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Turkey continued on Tuesday to reach out to regional rivals Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in a renewed bid to mend frayed ties that have stoked regional tensions.
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation. In the speech below which Stevens gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 1867 supporting the Reconstruction bill then being debated, he issued a response to those who said his call was radical and incendiary with a now famous quotation: I am for negro suffrage in every rebel State. If it be just, it should not be denied; if it be necessary, it should be adopted; if it be a punishment to traitors, they deserve it. The entire speech appears below.
Mr. Speaker, I am very anxious that this bill should be proceeded with until finally acted upon. I desire that as early as possible, without curtailing debate, this House shall come to some conclusion as to what shall be done with the rebel States. This becomes more and more necessary every day; and the late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered immediate action by Congress upon the question of the establishment of governments in the rebel States absolutely indispensable.
That decision, although in terms perhaps not as infamous as the Dred Scott decision, is yet far more dangerous in its operation upon the lives and liberties of the loyal men of this country. That decision has taken away every protection in everyone of these rebel States from every loyal man, black or white, who resides there. That decision has unsheathed the dagger of the assassin and places the knife of the rebel at the throat of every man who dares proclaim himself to be now, or to have been heretofore, a loyal Union man. If the doctrine enunciated in that decision be true, never were the people of any country anywhere, or at any time, in such terrible peril as are our loyal brethren at the South, whether they be black or white, whether they go there from the North or are natives of the rebel States.
Now, Mr. Speaker, unless Congress proceeds at once to do something to protect
DR Congo's military is receiving weapons and training from multiple countries without notifying the United Nations as required by a 2004 resolution, according to a recent report to the Security Council.
Some of the weapons have fallen into the hands of armed groups operating in the east of the country, warns the confidential report by UN experts that was obtained by AFP on Thursday.
DR Congo and its military have not been subject to an arms embargo since 2008, though one still applies to armed groups.
The report noted that several countries \"delivered significant quantities of arms, ammunition, equipment and military vehicles\" to the military.
\"Some of the material delivered to FARDC was later diverted to armed groups in eastern\" DR Congo, the report continues.
AIR COMMODORE Ibikunle Daramola has announced on Twitter that Nigeria has a Wing Loong II...
The post Nigeria now has a Wing Loong II drone appeared first on Voice Online.
Now, they have turned their attention to junk news about the COVID-19 crisis, helping social-media platforms move more quickly to dispel and discourage rumors, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.
By criticising democracies as corrupt and incompetent, praising authoritarian leaders' global leadership, and promoting conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus and the motives of international health agencies, they are trying to shape - or at least muddy - the global narrative as much as possible.
By analysing a large sample of health-related COVID-19 lies, we found that one in five can be sourced to politicians, celebrities, and prominent public figures, and that a huge proportion of the misinformation is being propelled by media agencies controlled by authoritarian governments.
A global community of fact checkers that came together after the United Kingdom's Brexit debate and the U.S. presidential election in 2016 has rapidly pivoted to checking health information.
The dissemination of politicised health messages is especially dangerous, as are attacks on credible public agencies and trustworthy, professional news organisations.
Foreign donor nations pledged $1.8 billion at a conference hosted by Germany to help Sudan ease an economic crisis hampering its transition towards democracy after the fall of Omar al-Bashir.
The two Gulf countries had promised a grant to Sudan of $3 billion in the form of cash and commodities after the military ousted Bashir in April 2019, but it is unclear how much has reached the country in total.
World Bank to offer Sudan grant
\tThe World Bank’s David Malpass said the institution was in the process of securing a $400 million “pre-arrears clearance grant” for Sudan, to be approved by August.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, running Sudan under a precarious, transitional power-sharing deal with the military since Bashir’s overthrow in an uprising last year, is desperate for more foreign support.
The pledges were well below the $8 billion in aid that Hamdok said last August was needed to turn around an economy in crisis since Sudan lost almost all its oil revenue when South Sudan seceded in 2011.
Confirmed cases = 11,964
\t\tNumber of deaths = 54
\t\tRecoveries = 4,258
\t\tActive cases = 7,652
\t
\tJohn Hopkins Uni stats valid as of June 14, 2020
June 13: 11,118 cases, NDC advocates mass testing
\tGhana’s case load as of this morning stood at 11,118 cases with the disclosure of 262 new cases.
June 10: Cases pass 10,000 mark as rapid test kit makers advance
\tGhana reached 10,000 mark in terms of confirmed cases on Tuesday (June 9); the case load reached 10,201 with deaths still at 48, 3,755 recoveries and 6,398 active cases.
“The app will basically work well with the rapid test kit because once classified as high risk you need to test the person,” he said, stressing the need for mass testing given that Ghana had entered community transmission stage of virus spread.
