Politics

23, May 2017

UK: Prime Minister May’s campaign falls into disarray over social care policy scandal ⁰

The election campaign of British Prime Minister Theresa May has fallen into disarray after she announced a U-turn on the Conservative Party’s social care policy. May made a reversal on her policy on social care costs, strangely branded as the “dementia tax,” but she claimed that “nothing has changed” since her party’s manifesto was published on Thursday.

The prime minister said she made some clarifications about her policy in response to Labour Party leader’s Jeremy Corbyn’s “fake claims.” “Since my manifesto was published, the proposals have been subject to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn. The only things he has left to offer in this campaign are fake claims, fear and scaremongering,” she said on Monday while launching the Welsh Tory manifesto in Wrexham, Wales.

“So I want to make a further point clear. This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs,” she stated.

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (C) reacts as he meets supporters during a general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England on May 22, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

However, according to The Guardian, Prime Minister May is wrong to say that Corbyn made “fake claims” about the Conservative social care policy. The newspaper wrote that initially Corbyn got some of the detail of the policy wrong but later on he made valid criticism.

The Conservatives were planning to make people pay for care in their own home unless they have assets of less than £100,000 including the value of their house, according to The Guardian. It created widespread fears among families who said that they could lose their homes to pay their social care costs later in life.

Labour officials warned that the Conservative policy would “leave thousands of the most vulnerable at risk of losing their homes.” First time in this election campaign, May’s character has become an issue, and at a time when the Conservative lead over the Labour Party has narrowed to single digits in several polls.

In an interview on Monday, May was asked several times why she was not being “honest” about her decision of capping on care costs. While talking to reporters in Wrexham, May refused to accept she was performing a U-turn. “Nothing has changed, nothing has changed.”

But a BBC journalist bluntly told her: “Your manifesto rejects a cap, it gives a reason why you don’t want a cap. Now you’re going to have a cap. You need to be honest, I would suggest, and tell the British people you’ve changed your mind.” May replied insisting that she’s being “absolutely honest with the British people about the big challenge that we face. And absolutely honest with them about the need for us to deal with this now, to start fixing it now.”

Culled from Presstv

23, May 2017

Fru Ndi reigns supreme: Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam ⁰

Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam has affirmed that Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi reigns supreme at the head of the Social Democratic Front, SDF. The MP who also moonlights as one of the numerous Vice Presidents of the National Assembly was guest on the television program L’Arène on Canal 2 international on May the 21^st 2017. Mbah also said John Fru Ndi remains at the head of the SDF because he is unbeatable.

The SDF front liner answered tough questions concerning the Anglophone crisis and the long awaited holding of the next National Congress of the SDF party. About the 8th Congress, the Honorable Mbah Ndam revealed that the lack of financial resources delayed the event.

“The SDF is an opposition political party. And like all the parties that did not choose to rally with the presidential majority, we have financial difficulties, “explained the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, in response to a question about the holding of the Congress.

Mbah Ndam noted that “Fru Ndi has not yet said he is tired and wants to hand over the baton. I can run for the presidency of the party, but before I do that, I have to be certain I can beat Fru Ndi. For now, I know his weight on the ground.” Mbah observed that the establishment of federalism and the release of those currently on trials in the framework of the Anglophone crisis should be the first step towards ending the uprising. As a reminder, the National Executive Committee of the SDF party has a budget of 80 million FCFA.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

22, May 2017

SDF: Another Senator is trending again, this time about National Day Celebrations ⁰

Senator Paul Maounde of the Social Democratic Front took his place on the grand stand during 20^th May celebrations despite SDF ban on all party militants and representatives. Paul Maounde has defended his stance claiming that the SDF National Executive Committee had forbidden militants from participating in the parades but not to attend.

The Senator represented the SDF in Meiganga and recently said he did not violate the instructions of National Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi who had earlier announced the SDF decision to boycott festivities marking the 45th anniversary of the so-called National Day.

“I am a Cameroonian citizen. I am an elected representative of the people. I do not see why an elected official would not attend the national day celebration of his country. There is a misunderstanding. It was never said that a citizen should not attend the parade. It was said that the party will not match. There is a misinterpretation of the Chairman’s order.” argued Paul Maounde.

By Eyong Johnson

Cameroon Concord News

18, May 2017

Sudan’s Bashir, Trump to attend same summit in Saudi Arabia ⁰

Sudan’s foreign minister says President Omar al-Bashir will attend a summit in Saudi Arabia, where US President Donald Trump will also be present, despite arrest warrants for war crimes and genocide issued by the International Criminal Court against the Sudanese leader.

“I can confirm President Bashir will go … to Saudi Arabia,” Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. “We look forward (to) normalization of our relations with the US,” he added. Trump will start his first ever foreign tour as the president of the United States by visiting Saudi Arabia. He is scheduled to arrive in the kingdom on Saturday.

