Coronavirus: France extends overnight curfew as cases surge
France will extend an overnight curfew to dozens more areas in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced.
“The second wave is now under way,” he said, shortly before the country announced a record 41,622 new cases.
The 21:00 to 06:00 curfew will come into force at midnight on Friday, and some 46 million people will now be affected by the measure.
Countries around Europe are struggling with rising infection rates.
France, Italy, Spain and the UK are all hotspots.
“The coming weeks will be hard and the number of deaths will continue to rise,” Mr Castex told a press conference on Thursday. Over the last 24 hours France recorded 162 more deaths.
“If we fail to stop the pandemic, we will be facing a dire situation and we will have to mull much tougher measures,” he added.
“We still have time to avoid that but we don’t have much time,” he said.
The prime minister’s announcement came less than a week after the same curfew was applied to the Paris region and eight other cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Toulouse.
The restrictions will be extended to 38 more administrative departments as well as the overseas territory of Polynesia, and will remain in place for six weeks.
The overnight curfew has drawn complaints from restaurant owners, whose businesses are already suffering after the two-month lockdown in the spring.
But President Emmanuel Macron has said they are necessary to avoid the risk of hospitals being overrun.
France has reported more than 20,000 new cases over the past six days, and the total number of confirmed infections now stands at nearly one million
Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) has expressed sadness over the shooting of protesting youths by Nigerian security forces.
The security forces were reported on Tuesday to have used live bullets on the youths that are carrying out peaceful protest across the country against Police brutality.
The church in a statement by its PR Taskforce Committee and signed by the chairman, Brother Collins Edomaruse, frowned at the incident, saying: “Those who shed innocent blood, their own blood will certainly be shed.”
The full statement
MFM SADDENED BY SHOOTING OF PROTESTERS BY SECURITY FORCES
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries is deeply saddened by the unwarranted, unnecessary, callous, barbaric and inhuman use of live bullets by the security forces on Nigerian youths in Lagos, who were on peaceful protests to register their grievances with regards to violation of their fundamental human rights by the security agents.
It is indeed a Black Tuesday in the annals of Lagos and Nigeria. This is least expected in this century. While youths all over the world are contributing their own quota to good governance, the security forces are shooting their own in cold blood, devoid of human feelings and empathy.
Biblical principles of the Almighty God, says that the wickedness of the wicked, will consume the wicked. Those who shed innocent blood, their own blood will certainly be shed.
Let it be known that whatever is done under the cover of darkness with the belief that nobody sees it, will surely be brought to light and God the Ultimate Judge, will definitely judge speedily.
For it is written in Psalm 10.18 “You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans; you will judge in their favor, so that mortal men may cause terror no more”.
Our hearts and prayers go to the Nigerian youths and all others negatively affected by this unfortunate and avoidable situation. We pray that God Almighty will minister peace and comfort to their hearts.
We also commiserate with the parents and guardians of the victims of this extreme show of force ,lack of empathy and lack of brotherly love, from those that committed this dastardly act.
To the Nigerian government, we will like to advise that going forward, utmost care and caution, coupled with divine wisdom, should be employed in bringing a lasting solution to the problem at hand.
Nigeria is all we have as Nigerians.
LET THE PEACE OF GOD REIGN SUPREME IN NIGERIA IN JESUS’ MIGHTY NAME. AMEN.
Collins Edomaruse (Chairman, PR Task Force Committee)
Breonna Taylor: Officer in shooting says it ‘was not a race thing’
Breonna Taylor, 26, was a decorated emergency medical technician
A US policeman involved in the controversial killing of black woman Breonna Taylor in her home has broken his silence in his first interview.
Sgt Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Ms Taylor’s boyfriend, said the case had “nothing to do with race”.
Last month a Kentucky jury recommended that the three officers involved in the drug raid face no homicide charges.
The death of the 26-year-old hospital worker spurred Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
Mr Mattingly is one of three Louisville Metropolitan Police officers who prosecutors say were cleared of murder charges by a grand jury last month.
In an interview with ABC News and The Louisville Courier Journal, Mr Mattingly accused city officials of not coming to his defence in the aftermath of the shooting.
