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US Open Champion Thiem Out Of Wimbledon With Wrist Injury

By
Zoe Maven
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World number five Dominic Thiem on Thursday withdrew from Wimbledon after picking up a wrist injury suffered in Mallorca this week.

Tweeting on social media, the 27-year-old Austrian said he was sorry for pulling out of the upcoming three tournaments he had in his calendar — Wimbledon, Hamburg and Gstaad.

Thiem is the second top 10 player to pull out of Wimbledon after two-time champion Rafael Nadal said he was sitting out the tournament to rest after his French Open semi-final exit.

Wimbledon, which was cancelled last year due to the pandemic, starts at the All England Club on Monday.

Thiem has endured a tough season and has already said he will skip the Tokyo Olympics to concentrate on defending his US Open title.

He was knocked out of the French Open in the first round despite being a two-time runner-up in Paris and then had to retire from his opening match in the Mallorca grass court event on Tuesday against France’s Adrian Mannarino.

After consulting doctors in Barcelona, Thiem said he will have to wear a splint on his right wrist for the next five weeks.

He expressed determination to come back stronger and promised to do everything the doctors say in order to recover as quickly as possible.

Thiem has never got past the last 16 at Wimbledon and made first round exits on his last two visits.

The US Open, where Thiem won his only Slam in 2020, gets underway on August 30.

Honduras Opens Embassy In Jerusalem, 4th Country To Do So

By
Zoe Maven
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Honduras on Thursday opened its embassy in contested Jerusalem, becoming the fourth country to follow the U.S. move under former President Donald Trump to relocate its chief diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv.

To mark the occasion, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett signed several bilateral cooperation agreements in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Israel views the entire city as its unified capital, while the Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The rival claims were at the heart of the unrest in April and May that eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.

The U.S. inaugurated its embassy in the city in 2018, and Guatemala, Kosovo and Honduras followed suit. Paraguay opened its embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, but then reversed course months later.

Bennett said that the opening of the Honduran Embassy in Jerusalem, and the planned reopening of the Israeli Embassy in Tegucigalpa, was “another demonstration of the deep friendship and deep connection” between the two countries.

Israel previously had an embassy in Honduras until the 1990s.

Hernandez, who visited the holy city in 2019, had pledged to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. Israel’s then-Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in turn pledged to reopen the Tegucigalpa embassy.

Jerusalem is home to Israel’s parliament, Supreme Court, and many government offices. Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed that part of the city. East Jerusalem is home to the Old City, with holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Biden Aims To Forster Police Departments As Homicides Rise

By
faith Jegede
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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the funeral ceremony of former Senator John Warner at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, U.S. June 23, 2021. Oliver Contreras/Pool via REUTERS

President Biden says that states could now draw from $350 billion in federal stimulus money to shore up police departments. This was accompanied by a vow to crack down on gun dealers who fail to run background checks, as the White House seeks to combat the alarming rise in homicide rates in American cities.

Biden’s speech made it clear that he intends to approach crime prevention by investing in, rather than defunding the police — wading into a national debate about whether the government should give police departments more resources, or spend the money on mental health and other social services instead.

Under his new plan, state and local governments will be allowed to use their designated $350 billion of coronavirus relief funds for programs such as hiring police officers, paying overtime for community policing work and supporting community-based anti-violence groups. Governments of cities dealing with high crime rates will be able to go even further, hiring even more officers than they had before.

The funds can also be used for summer jobs for young people and organizations that aim to intervene with at-risk youths before they commit violence, a nod to criminal justice advocates who have called for political leaders to address the societal factors that drive crime.

Biden’s speech was aimed at blunting criticism from the republican party who accuse him of being soft on crime while using it to bridge the two flanks of his party: centrist Democrats alarmed by the spike in crime in cities and progressives who are pushing to defund police departments that have long been accused of racial discrimination amongst other systemic changes

Mr. Biden also said he was directing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to revoke the licenses of gun dealers “the first time that they violate federal law” by failing to run background checks.

Previously, sellers often received repeated warnings before their licenses were pulled. And in some cases, the ATF has been accused of overruling recommendations by their own inspectors and allowing sellers to keep their licenses.

Mr. Biden used the moment to call for Congress to pass legislative measures that would close background check loopholes, restrict assault weapons and repeal gun manufacturers’ immunity from lawsuits.

“Folks, this shouldn’t be a red or blue issue,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s an American issue. We’re not changing the Constitution; we’re enforcing it.”

In a move to appeal to both sides on Wednesday, he said “this is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement or our communities.”

UN Alarmed By Abuse Of Civilians In Growing Myanmar Conflict

By
Zoe Maven
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The United Nations’ office in Myanmar on Thursday expressed concern about escalating human rights abuses after reports that a group opposed to the junta may have executed 25 civilians it captured and allegations that troops had burned down a village.

The struggle between the military regime that took power in February after ousting elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and those opposing it has escalated in recent months.

The nonviolent civil disobedience movement has evolved into a fledgling armed resistance force in response to harsh repression from police and soldiers who killed hundreds of peaceful protesters and bystanders.

