₦airaland Forum

Two elderly women have been sexually assaulted in a care home in Gorton, Manchester, United Kingdom. The man broke into the care home in the early hours of Monday where he carried out the sickening assault.

Greater Manchester Police said the man was black, wearing a hoody and shorts. He was described as being quite well spoken and having a strong body odour.

No arrests have yet been made and police have launched an appeal for information.

Detective Inspector Claire Moss said: “This incident is incredibly distressing for the victims, their loved ones and staff at the care home. Specialist services are doing everything they can to support those affected.

“Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish exactly who this man is and how he entered the care home. I appeal to anyone with information which might assist us with this to contact us as soon as possible.”

Police believe the offender entered the Taylor Street care home at around 3.20am, with reports of two sexual assaults coming in at 3.35am.

Inspector Moss added:”We are obviously keen to hear from anyone who saw something suspicious on Monday but we would also like to hear from anyone who lives nearby who has seen something suspicious in recent weeks.

“I understand that this incident may cause concern for residents, their loved ones and people who live in the surrounding area but I would like to reassure them that security measures at the care home has been appropriately tightened.

“That being said, I would ask people to be vigilant and report anything suspicious or concerning to police without hesitation.”

-Mirror

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/man-sexually-assaults-two-elderly-women-in-a-care-home/

An incumbent superpower and a rising one are finding coexistence increasingly difficult. Jockeying for position in a changing world, the U.S. and China are facing off on all sorts of issues, most — but not all — involving economic rather than military might. Here’s a rundown of some big disputes, some with significant real-world consequences and others that for now are mostly symbolic.

TikTok

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: The addictive video-sharing app TikTok, owned by the Chinese company Bytedance Ltd., is hugely popular in the U.S., especially among teens. U.S. officials say there’s a potential security threat if the data it collects is used by the Chinese government to create behavioral profiles of Americans. By contrast, U.S. platforms including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. have long been barred from mainland China due to that country’s censorship rules.

CONSEQUENCES: The U.S. is conducting a formal review of TikTok, and President Donald Trump has suggested he might ban its use in the country (as India has done). Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said other Chinese companies could also be targeted. Meanwhile, Bytedance is said to be considering establishing a separate headquarters for TikTok outside China to distance itself from the government, and Microsoft Corp. on Aug. 2 said that it was in talks to buy TikTok’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Hong Kong

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: China promised that Hong Kong would have “a high degree of autonomy” after it took back the city from the British in 1997. The U.S., as a result, granted a special trading status that helped Hong Kong to prosper as an international financial center. At the end of June, the Chinese government imposed a tough new national security law on the city, following a year of pro-democracy protests, prompting Trump to declare the special status revoked.

CONSEQUENCES: Though Trump stopped short of applying the same tariffs to Hong Kong exports as it does to those from mainland China, the revocation of some special privileges jarred Hong Kong’s image as a stable base for multinational companies. Global financial institutions in particular could face penalties if they knowingly do business with Chinese officials targeted by U.S. sanctions for their involvement in Hong Kong. China has vowed to sanction U.S. officials and entities and take other equivalent countermeasures, without elaborating. No officials were named as of mid-July.

Spying

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: The U.S. accuses China of increasing the scale of spying and influence operations over the past few years, including interference in domestic politics, stolen intellectual property, coercion of business leaders and threatening the families of Chinese Americans in China. China has denied allegations that it launched cyber attacks aimed at stealing state and trade secrets from the U.S. and its allies.

CONSEQUENCES: The State Department on July 22 ordered the Chinese consulate in Houston closed “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information.” Two days later China demanded the U.S. close its consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu. On July 21, the Justice Department accused two Chinese hackers in an indictment of working for Beijing to steal or try to steal terabytes of data, including coronavirus research, from Western companies in 11 nations.

Huawei

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: The Trump administration has designated Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. as national security threats, saying use of their gear would make communication networks vulnerable to spying. They deny the charges, and China says the U.S. is trying to suppress the development of Chinese companies. (ZTE is a shadow of its former self, in part due to previous U.S. pressure.)

CONSEQUENCES: The U.S. is making headway in pressing its allies to steer clear of Huawei equipment for their fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. It has moved to deny Huawei access to U.S. technology, making it difficult for the company to design and produce its own chips. The U.S. also is seeking the extradition, from Canada, of a high-ranking Huawei executive on charges related to alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. China has said that it, too, will take measures against foreign companies that undermine its interests.

Media

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: The Trump administration views most if not all Chinese media outlets as extensions of the Communist Party. China says its media outlets promote international understanding.

CONSEQUENCES: The U.S. and China have taken actions to expel or limit the stays of each other’s reporters, with the Trump administration going so far as to designate some Chinese media companies as foreign missions, a move denounced by Beijing. China has demanded that certain U.S. media outlets submit detailed information on personnel and assets, and kicked out American reporters in Beijing from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. The New York Times also said it would relocate some of its Hong Kong-based staff to Seoul.

Tariffs and trade

IMPACT: Significant

DISPUTE: What started in 2018 with U.S. tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels escalated into a two-year trade war that, at its peak in 2019, was adding levies to almost $500 billion in products shipped between the two nations. U.S. leaders accuse China of unfair trading practices including subsidizing domestic companies and appropriating intellectual property; China insists it plays by global trade rules and says the U.S. is trying to curb its development.

CONSEQUENCES: Bloomberg Economics estimated in September that the trade war, and the uncertainty it fostered, could lower gross domestic product in the U.S., China and the world by 0.6%, 1% and 0.6%, respectively, by 2021. (That was before the coronavirus pandemic added an entirely new challenge to global growth.) A partial trade-war truce called early this year has held up despite new pressure due to the coronavirus and rising tensions over Hong Kong, Huawei and other issues ahead of the November U.S. presidential election.

Xinjiang

IMPACT: Potentially significant

DISPUTE: In its far western region of Xinjiang, China says it’s fighting separatism and religious extremism among the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group. As many as 1 million were interned in camps the government calls “voluntary education centers.” The U.S. and others say China is committing massive human rights violations.

CONSEQUENCES: The Trump administration has blacklisted Chinese technology companies, including video surveillance firms, that it said were implicated in human rights abuses in the region. The Treasury Department sanctioned four Chinese officials linked to the region, limiting their travel to the U.S. and blocking any financial ties. While largely symbolic unless any of them hold significant assets outside China, the move was significant in that it included a top member of China’s ruling Communist Party. It later added Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a government entity, and two associated individuals to the list. China has retaliated with similar sanctions against U.S. officials including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Travel

IMPACT: Potentially significant

DISPUTE: Fraying relations have led to increased distrust over the treatment citizens may receive on each other’s soil, leading to travel advisories.

CONSEQUENCES: In a July security alert, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing warned that Americans living in or traveling to China may face arbitrary arrest and that Chinese security forces may “detain and/or deport” U.S. citizens for “sending private electronic messages critical of” China’s government. China’s tourism ministry issued a travel warning in February, saying Chinese tourists have been treated unfairly in the U.S. due to excessive virus prevention measures. China was also said last year to have asked employees at state-run enterprises to avoid business trips to the U.S. and take extra care to protect their electronic devices.

Research

IMPACT: Potentially significant

DISPUTE: The Trump administration has questioned the intentions of some Chinese scholars abroad, saying they may operate as “non-traditional collectors of intellectual property.”

CONSEQUENCES: The White House this year said it would suspend entry for thousands of post-graduate students and researchers deemed national security risks because of their ties with China’s military schools. The U.S. last year began requiring Chinese diplomats to notify the U.S. before they visit universities and research institutions or local government officials, saying it was a reciprocal move. China denied it places such requirements on American diplomats.

South China Sea

IMPACT: Potentially significant

DISPUTE: China’s expansive territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea have put it at odds with Southeast Asia neighbors including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. The U.S. has sent warships and aircraft near disputed areas for decades to assert the freedom to navigate through what it considers international airspace and waters. More than $3 trillion worth of trade is estimated to transit through the region annually.

CONSEQUENCES: The Trump administration, reversing a U.S. policy of not taking sides, now says some of China’s broad claims to the South China Sea “are completely unlawful,” prompting China to accuse the U.S. of “doing all it can to stir up trouble” in the region. Although no specific actions have accompanied the dueling pronouncements, both sides conduct military exercises and other operations in the South China Sea, creating the possibility of a miscalculation.

Taiwan

IMPACT: Symbolic, for now

DISPUTE: A 1979 law commits the U.S. to support the military self-defense of Taiwan, the democratically run island that China claims as its territory.

CONSEQUENCES: China routinely objects to U.S. arms sales to the island and did so again after the State Department approved a possible $620 million deal for Taiwan to buy parts to refurbish previously sold Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air missiles. China vowed unspecified sanctions on Lockheed Martin Corp., the main contractor. U.S. defense companies are prohibited from making sales to China, so the impact of sanctions is minimal, though analysts worry China may try to disrupt supply chains. China has long vowed to reunite the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Delisting Chinese companies

IMPACT: Symbolic, for now

DISPUTE: China has long refused to let American regulators examine audits of Chinese companies, even those traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. A bill with momentum in the U.S. Congress could force major Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding to cease trading their shares in the U.S. unless that changes.

