OKECHUKWUVITUSS

Monday, July 20, 2020
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Workers Protest Racial Inequality on Day of National Strike
By AARON MORRISON
Audrey Reed, 8, holds up a sing through the sunroof of a car during a rally in Los Angeles, Monday, July 20, 2020. Thousands across the country walked off the job to protest systemic racism and economic inequality that has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
NEW YORK (AP) — Workers from the service industry, fast-food chains and the gig economy
rallied with organized labor Monday to protest systemic racism and economic inequality, staging demonstrations across the U.S. and around the world seeking better treatment of Black Americans in the workplace.
Organizers said at least 20,000 workers in 160 cities walked off the job, inspired by the racial reckoning that followed the deaths of several Black men and women at the hands of police. Visible support came largely in protests that drew people whose jobs in health care, transportation and construction do not allow them to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
“What the protesters are saying, that if we want to be concerned — and we should be — about police violence and people getting killed by the police ... we have to also be concerned about the people who are dying and being put into lethal situations through economic exploitation all over the country,” said the Rev. William Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign, one of the organizations that partnered to support the strike.
Barber told The Associated Press that Monday’s turnout showed the importance of the issue to the people willing to come out during a pandemic to make their voices heard.
“Sadly, if they’re not in the streets, the political systems don’t move, because when you just send an email or a tweet, they ignore it,” he said.
The Strike for Black Lives was organized or supported by more than 60 labor unions and social and racial justice organizations, which held a range of events in more than two dozen cities. Support swelled well beyond expectations, organizers said, although a precise participation tally was not available.
Where work stoppages were not possible for a full day, participants picketed during a lunch break or dropped to a knee in memory of police brutality victims, including George Floyd, a Black man killed in Minneapolis police custody in late May.
Dozens of janitors, security guards and health care workers observed a moment of silence in Denver to honor Floyd.
In San Francisco, 1,500 janitors walked out and marched to City Hall. Fast-food cooks and cashiers in Los Angeles and nursing home workers in St. Paul, Minnesota, also went on strike, organizers said.
At one McDonald’s in Los Angeles, workers blocked the drive-thru for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, about how long prosecutors say a white police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck as he pleaded for air.
Jerome Gage, 28, was among a few dozen Lyft and Uber drivers who joined a car caravan in Los Angeles calling on companies to provide benefits like health insurance and paid sick leave to gig workers.
“It’s basic stuff, and it creates a more profitable economic environment for everyone, not just the companies,” Gage said.
Glen Brown, a 48-year-old wheelchair agent at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said his job does not give him the option of social distancing. Brown and fellow workers called for a $15 minimum wage during an event in St. Paul, and he said workers were “seizing our moment” to seek change.
“We are front-line workers, (and) we are risking our lives, but we’re doing it at a wage that doesn’t even match the risk,” Brown said.
In Manhattan, more than 150 union workers rallied outside Trump International Hotel to demand that the Senate and President Donald Trump adopt the HEROES Act, which provides protective equipment, essential pay and extended unemployment benefits to workers who cannot work from home. The House has already passed it.
Elsewhere in New York City and in New Jersey and Connecticut, organizers said 6,000 workers at 85 nursing homes picketed, walked off the job or took other actions to highlight how predominantly Black and Hispanic workers and the residents they serve are at risk without proper protective gear during the pandemic.
In Massachusetts, about 200 people, including health care workers, janitors and other essential employees, joined Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in front of the Statehouse in Boston.
“We’re just being overworked and underpaid, and it makes you sometimes lose your compassion,” said Toyai Anderson, 44, a nursing aide at Hartford Nursing and Rehab Center in Detroit. “It makes me second-guess if I am sure this is my calling.”
Anderson makes $15.75 an hour after 13 years on the job. Nationally, the typical nursing aide makes $13.38, according to health care worker advocacy group PCI. One in 4 nursing home workers is Black.
Hundreds of other workers at six Detroit nursing homes walked off the job, according to the Service Employees International Union. The workers are demanding higher wages and more safety equipment to keep them from catching and spreading the virus, as well as better health care benefits and paid sick leave.
Participants nationwide broadly demanded action by corporations and the government to confront racism and inequality that limit mobility and career advancement for many Black and Hispanic workers, who make up a disproportionate number of those earning less than a living wage.
The demands include allowing workers to unionize to negotiate better health care, sick leave and child care support.
In South Korea, members of a transport workers union passed a resolution in support of the strike, raised their fists and chanted “Black lives matter” in Korean and “No justice, no peace” in English.
In Brazil, McDonald’s workers rallied outside the flagship restaurant in Sao Paolo. The two largest Brazilian labor federations, together representing more than 24 million workers, filed a complaint with a national prosecutor describing examples of structural racism at the company.
McDonald’s said it stands with Black communities worldwide.
“We believe Black lives matter, and it is our responsibility to continue to listen and learn and push for a more equitable and inclusive society,” the Chicago-based company said in a statement.
Justice Favor, 38, an organizer with the Laborers’ International Union Local 79, which represents 10,000 predominately Black and Hispanic construction workers in New York City, said he hopes that the strike motivates more white workers to acknowledge the existence of racism and discrimination in the workplace.
“There was a time when the Irish and Italians were a subjugated people, too,” said Favor, who is Black. “How would you feel if you weren’t able to fully assimilate into society? Once you have an open mind, you have to call out your coworkers who are doing wrong to others.”
___
Associated Press reporters around the U.S. contributed to this report.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
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Fires Set, Fences Moved: Portland Unrest Continues Under Federal Occupation
By ANDREW SELSKY and GILLIAN FLACCUS
Protesters relocate a fence in front of the Justice Center, Saturday, July 18, 2020, during another night of protests in Portland, Ore. (Mark Graves/The Oregonian via AP)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Protesters broke into a building, set it on fire and started dumpster fires late Saturday night in Oregon’s largest city, police said, as demonstrations that have been taking place since the death of George Floyd intensified for another night in Portland.
