The Deputy Governor of Kebbi State, Umar Tafida, has debunked reports that villages in the state are under bandits’ control. Tafida, who stated this on Tuesday, labeled the claims as mere imagination from news sources, emphasising that the state government has fortified security across communities to prevent any security breaches. While interacting with newsmen in […]

No community under bandits’ control in Kebbi – Deputy Gov, Tafida

Beijing — China has published baselines for a contested shoal in the South China Sea it seized from the Philippines, a move that's likely to increase tensions over overlapping territorial claims. The Foreign Ministry on Sunday posted online geographic coordinates for the baselines around Scarborough Shoal. A nation's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone are typically defined as the distance from the baselines. Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. China seized the shoal, which lies west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, in 2012 and has since restricted access to Filipino fishermen there. A 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court found that most Chinese claims in the South China Sea were invalid but Beijing refuses to abide by it. Ships from China and the Philippines have collided several times as part of increased confrontations, and the Chinese coast guard has blasted Philippine vessels with water cannons. China's move came two days after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed two laws demarcating the government's claims in the disputed waters. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said that the delimiting of the baselines was in accordance with a U.N. agreement and Chinese law. "This is a natural step by the Chinese government to lawfully strengthen marine management and is consistent with international law and common practices," it said. The statement added that one of the laws signed by Marcos, the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, violates China's sovereignty in the South China Sea. "China firmly opposes it and will continue to do everything necessary in accordance with law to firmly defend its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," the Foreign Ministry said. China stakes claim to almost the entirety of the South China Sea. It has a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and Vietnam over territory in the waters, which are part of a key shipping route in Asia.

Dakar, Senagal — The CEO and two executives of Australian gold mine Resolute in Mali have been arrested while in Bamako to discuss ongoing disputes with authorities, the company confirmed Sunday. CEO Terence Holohan and his two colleagues "were in Bamako to discuss with mining and tax authorities the company's business practices in Mali generally and to make progress on ongoing claims against Resolute, which continues to claim they are unfounded," Resolute said in a statement posted on its website. "Unexpectedly, the three employees were arrested after the end of these meetings on Friday," she reported. The three executives were taken the same day to the unit specializing in the fight against corruption and economic and financial delinquency — and were placed in police custody in a case of alleged forgery and damage to public property, AFP learned Saturday from a judicial and industrial source. Four employees of the Canadian company Barrick Gold, also in dispute with the Malian authorities, were detained for several days at the end of September, then released. Foreign mining companies are subject to increased pressure from the junta that came to power by force in 2020 and pays particular attention to the juicy revenues of the mining industry. "Resolute is working to reach an agreement with the Malian government that secures the long-term future of the Syama gold mine; at the same time its top priority remains the safety and well-being of its employees," the company said. The executives benefit from the support of the embassies and consulates of the United Kingdom and other countries present in Mali, she said. Resolute holds 80% of the shares in the subsidiary that owns the Syama mine, with the remaining 20% in the hands of the Malian state, according to the company's website. The Malian authorities have made the fight against corruption and the restoration of national sovereignty over natural resources their mantras. Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, faces jihadis and a multidimensional crisis, and is also one of the leading gold producers in Africa. Gold contributes to a quarter of the national budget and three quarters of export revenues. The increased pressure on foreign companies coincided with the junta's strategic pivot toward Russia.

