budget missed the point by ignoring this very important fact. By firing the blanks, Mthuli can be guaranteed that job actions that we have seen in 2020 will intensify next year as teachers, nurses and other civil servants feel the pinch of a never ending economic crisis. And even if government cracks down on them and force them to return to work, it will not work. They will simply not deliver. Our children will receive a poor education, with disastrous consequences on future generations. Already, people are dying needlessly in hospitals because morale is low among those still reporting to work, simple. And in a country with over 90% unemployment, very few can afford private health care, which is readily available in United States dollar fees. Government must be serious, the people are suffering. Is Mth
In this week's episode of Politics Unmuted, we turn the spotlight on ourselves and examine the role journalists play in politics, how we can be used as political pawns, and the crucial role we play in protecting democracy.
… journey not yet complete. First African-American U.S. Navy Officers, 1944 … exceed that of their counterparts. African-American Naval officers reunion. (Photo courtesy … Navy, and the highest-ranking African American and woman in the military …
The real endgame for President Donald Trump’s lawyers is to throw the 2020 election into the U.S. House of Representatives, where Trump would prevail, says former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz.
MINISTER of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change Pearnel Charles Jr is appealing for citizens to take climate change more seriously and support the Government's mitigation efforts.
Since the killing of Michael Brown in August of 2014, the United States has been forced to once again take a look at the rampant inequality that still plagues the country. Though the Civil Rights movement is now 50 years past, African Americans continue to experience microaggressions, racial discrimination, and inferior treatment. There is still […]
By NICOLE WINFIELD and TRISHA THOMAS Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican's Santa Marta hotel was built to sequester cardinals during papal elections. It's now sequestering soon-to-be cardinals in town for this weekend's ceremony to get their red hats: A handful are in protective coronavirus quarantine, confined to their rooms on Vatican orders and getting meals delivered to their doors. The 10-day quarantines, with COVID-19 tests administered at the start and finish, are just one example of how Saturday's ceremony to elevate new cardinals is like nothing the Holy See has ever seen. 'They told me it would be […]
The post New cardinals quarantine in pope's hotel ahead of ceremony appeared first on Black News Channel.
While many Americans mark the fourth Thursday of November as a time to give thanks, it’s recognized as a day of reflection and remembrance among Indigenous people who recognize the darker side of Thanksgiving.
THE Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) is reporting a “slight” increase i...
FOOD For the Poor has committed to planting one million fruit and timber trees over the next three years.This is in support of the Government's target to plant three million trees over three years, under a national tree-planting initiative launched by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in October 2019.
At the Martyrs' School near Tripoli, teachers and parents are using the limited means at hand to repair buildings devastated by a year-long battle for the Libyan capital.
Some of the walls have been repainted, furniture has been installed and ageing computer screens dusted off. But the roofs and other walls, pockmarked by gunfire and mortar blasts, remain grim reminders of the recent fighting.
\"We didn't want to sit and wait for help,\" said Najah al-Kabir, a teaching coordinator in a patterned jallaba gown and a hijab.
She is taking part in a refurbishment campaign launched by staff and joined by enthusiastic parents of students from the surrounding Ain Zara district.
\"We're one family,\" Kabir said, standing in the playground of the primary school, damaged by weeks of artillery fire.
\"This school was our second home.\"
When eastern Libyan military chief Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April 2019 to seize the capital from the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Ain Zara found itself on the front line.
The fighting degenerated into a long battle of attrition on the outskirts of Tripoli and lasted until June this year, when pro-GNA forces ended the stalemate by pushing Haftar's forces back eastwards.
By the time the fighting ended, the school had been reduced to \"ruins\", Kabir said.
\"It needed to be rebuilt quickly,\" she added.
'A terrible state'
The UN children's agency UNICEF warned earlier this year that \"attacks against schools and the threat of violence have led to (school) closures and left almost 200,000 children out of the classroom\".
The Martyrs' School is one of around 100 schools fully or partly destroyed during the offensive by Haftar, backed by Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
Pro-GNA armed groups, whose counter-offensive was spurred by Turkey, used some schools to stock arms or as observation posts.
By the end of the fighting, the Martyrs' School was \"in a terrible state\", said headteacher Saleh al-Badri.
The establishment caters for 1,500 students in an area three kilometres from the next school, making it \"important to reopen it as soon as possible,\" he said.
Mahmoud Abdelkhalek, who lives nearby and sends his three sons to the school, was keen to get involved.
\"It seemed important that everyone get involved to fix it,\" he said. \"A collective effort has brought it back to life.\"
