The Trump administration will finally unveil his long-awaited infrastructure plan via a $1.5 trillion proposal intended to fulfill the president’s campaign promises, but relies heavily on state and local governments to generate much of the funding.

Trump’s plan is to use $200 billion in federal money to leverage local and state tax dollars to fix America’s infrastructure. State and local governments, are expected to match any federal allocation by at least a four-to-one ratio. States have gradually assumed more of the responsibility for funding infrastructure in recent years, and the White House says it wants to accelerate that trend.

“Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and where appropriate tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit,” Trump said at his State of the Union address last month.

The president has repeatedly blamed the “crumbling” state of the nation’s roads and highways for preventing the American economy from reaching its full potential.

Initial plan outline

The plan is structured around four goals: to generate $1.5 trillion for an infrastructure proposal, to streamline the current long and arduous permitting process down to a shorter and efficient one, to invest in rural infrastructure projects and to advance workforce training.

“The current system is fundamentally broken and it’s broken in two different ways,” a senior administration official told reporters in a Saturday phone call.

“We are underinvesting in our infrastructure and we have a permitting process that takes so long that even when funds are adequate, it can take a decade to build critical infrastructure.”

To shorten that process, the administration will use a “one agency one decision” method, one of the officials said Saturday. That procedure would place the agency with the relevant “expertise” needed in charge of the permitting.

“A large part of the problem currently is that the federal government’s rules and restrictions get in the way of building a better America,” one of the officials said. “So we want to get out of the way to that regard.”

Potential opposition to the plan

Trump is scheduled to host both Democratic and Republican leaders at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the infrastructure proposal. The plan will probably face opposition from Congressional Democrats, who have long pressed the federal government’s historic and direct role in rebuilding. House Democrats last week released their own infrastructure plan that boasted a $1 trillion direct government spend on an overhaul.

Over the past year, Democrats have also accused Trump of seeking to create the $200 billion infrastructure fund by proposing cuts to other infrastructure-related programs.

Environmental groups are also expected to voice their opposition to the plan.

“President Trump’s infrastructure proposal is a disaster,” said Shelley Poticha, of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“It fails to offer the investment needed to bring our country into the 21st century. Even worse, his plan includes an unacceptable corporate giveaway by truncating environmental reviews,” she said.

Source: Presstv

Separatist fighters in Cameroon killed three soldiers and wounded four others during an attack overnight in the English-speaking Southwest region, two military sources and a separatist commander said on Sunday.

The attack in the village of Kembong came hours after President Paul Biya said in a televised address that the situation in Anglophone Cameroon was stable, despite ongoing widespread fighting.

Separatists have killed 25 soldiers and policemen in a series of raids over the past year in a bid to gain independence for the Anglophone Southwest and Northwest regions.

“ADF forces carried out the attacks,” said Cho Ayaba, the leader of the Ambazonian Defense Force, an armed separatist group.

The crisis began in 2016 when the government cracked down on English-speaking lawyers and teachers who protested against working in French.

Civilians were killed, and subsequent violence against protesters has helped boost support for a separatist movement, including armed groups looking to form a new state called Ambazonia, in a campaign to split Cameroon’s English-speaking minority from Yaounde.

An army crackdown on the insurgency has forced more than 40,000 people to flee to neighboring Nigeria, according to the United Nations.

Residents in the Anglophone regions told Reuters last week that the army burned houses in the village of Bole and shot residents on Feb. 2.

An army spokesman said claims that houses were burned and people shot in Bole were “totally false”, and he denied that soldiers were mistreating residents in other villages.

(Source: Reuters)

Southern Cameroonians under the ‘Republic of Ambazonia’ have named a new leader in the person of  Sako Ikome Samuel.

The new development comes in the wake of the arrest and deportation of Julius Ayuk Tabe, the group’s known leader. Tabe and 46 others were handed over to Cameroon from Nigerian authorities after they were arrested in an Abuja hotel in January 2018.

