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Burkina Faso opposition criticises presidential vote as early results favour incumbent Kaboré

24, November 2020

Burkina Faso opposition criticises presidential vote as early results favour incumbent Kaboré 0

Incumbent Burkina Faso President Roch Kaboré was leading with just 12 of around 360 voting districts declared on Monday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results thus far.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens were unable to cast their ballots during the presidential vote on Sunday because their polling stations remained closed for fear of Islamist violence.

Groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group operate across swathes of Burkina Faso, part of a widening jihadist threat in West Africa’s Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.

An association of the opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results on Monday, repeating allegations of irregularities and fraud during a joint news conference. Ahead of the vote, international observers said they had seen no evidence of fraud.

Analysts expect a tight race that could go to a second round if no candidate wins more than 50 percent.

Kaboré, who was first elected in 2015, led in most of the dozen voting districts whose results were announced on Monday afternoon, totalling over 53,000 votes, more than double as many as his nearest rival, Zéphirin Diabré.

The electoral commission said further results would be announced on Tuesday.

Diabré is a former finance minister and 2015 runner-up. Kaboré’s other main competitor in the field of 13 candidates is Eddie Komboigo, the head of the party of Blaise Compaoré, who was president for 27 years until a 2014 revolution.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

US: Biden to pick ex-Fed chair Yellen as first female US Treasury chief

24, November 2020

US: Biden to pick ex-Fed chair Yellen as first female US Treasury chief 0

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to head the US Treasury, a choice that, if confirmed by the Senate, would make her the first woman in the job.

The 74-year-old, whose nomination was confirmed to AFP by a financial source close to the Biden administration, would be tasked with steering the world’s largest economy as it struggles with mass layoffs and a sharp growth slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Yellen will be the next treasury secretary” and she could be formally announced as early as Tuesday, the source said, confirming news first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Yellen’s candidacy was supported by left-wing members of Biden’s Democratic Party, according to the source, and requires Senate confirmation.

Yellen broke barriers when former president Barack Obama nominated her to serve as Fed chair in 2014, a position President Donald Trump ousted her from four years later.

At the Fed, Yellen was seen as a “dove” inclined towards low interest rates to support employment.

She would succeed Steven Mnuchin, and likely be faced with breaking a months-long deadlock in Congress over passing a new stimulus spending bill for the US economy — assuming lawmakers don’t act before Biden’s inauguration in January.

Chief economist at Grant Thornton Diane Swonk called Yellen “a highly talented and gifted economist” on Twitter.

“She will make a great treasury secretary at a critical time and write yet another chapter in the history books,” she said.

‘Essential’ spending’

The United States is home to the world’s largest Covid-19 outbreak, and as the economy convulsed Congress rallied in March to pass the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that expanded unemployment payments, supported small businesses and allocated money to hard-hit airlines to maintain their staff.

But those provisions expired over the summer, leading to 32,000 furloughs among major airlines alone and raising fears of a renewed economic slump.

Congress has been deadlocked on passing more aid, with Democrats supporting another $2.2 trillion measure but Republicans insisting on a series of smaller bills.

Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Capital Markets, called Yellen a “friend of the markets” for supporting further spending that would boost equities, and noting her confirmation would mark a return of technocrats to the executive branch.

“After four years of political appointments, we have appointments of professionals, not only political professionals but also professionals in their professions,” he said.

Currently a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Yellen has signaled her support for more spending.

“Fiscal policy has a very important role to play now,” she said in an appearance this month. “I believe it’s essential.”

Biden, who served as vice president under Obama and defeated Trump in the November 3 election, has been moving quickly to fill key slots in his incoming cabinet.

Earlier Monday, he announced a slew of appointments to key national security roles including former Obama official Antony Blinken as secretary of state.

The Dow closed up 1.1 percent following news of Yellen’s nomination as well as another upbeat announcement concerning a Covid-19 vaccine.

Source: AFP

Dortmund’s Cameroon-born Moukoko becomes youngest ever Bundesliga player

24, November 2020

Dortmund’s Cameroon-born Moukoko becomes youngest ever Bundesliga player 0

Borussia Dortmund’s 16-year-old striker Youssoufa Moukoko became the youngest-ever player to feature in a Bundesliga game when he came on as a second-half substitute against Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

Moukoko came on in the 85th minute in the place of Erling Haaland.

Moukoko, whose sensational run through the youth teams in recent seasons has shown him to be one of the biggest talents of his generation, made his league debut a day after his 16th birthday on Friday made him eligible to play under current rules.

Former Dortmund player Nuri Sahin had held the record, having made his debut in 2006 at the age of 16 years and 11 months.