“It’s been excruciating,” he said. “When you have the truth right there in your hands and everything else is getting crammed around you, it’s frustrating.”
He added that although Ms Taylor’s death was tragic, it was not similar to other high-profile killings by police in recent months.
“It’s not a race thing like people want to try to make it to be. It’s not. This is a point where we were doing our job, we gave too much time when we go in, I get shot, we returned fire,” he said.
“This is not us going, hunting somebody down. This is not kneeling on a neck. It’s nothing like that.”
“She didn’t deserve to die,” he continued. “She didn’t do anything to deserve a death sentence.”
In September, Mr Mattingly drew scrutiny after an email he wrote to more than 1,000 of his colleagues on the police force accused the city’s mayor and police chief of failing “all of us in epic proportions for their own gain and to cover their asses”.
He wrote “legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” adding: “It’s sad how the good guys are demonised, and the criminals are canonised.”
What happened to Breonna Taylor?
Plainclothes police officers Hankison, Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove stormed Ms Taylor’s Louisville home shortly after midnight on 13 March.
Ms Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, at the time.
The officers were executing a search warrant as part of a drugs investigation.
Mr Walker fired a shot from his licensed gun, later telling police he thought that Ms Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, had broken in, according to the New York Times. Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker describes the night she was killed by police
Officials say Mr Walker’s bullet struck Mr Mattingly in the leg. The three officers returned fire, discharging 32 rounds, according to a ballistics report from the FBI.
Ms Taylor was shot amid the commotion and died on the hallway floor.
A subsequent police report contained errors, including listing Ms Taylor’s injuries as “none” and saying no force was used to enter, when a battering ram had been used.
Mr Hankison was fired from the police after investigators found he had “wantonly and blindly fired 10 rounds” during the raid, according to his termination letter.
Mr Mattingly and Mr Cosgrove were reassigned to administrative duties.
The search warrant obtained by police included Ms Taylor’s name and address. Authorities believed Mr Glover was involved in a drug ring and had used her apartment to hide narcotics.
No drugs were found at the property, though Jefferson County Prosecutor Thomas Wine said the search was cancelled after the shooting.
The grand jury ruling last month reignited protests in Kentucky
Mr Glover was arrested for drug possession on the night of Breonna Taylor’s death. He has said that prosecutors pressed him to name Ms Taylor as a “co-defendant” in the case against him.
In May, Louisville postal inspector Tony Gooden said that another government agency had been asked in January to investigate whether Ms Taylor’s home had been receiving suspicious mail. Mr Gooden did not name the agency but said it had found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Mr Glover also told the Courier Journal that he had sent packages of clothes and shoes to Ms Taylor’s apartment because he feared they would be stolen.
Many killed and wounded in Afghanistan visa stampede
At least 11 women have been killed and many more injured in a stampede in a stadium in Afghanistan where people were applying for visas, officials say.
The incident happened after “thousands of people” gathered to request permits to Pakistan, a local spokesman said. The crowd had been redirected to a sports stadium instead of the usual visa centre in the city of Jalalabad.
Visa applications to Pakistan have just resumed after a seven-month pause due to the pandemic.
“The visa applicants jostled to secure their token from the consulate officials,” an official in Jalalabad said.
“The crowd got out of control, leading to a stampede.”
Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, said he was “deeply saddened” by the incident and that his country was “engaged with Afghan authorities for better facilitation of visa applicants”.
In the conservative Muslim society of Afghanistan, it is common that women and men queue separately.
It is thought a number of other women and elderly people have also been injured.
Many Afghans travel each year to neighbouring Pakistan to visit relatives, seek medical treatment, find jobs or escape the ongoing violence in their own country.
Expecting a large number of applicants after the long pause of the visa service, the Pakistani consulate in the eastern province of of Nangarhar, directed the crowd to a nearby football stadium.
“Unfortunately this morning tens of thousands of people had come to the football stadium which led to the tragic incident,” the provincial governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told news agency.
The US government has filed charges against Google, accusing the company of abusing its dominance to preserve a monopoly over internet searches and online advertising. In other words, Google is dominating and abusing it’s dominance online.