The fire at the Portland Police Association building was put out a short time later, Portland police said on Twitter. The department declared the gathering a riot, and began working to clear the downtown area.
“As the crowd was dispersed, several people in the crowd were arrested and officers were able to extinguish the fire. Portland Police did not use any CS gas,” the bureau said in a statement early Sunday. Several arrests were made.
Tear gas was deployed, according to pictures and video from the scene, but it was not necessarily CS gas. Fencing that had been placed around the federal courthouse had also been removed by protesters and made into barricades, police tweeted.
Police also said protesters had gathered on Saturday evening at the Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct, vandalizing patrol vehicles and taunting officers who were reporting for work. Later, as police dispersed a group that had gathered near North Interstate Avenue, people threw rocks and paint-filled balloons at officers. Some were injured, the statement said.
President Donald Trump has decried the demonstrations, and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf blasted the protesters as “lawless anarchists” in a visit to the city on Thursday.
“We are trying to help Portland, not hurt it,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Their leadership has, for months, lost control of the anarchists and agitators. They are missing in action. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE. These were not merely protesters, these are the real deal!”
Before the aggressive language and action from federal officials, the unrest had frustrated Mayor Ted Wheeler and other local authorities, who had said a small cadre of violent activists were drowning out the message of peaceful protesters in the city. But Wheeler said the federal presence in the city is now exacerbating a tense situation and he has told them to depart.
“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Wheeler said Friday.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum late Friday sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court. The complaint said unidentified federal agents have grabbed people off Portland’s streets “without warning or explanation, without a warrant, and without providing any way to determine who is directing this action.”
Rosenblum said she was seeking a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.”
The administration has enlisted federal agents, including the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and an elite U.S. Customs and Border Protection team based on the U.S.-Mexico border, to protect federal property.
But Oregon Public Broadcasting reported this week that some agents had been driving around in unmarked vans and snatching protesters from streets not near federal property, without identifying themselves.
Tensions also escalated after an officer with the Marshals Service fired a less-lethal round at a protester’s head on July 11, critically injuring him.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, issued a joint statement Saturday denouncing the Trump administration’s actions.
“We live in a democracy, not a banana republic. We will not tolerate the use of Oregonians, Washingtonians — or any other Americans — as props in President Trump’s political games. The House is committed to moving swiftly to curb these egregious abuses of power immediately,” they said.
Hundreds of people had gathered Friday night for a vigil outside the downtown Justice Center, which is sandwiched between two federal buildings, including a courthouse, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Across the street, dozens of other protesters entered two recently closed city parks after dismantling chain-link fencing that blocked access.
Federal agents emerged from an office building next door and used impact munitions, stun grenades and tear gas to clear the area, the news organization reported. It said its journalists did not observe any incident that might have prompted the use of the weapons.
Federal officers deployed tear gas again just before midnight after a few protesters placed dismantled fencing in front of plywood doors covering the entrance of the federal courthouse.
Early Saturday, Portland police declared the gathering unlawful, saying protesters had piled fencing in front of the exits to the federal courthouse and the Multnomah County Justice Center and then shot off fireworks at the Justice Center.
Federal officers and local police then advanced simultaneously on the demonstrators to clear the streets, making arrests as protesters threw bottles and pieces of metal fence at police, the Portland Police Bureau said. Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell told reporters Friday that his officers are in contact with the federal agents, but that neither controls the others’ actions.
The overnight action by Portland’s police was condemned by Jo Ann Hardesty, a prominent member of the City Council. Hardesty said Saturday that local police “joined in the aggressive clampdown of peaceful protest.”
Hardesty also slammed Wheeler, telling the mayor he needed to better control local law enforcement. Hardesty, who oversees the city’s fire department and other first-responder agencies, said in an open letter to Wheeler if “you can’t control the police, give me the Portland Police Bureau.”
In a statement Saturday, Portland Police said as they responded to the overnight protests — which included people throwing projectiles at them — some federal agencies took action “under their own supervision and direction.” Portland Police said city officers arrested seven people, and one officer sustained a minor injury.
The statement said the city’s police supports peaceful protests, and beginning Saturday night Department of Homeland Security police wouldn’t work in the Portland Police incident command center.
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In French Guiana, Virus Exposes Inequality, Colonial Legacy
By ARNO PEDRAM
A woman sells vegetables in the slum district of Mont Baduel, in Cayenne, French Guiana, Friday, July 10, 2020. France's most worrisome virus hotspot is in fact on the border with Brazil - in French Guiana, a former colony where health care is scarce and poverty is rampant. The pandemic is exposing deep economic and racial inequality in French Guiana that residents say the mainland has long chosen to ignore. (AP Photo/Pierre Olivier Jay)
PARIS (AP) — When white doctors walked into Camopi, a majority Indigenous town in French Guiana near the border with Brazil, townspeople felt worry instead of relief.
With French Guiana facing a wave of coronavirus infections, the doctors from the French mainland were there to administer tests and treat the sick. But for residents of the former colony, few of whom have internet or television or knew about COVID-19, the appearance of the health workers carried echoes of the arrival of Europeans in South America and the disease and exploitation they brought.
“There is still in the minds the time of colonization and the havoc wreaked by viruses brought by colonizers,” Jean-Philippe Chambrier, a member of the Arawak tribe and representative of Indigenous communities in French Guiana, told The Associated Press. “So when they saw white people from the mainland, they made the link.”
France’s most worrisome virus hot spot is on the northern coast of South America: French Guiana, a territory of about 300,000 people where poverty is rampant and health care is scarce. Its outbreak has exposed deep economic and racial inequality that residents say leaders in Paris have long chosen to ignore.