The summit of Arab and Muslim leaders is expected to include top-level talks the next day. Asked if the Sudanese president is expected to shake hands with Trump, Ghandour said it was impossible to predict, but added that “a handshake doesn’t mean a lot if relations are not (good).”

The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant on July 12, 2010 for Bashir over allegations of genocide committed in Darfur conflict. An earlier arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader was issued in March 2009 by the ICC for charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Bashir has strongly denied the allegations against him, dismissing the claims as a Western conspiracy to seize Sudan’s oil, gas and other natural resources. The armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2 million, according to the United Nations.

Presstv

17, May 2017

48 percent of Americans support Trump’s impeachment ⁰

A new opinion poll shows that Americans who support President Donald Trump’s impeachment outnumber those who oppose the move. The survey released by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed that 48 percent of the respondents would support Trump’s impeachment, while only 41 percent would opposed it.

The same polling company reported three months ago that Americans were evenly divided on the issue. The Tuesday poll was conducted between May 12 and 14, interviewing 692 registered voters with a minus 3.7 percent margin of error.

According to a Gallup survey released a day earlier, Trump’s job approval ratings after more than 100 days in office were the least among four US presidents. It showed that only 38 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance as president, while 57 percent were unhappy with it. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had an approval rating of 64 percent at this point in his presidency.

The number stood at 56 percent for his Republican predecessor George W. Bush. At least 12 congressional democrats have called for Trump’s impeachment since he took office in January. The results of both surveys were released after Trump’s controversial dismissal of FBI director James Comey, but before reports that Trump shared classified information with Russians.

The combination of Trump firing Comey while his campaign was under FBI investigation for possible collusion with Russia and the president subsequently admitting that he had done so in part because of his frustrations over the Russia investigation was a key factor for Democrats in US Congress to mull removing Trump from office.

“President Trump has committed an act for which he should be charged by the US House of Representatives. The act is the obstruction of a lawful investigation of the president’s campaign ties to Russia influence in his 2016 presidential election,” said Al Green, a Democratic senator from the US state of Texas. “President Trump is not above the law. He has committed an impeachable act and must be charged. To do otherwise would cause some Americans to lose respect for, and obedience to our societal norms. This is not personal, this is constitutional.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer holds a news conference at the US Capitol following the firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey by President Donald Trump May 9, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

Additionally, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Trump’s intelligence sharing with Russians had exposed Americans to a “greater risk,” and the president had to provide Congress with a transcript of his meeting with top Russian officials after he reportedly discussed highly classified information. “I am calling on the White House to make a transcript of the meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador available to the congressional Intelligence Committees as soon as possible,” Schumer said.

He added that if Trump “has nothing to hide, he should direct that the transcript of the meeting be made available.” Arguing that the Trump administration is in a “crisis of credibility,” the Senate’s top Democrat stressed that the reporting, if accurate, means Trump “may have badly damaged our national security, nothing less, and in several ways.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, however, insisted that Trump’s conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, were not intelligence leaks, but rather they discussed common threats to the two countries. Spicer declined to comment on the lawmakers’ demand for access to the transcript of Trump’s controversial meeting.

Source: Presstv

16, May 2017

Over 500 killed in DR Congo unrest since March ⁰

More than 500 people have been killed during heavy fighting between government forces and tribal militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past two months, the army says. “DRC’s armed forces have been waging operations to back up the police since end March in Kasai,” the army’s Brigadier General Leon-Richard Kasonga told a news conference on Monday.

According to Kasonga, there were 390 tribal militia fighters and 124 government forces among those killed in the violence gripping the country’s central Kasai region “Our troops respect international humanitarian law and human rights… we have acted professionally,” said Kasonga, without providing a civilian death toll. The unrest was triggered by the killing of tribal chief Jean Pierre Mpandi, also known as Kamwina Nsapu, by army troops last August. The tribal leader had launched an uprising against President Joseph Kabila.

The Kamuina Nsapu uprising has become the most serious threat to the administration of Kabila, whose refusal to step down following a defeat in the latest polls sparked chaos in the vast central African country. Kabila’s presidential term expired on December 19, 2016, but ruling officials have effectively prolonged his mandate until 2018, claiming that the government would not be able to arrange elections before then.

Source; Presstv

16, May 2017

SDF Secretary General says public funding does not oblige the party to follow Biya in his totalitarian and irresponsible abuses against West Cameroonians ⁰

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) has expressed outrage with certain Francophone newspapers that recently accused the leadership of receiving financial donations from the Biya regime. In a statement issued on May 15, 2017, the Secretary General of the party, Jean Tsomelou disputed the allegations leveled against the SDF.

Reacting to reports that the main opposition party received 6.5 billion CFA francs from the government, he replied that this was only a campaign of blackmail and intimidation. “The large family of the SDF was astounded on May 15, 2017 by a suspicious and anti-professional behavior of certain Francophone bodies of the Cameroon press.”