CONSEQUENCES: Even if the bill becomes law, nothing would happen unless Chinese companies fail to meet their new obligations for three years in a row. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would also need to write rules for how companies could certify they aren’t run by a foreign government, another requirement for firms to avoid delisting under the bill.

Coronavirus

IMPACT: Symbolic

DISPUTE: Trump has attacked China’s handling of the outbreak, which he and others on his team have labeled the “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu.” The two sides have also traded accusations about its origins.

CONSEQUENCES: Each put restrictions on the other’s airlines to stem the spread of the virus. In July Trump began the process of quitting the World Health Organization, in part due to what he called its undue deference to China.

Tibet

IMPACT: Symbolic

DISPUTE: In 1959, the People’s Liberation Army quashed a revolt in this mountainous region on China’s border with India and Nepal, and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, fled into exile. Tibet’s status as an autonomous region of China has long been an irritant in U.S.-China relations.

CONSEQUENCES: The Trump administration imposed travel restrictions on unspecified Chinese government and party officials determined to be “substantially involved” in restricting access to the region by U.S diplomats and others. In response, China said it would restrict visas for U.S. personnel over their “egregious behavior” on Tibet.

Now Zhang may find himself on the wrong side of nationalism in both the U.S. and China. With hashtags about TikTok’s U.S. episode trending on China’s largest microblogging platform Weibo, Zhang hid all his posts from the public after users flooded his account with comments slamming his decision to sell.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/politics/real-reasons-growing-disputes-between-usa-and-china-are-escalating/

Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s leading financial institution, has commenced its “Zenith Beta Life” Promo to reward customers of the Bank with gifts every week starting from 31st July 2020 to 30th July 2021.

During this period, fifty (50) customers will be selected via raffle draw each week and rewarded with gifts worth NGN30,000.

The Promo is open to existing and new Zenith Bank customers with the following raffle qualifying criteria:

– maintain a minimum deposit of NGN5,000 for the period;

– request and collect a Zenith Bank Card; and

– download and register on the Zenith Mobile App or register for *966# EazyBanking.

Zenith Bank Plc is recognised as one of the most customer-focused financial institutions in the country and was voted the most customer-focused bank in Nigeria for the retail and SME segments in the 2018 KPMG Annual Banking Industry Customer Satisfaction Survey (BICSS).

A clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and an assortment of alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions, Zenith Bank has clearly distinguished itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service quality, unique customer experience and sound financial indices.

In recognition of its track record of excellent performance, Zenith Bank was voted as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto and Co. The Bank was also recognised as Bank of the Year and Best in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards.

More recently, the Bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria, for the third consecutive year, in the Banker Magazine “Top 500 Banking Brands 2020”, number one Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital in the “2020 Top 1000 World Banks” Ranking published by The Banker Magazine, Best Bank in Nigeria 2020 in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards 2020, and Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/zenith-bank-activates-zenith-beta-life-to-reward-customers/

Nigerian authorities have come under persistent fire over their management of loans borrowed from China, which critics argue may burden the public for the coming years.

While Abuja officially says it borrows after planning, critics say China has been lumping Nigeria with deep debt to target the west African country’s assets in case of default in the future.

It started on May 19, this year after Dr Bongo Adi, the Director of Centre for Infrastructure Policy Regulation and Advancement (CIPRA) at the Lagos Business School, warned that Nigieria “Nigeria lacks accountability, transparency, and responsibility to refund its loans.”

Then Mr Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s two-time Vice-President and later main opposition to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 presidential election, lashed the government for redirecting what he argued was lean resources to debt servicing, a worrisome situation that the country may slide into trouble waters of its creditors.

The fears also prompted the House of Representatives to direct its committees to investigate all China-Nigeria loan agreements from 2000 to date.

The intention is to ascertain the viability of the facilities, the legislatve body said, and then regularise and have them renengotiated, especially as the country is expected to slide into recession this year due to effects of coronavirus.

Mr Ben Igbakpa, a legislator, moved a motion on July 20, 2020 to review and renegotiate existing China-Nigeria loan agreements in other to avert falling into the pranks of China.

Although there seems to be cause for concern as Nigeria’s economy is becoming highly dominated by the China, officials say the status of the loans from China, though high, is still within Nigeria’s ability to repay.

According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), a government’s agency in-charge of managing the nation’s loans, as at July 2, 2020, the total loan agreement with China stood at $3.121 billion, although the Asian country has disbursed $3.31250 billion. That represents 3.94 percent of Nigeria’s domestic and external debt of $79.3 billion.

DMO said China accounts for 11 percent of Nigeria’s external debt. But China is still the biggest bilateral lender in Nigeria, with most loans being concessional.

Besides China, Nigeria is indebted to the International Development Association (IDA) to the tune of $9.68 billion, African Development Bank (AfDB), $1.3 billion, and $10.86 billion from Eurobonds.

According to records, Nigeria has paid principal of $192.21 million leaving an outstanding of $3.121.29 billion which is repayable to China at most for 20 years with interest of $269.6 million.

Officials say are no reasons to panic as the Chinese loans are properly utilised for critical projects, many of which had been completed and others in advanced stages of completion.

The projects include the public security communication system, Idu-Kaduna railway modernisation which had been completed as well as the ongoing Abuja light rail project.

Others are ICT Infrastructure Backbone, airport terminal expansion in Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Lagos, Zungeru Hydroelectric power project, 40 parboiled rice processing plants, Lagos –Ibadan railway modernisation project and upgrading of Abuja-Keffi-Makurdi road.

The loans are also being used to service the supply of rolling stocks and depot equipment for Abuja light rail project as well as greater Abuja water supply project.

DMO reported that borrowing from China is based on needs, and subject to the receipt of requisite approvals, to finance capital projects, in order to promote economic growth and development, as well as, job creation.

The biggest question, however, is whether China’s loans agreements can be available for scrutiny or if their conditionality can be listed in public. Beijing often cites parties’ confidentiality to decline revelations.

Nigeria though says it has alternative access to credit such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, as well as, bilateral loans from various countries such as France, Germany, Japan, India, and China.

“Prudent management of the public debt implies that, the government should avail [sic] itself of the opportunity to access concessional loans which deliver twin benefits of being more cost efficient and supporting infrastructural development,” DMO said in a bulletin recently.

“Loans from Concessional Lenders have limits in terms of the amounts that they can provide to each country. This makes it necessary for Nigeria to have several sources for accessing concessional capital to increase the total amount available and also, to avoid undue dependence on only a few sources of concessional funds.’’

Still, Abuja says it has a perennial infrastructure deficit that only China has tried to plug. Nigerian government officials have recently embarked on fighting off probes into debt management.

Transport minister Rotimi Amechi warned on July 28 that investigations into loans taken by the government could send wrong signal to the lenders.

Ameachi made the observation at an investigative hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements in Abuja. He said that the investigation could cause foreign partners to withdraw such loan facilities which have negative effect on Nigeria’s infrastructural development.

Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, also replied critics, that Nigeria is confidently meeting its loan obligations.

The minister explained that the debt service provisions is made in the annual budgets including principal repayments, interest payments and all other applicable charges.

He said based on budgetary provision and the payments, the issue of creditors foreclosing on Nigeria as predicted by naysayers, including Abubakar, did not arise.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/nigeria-in-trouble-as-fears-grow-over-chinese-loans/

Ivory Coast’s ruling party, Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace, has nominated President Alassane Ouattara to run for a third term as leader of the world’s top cocoa grower.

asked the president to seek reelection at a convention in Abidjan, the commercial hub. Its selection of Ouattara, 78, follows the death this month of his preferred successor, Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly.

But the main opposition leader has warned that his candidacy would be illegal.

Ouattara will announce his decision on whether to accept the nomination “very soon” to run and will address the nation to explain what’s at stake for the country, he told delegates. “Ivory Coast shouldn’t be in the hands of those who could let the country tip over into violence, disorder and the pursuit of private interests.”

Opposition leader Henri Konan Bedie said in an interview with France 24 that a third-term presidency is barred by the nation’s constitution and people in the West African nation are “ready to oppose” it.

Since coming to power in 2011, Ouattara has presided over annual economic growth of at least 7%. His presidency ushered in a period of stability for the West African nation, where elections have historically been fraught. While the law imposes a two-term limit, he has argued the adoption of a new constitution after his first term in 2016 allows him to run again.

Ouattara is unlikely to decide on whether to run or not until after the 40-day commemoration of Gon Coulibaly’s death, which is set to take place on Aug. 16, said Tochi Eni-Kalu, an Africa analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Eurasia Group. Gon Coulibaly died July 8 after collapsing at a cabinet meeting.

Uncertainty about the future leadership of Ivory Coast has weighed on the West African nation’s dollar securities, which haven’t returned anything in July, compared with the 3.3% average for 15 national issuers. The yield on Ivorian dollar bonds due in 2032 rose seven basis points to 6.39% on Thursday.

If Ouattara does run, he would be up against several former allies, including Bedie, 86, who withdrew his party from the ruling coalition in 2018. Bedie served as president for four years until he was ousted in a bloodless 1999 coup. He backed Ouattara until they fell out over his succession.

