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Tens Of Thousands Protest In Mali, Seeking for the President to step down
Dozens of people rallied in Mali’s capital Bamako on yesterday to demand the stepping down of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, heeding the call of the country’s newly resurgent opposition.
The 75-year-old president is under extreme force over failures to contain a jihadist insurgency that emerged in northern Mali in 2012 and escalate to the fragile centre of the West African state.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
On Friday, an imam led tens of thousands of protesters in a prayer in a central city square.
Protesters then sang the national anthem and blew vuvuzela horns, with many toting placards bearing anti-government slogans.
The demonstration follows a similar rally on June 5 organised by a newly-formed coalition of opposition groups.
That coalition has since adopted the name, “Movement of June 5 — Rally of Patriotic Forces.”
Religious leaders coming together and civil society figures, the coalition is channelling deep-seated frustration about the slow pace of progress and continuing bloodshed.
Source___Channels TV
Nigeria Toll of Covid-19 Infections Exceed 19,000
Nigeria on yesterday confirmed 667 new cases of the novel coronavirus pushing its total infections past the 19,000 mark, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
According to the health agency, Lagos reported the highest number of new cases with 281, Abia with 48, Oyo with 45, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 38 cases.
Other states with new cases include Ogun (37), Enugu (31), Ondo (23), Plateau (21), Edo (19), Delta (18), Rivers (18), Bayelsa (17), Akwa Ibom (17), Kaduna (14), Kano (12), Bauchi (9), Gombe (4), Osun (3), Benue (3), Kwara (3), Ekiti (2), and Borno (1).
The novel coronavirus has now killed at least 456,630 people worldwide since the outbreak began in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP as of 1900 GMT on Friday.
At least 8,555,330 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 3,952,400 are considered recovered.
Source___Channels TV
Dozens of Americans celebrates Juneteenth, A call for progress and national recognition
In the past years of celebrating Juneteenth, the holiday which usually celebrates the day in 1865 that all enslaved Black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked by African American families across the nation with a cookout, a parade, a community festival, a soulful rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”.
The way it is marked in 2020 is different, as the coronavirus ravishes Black America disproportionately, as economic uncertainty wrought by the pandemic strains black pocketbooks, and as police brutality continues to devastate Black families, Juneteenth is a day of protest.
For many white Americans, present protests over police brutality have heightened their knowledge of Juneteenth’s significance.
“This is one of the first times since the 60s, where the global demand, the intergenerational demand, the multiracial demand is for systemic change,” said Cornell University professor Noliwe Rooks, a segregation expert.
‘Friday’s celebrations was marked from coast to coast with marches and demonstrations of civil disobedience, along with expressions of Black joy despite of an especially traumatic time for the nation.’
And like the nationwide protests that followed the police-involved deaths of Black men and women in Minnesota, Kentucky and Georgia, Juneteenth celebrations are likely to be remarkably more multiracial.
Source___Aljazeera
Brazil is the second country to hit one million cases of Corona Virus.
Brazil has become the second country in the world to record not less than one million cases of Covid-19, as the disease continues to escalate.
The health ministry also posted a record toll of new cases in the past 24 hours – more than 54,000.
Moreover, there were more than 1,200 deaths for the fourth consecutive day, taking the total to nearly 49,000.
A lack of testing suggests the true figures are higher and experts say the outbreak is weeks away from its peak.
The new figure was revealed hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the coronavirus pandemic was entering a “new and dangerous” phase, with its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warning that cases were rising at the same time as people are growing weary of lockdowns and governments are seeking to resume their economies.
Only the US has seen more infections than Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticised for his response to the crisis. He has repeatedly clashed with state governors and mayors who have adopted strict restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, shutting down major cities.
Source___BBC
Imam Leigh Denise of giving any assent to LGBT in The Gambia
Earlier in this week, the under fire Imam Baba Leigh of the National Human Rights Commission make known he was holding a press conference at his Kanifing Estate residence to react to ongoing condemnation of his person and his commission for recommending to government to defend the rights of LGBT persons.
Nonetheless, it became the presser that never was as the Kanifing Estate Mosque imam called it off reportedly on the advice of his family.
Instead Imam Leigh released an audio in which he tried to whiten the stain of pro-gay stain daubed on him.
He stated: “Comments associated with me that I went to President Barrow to tell him to legalise this bad culture [homosexuality] that is rejected by all Muslims is completely false. I swear to God, I have never said that and I will never say it and I don’t like it.”