The statement by the U.N. office cited abuses by both sides, calling on “all actors in the current crisis to ensure that international human rights norms and standards are respected.”

The statement noted the discovery of two mass graves in the eastern state of Kayin, also called Karen, containing the human remains of 25 people “who had reportedly been detained on 31 May by the Karen National Defense Organization,” or KNDO.

The KNDO is one of the fighting forces of the Karen National Union, the political organization of the Karen ethnic minority that has been fighting for decades for more autonomy from the central government.

The junta said Sunday that the 25 bodies were those of road construction workers who were detained and killed by the KNDO.

In response, KNDO spokesman Wah Nay Nu was quoted by The Irrawaddy, an independent online news service, as saying the men were not civilians but government military personnel who were spying. He added that some were shot dead by KNDO forces but others were killed by shelling from government forces.

Russian Mercenaries Accused Of Rights Violations In C.A.R

By
Zoe Maven
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The United States, Britain and France have accused Russian mercenaries of operating alongside Central African Republic forces and committing human rights violations against civilians.

The charges, including obstructing U.N. peacekeeping, was immediately denied by Russia which denounced the Western nations for engaging in an “anti-Russia political hit job.”

The exchanges took place at a U.N. Security Council meeting after the U.N. special representative for the conflict-wracked Central African Republic, Mankeur Ndiaye, expressed serious concern at the military counter-offensive by the country’s security forces and “bilateral forces and other security forces” against a coalition of rebel groups which supports CAR’s former president Francois Bozize.

Ndiaye called the situation in CAR “among the most dangerous in the world,” saying violations of human rights and international law allegedly committed by CAR forces have never equaled those recently committed and detailed by MINUSCA,” the 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the country.

As one example, he said, the number of sexual violence-related incidents in the first quarter of 2021 was five times higher than the number reported in the last quarter of 2020.

While Ndiaye didn’t identify “the bilateral forces and other security forces,” Russia has troops in CAR training its military at the invitation of the government.

A recent report to the council by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly criticized CAR’s security forces and bilateral forces for an “unprecedented increase in hostile threats and incidents” targeting U.N. peacekeepers and alleged human rights abuses. He said people in the country continue to face an “unacceptably high level of violence.”

Russia Warns On Provocative Actions By British Navy

By
Zoe Maven
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Russia on Thursday accused Britain of spreading lies over a warship confrontation in the Black Sea and warned it would respond resolutely to any further provocative actions by the British navy off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea.

Russia summoned the British ambassador in Moscow for a formal diplomatic scolding after the warship breached what the Kremlin says are its territorial waters but which Britain and most of the world say belong to Ukraine.

Britain said Russia was sowing inaccuracies and disputed Russia’s account, saying no warning shots had been fired and that no bombs had been dropped in the path of the Royal Navy destroyer Defender.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they believe it was a deliberate and premeditated provocation, in which Moscow said it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the British destroyer.

He warned that in the event of a repeat of unacceptable provocative action – if those actions go too far, no options can be ruled out in terms of legally defending Russia’s borders.

British Defence Minister Ben Wallace accused Russian pilots of conducting unsafe aircraft manoeuvres 500 feet above the warship.

The Black Sea, which Russia uses to project its power in the Mediterranean, has for centuries been a flashpoint between Russia and its competitors such as Turkey, France, Britain and the United States.

Russia seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and considers areas around its coast to be Russian waters. Western countries deem the Crimea to be part of Ukraine and reject Russia’s claim to the seas around it.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the warship was acting in accordance with the law and had been in international waters.

Former Philippines President Benigno Aquino Dies At 61

By
Zoe Maven
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Former Philippines President Benigno Aquino, the son of two of the Southeast Asian country’s democracy icons, died in a Manila hospital on Thursday of renal failure as a result of diabetes.

According to his family, Aquino,aged 61, who was president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016, had been hospitalised earlier on Thursday adding his His death certificate pronounced his death at 6:30 a.m. due to renal disease secondary to diabetes.

A statement read by Pinky Aquino Abellada, one of four surviving sisters said, “It is with profound grief that on behalf of our family, I am confirming that our brother, Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III, died peacefully in his sleep.”

President Rodrigo Duterte declared June 24 to July 3 as period of national mourning, with the national flag to be flown at half-mast on all government buildings.

Vice President Leni Robredo, who ran under the then Aquino-led ruling party when elected in 2016, said it was “heart-breaking” to hear of his death.

“He tried to do what was right, even when it was not popular,” she said in a statement. “He worked quietly and tirelessly for the good of everyone. He will be missed.”

Known popularly as Noynoy, Aquino rode a wave of public support to the presidency after the 2009 death of his mother, the revered “People Power” leader Corazon Aquino, who was herself president from 1986 until 1992.

His namesake father, a senator who staunchly opposed the rule of strongman Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated when he returned home from political exile in 1983.

The killing shocked the nation and helped propel Marcos out of office in the 1986 People Power revolution and ushered in his mother’s presidency.