The parties of Ouattara’s predecessor Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro have formed an alliance with the main opposition, Bedie said. “It goes without saying that whichever one of us has the best (first-round) results will be backed by all the others” in the second round to defeat the ruling party, he told France24.

Soro, who’s also a former speaker of parliament, quit the ruling-party coalition to run for the top office in the upcoming vote, but lives in France after being charged with planning a coup in 2017. He has denied the allegations. Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front will pick its candidate on Aug. 1.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/ouattara-ivory-coast-president-plots-third-term-in-office/

A criminal case against FIFA president Gianni Infantino was opened Thursday by a Swiss special prosecutor, plunging the soccer body into a new scandal. FIFA said it and Infantino will cooperate with Swiss authorities.

Special prosecutor Stefan Keller concluded there was enough evidence to go to court after investigating the circumstances of a meeting that Infantino had with Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber. Lauber offered his resignation last week.

Keller has uncovered “elements that make up reprehensible behavior,” according to the French-language version of a statement from the Swiss authority overseeing the federal prosecutor’s office.

Keller opened a criminal case against Infantino as well as Valais prosecutor Rinaldo Arnold, and has sought authorization to open a legal case against Lauber, too, according to the authority.

Keller, a legal expert named to the post of special prosecutor on June 29, found possible infractions included abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, “assisting offenders” and “incitement to these acts,” the supervisory authority for the office of the attorney general said in its statement, adding other criminal acts and proceedings could also be considered.

Under the Swiss criminal code, conviction for abuse of public office can bring penalties of up to five years in prison or other detention, while breach of official secrecy and assisting offenders can incur up to three years each. Each charge can also bring financial penalties.

Suspects in such cases benefit from a presumption of innocence in Switzerland until legal proceedings are completed.

FIFA said it “acknowledges” the prosecutor’s decision and that it and Infantino “will, as we have always done, cooperate fully with this investigation.” It also highlighted past troubles at the soccer body before he took office, and said meetings with prosecutors were necessary.

“As president of FIFA, it has been my aim from day one, and it remains my aim, to assist the authorities with investigating past wrongdoings at FIFA,” Infantino said. “FIFA officials have met with prosecutors in other jurisdictions across the world for exactly these purposes.”

FIFA also revived a statement from Infantino on June 25, when he said: “To meet with the attorney general of Switzerland is perfectly legitimate and it’s perfectly legal. It’s no violation of anything. On the contrary, it is also part of the fiduciary duties of the president of FIFA.”

Lauber offered to resign on Friday only minutes before a federal court upheld allegations that he lied about a meeting he had with Infantino during a sprawling investigation into soccer corruption. It came in response to Lauber’s appeal against being disciplined in March for misconduct.

The internal disciplinary case against Lauber focused on a meeting he had with Infantino in June 2017 at a hotel in Bern, at which the prosecutor took no notes. They later both said they could not recall their discussion at what was their third meeting in a 15-month period.

“On the basis of general life experience, such a case of collective amnesia is an aberration,” the federal court ruling said last week.

Infantino became president of FIFA in the fallout from the investigations that erupted around the governing body in 2015. Then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who had already announced plans to resign in the wake of arrests of dozens of soccer officials, was banned from soccer.

Michel Platini, the favorite to succeed Blatter and then serving as UEFA president, was also suspended.

In the void, Infantino, who led the UEFA administration as general secretary, saw a route to leading FIFA. The Swiss-Italian was elected in 2016, beating Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman.

The Bahraini is senior vice president of FIFA and is in line to replace Infantino temporarily if he was suspended because of the criminal case.

-AP

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/sports/fresh-scandal-rocks-fifa-as-president-faces-criminal-charges/

Ethiopia has unveiled a locally-assembled electric car from Marathon Motor, a joint venture between Korean auto giant, Hyundai and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie.

Once fully charged, the electric car can go for 300 kilometres and the plant has the capacity to produce 10,000 cars a year.

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, took delivery of the vehicle on Monday.

“As we transform Ethiopia’s greening and climate-resilient aspirations into concrete actions through the Green Legacy initiative and Sheger and Entoto Parks, this morning I received the first electric car fully assembled in Ethiopia. No emission cars can help reduce pollution,” the PM said in a tweet.

Last year, Ethiopians planted three billion trees as part of the greening and climate resilience initiative championed by the Prime Minister, with an additional four billion trees planted this year.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/ethiopia-begins-manufacture-of-electric-cars/

Guild of Medical Directors (GMD), a body of private medical practitioners in Nigeria, has faulted the claims of Dr. Stella Immanuel, a medical practioner based in the United States of America that a combination of Hydrochloroquine (HCQ), Zinc and Zithromax can cure coronavirus.

Dr. Stella Immanuel, along with other doctors, at a press conference in a viral video, affirmed the efficacy of HCQ, Zinc and Zithromax for cure of COVID-19, where she specifically confirmed applying the combination of these drugs for a total of 350 COVID-19 patients with no death reported, as all patients recovered.

But the GMD in a statement released Tuesday, said Dr. Stella Immanuel’s claims were unscientific and unsubstantiated, saying the claims were her personal opinion which should not be taken seriously, warning that there is no approved vaccine yet.

The Nigerian doctors warned that Coronavirus was real and that the virus was an indiscriminate killer which had killed many doctors and nurses all over the country, including Professor Lovett Lawson, advising everyone to practice social distancing, wearing of face mask and washing of hands frequently.

The statement reads in part:

URGENT PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION

Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2020

TITLE: WHAT DO YOU THINK, DOCTOR?

We have watched with dismay the viral video of Dr. Stella Immanuel, a doctor in the United States of America. The video has been shared all over the country and led to many people justifiably asking the question, ‘What do you think, doctor? The video was part of a news conference held in America. The event was hosted by the Tea Party Patriots. The organization America’s Frontline Doctors, a group founded by Dr. Simone Gold, a board-certified physician and attorney, and made up of medical doctors, came together to address what the group calls a “massive disinformation campaign” about the coronavirus. Dr. Stella Immanuel was among the doctors who spoke.

Dr. Stella Immanuel strongly attests to treating over 350 patients in her clinic in Houston, Texas, with the combination of Hydrochloroquine (HCQ), Zinc and Zithromax. However, people must understand that this is not scientific evidence and just her own personal, unsubstantiated claims.

The important point of course, is to note that medical research has subjected HCQ to intense research. While some studies suggest that it is effective, others have come to the opposite conclusion. It is also true that Senegal, where HCQ is routinely used, has one of the lowest Covid-19 case fatality rates in the world at 0.64% compared to 3.4% in the USA.

As we speak, a study is underway in LUTH on its efficacy and safety. Subsequently, a meta-analysis of all these studies should be undertaken to pool all the results and come up with a summative analysis which will guide clinicians. Until then, all anecdotal claims such as the one from Dr. Stella Immanuel must be taken with a pinch of salt. It should also be noted that HCQ may be a cause of serious complications and even death in some people.

Other anecdotal claims such as the herbal mixture from Madagascar have subsequently been proven ineffective. The Guild of Medical Directors is a body of owners of private hospitals in Nigeria and collectively we are responsible for the management of about 70% of the healthcare needs of Nigerians. So, a lot of the burden in explaining the problem as related to the video naturally falls on us.

Therefore, we feel it is pertinent to explain or clarify the issues for Nigerians. We must reiterate that the Coronavirus is real and Covid-19 disease is an indiscriminate killer. We know from personal experience since it has killed many doctors and nurses all over the country, including our very own Professor Lovett Lawson.

This disease is definitely not a joke and we strongly condemn the politicization of the disease and the treatments currently being used to fight the pandemic. As at today, the whole world is still actively looking for an effective treatment and of course, a vaccine. Until then, everyone has a responsibility to remain safe and protect one another through the ways proven to help.

These are practicing social distancing, wearing a face mask and frequent proper hand hygiene.

Name: Professor Olufemi Emmanuel Babalola, President, Guild of Medical Directors

Professor of ophthalmology

Consultant ophthalmologist Rachel Eye Center

IP HOD Surgery, Bingham University, Jos/Karu

Vice President, MEACO.

Telephone: 08098603395

Email: bablo57@gmail.com

Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2020

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/nigerian-doctors-fault-use-of-hydrochloroquine-for-covid-19-treatment/

The U.S. dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency is coming under threat, as evinced by the recent surge in gold prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The greenback faces several risks, including that the U.S. Federal Reserve may shift toward an “inflationary bias,” a rise in political uncertainty and growing concerns surrounding another spike in coronavirus infections in the country, according to Goldman strategists. They added that the debt buildup as a result of the pandemic may lead to debasement fears.

“Real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency have started to emerge,” wrote Goldman strategists including Daniel Sharp. “Gold is the currency of last resort, particularly in an environment like the current one where governments are debasing their fiat currencies and pushing real interest rates to all-time lows.”

The precious metal has rallied as real interest rates have declined

Gold’s record-breaking rally highlights growing concern over the world economy. The bank raised its 12-month forecast for gold to $2300 an ounce from $2000 an ounce previously. That compares with a value of around $1930 currently.

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is on course for its worst July in a decade. The drop comes amid renewed calls for the dollar’s demise following a game-changing rescue package from the European Union deal, which spurred the euro and will lead to jointly-issued debt.