The Cameroon-born Moukoko is already a Germany youth international with the Under-20 team and regularly played above his age group throughout his youth career at Dortmund, scoring 141 goals in 81 games for the Under-17 and Under-19 teams.

In the current Under-19 season alone he has netted 10 times in three appearances.

Source: Reuters

Yaoundé: Canada’s High Commissioner visits Aims-Cameroon, learns about the next Einstein Initiative

24, November 2020

Yaoundé: Canada’s High Commissioner visits Aims-Cameroon, learns about the next Einstein Initiative 0

The High commissioner of Canada to Cameroon, His Excellency Richard Bale, on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 graced the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cameroon with his presence at exactly 9 am.
The visiting ambassador, upon arrival, had the opportunity for full exposure to AIMS and her Ecosystem of Transformation, the Academic Life at AIMS-Cameroon, and the AIMS-Cameroon Teacher Training Program, thanks to a presentation by the Institution’s Center President, Prof. Dr. Mama Foupouagnigni, the Academic Director, Prof. Marco Garuti, and the English Pedagogic Adviser of the AIMS-Cameroon Teacher Training Program, Mme. Emilia Babila.

The ambassador equally had the opportunity to meet and interact with the students, tutors, and staff of AIMS-Cameroon who welcomed him with chants of gratitude for his interest in building the African society.

H.E Richard Bale did not part ways with the students without encouraging them to work harder and seize the unique opportunity of being at AIMS to forge friendships across Africa.

After the visit, he expressed complete satisfaction to have been in the midst of the AIMS-Cameroon community.

“It was a great visit, I learned a lot about AIMS and it was a pleasure to meet all the team” he said.

Source: Aims Cameroon

Biya ignoring Boko Haram, regime using foreign counterterrorism aid to fund the brutal Southern Cameroons war

23, November 2020

Biya ignoring Boko Haram, regime using foreign counterterrorism aid to fund the brutal Southern Cameroons war 0

Paul Biya’s regime is ignoring the battle against Boko Haram and the Islamic State and using foreign counterterrorism assistance to fund its brutal repression of citizens with legitimate grievances.

Cameroon was once thought to be an island of stability in a sea of instability, but that mirage started to crumble in 2016, as President Paul Biya mishandled what many in the outside world call the “Anglophone Crisis,” but what to many Cameroonians (English and French speakers alike) is just further evidence of the lack of political freedom, accountability, and competence that has plagued the country since 1961.

For the second year in a row, the Norwegian Refugee Council selected Cameroon as the most neglected displacement crisis in the world. More than 1 million Cameroonians have been displaced internally, tens of thousands have fled to Nigeria, and thousands more from other countries have escaped to Cameroon to flee Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), or violence in the Central African Republic.

Both the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide report that Cameroon is at risk for mass atrocities and urgent action is needed. Since the beginning of 2020, violence has surged both in the Anglophone Southwest and Northwest regions and in the Far North region, where Boko Haram and ISWAP are resurgent.

The Cameroonian government has conflated the Far North jihadist threat with the Anglophone crisis in an effort to maintain the flow of international support. The Cameroonian government has conflated the Far North jihadist threat with the Anglophone crisis in an effort to maintain the flow of international support. At the U.N. General Assembly in September, Cameroonian Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella asked for increased international cooperation in support of the country’s ongoing struggle against “terrorism.” His belabored attention to “multilateralism,” however, belied Cameroon’s usual intemperate reaction to any international comment about its internal politics, economic policies, or conduct of its military operations.

Cameroon does all it can to reduce the international consequences of its failed militarization strategy against legitimate grievances in its Anglophone regions. Rather than seeking peace through political compromise and better governance, the regime confuses the international community by describing the crisis as a two-front war against “terrorists” and “criminals.”

After two years of painstaking research using GIS tools and open-source data analysis, we have drawn the conclusion that Cameroon’s military operations against Anglophones in the Southwest and Northwest regions have noticeably weakened Cameroon’s efforts against Boko Haram and ISWAP, leading to broader regional insecurity.

Since 2019, Boko Haram and ISWAP have conducted larger-scale operations again, attacking Nigerian, Cameroonian, Nigerien and Chadian military targets and inflicting heavy casualties on soldiers and civilians alike. In late September, Nigeria’s Bornu state governor’s convoy was attacked twice in two days not far from the Cameroon border. But the Cameroonian regime is willing to ignore Islamist resurgence around Lake Chad because it perceives the Anglophone crisis as a bigger threat to its tight grip on power. And, unfortunately, it is confident the international community will again ride to the rescue if the situation appears out of control. Call it the moral-hazard problem of the global war on terrorism.