HONG KONG — Merchants and consumers alike found the Singles' Day shopping festival Monday less shiny than in years past as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth. The annual event named by the numeric form of its Nov. 11 date was started by e-commerce platform Alibaba, which offered attractive discounts to entice shoppers to spend big. The extravaganza has since expanded to other platforms like JD.com and Pinduoduo in China as well as abroad. While Singles’ Day was previously a one-day event, shopping platforms in China now kickstart the festival weeks ahead to drum up sales volume. The festival has also traditionally been regarded as a barometer of consumer sentiment. But amid China’s lagging domestic economy, dragged down by a real estate crisis and deflationary pressures, consumers no longer go all out on purchases during the shopping extravaganza. “I only spent a few hundred yuan on daily necessities,” said Wang Haihua, who owns a fitness center in Beijing. Wang said that the prices offered on e-commerce platforms during Singles’ Day are not necessarily cheaper than usual. “They’re all tricks and we’ve seen through it over the years,” she said. Zhang Jiewei, a 34-year-old who runs a barber shop in Xi’an city, echoed Wang’s sentiments, saying that he no longer trust Singles’ Day promotions as some merchants tend to raise the usual price of a product before offering a discount, giving consumers the illusion they are getting a deal. “I used to buy a lot two or three years ago and I even purchased a mobile phone (during Singles’ Day),” he said. “I stopped doing that following the pandemic because of less income. I am not going to buy anything this year,” Zhang added. Some experts say that Beijing’s recent stimulus measures have had little impact to boost consumer confidence. “People are not interested in spending and are cutting back on big-ticket items,” said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai. “Since October 2022, the weak economy means that everything has been on discount year-round, 11.11 is not going to bring in more discounts that the month before.” Rein said he expects low growth for the Singles’ Day shopping festival as consumers tighten their spending in anticipation of difficult economic times ahead. Categories such as sportswear and fitness, however, have been doing well as customers “trade down a Gucci bag for Lululemon sportswear,” he said. Platforms like JD.com and Alibaba, which operates e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, previously used to publish the value of transactions made during the festival, but have since stopped revealing the total figure. While yearly growth used to be in the double digits, estimates of recent figures have dwindled to low single-digit growth. Syntun, a data provider, estimated that last year’s gross merchandising volume sales across major e-commerce platforms grew just 2% to $156.40 billion, a far cry from double-digit growth before COVID-19. Merchants who typically take part in the Singles’ Day shopping festivals say the costs of participation no longer pay off, amid high advertising fees and unsatisfactory sales. Zhao Gao, who owns a garment factory in eastern Zhejiang province, said that after paying advertising costs to e-commerce platforms he would only break even after sales. “The platforms have so many rules for promotions and customers have become more skeptical,” he said. “As a merchant, I no longer participate in the Singles’ Day promotions.” Another merchant, Du Baonian who runs a food company processing mutton in Inner Mongolia, said that overall sales in the past year have fallen 15% as consumers downgraded and reduced consumption. Du said that while he still takes part in the Singles’ Day promotions, the higher expenses do not typically generate returns because of sluggish sales. “We are seeing shrinking revenue, but advertisement on the platform can help us to maintain our leading sales position,” he said, adding that he was considering advertising on more e-commerce platforms to target more consumers. Meanwhile, e-commerce platforms grappling with a slowing domestic market have also turned to overseas markets to seek new growth, offering promotions like global free shipping and allowing merchants to sell globally with ease. Alibaba, for example, said in a blog post on its Alizila site that some 70,000 merchants saw sales double with global free shipping. In markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, new customers also doubled, Alibaba said.

Somaliland, the self-declared state in the Horn of Africa, is set to hold its fourth presidential…