Landmark Climate Gets European Parliament’s Green Light

By
Zoe Maven
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The European Parliament on Thursday approved a landmark law to make the Bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions targets legally binding, and paving the way for a policy overhaul to cut planet-warming pollution faster.

Swedish Social Democrat Jytte Guteland, Parliament’s lead lawmaker on the bill said, “Today is a historic day”. Unless we rapidly cut our emissions, the science is crystal clear. The future will be catastrophic.”

Negotiators from Parliament and the EU’s 27 member countries reached a deal in April on the climate law, which puts tougher emissions-cutting targets at the heart of EU policymaking.

The bill also sets targets to reduce net EU emissions by 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels, and eliminate net emissions by 2050.

Parliament formally approved the law with 442 votes in favour, 203 against and 51 abstentions. Some Green lawmakers abstained, after seeking a more ambitious 60% emission cut by 2030. Lawmakers from groups including the right-wing Identity and Democracy rejected it.

Frans Timmermans, head of EU climate policy, said this is the law of laws, because it will discipline us in the years to come since the climate law will guide EU regulations in the coming decades.

First up is a sweeping package of policies, which the European Commission will propose on July 14, designed to cut emissions faster to meet the climate targets. It will include more ambitious renewable energy targets, EU carbon market reforms and tighter CO2 standards for new cars.

Most EU laws are designed to meet the bloc’s previous target to cut emissions 40% by 2030, and need updgrading to meet the new aims. EU emissions in 2019 were 24% lower than in 1990.

The new targets are designed to put the EU on a pathway that, if followed globally, would limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degree Celsius.

2021 UTME: JAMB Says National Identification Number Eliminates Multiple Registrations

By
Precious Obazee
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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says the introduction of the National Identification Number (NIN) in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise eliminated multiple registrations, application, impersonation and other malpractices associated with the examination.

Jamb re-affirmed that the importance of the partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) which mandated the use of NIN in the registration process made it impossible for examination mercenaries to register multiple times as the board had recorded previously.

The Head Media and Publicity of the Board, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement countering media report that claimed that the introduction of NIN affected the revenue of JAMB and was responsible for the drop in its revenue to N5.8 billion, maintained that JAMB is neither a revenue generation agency nor purported to be one.

Fabian said “JAMB is not a revenue generating entity and, as such, is not interested in the ever-ballooning number of candidates. Rather, JAMB is concerned with how to address loopholes being used by fraudsters to distort national data in a bid to compromise public examinations.“

He added that “As far as the Board is concerned, having a realistic number of candidates sitting its examination is a major achievement which only the partnership with NIMC has made possible. It is our resolve not to ever compromise on the integrity of its processes on account of generating fat operating surpluses.”

Fabian maintained that NIN was a good initiative saying it sanitized the system and restored its credibility.

The Jamb Media Head insists that “it’s an error of fact to denigrate the contribution of NIN to the UTME registration process by insinuating that it had a deleterious effect on the financial base of the Board when in actual fact, the board is neither a revenue generation agency nor purported to be one.

He stated that the Board was pleased to be vindicated in its belief all along that the huge number of candidates applying for UTME every year could not be realistic especially when seen against the backdrop of WAEC candidates which is always around the figure recorded by the Board this year.

He further said that consequently, it is the Board’s firm belief that the introduction of NIN has helped in addressing one of the fundamental channels of perpetrating examination malpractice by way of multiple applications, among others.

Ivory Coast Hands Former Prime Minister Soro Life Sentence

By
Zoe Maven
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0

Former Ivorian Prime Minister and ex-rebel leader Guillaume Soro has been sentenced in his absence in Abidjan to life in prison for “undermining state security” for acts committed in late 2019.

The Abidjan court of assizes followed the prosecution’s demands, as for the other main defendants, Souleymane Kamagate, former head of protocol of Mr. Soro, Affoussy Bamba, former minister and Toure Moussa, his former head of communication, sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Two of Guillaume Soro’s brothers and his former right-hand man Alain Lobognon were sentenced to 17 months in prison for disturbing public order.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the property of Guillaume Soro and his 19 co-defendants, as well as the dissolution of his movement, Générations et peuples solidaires , accused of engaging in “subversive” acts.

It ordered the convicts to pay 150 million euros jointly to the Ivorian state.

The former prime minister and former president of the National Assembly was accused of having fomented with his supporters a “civil and military insurrection” to overthrow the power during his aborted return to Côte d’Ivoire in December 2019, ten months before the presidential election of October 2020.

Guillaume Soro, who lives in exile, and his co-defendants were accused of “conspiracy”, “attempted attack against the authority of the state” as well as “dissemination and publication of false news discrediting the institutions and their functioning, having led to an attack on the morale of the population”.

Leader of the rebellion that controlled the northern half of Côte d’Ivoire in the 2000s, Guillaume Soro had militarily helped Alassane Ouattara come to power during the post-election crisis of 2010-2011 against incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to admit defeat at the ballot box.

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