Monthly Archives: December 2019

10, December 2019

French general strike gains steam ⁰

For many December 9th was the true start of France’s general strike. The strike began on December 5th, but the country had expected for unprecedented shutdowns through the weekend.

Many waited to see if the strikes would continue when the new work week started, and the answer it is in: it was Black Monday.

Record morning traffic jams were caused by heavy rains, as commuters couldn’t walk or bicycle to work. Nearly 90% of trains continue to be shut down, buses were at half capacity and 20% of flights were cancelled.

President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis cabinet meeting Sunday night to devise ways to undermine the strikers.

The last general strike, in 1995, was also against pension reform, but this time the right-wing government wants to change the entire system, and to a globally-unprecedented one-size-fits-all model.

Polls show that nearly 70% of France does not trust Macron to change something as important as the pension system. However, the man known as the “president of the rich” has shown that he’s not just willing to ignore democratic public opinion, but also willing to brutally represent dissenters.

Many private sector workers are striking, but public sector workers are leading the way, because they have more legal protection from getting fired just for going on strike. Transportation workers are so committed to the strike because they usually work outside in the elements, or underground, and surrounded by polluted air – few could stay healthy doing such difficult work until the age of 64, as Macron is demanding. Rail workers announced they will keep striking until at least Friday.

December 10th will see a second day of nationwide union-led protests, with more than a million people expected on the streets for the second time in less than a week.

Source: Presstv

9, December 2019

US: Democratic leading impeachment probe says Trump violated oath ⁰

The head of a US congressional committee leading the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump has accused the US leader of putting himself before his country and violating his oath of office.

In a statement on Monday beginning a hearing in the US House of Representatives to examine evidence against Trump, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democratic from New York, said there was extensive proof that the Republican president has committed wrongdoing.

“The evidence shows that Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States, has put himself before his country. He has violated his most basic responsibilities to the people. He has broken his oath,” Nadler said.

The hearing on Monday is a key step before voting on an impeachment resolution, or articles of impeachment. The full House, which is controlled by Democrats, is likely to vote on whether to impeach the president before Christmas.

The House Judiciary panel is expected to vote by the end of the week on whether to send formal charges to the full House.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the highest ranking Democrat in Congress, instructed the House Judiciary Committee Thursday to draft articles of impeachment against Trump.

Impeachment begins in the House. If the lower chamber of Congress approves articles of impeachment, a vote is then held in the Senate. A two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate to remove the president from office.

Trump’s conviction is considered unlikely in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Only two American presidents have been impeached by the House, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted by the Senate.

In 1974, then US President Richard Nixon resigned during his second term after it became certain he would be impeached and removed from office over the Watergate scandal.

House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after the unknown whistle-blower alleged the Republican president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Democrats are looking into whether Trump abused his power by withholding $391 million in US security aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure Kiev to conduct an investigation that would benefit him politically.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the impeachment inquiry against him as “a hoax”.

Source: Presstv

9, December 2019

Football: Riquelme beats Maradona as Boca Juniors elect new president ⁰

Former Argentina playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme has won a three-way battle with bitter rival Diego Maradona and Gabriel Batistuta after his group won the elections at Boca Juniors, striking a big blow against his old foe Maradona.

The list headed by Jorge Ameal, who was club president between 2008 and 2011, won 52.8 percent of the vote from Boca’s 84,000 members, bringing Riquelme into the 33-time Argentine champions’ hierarchy.

The 41-year-old stood alongside Ameal as prospective second vice-president and helped see off the faction supported by Maradona and powerful outgoing president of Argentina Mauricio Macri, which was led by Christian Gribaldo and only gathered 30.6 percent of the vote.

The list supported by Batistuta came in a distant third with 16.1 percent.

“It was a big party. Our fans voted for the love of the club colours, I’m satisfied,” said Riquelme after his side’s victory.

There has been bad blood between the pair since Riquelme snubbed Maradona, then Argentina’s coach, by refusing to come out of retirement for the 2010 World Cup, making it clear the refusal was personal.