Months after the virus stabilized in mainland France, it grew in French Guiana. For weeks in June and early July, about a quarter of new daily infections reported in all of France were in French Guiana, which has just 0.5% of the French population. More than 6,500 cases have been recorded in the territory, although officials fear the number of infections is estimated to be much higher.
Its hospitals reached capacity in June, and the French military intervened to ferry patients to the French Caribbean island of Martinique. The national government sent 130 reserve health care workers to French Guiana, with more on the way.
Local officials say a porous border with Brazil and the rapid virus spread there was just part of the problem. They decry a lack of concern from the French mainland for a region where more than half the population lives under the national poverty line — some 10% don’t even have running water — and where it took more than a month to translate the government’s original COVID-19 guidance into all the local languages.
French Guiana was colonized in the 1600s, and became a French “department” in 1946, making it an integral part of France that uses the euro currency and answers to political leaders in Paris, 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) away. It’s a multi-ethnic society with multiple Indigenous communities, descendants of Black slaves, descendants of settlers, and immigrants. And although it represents one-seventh of French territory, it is rarely mentioned in French politics and news.
The virus has changed that, at least temporarily. For weeks, it’s been the top priority for France’s national health agency. New Prime Minister Jean Castex made a rare trip to French Guiana’s capital of Cayenne this week to offer moral support -– but little else.
In the slums ringing Cayenne, aid groups stepped up food distribution efforts during a lockdown that has devastated the livelihoods of those working in the informal economy. Many of them didn’t have access to temporary unemployment benefits.
Things are similarly bad in villages like Camopi, which has just one doctor for 2,000 people. Camopi detected 61 cases in May and June, and although no one died, the challenges illustrate some of France’s most pressing inequalities.
Its residents speak Wayampi, Teko, Portuguese, Creole and French. When doctors come from France, they need mediators and translators.
Silvain Louis has been a volunteer mediator in Camopi for four years. He says residents long remained ignorant about the virus and how to protect themselves. “They knew they were under lockdown, that there was a disease,” said Louis, who is of mixed Creole, Chinese and Indigenous heritage. “but there was no prevention to explain things.”
The first case Louis found was a grandmother living in his neighborhood. “She’d been lying in her hammock for two days” with a headache, sore throat and fever, he said. Like the other first cases in Camopi, she didn’t immediately think it was COVID-19.
“She thought it was fatigue or maybe the flu,” Louis said. She tested positive and was taken to Cayenne by helicopter to be hospitalized in case her condition worsened.
Because internet access, electricity and TV reception is limited to the center of Camopi, few know about the virus, Louis said, and health care workers must go “door-to-door.”
When the first additional doctors arrived, people didn’t feel safer. “From one day to the other, you see teams of doctors everywhere. It’s scary,” Louis said.
In 2016, there were 55 general practitioners for every 100,000 people in French Guiana, with most concentrated in Cayenne. That compares with 104 per 100,000 in the French mainland.
The last time French Guiana drew national attention in France was in 2017, when tens of thousands organized strikes and protests to demand better health care facilities and resources to fight crime. The state promised a new hospital, 40 million euros to help the existing Cayenne hospital and 120 new health professionals.
“We were fooled,” Gabriel Serville, one of French Guiana’s two lawmakers in the French National Assembly, told the AP. He said the money was sent only after he filed a lawsuit, while the hospital has yet to be built and the 120 health care professionals haven’t all arrived.
In January, before the virus was a major concern, Serville raised alarms about the low number of doctors, and he asked for help from Cuba.
“A lot of families live in makeshift homes where people don’t have access to water,” Serville said. “When people don’t have running water and no money because they have to feed and clothe their children and pay their rent, buying hydroalcoholic gel (hand sanitizer) is not a priority.”
Since February, Serville has been asking that pandemic measures used in the mainland be applied differently in French Guiana. Annick Girardin, the French minister of overseas territories, visited French Guiana in late June with cases there exploding, and she finally proposed measures similar to what Serville had requested.
Serville said the government uses a management style in which decisions are dictated from above, as “in the times of the colonies.” He wants that to change, so that actions are taken based on local needs instead of directives from Paris.
“The participative mode we’ve been pleading for over and over is very far from being implemented in Guiana,” Serville said.
—-
Pierre-Olivier Zay in Cayenne, French Guiana, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
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SWAPO Freedom Fighter Angula Dies
2020-07-14
by Okeri Ngutjinazo
FORMER Swapo secretary for labour and one of Namibia's most prominent political prisoners in the late 1980s, Jason Angula, died on Monday at Lady Pohamba Private Hospital in Windhoek.
The cause of his death could not be established.
Angula was freed following an international campaign for his release. He was imprisoned at South Africa's notorious detention centre at Osire, which later became a refugee camp.
President Hage Geingob took to social media to extend his condolences to Angula's family.
“Comrade Jason Angula, a committed freedom fighter, passed on. As a fearless cadre who faced the enemy on the home front, comrade Jason Angula stood firm on the principle of liberating Namibia. I extend my condolences to the family, comrades and friends. The Swapo party salutes you,” he said.
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COSATU'S STRIKE THREATS OVER TAXIS 'CONCESSIONS' BASED ON TWISTED VIEWS: SANTACO
The association has hit out at labour federation Cosatu, which indicated it may go on strike if the decision is not relooked.
Commuters wait to enter their taxi at Bree taxi rank in Johannesburg. Picture: AFP
Ayanda Nyathi
Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - With pressure mounting for the Transport Department to revise its decision allowing taxis full loading capacity, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) insists government did not succumb to the industry’s demands.
The association has hit out at the Congress for South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which indicated it may go on strike if the decision is not relooked.
There's a raging debate around whether taxis should be allowed to ferry passengers at 100% loading capacity as COVID-19 infections continue to soar.
Cosatu said the decision was a deadly appeasement and capitulation. But Santaco said the threats to go on strike were based on twisted views about the taxi industry.
