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[Nation] The Ethiopian government on Monday refuted claims of planned talks with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, mediated by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
The HEROES Act also includes a new forms of aid–$200 billion in “hazard pay” for essential workers, $75 billion for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing and a $75 billion fund to help homeowners with mortgage payments and property taxes.
It would also extend student loan relief to borrowers with private loans, who were left out of the CARES Act Weber (D-San Diego), who serves as chair of both the California Legislative Black Caucus and the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Public Safety, joined the governor and other state leaders calling on the federal government to lend California a helping hand.
“The proposal includes policies to safeguard social safety net benefits; keep Black businesses afloat; support students and educational institutions; address health care inequities; strengthen infrastructure in the Black community; protect Black farmers; keep people in their homes; ensure incarcerated individuals are protected; and much more,” the Congressional Black Caucus press release reads.
The Western States Pact — a regional coalition that includes California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada — sent a letter to Congress asking for one trillion dollars in state and local government aid on May 11.
The California Labor Federation, California State Association of Counties, League of Cities and California Travel and Tourism Coalition have also endorsed the HEROES Act for its inclusion of state and local government aid.
Americans have been struggling with unprecedented levels of depression and anxiety due to the coronavirus, and now a new study has confirmed what many of us suspected all along: Black American’s stress levels have skyrocketed even more following the death of George Floyd.
According to a study conducted by the federal government, initially intended to examine the effects of the coronavirus, the trauma experienced as a result of the graphic video of Floyd’s murder, worldwide demonstrations and heated debates about race, have all taken a serious mental toll on Black and Asian Americans.
Both emotionally and mentally these two groups have been disproportionately and adversely impacted while rates of anxiety and depression have remained relatively stable among white Americans and even decreased among Latin Americans.
The Washington Post reports, “The rate of Black Americans showing clinically significant signs of anxiety or depressive disorders jumped from 36 percent to 41 percent in the week after the video of Floyd’s death became public.
Included in the 20-minute 2020 Household Pulse Survey were questions commonly used by doctors to help determine whether patients might be suffering from a major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder.
Influential Mali cleric Imam Mahmoud Dicko urged the military junta to comply with demands from West African leaders to name a civilian president and prime minister by September 15 to ease sanctions imposed after last month.
Trump Executive Order Seeks to Thwart Justice for Victims
The Trump administration's announced action against the International Criminal Court (ICC) escalates its efforts to thwart justice for victims of serious crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to block ICC investigations in Afghanistan and Palestine that could probe conduct by US and Israeli nationals.
The authorities in Afghanistan have asked the ICC prosecutor to defer her investigation, alleging that they can conduct credible national proceedings.
Afghanistan, however, is an ICC member country, giving the court authority to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by anyone – regardless of nationality – on Afghan territory.
The ICC treaty officially went into effect for Palestine on April 1, 2015, giving the court jurisdiction over serious crimes in violation of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on or from Palestinian territory.
The Trump administration has been pointing to a segment of the industry — facilities with low federal ratings for infection control — and to some Democratic governors who required nursing homes to take recovering coronavirus patients.
Nationwide, more than 45,500 residents and staff have died from coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to a running count by The Associated Press.
A since-rescinded state directive that nursing homes had to accept recovering coronavirus patients “ended up being a death sentence” in New York and several states with similar policies, Scalise said.
He proposed a federal effort to regularly test nursing home staff and residents, along with greater supplies of masks, gowns and other protective gear.
She says states have money from the federal government that they can use to support testing of nursing home staff.
The federal government on Monday said it was deliberately misled by the managements of some Nigerian universities into paying salaries to some deceased members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) through the Integrated Personnel Payroll system (IPPIS).
\"On the alleged payment to dead university staff, it means the Institutions deliberately forwarded to IPPIS the list containing dead ASUU members as being part of their personnel, to get more personnel fund,\" Mr Idris said.
On the 7.5 per cent deduction for employees' pension contributions, Mr Idris faulted ASUU's claims that it should be based on basic salary and not on consolidated salary.
On the 2 per cent deduction from consolidated salary as union dues, Mr Idris said this was done to save the government \"from being accused of denying ASUU their dues.\"
'Unfair accusation'
Describing as unfair, the accusation that IPPIS was withholding funds deducted from lecturers' salaries, Mr Idris said until January 2020, the tertiary institutions were in charge of the payment of their salaries.
As Africa braces itself for the peak in COVID-19 cases, the continent is launching the Africa Medical Supplies Platform, an innovative marketplace to enable all African governments to access critical supplies, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Wednesday.
While the continent is scrambling to get supplies, many African countries buy goods with resources largely obtained from multilateral agencies, President Cyril Ramaphosa noted.
President Ramaphosa was speaking in his capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) during a virtual Extraordinary China-Africa Solidarity Summit against COVID-19, co-hosted by the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the AU.
\"The economic global economic downturn has dealt a severe blow to the African continent, as it has the rest of the world,\" President Ramaphosa acknowledged.
The President has also expressed gratitude on behalf of Africans to China's President Xi Jinping, and the government and his people for their generous donation of personal protective equipment and other medical assistance that has been provided to our continent.
Washington, DC is painting a message in giant, yellow letters down a busy DC street ahead of a planned protest this weekend: BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Bowser has officially deemed the section of 16th Street bearing the mural “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” complete with a new street sign.
Bowser told reporters outside of St John’s Church next to Lafayette Park that she and DC Council members were there “as Washingtonians — we simply all want to be here together in peace to demonstrate that in America — you can peacefully assemble, you can bring grievances to your government, and you can demand change.”
“We’re here peacefully as Americans, on American streets, on DC streets,” Bowser said, seeming to reference the recent clash that she has had with the federal government over their attempts to police DC streets.
The DC chapter of the Black Lives Matter Global Network criticized the gesture.