Maradona, who is a hero in Argentina but won little with Boca, warned fans against voting for Riquelme’s faction, saying results would worsen on the pitch.

There was also a concerted effort by the previous club administration, backed by Macri, to block out Riquelme’s presence in the campaigning.

A photo showing him wearing the Boca number 10 was banned from the ballot paper, and the club warned fans ahead of election day that anyone wearing a Riquelme T-shirt would not be allowed to vote at the club’s Bombonera stadium.

However Riquelme’s support was key to Ameal’s victory as a highly successful playmaker for the capital city club.

He scored three times in the 5-0 aggregate win over Gremio to win their last Copa Libertadores in 2007, Riquelme’s third for the club and Boca’s sixth overall.

Boca reached the Libertadores final again last year only to lose to fierce rivals River Plate in a controversial final that saw the second leg moved to Madrid following fan trouble. River also eliminated Boca in this year’s semi-finals.

The new board’s priority will be to bring back the international lustre that Riquelme experienced as a player for one of South America’s biggest clubs.

The loss was second defeat for Macri in less than two months. He was Boca president from 1995 to 2006 and used that as a springboard to nationwide political success.

He became president of Argentina in 2015 as the head of his centre-right Cambiemos party, but his rule will end on December 10 after losing October’s presidential elections to leftist Alberto Fernandez.

Source: AFP

9, December 2019

New Zealand volcano spews ash plume in eruption, several injured ⁰

A volcano erupted in New Zealand on Monday, spewing a plume of ash thousands of feet into the air, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying tourists were among several people unaccounted for as emergency services mounted a rescue operation.

As many as 100 people were in the vicinity when the eruption began about 2:11 pm (0111 GMT) on White Island, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the east coast of North Island, authorities said, sending up smoke visible from the mainland.

“We believe 100 people were on or around the island,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference, adding that a rescue operation had begun, although it was too early to confirm any injuries or deaths.

“A number of people are reportedly injured and are now being transported to shore,” she added. “It does appear to be a very significant issue…particularly the scale of people affected, at this stage.”

Many of those affected could be tourists, she said.

This image released by GNS Science, shows plumes of smoke from a volcanic eruption on White Island, seen from Whakatane, New Zealand Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. (Via AP)

“I’m not sure if these people were on the island or near it, but there was definitely one group out there and they definitely needed medical care,” said Judy Turner, the mayor of the coastal town of Whakatane, near White Island. “There were some injuries and the focus is on getting these injured people back safely and to get them to a hospital.”

There seemed to be no danger for people in coastal areas farther away, she added.

The island’s immediate surroundings were hazardous because of the eruption, the National Emergency Management Agency said in an statement, adding that falling ash might affect some areas.

The “short-lived eruption” threw an ash plume about 12,000 ft (3,658 m) high, New Zealand’s geoscience agency GNS Science said in a statement, but added there were no current signs of an escalation.

The White Island volcano is one of New Zealand’s most active.

(Source: Reuters)

9, December 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Biya Torches Villages, Kills 3 Ambazonia Civilians ⁰

Cameroon government security forces have murdered three innocent Southern Cameroons civilians on lame and ridiculous reason that they were suspected to be members of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Mbingo, a locality near Belo in the Northern Zone in Southern Cameroons.

Eye witnesses say the three Southern Cameroonians were however not members of the Ambazonia Self Defense Force responsible for the implementation of the roadblock policy.

Local Southern Cameroons media houses have identified the young men as Desmond,Emmanuel and Bo Fungeh.

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime raided the area and a number of houses were set ablaze.

By Sama Ernest

9, December 2019

Miss South Africa wins 2019 Miss Universe crown ⁰

Miss South Africa was crowned Miss Universe on Sunday in Atlanta after a lavish ceremony filled with glitter and heartfelt speeches about female empowerment.

Zozibini Tunzi, 26, finished first ahead of the Puerto Rican and Mexican finalists in a flashy televised event, hosted by American comic turned TV personality Steve Harvey.

Television personalities Vanessa Lachey and Olivia Culpo served as backstage commentators, and a panel of seven women determined the winner.