The lawsuit marks the biggest challenge brought by US regulators against a major tech company in years.
It follows more than a year of investigation and comes as the biggest tech firms face intense scrutiny of their practices at home and abroad.
Google called the case “deeply flawed”.
The company has maintained that its sector remains intensely competitive and that its practices put customers first.
“People use Google because they choose to – not because they’re forced to or because they can’t find alternatives,” it said upon replying.
Google has been issued with huge fines in the EU over market dominance
The charges, filed in federal court, were brought by the US Department of Justice and 11 other states. The lawsuit focuses on the billions of dollars Google pays each year to ensure its search engine is installed as the default option on browsers and devices such as mobile phones.
Officials said those deals have helped secure Google’s placeas the “gatekeeper” to the internet, owning or controlling the channels for about 80% of search queries in the US.
“Google has thus foreclosed competition for internet search,” the lawsuit said. “General search engine competitors are denied vital distribution, scale, and product recognition – ensuring they have no real chance to challenge Google.”
It added: “Google is so dominant that ‘Google’ is not only a noun to identify the company and the Google search engine but also a verb that means to search the internet.”
The case could be the first of many in the US that challenge the dominance of big tech firms and potentially lead to their break-up.
Coming just a few weeks before the US presidential election, it has also been viewed as a move by the Trump administration to prove its willingness to challenge the influence of the sector if it gains a second term.
Officials said they had not rushed the investigation to ensure it was filed before the election.
“We’re acting when the facts and the law warranted,” deputy attorney general Jeffrey Rosen said, adding that the department’s review of competition practices in the technology sector is continuing.
Not less than three people were feared killed in Oojo area of Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Tuesday, as policemen opened fire on hoodlums who reportedly attacked a police station during the ongoing #EndSARS protest.
THISDAY learnt that the protest was going on peacefully before some hoodlums hijacked it and started throwing stones and bottles at a police station.
It was gathered that the development made the policemen to open fire on the protesters, killing at least two people in the process.
Sporadic gunshots were heard for almost an hour which made people scampered to safety.
It was further gathered that after normalcy was briefly restored, the hoodlums gathered again and burned down the police station.
UK plan to be first to run human challenge Covid trials
The UK is pushing ahead to be the first nation to carry out “human challenge” studies where up to 90 healthy people will be deliberately exposed to Covid.
The trials, which could begin in January, aim to speed up the race to get a Covid-19 vaccine.
The government is putting £33.6m towards the groundbreaking work. Safety will be a number one priority, experts insist. The plans will need ethical approval and sign-off from regulators before they can go ahead.
Human challenge studies provide a faster way to test vaccines because you don’t have to wait for people to be exposed to an illness naturally.
Researchers would first use controlled doses of the pandemic virus to discover what is the smallest amount that can cause Covid infection in volunteers aged 18 to 30.
These human guinea pigs, who will be infected with the virus through the nose and monitored around the clock, have the lowest risk of harm due to their young age and good health.
Next, scientists could test if a Covid vaccine prevents infection.
Could human challenge trials speed up the development of a coronavirus vaccine?
Lead researcher for the project Dr Chris Chiu, from Imperial College London, said: “My team has been safely running human challenge studies with other respiratory viruses for over 10 years. No study is completely risk free, but the Human Challenge Programme partners will be working hard to ensure we make the risks as low as we possibly can.”
Prof Peter Openshaw, co-investigator on the study and director of the Human Challenge Consortium, said deliberately infecting volunteers with a known human pathogen was “never undertaken lightly”.
“However, such studies are enormously informative.
“It is really vital that we move as fast as possible towards getting effective vaccines and other treatments for Covid-19.”
There are hundreds of Covid vaccines being developed around the world and several front-runners already in the final stages of testing, including one from Oxford University.
While some of these could get results and start to be used before the new trial has chance to begin, researchers say the work will still be useful, particularly for head-to-head studies to compare which vaccines work best.
Experts say we will probably need a few different vaccines, as well as effective treatments, to defeat Covid. They will also need to be tested in those at highest risk from Covid – the elderly and vulnerable.