For Goldman, the growing level of debt in the U.S. — which now exceeds 80% of the nation’s gross domestic product — and elsewhere, boosts the risk that central banks and governments may allow inflation to accelerate.

“The resulting expanded balance sheets and vast money creation spurs debasement fears,” Goldman strategists said. This creates “a greater likelihood that at some time in the future, after economic activity has normalized, there will be incentives for central banks and governments to allow inflation to drift higher to reduce the accumulated debt burden,” they said.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/dollars-reign-as-worlds-reserve-currency-under-threat-says-goldman/

The biggest test yet of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine got underway Monday with the first of some 30,000 Americans rolling up their sleeves to receive shots created by the U.S. government as part of the all-out global race to stop the outbreak.

Final-stage testing of the vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., began with volunteers at various U.S. sites given either a real shot or a dummy without being told which.

It will be months before results trickle in, and there is no guarantee the vaccine will ultimately work against the scourge that has killed about 650,000 people around the world, including almost 150,000 in the U.S.

As if to underline how high the stakes are, there were more setbacks in efforts to contain the virus.

In Washington, the White House disclosed that national security adviser Robert O’Brien has the coronavirus — the highest-ranking U.S. official to test positive so far.

The move to restart the national pastime ran into trouble just five days into the long-delayed season: Two major league baseball games scheduled for Monday night were called off as the Miami Marlins coped with an outbreak — the Marlins’ home opener against the Baltimore Orioles, and the New York Yankees’ game in Philadelphia, where the Marlins used the clubhouse over the weekend.

On virus relief, Republicans on Capitol Hill planned to roll out a $1 trillion package that could include a new round of $,1200 stimulus checks but reduce the extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits that are expiring for millions of Americans this week.

In Europe, rising infections in Spain and other countries caused alarm only weeks after nations reopened their borders in hopes of reviving tourism. Over the weekend, Britain imposed a 14-day quarantine on travelers arriving from Spain, Norway ordered a 10-day quarantine for people returning from the entire Iberian peninsula, and France urged its citizens not to visit Spain’s Catalonia region.

In Binghamton, New York, nurse Melissa Harting received one of the first injections of the Moderna vaccine candidate. saying she was volunteering “to do my part to help out.”

“I’m excited,” Harting said. Especially with family members in front-line jobs that could expose them to the virus, she said, “doing our part to eradicate it is very important to me.”

After two doses, scientists will closely track which participants — those getting real shots, or a dummy — experience more infections as they go about their daily routines, especially in hard-hit areas where the virus still is spreading. Testing is planned at close to 90 sites, officials said.

“Unfortunately for the United States of America, we have plenty of infections right now” to get that answer, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said recently.

Several other vaccines made by China and by Britain’s Oxford University began smaller final-stage tests in Brazil and other hard-hit countries earlier this month. But the U.S. requires its own tests of any vaccine that might be used in the country.

Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

Every month through the fall, the government-funded COVID-19 Prevention Network will roll out a new study of a leading candidate, each with 30,000 volunteers, to test not only whether the shots work but whether they are safe.

The final U.S. study of the Oxford shot is set to begin in August, followed by a candidate from Johnson & Johnson in September and one from Novavax in October. Pfizer Inc. plans its own 30,000-person study this summer.

It normally takes years to create a accine from scratch, but scientists are setting speed records this time, spurred by knowledge that vaccination is the world’s best hope against the pandemic.

Governments around the world are already trying to stockpile millions of doses of the leading candidates so that immunizations can begin immediately if the vaccines win approval. But the first available doses will most likely be reserved for people at highest risk.

“We’re optimistic, cautiously optimistic” that the vaccine will work and that “toward the end of the year” there will be data to prove it, Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Massachusetts-based Moderna, told a House subcommittee last week.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

-AP

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/covid-19-hope-rises-as-us-launches-experimental-vaccine-with-30000-volunteers/

Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFM) has reacted to reports pertaining to one its branches in Maryland, United States of America where some members attempted to illegally acquire the church’s properties.

In a statement issued by the Media Aid to the General Overseer of MFM, Collins Edomaruse, the church described the report as false and an attempt to malign the General Overseer of MFM, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, saying the matter was under litigation.

The statement further reads thus: Our attention has been drawn to an on-line story titled: SCANDAL! General Overseer, Mountain of Fire And Miracles Ministries, In Big Mess in US published under the thread: https://Ik.phx.ninja/Nkup dated July 19, 2020. We would ordinarily have ignored this misguided and vicious attack on the person of our General Overseer but for the need to appropriately inform the discerning public and expose the malicious falsehood in this unmerited attack against one of God’s Generals.

To begin with, what the publisher of this falsehood is attempting to portray as recent events are actually the feeble defence of some renegade pastors presented in 2017 to a Court Case commenced in 2017 at the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of Maryland, USA by Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministries against Pastors Lawrence Adetunji, Ronke Adetunji, eleven former members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Bowie, Maryland USA and Christ The Truth Ministry to recover possession of property and monies belonging to MFM international which those renegade Pastors and the eleven (11) conniving members had sought to snatch upon breaking out from the MFM Fold to form a Christ the Truth Ministries. It is pertinent to note the following:

That the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of Maryland delivered judgment in that case in 2019 in which it:


a. disbelieved the lies of the Defendants, and

b. granted MFM’s claims in their entirety

2. That the false publication of those very same stories by Sahara Reporters in 2017 has earned it two suits for Libel – one in the United States of America and the other here in in the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo, Nigeria.

3. Also, that a similar publication by ThisDay newspaper of the same false stories citing Sahara Reporters as its source, as has been done in this present instance, has also earned the publishers of that newspaper a civil suit to recover N500bn as aggravated damages for libel. The matter is currently at trial stage in the High Court of Rivers State, Port Harcourt.

In essence, the publishers of this present falsehood have not only opened themselves to a suit in Libel but have, by commenting on a matter which has been judicially determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in the United States of America, and aspects of which are still sub-judice in live Libel suits before a court in the US and two courts in Nigeria, committed the offence of contempt of each of those courts.

It is definitely in very bad taste and a crass breach of all known journalistic ethics for a publisher to pull up falsehoods which were uttered in 2017 and judicially determined as false in 2019 and republish them in July 2020 as a fresh story. The malice behind such action is very clear and palpable and will be redressed in due course.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/mfm-reacts-to-misguided-attack-on-its-general-overseer-daniel-olukoya/

Emirates Boeing 777-300ER photographed on August 17, 2015 from Wolfe Air Aviation’s Lear 25B.
Emirates Airline is offering free medical cover for Covid-19 to its passengers, as it seeks to boost confidence among travellers.

The airline’s chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed al-Maktoum says this will position Emirates and Dubai as aviation industry leaders.

“We will be the first airline to offer free cover for Covid-19 medical costs for its customers when they travel in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and around the world,” he said.

The airline, which resumed flights early this month and expects to reach over 60 destinations by August, hopes the move will boost its passengers’ numbers to support its upscaled frequencies.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the aviation sector the hardest with airlines grounding their flights after countries closed their borders.

Currently, tourists travelling to Dubai are required to show proof of Covid-19 insurance to be granted entry into UAE, with those without this required to declare that they will shoulder any costs of treatments and isolation should they contract the virus.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/covid-19-emirates-lures-passengers-with-free-medical-cover/

The United States has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston by Friday, an abrupt move that opens up a new front in a battle for supremacy between the world’s two biggest economies.

Beijing immediately vowed to retaliate for the “unprecedented escalation,” leading to speculation it could order the closure of the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, which has been shuttered since the novel coronavirus epidemic spread across the city in January.

The confrontation in the diplomatic sphere widens a conflict that already incorporated trade and technology, freedom of the press and religion, students and scientists, as well as the coronavirus and the race for a vaccine.

Analysts on both sides say that bilateral relations are at their worst since before 1979, when the United States formally recognized the People’s Republic of China.

“At this rate, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Trump decides to sever diplomatic relations with China someday,” said Chu Shulong, a professor in American politics and diplomacy at Tsinghua University, suggesting that this was part of President Trump’s reelection strategy.

“Trump has no limits, no principles and no morals, and that’s why he can stoop so low and yet few bother to raise an eyebrow,” Chu said.

The Trump administration decided to order the closure of China’s consulate in Houston, which was opened in 1979 and is situated in an area with a large Chinese community, “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday.

“The United States will not tolerate the PRC’s violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC’s unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs and other egregious behavior,” she said, using the abbreviation for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

The State Department did not elaborate on the alleged infractions, but Ortagus suggested that China had violated the Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic relations between states. Under the convention, diplomats must “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State” and “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”

U.S. accuses China of sponsoring attempt to hack vaccine research

The closure came one day after the Justice Department indicted two Chinese hackers, accusing them of stealing intellectual property from U.S. firms doing coronavirus research and other sensitive information.

The Chinese government was suspected of using the Houston consulate as a hub for aggressive intelligence operations that U.S. officials believed had gone too far, and its closure can be read as a rebuke and a warning to Beijing, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

Another U.S. official said that the People’s Liberation Army has been sending Chinese students to American universities, and that the Houston consulate is at the epicenter of all the activities facilitated by the PRC.