Tunzi earned cheers during her closing speech, a new segment of the competition, in which she talked about wanting to empower young women to feel confident.

“I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me, with my kind of skin and my kind of hair, was never considered to be beautiful,” she said.

“I think that it is time that that stops today,” she said to thunderous applause.

Tunzi beat more than 90 contestants from around the globe in the 68th instalment of Miss Universe, which was held in Atlanta’s Tyler Perry Studios.

The two favorites ahead of the competition, Miss Thailand Paweensuda Saetan-Drouin and Miss Philippines Gazini Ganados, did not make it to the final 10.

The Philippines’ Catriona Gray, who presented Tunzi with the crown, took home the Miss Universe crown in 2018.

Although she did not make the finals, Miss Myanmar Swe Zin Htet made waves last week when she came out as the competition’s first openly gay contestant.

“I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma,” Htet told People magazine, using her country’s historic name.

Homosexuality is illegal in the southeast Asian country and is punishable by up to life in prison.

In 2018, the competition also featured Miss Spain Angela Ponce, who blazed a trail as Miss Universe’s first transgender contestant.

But the pageant has had a controversial past. Multiple contestants have alleged that US President Donald Trump would regularly enter the competitors’ changing room while he owned the organization from 1996-2015.

Additionally, Miss Universe continues to host the swimsuit competition, which has drawn criticism for objectifying the contestants, although that part of the pageant was not televised.

Source: AFP

8, December 2019

Football: Three things we learned from the Premier League ⁰

Liverpool’s relentless march to a first English title since 1990 gathered pace with a comfortable win at Bournemouth, while Manchester City’s defence of the trophy was hit by a painful defeat against rivals Manchester United.

Fuelled by Jamie Vardy’s blistering form, Leicester have emerged as the closest challengers to Liverpool.

AFP Sport looks at three things we learned from the Premier League weekend:

Solskjaer’s big week

Seven days ago Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fielding questions over whether he is the man to return Manchester United to their former glories after a 2-2 home draw with Aston Villa left the Red Devils in ninth and with just four wins from their opening 14 Premier League games.

A week on and Solskjaer has secured the two biggest victories of his time in charge since a famous 3-1 win at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League in March helped turn his caretaker spell in charge into a full-time position.

United have beaten Tottenham on Jose Mourinho’s return to Old Trafford and now Manchester City 2-1 to climb up to fifth and within five points of the top four. On both occasions the scoreline arguably flattered the losing side with Solskjaer’s vision slowly coming to fruition.

Marcus Rashford has already matched his previous season’s best for goals with 13, Fred has enjoyed two of his best games since a £50 million move from Shakhtar Donetsk 18 months ago, Aaron Wan-Bissaka was outstanding in nullifying the threat of Raheem Sterling and Harry Maguire marshalled his defence resolutely under a late City bombardment.

There is still much to do for Solskjaer to convince the doubters, not least catching Chelsea in fourth to secure a return to the Champions League next season, but this was undoubtedly his best week as permanent United boss.

Klopp relishes Liverpool shutout

Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool’s first clean sheet in 14 games was the talk of the dressing room after the leaders’ 3-0 win at Bournemouth.

Klopp’s side made it 33 league games unbeaten as they maintained an eight-point lead over second-placed Leicester.

Goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and Mohamed Salah earned the victory, but it was Liverpool’s first shutout since September 28 that pleased Klopp the most.

“I forgot actually how it feels, to be honest. It’s great, we should have that more often,” Klopp said.

“For the boys, that was the most used word in the dressing room when I came in, ‘clean sheet, clean sheet, clean sheet’.

“Obviously everybody was desperate for that and now we have it, so let’s have it more often.”

Leicester happy to stay in the shadows

With Jamie Vardy on the kind of hot streak he last managed when Leicester won their fairytale title in 2016, Brendan Rodgers’ side have become the last hope of a competitive race to be crowned kings of English football.

Liverpool have left Manchester City trailing in their wake, but Leicester remain in the hunt after Vardy’s double inspired a 4-1 rout of Aston Villa.

