Nigeria of Bureau of Statistics Reports 88% Increase In Kerosene, Gas Prices

By

-

June 24, 2022

The Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in a recent report says primary cooking fuels, kerosene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, otherwise referred to as cooking gas, recorded an 88 per cent price increase within one year.

According to the NBS report titled, “National Household Kerosene Price Watch,” the price of kerosene went up by 86.94 per cent in one year.

The report also said that the average retail price per litre of household kerosene (HHK) paid by consumers in May 2022 increased by 15.21 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N589.82 in April 2022 to N679.54 in May 2022.

The state profile analysis showed that the highest average price per litre in May 2022 was recorded in Enugu with N868.75, followed by Ebonyi with N861.11 and Imo with N801.67. On the other hand, the lowest price was recorded in Bayelsa with N558.06, followed by Yobe with N601.39 and Nasarawa with N603.33.

In addition, the South-East recorded the highest average retail price per litre of household kerosene with N773.09, followed by the South-West with N738.19 and the North-Central with N668.78, while the North-East recorded the lowest with N632.06.

Also, in a separate report titled “Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking gas) Price Watch,” the NBS said the average retail price for cooking gas increased by 89.28 percent from N2071.69 in May 2021.

According to the report, the average retail price per litre of Household Kerosene paid by consumers in May 2022 increased by 15.21 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N589.82 in April 2022 to N679.54 in May 2022.

Based on state profile analysis, the highest average price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) was recorded in Gombe with N4366.67, followed by Bayelsa with N4325.00 and Adamawa with N4250.00. On the other hand, Yobe recorded the lowest average price with N3200.00; this was followed by Ogun and Ondo with N3450.00 and N3480.77 respectively.

In addition, prices analysed by zones show that the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas was highest in the South -East with N 4094.39 followed by the North-Central with N3989.98 and South-South with N3977.72, while the South West recorded the lowest average retail price of N3719.53.

When aggregated, both products hit an 88.11 per cent average, based on the numbers for the past 12 months.

BREAKING: Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade, Ending 50 Years Of Federal Abortion Rights

By

faith Jegede

-

June 24, 2022

0

Demonstrators protest near the Supreme Court over abortion rights in Washington — Anti-abortion activists demonstrate outside the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, U.S., June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 1973. Roe v. Wade had permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy in the U.S. since then.

The court’s controversial but expected ruling gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws without concern of running afoul of Roe, which for nearly half a century had permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

The majority of the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, which is related to a highly restrictive new Mississippi abortion law.

Justice Samuel Alito, as expected, wrote the majority opinion that tossed out Roe as well as a 1992 Supreme Court decision upholding abortion rights in a case known as Planned Parenthood v. Caseys. He was joined in that judgment by the five other conservatives on the high court, including Chief Justice John Roberts.

The court’s three liberal justices filed a dissenting opinion to the ruling.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote.

“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Alito wrote.

“That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ’implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Alito wrote.

In their joint dissent, the court’s liberal justices blasted the majority for a decision that “says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of.”

The case that triggered Roe’s demise after nearly a half-century, known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is related to a Mississippi law that banned nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Dobbs was by far the most significant and controversial dispute of the court’s term. It also posed the most serious threat to abortion rights since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Supreme Court reaffirmed Roe.

Dobbs deepened partisan divisions in a period of already intense political tribalism.

The early May leak of a draft of the majority opinion, which completely overturned Roe, sent shockwaves across the country and galvanized activists on both sides of the debate. It also cast a pall over the nation’s highest court, which immediately opened an investigation to find the source of the leak.

The publication of the court’s draft opinion, written by Alito, sparked protests from abortion-rights supporters, who were outraged and fearful about how the decision will impact both patients and providers as 22 states gear up to restrict abortions or ban them outright.

The leaked opinion marked a major victory for conservatives and anti-abortion advocates who had worked for decades to undermine Roe and Casey.

But Republican lawmakers in Washington, who are hoping to win big in the November midterm elections, initially focused more on the leak itself than on what it revealed. They also decried the protests that formed outside the homes of some conservative justices, accusing activists of trying to intimidate the court.