Last month, U.S. authorities arrested a Chinese scientific researcher as he tried to fly out of Los Angeles. According to court documents, he said he had been ordered by the head of his military university lab to observe a lab at the University of California in San Francisco, and relay information how to replicate it in China.

The United States expects foreign governments to conduct intelligence activities within its borders, but espionage usually follows a set of unspoken rules. Current and former officials said that in recent years, China has conducted rampant computer hacking and deployed unauthorized personnel to gather intelligence in the United States and harass Chinese nationals who are living here. The Houston consulate was suspected of housing such personnel, another example of how Chinese operations were getting out of hand, the official said.

“The closure could compel Beijing to step up its own counter-intelligence and surveillance operations against the U.S. diplomatic community and U.S. citizens of interest in China,” said Kyle Sullivan, the China practice lead at Martin+Crumpton Group LLC, a risk advisory firm headed by former U.S. intelligence officials.

The country “has very vague laws governing the application of state secrets, so any expatriate traveling to or residing in China should take extra precaution and refrain from carrying with them potentially sensitive information that could be construed as relating to China’s national or economic security.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Copenhagen that the Trump administration is “setting out clear expectations for how the Chinese Communist Party is going to behave.” He is scheduled to give a policy speech Thursday on “Communist China and the future of the free world.”

Pompeo noted the United States had “long complained” about alleged Chinese intellectual property theft.

“Your point that this has been going on for a long time makes our point,” Pompeo told reporters. “President Trump has said ‘enough.’ We’re not going to allow this.”

The first sign of the American order came when Houston NBC affiliate KPRC2 aired video showing people in the courtyard of the consulate apparently burning documents after 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

Police and fire officials went to the scene in response to calls from neighbors but, in accordance with diplomatic rules, did not enter the building, the television station reported.

Witnesses in nearby apartment buildings told police that people were burning paper in what appeared to be trash cans, a police official told the Houston Chronicle. That is a common enough practice that the CIA has a name for it — a “burn down.” The consulate staff had been told they would be evicted from the building at 4 p.m. Friday, the paper quoted the unnamed official as saying.

In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry responded angrily to the order. The U.S. government “abruptly informed” China on Tuesday that it had to immediately close its consulate in Houston, Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.

“The U.S. has far more diplomatic missions and staff working in China. So if the U.S. is bent on going down this wrong path, we will resolutely respond,” Wang said.

In addition to its embassy in Beijing, the United States has consulates in Shenyang, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

Analysts expect the Chinese government to respond by ordering one of them closed. Beijing was particularly incensed that the United States evacuated its consulate in Wuhan in January, as the coronavirus began spreading rapidly in the city.

It has not reopened, and the embassy and other consulates are operating with skeleton staffs, according to American officials. It remains unclear if the closure will have any practical effect in stopping industrial espionage.

“There is no doubt that China represents a tremendous espionage threat for the United States,” said Abraham Denmark, Asia Program Director and Senior Fellow with the Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S. at the Wilson Center. “The question here is not China’s culpability —I expect it’s solid —but rather if suddenly closing the consulate in Houston will address the problem.

-Washingtonpost

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/politics/china-fumes-vows-to-retaliate-u-s-closure-of-its-consulate-in-houston/

Microsoft Corp’s professional networking site, LinkedIn, has said it would cut about 960 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, as the coronavirus pandemic is having a sustained impact on demand for its recruitment products.

California-based LinkedIn helps employers assess a candidate’s suitability for a role and employees use the platform to find new job.

Jobs will be cut across sales and hiring divisions of the group globally. Announcing the plan in a message posted on LinkedIn’s website, Chief Executive Ryan Roslansky said the company would provide at least 10 weeks of severance pay as well as health insurance for a year for U.S. employees, and will hire for newly-created roles from laid-off staff.

“I want you to know these are the only layoffs we are planning,” Roslansky said in his message. Affected staff, who have not yet been told, would be able to keep company-issued cell phones, laptops, and recently purchased equipment to help them work from home while making career transitions, he said.

As lockdowns to contain the coronavirus have hit businesses around the world, LinkedIn’s business has been hit as companies lay off staff or sharply curtail hiring.

LinkedIn said employees affected by its job cuts will be informed this week and they will start receiving invitations in the next few hours to meetings to learn more about next steps.

“If you don’t receive a meeting invite, you are not directly impacted by this change,” Roslansky said.

-Reuters

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/covid-19-linkedin-cuts-960-jobs-suspends-recruitment/

A female teacher has been busted for alleged sexual misconduct with a trio of teen boys. The teacher, Ashlyn Faye Bell, 24, of the Texarkana Independent School District, had sex with two of her 17-year-old students and sexually assaulted a 16-year-old last fall.

She has been charged with two counts of improper relationship between educator and student and one count of sexual assault of a child, the Texarkana Gazette reports. She faces 20 years in jail if convicted.

According to investigators, the educator came to the attention of police after a teacher heard a group of male students snickering that one of the boy’s had gotten Bell pregnant.

But the boy being teased told his pals Bell said he “was not the daddy” of her baby.

The Texarkana Gazette reports that Bell worked in the school library and was employed there from Aug. 5, 2019, to May 22, 2020.

One of the 17-year-old boys told police he first hooked up with her during the Thanksgiving holiday. The duo allegedly met at a local truck stop after exchanging steamy messages on SnapChat.

Her baby was asleep in a car seat when Bell met the boy for the rendezvous, he claimed, adding the twosome then retired to the teacher’s home where they had sex.

The other 17-year-old told detectives he had been to Bell’s home several times before they consummated their relationship.

As for the alleged 16-year-old victim, he also broke the ice with the teacher on SnapChat. After a Nov. 22, 2019 football game, he reached out and told her he wanted to go over to visit. The boy claimed it was a joke.

But he says Bell strapped her baby in the car seat, went to the boy’s home and brought him back to her house where she allegedly sexually assaulted him. She drove him home around 5 a.m. and the pair met up again the following weekend.

– Torontosun

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/female-teacher-charged-for-having-sex-with-male-teens/

Nigeria’s dollar shortage is worsening, with the local currency weakening in the parallel market and banks restricting the ability of customers to spend greenbacks abroad using naira cards.

The naira’s black-market rate declined to 470 per dollar on Monday from 465 naira on June 15, according to abokiFX.com, which collates rates from street traders in Lagos. That’s the weakest since February 2017 and compares with 12-month forwards that traded at 456.65 as of 1:20 p.m. in Lagos. In the official spot market, the unit weakened 0.2% to 388.88 per dollar.

Lenders including Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc further reduced the amount of foreign currency customers can spend outside the country. Zenith Bank cut its international spending limit on naira-based cards to $200 from $500 per month and suspended withdrawals from international automated teller machines. Stanbic IBTC lowered its monthly spending limit by a half to $500.

“A lot of the challenges right now are due to a shortfall in liquidity,” Douye Mac-Yoroki, an analyst at Lagos-based Investment One, said by phone. “The central bank is holding on to as much dollars as it can, given that inflows are not coming the way they did previously.”

Nigeria’s dollar shortage was exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19 and lackluster prices for crude oil, which accounts for more than 90% of the country’s foreign-exchange earnings and more than a half of revenue. The Abuja-based central bank is struggling to clear a backlog of dollar demand by foreign investors, while manufacturers are finding it difficult to access the greenback to import raw materials.

Customers who can’t obtain dollars from the central bank or other official sources are being forced into the parallel market, pushing that rate higher, Mac-Yoroki, said. “A lot of pressure is piling up there,” he said.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/nigerian-economy-in-trouble-as-scarcity-of-us-dollars-worsen/

By close of nominations last week, three African countries that have presented nomination for the World Trade Organisation’s Director-General’s seat have failed to agree on a consensus candidate for the post, thus testing the unity of African countries in fronting common candidates for international agencies.

African candidates for the WTO DG’s post include Kenya’s former Foreign Minister and current Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, ex-Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who currently serves on the boards of a number of global organisations, and Egyptian commercial law academic Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh.

Candidates from other countries are former UK Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, Mr Jesús Seade Kuri of Mexico, Moldova’s Tudor Ulianovschi, Saudi Arabia’s former Economy Minister Mohammad Mazia al-Tualjri and Ms Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s Trade minister.

The eight are seeking to replace Brazilian Roberto de Azevedo, who has served since 2013.

Ahead of a scheduled appearance by the candidates before the WTO’s General Council – the decision-making body composed of envoys from the 164 member states – to pitch their suitability, the debate has been whether it is Africa’s time to lead the global referee of international trade.

Traditionally, the candidates would have started campaigns in December, but Covid-19 reduced the nomination time to a month. The General Council is expected to reach a decision, by consensus, before August 31.

Global trade experts told the Nation that each of the candidates must outline how they will keep the organisation running in the face of threats to multilateralism, especially from the US, which incidentally is a member.

“The new DG should not only understand the need for systemic issues at the WTO, but should have the necessary stature to generate broad consensus for them to happen.

“The time for talking without walking is over,” Mr Pradeep S Mehta, the Secretary-General of trade think-tank CUTS International, told the Nation on Monday. “Given the challenges that trade multilateralism in particular and multilateralism in general are facing, the WTO should be led by somebody who can take a pause, evaluate the journey of the organisation over the last quarter of a century and have political maturity for running an organisation that has to deal with 21st Century trade issues,” he added.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/wto-africa-failed-to-agree-on-a-consensus-candidate/

Senior doctors at Zimbabwe’s state hospitals issued a two-week strike notice demanding salaries be paid in US dollars and for supplies of personal protective equipment against the coronavirus.

