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Uganda’s inter-religious council called off the eagerly awaited presidential candidates’ debate.
The council said the debate, that was due on Thursday 03 was cancelled due to limited resources.
Local media reported that a total of ten presidential candidates were expected to grace the occasion.
This comes amid numerous complaints majorly from the opposition who have constantly blamed the security apparatus for rights violations.
Uganda opposition have in most cases face wrath of the police especially the renowned musician-turned politician, Bobi Wine.
Two weeks ago, 54 people died in protests after Wines supporters called for his release following a brief arrest at campaign rally.
They have defended themselves by claiming that they were only implementing Covid-19 guidelines to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
Bobi Wine was later charged with violating pandemic restrictions on gathering of crowds and granted bail.
The embattled singer later met the electoral commission and asked them to ensure that there should be equitable campaigns and police should be stopped from intimidating the opposition leaders and their members.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
By JOSEPH WILSON and JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours.
At a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said Saturday the U.S. has tested 25 million people, but the “bad part” is that it found more cases.
The number of confirmed virus cases is still growing rapidly not only in the U.S. but in Brazil, South Africa and other countries, especially in Latin America.
South Africa reported a one-day high of almost 5,000 new cases on Saturday and 46 deaths.
In Asia, China and South Korea reported new coronavirus cases Sunday in outbreaks that threatened to set back their recoveries.
An acknowledgement by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, on Thursday, makes as clear as crystal the reason behind the Government’s conviction that now is the time to reopen the country’s borders to international travel.
At the same time, COVID-19 is estimated to cost the Government J$38.4 billion between April 2020 and March 2021, and the estimated overall loss to the economy from visitor expenditure from stopover arrivals is J$107.6 billion, according to Ministry of Tourism estimates, he said.
Since Jamaica and other Caribbean countries closed their international borders in mid-March due to the coronavirus outbreak, hotels, shops and restaurants have gone unnervingly quiet, and large swathes of beaches normally occupied by tourists in lounge chairs have become acres of desolation.
However, while most of the Caribbean won’t reopen until next month at the earliest, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia have decided that they could not wait any longer, with Antigua’s information minister, Melford Nicholas, explaining that despite the continued high rate of infections and deaths in the United States, St John’s simply had to take the “calculated risk” for the economy’s sake.
Over 90 per cent of the hotels in the region are still closed, with two-thirds of them expected to reopen partially by the end of July, Frank Comito, the chief executive officer of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, told The Sunday Gleaner.
Supporters listen as U.S. President Donald Trump speaksat a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump was expecting a capacity crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma for his first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the country.
A supporter sits in the upper seats during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Brad Parscale, the president’s reelection campaign chairman, touted the fact that 1 million people requested tickets to the MAGA rally.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump react as he concludes speaking at a campaign rally at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The selection of Tulsa as the place where Trump returns to the stump and the date on which he is choosing to do it both suggest that Trump’s long-whispered-about race speech — in the wake of ongoing protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd — will happen next Friday, and at a campaign rally no less.
While Oklahoma has no set limit on group gatherings, it’s not a swing state, so there’s no other obvious reason — other than to address racial issues — that Trump would stage his first rally in the state (and Tulsa particularly).
“The African American community is very near and dear to his heart,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday of Trump’s planned Tulsa rally on Juneteenth.
Now, it’s possible that the intended audience for this Tulsa rally isn’t actually African Americans but rather white women, particularly those who live in the suburbs, who have badly soured on Trump — and who see his handling of the Floyd protests as a sort of final straw.
Because of everything he has said and done in his life on race and racial issues, Trump lacks credibility to give a speech like the one he appears ready to deliver next Friday night.
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump didn’t know the significance to Black Americans of the date and location he chose for his first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic more than three months ago, key Republican supporters of the president in Congress said Sunday.
Trump had scheduled the rally for June 19, known as Juneteenth because it marks the end of slavery in the United States.