In his first address to the nation, Ikome Samuel in his capacity as Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia declared that the movement had now entered an era of individual and communal self defense.

“Now is the era of self-defense. From effective personal self defense to legitimate Ambazonia community protection programs to stop the wanton destruction of lives and our property in Ambazonia.

“We are therefore going to work to accredit and embrace all self defense and security groups that will endorse our IG rules of engagement. I will be reaching out to all in the days ahead,” he stressed in the over 21 minutes address.

He described the stage of the separatist struggle as at a precipice. He blamed the arrest of Tabe and 11 others as a planned effort by Nigeria, Cameroon and the French government. According to him, he will continue to serve British southern Cameroonians against French Cameroon.

Cameroonian authorities in November 2017 issued international arrest warrants for fifteen leaders of the Anglophone separatist consortium known as the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC).

According to a local website, the main target was Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who is being held by authorities in Yaounde awaiting trail.

The government accuses the group of being behind rising violence in the northwestern and southwestern regions. The two areas known as ‘Anglophone Cameroon’ has been at the heart of clashes between pro-government forces and secessionists.

According to him, the Ambazonia nation was birthed in October 2017 when the group were met with forces by security elements in a move to declare symbolic independence. Deaths were reported, scores were injured and hundreds others arrested in raids.

An ensuing guerilla style of attacks on security forces – police, soldiers, gendarmes, led President Paul Biya to declare war on the group. Reprisal attacks have led to thousands fleeing the region into the forest and into Nigeria.

The United Nations and Cross River State of Nigeria continue to receive thousands of people streaming into communities. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says the numbers continue to increase.

Source: Africa News

Cameroon Concord News Group has been informed that violent clashes are currently playing out in several towns in Southern Cameroons. Our source in Batibo has reported that three army soldiers have been killed by unknown gunmen while the Batibo Senior Divisional Officer has been taken by the gunmen to an unknown destination.

The Batibo Assistant Mayor, Esther Tebo, for her part, is currently hiding in the forest after gunmen showed up at her church and opened fire, wounding several people.

In Kembong, a town in Manyu Division which was a hotspot during the violent confrontations in December 2017, is back in the spotlight following an attack by heavily armed gunmen on the temporary military barrack in the town.

The attack resulted in the killing of three gendarmes, with many other uniformed officers wounded. The wounded have been flown by helicopter to the Mamfe military hospital for treatment, a measure expected to help stabilize them. Sources close to the military say the wounded will soon be flown to Douala where it is believed they would get better treatment.

Our military sources also reported that several of the attackers had been killed, adding that the fighting was still ongoing. There is rising fear among the population, given that the last time a military officer was killed in Kembong, many houses were torched by army soldiers in revenge.

The military source added that the attackers used heavy artillery and some artisanal weapons and were many. The source advised that the Southern Cameroons crisis would not be addressed through military action, adding that the loss of life should push the government into negotiating a way out of this conflict that is very likely to run for years if dialogue is not pursued.

The incident, which is a response to the government’s military action in many parts of Southern Cameroons, comes less than 24 hours after the country’s president, Paul Biya, said the North West and South West regions were stabilizing during a speech delivered to the country’s youth on Saturday, February 10, 2018, on the occasion of the country’s Youth Day.

Mr. Biya’s speech had been expected by millions of Cameroonians, especially the youths, who have been victims of the government failure to create jobs and grow the economy. The wait also stemmed from the fact that for more than two weeks, there had been speculations about the whereabouts of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, 85, who had been missing in action.

Mr. Biya was expected to deliver a live speech on Saturday, February 10, 2018, directed at the youths to urge the country’s impoverished and unemployed youths to continue persevering in their efforts to find work.

He used the occasion to point out that though the economy had not been delivering the results expected, it was more because of a combination of external factors such as declining oil prices, the Southern Cameroons crisis and the Boko Haram insurgency.