Jean Tsomelou also accused the Yaoundé based Francophone media of serious and misleading reporting against the Social Democratic Front -SDF and its national president Ni John Fru Ndi. For the Secretary General of the SDF, public funding of political parties “is not a gift” and does not oblige the party “to follow the Head of State in his totalitarian and irresponsible abuses since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis.”

The SDF also pointed out those there vicious allegations came from a highly placed Cameroon government official. For this reason, the SDF Secretary revealed that a special edition of the SDF ECHO will clarify national and international opinion on the realities of public funding of parties as provided for by law and that the SDF will prosecute before the competent courts “the perpetrators and accomplices of this acts.”

The newspapers Le Soir and L’Independent are among the press organs that have reported the billions received from the government by the SDF.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

15, May 2017

Francophone media attacks on Fru Ndi provoke backlash ⁰

Francophone ferocious media attack on Chairman Fru Ndi sparked equally fierce commentary from SDF militants and sympathizers. Biya reportedly ordered his Beti-Ewondo media gurus to launch a malicious attack on the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front, Ni John Fru Ndi following the SDF decision to boycott the upcoming National Day celebration. The leadership of the main opposition party in La Republique du Cameroun has come under fire from pro Biya newspapers in Yaoundé who accused the Chairman of political banditry.

A few days after a communiqué from Ni John Fru Ndi called on Cameroonians not to celebrate the 45th edition of the so-called National Day, Francophone media houses serving the Yaoundé regime have published sensitive documents from the Ministry of Finance criticizing the SDF and its 76-year old leader for having received public funding amounting to 6.5 billion FCFA.

Fru Ndi’s die-hard supporters have however dismissed the allegations and opined that Biya was applying the same guerrilla tactics that his government recently condemned the Paris based international news magazine Jeune Afrique for negative reporting on Cameroon. Nevertheless, several political parties in Cameroon have benefited from the allocated sum of money by the state.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

14, May 2017

Emmanuel Macron inaugurated as France’s president ⁰

France’s centrist Emmanuel Macron has taken the reins of the French government as president of the country. The inauguration ceremony took place in the Elysee Palace in Paris on Sunday. Macron, 39, who is a former investment banker and economy minister, won the presidential election with 66 percent of the votes on May 7.

Macron officially became president after Laurent Fabius, who is chairman of the constitutional council, read out the results of the presidential election in the Sunday ceremony. To win the post, Macron defeated ten other candidates, far-right contender Marine Le Pen being the last one.

In his inauguration speech, Macron vowed to support French people and businesses. “France has the potential to play a leading role in the global stage,” the new president said. He said France had to overcome divisions in the society to activate those potentials. Macron also said that, on his first official foreign visit as French president, he planned to travel to neighboring Germany.

Germany and France are the European Union’s two heavyweights, who aim to jointly set the tone on policy in the EU. “Europe needs to be re-founded… EU will be reformed and re-launched,” Macron said. Prior to the inauguration, Macron took part in a private one-on-one meeting with outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande.

French outgoing President Francois Hollande (R) is escorted by his successor Emmanuel Macron (L) as he leaves the Elysee presidential Palace at the end of their handover ceremony.(Photo by AFP)

In the meeting, Hollande briefed his successor, who had served as his economy minister for two years, and handed over to him the secret codes to launch France’s nuclear missiles.

Macron is France’s youngest president ever and the first to be born after October 5, 1958, when President Charles de Gaulle set up the Fifth Republic from the ashes of the Fourth Republic, replacing a factional parliamentary government with a centralized one.

Culled from Presstv

12, May 2017

President Putin says Israeli–Palestinian conflict to be resolved only through negotiations ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the conflict between the Israeli regime and Palestinians could only be resolved through political means based on international law. “As a member of the Middle East quartet, Russia together with the US, the UN and the European Union, will continue to prove the necessity of direct dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis,” Putin added at a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday.

Putin also cautioned against taking “one-sided steps” and called for making “mutually acceptable decisions” to try to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

Since the January inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who is a steadfast supporter of Israel, the regime in Tel Aviv has stepped up its construction of settler units on occupied Palestinian land in a blatant violation of international law.

Less than a month before Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

Abbas, for his part, briefed Putin on the latest Israeli violations of Palestinians’ rights, including continuous settlement building activities, “policies of economic suffocation, and persistence to hold thousands of detainees in Israeli prisons.”

The Palestinian leader added that the Israeli violations will eventually “lead to destroying the chance to create peace in the (Middle East) region,” and “abolish the idea of a two-state solution.”

He further highlighted the importance of fulfilling the humanitarian needs of hundreds of Palestinian inmates, who continue to be on hunger strike in Israeli jails, stating that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority will exert all efforts possible to secure their release.

Since April 17, more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have joined the protest action, dubbed the Freedom and Dignity Strike. The strikers are demanding basic rights, such as an end to the policies of administrative detention, solitary confinement and deliberate medical negligence.

Source: Presstv