The leak had clearly had an impact, however. Tall fencing was set up around the court building afterwards, and Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the U.S. Marshals Service to “help ensure the Justices’ safety.” Alito, in his first reported remarks since the leak, spoke remotely from the court building to a crowd attending a forum at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, rather than make the six-mile journey to the school. The Washington Post reported that, when asked during that event how he and the other justices are holding up, Alito replied, “This is a subject I told myself I wasn’t going to talk about today regarding, you know — given all the circumstances.”

Intra-Commonwealth Trade To Grow By U.S.$20 Trillion In Five Years – British PM

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has commended the benefits from existing ties between Commonwealth countries and pointed out that intra-trade within the community is expected to grow by 50% to $19.5 trillion in the next five years.

He made the remarks at the closure of the commonwealth three-day Commonwealth Business Forum on Thursday June 23.

“We’ve all come out of the misery of the Covid-19 lockdowns and look at what is going on in the world today – unfortunately we still see economic pressures and we’re seeing spikes in the cost of energy, spikes in the cost of food, and of fertilizer,” he said.

He added that; “But what if there was a miracle fertiliser, a fertiliser of business, that grew your business, that expanded your profits and cut your costs, by 21%? There is such a fertiliser, and I’ll tell you the ingredients. That fertiliser knocks 21% off the cost of trade between Commonwealth members. That’s 21 percent bigger profits if you do deals between the Commonwealth.”

Over the next five years, he said, the Commonwealth’s total GDP is forecast to rise by nearly 50 per cent to $19.5 trillion

“These are the markets, super fertilised markets that will power growth and prosperity and create jobs in our countries, and at the same time help to ease those pressures that we all face on the cost of living. So, we are going ahead, and in the UK we’re striking free trade agreements across the Commonwealth,” he said.

Johnson welcomed the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area, saying that it was a ‘wonderful thing’.

“Over 1.3 billion people, promising to lift 30 million out of extreme poverty and generate $450 billion for African nations, which, by the way, is far more than Africa could ever receive in development aid.”

At the closure of the Business Forum, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente noted that delegates delivered the unique value to the Commonwealth business community through clear commitments made.

“You engaged in vibrant dialogues and offered practical solutions to the biggest global challenges of today. I sense the energy to deliver on the unique value of this forum and move from discussions to actions,” he said.

The Business Forum brought together government leaders, captains of industry and business executives, leaders of global and regional development institutions, young entrepreneurs and representatives of trade and investment organizations from across the Commonwealth.

Former US VP Pence Denounces Iran, Urges Biden Not To Renew Nuclear Deal

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

Former US vice president Mike Pence on Thursday denounced the Iranian regime for “brutality” and urged the Biden administration not to renew a nuclear deal with Tehran, saying it would embolden Iran’s leadership.

Pence flew 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from his home in Indiana to Albania to visit the Ashraf-3 camp that is home to some 3,000 Iranian dissidents from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, best known as MEK.

Speaking at the camp near a small hill town 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Albania’s capital, Tirana, Pence harshly denounced Tehran for brutality, poverty and corruption.

Pence said the election of President Ebrahim Raisi, whom he called “a brutal mass murderer responsible for the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners,” was “intended to quash internal dissent and intimidate the people of Iran into remaining silent.”

He also visited the camp’s museum on what it describes as the death or execution of up to 120,000 Iranians since the Islamist regime came to power in 1979.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and turned against his clerical government, carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings in the Islamic Republic.

The MEK later fled into Iraq and backed dictator Saddam Hussein during his bloody eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, leading many people in Iran to oppose the group. Although now largely based in Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.

Pence hailed the time of his governing with former president Donald Trump when they canceled the Iran nuclear deal, mentioning the sanctions imposed on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard and bringing Iran’s oil exports to near zero.

“A renewed deal with Iran won’t block Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb,” Pence warned.

He said a deal would not “benefit the people of Iran in any way but “merely empower and enrich a corrupt regime that has tormented and tortured the Iranian people for generations.”

EU Foreign Policy Chief Heading To Tehran In Effort To Revive Nuclear Talks

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

European Union foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell is set to travel to Tehran on Friday for a surprise visit that could breathe new life into stalled talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Borrell was due to arrive in the Iranian capital at night to meet Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

“Diplomacy is the only way to go back to full implementation of the deal and to reverse current tensions,” Borrell tweeted as the EU confirmed his two-day trip in a statement.

News of his previously unannounced visit comes after Amir-Abdollahian said last week that Iran still believed the negotiations could succeed.