The post Somaliland Heads to Polls Amid Hope and Concerns appeared first on Horseed Media.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has left little question about the sort of economic policies he will pursue when he is sworn in for a second term as president in January. The once-and-future president has promised to extend existing tax cuts and implement new ones; to pursue a deregulation agenda, particularly when it comes to energy production; to reinstate a strong protectionist trade policy, including substantial tariffs on imports; and to undertake a "mass deportation" program that would remove a large number of the millions of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. While there may be little doubt about the kind of policies Trump will implement, the degree to which he will pursue them is an open question. "The problem that all economists are dealing with is they don't know how much of what Trump said on the campaign trail to take seriously," Steven B. Kamin, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told VOA. "They don't know if he's going to do a lot of these things, or if he is, how far he'll take it." When it comes to tariffs, Trump has promised across-the-board 10%-20% levies on all imports, and charges of up to 60% on goods coming from China, which experts warn would be economically ruinous. His rhetoric about fossil fuel extraction suggests he will drive up oil and gas production, even though the U.S. is currently producing more energy than it ever has. On immigration, he and his advisers have vacillated between suggesting that all undocumented people will be forcibly removed and describing a much more targeted operation. Tax policy One thing that appears certain is that Trump will work with Congress — which seems likely to be fully controlled by the Republican Party — to extend the tax cuts that became law as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he signed into law in 2017. Those tax cuts reduced the income taxes paid by many American workers and reduced taxable income by increasing the standard deduction. They also sharply cut the top business income tax bracket from 39% to 21%. Those provisions are all scheduled to expire over the next several years, some as soon as 2025, and Trump has proposed making them permanent. Trump has also floated the idea of other tax cuts, including further reducing the business income tax to a maximum of 15%, and making income from overtime wages, tips and Social Security payments nontaxable, all of which would reduce government revenues. Kamin said the stimulative impact of Trump's proposed additional tax changes would likely not be great, but the impact on the country's debt might be, because they will virtually guarantee additional government borrowing to finance deficit spending. "The real concern for folks that are concerned about the fiscal balance — and I'm one of them — is that by cementing in place large fiscal deficits as far as the eye can see, even in environments of strong economic activity when we should be running surpluses, that leads to increases in the debt," he said. "That, eventually, should lead to crowding out of private investment, rising interest rates, and more worries about the government's sustainability position," Kamin added. "But when the debt will reach a level that will be worrisome in that respect, nobody knows." Cost-cutting In theory, some of the deficit spending made necessary by large tax cuts could be offset by a reduction in government spending, something Trump has also floated on the campaign trail. In particular, the president-elect has proposed creating a Department of Government Efficiency, to be headed by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of the electric car company Tesla and the rocket builder SpaceX, and the owner of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. For his part, Musk has mused that it should be possible to slash federal spending by as much as $2 trillion per year, or about 30%. Reductions of that magnitude would require deep cuts to a vast array of programs, including elements of the social safety net such as Social Security and federal health programs like Medicaid. However, it is unclear how Trump would persuade even a Republican Congress to enact such a wide-ranging reduction in government services. Immigration policy If Trump follows through on a policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, it is virtually certain to have a negative impact on economic sectors where they are present as laborers in significant concentrations, especially agriculture and construction, said Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "If you take lots of people out of the labor force, you reduce the amount of output, because there's less labor available, and you raise prices," Noland told VOA. "These people are not distributed evenly across the United States economy," he said. "They're concentrated in agriculture and construction, so you would disrupt those sectors the most, especially if you combine it with tariffs." Trade policy Trump's tariff proposals, especially if he follows through with his maximalist proposals from the campaign trail, could be significantly damaging. While theoretically meant to stimulate American manufacturing, Noland warned that they could have the opposite effect. "Some modeling that I worked on suggest that those tariff policies, instead of reviving the industrial sector, will actually reduce industrial activity in the United States," he warned. Blanket tariffs on imports, and especially high levies on Chinese goods, would create severe challenges for U.S. manufacturers. "The reason is that you would increase the price of industrial inputs, and so, the United States would become a high-cost place to produce," he said. "Investment would fall — and investment is intensive in industrial materials — so, ironically, it has the opposite effect of what its proponents say."

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday hosted Israel's president while President-elect Donald Trump has separately held multiple phone calls recently with Israel's head of government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These parallel talks have focused on the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and hopes for the release of hostages held by Hamas. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.