Total confirmed cases = 9,910
Total recoveries = 3,645
Total deaths = 48
Active cases = 6,217
June 8: 9,638 cases, govt evacuation plans
\tGovernment has confirmed that it was preparing to evacuate some Ghanaians stranded overseas due to the COVID-19 disruption.
Total confirmed cases = 9,638
Total recoveries = 3,636
Total deaths = 44
Active cases = 5,958
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 7, 2020
June 7: 9,462 cases, deaths hit 44
\tThe Managing Director of a major private health care facility in the capital Accra reported testing positive for the virus.
Upper-sixth-form students Michael Jovan Anthony ‘MJ’ Forbes and Yashieka Fearon are using GoFundMe to pursue their dreams of higher education, and with donations coming in, these aspirations now have the possibility of becoming a reality.
A student of Manchester High School, Fearon, who received nine grade ones at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level and four grades ones and a two in Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), began her college application process in December of 2019, applying to more than 20 colleges and universities, including the Adelphi, Hofstra, Clark Atlanta, and Tuskegee universities.
She was accepted into all and received a full-tuition scholarship for most but notes that Howard University, one of the top historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States, was her “first choice”.
Fearon’s campaign was created on May 13 and, up to press time, had raised US$16,424 of the US$21,990 goal through more than 500 donors.
Forbes, a student at Glenmuir High School who received 11 grade ones in CSEC and four grade ones and a two in CAPE, began applying to university in January of this year.
The Berlin Conference was Africas undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent. By the time independence returned to Africa in 1950, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily.*
In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismark called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa.
Bismark appreciated the opportunity to expand Germanys sphere of influence over Africa and desired to force Germanys rivals to struggle with one another for territory.
At the time of the conference, 80% of Africa remained under traditional and local control. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into fifty irregular countries. This new map of the continent was superimposed over the one thousand indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along.
Fourteen countries were represented by a plethora of ambassadors when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey, and the United States of America.
Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.
The initial task of the conference was to agree that the Congo River and Niger River mouths and basins would be considered neutral and open to trade.
Despite its neutrality, part of the Congo Basin became a personal kingdom for Belgiums King Leopold II and under his rule, over half of the regions population died.
At the time of the conference, only the
10 million meals
A child receives a food parcel
\tProviding essential food supplies to vulnerable individuals, not least blue-collar workers, is a project by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, called ‘10 Million Meals’.
Family matters
Donated computers help children of low-income families connect
\tTo ensure that children are not forgotten, and that parents don’t feel unsupported right now, the UAE’s Ministry of Education and the charity Dubai Cares have joined forces to launch of the fact that many low-income families may not have the necessary tools for distance learning, the initiative is distributing computers donated from UAE residents.
And support the government’s initiatives by providing laptops to children – and get into every single government school, every single charity school, every single private school and low-tuition fee school,” Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, the CEO of Dubai Cares told Euronews.
Dr. Tariq Al Gurg speaks to Inspire Middle East
\tThe programme is initially targeting 40,000 UAE students of all nationalities, across the seven emirates.
“We’ve got a lot of community members involved, in solidarity for the campaign, and spreading the word that there are children who are not able to get their education because of these laptops,” the CEO added.
Sharon P. Wilkinson is an American diplomat. She served as United States Ambassador to Burkina Faso from 1996 to 1999 and United States Ambassador to Mozambique from 2000 to 2003. She has extensive experience in foreign affairs and has served all over the globe.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Wilkinson is one of three children of Frederick and Jeane Ann Wilkinson. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1968. In 1970, Wilkinson earned a double Master’s Degree in Social Science and in Education from the University of Chicago in Illinois. She also learned to speak Portuguese, Spanish, and French.
Wilkinson’s career began in the Foreign Service in 1971 when she was appointed Vice Consul in the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She later held the post of Consul in Accra, Ghana and Desk Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. Once back in the Washington, D.C., she served as Program Officer for Africa in the Bureau of Cultural Affairs in the State Department. She was also Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, and Management Analyst for the Office of Management Operations, both State Department positions as well. Wilkinson also spent a year as Director of the Face-to-Face Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in New York City, New York.
Wilkinson served in the early 1990s as Deputy Principal Officer in the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico but then returned to the State Department to become Director of the Office of Diplomatic and Public Liaison in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Her next assignment took her to Willemstad, Curaçao where she served as Consul General in the Dutch colony. She then worked in Lisbon, Portugal where she was Charge dAffaires at the U.S. Embassy and later Deputy Chief of Mission.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Wilkinson as the U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso. She was appointed on July 11, 1996, and presented her credentials on October 24,
The two countries agreed on a truce whereby the US would back off from tariffs and France would delay collection of its digital tax to the end of 2020 to allow for renewed efforts to reach a multilateral solution.
The US Trade Representative says countries that have either adopted or are considering digital taxes include Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK.
