WORLD - The African Mirror

Sep

12

2020

China would rather see TikTok U.S. close than a forced sale – sources

WORLD

KEITH ZHAI, YINGZHI YANG and JULIE ZHU BEIJING opposes a forced sale of TikTok's U.S. operations by its Chinese owner ByteDance, and would prefer to see the short video app shut down in the United States, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. ByteDance has been in talks to sell TikTok's U.S. business to potential buyers including Microsoft and Oracle since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened last month to ban the service if it was not sold. Trump has given ByteDance a deadline of mid September to finalise a deal. However, Chinese officials believe a forced…

Sep

12

2020

By The African Mirror

Pandemic pushes world’s biggest jobs programme to brink in rural India

WORLD

ROLI SRIVASTAVA OMKAR Rathod was thankful for the company of hundreds of fellow migrant workers as they trudged home to far-flung villages once lockdown had shut Indian industry. But he didn't realise he would soon be competing with them for jobs. Back in his village in northern India since March, Rathod is vying for work under the world's largest jobs programmes: the only option for the millions of migrant workers who face mass job losses in a struggling economy and a raging pandemic. "If there were 15 people for a job earlier, now there are 200. Work for eight days…

Sep

11

2020

By The African Mirror

China, India agree to disengage troops on contested border

WORLD

GABRIEL CROSSLEY and SANJEEV MIGLANI CHINA and India said they had agreed to de-escalate renewed tensions on their contested Himalayan border and take steps to restore "peace and tranquillity" following a high-level diplomatic meeting in Moscow. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in Moscow and reached a five-point consensus, including agreements that troops from both sides should quickly disengage and ease tensions, the two countries said in a joint statement. The consensus, struck on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, came after a confrontation in the border area in the western Himalayas…

Sep

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Trump predicts victory in election battleground Michigan as thousands defy coronavirus safety rules

WORLD

ANDREA SHALAL U.S. President Donald Trump predicted at a rally in Michigan on Thursday that he would win the election battleground state as thousands of cheering, largely maskless supporters defied state guidelines aimed at containing the novel coronavirus. "This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place," Trump told men, women and children - many wearing red "Make America Great Again" T-shirts and hats - as he stood in front of the presidential aircraft Air Force One at an airport near Midland, Michigan. Trump campaign officials say that in the run-up to the November 3 election…

Sep

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Exclusive: Russian state hackers suspected in targeting Biden campaign firm – sources

WORLD

MICROSOFT Corp recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter. The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said. A person familiar with SKDK’s response to the attempts said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm’s networks. “They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,” the person said. SKDK Vice Chair Hilary Rosen…

Sep

10

2020

By The African Mirror

Thousands homeless after fire guts migrant camp on Greek island

WORLD

THOUSANDS of migrants were left without shelter on Wednesday after overnight fires gutted their overcrowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, and authorities warned that some asylum seekers who tested positive for COVID-19 could spread the virus. The Moria camp, which hosts more than 12,000 people, was "probably totally destroyed", one Greek migration official said. Authorities said they were investigating arson at the sprawling camp. Early Wednesday evening, a new fire broke out, sending those who remained on site fleeing. A Reuters witness reported seeing a 'huge' column of black smoke emerging from the camp. Live images showed people…

Sep

10

2020

By The African Mirror

SPECIAL REPORT: How a small group of U.S. lawyers pushed voter fraud fears into the mainstream

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS and JOSEPH TANFANI FOR months, President Donald Trump has tried to convince Americans that the November 3 election will be "rigged," claiming without evidence that mail voting will open the door to mass cheating. "The greatest Election Fraud in our history is about to happen," Trump wrote on Twitter on August 23. In making these claims, Trump has seized upon the idea that U.S. elections are vulnerable to rampant fraud. That once-fringe theory has become a staple of Republican politics, due largely to the efforts of a small network of lawyers who have promoted it for two decades,…

Sep

10

2020

By The African Mirror

South Asian migrant workers seek justice as wage theft worsens under coronavirus

WORLD

ANURADHA NAGARAJ, NAIMUL KARIM and BAN BARKAWI NIZAR Kochery has been fighting for migrant workers' rights in the courts for decades, but he has never felt so overwhelmed. As the coronavirus pandemic forced tens of thousands of South Asian migrants to leave the Gulf countries where they worked, the Doha-based lawyer was flooded with calls about unpaid wages and job losses. "Non-payment of wages or benefits has always plagued migrant workers in Gulf countries," said Kochery, who specialises in labour law and advises many embassies in Qatar. "But during COVID, the impact is being felt 100 times more. People left…

Sep

10

2020

By The African Mirror

Trump says he minimized coronavirus, didn’t want to create panic -Woodward book

WORLD

PRESIDENT Donald Trump acknowledged in February he knew how deadly and contagious the novel coronavirus was but did not convey that information to the American people because he did not want to create a panic, according to Trump interviews cited in a new book. The recorded interviews, obtained by CNN and based on a new book titled "Rage" by journalist Bob Woodward, came out just weeks before the Nov. 3 presidential election and as Trump's efforts to battle COVID-19 have come under intense criticism as being too little too late. The Republican president, who has been hammered by Democratic opponent…

Sep

09

2020

By The African Mirror

Belgium seeks new name for road tunnel as it takes on colonial past

WORLD

BART BIESEMANS and CLEMENT ROSSIGNOL BRUSSELS has asked its residents to pick a new name for the King Leopold II road tunnel in a step aimed at coming to terms with Belgium's colonial past and addressing gender inequality. A statue of Leopold II - whose colonial rule at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries cost millions of lives in central Africa - was removed by activists in Brussels in June amid Black Lives Matter protests. Now Brussels wants to rename part of its traffic ring road after renovations next year. "We know that Leopold II is a very…