Culled from Foreign Policy

Taking the last kicks of a dying horse: Trump campaign parts ways with Powell after vote-switching claim

23, November 2020

Taking the last kicks of a dying horse: Trump campaign parts ways with Powell after vote-switching claim 0

The campaign of US President Donald Trump has distanced itself from Sidney Powell, after the lawyer was widely ridiculed for alleging baseless conspiracy theories related to the disputed November 3 election.

Trump, who has not conceded defeat after the media declared his rival Joe Biden the winner of the election, had tweeted on November 14 that Powell would be a member of his legal team, alongside his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Giuliani and Ellis said, “Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” adding, “She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”

In an interview with Newsmax, Powell said that Dominion Voting Systems “has a long history of rigging elections” and that this is “what it was created to do to begin with.”

The statement comes just days after an extraordinary 90-minute press conference at the Republican National Committee in Washington, during which legal team members argued that a broad “national conspiracy” to deny Trump reelection was underway.

The team has mounted multiple legal challenges to reverse the results in several key states. However, the efforts have so far met with little success in the courtroom or on the ground.

Powell said that Trump had beaten Biden in a landslide, despite the fact that Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College votes, which decide who takes the White House, by 306 to 232.

Biden is also set to win the popular vote by more than six million votes.

Source: Presstv

G20 leaders pledge fair global distribution of coronavirus vaccine

23, November 2020

G20 leaders pledge fair global distribution of coronavirus vaccine 0

Leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies vowed on Sunday to spare no effort to supply COVID-19 drugs, tests and vaccines affordably and fairly to “all people”, reflecting worries that the pandemic could deepen global divisions between rich and poor.

The pandemic and prospects of an uneven and uncertain economic recovery were at the centre of a two-day summit under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia, which will hand the G20 presidency to Italy next month.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, is an unparalleled shock that has revealed vulnerabilities in our preparedness and response and underscored our common challenges,” the final communique said.

G20 nations will work to “protect lives, provide support with a special focus on the most vulnerable, and put our economies back on a path to restoring growth, and protecting and creating jobs for all.”

On vaccines, tests and treatments, the leaders said: “We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people.”

Source: France 24

Coronavirus payday: Frontrunners emerge in race for vaccine

23, November 2020

Coronavirus payday: Frontrunners emerge in race for vaccine 0

Dozens of companies, from biotech start-ups to Big Pharma, are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, both to meet urgent medical need and for the potential payday.

Positive results from final stage trials of several vaccine candidates have raised hopes that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the quest to curb a pandemic that has already killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide:

– How many in the pipeline? –

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 48 “candidate vaccines” at the stage of clinical trials in humans by mid-November, up from 11 in mid-June.

Eleven of them are at the most advanced “Phase 3” stage, in which a vaccine’s effectiveness is tested on a large scale, generally on tens of thousands of people across several continents.

A European project led by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca on Monday said an interim analysis of its phase 3 trials showed their vaccine had an average 70 percent efficacy in trials involved 23,000 people.

The statement said the drug showed a 62 percent efficacy when people were given two full doses, but this rose to 90 percent in those given only a half dose initially followed by a full dose.

It said the vaccine could be stored, transported and handled “at normal refrigerated conditions” for at least six months and announced plans to develop up to three billion doses in 2021, if it passes the remaining regulatory hurdles.

The announcement comes after a US-German collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech reported early in November that phase 3 trials for its mRNA vaccine showed 90 percent efficacy in preventing Covid-19 symptoms and did not produce adverse side effects among thousands of volunteers.

It has since announced further trial results showing the vaccine works 95 percent of the time.

“Efficacy was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics,” the company said.

Pfizer is currently seeking Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and expects to roll out 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year.

Also this month, US biotech firm Moderna said its vaccine also showed almost 95 percent efficacy.

Moderna plans to submit applications for emergency approval in the US and around the world within weeks, and says it expects to have approximately 20 million doses ready to ship in the US by the end of the year.

The company is on track to manufacture between 500 million to a billion doses globally in 2021, it said.

In addition, several state-run Chinese labs are also thought to have produced among the more promising candidate vaccines.

Russia, meanwhile, has already registered two Covid-19 vaccines, even before clinical trials were completed.

– What kind of vaccines? –

Some methods for making a vaccine are tried-and-tested, while others remain experimental.

Inactivated traditional vaccines use a virus germ that has been killed, while others use a weakened or “attenuated” strain.

These vaccines work when the body treats the deactivated pathogen as if it were a real threat, producing antibodies to kill it without endangering the patient with full infection.

So-called “sub-unit” vaccines contain a fragment of the virus or bacteria they are derived from to produce a similar immune response.

“Viral vector” varieties deliver fragments of viral DNA into cells, often hitching a lift off of other virus molecules.

