WORLD - The African Mirror

Jan

16

2021

Biden unveils plan to pump $1.9 trillion into pandemic-hit economy

WORLD

JEFF MASON and JARRETT RENSHAW US President-elect Joe Biden has outlined a $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposal, saying bold investment was needed to jump-start the economy and accelerate the distribution of vaccines to bring the coronavirus under control. Biden campaigned last year on a promise to take the pandemic more seriously than President Donald Trump, and the package aims to put that pledge into action with an influx of resources for the COVID-19 response and economic recovery. "A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there's no time to waste," Biden said in prime-time remarks from Delaware.…

Jan

16

2021

By The African Mirror

International COVID-19 vaccine poll shows higher mistrust of Russia, China shots

WORLD

KATE KELLAND PEOPLE across the world are generally likely to say yes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine but would be more distrustful of shots made in China or Russia than those developed in Germany or the United States, an international poll has showed. The survey, conducted by the polling company YouGov and shared exclusively with Reuters, found Britons and Danes were the most willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them, while the French and Poles were more likely to be hesitant. The poll was based on questions put to almost 19,000 people. It also found…

Jan

16

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Love jihad’ law seen trampling women’s hard-earned freedoms in India

WORLD

WHEN Mehak's parents found out she was having a relationship with a Muslim man, they locked her in her bedroom, seized her phone and bank cards and installed security cameras at their home in northern India. To the 26-year-old's astonishment, when she managed to report her confinement to local police, they took her parents' side and urged her to end the relationship. Mehak is from Uttar Pradesh state, which recently criminalised forced religious conversion, including by way of interfaith marriages - legislation critics fear could be used to control women and stop them freely choosing who to marry. "I knew…

Jan

15

2021

By The African Mirror

Washington locks down, Delta bans guns to D.C. ahead of inauguration

WORLD

AS Washington locks down for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Delta Air Lines put new restrictions on passengers to the U.S. capital on Thursday, while Democrats warned of possible political violence even after the January 20 swearing-in. Delta will not allow travellers flying to Washington area airports to check firearms on its flights before the inauguration, Chief Executive Ed Bastian said on Thursday. The actions follow the storming of the U.S. Capitol last week by supporters of President Donald Trump and disturbances on flights and at airports. Officials have warned of plans for armed protests in Washington and all 50 states.…

Jan

15

2021

By The African Mirror

Philippines’ Duterte says presidency no job for a woman

WORLD

KAREN LEMA PHILIPPINE leader Rodrigo Duterte has declared that the presidency was no job for a woman because of their emotional differences to men, and dismissed speculation that his daughter would succeed him next year. "My daughter is not running. I have told Inday not to run because I pity (her) knowing she will have to go through what I am going through," Duterte said at the launch of a highway project, referring to his daughter Sara by her nickname. "This is not for women. You know, the emotional set-up of a woman and a man is totally different. You…

Jan

14

2021

By The African Mirror

TRUMP IMPEACHED FOR A HISTORIC SECOND TIME

WORLD

THE House of Representatives has voted to make Donald Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. The vote in the Democratic-controlled House was 232-197 following a deadly assault on American democracy, with 10 Republicans joining the Democrats in backing impeachment. But it appeared unlikely that the extraordinarily swift impeachment would lead to Trump's ouster before the Republican president's four-year term ends and Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.…

Jan

20

2021

By The African Mirror

Trump’s legacy: A divided America, unsettled world

WORLD

MATT SPETALNICK, ANDREA SHALAL, JEFF MASON and STEVE HOLLAND WHEN President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural speech on January 20, 2017, he promised an end to "American carnage," a bleak and dysfunctional nation he had promised that he alone could fix. Closing out his presidency exactly four years later, Trump leaves behind an even more polarized America, where thousands are dying daily from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy is badly damaged and political violence has surged. Trump didn't create the bitter differences that have come to define American life. Still, he seized upon many of them as tools to build…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Now the White House reality show ends

WORLD

JEFF MASON A red tie, often tied too long. A raised fist, often held high to a supportive crowd. A scowling face. A raised voice. President Donald Trump never hid how he felt. His words and body language made his thoughts clear. For more than four years, Trump, a Republican, cultivated a political base by sharing his thoughts and emotions - pride, happiness, indignation, rage - on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis, creating an omnipresence of sorts that completely dominated the news cycle. Like no U.S. president has done before, he made himself the center of attention, the star of…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Kremlin foe Navalny held in pre-trial detention

WORLD

ANTON ZVEREV and ANDREW OSBORN A Russian judge has remanded Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in pre-trial detention for 30 days for violating the terms of a suspended jail sentence, ignoring calls from Western countries to free the opposition politician immediately. The ruling, a day after police detained him at the airport as he returned home for the first time since being poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent, may be the prelude to him being jailed for years. Moscow's prison service has applied to convert a suspended 3.5 year embezzlement sentence in the same case, which he says was trumped up,…

Jan

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians

WORLD

U.S. law enforcement is investigating whether a woman took a laptop computer or hard drive from the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during the January 6 siege of the Capitol and tried to sell the device to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing. A woman identified in a warrant logged January 17, 2021, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman accused of unlawfully breaching the U.S. Capitol building and directing people to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office is seen in an undated driver's license photograph. FBI/Handout…