The first stage of the human challenge project will be delivered by a partnership between Imperial College London, the Royal Free Hospital’s specialist and secure research unit in London and a company called hVIVO.
After exposure to Covid, the young volunteers will need to stay in a biosecure facility until they are no longer infectious.
They will be financially reimbursed for their time, and monitored for up to a year after taking part in the study to check for any side-effects.
Purposely infecting someone with Covid does pose an ethical dilemma, especially since there is no treatment to cure patients, although there are ones that might make it less deadly.
Prof Julian Savulescu, an expert in ethics at Oxford University, said the trials were justified: “In a pandemic, time is lives. So far, over a million people have died.
“There is a moral imperative to develop to a safe and effective vaccine – and to do so as quickly as possible.
“Given the stakes, it is unethical not to do challenge studies.”
Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “We are doing everything we can to fight coronavirus, including backing our best and brightest scientists and researchers in their hunt for a safe and effective vaccine.”
France teacher attack: Police raid homes of suspected Islamic radicals
French police have raided the homes of dozens of suspected Islamic radicals following the beheading of a teacher who showed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils.
Some of those being questioned are believed to have posted messages of support for the killer of Samuel Paty.
The government also said it was probing 51 French Muslim associations.
Mr Paty’s suspected killer was shot dead by police on Friday after the attack close to the teacher’s school.
Mr Paty’s school is located in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a north-western suburb of Paris.
On Monday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the operations sent a message that there was “no respite for enemies of the republic”, and that they were expected to continue all week.
He said that not all individuals targeted in the operations were necessarily linked to the investigations into Mr Paty’s death.
Meanwhile, police will interview about 80 people who are believed to have posted messages in support of Mr Paty’s killer, Mr Darmanin added.
The government said if Muslim organisations under investigation were found to promote hatred, they would be closed down.
The associations include the Collective Against Islamophobia which the government believes propagate a permanent message of defiance to the French state.
Mr Paty was murdered in the Paris suburb Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The suspect, an 18-year-old born in Moscow of Chechen origin, had no known connection to Mr Paty or the school.
The international hacker group , Anonymous yesterday released the following statements concerning the End Sars protest by Nigerian youths via their twitter account.
“We don’t know who started the 72-hour ultimatum rumor nor why it is credited to our account. Either way, the Nigerian government has been blindly running in circles all night chasing its own tail.”
Anonymous will not abandon the #EndSARS movement as it grows stronger by the day.
“The money that will be wasted on Operation Crocodile Smile VI is better suited to pay the victims of SARS and the brave protestors hurt by old corrupt men clinging to power. @HQNigerianArmy quit embarrassing yourselves. #EndSARS.”
“There is nothing to expose when your leaders are openly parasites that cling to power to siphon national wealth. Corruption and impunity will not end by hacking websites or bank theft, it’ll end through resistance and innovation in the streets. The world is with you. #EndSARS”
“Websites will continue to go down and leaks will continue to pour, the Nigerian government falls short in cyberspace. They don’t fear ‘Anonymous’ they fear the youth and overall they fear a united Nigeria that exists in the streets and beyond hashtags. That’s the power. #EndSARS”
France teacher attack: Rallies held to support beheaded Samuel Paty
Rallies are being held across France in support of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson.
People in the Place de la République in Paris carried the slogan “Je suis enseignant” (I am a teacher), with PM Jean Castex saying: “We are France!”
A man named as Abdoulakh A was shot dead by police on Friday after killing Mr Paty close to his school near Paris.
An 11th person has been arrested as part of the investigation.
No details have been given about the arrest. Four close relatives of the suspect were detained shortly after the killing. Six more people were held on Saturday, including the father of a pupil at the school and a preacher described by French media as a radical Islamist.
The Place de la République in Paris filled with people rallying in support of Mr Paty. Mr Castex and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined them.
It was in the square that 1.5 million people protested following the deadly attack in 2015 on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after it had published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
One protester on Sunday carried a sign reading “zero tolerance to all enemies of the Republic”, another “I am a professor. I’m thinking of you, Samuel.”