“Our salaries as paid in the Zimbabwe dollar cannot sustain us anymore,” the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association said in a letter to the Ministry of Health. “The Zimbabwe dollar is so volatile and subject to inflationary pressures that make it unpredictable.”

The specialist doctors want renumeration benchmarked to 2018 salaries that were in US dollars and the matter resolved before July 29, according to the statement.

Telephone calls to acting Health Minister Amon Murwira seeking comment went unanswered. The southern African country has confirmed 1,089 coronavirus infections and 20 deaths.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/covid-19-zimbabwe-doctors-serve-strike-notice-demand-pay-in-us-dollars/

The daughter of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, who was also South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark, Zindzi Mandela, has died, a close family member has confirmed. She was aged 59.

The mother of four is the daughter of the late former statesman Nelson Mandela and the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Zindzi and her sister Zenani grew up in the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle as their mother fought both the state and economic hardship as a single mother while their father was incarcerated.

“By the time I was born, on 9 April 1980, my mother knew how to strip and assemble an AK-47 in exactly 38 seconds.” These are the opening words of the biography of Zindzi’s eldest daughter, Zoleka, When Hope Whispers.

Zindzi is best remembered for her defiance, which she retained throughout her life, most recently voicing her support of accelerated land reform.

Her first foray into the limelight in her own right was when she read her jailed father’s speech in Jabulani Stadium, Soweto, in February 1985, rejecting then president PW Botha’s conditional offer of freedom.

Five months ago, as South Africans commemorated the 30th anniversary of Madiba’s release from the Victor Verster prison, Zindzi reminisced about the weekends they went to visit him in prison and how, upon his release, she realised she would share him with the nation.

-Heraldlive

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/mandelas-daughter-zindzi-59-is-dead/

Nigeria’s government is in a London court to ask for more time to appeal a $9.6 billion arbitration award, an amount that is more than the country’s income from oil last year.

The country, Africa’s largest crude producer, wants more time to pursue its accusations that the 2010 gas-supply contract with Process & Industrial Developments Ltd. was a sham. Last year, a British judge upheld the arbitration award P&ID won in 2017.

The dispute comes as the West African nation’s revenue is being disrupted by a collapse in oil prices. It applied to U.S. courts in March seeking documents from 10 banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., in a bid to prove its corruption allegations. P&ID denies any wrongdoing, and argues that Nigeria missed its window to appeal.

“It is very unusual in a fraud case to discover a single smoking gun,” Mark Howard, Nigeria’s lawyer, said Monday on the first morning of a two-day hearing. “By its very nature, fraud is conducted in secret,” which makes it hard to detect and justifies an extension, he said.

Nigeria’s lawyers are seeking another hearing for the judge to decide whether misconduct has taken place, and whether it justifies overturning the contract.

Evidence of P&ID’s “highly orchestrated scam” had only recently come to light, Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami said in a statement.

Lawyers to the West African nation say they have uncovered alleged bribes to government officials and their family members dating back to 2009.

“There is good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria,” Malami said in court filings submitted on March 24.

P&ID, a British Virgin Islands-registered firm, alleges that the Nigerian government invented the fraud allegations to avoid paying its legitimate penalty. P&ID’s spokesmen in London didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Nigeria would still have options for appealing should it lose in the London court.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/pid-nigeria-seeks-appeal-over-9-6-billion-arbitration-award-in-london/

Prostitutes demonstrated in Hamburg’s red-light district late on Saturday evening demanding that Germany’s brothels be allowed to reopen after months of closure to curb the spread of coronavirus.

With shops, restaurants and bars all open again in Germany, where prostitution is legal, sex workers say they are being singled out and deprived of their livelihoods despite not posing a greater health risk.

“The oldest profession needs your help,” read a notice held up by one woman in a brothel window in the Herbertstrasse, which was flooded with red light after being dark since March.

Some protesters wore theatrical masks while one played folk songs on a violin in the street just around the corner from the Reeperbahn, famous for its nightlife.

The Association of Sex Workers, which organised the protest, says the continued closure of licensed premises is forcing some prostitutes onto the streets, which is illegal and a far more dangerous and unhygienic way of working.

It said brothels could easily incorporate pandemic safety measures adopted by other industries, including face masks, ventilating premises and recording visitors’ contact details.

“Prostitution does not carry a greater risk of infection than other close-to-body services, like massages, cosmetics or even dancing or contact sports,” the association said in a statement. “Hygiene is part of the business in prostitution.”

-Reuters

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/covid-19-sex-workers-protest-in-germany-want-brothels-reopen/

Kenya has nominated its Sports Cabinet Secretary and former Foreign Minister, Amina Mohamed, to contest for the post of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

Amina Mohamed will contest against five other candidates, including two from Africa, to secure the seat that eluded her seven years ago when she first contested against the incumbent Director-General, Mr. Azevedo in 2013 but lost out on a decision made by consensus among member states.

The other five contestants for the top post are former Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Egyptian commercial law academic Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, Jesús Seade Kuri of Mexico, Moldova’s Tudor Ulianovschi and Yoo Myung-hee of South Korea.

The WTO announced on its website that Ms Mohamed’s candidature had been submitted on July 7 by the Kenyan government. She seeks to replace Brazilian Robert Azevêdo, who will be stepping down later this year.

The WTO said the six candidates will now meet with the General Council to make pitches and respond to questions.

The WTO director-general is appointed through consensus, meaning candidates will have to do lots of horse-trading ahead of the decision on August 31.

The Geneva-based WTO, formed in 1995, is a rule-making body that guides international trade and arbitrates disputes. Decisions on cases brought before it are often final, even though it is not a United Nations organisation.

Ms Mohamed has said in the past she wanted to be director-general of the WTO because she already served on the body’s key decision making organs.

In 2005, she was Chairperson of the General Council, the highest-level decision making organ of the WTO and which composed of envoys from member states. She said before that she helped steer the WTO to adopt the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips), an international pact that helps poorer nations use technology from richer countries to make useful items like generic drugs, without harming their intellectual property owners.

She also served as head of the Dispute Settlement Body and Trade Policy Review Body. She has argued in the bid submitted to the WTO that she will use her skills in “strategic leadership and effective communication” to make the WTO more responsive to current concerns in international trade.

But her bid may see Nairobi engage in another round of diplomatic pitching. In 2013, she had contested against eight other candidates including one from Ghana. Some observers say failure to reach consensus with Ghana allowed the Brazilian to win.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/wto-dg-kenya-enters-race-against-nigeria-others/

In an attempt to unify its multiple exchange rates, Nigeria’s currency’s official value was reduced by 5.5% to 381 per the dollar, according to rates published on the website of the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, platform that oversees foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

The central bank hasn’t issued a statement about the change and calls to its spokesman seeking comment went unanswered.

The depreciation is another step in central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele’s plan to unify the exchange rates to improve the transparency of its currency-management system. Investors and the International Monetary Fund have said the absence of a single rate creates confusion and deters foreign investment.

Tuesday night’s announcement hasn’t made things any clearer, especially because the central bank’s website still shows the old rate of 360 naira, said Opeyemi Ani, senior analyst at Cordros Securities in Lagos.

“It’s confusing,” he said. “The Central Bank of Nigeria certainly needs to come out and clarify, or FMDQ as to why it was changed.”

Nigeria has operated a multiple-exchange-rate regime since imposing currency controls five years ago, when it was in the midst of an economic crisis spawned by a collapse in oil prices. The country is Africa’s biggest crude producer.

Unified Rates

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has pledged to unify the rates as a condition to gain fresh credit from international financial institutions to cover a wide balance of payments gap after this year’s plunge in oil prices. The nation in April secured a $3.4 billion loan from the IMF and is in talks about another loan from the World Bank.

A separate exchange rate generated by sales of foreign currency to exporters and investors, also known as the nafex or the I&E, traded at 387.58 per dollar as of 12:36 p.m. in Lagos. The nafex, which also acts as a spot rate, was introduced in 2017 as a way of wooing back foreign investors spooked by the economic crisis, without formally devaluing the currency. Recently, investors have complained of a lack of liquidity in that market.

If confirmed, the latest devaluation of the official rate would be positive as it signals a move toward convergence with the nafex rate, said Yvonne Mhango, sub-Saharan Africa economist at Renaissance Capital. Finance Minister Ahmed Zainab has said it’s the government’s intention to align the two rates.

“Convergences creates more transparency, which improves investor confidence, and reduces arbitrage opportunities,” Mhango said in an emailed response to questions.

Calls to FMDQ, which is part owned by the central bank and commercial lenders, weren’t answered when Bloomberg sought comment.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/confusion-as-traders-groan-under-naira-devaluation/

Zenith Bank Plc has again emerged as the Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital in the 2020 Top 1000 World Banks Ranking published by The Banker Magazine. Climbing a whopping 29 spots from 415 in 2019 to 386 in the 2020 global ranking of banks, Zenith Bank retained its position as the number one Tier-1 bank in Nigeria with Tier-1 Capital of $2.79 billion, an increase of 16.1% on the $2.40 billion recorded in the 2019 rankings.