In April, India expanded the scope of its 6% “equalisation levy” — a withholding tax on foreign online advertising platforms — to include digital companies with a “significant economic presence” that engage with or sell to Indians.
France has said it would drop its tax if the US and other countries agree to a global effort for a uniform approach under the stewardship of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
To do that, French tax collectors propose to tax Internet companies proportionally to their “digital presence” in the country relative to the rest of the world.
While Ankara has roused French anger over an incident involving a Tanzanian freighter traveling to Libya, Turkey risks far more politically by sticking to its guns over...
But the late Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a respected Black nationalist freedom fighter, who led the New Black Panther Party from the late 1990s until his passing in 2001 and the former national spokesman for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, used a stronger Kiswahili term as an addendum to the term Maafa to explain the horrors of the international American, European, and Arab slave -trading system of Black people.
However, the Arab international slave-trading of Black people existed for centuries before the European Slave -Trade, but ended in 1909.
enslavement of Black people was justified and protected by guns, the military, government laws, government policies, international law (the Asiento), the police, western religions, Arab Muslims, Popes, the Catholic Church, the White Protestant Church, White supremacist ideology, and racism.
To get around this problem, slave traders petition the Spanish government and the Catholic Church for permission to bring Black people to the Spanish colonies to work as enslaved Black people.
Slavery in America, and in Europe, violently stripped Black people of our Afrikan names; of our Afrikan culture; of our Afrikan religions; of our Afrikan spiritual systems; of our Afrikan languages; of our manhood, of our womanhood; of our childhood; of our norms; of our values; of our folkways; of our mores; of owning land; owning busin
African American intellectual Alexander Crummell was one of the few19th century scholars known and respected widely among European Americans. In an address before the American Geographical Society delivered in Chickering Hall in New York City on May 22, 1877, Crummell demonstrates his appeal to one such audience.
Mr. President: It is a most singular fact that now, in the 19th century, in an age of great practicality, we should be witnessing two remarkable movements, dis¬tinguished in a very marked degree by sentiment. We see, on the one hand, a mighty movement of a great Christian nation to extinguish the sufferings of the sub¬ject Christians of Turkey, to strike the crescent from the minarets of Constantinople, and to rescue St. Sophia from the hands of the Moslem. And, on the other hand, we stand at the commencement of a grand en¬deavor of Christendom to wipe the blood from the bruised brow of Africa, to lift up its vast populations to enlightenment, and to rescue a great continent from the dominion of superstition and barbarism.
Well, sir, it would seem as though the age of chivalry had returned to a busy, plodding, commercial, manu¬facturing era; and that it is likely to give dignity to our age, and grandeur to its motives and its endeavors.
I have called this movement for the benefit of Africa, one distinguished by sentiment, but not by mere senti¬ment, for I regard the objects of this meeting to night as thoroughly practical, deeply human, and entirely worthy of the age.
It is it should be thoroughly human, undertaken with no one sided views and purposes; but carried on in a manner which shall affect all the interests of temporal as well as eternal a movement which shall regard the objects of our compassion, and likewise the interests of all the participants in this noble scheme, in all the divers phases of our common humanity.
Now, in this project the COMMERCIAL IDEA is, to a greater or less degree, an matter of interest and solicitude. Anal this seems to me perfectly legitimate. I cannot regard it as
May 19: Cases top 6,000; lockdown lifting risky
\tTotal confirmed cases = 6,175 (new cases = 216)
Total recoveries = 1,644
Total deaths = 191
Active cases = 4,340
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 18, 2020
\tThe federal government says Nigeria is not ready for total lifting of lockdown, hence the first level of easing will be in place for the next two weeks.
Additional reporting from BBC
May 18 : 5,959 cases, Buhari meets Task Force
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,959 (new cases = 338)
Total recoveries = 1,544
Total deaths = 182
Active cases = 4,183
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 17, 2020
\tPresident Buhari on Sunday evening met with the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force team at his residence for their weekly briefing.
Other news:
\t\tKano state officials donate half salaries to COVID-19 response
\t\tHumanitarian Affairs Minister delivers federal food support to Kano
\t\tNigeria impounds UK jet for flouting regulations
\t\tLagos outlines conditions for lockdown lifting
\t\tDelta, Bauchi, Zamfara States distributing food palliatives
May 17 : 5,621 cases, three Dubai returnees infected
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,621 (new cases = 176)
Total recoveries = 1,472
Total deaths = 176
Active cases = 3,973
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 16, 2020
\tThree people who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates on an evacuation flight have tested positive for COVID-19.
May 16: 5,445 cases, govt on evacuees expenses
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,445 (new cases = 288)
Total recoveries = 1,320
Total deaths = 171
Active cases = 3,959
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 15, 2020
\tDuring their press briefing on Friday, the presidential task force covered a wide range of issues relative to the spread of the virus and containment efforts.