“The visit, which is part of ongoing consultations between Iran and the European Union, will focus on bilateral relations, some regional and international issues, as well as the latest status of negotiations to lift sanctions,” said a statement from Khatibzadeh.

News of the previously unannounced visit comes after Amir-Abdollahian said last week that Iran still believes the negotiations can succeed.

The talks in Vienna, which began in April last year, aim to return the United States to the nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.

The negotiations have been stalled since March amid differences between Tehran and Washington, most notably due to a demand by Iran to remove its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US terror list. Reports earlier this week indicated that Tehran may be willing to drop the demand that Washington delist its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp as a terrorist group, what emerged as a key sticking point in talks.

Amir-Abdollahian on Wednesday said Iran was “serious” about reaching an agreement in the negotiations.

“The nuclear negotiations train has reached difficult stops as they near the end,” he said.

Coalition Demise Could Delay Planned Visa-Free Entry For Israelis – US Official

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

As the government moves ahead with plans to dissolve the Knesset, a senior US embassy official warned that the development could delay efforts to add Israel to a list of countries whose citizens don’t need a visa to enter the United States.

Israel has been attempting to join the US Visa Waiver Program for years, but has yet to meet the arrangement’s minimum requirements. In the past, governments have lobbied Congress for an exemption from these global criteria, but the newest push has seen Israel move toward passing legislation that would instead help it address the American issues.

“That will be up to the Knesset,” the US official told The Times of Israel by phone. “There are some pieces of legislation that are in the Knesset that are in various stages of being introduced or being read, and it’ll be up to the caretaker government [which will be in charge after the Knesset is disbanded] to determine whether those pieces of legislation are enough of national interest to continue to advance, or if they need to wait for the fall.”

One of the steps needed to ensure entry into the VWP is the passing of legislation granting the US limited access to the participating country’s criminal records — a measure that will be unlikely to be approved once the Knesset disperses itself for an election campaign.

On Monday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced his plans to call for the dissolution of the Knesset, which will send the country back to elections for the fifth time in less than four years.

Important steps have been made in the visa-exemption process during Bennett’s short tenure.

“In the last 6 or 7 months, Israel has made more progress on getting into the Visa Waiver than they have in previous umpteen years they’ve been talking about it,” said the official. “The current government has taken a lot of strides forward answering the requirements of Homeland Security which really runs Visa Waiver Program.”

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides have in the past expressed hope that Israel would be able to join the VWP by the end of the year or by early 2023, but that is now looking far less likely.

Knesset Passes Initial Vote Setting Israel On Path To Elections

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

Discussion and a vote on a bill to dissolve the Knesset, at the assembly hall of the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, on June 22, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** בחירות תאריך כנסת מליאה הצבעה פיזור הכנסת טרומי טרומית

The Israeli coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett cleared the first major hurdle on its path to ending the current government on Wednesday, passing the first of the four votes necessary to disperse the Knesset and force snap elections.

Unable to agree even on dissolution, the opposition and coalition submitted several separate versions of the legislation — nine opposition bills and two coalition versions.

The coalition’s primary version passed with 106 votes in favor and one against, while the opposition bills all passed with over 89 votes. All will now move to the Knesset House Committee to determine which committee will prepare them for their next vote, the first reading.

The dissolution process requires four separate votes and two committee reviews, and is not expected to be completed on Wednesday. The Knesset is expected to complete the process next week, perhaps as early as Monday.

Despite a relatively mild hour-long debate over the bills, Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy dismissed attempts to applaud the passage of the 11 preliminary readings to dissolve the Knesset.

“No, no, no, stop. It’s over,” Levy said.

On Monday, Bennett and Foreign Minster Yair Lapid surprised the nation by announcing their intention to voluntarily disband the Knesset and send Israel to its fifth election since 2019.

After months of political instability kicked off by losing its one-seat majority in early April and exacerbated by security tensions, Bennett and Lapid said they arrived at their decision after attempts to restore order in the coalition were “exhausted.”

Following the expected dissolution, Lapid will assume the role of interim prime minister until a new government is sworn in, post elections.

Commonwealth Heads Of Government To Reaffirm Common Values And Agree Actions

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022 takes place 20-25 June 2022, in Kigali, Rwanda. The official opening of CHOGM takes place on Friday 24 June and is followed by the main high-level meetings of Heads on Friday 24 to Saturday 25 June. They are proceeded by four Forums, ministerial meetings, side events and other activities.