In a statement, the association said Cosatu was being disingenuous and had displayed “absolute ignorance”.
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CORONAVIRUS LAYS BARE SA’S TOXIC ALCOHOL ABUSE PROBLEM
Experts say South Africans need to re-examine their relationship with alcohol.
Shoppers pose with their alcohol after the liquor sales ban was lifted on 1 June 2020. Picture: Supplied
AFP
JOHANNESBURG - The government’s move to reimpose an alcohol sales ban as South Africa’s coronavirus epidemic surges has eased pressure on hospital staff but cast a bleak spotlight on the country's booze culture.
In few other countries in the world have COVID-19 and alcohol consumption become so dangerously intertwined.
With 324,221 cases, the country is the sixth most infected country in the world for coronavirus, according to an AFP tally.
It also typically ranks among the countries with the highest per-capita alcohol consumption - a phenomenon, partly fuelled by the easy availability of drink, that also carries a high medical cost.
The staggering scale of that bill was brought home after the country imposed a rare moratorium on alcohol sales, to go hand-in-hand with a virus lockdown on 27 March.
The ban was lifted on 1 June and emergency rooms suddenly teemed with alcohol-related cases: car crashes, gunshot wounds, stab injuries and accidents, which filled beds and diverted manpower from the soaring load of coronavirus patients.
On Sunday and without notice, President Cyril Ramaphosa reinstituted the prohibition.
"When the alcohol restrictions were lifted... facilities reported up to 60% of increase in trauma emergencies admissions and up to 200% increase in ICU on trauma admissions," Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said.
The renewed ban should free up just under 50,000 beds in public hospitals over the next eight weeks, according to Charles Parry, director the Medical Research Council's alcohol research unit.
Pandemic-weary doctors were at times forced to choose between a sick patient with coronavirus and an emergency case of somebody bleeding from alcohol-related trauma, Mkhize said.
"We are hoping that number of trauma cases will come down," said Alaric Jacobs, spokesman for Groote Schuur, a large government hospital in Cape Town, one of the country's coronavirus hotspots.
"It was exhausting... having to deal with trauma cases that could have been controlled and also having to deal with COVID-19 cases."
DON'T SAY CHEERS
Experts say South Africans need to re-examine their relationship with alcohol.
"There is significant information that allows one to say that South Africa has a drinking problem," said clinical psychologist Sinqobile Aderinoye, who specialises in this matter.
"The country needs to address some of the fundamentals of alcohol abuse," such as easy access, aggressive marketing and the legal age of drinking, which currently stands at 18 years, she said.
SA has been silently struggling with a drinking problem for some time.
Mkhize said 31% of South Africans over 15 drink alcohol, and according to Parry, 170 people die per day of alcohol-connected problems.
"We let things get so bad that actually we are sixth heaviest nation in terms of the amount we drink per drinker per day -- between five and six standard drinks per day," said Parry. "We clearly have a problem."
Retailers say they were blindsided by government and their losses are starting to mount.
"We all agree that keeping the pressure off the health system is important... that every life does matter," said John Woodward of Frogitt and Vonkel, a premium wine retailer, who employs 30 people.
But "the ban and the way it's been introduced and the sweeping blanket nature of it" has put jobs at stake, he said.
"I can't believe that South Africa is so uniquely different that we need such draconian steps," said Woodward.
The National Liquor Traders Council warns some 34,500 small-scale bars known as taverns and 10,000 drinking outlets called shebeens may go bankrupt, placing up to a million jobs are at risk.
"The ban on liquor sales will have dire consequences on the tavern industry," said the council's Lucky Ntimane.
Consumers are also furious - at least one liquor store has been looted this week.
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GAUTENG RECORDS OVER 5K POSITIVE COVID-19 CASES IN 24 HOURS
The province is the epicentre of the coronavirus in the country after it surpassed the Western Cape.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize addresses a media briefing on 13 July 2020. Picture: @DrZweliMkhize/Twitter
Edwin Ntshidi & Sifiso Zulu
Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng has recorded just over 5,000 positive COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 128,604.
The province is the epicentre of the coronavirus in the country after it surpassed the Western Cape.
The initial projection warning that Gauteng will reach high levels of COVID-19 infections is now a reality. The latest statement from Health Minister Zweli Mkhize shows how the densely populated province has more than 120,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest number among all provinces compared with 85,411 cases in the Western Cape.
Last week alone the province recorded more than 36,000 new cases.
The affected areas include Johannesburg, which accounts for 54% of the province’s cases followed by Ekurhuleni at 23% and Tshwane by 16%.
The death tally is also increasing with 35 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the provincial number to 956.
On the other hand, there’s been good news, the province has recorded more than 51,000 recoveries.
Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal’s coronavirus command council said the number of people dying from COVID-19 related complications are increasing.
According to statistics from the health ministry, 401 patients have succumbed to the virus in the province so far which accounts for 11% of the country's infections.
Premier Sihle Zikalala said the province could face challenges when it comes to testing. Zikalala has urged residents to comply with the regulations of the lockdown on social gatherings.
“We want to thank the traditional leadership for working with government and sending information to communities by ensuring people adhere with the 50 people rule for funerals.”
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WHO REPORTS RECORD DAILY INCREASE IN COVID-19 CASES, SA ON THE LIST
The biggest increases reported on Saturday were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report.
FILE: Undertakers carry a coffin during the funeral proceedings for a COVID-19 coronavirus victim at a mosque in Cape Town, on 16 June 2020. Picture: AFP
Reuters
NEW YORK - The World Health Organisation reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, with the total rising by 259,848 in 24 hours.
The biggest increases reported on Saturday were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. The previous WHO record for new cases was 237,743 on Friday.
