Featured News
now browsing by category
Who is Kamala Harris?
The California Democrat was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.
After her parents’ divorce, Ms Harris was raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.
She grew up engaged with her Indian heritage, joining her mother on visits to India, but Ms Harris has said that her mother adopted Oakland’s black culture, immersing her two daughters – Kamala and her younger sister Maya – within it.
“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography The Truths We Hold. “She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”
She attended college in the US, spending four years at Howard University, one of the nation’s preeminent historically black colleges and universities, which she has described as among the most formative experiences of her life.
Ms Harris says she’s always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as “an American”.
She told the Washington Post in 2019, that politicians should not have to fit into compartments because of their colour or background. “My point was: I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it,” she said.
After four years at Howard, Ms Harris went on to earn her law degree at the University of California, Hastings, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
She became the district attorney – the top prosecutor – for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first woman and the first black person to serve as California’s attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America’s most populous state.
In her nearly two terms in office as attorney general, Ms Harris gained a reputation as one of the Democratic party’s rising stars, using this momentum to propel her election as California’s junior US senator in 2017.
Credit_BBC
Trump’s conspiracy theory against Ms Harris failed.
According to BBC, the campaign team for Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden has issued a scathing response after US President Donald Trump amplified a conspiracy theory about his running mate.
Mr Trump said he had “heard” that Kamala Harris – a US-born citizen whose parents were immigrants – “doesn’t qualify” to serve as US vice-president.
The fringe theory put forward by Trump has been dismissed by constitutional experts.
The Biden campaign called the comments “abhorrent” and “pathetic”.
They noted that Mr Trump spent years promoting a false “birther” theory that ex-President Barack Obama was not born in the US.
Ms Harris, a senator from California, on Tuesday became the first black woman and the first Asian-American to be named as a running mate on a main-party US presidential ticket.
“Donald Trump was the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency,” a Biden campaign spokesman said in an email.
“So it’s unsurprising, but no less abhorrent, that as Trump makes a fool of himself straining to distract the American people from the horrific toll of his failed coronavirus response that his campaign and their allies would resort to wretched, demonstrably false lies in their pathetic desperation.”
Ms Harris was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on 20 October 1964. As such, she is eligible to serve as president or vice-president.
Constitutional scholars have dismissed the fringe legal theory that Mr Trump was referring to.
India coronavirus cases cross 2.5 million
The average daily reported cases jumped from around 15,000 in the first week of July to more than 50,000 in August.
India is ready to mass produce COVID-19 vaccines when scientists give the go-ahead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day speech on August 15, also launching a national project to roll out health identities for each citizen.
In annual celebrations held at the 17th-century Red Fort and scaled down due to the pandemic, Modi identified health and economic self-reliance as the key priorities for his government.
At the event, soldiers who ceremonially welcomed Modi had been under quarantine days before the event.
Only around 4,000 guests were allowed and made to sit six feet apart, while medical booths with ambulances were set up for any attendee showing COVID-19 symptoms during entry.
Source___Aljazeera
The heaviest defeat Barcelona have suffered in years of the league.
Five-time Barcelona left without answers after German side’s ruthless display dumps them out of the Champions League.
Barcelona has “hit rock bottom” after the humiliating defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champion League quarter finals, the Spanish side’s defender Gerard Pique said.
The Catalan club were thrashed 8-2 in a one-sided match and had no answers to the German team’s energetic high-press tactics.
Not even captain Lionel Messi, one of the best footballers in the world, could save Barcelona at the end of a season in which he has seemed increasingly agitated by the disarray.
“It’s a disastrous result,” Pique said after Friday’s loss dumped the five-time winners out of the tournament.
“An embarrassment, that’s the word. We have hit rock bottom.”
This was a night of utter misery in Lisbon in the pandemic-enforced single-game reformatting of a knockout stage that has never a seen a team lose so heavily in the Champions League era.
If it wasn’t embarrassing enough, Barcelona had to watch Philippe Coutinho, on loan to Bayern Munich from Barcelona, inflict the final blows and make the collapse all the more painful.