The imam said his brief at the commission is mediation and reconciliation. “That is my number one task. This is why my job is tasking. I am also part of the team that visits detention centres because I was once in jail and I had experience in prisons. I also advise the commission on the matter of religion.”
He said NHRC “does not have the mandate to legalise LGBT rights in The Gambia”.
*Wrong reference
The imam, a longstanding human rights activist, apologised for mis-referencing a statement he made as a verse in the Qur’an while reacting to calls for his resignation from the NHRC.*
“It was brought to my attention by Sheikh Ibrahima Cham that the verse I labelled as Qur’anic was in fact a hadith. That was a mistake from my end and I seek God’s forgiveness because God is the Only One who can forgive. No man is perfect and whenever you make a mistake you should accept and rectify yourself by apologising to the people you offended,” he said in the audio according to Standard.
Source___Standard Newspaper
How Nigeria Can reduce COVID-19 Death toll – Health Minister
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has put forward on how Nigeria can reduce the death rate as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Briefing reporters on Thursday in Abuja, he urged Nigerians to see the increase in the number of confirmed cases as a warning that fatalities would increase too.
Ehanire, who spoke at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, however, said there was no cause for alarm as certain measures could be taken to control the death toll.
He explained that majority of deaths confirmed were over 50 years and those with pre-existing ailments such as diabetes, cancer, and hypertension, among others.
The minister urged the people to specially protect those who fall in such groups, adding that they should be encouraged to stay at home to limit them from getting exposed to COVID-19.
He stressed the need for them to wear face masks once outside their houses, or when inside the house with persons who may have been exposed.
He urged them to avoid going to market, worship centres, and places where there can be a crowd.
The minister advised all persons in the vulnerable group who tested positive to immediately go to a treatment centre, in their own interest.
Source___Channel TV
Global Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 450,000
The toll of people killed by coronavirus worldwide passed 450,000 on Thursday, after the toll doubled in just a month and a half, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources at 1615 GMT.
A total number of 450,004 people have died from the disease out of 8,395,929 cases reported across the world since COVID-19 emerged in China late last year.
Europe has been the hardest-hit continent, with 190,120 deaths from 2,469,242 infections, but the pandemic is now spreading most rapidly in Latin America, which has recorded 86,706 deaths from 1,840,488 cases.
Source___Channels TV
US Supreme Court orders against Trump in ‘inconstant’ DACA case
The US Supreme Court allot US President Donald Trump a major setback on his hardline immigration policies, ruling against his bid to end a programme that protects from deportation 650,000 immigrants, dubbed “Dreamers”, who entered the United States as children without documentation.
The juiry on Thursday upheld lower court rulings that found Trump’s 2017 move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, created in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, was unlawful.
“The Supreme Court is on the right side of justice and history and it’s been a really long, torturous couple of months,” said Joella Roberts, who was four-years old when she came to the US with her mom and brother in 2001 from Trinidad and Tobago.
Sumbul Siddiqui, 27, came to the US with her Pakistani parents and is a second-year medical student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.
Nonetheless, the court concluded the “total rescission” of DACA “was arbitrary and capricious”.
Meanwhile, Dreamer immigrants retain their protection from deportation and their authorisation to work in the US.
Source___Aljazeera
Ten Indian soldiers presumably freed by China
China has released 10 Indian soldiers succeeding a deadly clash between the two sides on Monday, according to Indian media reports.
The Hindu newspaper, quoting military sources, said those freed included a lieutenant-colonel and three majors.
The Indian government has not make known the news yet, nor confirmed that any of its troops were missing.
The fight in the Galwan Valley left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead and raised tensions between the two powers.
China did not acknowledge any casualties among its forces, while at least 76 Indian soldiers were injured. Both sides accused the other of an incursion.
The border between the two nations in the region is poorly demarcated and can shift with topographical changes.
As said by Shiv Aroor, a senior editor at India Today, the release of the Indian troops formed a key point of negotiations between the two sides on Wednesday.
Source___BBC
China charges Canadian Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor with spying
China has charged two Canadians with spying, not less than 18 months after they were set back.
Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, have been taken into custody since December 2018.
Their detention came just days after Meng Wanzhou – an executive of the Chinese giant Huawei – was detained in Vancouver, at the appeal of the US.
Canada called the arrests “arbitrary”, but China denies they were retaliation for Ms Meng’s detention.
Both men have been charged with “spying on national secrets” and providing intelligence for “outside entities”.
China’s court system is completely controlled by the Communist Party and has an almost 100% conviction rate once defendants are charged, notes the BBC’s Stephen McDonell in Beijing.
Source___BBC
D5 Creation