Deaths rose by 7,360, the biggest one-day increase since 10 May. Deaths have been averaging 4,800 a day in July, up slightly from an average of 4,600 a day in June.
Total global coronavirus cases surpassed 14 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, marking another milestone in the spread of the disease that has killed nearly 600,000 people in seven months. The surge means that 1 million cases were reported in under 100 hours.
The WHO reported 71,484 new cases in the United States, 45,403 in Brazil, 34,884 in India and 13,373 in South Africa.
India on Friday became the third country in the world to record more than 1 million cases of the new coronavirus, behind only the United States and Brazil. Epidemiologists say India is still likely months from hitting its peak.
Cases in Brazil crossed the 2 million mark on Thursday, doubling in less than a month and adding nearly 40,000 new cases a day. A patchwork of state and city responses has held up poorly in Brazil in the absence of a tightly coordinated policy from the federal government.
The United States, which leads with world with over 3.7 million cases, has also tried to curb the outbreak at the state and local levels with only limited success.
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SUDAN SAYS ETHIOPIA DENIES FILLING THE RENAISSANCE DAM RESERVOIR
Earlier this week talks between the three nations (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia) to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach agreement.
A general view of the Blue Nile river as it passes through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba in Ethiopia, on 26 December 2019. Picture: AFP
Reuters
CAIRO – Ethiopia has told Sudan that news reports that it had started filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam reservoir on the Blue Nile were incorrect, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Ethiopia’s charge d’affaires in Khartoum also told a senior Sudanese Foreign Ministry official in a meeting that his country had not closed the dam gates, the statement added.
Ethiopian Water Minister Seleshi Bekele said on Wednesday in televised comments, of which a transcript was given to Reuters by his office, that “the construction of the dam and the filling of the water go hand in hand”.
“The filling of the dam doesn’t need to wait until the completion of the dam,” he added.
However, the Sudanese statement quoted the Ethiopian envoy as saying that the minister “did not make the comments attributed to him yesterday about starting the process of filling the dam”.
Addis Ababa is committed to continuing African Union-sponsored talks with Sudan and Egypt over the dam, its envoy was quoted as saying.
Earlier this week talks between the three nations to regulate the flow of water from the dam failed to reach agreement.
Sudan and Egypt both fear the $4 billion hydroelectric dam could lead to water shortages in their own nations.
The project has raised concerns in Egypt that already limited Nile waters will be further restricted. The Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile from which Egypt gets 90% of its fresh water.
Egypt asked Ethiopia for urgent clarification on whether it had started filling the reservoir, the foreign ministry in Cairo said on Wednesday.
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MALIANS PRAY FOR PROTEST VICTIMS AS UN URGES RESTRAINT
The opposition June 5 Movement scrapped plans for a fresh demonstration as the West African state's international allies seek to defuse soaring tensions.
On 12 July 2020 protesters gesture on a barricade put up in front of the Salam mosque of Badalabougou, where the influential Imam Mahmoud Dicko led a prayer dedicated to the victims of the clashes of the past two days in Bamako. Picture: AFP
AFP
BAMAKO - Malians gathered in mosques on Friday to pray for those killed in turbulent protests that have shaken the country, after the opposition alliance softened an earlier pledge to hold a mass rally in honour of the dead.
The opposition June 5 Movement scrapped plans for a fresh demonstration as the West African state's international allies seek to defuse soaring tensions.
Three days of clashes between protesters and security forces last week left 11 dead and 158 injured, according to an official tally, in the bloodiest bout of political unrest Mali had seen in years.
The June 5 Movement - a disparate alliance of political, social and civil society leaders - is tapping into deep-seated anger over the country's eight-year jihadist conflict, economic woes and perceived corruption.
It has repeatedly demanded that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita step down, and rejected conciliatory offers from the president such as forming a new government of national unity.
But, in a sign of de-escalation, the movement said on Wednesday that it would urge people to commemorate the protest victims on Friday in mosques - instead of on the streets.
The news came as former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan arrived in the capital Bamako to mediate, as head of a mission from the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States.
The West Africa bloc is due to continue holding meetings between warring parties on Friday.
On the agenda will be the March-April parliamentary election, the disputed outcome of which many analysts say is the root of the latest crisis.
Mali's allies and neighbours are keen to avoid the fragile Sahel nation of some 20 million people sliding into chaos.
Swathes of the country lie outside of government control because of a jihadist insurgency that began in 2012 and has since claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.
On Friday, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights urged all sides in Mali to show restraint, and warned of an apparent surge in fake news on social media in the country.
"There are all these tensions and it risks inflaming tensions further," the commissioner's spokeswoman Liz Throssell said.
Keita's government has condemned the recent deaths of protesters, but the president appears unlikely to concede to demands that he step down.
"There have been some slip-ups. It's very unfortunate what happened, and we apologise for that," Prime Minister Boubou Cisse told French media on Thursday.
But he added that Keita's resignation is "inconceivable" since the president was democratically elected.
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GHANA SAYS 2,000 HEALTH WORKERS INFECTED BY VIRUS
"The total number of health workers infected is 2,065," Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, the director general of the country's health service, said.
FILE: A man walks with a face mask at the Kantamanto market after the partial lockdown in parts of Ghana to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus was lifted in Accra, Ghana on 20 April 2020. Picture: AFP
AFP
ACCRA - Over 2,000 health workers in Ghana have contracted coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic in the West African nation, the authorities have said.
"The total number of health workers infected is 2,065," Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, the director general of the country's health service, said Thursday.
"Out of that number, 1,870 have recovered and 183 are in isolation centres or undergoing treatment at home."
So far only six health workers are reported to have died from the virus, he said.
Ghana - which boasts one of the region's best testing rates - has reported more than 26,000 infections, of which 139 have been fatal.
The country's main medical union in April complained about shortages of protective equipment and poor distribution to medics.