Samuel Paty, a well-liked teacher, had been threatened over showing the cartoons
Another told Le Figaro she was a French Muslim who was at the rally to express her disgust at the killing.
A minute’s silence was followed by the playing of the Marseillaise. All the protesters were wearing masks to protect from coronavirus.
Mr Castex tweeted the rendition of the anthem, along with the words “you do not scare us… we are France!”
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said France would succeed in defeating the enemies of democracy if it were united and that all teachers in France needed support.
In Lille, people carried banners and placards with the simple words “I am Samuel”.
Thousands of people also gathered in Place Bellecour in Lyon to pay their respects, with another large turnout in Nantes.
Demonstrations are also being held in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseille, Bordeaux and elsewhere.
“They will not behead the Republic”
In addition to Sunday’s demonstrations, there will be a national tribute paid to Mr Paty, 47, on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Tareq Oubrou, imam of a mosque in Bordeaux, told France Inter: “A civilisation does not kill an innocent person, barbarism does.”
What happened on Friday?
Anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said that the suspect, who lived in the Normandy town of Évreux, about 100km (60 miles) from the murder scene, went to Mr Paty’s school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday afternoon and asked students to point out the teacher.
Abdoulakh A, an 18-year-old born in Moscow of Chechen origin, had no apparent connection with the teacher or the school.
He followed Mr Paty as he walked home from work. The suspect used a knife to attack the teacher in the head, and then beheaded him. “What happened is beyond words”
Witnesses are said to have heard the attacker shout “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is Greatest”.
As police approached him, he fired at them with an airgun. Officers returned fire, hitting him nine times. A 30cm-long (12in) blade was found close by.
Authorities said the man had been before courts but only on minor misdemeanour charges.
What’s the latest in the investigation?
Mr Ricard said Mr Paty had been the target of threats since he showed the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class about freedom of speech, in relation to the Charlie Hebdo case.
A trial over the 2015 attack on the magazine is currently under way.
As he had done in similar lessons in recent years, Mr Paty, a history and geography teacher, advised Muslim students to look away if they thought they might be offended.
A parent of one of the pupils reacted angrily, and went to the school to complain.
He and another man who accompanied him – Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a preacher and activist – made videos calling Mr Paty a “voyou” (thug) and demanding his suspension.
Mr Sefrioui has reportedly been known to French intelligence services for years. Both he and the father are now in custody
FULL DEREGULATION OIL AND GAS SECTOR TO ALLOW MORE INVESTMENTS FOR JOB CREATION
IMMEDIATE PASSAGE OF PIB
FULL DEREGULATION OF POWER SECTOR TO ALLOW INVESTMENT CAPITAL FLOW TO GENERATE, TRANSMIT AND DISTRIBUTE MORE POWER AND CREATE JOBS
SHOULD HANDS OFF PETROLEUM PRICING TO ENABLE FREE MARKET DETERMINATION OF PRICING
CLOSE OUR NORTHERN BORDERS TO STOP FREE ENTRY OF FULANI HERDSMEN AND BANDITS
INCLUSIVE GOVERNMENT FOR ALL TRIBES AND REGIONS OF NIGERIA WITH 50% YOUTHS IN CHARGE OF GOVERNANCE
ALLOCATE MORE FUNDS TO EDUCATION SECTOR TO PROVIDE BETTER TEACHING TOOLS AND TO PAY BETTER SALARIES TO END ASUU STRIKES
CHANGE OUR ACADEMIC CURRICULUM TO REFLECT MODERN DAY REALITIES
ALL POLITICIANS SHOULD BE PLACED ON MINIMUM WAGE TO ATTRACT GENUINE PUBLIC SERVANTS
MIGRATE TO 100% ELECTORAL REFORMS WITH ELECTRONIC VOTING TIED TO OUR BVN AND GSM
RETURN NIGERIA TO REGIONAL GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE OR RESTRUCTURE THE COUNTRY AND EMBRACE TRUE FEDERALISM. STATES AUTONOMY MUST BE PARAMOUNT.
