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World Bank alert 60m at risk of ‘extreme poverty’
Up to 60m people will be at risk of “extreme poverty” by the coronavirus alerts the president of the World Bank.
David Malpass said the bank contemplates global economic growth to diminish by 5% this year as nations overcome this pandemic.
This has so far led to millions losing their jobs and businesses losing profits, with poorer countries feeling the impact.
“Millions of livelihoods have been destroyed and healthcare systems are under strain worldwide,” he said.
“Our estimate is that up to 60 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty – that erases all the progress made in poverty alleviation in the past three years,” Mr Malpass warned on Tuesday.
The World Bank defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than $1.90 (£1.55) per person per day.
The Washington-based usurer is giving $160bn in grants and low-interest loans to help poor countries overcome the crisis. Mr Malpass said that 100 countries, home to 70% of the world’s population, had already been given emergency finance.
“While the World Bank is providing sizeable resources, it won’t be enough,” he added.Mr Malpass said he was also frustrated with commercial lenders dragging their heels on offering debt relief to poor nations. “I have been somewhat frustrated by the slow pace. Commercial creditors are still, by and large, taking payments from even the poorest countries and there needs to be faster movement.”
“It is my fervent hope that we use this crisis as a catalyst to rebuild an economy that creates and sustains opportunity for dramatically more people, especially those who have been left behind for too long,” he wrote ahead of the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday.
Source___BBC News
Brazil confirms third-highest Covid-19 infection level
Brazil has become the country with the third-highest number of recorded coronavirus infections in the world, after reaching a total of more than 250,000 cases.
Experts say inadequate testing might mean that the real figure in Brazil could be 15 times higher than it is.
The country’s ‘far-right’ president, Jair Bolsonaro, has abandoned the risks and compared Covid-19 to “a little flu”.
His handling of the Covid-19 escalation- which has included calls for lockdowns put forward by state governors to be lifted – has led to backlash and the resignation of Health Minister Nelson Teich last week.
Mr Teich’s predecessor, Luiz Mandetta, was dismissed by President Bolsonaro after the two men clash over social distancing measures.
But Mr Bolsonaro’s attention is on lessening economic disruption has been welcomed by many supporters who have put forward anti-lockdown rallies, some of which the president attended.
Brazil now has not less than a quarter of a million recorded cases. More than 16,000 Covid-19 patients have died, the sixth-highest number of deaths in the world.
Source___BBC News
Untimely results from Moderna coronavirus vaccine assessment show participants succeeded antibodies against the virus
*Volunteers who received Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to develop the vaccine.*
If future findings end up well, the company’s vaccine could be in the doorstep of the public as early as January, Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told CNN.
“This is absolutely good news and news that we think many have been waiting for for quite some time,” Zaks said.
These untimely data come from the Phase 1 clinical test, which typically studies a small number of people and focuses on whether a vaccine is reliable and elicits an immune response or not.
The results of the study, which was led by the National Institutes of Health, have not been peer write up or published in a medical journal yet.
Source___CNN
Lesotho PM Steps Down Amidst Wife Murder Scandal
Lesotho’s embattled Prime Minister Thomas Thabane make known his renunciation on Monday, ending months of political variability troubling the kingdom since he was indicted for taking part in his ex-wife’s murder.
“I decided to personally come and inform you that I am stepping down as prime minister of Lesotho,” Thabane told supporters in his Abia home constituency on the outskirts of the capital Maseru.
The 80-year-old did not formally state his exactly resignation date but government spokesman Nthakeng Selinyane said the premier would officially “announce his resignation” in an address to the nation on Tuesday.
“It is rather difficult to part ways with something that you had been accustomed to and leave people behind, but we all have to leave at some point,” Thabane added.
Thabane, whose term is due to end in 2022, had in January set himself a earmark of leaving office by July 31 because of his old age.
But Lesotho has been set in by political instability since the start of this year, when police said they found Thabane’s mobile number in communications records from the scene of his murdered wife.