For example, a measles virus modified with a coronavirus protein — the apparatus SARS-CoV-2 uses to latch on to human cells — can by deployed to provide immunity to Covid-19.

Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are based on cutting-edge technology that uses synthetic versions of molecules called messenger RNA to hack into human cells, and effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.

– Safety first –

Trials of two candidate vaccines — made by Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly — were “paused” recently over safety concerns.

But that is not necessarily bad news, said Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“The fact that trials are paused should indicate that there should be confidence that the whole process of monitoring the safety of trial participants is working well,” he said.

Recent cases in which recovered Covid patients were infected a second time with a new strain also raise the question of how long vaccines might last.

In October, the US FDA said it would need to see two months of follow-up data after vaccination before giving emergency authorisation for any vaccine use.

“What is different for Covid-19 vaccines is that speed of development and potential approval is much faster due to the public health emergency,” noted the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

But even that pressing need cannot overcome the rules.

“Before approval, all vaccines in the European Union are evaluated against the same high standards as any other medicine,” the EMA said in a statement.

Source:  AFP

US Politics: Federal judge dismisses Trump campaign Pennsylvania lawsuit

22, November 2020

US Politics: Federal judge dismisses Trump campaign Pennsylvania lawsuit 0

A US federal judge has dealt a new blow to President Donald Trump’s long-shot bid to reverse the results of the disputed presidential election held on November 3.

US District Judge Matthew Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit which sought to overturn the results in the state, calling Trump’s legal claim a “Frankenstein’s Monster.”

Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede defeat in the election and mounted multiple legal challenges to reverse the results in several key states. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, was declared the projected winner.

However, his campaign’s efforts have so far met with little success in the courtroom or on the ground.

The court decision paves the way for Pennsylvania to certify Biden’s victory there, which is scheduled to take place Monday.

Brann described the case as “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations,” adding, “This claim, like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.”

“In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state,” Brann wrote.

“Our people, laws, and institutions demand more.”

In response, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement he was disappointed with the ruling, adding, “Today’s decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the US Supreme Court.”

Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College votes, which decide who takes the White House, by 306 to 232, according to media reports.

The Electoral College is set to formally vote on December 14, with certifications to occur beforehand.

States’ certification of results of their popular votes is normally routine following a presidential election in the United States.

However, Trump’s refusal to concede has complicated the process and raised concerns that he could cause long-term damage to American voters’ trust in their voting system.

So far, a limited number of Republicans have recognized Biden as the winner. On Saturday and following the ruling, Pat Toomey, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said that Biden “won the 2020 election and will become the 46th president of the United States.”

“President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process,” Toomey said in a statement that congratulated Biden.

The ruling came hours after Republicans also asked for a delay in certification in Michigan, another battleground.

In a letter that repeated claims of irregularities in the state which Biden won by 155,000 votes, the Republicans called for a delay of two weeks to allow for a full audit of results in Wayne County.

Republican Party national committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and the party’s Michigan chair Laura Cox called on the board to “adjourn for 14 days to allow for a full audit and investigation into those anomalies and irregularities.”

Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has, however, said that audits cannot be carried out until after certification as officials do not have legal access to the documents needed until then.

On Saturday, she posted on Twitter that there had been “no evidence” to put into question the result of the election.

“In a nutshell: 5.5m Michigan citizens voted,” she wrote.

“The results of their votes are clear. No evidence has emerged to undermine that.”

Trump has rarely appeared in public after the media declared Biden the winner of the election, but has not given up on his provocative Twitter campaign.

“The proof pouring in is undeniable,” he tweeted Saturday.

“Many more votes than needed. This was a LANDSLIDE!”

Source: Presstv

Al-Qaeda in North Africa appoints new leader to replace Droukdel

22, November 2020

Al-Qaeda in North Africa appoints new leader to replace Droukdel 0

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has chosen a new leader to replace Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed in June by French forces, the SITE monitoring group reported Saturday.

Algerian Abu Obaida Yusuf al-Annabi, the head of AQIM’s “Council of Dignitaries”, was named as Droukdel’s successor, SITE said.

Al-Annabi has been on the American “international terrorist” blacklist since September 2015, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

He has regularly appeared in the group’s propaganda videos, and in 2013 famously demanded that Muslims retaliate against France’s intervention in Mali.

AQIM also confirmed the death of Swiss national Beatrice Stoeckli, who was abducted in Timbuktu while working as a missionary in 2016.

It blamed her death on an attempt by “French crusaders” to free her.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb emerged from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on troops and civilians across the Sahel region, including a 2016 attack on an upmarket hotel and restaurant in Burkina Faso that killed 30 people, mainly Westerners.

France has more than 5,000 troops deployed in its anti-jihadist Barkhane force in the Sahel.

Source: AFP

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