DISBAND THE BI-CAMERAL LEGISLATURE AND ADOPT UNI-CAMERAL
IMMEDIATELY REFORM NIGERIA POLICE FORCE AND LET EVERY STATE OR REGION CREATE ITS OWN POLICE SERVICE
NO MORE BUDGET FOR RUNNING PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF ELECTED AND APPOINTED PUBLIC SERVANTS
ENTHRONE UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AS MINIMUM QUALIFICATION FOR PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT FROM PRESIDENT TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND WARD CHAIRPERSONS
STRIP EX-GOVERNORS AND ALL ELECTED AND APPOINTED PUBLIC SERVANTS OF ALL BENEFITS AFTER OFFICE.
INCREASE SALARIES OF OUR DOCTORS, NURSES, TEACHERS, POLICE, MILITARY OFFICERS, AND CIVIL SERVANTS
GOVERNMENT SHOULD HANDS OFF OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF BUSINESSES AT ALL LEVELS.
NAME AND SHAME LOOTERS AND MAKE CRIMINAL OFFENDERS, AND LOOTERS FACE TRIAL IN THEIR HOME STATES AND VILLAGES TO SHAME THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES
STOP FOREIGN MEDICAL TRIPS FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS. LET THEM BE TREATED HERE IN NIGERIA. WHEN LAST DID YOU HEAR AMERICAN PRESIDENT OR BRITISH PRIME MINISTER VISIT NIGERIA FOR MEDICAL TOURISM?
The ICC team currently in Khartoum includes chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. The UN estimates that 300,000 people were killed in the conflict, which began after a revolt in Darfur 2003.
The ICC has also charged two other former officials, Ahmed Haroun and Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, with war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly committed in the region.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok told the Financial Times that newspaper he had spoken with the ICC about the option of trying Bashir in a “hybrid court” in Sudan
Bashir, 76, was toppled last year after mass protests. A transitional government is currently ruling Sudan under a three-year deal with top civilian and military leaders.
The former leader has already been convicted for corruption. He and 27 other officials are currently on trial in Khartoum over charges relating to the 1989 coup that brought him to power. If found guilty, they could all face the death penalty.
Bashir has denied the charges against him. Earlier this year one of his lawyers said Bashir and other defendants were facing “a political trial” being held “in a hostile environment”
A teacher has been beheaded in a suburb north-west of the French capital Paris, reports say, with the attacker shot dead by police.
The victim in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine was a teacher who is said to have shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor has been called in to lead an investigation into the attack.
The incident occurred at about 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT) near a school.
French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit Conflans-Sainte-Honorine later on Friday evening.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, travelling to Morocco, is returning urgently to Paris.
France’s AFP news agency, quoting police and prosecutors, said the victim had been decapitated.
A man wielding a large knife is reported to have attacked the teacher in a street, cutting off his head. The attacker then ran off, but local police alerted by the public were quickly at the scene in the nearby area of Éragny.
When they shouted at him to give himself up, he is said to have threatened them. The officers shot him and he died a short time after,
The scene is now sealed off, as the investigation continues.
A trial is under way in Paris of alleged accomplices in the deadly 2015 attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Coronavirus: Israel to ease second lockdown after cases decline
Israel’s government has agreed to ease a month-long second nationwide lockdown, after a significant decline in the number of new coronavirus cases.
From Sunday, people will be permitted to go more than 1km (0.6 miles) from their homes for non-essential purposes; nurseries will reopen; and restaurants will be able to serve takeaway food.
Beaches, nature reserves and national parks will also reopen for visitors.
The prime minister declared the lockdown had been a “major success”.
Israel has reported 300,000 Covid-19 infections and 2,128 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The government was praised in the spring for taking early action that contained the spread of the virus and resulted in a very low death rate compared with other countries.
But it came in for widespread criticism for losing control after the first lockdown was eased in May.
The second lockdown began on 18 September, after Israel recorded infection and mortality rates that were among the highest in the world relative to population size.
image captionThe daily number of new Covid-19 infections has fallen below 2,000
The test positivity rate of 4.5% is also the lowest recorded since mid-July, while the reproduction number, or R value, currently stands at 0.62 – below the threshold of 0.8.