He resisted until late Friday when, in a rare turnabout, Trump tweeted that he had moved the rally to this Saturday, June 20, out of respect for the view of supporters and others who had asked him to.
“The president moving the date by a day once he was informed on what the Juneteenth was, that was a good decision on his part,” said Scott, the only black Republican senator.
Trump had been under pressure over his response to civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer at the time his return to campaign rallies was announced, including tweets that were interpreted as insensitive to African Americans.
Zimbabwe has come under international scrutiny after President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government launched a crackdown against its critics that include opposition leaders, lawyers and journalists.
\"A pattern of intimidation and arbitrary arrest and detention of lawyers and journalists and indeed legitimate political opponents has distinctly emerged in Zimbabwe during the Covid-19 era,\" said Martin Okumu-Masiga, the AJJF secretary-general.
\"We urge the government of Zimbabwe to respect the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression and the right to fair trial as well as to respect the independence of judges and lawyers as is guaranteed by domestic and international obligations that the country is party to\" said Okumu-Masiga.
\"I draw the Zimbabwe government's attention to principle 16 of the UN basic principles on the role of lawyers, which requires surety from governments that lawyers are afforded the space to perform all of their professional functions free from intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; nor may lawyers suffer or be threatened with prosecution, or administrative, economic or any other sanction for any action taken in light of the recognised professional duties, standards and ethics.\"
\"We are concerned about the shrinking democratic space evidenced by abductions, arrests, persecution by the prosecution of civil society, lawyers and political opponents is inconsistent with (the government's) assertion that Zimbabwe is stable and peaceful.
A fatal Israeli police shooting of an unarmed Palestinian man in Jerusalem last weekend has led to a government apology and protests comparing the case to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Eyad Hallaq, 32, was on his way to a school for special needs students in the historic Old City of Jerusalem on May 30 when police shouted, \"terrorist!\"
\"Policing in Jerusalem and in particular in the Old City is a particularly complex task that involves complex decisions and the risk of life,\" the police said in a statement following the shooting.
Aviad Friedman, an Israeli father of a child with autism, paid Hallaq's father a condolence visit, despite friends warning him against traveling alone to a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem.
\"I do not think [the Hallaq killing] is similar to the incident in Minneapolis,\" he wrote, citing the stress Israeli police face in Jerusalem.
Vote counting is underway following Ivory Coast's tense presidential election on Saturday.
President Alassane Ouattara is trying his luck for a contested third term, leading to two opposition candidates calling for a boycott and labelling the vote as a \"failure\" of power.
Official numbers on voter turnout have not been released but according to media reports, it was low.
But the ruling Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) said voters come out \"massively\".
\"October 31 was not the day of the flood as predicted by all the opposition leaders, but better, Ivorians have appropriated this election by going to vote massively this morning,\" said Adama Bictogo, executive director of ruling RHDP.
The Electoral Commission President Ibrahime Kuibiert-Coulibaly said there were some local problems at polling stations but that only 30 or 40 of them had been ransacked out of 22,000 nationwide.
He did not say the number of polling stations that were not opened.
Electoral authorities by law have up to five days to announce the results.
He served as a minister for Home Affairs in President John Magufuli's cabinet for five months, from December 2015.
Legislator for Muleba North constituency since 2010, he served as the Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment in the fifth phase government, but on November 10, 2018, he was dismissed by President Magufuli on grounds of underperformance.
President Magufuli on July 2018 appointed him as Home Affairs Minister, but later on 23 January 2020 he kicked him out for occasioning the country a loss of 1tril/- in a dubious deal between the Fire and Rescue Brigade and a Romanian firm.
However, all was not lost to some of them, and as an old adage states, time and chance happens to all, and this has been evident in the past four and half years of President John Magufuli's administration, where we have witnessed some of the dismissed ministers bouncing back.
Mr George Simbachawene resigned as the Minister of State in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local government) in 2017 after he was adversely mentioned in reports compiled by a committee appointed by National Assembly Speaker, Job Ndugai to investigate the trade in diamonds and Tanzanite.