The U.S. Senate's Democratic majority began a crusade on Tuesday to confirm as many new federal judges nominated by President Joe Biden as possible to avoid leaving vacancies that Republican Donald Trump could fill after taking office on Jan. 20. With Republicans set to take control of the chamber on Jan. 3, the Senate on Tuesday held a confirmation vote on one of Biden's judicial nominees - former prosecutor April Perry - for the first time since Trump won the Nov. 5 presidential election. The Senate voted 51-44 in favor of her becoming a U.S. district court judge in Illinois. All told, Biden has announced another 30 judicial nominees who are awaiting Senate confirmation votes. Sixteen have already have been reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and are awaiting a final confirmation vote by the full Senate. Another 14 nominees are awaiting committee review. The U.S. Constitution assigns to the Senate the power to confirm a president's nominees for life-tenured seats on the federal judiciary. "We are going to get as many done as we can," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. Trump made 234 judicial appointments during his first four years in office, the second most of any president in a single term, and succeeded in moving the judiciary rightward - including building a 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court with three appointees. Biden has appointed a host of liberal judges. Since the beginning of his presidency in 2021, the Senate has confirmed 214 Biden judicial nominees, including liberal Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. About two-thirds were women, and the same share were racial minorities. Senate Democrats are under pressure to swiftly confirm the remaining nominees, along with any new picks Biden may name in the waning weeks of his presidency. How many nominees Senate Democrats will be able to confirm remains to be seen. Trump in a social media post on Sunday called on the Senate to halt approving Biden's nominees, saying, "Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges." Billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk on Tuesday wrote on social media that "activist" judicial nominees are "bad for the country." Mike Davis, a Trump ally at the conservative judicial advocacy group Article III Project, in another post urged Senate Republicans to vote down all judicial appointments until January. "The American people voted for monumental change," Davis wrote on social media last week. "Grind the Senate to a halt." Current Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's office declined comment. McConnell has consistently opposed Biden's nominees and, as majority leader, was instrumental in getting Trump's previous nominees confirmed. Trump's judicial appointees have been involved in major decisions welcomed by conservatives including Supreme Court rulings rolling back abortion rights, widening gun rights, rejecting race-conscious collegiate admissions and limiting the power of federal regulatory agencies. Judicial nominees require a simple majority for confirmation. Democrats currently hold a slim 51-49 majority, meaning that they can ill afford any defections or absences if Republicans show up in force to oppose Biden's nominees during the chamber's post-election "lame duck" session. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has said he would not vote for any nominee who does not garner at least one Republican vote. Must-pass legislation like a spending bill to avert a government shutdown also may consume precious time during the session. 'Every possible nominee' Biden's allies have said a concerted push to confirm his remaining nominees would allow him to build on his legacy of helping to diversify a federal bench long dominated by white men. He is not done nominating judges. On Friday, Biden announced his first post-election nominee, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who after unsuccessfully running in the 2021 Democratic primary to be Manhattan district attorney was picked for a job as a federal district judge in New York. A spokesperson for Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chair of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that he "aims to confirm every possible nominee before the end of this Congress." White House spokesperson Andrew Bates on Monday noted that during Trump's first term, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed 18 judges after Biden had won the 2020 election but before he took office. Pending nominees include five to the influential federal appeals courts. Republicans said before the election that they had the votes to block two of them: Adeel Mangi, who would become the first Muslim federal appellate judge, and North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park, who unsuccessfully defended the race-conscious admissions policies before the Supreme Court. There are several others nominated to serve as trial court judges like Perry, a former prosecutor now working at Chicago-headquartered GE HealthCare who would join the bench in Illinois. Biden nominated her to a judgeship in April after her prior nomination to become Chicago's top federal prosecutor was blocked by Republican Senator JD Vance. Vance began placing a hold on Biden's nominees to the U.S. Justice Department in 2023 after Special Counsel Jack Smith secured the first of two federal indictments against Trump, who subsequently picked the senator as his vice presidential running mate.

A number of Super Eagles players, including Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Amas Obasogie, Raphael Onyedika and Frank Onyeka, have arrived Ivory Coast on Monday ahead of preparation for their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Benin Republic. Also in camp in Abidjan are Bruno Onyemaechi, Gabriel Osho and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. The Super Eagles Media […]

The post AFCON qualifier: Super Eagles stars arrive Abidjan ahead of Benin clash  first appeared on Business Hallmark.

On June 25, 2018 I woke up to yet another social media trend – a news story with the bold and quite salacious headline “How Safe Are Customer Deposits At FCMB?” had taken over the digital airwaves. Between the shares and likes and comments, a storm in a cup had brewed to great proportions in […]

The Worrisome Trend of Sensational Social Media “Journalism” and the Impact On Legitimate Business Concerns: Recent Travails of FCMB, GTBank and First Bank

AMSTERDAM — The International Criminal Court's governing body will launch an external probe into its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over alleged sexual misconduct, it said in a statement on Monday, confirming a previous report by Reuters. "An external investigation is ... being pursued in order to ensure a fully independent, impartial and fair process," the statement said, also calling upon all parties to cooperate fully. Khan said in a statement that he would stay on in his key function of overseeing investigations into alleged war crimes, including in the Israel-Gaza conflict, while any issues relevant to the investigation would be handled by deputy prosecutors. Khan has previously denied allegations of misconduct that were reported to the court's governing body last month. At that time, he asked the court's own internal oversight body to investigate them. ICC judges are reviewing Khan's May request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, his defense chief and Hamas leaders. Khan said the misconduct allegations aligned with a misinformation campaign against his office. The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression in member states or by their nationals.