Despite the statistics, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein warned on Thursday night that there was “still a long road ahead” to get the virus under control.
He noted that the number of new infections might begin to rise as restrictions were eased, and that the government might be forced to reinstate them if there was a spike.
image captionElectronic candles were placed in a Jerusalem square on Monday in memory of the more than 2,000 people who have died from Covid-19 in Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier told his cabinet that the exit from the lockdown needed to be “gradual, responsible, careful and controlled” to avoid having to impose an additional lockdown in two or three weeks.
“However, there is no doubt that as of now there is a success here which they are already beginning to talk about and look at in many countries, mainly in Europe, where the morbidity in several countries has already passed us. They are now deliberating on a question that we deliberated on and already decided – yes to a lockdown, yes to lowering the numbers quickly,” he added.
Israeli media reported that ministers would discuss on Friday whether to also lift the tighter restrictions in place in “red” cities and towns with the highest morbidity
Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda about the 1994 genocide, has written a letter from prison on his choice of Rwandan legal representatives, according to one of the chosen lawyers who is based in Belgium.
Up to now he has been represented in court by two lawyers who his family said were picked by the prosecution.
Mr Rusesabagina has been charged with terrorism and murder among other 13 counts. He has not yet entered a plea.
Lawyer Vincent Lurquin told journalists on Thursday that he received a letter from Mr Rusesabagina during a recent visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in which he picked Mr Lurquin and Gatera Gashabana from a list of seven names drawn up by his family.
But the two lawyers were reportedly denied access to their client.
“I don’t see why Rwanda blocked me from seeing and assisting my client, a Belgian citizen, on a case that started in Belgium,” Mr Lurquin said.
Mr Rusesabagina was denied bail early this month and is detained at a prison in Kigali.
The man who set up the hated Nigerian police unit, SARS declares that he feels “sad” and “guilty” about what the agency has become.
“SARS of today is not the same Sars I established in 1984,” Fulani Kwajafa said. He said the unit had been “turned into banditry”.
He also explained that the code of conduct that he set up when creating SARS had ensured that there was “no incident with members of the public” when he was in charge. The former police boss accused the agency of “brutality” saying that the officer’s acts could have been driven by “greed.” “I always tell my wife that I was sad [that] what I created with good purpose and direction has been turned into banditry,”
Mr Kwajafa said, adding that he supported the disbandment of the unit “100%”.
Officers from the Special Anti Robbery Squad have been accused of committing extrajudicial killings and torture.
Fulani Kwajafa the aged.
Meanwhile “SARS was established by me under the directive of the then IG, Mr. Inyang expressly to fight violent crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping, anything violent. We never went for burglary cases, we didn’t go in for pick pocketing, market theft and such things, we don’t go there, it never belonged to us, local police stations are around, they handle that.
It was only crimes that involved killing, maiming; that was what SARS was established to handle. SARS is being misused now; they are misused for selfish interests, especially by politicians, but anyone calling for the scrapping of SARS doesn’t want this country to be in peace because SARS wherever it is, is supposed to operate in ways that instil fear into those violent criminals that terrorize law-abiding Nigerians.
SARS according to Kwajafa is meant for countering violent crimes, armed robbery and now, kidnapping and murder.
“When we established SARS, nobody was corrupt! When they give you information money N5,000, it is sufficient for one week. Petrol was N7 to fill a car’s tank so when you are going on operation and you are given N200, with three vehicles, it is sufficient. You get N300 for one week; you go on operation and come back with your independent mind. But the economic recession is forcing people to do all sorts, enabling some people to even buy the services of SARS, so the operation of SARS is misconstrued! People are taking undue advantage and black leg policemen sometimes submit themselves to carry out unlawful activities in the name of SARS”
President Muhammadu Buhari announced the disbandment of the agency this week after thousands of Nigerians took to the streets to protest against police brutality.
A new agency called SWAT has been formed to take over duties performed by Sars but this has also been rejected by the protesters. On the announcement of the new agency SWAT, Mr Kwajafa comments that the changes might be undermined if there’s no “change in mentality”.