Kumah-Aboagye insisted that "of late, the number of health worker infections has significantly come down" as supplies of kit and training improved.
The government has also provided tax breaks and other financial incentives for doctors and nurses on the front line.
Saturday, July 18, 2020
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China-Zimbabwe Relations Bearing Fruit
18 JUL, 2020 - 00:07
Zimbabwe Herald
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa (left) stresses a point while Gombakomba Secondary School headmaster Mr Peter Chirara (third from left), Headman Matthew Gombakomba (second from left) and Satewave Technologies chief executive officer Mr Zhou Zhongguo look on during the inspection of solar projects at Gombakomba Secondary School and electrification of Gombakomba Village in Mutare South Constituency yesterday. — Picture: Tinai Nyadzayo
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Manicaland Bureau
Two schools in Manicaland have benefited from a US$90 000 solar installation programme by the Chinese Government, which seeks to bridge the divide between rural and urban schools in terms of access to Information Communications Technology.
The programme was facilitated by Mutare-Chimanimani Senator, and Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, in partnership with the Chinese province of Anhui.
Minister Mutsvangwa also facilitated the completion of a US$17 000 electricity installation project for Gombakomba Village by the Chinese Embassy to Zimbabwe. The project, which was initiated by the community more than five years ago, had stalled due to lack of resources.
Speaking at an assessment tour of the projects at Gombakomba and Manzununu Secondary Schools yesterday, Minister Mutsvangwa said the project would help improve the lives of learners as well as restore the dignity of rural teachers.
She said it would also be instrumental in pushing Government’s 2030 vision of increasing productivity.
“We want to try and remove that divide between the rural and urban schools. The world is now a global village and our learners should be introduced to ICT for them to fit in that village. This solar project can power everything from computers, teacher’s houses, and even pump water for the schools to embark on agriculture projects,” she said.
“Now the schools can also attract the best teachers because they know that their welfare is well taken care of. Teachers had so much influence in the past, and we want to bring back that dignity they had in the communities they stay in.”
She said the solar project would be key in implementation of Government’s Education 5.0 model, which promotes productivity among the learners instead of focusing on the theory only.
Minister Mutsvangwa urged schools to utilise the solar energy to pump water for their agriculture projects that could generate income for them in future.
She said parents and teachers had a role to play in shaping a well-rounded learner who could work hard to produce enough to survive on.
“Our children should learn to be self-sufficient. They will need those skills later in life because the world is tough out there. When we bring up our children, let us teach them how to work,” she said.
She said the two projects were only the beginning of the partnership between the Province of Anhui and Manicaland as there were plans to include more schools.
President Mnangagwa’s engagement initiative had made it possible for Zimbabweans to enjoy good relations with China, with the relationship bearing fruits now
The project implementers, Satewave Technologies chief executive Mr Zhou Zhongguo said each solar project had capacity to generate about 30KW, which was enough to power the whole school and teachers’ houses.
“These solar panels have a 25-year guarantee so this means the schools are guaranteed of constant supply of energy for many years. Our company has been in Zimbabwe for many years so if there are any problems we will quickly solve them,” he said.
Gombaomba Ward 6 Councillor Mr Washington Muradzikwa welcomed the kind gesture.
“We are very grateful for the programme which will assist both Gombakomba primary and secondary schools. Our children will now be able to have practical computer studies here,” he said.
Manzununu Secondary School headmaster Mr Daveson Gondo also hailed the initiative
“We were the first beneficiaries to the Zimbabwe-China solar installation programme and will use this to introduce ICT to our children. We might be in the rural areas, but we expect our learners to be conversant in ICT as much as their urban counterparts. We also have adult learners in the community who want night studies. This solar system will help many in the community who want a chance to study,” he said.
Minister Mutsvangwa also donated five desktop computers to Manzununu school to enable them to launch ICT studies for their learners.
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African Union Holds Mini-summit on Ethiopian Dam Next Tuesday
A satellite image shows the GERD and the Blue Nile on 26 June 2020 (Maxar Technologies- Reuters)
July 17, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Several African leaders next Tuesday will discuss the filling of Ethiopia’s giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile after the failure of talks between the three riparian countries at the ministerial levels.
Talks to mediator Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president and African Union president who is preparing a new mini-summit.
The videoconference meeting on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will be held at the initiative of the South African President t Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as the Chairperson of the African Union.
"Sudan has received an invitation from the current president of the African Union to participate in a mini-summit on GERD on July 21," said Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasir Abbas in a tweet posted on Friday.
"We look forward to participating in the summit with a view to reaching a tripartite agreement on the filling and operating of the GERD," Abbas further said.
At the difference of the previous meetings, Ramaphosa is excepted to submit concrete proposals for the three parties on the filling process.
The three countries, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, have already their positions to the chairperson of the African Union. In these reports, every country expressed what it wants and why.
The three countries during the past rounds of talks have almost agreed on the technical issues but strongly diverge on the legally binding nature of the deal. and conflict resolution mechanism.
(ST)
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Sudan’s Peace Body Discuss Security Arrangements Deal
Abdel Fatah al-Burhan chairs a meeting of the Higher Peace Council in Khartoum (SC photo)
July 17, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s Higher Peace Council discussed the security arrangements under discussions with the armed groups in Juba as it remains the last issue before to sign a peace agreement.
In a statement released on Friday, the Sovereign Council said that the Council held a meeting chaired by the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and attended by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.
The Council discussed "the agreement to be signed with the (Sudanese) Revolutionary Front (SRF), in particular, the security arrangements currently being negotiated in Juba, its requirements, and how to form a national military institution".
The Sudanese government delegation and the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnwai (SLM-MM) began talks on the security arrangements on Thursday. The SRF will join them when they reach the sticky issues. The alliance had already discussed the matter with the government via video-conference.