This evidence backlash within and outside Thabane’s party to demand his immediate step down.
His wife Lipolelo Thabane, 58, was shot and killed outside her home two days before her husband’s come into office in July.
Source___Channels TV
US Says WHO ‘Non-performance’ On COVID-19 ‘Cost Many Lives’
The United States on Monday condemned the World Health Organization’s “failure” to secure and provide significant information on COVID-19 that could have help stop the pandemic and saved many lives.
“We must be frank about one of the primary reasons this outbreak spun out of control: there was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives,” US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said in a video address to the WHO’s main annual meeting.
Azar hold out that the WHO had to change and become more clear, as he reverse an independent review of “every aspect” of the UN health agency’s response to the escalates pandemic.
The escalation, which first started in China late last year, has killed and infected more people in the United States than in any other country by far.
Washington has adjourned its funding to the WHO, indicting it of being too close to Beijing, and covering up and mishandlng of the pandemic.
“In an apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak, at least one member state made a mockery of their transparency obligations, with tremendous costs for the entire world,” said Azar.
“We saw that the WHO failed at its core mission of information sharing and transparency when member states do not act in good faith.
“This cannot ever happen again. The status quo is intolerable. WHO must change, and it must become far more transparent and far more accountable.”
Azar said that while countries were concentrating on the sudden response to the pandemic, they US Says WHO ‘Failure’ On COVID-19 ‘Cost Many Lives’
Source___Channels TV
One more time , Distrusted Boko Haram Rebels Attack Dapchi Community
Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram rebels have once again attacked Dapchi community in Yobe state shooting discontinuously
A Dapchi inhabitant solely known as Garba told Channels Television that the security personnel put on duty in the community engaged the gunmen while he was fleeing into the bush for safety.
Garba who is a mechanic further make known that the attackers shift away food opiate brought into the palace of the District Head by State Emergency Management Agency and later set the palace ablaze.
*The Police Public Relation Officer in the state, ASP Abdulkarim Dungus confirmed the incident but said the number of casualties are still sketchy as means of communications have been tempered with making contacts very difficult .*
Attempts to speak with the Acting Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Sector 2 Operation Lafiya Dole, Lieutenant Chinonso Oteh manifest abortive as he could not be reached on the phone.
Dapchi, a town about 100 kilometers from Damaturu the state capital was last bombarded on March 5, 2020 in which seven mobile police officers were killed and also an bulletproof vehicle burnt down.
Source___Channels TV
Police Debrief Rambo over Toufa Statement
Police have cross-questioned Ousman Rambo Jatta, the deputy leader of opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction over comments made against Toufa – the TRRC witness who assigned guilt to former President Yahya Jammeh of rape.
The Point Newspaper has been notified that Rambo Jatta was asked questions by police on Friday at the Police Headquarters in Banjul over comments he made last year; during APRC political rally in Abuko against Toufa.
*The APRC No. 2 was quoted as saying that they will deal with Toufa Jallow after the release of the recommendations of the TRRC.*
The deputy spokesperson of the APRC, Dodou Jah has disclosed this development to Point Newspaper reporter.
He said the police only questioned Rambo to elaborate on what he meant by dealing with Toufa after the TRRC recommendations.
As disclosed by Rambo,he told the police that they were going to take a legal action against Toufa who put accusations against former President Yahya Jammeh of rape.
“Many in fact believe that it has to do with Rambo’s recent comments about people that are insulting former President Jammeh. Again, we will not sit only for people to be insulting former President Jammeh. He should be respected as a former head of state who has too many followers.”
Source___The Point Newspaper
‘President’s term cannot start from 2017′
As the debate on the two-term limitation in the draft constitution tantrum is on, a foremost constitutional lawyer has accorded with the cabinet that President Barrow’s first term cannot start from 2017.
The Standard issued he cabinet’s agitation about certain provisions in the draft, among which is the two-term limit which bars President Barrow from running after 2021 election.