The ranking which was published in the July 2020 edition of The Banker Magazine of the Financial Times Group, United Kingdom, was based on the 2019 year-end Tier-1 capital of banks globally. According to the Ranking Report, Zenith Bank extended its lead over the second-placed bank in Nigeria. Zenith’s financial performance for the year was underpinned by a 29% increase in non-interest income, with an improved market share in both retail and corporate sectors.



Speaking on the latest rankings, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu said: “this ranking, which further attests to our market leadership, is the outcome of a well-thought-out strategy of always delighting and creating value for our teeming customers through a broad range of superior product offerings, best-in-class service and top-of-the-range technology”.


Tier 1 capital describes the capital adequacy of a bank, and it is the core measure of a bank’s financial strength from a regulator’s point of view. According to the ranking, Tier 1 Capital, as defined by the latest BIS guidelines, includes loss-absorbing capital, i.e. common stock, disclosed reserves, retained earnings and minority interests in the equity of subsidiaries that are less than wholly owned.


Zenith Bank has clearly distinguished itself in the Nigerian financial services industry through superior service quality, unique customer experience and sound financial indices. The bank, with a knack for setting the pace and raising benchmarks, is a clear leader in the digital space with several firsts in the deployment of innovative products, solutions and an assortment of alternative channels that ensure convenience, speed and safety of transactions.


As a testament to its resilience and market leadership, Zenith Bank announced an impressive result for the year ended December 31, 2019, with profit after tax (PAT) of N208.8 billion, achieving the feat as the first Nigerian Bank to cross the N200 billion mark. In the recently released Q1 2020 unaudited financial results, the bank also recorded an improved result over the corresponding period in 2019, with gross earnings rising by 6% to N166.8 billion and profit before tax (PBT) growing 3% to N58.8 billion.


Consistent with this excellent performance and in recognition of its track record of exceptional performance, Zenith Bank was ranked as the Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2019 by the World Finance and the Best Digital Bank in Nigeria 2019 by Agusto & Co. The bank was also voted as Bank of the Year and Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks and other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards. Most recently, the bank was recognized as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria, for the third consecutive year, in the Banker Magazine “Top 500 Banking Brands 2020”, Best Bank in Nigeria in the Global Finance “World’s Best Banks Awards 2020” and the Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-tops-tier-1-banks-in-nigeria/

A Standard Eight pupil has been defiled by an uncle at Catholic Mission Hospital in Marigat, Kenya, where she had been admitted.

Mary Monari, the Marigat Catholic Mission Health Centre Hospital in-charge said the 38-year-old suspect claimed the girl was epileptic and that he was to closely monitor her within the ward, a request that was granted.

But at night, the uncle allegedly switched off the lights and defiled her.

“A doctor who examined the girl in the morning raised alarm after observing discharge from the minor’s private parts,” Monari said.

Sister Monari said the 16-year-old from Ilchamus location in Baringo County had been admitted with acute malaria and burns.

According to hospital records, she was admitted on June 13 and was defiled on the night of June 15 in one of the wards.

Management of the hospital reported the crime at Marigat Police Station on June 15 and the suspect was arrested.

The girl was discharged at the weekend and handed over to a child’s welfare unit on Monday.

The pupil, according to hospital records, has been living with the suspect for more than five years after death of her parents.

Area police commander Benjollife Munuve said the suspect will be charged in a Kabarnet court.

-The Standard



http://www.mediaissuesng.com/metrocrime/sick-pupil-raped-in-hospital-ward-by-uncle/

Royal Dutch Shell plans to slash the value of its oil and gas assets by up to $22 billion and lower spending up to $20 billion after the coronavirus crisis hit demand for fuel and weakened the outlook for energy prices, the Anglo-Dutch energy company said on Tuesday.

The write-down announcement came after Shell cut its forecast for energy prices into 2023 on expectations that sales will only recover slowly after the pandemic, adding to the company’s already bleak longer-term outlook for fossil fuel demand.

Shell’s move follows similar steps by other major energy companies such as BP (BP.L), which plans to cut the value of its assets by up to $17.5 billion following the hit to fuel sales from global travel restrictions to prevent the virus spreading.

Shell, which has a market value of $126.5 billion, said in an update ahead of second-quarter results due on July 30 that it would take an aggregate post-tax charge of $15 billion to $22 billion because of the write-downs.

The charges relate to large liquefied natural gas (LNG)operations in Australia, including the Prelude floating LNG facility, the world’s biggest, as well as oil and gas production assets in Brazil and U.S. shale basins.

Credit Suisse analyst Thomas Adolff said the second quarter would be the toughest for many companies and Shell had sent a “wake up call”.

Shell, the world’s largest fuel retailer, said it expected a 40% drop in sales in the second quarter from a year earlier to about 4 million barrels per day (bpd), although that was higher than its earlier forecast of 3.5 million bpd.

Its oil and gas production was expected to average 2.35 million bpd in the three months through June, down from 2.71 million in the first quarter of 2020. (Graphic: Shell Q2 fuel sales here)

LOWER OIL PRICES

Shell responded to the pandemic by cutting its dividend for the first time since World War Two and lowering planned spending this year by $5 billion to a maximum of $20 billion.

Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden also laid out a plan in April to reduce Shell’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 by shifting to renewables and power markets. The company aims to announce restructuring measures by the end of 2020.

Shell said on Tuesday it had cut its expected average benchmark Brent crude price for 2020 to $35 a barrel from $60, and cut its 2021 and 2022 Brent forecasts to $40 and $50, respectively, also down from $60 a barrel.

It said its long-term oil price outlook remained $60 a barrel, just above BP, which cut its long-term Brent forecast to $55 from $70. Other rivals still have higher price projections.

The Anglo-Dutch company also cut its long-term refining profit margin outlook by 30% and set its long-term natural gas price at $3 per million British Thermal Units.

Shell’s integrated gas business will account for $8 billion to $9 billion of the write-downs while its exploration division will account for $4 billion to $6 billion. Refining and marketing will account for another $3 billion to $7 billion.

The charges will raise Shell’s debt-to-equity ratio, or gearing, by 3 percentage points. Its gearing was 28.9% at the end of March.

Shell’s write downs “are not surprising and do not materially change our view of Shell’s creditworthiness because they will not directly impact Shell’s cash flow generation,” said Moody’s Investors Service analyst Sven Reinke.

-Reuters

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/oil-gas-power/shell-cuts-assets-value-costs-over-covid-19-pandemic/

By OpeOluwani Akintayo

Lagos — The oil and gas industry has been strengthened and elevated with simplified vocabulary to promote effective communication aimed at improved business transactions and processes.

The bolstered language is contained in a new book, entitled, The Language of Oil & Gas, and it is specifically designed to assist industry players and non-experts with clear understanding of the industry’s business and operations.

The book is an enriched dictionary with complete explanation of oil and gas terminology, including detailed definitions that are extensively cross referenced on the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-sectors and developments in the industry.

Written by Michael Owhoko, a renowned journalist and author, the well-researched lingo also serves as a tool and a bridge for those whose activities revolve round the industry, enabling them to understand the peculiar petroleum language.

“Most times, people do not realize the technical depth of the oil and gas industry until they are mid-way into the process. The essence of the book is to provide a clear understanding of the industry jargon in a simplified form to enable stakeholders appreciate and have a deeper knowledge of the industry”, Owhoko revealed in the book.

The book which is an updated version, is a must read not only because of its relevance to the business community but its impact on world economies and human existence, making it a collector’s choice.

The Language of Oil & Gas is published in the United States of America and it is currently on sale on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other major bookstores worldwide.

Oil and gas companies are gravitating towards sustainability practices
Michael Owhoko is a journalist, author and public relations practitioner who has mostly worked in the banking, oil and gas, and media industries.

He is the publisher of Media Issues, an online newspaper that can be found at http://www.mediaissuesng.com.
He is also the author of Career Frustration in the Workplace; Nigeria on the Precipice: Issues, Options, and Solutions; The Future of Nigeria; and Feminism: The Agony of Men.

https://sweetcrudereports.com/oil-gas-industry-strengthened-with-updated-language/

Nigerian artifacts stolen during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war by a European treasure hunter are now to be auctioned in Paris, France, despite objection by Nigeria.

A Nigerian commission has called for the cancellation of the auction scheduled for Monday in Paris of sacred Nigerian statues that it alleges were stolen.

Christie’s auction house has defended the sale, saying the artworks were legitimately acquired and the sale will go ahead.

In recent years, French courts have consistently ruled in favor of auction houses whose sales of sacred objects, such as Hopi tribal masks, were contested by rights groups and representatives of the tribes.

A Princeton scholar, professor Chika Okeke-Agulu, alongside Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, raised alarm earlier this month that the objects were looted during the Biafran war in the late 1960s.

Christie’s wrote earlier this month to the Nigerian commission, saying the sale would go ahead.

Okeke-Agulu, who is a member of the Igbo tribe, said the objects were taken through “an act of violence” from his home state of Anambra and that they should not be sold. An online petition with over 2,000 signatures is demanding that the auction be halted.