May 15: 5,162 cases, Canada evacuation hits snag
\tTotal confirmed cases = 5,162 (new cases = 193)
Total recoveries = 1,180
Total deaths = 167
Active cases = 3,815
\tFigures valid as of close of day May 14, 2020
\tSpeaking at the daily briefing of the presidential task force, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama disclosed that evacuation plans from Canada had hit a glitch.
Rwanda on Thursday recorded 18 new coronavirus cases, the highest of the week, contributed mainly by citizens arriving from neighbouring countries.
The country has seen a rise in the number of positive cases since the beginning of June and has placed two border districts - Rusizi and Rubavu bordering the DRC - under total lockdown even as the rest of the country slowly eases back to normal life.
Coronavirus was detected among clusters of Rwandans repatriated from Tanzania and DR Congo, which led to the surge in the identified cases, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Director of Rwanda Biomedical Centre, told The East African.
No positive cases were reported from another group of 53 Rwandans repatriated from the United Arab Emirates in late April, most of who have been left quarantine and joined their families.
A group of 130 Rwandans coming from Uganda last week are also under quarantine, but no positive cases have been reported among them.
Within the framework of the operation to repatriate Cameroonians blocked abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic, 139 of them got to the Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport on Saturday, May 9, 2020 on board a special Ethiopian Airlines plane from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, information from the Ministry of External Relations indicates.
The Ministry's sources further disclose that Cameroon's General Consulate in Dubai under the coordination of the Consul General, Donancier Mebouogue worked tirelessly for the return of the Cameroonians from the outset up to their departure at the DXB Airport in Dubai.
It was disclosed that 152 Cameroonians were initially registered at the Consulate indicating their desire to return home but only 139 finally appeared at the airport and boarded the plane.
Unlike more affluent countries who shifted the burden of reparation to the citizens, the government of Cameroon shoulders all the bills and that has costed the State nearly FCFA 700 million for repartition, they further note.
Cameroon is amongst the few African countries ensuring and bearing the costs of the repatriation of its citizens.
Total confirmed cases = 9,462
Total recoveries = 3,547
Active cases = 5,871
\tFigures valid as of close of day June 6, 2020
June 3: 8,297 cases; govt defends ban on football
\tSports Minister, Isaac Asiamah has defended government’s decision
The Grim Reaper has taken away Burundi's healthy-looking and all-powerful President Pierre Nkurunziza just as he was to hand over power to the ruling CNDD-FDD party's 2020 election victor Evariste Ndayishimiye.
President Nkurunziza was, to all intents and purposes, not a democrat.
Gen Ndayishimiye, Nkurunziza's presumptive successor, must seize the moment to institute a new order.
Though handpicked by Nkurunziza, he must quickly shake off his predecessor's shadow and change the course of the country that has known little peace and progress since independence from the Belgians in 1962.
In the immediate run, he must wholeheartedly join the war against the Covid-19 pandemic, over which President Nkurunziza duelled with the World Health Organization, having earlier pulled Burundi out of the International Criminal Court.
The 2020 Global Peace Index (GPI) released by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) has ranked South Africa 123 out of 163.
\"The 14th edition of the annual Global Peace Index [GPI] report, the world's leading measure of global peacefulness, reveals that in 2020 the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated for the ninth time in 12 years.
Covid-19 has the potential to undo years of socio-economic development, exacerbate humanitarian crises and aggravate unrest and conflict with its impact already seen in worsening US-China relations and civil unrest across the world.
In addition, the GPI also looked at the impact of the coronavirus on the globe, finding the \"economic impact of Covid-19 will negatively affect political stability, international relations, conflict, civil rights and violence, undoing many years of socio-economic development\".
Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world 's leading measure of global peacefulness.
WELLINGTON, (Reuters) - The West Indies cricket team have been cleared to leave their biosecure facility in Christchurch today after their third round of novel coronavirus tests were negative, New Zealand Cricket said yesterday.
The article Windies cleared to leave isolation in NZ after COVID-19 testing appeared first on Stabroek News.
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said nothing prevents South Africa from exporting arms to Turkey, despite reports that it might be used in conflicts in countries like Libya.
Mapisa-Nqakula answered questions during a sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday around government's arms and military trade with Turkey.
Last week News24 reported the government had quashed rumours regarding the export of weapons and military hardware to Turkey, which could possibly end up in the hands of militia groups fighting in the Libyan civil war.
The NCACC was questioned, during a parliamentary meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, about reports that military hardware had been exported to Turkey in May and could possibly end up in the north African nation.
DA MP Hildegard Boshoff asked Mapisa-Nqakula if she is aware that Turkey supplies weapons to groups involved in the Syrian conflict.