Donald Trump isn’t usually one to cave to the so-called “culture wars,” but that’s exactly what he did after his decision to hold a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Juneteenth was met with heavy backlash.
In response to an uproar that started earlier this week over the president’s scheduling of a MAGA rally in the same city of the Black Wall Street massacre on Juneteenth (Friday, June 19), he’s retreating by rescheduling the event for a later date.
RELATED: Biden Campaign Calls Out Racist Trump Rally To Be Held Where Black People Were Massacred
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
But Trump’s decision to hold the rally in the city that is the site of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in America’s history — the 1921 massacre where hundreds of Black people were attacked by a white mob — was deemed doubly disrespectful.
Trump has also faced backlash for holding rallies at all, considering cases of the coronavirus that continue to spike nationwide.
At least 22 people died as the fiercest cyclone to hit parts of Bangladesh and eastern India this century sent trees flying and flattened houses, with millions crammed into shelters despite the risk of coronavirus.
Millions were left without power after Cyclone Amphan, packing winds of around 150 kilometres per hour (95 miles), carried away electricity pylons, walls and roofs, officials said Thursday as they began to assess the damage.
Bangladesh officials said at least 10 people had died, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-year-old man both hit by falling trees and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned.
Cyclones are an annual and growing hazard along the Bay of Bengal coast, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades.
Anwar Hossain Howlader, an official in the Khulna coastal district of Bangladesh, said a three-metre (10-feet) surge had destroyed embankments protecting villages despite locals toiling through the night.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A coalition of political parties in Venezuela led by US-backed Juan Guaid� said yesterday that it won't participate in upcoming congressional elections called by officials loyal to President Nicol�s Maduro.A group of 27 opposition parties rejected the December 6 election as 'fraud'.
July 10: Buhari approves Magu’s suspension
Nigeria’s anti-corruption chief has officially been suspended days after he was invited by a panel at the presidency and subsequently detained.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate suspension of Ibrahim Magu as Agcting Chairman of the EFCC in order to allow for unhindered inquiry by the Presidential Investigation Panel under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act and other relevant laws,” the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami said in a statement on Friday.
According to the statement, President Buhari has also approved that the EFCC Director of Operations, Mohammed Umar, should take charge and oversee the activities of the commission pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and further directives in that regards.
This is contained in a statement issued by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made available to newsmen on Friday the 10th day of July, 2020.— Government of Nigeria (@NigeriaGov) July 10, 2020
July 7: Magu invited, quizzed, detained
Local media widely reported that Buhari has suspended the acting EFCC chairman on charges of embezzlement. Magu was on Monday invited to appear before a Presidential Panel that reviews the agency’s activities.
His summons is believed to have been the result of a recent petition from Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami.
The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was questioned for hours by an inter-agency committee led by a former Court of Appeal judge, Ayo Salami.
He was subsequently detained for further questioning.
Ibrahim Magu has been the EFCC’s acting chairman since 2015, with his appointment twice rejected by Nigeria’s Senate due to a damaging report about his suitability for the role.
But many observers say Magu’s suspension is politically motivated adding that many Nigerian elites want him sacked.
AFP
(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica’s first track and field star, Isis Clarke-Reid, died at her Port St Lucie, Florida, home on Monday, June 8, after a brief illness.
Reports in the local media around the time the former track star celebrated her 100th birthday on November 18, 2019, stated that the family’s only wish was that she be recognised publicly by the Jamaican Government before she passed.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN RECOGNISED SOONER
Nonetheless, the friend believes that with the family emphasising Clarke-Reid’s frail health in November, greater effort should have been made much earlier to recognise her place in history.
“(Clarke-Reid) and Gertrude Messam were the first women to represent Jamaica in track and field,” said David last November when he spoke with the media ahead of his sister’s birthday.
Last November, as she reflected on her time on the track eight decades earlier, Clarke-Reid said: “It was great.
May 27: Health Minister infected, cases pass 1,000 mark
\tLocal media portals have reported that Zambia’s health minister has tested positive for COVID-19.
