Category: International

As Presidential Candidate of Democratic Party, Kamala Harris prepares for a tour of US battleground states aimed at turning excitement over her Presidential bid into durable support that can power her to victory,she will name her running mate today Monday,5th August,2024.

A report by NDTV World said all paths to the White House run through a handful of swing states, and Harris will kick off her five-day run Tuesday in the largest  Pennsylvania, as she builds momentum for her showdown with Republican Donald Trump on November 5.

“At this moment, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past… This campaign is about people coming together, fuelled by love of country, to fight for the best of who we are,” she posted on X.

Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the country’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president heads into the national convention in Chicago in two weeks in total control of her party.

In a campaign that is barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, attracted huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing the polling leads Trump had built before President Joe Biden quit the race.

Next on the agenda is a vice presidential pick, with an announcement expected any time before her rally Tuesday evening alongside the mystery nominee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.

The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system

It is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.

Emmanuel Clement

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said late Friday he had agreed with Fox News to debate Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on September 4.

“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, but it was not immediately clear if Harris had agreed to the debate.

Trump’s post came hours after Harris secured the Democratic party’s presidential nomination as party standard bearer in November’s election.

Trump’s White House bid was turned upside down on July 21 when President Biden, 81, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, withdrew his candidacy and backed Harris.

Biden bowed out following a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June on CNN.

A second Trump-Biden televised debate had been scheduled for September 10 on ABC television.

That was expected to remain in place, with Harris replacing Biden, but Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung last week said it was “inappropriate” to schedule it before Harris was formally the Democratic nominee.

In his post Trump gave details of the debate venue and the moderators, saying it it would be held before a full audience.

Emmanuel lkpeama 

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal has unveiled plans to reduce the price of rice, oil, bread, and other basic items to address cost-of-living concerns amid high unemployment and inflation.

Faye who stated this on Thursday has vowed during the campaign to address high living costs in the West African nation that heavily relies on imports.

The issue has featured widely in the media and on social media in recent weeks, with many saying it is a priority.

Under the measures, the price of a kilo (2.2 pounds) of the most widely consumed type of rice will be reduced by 40 CFA ($0.065, 0.061 euros), while a baguette will cost 15 CFA (0.023 euros) less, the government announced at a media conference.

The reductions, which also cover cement and fertiliser, will take effect in the next few days, government secretary general Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo told newsmen

Spending on food accounts for half a Senegalese household’s budget, Lo said, adding checks would be stepped up to ensure traders respect the new prices.

Budget Minister Cheikh Diba said the government would forego taxes and customs duties imposed on importers to subsidise the price cuts.

The measures will cost 53.3 billion CFA (more than 81 million euros, $87 million), Diba said.

But the government did not say how long the measures would apply.

At least a third of Senegal’s population lives in poverty, while unemployment stands at around 20 percent.

It will be recalled that Senegal joined the club of oil-producing countries this week as Australian group Woodside Energy announced that production had started in the country’s first offshore project.

President Faye vowed that profits from the country’s gas and oil resources would be “well managed”.

AFN

Emmanuel Clement.

Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first woman president by a landslide Sunday, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence.

Crowds of flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music in Mexico City’s main square celebrating the ruling party candidate’s victory.

“I want to thank millions of Mexican women and men who decided to vote for us on this historic day,” Sheinbaum said in a victory speech to the cheering crowd.

“I won’t fail you,” the 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor vowed.

She thanked her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez, who conceded defeat.

Sheinbaum, a scientist by training, won around 58-60 percent of votes, according to preliminary official results from the National Electoral Institute.

That was more than 30 percentage points ahead of Galvez, and some 50 percentage points ahead of the only man running, long-shot centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez.

Voters had flocked to polling stations across the Latin American nation, despite sporadic violence in areas terrorized by ultra-violent drug cartels.

Thousands of troops were deployed to protect voters, following a particularly bloody electoral process that has seen more than two dozen aspiring local politicians murdered.

Zambia’s former first lady, Esther Lungu has been arrested on money laundering charges, her lawyer said Friday, days after her husband claimed he was being targeted as part of a political vendetta.

Esther Lungu, 66, was held Thursday evening alongside her two daughters, after being quizzed for hours about properties the family holds in the capital, Lusaka, lawyer Makebi Zulu told AFP. She has now been released on bail.

“The former first lady has been arrested for being found in possession of properties suspected to be proceeds of crime and money laundering charges,” Zulu said

He said the properties, a block of flats in Lusaka’s high-end New Kasama district, were built by Lungu’s husband, former president Edgar Lungu, 67.

Zambia’s anti-drug agency said the one time first lady had failed to give a “reasonable explanation” of how she acquired the flats, which had a construction cost of 41 million kwacha ($1.6 million).

They were “reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime”, it added.

Edgar Lungu led copper-rich Zambia from 2015 to 2021, when he lost an election to President Hakainde Hichilema, who had been a veteran opposition leader before winning the vote by a landslide.

Last year, Lungu announced he was to return to politics, with general elections scheduled for 2026. He has since complained about a shrinking democratic space in the country and what he said was a campaign of harassment against his family.

Police warned him against turning his morning jogs into political events and last week he claimed he was “practically under house arrest”, which authorities denied.

The latest arrest was not Esther Lungu’s first run-in with police.

Last year her house was raided on accusations she had stolen some vehicles.