Commonwealth leaders travelled to Rwanda to reaffirm their common values and agree actions and policies to improve the lives of all their citizens. Decisions taken at CHOGM also guide the work programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Commonwealth Leaders Pledge More Than $4bn To Fight Against Malaria, Neglected Tropical Diseases

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

Leaders of Commonwealth nations meeting in Rwanda’s capital Friday vow to tackle climate change, tropical diseases and other challenges.

The summit for Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali is the culmination of a series of meetings this week that officials said yielded some success in efforts to improve the lives of people in the 54-nation association that is home to 2.5 billion people.

The Commonwealth’s member states range from vast India to tiny Tuvalu. The African nations of Togo and Gabon have asked to join the Commonwealth despite having no colonial history with Britain.

The group of nations comprises mostly former British colonies, and its titular head is Queen Elizabeth II. But countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda — a former Belgian colony with an Anglophile leader — previously launched successful bids to join.

Prince Charles is representing his mother, who at 96 is restricting her official duties. The summit is taking place at an uncertain time for the British monarchy as well as the Commonwealth, whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

The bloc faces a new challenge as some member nations discuss removing the queen as their head of state. She is the head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, but Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in November, and several other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, say they plan to follow suit.

In his remarks Friday, Charles said “free” nations can make such decisions “calmly and without rancor.” The heir to the throne also spoke of slavery and its legacy for Indigenous communities and others, saying the Commonwealth “must find ways, new ways, to acknowledge our past.”

“Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come,” he said.

Rwanda’s hosting of the summit is contentious to some who cite the East African country’s poor human rights record under Paul Kagame, an authoritarian leader who has been de facto leader or president since a 1994 genocide.

Other critics are unhappy with what they see as an illegal and cruel deal with Britain to transfer migrants thousands of miles to Rwanda. That agreement faces legal hurdles, and the first group of migrants has yet to arrive in Africa.

World leaders attending the summit range from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose leadership of the Conservative party suffered a heavy blow overnight as voters rejected the party’s candidates in two special parliamentary elections, is also in Rwanda.

Some meetings on the margins of the summit reported successes in efforts to address pressing issues such as managing climate change and deadly diseases.

More than $4 billion was pledged Thursday toward global efforts to accelerate the fight against malaria and other neglected tropical diseases. The money will come from governments, philanthropists and others in the private sector. In addition, pharmaceutical companies donated 18 billion tablets to prevent and treat those diseases.

EU Leaders Tackle Inflation And Energy Shocks, Blame Russia’s War

By

Elizabeth Williams

-

June 24, 2022

0

A day after endorsing Ukraine’s candidacy to join the European Union, the EU bloc leaders turned their attention Friday to the severe economic turbulence looming over the coming months as the full impact of Russia’s war sinks in and the threat of recession rises.

The EU’s 27 leaders gathered in Brussels to grapple with surging inflation, energy shocks, dwindling business and consumer confidence, and growing budget pressures.

The leaders also will have to contend with higher borrowing costs as the European Central Bank prepares to raise interest rates for the first time in 11 years to counter runaway price increases. ECB President Christine Lagarde, who plans to raise rates next month and again in September, joined the EU summit to discuss the darkening economic outlook.

“We are in a difficult situation,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on her way into the summit. “It’s very important that we have this discussion.”

The EU has spent the previous decade battling a series of crises, ranging from Greece’s financial woes and transatlantic trade disruptions under former U.S. President Donald Trump to Britain’s departure from the bloc and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, with no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and the EU committed to stepping up sanctions against Russia as punishment, the bloc must battle economic threats on multiple fronts.

Energy poses a major challenge for the EU, which for years has relied heavily on Russian oil, natural gas and coal to help power cars, factories, heating systems and electricity plants.

Under pressure to keep pace with American and British penalties against Russia, the EU since April has expanded what were already unprecedented sanctions by targeting Russian fuels. A ban on imports of Russian coal will start in August and an embargo on most oil from Russia will be phased in over the coming eight months.

Meanwhile, Moscow itself is disrupting natural gas deliveries, which the EU didn’t include in its own sanctions for fear of seriously harming the European economy. Before the war, the bloc got about 40% of its gas from Russia.