Zambia virus stats as of May 24, 2020 at 13:00 GMT
Confirmed cases = 920
Deaths = 7
Recoveries = 336
Active cases = 577
May 20: Nakonde records more new cases
\tNakonde, the border town with Tanzania continues to record more cases of the virus.
The one-stop border post in Nakonde was closed last week by President Lungu amid a spike in cases.
May 14 = 654 cases (208 new cases), 7 deaths, 124 recoveries
\t\tMay 13 = 446 cases (5 new cases), 7 deaths, 117 recoveries
\t\tMay 12 = 441 cases (174 new cases), 7 deaths, 117 recoveries
\t\tMay 11 = 267 cases (0 new cases), 7 deaths, 117 recoveries
\t\tMay 10 = 267 cases, 7 deaths, 117 recoveries
\t
\tThe town of Nakonde was declared a hot spot by the Ministry of Health on May 10 leading to the closure of the frontier with Tanzania.
On Saturday (May 9) 76 new cases were reported in Nakonde, the border town in question.
[Shabelle] Somalia on Tuesday missed a deadline to hold its parliamentary elections on Dec. 1 as agreed by the federal government and six regional states earlier this year.
Vice-President Saulos Chilima has returned to court Tuesday to press President Peter Mutharika to sack Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) chairperson, Jane Ansah and her fellow commissioners after Parliament, the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Appeal found them incompetent and their positions untenable.
Chilima has been accusing the head of the electoral body of misconduct and is backed by electoral stakeholders that Ansah should not preside over the fresh presidential elections.
But Ansah, a judge of the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, has defiantly refused to step down.
This month Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the High Court sitting as the Constitutional Court which found Ansah and MEC incompetent.
On April 1 2020 MEC chief elections officer Sam Alfandika told Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee that the commission wrote President Peter Mutharika to consider hiring new commissioners as the current ones' tenure is expiring on June 5.
Bison's highly-rated quarterback using lone game this season to highlight Black Lives Matter, Breonna Taylor and others
Ahead of a campaign rally in a city where a racist massacre took place, President Donald Trump threatened violence against protesters, as people in cities around the country are set to participate in peaceful anti-racism marches to mark Juneteenth, the anniversary of the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, 1865.
Echoing his prior violent threats and actions toward protesters, the president tweeted Friday that “any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes” who come to Oklahoma ― where he is holding a rally in Tulsa on Saturday ― “will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis.”
Earlier this month, police fired tear gas on demonstrators near the White House protesting the death of George Floyd and other instances of police brutality against Black people — in order to clear the way for Trump to stage a propagandistic photo-op in front of a nearby church, which was widely condemned by religious leaders.
Trump, who has a long history of promoting racism and white supremacy, has routinely incited violence — most notoriously in 2017, when he said there were “very fine people” at a white nationalist and neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Tulsa, where the president will host thousands of supporters on Saturday, is the site of a 1921 racist massacre of Black people by white mobs.
On June 19, Americans around the country will celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation in the USA.
It is the completion of the celebration of freedom in America,” said Steve Williams, president of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation.
Here is what you should know about Juneteenth:
On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger informed a reluctant community in Galveston, TX, that President Abraham Lincoln had freed enslaved Americans in rebel states two and a half years earlier.
“The date represents an important turning point for our nation and for human rights, and we believe that now, more than ever, it deserves to have its own day in the spotlight,” the tweet read:
President Donald Trump had planned to hold a campaign rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa, OK, the site of a massacre in 1921 when white men attacked and killed Black residents in a Black business district.
Though Juneteenth marks the day Texas was informed of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves there as it had in other secessionist states, it did not apply to Union states, such as Maryland, which had slaves but had not seceded in the Civil War.
Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has apologized to his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari following the illegal building demolition on the premises of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, according to a statement.
The two West African leaders spoke by telephone, according to Nigerian presidential spokesman Garba Shehu. Akufo-Addo assured Buhari that a full investigation would be made in to the incident.