Vardy, the Premier League’s leading scorer with 16 goals this term, has netted in eight successive games, recalling his 11-match scoring streak from 2015-16.

The Foxes have reeled off a club record eight consecutive top-flight victories, but Rodgers has no intention of talking up his team’s title chances.

“I don’t think anyone expects us to be near the top. We respect that, we get on with our work and keep developing as a team,” Rodgers said.

“It’s just natural, Man City and Liverpool are both incredible teams. We know we are looking to improve and close the gap. We have finished ninth in the last two seasons but today we looked like a top team.”

Source: AFP

8, December 2019

Calls for halt to Saudi military training in US after attack ⁰

Key lawmakers called Sunday for a halt to a Saudi military training program after a shooting rampage at a US naval base in which a Saudi officer killed three American sailors.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he has ordered a review of vetting procedures while defending the training program that brought Mohammed Alshamrani to Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida.

Alshamrani, a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force, opened fire in a classroom at the base on Friday, killing the three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police.

The FBI said Sunday the shooting was being investigated with the “presumption” it was an act of terrorism, but that authorities had yet to make a final determination.

Alshamrani was reported to have posted a manifesto on Twitter before the shooting denouncing America as “a nation of evil.”

“We need to suspend the program until we investigate,” Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican on national security issues, said on Fox News.

“I like allies. Saudi Arabia’s an ally, but there’s something really bad here fundamentally. We need to slow this program down and reevaluate,” he said.

US media reported that six Saudi nationals also assigned to the base have been questioned, and that Alshamrani had shown videos of mass shootings at a dinner party the night before the attack.

In a pre-taped interview that aired on Fox News Sunday, Esper confirmed that several Saudis have been detained, including “one or two” who filmed the shooting on their cellphones.

He said it was unclear if they began filming before the shooting began or after it started.

– Vetting –

The attack has struck a live nerve in the United States with its echoes of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which Saudi citizens accounted for 15 of the 19 hijackers that flew airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Saudi Arabia remains one of the closest US allies in the Middle East, and US President Donald Trump has cultivated its controversial de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican whose Florida district includes the Pensacola base, warned the shooting “has to inform on our ongoing relationship with Saudi Arabia.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” he called for the military training program to be halted “until we are absolutely confident in our vetting program.”

He said he told the Saudi ambassador “as clearly as I possibly could that we want no interference from the kingdom as it relates to Saudis that we have.

“And if there are Saudis that we do not have that may have been involved in any way in the planning, inspiration, financing or execution of this, that we expect Saudi intelligence to work with our government to find the people accountable and hold them responsible.”

“And I was given every assurance from the ambassador that that would occur,” he said.

– Relationship questioned –

Democrats questioned the broader security relationship under the Saudi crown prince, citing Riyadh’s role in the brutal war in Yemen and the 2018 assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia has yet to account for Khashoggi’s murder at its Istanbul embassy, said Representative Zoe Loghren. “So yes, there are a lot of questions about Saudi Arabia,” she said on ABC.

“This is a relationship that has serious problems,” said Cory Booker, a senator and presidential candidate.

“And the fact that this president seems, in a very transactional way, doubling down on the relationship, and telling us it’s because of just financial interests, is unacceptable.”

Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said it was too early to say the shooting was an act of terrorism but that Congress would press for a full investigation by the Saudis.

“And I wish the president of the United States, rather than trying to speak for the Saudi government, were pressing the Saudi government for answers,” he added on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has denounced the shooting as a “heinous crime” and said the gunman “does not represent the Saudi people.”

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the king’s younger son and the deputy defense minister, offered his “sincerest condolences” to the victims’ families.

“I was trained in a US military base, and we used that valuable training to fight side by side with our American allies against terrorism and other threats,” Prince Khalid added on Twitter.

Trump said King Salman and the crown prince would “help out the families very greatly,” without specifying how.

Source: AFP

8, December 2019

4 dead after rock collapse at South African gold mine ⁰

Four mine workers were killed and one was seriously injured after a rock fall at a South African gold mine on Friday trapped five workers underground, the company and a mining union said on Sunday.