MOSCOW — The key task for Russia and China is to counter any attempt by the United States to contain their countries, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin told China's foreign minister on Tuesday. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on China and other countries, raising fears of a trade war and the United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat. China's Xi Jinping and Putin in May pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing that the strong relations between Moscow and Beijing were a stabilizing influence on the world. "I see the most important task as countering the policy of 'dual containment' of Russia and China pursued by the United States and its satellites," Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies. Xi and Putin believe the post-Cold War era of extraordinary U.S. dominance is crumbling after the perceived humiliations of the 1991 Soviet collapse and centuries of European colonial dominance of China.

The Apex Committee of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) met to evaluate advancements in fostering investments in Pakistan. Chaired by the caretaker prime minister, discussions encompassed strategies such as the privatization of financially struggling government institutions. In a separate interaction, the Army Chief reiterated the armed forces’ dedication to supporting the nation’s economic stability. ... Read more

The post Special Investment Facilitation Council Reviews Progress and Strategies for Economic Stability in Pakistan appeared first on Pakistan Tribune.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Fazlur Rehman asserted on Saturday that a conspiracy was hatched to create unrest in the country. In Peshawar, Rehman stated, “The efforts were made to harm the country. But the JUI-F had fought the battle to save the country. We had dismantled the enemies by fighting for the sake of ... Read more

The post JUI-F Chief Fazlur Rehman Alleges Conspiracy to Unsettle Country, appeared first on Pakistan Tribune.

Amidst the celebrations following Australia’s triumphant win against India in the Cricket World Cup, a viral picture of Australian batsman Mitchell Marsh has stirred controversy on social media. The World Cup victory, marking Australia’s sixth title in cricket history, took place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, igniting fervent celebrations among the Kangaroos. Post-match ... Read more

The post Controversy Erupts as Mitchell Marsh’s Posture with World Cup Trophy Sparks Outcry appeared first on Pakistan Tribune.

TORONTO, canada — A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children's hospital, sick with Canada's first presumptive human case of avian influenza. "This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions," said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday. "It just reminds us that in young people this is a virus that can progress and cause quite severe illness, and the deterioration that I mentioned was quite rapid." British Columbia health officials said on Saturday the province had detected Canada's first human case of H5 bird flu in a teenager. Henry said the province is still identifying the exact strain but assumes the case is H5N1. The World Health Organization says H5N1's risk to humans is low because there is no evidence of human transmission, but the virus has been found in an increasing number of animals, including cattle in the United States. Henry would not disclose the teen's gender or age but said the patient had first developed symptoms on November 2 and was tested on November 8, when admitted to a hospital. Symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever and coughing. As of Tuesday, the teen was hospitalized with acute respiratory distress syndrome, she said. The teen had no farm exposure but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, Henry said. No infection source had been identified. "That is absolutely an ongoing investigation." More severe illness takes place when the virus binds to receptors deep in the lungs, she said. Public health officials had identified and tested about three dozen contacts and had not found anyone infected with the virus. There has been no evidence that the disease is easily spread between people. But if that were to happen, a pandemic could unfold, scientists have said. Earlier in November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked that farm workers exposed to animals with bird flu be tested for the virus even if they did not have symptoms. Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 U.S. states since March, and the CDC has identified 46 human cases of bird flu since April. In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 26 affected premises across the province, Henry said Tuesday, and numerous wild birds have tested positive. Canada has had no cases reported in dairy cattle and no evidence of bird flu in samples of milk.

North Korea confirmed that it has blown up sections of roads and railways leading to South Korea, calling it a "hostile state," North Korean state media reported Wednesday.

Congressional Staff Program on Korea Application

Professional Fellows Program for Young Economic Empowerment Leaders

Congressional Program on US-Japan Relations and the Indo-Pacific Application

Next-Generation Vision Consortium on ROK-US and the Indo-Pacific Application

North Pacific Arctic Conference (NPAC) Fellowship

Congressional Staff Program on Australia (CSPAUS) Application