The petition said “as the world awakens to the reality of systemic racial injustice and inequality, thanks to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we must not forget that it is not just the Black body, but also Black culture, identity and especially art that is being misappropriated.”

It claims that between 1967 and 1970, as Nigeria’s Biafran civil war raged and while more than 3 million civilians were dying, a renowned European treasure hunter was in Biafra “on a hunting spree for our cultural heritage.”

In a statement to AP Monday, Christie’s said “these objects are being lawfully sold having been publicly exhibited and previously sold over the last decades prior to Christie’s involvement.”

While the auction house said it recognized the “nuanced and complex debates around cultural property,” it said that public sales should go ahead of objects like these to stop the black market flourishing.

Paris has a long history of collecting and selling tribal artifacts, tied to its colonial past in Africa, and to Paris-based groups in the 1960s, such as the “Indianist” movement that celebrated indigenous tribal cultures.

Interest in tribal art in Paris was revived in the early 2000s following two high-profile — and highly lucrative — sales in Paris of tribal art owned by late collectors Andre Breton and Robert Lebel.

Controversy over sales can be a double-edged sword for an auction house. In the past, such contested sales have served to raise the ultimate selling price of the objects going under the hammer because of media interest, but there has also been instances where buyers have been deterred from purchasing artifacts over fears of a backlash.

-AP

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/france-sells-nigerian-artifacts-stolen-by-european-treasure-hunter/

Nigeria’s powerful state oil company, whose finances and operations have been shrouded in secrecy for decades, is opening itself up to greater public scrutiny.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. on June 14 published its 2018 annual report, which contained an audited account of all its 20 units for the first time in its 43-year history. The 2019 figures are set to be divulged in “coming months” and the company has pledged to make their release a tradition.

The significance of those developments is underscored by the NNPC’s overarching dominance of Nigeria’s oil industry, which is Africa’s largest and generates about half of all government revenue. It operates joint ventures with international energy companies that produce most of the nation’s crude and operates units that supply fuel to its more than 200 million people. It also has outright control of leases to offshore blocks that contain two-thirds of Nigeria’s oil reserves.

“The NNPC used to be the very definition of opacity,” said Waziri Adio, head of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, which was set up in 2005 when the government signed up to a global drive to improve disclosure of revenue generated from oil and minerals. Its commitment to improved disclosure is good for transparency and accountability and represents “a major milestone not just for NNPC but for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria,” he said.

The NNPC’s predisposition to operate in the shadows stems from its intertwined relationship with Nigeria’s government and the out-sized role it plays in the national economy. Successive administrations have sought to wield control over the company since its formation in 1977, with three out of the four most recent presidents, including incumbent Muhammadu Buhari, retaining the petroleum portfolio for themselves.

Its history is replete with allegations of misappropriated funds and questionable dealings, including the allocation of oil blocks to politicians, the flouting of due process in the awarding of multi-billion dollar contracts and the withholding of taxes. NNPC didn’t properly accounted for at least $22.7 billion earned from the sale of oil leases and dividends from its 49% stake in Nigeria LNG Ltd. over a 15-year period through 2016, according to Neiti. NNPC has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The July 2019 appointment of Mele Kyari, a former head of NNPC’s oil-trading unit, to lead the largely dysfunction company has given impetus to its push to become more transparent and market-focused.

Kyari has committed to putting an end to any questionable dealings and has overseen the introduction of an open-data policy that will give the public access to aspects of its operations that previously weren’t open to scrutiny, NNPC spokesman Kennie Obateru said.

Price Slump

Cheta Nwanze, an analyst at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, sees a recent collapse in crude prices as a key driver of reform, because NNPC is no longer the cash cow it once was and its ability to divert funds has been substantially diminished.

The company’s investment management unit, its most profitable, reported revenue of 5.04 trillion naira ($13 billion) and a profit of 1.01 trillion naira in 2018 but its four decrepit refineries bled cash, reporting a 154 billion naira loss. It didn’t publish consolidated results.

Seun Onigbinde, who runs BudgiT, a Nigerian non-governmental organization that tracks official spending, sees greater transparency as but a first step toward a necessary overhaul of the entire company.

“The underlying issues still remain a bloated corporate structure, investments in loss-making entities such as refineries and its conflicting mandates as a participant and regulator,” he said.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/oil-gas-power/nnpc-finally-succumbs-to-public-scrutiny/

An eye-opening study conducted by Chinese and American researchers reveals that people who get COVID-19 may not develop antibodies that could offer them immunity in the future.

“People are unlikely to produce long-lasting protective antibodies against the virus,” the researchers concluded after examining 23,000 blood samples from hospital workers in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic originated.

According to the South China Morning Post, the scientists said that at least 25% of the workers could have been infected at some point during the pandemic, but only 4% developed antibodies. This information dashes hopes that people who recover from COVID-19 could be issued “immune certificates,” which would allow them to work and travel freely.

Antibodies stop infections by binding to the spikes on the virus, preventing it from invading the cells. Some antibodies remain in the system for as long as 12 years after infection, said experts. But the new research presented by Wang Xinhuan from Wuhan University’s Zhongnan Hospital and scientists from the University of Texas in Galveston showed that more than 10% of the people in their study lost antibody protection within a month, according to the Post.

“The idea of an immune certificate for recovered COVID-19 patients is invalid,” Wang wrote.

The study backs up statements made by the World Health Organization emphasizing that the belief a one-time infection of the coronavirus can lead to immunity remains unproven, according to NPR.

“There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” WHO said in a scientific brief in April.

-NewsmaxHealth

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/no-antibodies-immunity-against-covid-19-new-study-reveals/

With the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging sub-Saharan Africa’s economies, countries could face a financial crisis, dashing hopes of survival of businesses and pushing many households into poverty.

Global economists and financial experts are calling for state intervention to rescue banks from liquidity challenges after restructuring loans worth billions of dollars and extending moratoria on repayments to help cushion borrowers facing financial difficulties.

“It is absolutely about strengthening financial institutions. Governments should not do anything or implement policy measures that might take away the capacity of financial institutions to play their part in economic recovery,” said Razia Khan, Standard Chartered Bank’s chief economist in-charge of African operations.

“Policy makers have to make a very important balancing role between immediate needs of the economic crisis and how to restore confidence and build a well-capitalised banking industry that is better able to support growth in the future,” he added.

Economic recovery was the focus of a recent virtual forum hosted by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Discussions revolved around post-Covid-19 trade-offs between financial stability and economic renewal for African countries, and what specific financial sector development policies and regulations could restore stability.

In the UK, the government channelled £330billion ($421 billion) into the banking system as a business support package under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

“The current economic shocks may turn into financial shocks because there is a limit to the amount of credit and liquidity that low income countries can generate in their own economies, and this has been compounded by the inability of these countries to meet their own foreign exchange needs and outflows of capital arising from the deteriorating economic conditions,” said Adeyemi Dipeolu, the special advisor on economic matters to the President of Nigeria.

“This Covid-19 pandemic has led to financial shocks. The longer the economic conditions remain tight the more likely we are going to have financial shocks.”

The banking system is now grappling with more loan defaults and restructuring, and delays in repayment, which could erode interest income — the lenders’ key source of revenue.

According to Dr Dipeolu, African governments are now confronted with the challenge of finding appropriate policies that will kick start economic growth without jeopardising the stability of the financial sector after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The trajectory of Covid-19 in low income countries is complex and this will compound the efforts to revive such economies,” he said.

He added that post-Covid-19 recovery in developed countries may be slow and is likely to result in huge financing gaps, large debt service obligations, foreign exchange shortages and heightened credit risk in the banking industry.

The World Bank has forecast a decline in growth in the region from 2.4 per cent in 2019, to between -2.1 per cent and -5.1 per cent this year, estimating that African economies could lose between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses.

According to ODI, economies will struggle to achieve financial stability and recover as concerns mount on issues around debt sustainability.

The crisis will also impact African countries’ financial sector development (FSD), which may also have implications for how policies and regulations are formulated and implemented in a post-Covid world.

“We are looking at severe economic impact from Covid-19. We have got a crisis that we are dealing with,” said Jonathan Rosenthal, Africa editor of The Economist Magazine.

Judith Tyson, a research fellow at ODI, called for the strengthening of both national and regional development banks to help in the recovery of economies destroyed by the pandemic.

“We need to put greater emphasis on the strengthening and expansion of development banks to accelerate lending to the productive sectors of the economies post Covid-19,” she said.

NO DIVIDENDS

The International Monetary Fund has cautioned banks against paying dividends to shareholders this year, saying that lenders need to preserve cash to boost resilience of the banking industry against Covid-19 related shocks.

The fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva said banks should take measures to shore up their capital and liquidity positions to support fresh credit as the global economy braces for a deep recession this year, with only partial recovery expected in 2021.

“One of the steps needed to reinforce bank buffers is retaining earnings from ongoing operations. The interests of bank shareholders are aligned with those of bank supervisors and customers. All stakeholders will ultimately benefit if banks preserve capital instead of paying out to shareholders during the pandemic,” Ms Georgieva said

“Protecting the banking sector’s strength now means that, once the recovery picks up, shareholders can expect large payouts — indeed the more profits retained now, the larger the eventual payout,” she added.

– theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/banking-crisis-imminent-in-africa-over-covid-19/