Mai says if APRC should take him to court, they will be left with no money.
Replying to APRC’s blast that they are going to take legal actions against him if he fails to prove his allegations of corruption against them, GMC leader, Mai Fatty said he strongly stands by his claims that the party unconstitutionally benefited directly and indirectly from millions of taxpayer funds.
The former Interior minister told The Standard yesterday: “I stand fully behind my statement that based on audit reports, the APRC illegally benefited directly and indirectly from millions of taxpayer funds throughout its 2 decades of existence.”
“There is evidence that 22 million Dalasis of public funds was transferred to APRC Mobilisation Account Number at Guaranty Trust Bank. These are monies belonging to Gambians that were unlawfully transferred through the Accountant General’s Department on the orders of Yahya Jammeh to finance APRC. These illegal funds that APRC unlawfully benefited from, should be recovered by the Government and returned to the public treasury. I maintain this position and call on the government to recover these funds without delay,” he said.
According to Standard, Fatty said there are more revelations in the audit report and as soon as he is ready with a forensic evaluation of the entire report, he will produce more results for the APRC to refund the state.
On APRC’s threat of a legal action against him, Mai challenged the party to sue him without delay.
“I urge them not to delay this matter, and to do so with utmost agency. I am absolutely confident that this would be a very costly decision they would regret. It will lead to their declaration of bankruptcy and their eventual elimination from the political process for good. I am eagerly waiting for their suit, and I hope the APRC will not chicken out on this threat. Gambians should know that this is an empty threat the APRC dare not implement,” he added.
Fatty further said the best way out for APRC is to apologise to Gambians and rehabilitate their ways.
Source___ Standard Newspaper
Press Release
In exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 3 of the Emergency Powers Act, His Excellency, President Adama Barrow in consultation with Covid-19 experts at the Ministry of Health, has amended the Regulations governing markets throughout The Gambia.
Effective Thursday [today], 13th August, 2020, the following restrictions shall be operational and should now supersede all previous restrictions governing the opening and closing of markets and shopping outlets in The Gambia.
1. Citation and duration
These Regulations may be cited as Restrictions on Markets and Shopping Areas Emergency Powers (Amendment) Regulations, 2020
2. Restrictions on retail outlets
(1) A person trading in food products in any market shall open for business only between the hours of 6:00am and 2:00pm each day.
(2) A person trading in non-food products in any market shall open for business only between the hours of 3:00pm and 7:00pm
4. Amendment of regulation 3
Regulation 3 (1) of the Principal Regulations is amended by substituting it with following new sub-regulation –
“(1) Except those exempted under sub-regulation (2), all non-food retail outlets located outside of markets throughout The Gambia, shall only be opened to the public between the hours of 6:00am and 3:00pm.”
However, all markets throughout The Gambia shall remain close on Sundays for routine cleansing and fumigation. The closures do not affect food vendors or shops outside the markets.
President Barrow wishes to thank the business community for its compliance and Gambians for their perseverance during this very difficult period as his government continues to explore all possibilities to mitigate and contain the effects of the Covid-19 virus in The Gambia.
This new amendment came into effect to ease the burden on a cross section of the business community following their total closure last week.
Accordingly, President Barrow urges all businesses and members of the public to continue complying with these new regulations, by always face masking, hand washing and adhering to strict social distancing.
Citizens and residents are reminded that the 10:00 pm to 5:00am curfew remains.
Dozens injured in the violence of Niamina
A communal violence between Niamina Sambang Fula Kunda and Mandinka Kunda on Tuesday evening left over dozens severely injured and several compounds set ablaze, Standard said.
“We can confirm the communal dispute between Niamina Sambang Fula Kunda and Mandinka Kunda on 11th August 2020. The incident resulted in 22 injuries from both sides including a woman and three compounds in Fula Kunda were burnt,” police spokesman Superintendent Lamin Njie said.
He said a team of security officers was placed to the ground to calm further escalation of the violence.
“Equally, an investigation is opened into the matter.”
Standard asked if any arrests have been made, PRO Njie reply to them that, the details of arrests have not reached his office so far, hence investigations to get all those involved continue.