The demonstrators have been using the hashtag #EndSars to push for their cause, which has since been endorsed by global celebrities such as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, US rapper Kanye West, gospel singer Kirk Franklin, footballers Mesut Ozil and Marcus Rashford and Nigerian superstars Davido and Wizkid.
On Friday, Twitter launched a clenched fist emoji in a show of support for the protests.
Covid-19 deaths are currently five times lower than they were in March and April, when the first wave hit the continent, the WHO’s European director, Dr Hans Kluge, told a news conference on Thursday.
One reason for the increase in cases seen in recent weeks is more young people testing positive for the virus, he said, adding that the lower mortality rate was because that demographic was less likely to die from Covid-19 than older people.
But projections of the course of the disease in Europe were “not optimistic”, he explained.
If European governments relax their restrictions, the course of the virus indicates that by January 2021 the daily mortality rate will be four to five times higher than it was during April, Dr Kluge said.
But if 95% of people wear masks and other social distancing measures are applied, Europe could avoid about 281,000 deaths by February, he added.
He said that governments must consider mental health and domestic violence when imposing restrictions, and do everything possible to keep schools open.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has called on countries to step up their preparations, advising governments to co-ordinate contact tracing and the eventual deployment of vaccines.
A Nigerian payments company Paystack has been acquired by a US-based payments giant, Stripes.
The deal is rumoured to be for over $200 million.
For many in the Nigerian tech ecosystem, it was just a matter of time before this happened.
Founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi. Paystack sought to solve the challenge most Nigerians face when it comes to online payment transactions in Africa.
By seamlessly connecting all multi-channel payment options with merchants across the country, it enabled them to accept payments from around the world, via credit card, debit card, and direct bank transfer on web and mobile.
This got the one-year-old startup into US-based seed-stage accelerator, Y Combinator where it received 120,000 US dollars in funding and access to global investors.
Later that year, it raised a seed funding of 1.3 million US dollars from Tencent, Comcast Ventures, Singularity Investments, Michael Seibel, Justin Kan, Jason Njoku’s SPARK.ng, Olumide Soyombo among other investors.j
But it was in 2018 Paystack put everyone on notice as it raised 8 million Dollars in Series A funding. With participation from global payments company, Visa, US-based accelerator, Y Combinator, and Tencent, it was Stripe, a similar payments company based in the US, who led the round.
Three years after launching, this brought the company’s total funding to a little over $10 million. And since then, the company hasn’t raised a follow-up round.
So far, Paystack now has more than 60,000 businesses using its platform and is looking to expand beyond Nigeria and Ghana where it currently operates.
According to the founders of Stripe, the company was looking to continue investing in product development, further global expansion and strategic initiative
The billion-dollar startup has been strategically investing in similar startups around the world. Having invested in Paystack (Africa) two years ago, it recently invested in Paymongo, a payments startupin the Philippines (Asia) last month.
For its global expansion into Africa, Paystack presented the perfect acquisition opportunity. But while this is the biggest acquisition deal to come out of sub-Saharan Africa and Stripe’s largest acquisition till date, both companies will continue to operate independently.
The United Nations (UN) on Thursday said they are following the End SARS protests in Nigeria.
Secretary-General António Guterres, commended the government’s decision to undertake “broader reforms” in the Nigeria Police.
Guterres spoke through his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, in New York.
The UN chief said he was prepared to “accompany Nigeria in those efforts”.
He welcomed the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and urged the government to undertake broader police reforms.
The world body urged the country’s security forces to exercise “maximum restraint” in their response.
“The Secretary-General is following the protests in Nigeria calling for the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and an end to human rights violations allegedly committed by security agencies.
“The Secretary-General stresses the importance of respect for peaceful protests and freedom of assembly and calls on the security forces to exercise maximum restraint in the policing of the demonstrations.”
Colonel Sagir Musa’s “VEILED THREATS” to protesters Army spokesman Col Sagir Musa said in a Facebook post: “The NA [Nigerian army] hereby warns all subversive elements and trouble makers to desist from such acts as it remains highly committed to defend the country and her democracy at all cost.”
He went on to offer to “support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively”.
The statement has been received as a veiled threat by protesters,
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