However, Cameroonians had been very concerned about the absence of their president. Many analysts held that the country’s president might either be dead or that his health situation might have taken a turn for the worse.

However, yesterday’s speech did not reassure many people, as they hold that it had been taped many weeks before it was delivered. They justify their claim with the fact that the president did not make any reference to the arrest of Southern Cameroons leaders and the creation of a constitutional council a few days before the youth day.

It should be noted that Mr. Biya has been having serious health issues for some time now and a source close to the ailing dictator had intimated that the 85-year-old Biya was suffering from prostrate cancer and a failing heart.

Cameroonians no longer have faith in the government. They hold that the government speaks from both sides of its mouth and that current actions by the president’s collaborators give to understand that there is something fishy unfolding behind the scenes.

Cameroonians are still looking for assurances that their president is alive. They want to be sure that Mr. Biya’s collaborators are not working behind the scenes to change the country’s constitutional order just to ensure the Betis who have been mismanaging the country for more than three decades do not wrestle power out of the hands of the real constitutional successor.

According to a source at the Presidency which elected anonymity, the Secretary General at the presidency has ever since Mr. Biya disappeared from the public’s eye, been holding a series of meetings with some of his collaborators who have been advising him to issue decrees that would usher in constitutional changes on Mr. Biya’s behalf.

They point to the appointment of Clement Atangana early last week as president of the constitutional council as one of the changes aimed at changing things to the advantage of a Beti Mafia that has been running the show for many years.

The scheduling of senatorial elections next month is considered as one of the measures designed by the Beti Mafia to kick out the current senate president, Marcel NyatNjifenji, so that it could retain power even after Mr. Biya’s death.

Under the country’s current constitution, the constitutional successor is the president of the senate, Marcel Nyat Njifenji, a man many hold has played a key role in the corruption and mismanagement that have become the country’s hallmark.

Today’s violence in many Southern Cameroons towns and cities is a reminder that military violence will not address the issues Southern Cameroonians have complained about. It is also a reminder that Cameroon is on the war path and if care is not taken, the conflict could degenerate.

It should be recalled that ever since the conflict started in October 2016, more than 500 civilians have been killed by the country’s military, while more than 300 uniformed officers have lost their lives, especially in Manyu Division where there were violent clashes in December 2017 and January 2018.

By the Editorial team with field reports by Kingsley Betek, Rita Akana and Meshack Enowmbi in Cameroon

A Russian Antonov An-148 passenger plane carrying 71 people has crashed after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport killing all people on board, Russian media report.

The jet belonging to the domestic Saratov Airlines was flying to Orsk city, located about 100 kilometers southeast of the southern tip of the Ural Mountains, and crashed in the Ramensky district outside Moscow on Sunday.

According to Russian news agencies, the plane was carrying 65 passengers and six crewmembers.

News agencies said witnesses in the village of Argunovo saw a burning plane falling from the sky.

Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situation said it has dispatched crews to the reported crash site to probe the case.

Russian news agencies, citing sources in the emergency services, reported that the wreckage of the plane was spread over a wide area around the crash site.

“Debris has been found, there are no survivors,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a source as saying.

According to Interfax, the Russian Transport Ministry is considering various possible reasons, including weather conditions and human error for the incident.

The following video shows screenshots of Flightradar tracking of Saratov airlines flight, screenshot of speed and altitude graph before signal lost. The governor of the Orenburg region, where the plane was flying to, has been quoted by Russian media as saying that “more than 60 people” on board the plane were from the region.

Russian prosecutors have opened an investigation into Saratov Airlines following the crash.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences to the families of those on board with his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying, “The president offers his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash.”

The new incident is the latest in a string of plane crashes in Russia.

A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board, AFP reported.

A military plane carrying Russia’s Red Army Choir crashed in December 2016 after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board. The choir was due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria. Pilot error was blamed for that crash.

Moreover, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubia jet crashed in March 2016 in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.

Source: Presstv