Violence between the two CRR communities continues to flare up since communal tensions broke out over disputed rice fields in 2018.
According to media reports, the occurrence took place when a donkey from one of the rival communities entered into the farmland of others leading to confrontation.
Credit___Standard Newspaper
Why Lagos State Government Demolishes Shanties, kiosks, and shops.
The Lagos State government on Wednesday demolished over 150 shanties, kiosks, and shop extensions around Arewa Community Central Mosque, popularly called Masalashi Allhaja, in the Agege area.
Channels TV said on defending the exercise, Chairman of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit Taskforce, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, described the shanties as illegal and an environmental “eyesore”.
Egbeyemi, in a statement, said relevant stakeholders, including Alhaji Musa Muhammad Dogon Kadai, the Sarki of Agege, were notified before the demolition was carried out.
“The area has since become eyesore and security threat to residents including members of the public as the entire area including the surroundings of the mosque had been occupied by miscreants and illegal traders,” he added.
Source___Channels TV
Court Martial Sentences Nigerian Soldier To 55 Years Imprisonment for Murder.
A General Court Martial (GCM) sitting in the Nigeria’s capital, Abuja has sentenced a soldier serving with the Nigerian Army to 55 years in prison for culpable homicide, theft and housebreaking.
According to Channels TV, the soldier, Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim was accused of robbing and killing one Bello Abdullahi Aliyu in Gidan Darib, Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State on August 11, 2014.
Channels TV said he pleaded guilty to the four-count charge preferred against him and was sentenced in line with the provisions of the Armed Forces Act.
Delivering the judgement, the President of the Court, Major General Priye Fakrougha advocated the need for members of the Armed Forces to adhere strictly to rules and regulations guiding the conduct of military personnel in and out of uniform.
“Having listened to the plea of litigation of the Defence Counsel and the submission of the Prosecution Counsel, this General Court Martial finds the accused soldier guilty as he earlier pleaded of all the four-count charges,” he said.
“In this particular case before this court, there is no amount of sentence that will be commensurate to the life that has already been lost.
“Therefore, this General Court Martial, having found the accused soldier 2008/NA/61/2672, Lance Corporal Babangida Ibrahim guilty as he earlier pleaded, hereby sentence him as follows:
“Count one on culpable homicide not punishable with death contrary to and punishable under Section 224 of the Penal Code CAP P3, Laws of the Federation 2004 be awarded 40 years of imprisonment.
“Count two offence of housebreaking contrary to and punishable under Section 110 of the Armed Forces Act is awarded five years imprisonment.”
Lance Corporal Ibrahim was sentenced to 40 years in the first count, five years in the second, third and fourth counts.
Although the second, third and fourth counts are to run concurrently, the verdict is, however, subject to ratification by the Nigerian Army Council.
Credit___Channels TV
Women still struggling to get to the top
Kamala Harris makes history as US vice presidential candidate, but barriers remain for women in power around the world.
This week, US Democratic party presidential candidate Joe Biden announced that Senator Kamala Harris would be his running mate and future vice president if he wins the vote this November. This is frontier stuff – it is the first time a woman of colour has been given such a position on a major party ticket in the US. To some, this highlights how patriarchal the system remains as she had to have it bestowed upon her by a man – Biden. It remains to be seen if this is a real marker for progress, or a tokenistic effort on the part of the Democrats.
The fact is that the obstacles preventing most women from reaching positions of power remain firmly in place.
“It is quite astonishing to see that more than 100 years after women were first given the right to vote (in Iceland), the first-ever elected woman president is still alive,” says Koch-Mehrin.
She is speaking of Vigdis Finnbogadottir who won the 1980 Icelandic presidential election and became the longest-serving elected female head of state in history, with nearly 16 years in office.
“It is still a new phenomenon in political systems which have been set up and tailored to the needs of men for hundreds of years,” says Koch-Mehrin. “Women are still the ‘new’ group trying to get in.”
The climb to the top is even more fraught for women of colour, even in political systems which have made traction in the effort to ease the passage of women generally.
Credit___Aljazeera
D5 Creation