Briefing as a panelist on the Paradise TV national exchange of views on the final draft constitution Saturday, Barrister Lamin J Darbo, while pointing what he seen as “too many conflicts” in the final draft constitution, said if Barrow wins next election, then his first term should start from there.
“There is a fundamental issue in the constitution: retroactive application of constitutional provisions. It is in the 1997 constitution Section 102 C. The president’s right to serve as president is vested. In this other constitution also, the same thing. No retroactive application. So the president’s term cannot start from 2017. Whatever you think about it; whatever your views about the president and his government, what we must always do is to ensure that we are fair in our national conversations; ensure that we abide by the rule of law; it is very important. And the rule of law is really scuttled as far as commencing the president’s two-year term from 2017. This of course is a democratic process, but are we assuming that the president is going to win in 2021? Even if that assumption is correct, his term should not start from 2017. That is something we need to look at,” Darbo said.
Barrister Darbo concured that the executive has hold on to the draft longer than required but the agenda of the executive often spoken about is actually lawful.
“Some people say the president should take it the National Assembly; I agree it spent a lot of time with the executive. That is needless. And the executive also has its own agenda but that is legitimate because the executive is a legitimate stakeholder,” he added.
Source…Standard Newspaper
14 Indicted In The Diplomatic Passport Misconduct
After months of findings into the diplomatic passport scandal that hit the country last year, 14 individuals have now been indicted with various offences, judicial sources informed The Standard.
The scandal bothered he Barrow government in November 2019 when at least 20 individuals were taken into custody for their accused involvement in the issuance of Gambia’s diplomatic passport for financial gains.
The arrested individuals included officials from Immigration, Police, foreign ministry and others.
The scandal gained international attention, with the foreign ministry disclosing members of the Diplomatic and Consular corp in September on the investigations.
Nonetheless, it looks like the matter is kind of put in to control now as it is heading to the courts now. Ministry of Justice has already put forward the charges, waiting for a judge to be chosen for the case before a hearing.
The individuals are charged with various offences ranging from obtaining money by false pretences, forgery: making false documents; uttering false documents; theft; receiving stolen goods; to making documents without authority.
*Last year the Government Spokesman Ebrima Sankareh told the media that the investigation panel had also contacted Interpol to write to their counterparts and to revoke the diplomatic passports issued to some investors, who acquired the diplomatic passports.*
Sankareh stated that President Adama Barrow had promised that there will be “no sacred cows; no one will be spared in these investigations regardless of one’s position”.
The Solicitor General, Cherno Marenah, make known to The Standard that the opinion has already been done and that the case will go to court.
The Standard understands that 20 individuals were initially recommended for prosecution.
Source___Standard Newspaper
Gambia to move facilitate amelioration in the electricity and telecommunication sectors
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved on the 14 May a $30 million development policy grant to support The Gambia’s struggles to improve debt and public investment management, improve financial viability and service delivery in the energy and telecom sectors, and improve the flexibility and governance framework of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
”This first in a series of two programmatic Development Policy Operations supports The Gambia’s efforts to undertake fundamental reforms to improve fiscal management for better public service delivery,” said Elene Imnadze, World Bank Resident Representative.
*This Development Policy Operation will ensure public investment projects are appraised as per National Development Plan priorities and support the adoption of a new procurement bill to eliminate the use of single source procurement and tighten the emergency clause for its use*
The financing will also help improve the financial and operational fulfilment of the energy effectiveness in order to provide cheaper, more reliable and cleaner energy.
Additionally, it will also help the reservation of the telecom infrastructure and restructuring of the SOEs in that sector to improve the digital economy.
“This operation will support the government in strengthening fiscal transparency and reducing fiscal risks and promote a governance framework to ensure long-term sustainability of the SOE sector,” said Mehwish Ashraf, World Bank Country Economist and co-Task Team Leader.
*This first operation is aligned with the development priorities of the Government as reflected in the National Development Plan for 2018-2021 which identifies economic stabilization, growth stimulation and structural transformation as key priorities for The Gambia.*
Source___Standard Newspaper
D5 Creation