The collapse at the Village Main Reef’s Tau Lekoa gold mine in North West province followed at least one earth tremor.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was strongly critical of the mining company, saying in a statement that “there was no escape route in the working area where the four mineworkers were found dead”.

The union also said in the statement the mine’s proto team – a group of workers trained to perform underground rescues – did not act quickly enough to save the four miners and “deliberately stopped the team leaders and winch drivers from rescuing the four mineworkers.”

The file photo shows rescuers tending to a mine worker, in striped top, after he was pulled from an illegal gold mine in Benoni, outside Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by AFP)

It did not give evidence for this but said it had been briefed by members working at the mine and present during the incident.

The mining firm, Village Main Reef, said it would not comment on the evacuation procedures until after an investigation was completed.

“There were two seismic events and then a rock fall occurred,” said James Duncan, a spokesman for the mine.

“Investigations on the causal factors are ongoing and we will be able to comment only once those are complete. We won’t be commenting at all on the accusations by NUM.”

NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said the rock collapse followed a “seismic event of 2.6 magnitude”.

The death toll in South Africa’s mines fell to 81 fatalities last year from 90 in 2017, the Mineral Resources Ministry said in March. This was a marked reduction from previous decades when the sector was marked by lax safety regulations and labor laws.

(Source: Reuters)

8, December 2019

Ambazonia: En route to South Africa, Vice President Yerima says he and Renowned Muslim Scholar Abdul Karim will pray together in Buea ⁰

Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima who has been living in exile for almost two decades will be making an emotional displacement from his headquarters in Den Hague, Holland on Monday and fly to the Republic of South Africa.

Recalling how the leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides were abducted in Abuja, Nigeria and forcefully repatriated to French Cameroun, Comrade Yerima told a town hall meeting in Holland recently that his first publicized official outing as Vice President had to be in Africa.

“For the first time, we Southern Cameroonians will again begin the journey to Buea and by extrapolation to the sacred land of Ambazonia,” Yerima said at last week’s Interim Government briefing.

Dabney Yerima added that the mission to South Africa will focus on marketing the Amba Bonds Project and to assure Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero that the desperate days of failed leadership are over and above all, to congratulate Ambazonians in South Africa for their huge contribution on the long diplomatic drive toward Southern Cameroons self-rule.

In a message addressed to the Vice President, the Southern Cameroons European think tank in Germany said “All our congratulations to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on the occasion of your maiden trip to the Republic of South Africa and all our congratulations too to the valiant people of Ambazonia and our combatants in Ground Zero.”

The Ambazonia Interim Government will maintain its political, international relations and refugee departments in South Africa to be able to monitor the deteriorating situation in Nigeria and in Ground Zero.

However, Ambazonia Restoration Forces resisting the French Cameroun military are largely unfunded and embittered. The Southern Cameroons diaspora in Europe and America has to adapt and rally behind Vice President Yerima in the new situation if they want to get anything out of the Ambazonia revolution.

Correspondingly, if those small Southern Cameroons groups doesn’t change their attitudes and join the Interim Government and fight according to the present circumstances, they will fade away.

Yerima has pledged to convene a Southern Cameroons forum to rewrite the Ambazonian charter on the armed struggle. But a majority of the Interim Government cabinet members particularly those in the USA have admitted that there is no consensus for convening the forum now.

The next two months for Vice President Dabney Yerima are going to be very, very difficult—addressing Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero on the 31^st of December empty-handed and with a big smile and no Santa for the hundreds of Southern Cameroonians dying in Mexico.

Yerima is mindful of the financial problems ahead, even as he looks ahead with bravado. “The Southern Cameroons struggle will continue until the Ambazonia flag is raised in all Southern Cameroons lands,” he said.

Speaking of the recent breakdown in communication involving the renowned Muslim scholar, Vice President Dabney Yerima pledged repeatedly that he and Abdul Karim will pray together in Buea.

“Southern Cameroonians will continue until we reach Buea the capital of our Ambazonian state.” At the same time he added, “Ambazonians are full of pain and bitterness about the uncertainty in the new situation.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in London