The armed groups - SRF and SLM-MM - say they want the formation of joint units during the transitional period to protect the civilians in the Darfur region.
Also, they say the security arrangement should include the formation of a national army integrating their combatants and RSF militiamen.
The statement said the meeting discussed the organisation of field visits to Kutum and Laqawa areas where several civilians were killed by militiamen in North Darfur, and West Kordofan states.
(ST)
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Umma Party Decides to Join Sudan Transitional Government
Sudan's PM Abdallah Hamdok with NUP leader Sadiq al-Mahdi on 22 August 2019 (ST photo)
July 16, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The National Umma Party (NUP) led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, announced its participation in the institutions of the Transitional Authority ahead of an imminent cabinet reshuffle pointing to the poor performance of the technocrat government.
The NUP criticized the performance of Hamdok’s government in several areas but also froze its activities in the ruling coalition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) requesting to restructure it.
However, the largest party according to April 1986 elections said they would participate in the transitional legislative council and requested the lion’s share of the state governors.
However, in a statement to the official news agency SUNA on Thursday, the party of Sadiq al-Mahdi followed in the footsteps of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) which decided also to take part in the upcoming cabinet.
"During the past experience of the transition period, we saw the apparent poor performance and even sometimes a total lack of experience. Also, the national decision-making process had been subjected to certain political forces or partisan perspectives. Accordingly, we decided to take part (in the transitional government) within our commitment to support and strengthen the transitional period and its institutions," said Siddig Mohamed Ismail, the NUP deputy head in statements to SUNA on Thursday.
Ismail indicated that his party has reached out the Sovereign Council, the Council of Ministers and other institutions to offer their visions and ideas on the issues raised.
The transitional government, according to the Constitutional Declaration, is designed to be a technocrat cabinet to achieve needed reforms paving the way for democratic rule within three years.
The SCoP said they decided to join the second cabinet because they realized they have to support some decisions without necessarily taking part in it or approving its content.
They also pointed to the upcoming participation of the armed groups in the transitional institutions.
The heavy participation of the political forces in the second cabinet may change the technocrat nature into a political one.
Also, the military next year have to leave the chairmanship of the Sovereign Council for a civilian leader.
(ST)
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Sudan Arrests Islamist Leader Ahead of Protests Against Liberal Reforms
July 15, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese authorities on Tuesday arrested the leader of a radical group two days before protests organized by several Islamist organisations to express their rejection of the government’s amendments to the Criminal Code and other laws.
Moamed al-Gizouli’The State of Law and Development in Sudan’ said in a statement received by "Sudan Tribune", on Wednesday that " the Military Intelligence Service has arrested the party’s leader, Mohamed Ali Aljezouli." on Tuesday night.
Aljazouli is widely seen as a hard-line preacher used to spread extremist views in his Friday sermon. Also, he publicly supported the Islamic State (ISIS) during its early days, and had established an organization called "One Nation Group".
The radical group said that the arrest of its leader came as part of a campaign to "silence mouths and block the other opinion". Further, it accused the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) of censoring the critical voices of the opposition.
The group further renewed its rejection of the amendments recently made by the transitional government in a number of laws, including the criminal law, saying it "detracts from Islamic legislation".
The statement said they plan to hold demonstrations against the amendments after Friday prayers to transform it to the "Friday of mosques’ anger."
The National Congress Party of the ousted President Omer al-Bashir announced the organisation of a protest on Thursday to express their rejection of the amendments.
The National Security Council, on Wednesday, reaffirmed the constitutional right to freedom of peaceful expression and assembly and took a number of security measures including deployment of additional troops in the capital and closure of some streets and bridges.
The recent amendments to the Criminal Code permit non-Muslims to consume alcohol, abolish apostasy and punished the takfir or declaring a fellow Muslim guilty of apostasy.
Furthermore, the amendments criminalize female genital mutilation (FGM) and give women the rights to travel with their children without the need for a permit from her husband or male members of their families.
(ST)
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Death Toll in Algeria from COVID-19 Climbs to 1,028
Health authorities in Algeria, Libya and Lebanon reported new COVID-19 cases and deaths Tuesday while Jordan only confirmed new infections as the region continues to battle the pandemic.
Algeria’s Health Ministry said in a statement that 10 more people have died from COVID-19, bringing the country’s tally to 1,028.
The number of coronavirus cases reached 20,216 with 527 new infections in the last 24 hours.
A total of 14,351 people in the country have recovered from the virus.
The number of coronavirus cases in Lebanon has reached 2,451 with 32 new infections.
The death toll from the virus rose to 37 after one more fatality was recorded.
As many as 1,455 people have recovered.
In Libya, the government's National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded two more fatalities.
The NCDC said the total number of cases rose to 1,563, including 42 deaths and 370 recoveries.
Jordan reported 15 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 1,198.
Ten people have died so far from the virus and 1,013 have recovered.
Since first appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions.
The US, Brazil, India and Russia are currently the countries hardest hit in the world.
The pandemic has killed more than 576,700 people worldwide, with more than 13.2 million confirmed cases and over 7.36 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz from Ankara
Posted by Pan-African News Wire at 3:48 PM No comments:
Algeria Sees State Carrier's Losses from Coronavirus at $272 Million This Year
Saturday, July 18, 2020 2:27 p.m. EDT
by Thomson Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune talks to the press during a news conference in Algiers, Algeria, Dec. 13, 2019. REUTERS/
By Hamid Ould Ahmed
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria, already under financial pressure after a fall in energy earnings, expects state carrier Air Algerie's losses from the coronavirus pandemic to reach 35 billion dinars ($272 million) this year, the government said on Saturday.
It said all other sectors have suffered losses due to movement restrictions and lockdowns aimed at limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Air Algerie suspended both external and domestic operations in March before operating some emergency flights mainly from Europe, Turkey and Gulf countries.