Shehu added that a number of suspects had been arrested.
According to local media, a number of people entered the residence of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana with a bulldozer and razed a structure that was nearly completed. It was to be housing for either staff and visitors.
Online Ghanaian news site GhanaWeb said it had interviewed Nii Odoi Kwao II, the head of the Nii Odei Kwao family and a member of the Osu Stool, a traditional council. He said that the land the Nigerian High Commission built on land that actually belonged to the Osu Stool.
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Head of the Nii Odei Kwao family and a member of the Osu Stool, Nii Odoi Kwao II reiterated that the said land belongs to the Osu Stool and not the Nigerian Embassy in Ghana.
“Nii Odei who declined to speak on the matter of the demolition carried out by unidentified persons extensively said, the incident is a sad one which the Osu Council is not happy about,” according to GhanaWeb.
The leader said that the Osu Stool will be meeting to discuss this matter and the pending litigation over the land. He added that the traditional council did not intend to make a diplomatic row over the issue.
Nigeria had lodged a complaint after the incident.
On Tuesday, a number of videos were posted on social media of some 30 Nigerian nationals in Accra protesting in front of the building.
In Nigeria, House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila spoke out on behalf of the House, calling for retaliatory measures for those who do not respect diplomatic rights and privileges of Nigeria and its citizens in foreign lands.
This Happened In Nigerian Embassy In Accra Ghana. The Govt Of Ghana Demolished The Nigerian Embassy In Ghana.
Nigeria A Failed State Is Crumbling Fast And Has Lot Every Atom Of Respect In The Eyes Of The World. #BreakUpNigeria And End This Charade!MaziNnamdiKanu Amaka_Ekwo pic.twitter.com/9yodwCymbl— Mazi Chigozie Umebelechukwu (@ChigozieKenndy2) June 21, 2020
Agencies
The South African government is facing criticism over its plans to reopen schools.
Learning centers are to be opened when the country eases its lockdown from level four to level three of a five-level system at the end of May.
The country’s major teachers’ unions describes the plan as an “irrational and arbitrary” one-size-fits-all approach, according to local media.
The National Association of Parents in School Governance has expressed concerns that reopening schools will put the lives of pupils, teachers and their families in danger of infection.
The association has filed a court application to oppose the lockdown regulations.
Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has called on the government to account for the relief items and money that has been given to the Covid-19 National Taskforce.
Addressing a press conference at the People Power headquarters in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, yesterday, Bobi Wine said the taskforce has continued to ask for more money from the public but without publicly showing how the other contributions have been utilised.
\"The taskforce has gone ahead to ask for Shs10,000 from Ugandans but they have not laboured to tell us what the money and relief items they have been receiving since March has done.
As of last week, the taskforce indicated that they had received Shs28b with Shs15b in cash and Shs13b worth of vehicles, food stuffs and other relief items.
Mr Emmanuel Katongole, the taskforce chairperson, told Daily Monitor that they are targeting Shs170b which would be used to construct isolation facilities and buy at least 1,350 vehicles for all districts in the country.
Democratic Republic of Congo: President Tshisekedi reneges on justice pledge, leaving victims in despair
\tPresident Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo has reneged on his inauguration pledges to strengthen the rule of law, fight impunity and ensure justice, leaving the families of hundreds of people killed during the country’s pre-election crisis in despair, Amnesty International said today.
“President Tshisekedi and his government must acknowledge the pain that victims and their families have been enduring and publicly commit to promptly and effectively prosecute those responsible,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
Victims of 2015-2018 brutal crackdowns denied justice in the DRC, Amnesty International interviewed 115 survivors and victims’ family members, on their quest for justice.
Farcical investigations
\tUnder international pressure, former President Joseph Kabila constituted three committees to investigate the deadly crackdowns on protestors, none of which have resulted in any prosecutions.
A second committee created in February 2018 investigated the use of deadly force against protestors on 31 December 2017 and 21 January 2018, recommending prosecution of security officers who ordered or used excessive force against protestors.