That suspension caused losses estimated at 16.31 billion dinars by April, a figure that may climb to 35 billion by the end of the year, Finance Minister Ayman Benabderrahmane told a meeting with businessmen and unions.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said air, sea and land borders would remain closed until the end of the health crisis.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad, was intended to set up a commission with the aim of evaluating overall economic losses from restrictions linked to the virus.
"The state has taken preventive measures to cope with the health crisis. These measures have seriously affected the national economy," Djerad told the meeting.
He cited energy, construction, public works and transport as the main sectors that have suffered since the government started imposing restrictions in mid-March.
OPEC member and gas-exporting Algeria has already announced public spending cuts and delayed planned investment projects for this year in sectors including energy to ease the impact of lower oil prices.
"Algeria is facing an unprecedented economic situation," Djerad said.
(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by David Holmes)
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Public Debt, Populism and Protests as Tunisia Faces Crisis
By Reuters
July 17, 2020, at 10:10 a.m.
U.S. News & World Report
FILE PHOTO: Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks next to his predecessor Youssef Chahed (not pictured) during a handover ceremony in Tunis, Tunisia February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi/File PhotoREUTERS
BY ANGUS MCDOWALL AND Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) - The collapse of Tunisia's shortest-lived government since its 2011 revolution has plunged its young democracy into a new crisis after successive failures by elected leaders to turn political freedom into economic success.
Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh's coalition had only taken office in February after months of political wrangling in the deeply fragmented parliament formed by last year's election.
His resignation on Wednesday means there will be a new round of talks to try to form a government and, if that fails, another election just as the country demands clear leadership to handle the global pandemic and its economic fallout.
For Tunisia, widely seen as the sole comparative success story of the "Arab Spring" it triggered nine years ago with the revolution that introduced democracy, the stakes could hardly be higher.
"Enough is enough," said Samia ben Youssef, a teacher out shopping at a street market in the Ettahrir district of Tunis.
"At a time when people are suffering from a crisis, when coronavirus is spreading around the world, they let us face our destiny alone," she added.
Already, in the impoverished southern towns where the rising flared in 2011, a fresh wave of protesters are demanding jobs and more government aid, while the government said last week it wanted to delay debt repayments to four donor countries.
On Thursday some of these protesters started blocking Tunisia's modest oil exports by closing a pumping station, a tactic that has already damaged the phosphate industry.
Against this fraught backdrop, Tunisia faces a reckoning with its awkward democratic model, a mix of parliamentary and presidential systems but without a constitutional court, which was intended to resolve disputes but has not yet been set up.
With many leading politicians, including the president, wanting to change the system, the party that did best in a recent opinion poll is the one that champions the old, pre-revolution, autocracy.
"My fear is we are entering an era of turbulence and without having enough political force to face it ... It's a very gloomy scenario," said Youssef Cherif, a political analyst.
POLARISATION
Politicians now have until late August to form a new government with majority support in parliament, but will struggle to bridge the divisions that weakened Fakhfakh's coalition.
The largest party is the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the only constant presence in Tunisian politics since the revolution as numerous other parties rapidly came and went. But it has only a quarter of the seats and its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, faces a vote of confidence as parliament speaker.
Tunisia's biggest political rift is over fiscal policy. Ennahda has tended to stand with parties that favour reforms sought by donors to curb spending and public debt.
President Kais Saied appears to stand on the other side of that division, Cherif said, along with Arab nationalist parties and the other major player in Tunisian politics, a powerful labour union.
Talks have already started with the International Monetary Fund over a new loan programme, but it has previously wanted tough economic reforms that much of parliament opposes.
In parliament on Thursday the tense political atmosphere was encapsulated by Abir Moussi and her populist Destouri party, which voices support for the ousted autocracy of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who died in exile last year.
They seized the speaker's chair to stop Ghannouchi sitting there, raising the spectre of renewed tension between Islamists and secularists and aggravating the risk of street confrontations between their supporters.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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Tunisia Protesters Shut Down Main Oil Production Site in South
Demonstrators want gov't to invest more in marginalised region hit by high unemployment and failing infrastructure.
Demonstrators have shut a major oil pumping station in southern Tunisia, escalating weeks of protests for jobs and economic development in the deprived region.
Hundreds of protesters on Thursday forced their way into the remote El-Kamour production site, located in the desert south of the town of Tataouine despite the presence of army personnel protecting petroleum installations.
A hefty contingent of forces had been deployed to the site, including a helicopter, but there was no violence between security personnel and protesters who chanted "Tataouine does not give up" and sang the national anthem, according to AFP news agency.
The demonstration follows weeks of unrest in Tunisia's south, one of the country's most marginalised regions, burdened by above-average unemployment, failing infrastructure and an underdeveloped private sector.
Since July 9, a few dozen demonstrators have been camped in the desert near El Kamour. Other groups joined them on Thursday before the site was breached.
Protesters are calling on the government to implement a 2017 deal to create jobs in oil companies and infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment now running at 30 percent in the region, one of the highest rates in Tunisia.
The latest demonstration came as Tunisian leaders struggle with political deadlock following the resignation of Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh on Wednesday, and after an attempt by several parties to remove Speaker Rached Ghannouchi.
Marathon negotiations are currently under way to find within 10 days a new prime minister who can win the confidence of Parliament by September, failing which Tunisia will have to hold a general election.
The closure of the pumping station follows clashes last month between police and job-seeking protesters in Tataouine.
About 10 years after a popular revolution ended Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's rule, Tunisia is still struggling to deliver economic opportunities to unemployed young people in regions such as Tataouine.
On Monday, Investment Minister Slim Azzabi said Tunisia had asked four countries to delay loan repayments expected this year, as it announced more pessimistic budget forecasts for 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The request underscores the dire condition of Tunisia's public finances, already a source of concern before the coronavirus crisis pummeled the global economy.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES