Covid-19: Angola reports 40 recoveries and 25 new cases

 Luanda - The health authorities announced this Friday the recovery of 40 patients, 25 new cases and 1 death, in the last 24 hours.

According to the daily bulletin, of the recovered patients, aged between 15 and 62 years old, 30 live in Luanda and 10 in Cabinda.

The new cases, it said, were diagnosed in Cabinda, 8 in Luanda, 4 in Cunene and 1 in Huambo.

The list is made up of 17 male and 8 female patients, aged between 3 and 65.

In the last 24 hours, 1,644 samples were processed by RT-PCR, with a positivity rate of 1.1 percent.

The death was registered in Luanda province.

Angola has a total of 65,371 confirmed cases, of which 217 are active, 1,737 have died and 63,417 have been recovered.

Of the active cases, 4 are severe, 12 moderate, 28 mild and 173 asymptomatic.

In the inpatient centres are 44 citizens, while 6 are serving institutional quarantine and 81 are under medical surveillance.

João Lourenço urges commitment to election victory

 Luanda - The re-elected president of MPLA, João Lourenço, urged this Friday in Luanda, the party's leaders and militants to commit themselves to victory in the 2022 general elections.

Speaking after being reconfirmed in office, Joao Lourenço said it was time to start working towards victory in next year's general elections.

On the occasion, the MPLA leader said he expected every party militant to do their part and promised to visit the country's provinces.

"With everyone's commitment, we can say with some certainty that the August 2022 party is already won," he declared.

He considered the VIII Congress of the party historic, for having achieved gender parity and greater youth representativeness.

He thanked for his re-election, expressing his protection for the strength of women and the vigour of young people.

Joao Lourenço was re-elected with 98.4 percent of the 2,655 votes cast.

Under the slogan "MPLA for a democratic and inclusive Angola," the conclave ends Saturday with a mass activity at the 11 de Novembro Stadium in Luanda.

Budget: Stormont budget proposes health funding boost

 The Stormont draft budget is proposing a 10% increase in health funding, but a squeeze on all other departments.

The majority of the Executive voted to put the three-year budget plan out to public consultation from next week.

But DUP ministers voted against the move.

Ministers had previously agreed to prioritise health and use the majority of funding to deal with the crisis including waiting lists.

But BBC News NI understands some are unhappy about the cuts being proposed to their respective budgets.

First Minister Paul Givan said he supported increased funding for health, however, he accused the budget paper of lacking a detailed plan for how the service will be transformed.

“We want to see that transformation plan, because with that additional funding the people of Northern Ireland need to see real changes as to the experiences that they have in the health service,” he said.

‘Choices to be made’

A meeting of the executive on Friday morning was requested by Finance Minister Conor Murphy to sign off the draft budget before public consultation.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Murphy explained: “We don’t have the resources that we need for everything, so that means there are choices to be made.”

“The proposition going out is to prioritise health, to support health, to get waiting lists down, to support mental health provision and cancer provision,” he added.

IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA

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Conor Murphy said the executive did not have the resources to meet all its priorities

Details of the plan will be outlined in the assembly next week.

A multi-year UK spending review announced earlier this year allowed the executive to produce its own multi-year spending plan.

‘Walk the walk’

Mr Murphy said there was “an opportunity over three years” to fulfil commitments made to transform healthcare.

“If we’re going to walk the walk, having talked the talk in relation to supporting health over the last number of years, and all executive parties have repeatedly said health is a priority, this is the opportunity to match that with some resource and funding,” he continued.

The finance minister explained “there is no money tree here available” if ministers, MLAs or the public wish to change the draft budget.

“If people want to change that then they need to say where they’re finding the money to do that from,” Mr Murphy said.

“If that’s coming back off health then they need to be upfront in saying that.”

IMAGE SOURCE,PACEMAKER

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Naomi Long says while health is a priority, all departments have a responsibility to drive up health outcomes for the public

Justice Minister Naomi Long is among ministers who have expressed concerns about the current draft budget.

While she has agreed that the draft budget should go out to public consultation, she is not yet prepared to agree to its content.

“There’s no point us presenting it to the public as a fait accompli,” she said.

“What we have agreed however, and I think what the public would expect us to agree, is that health is our priority going forward.

“However for me that is about health outcomes, and I think all departments have a real responsibility in terms of their own job, to drive up health outcomes and to deliver better for people.”

Mrs Long is understood to believe allocations for her department are “not adequate to maintain an efficient, effective and functional justice system”.

‘Public services under immense strain’

The first minister said the DUP also had reservations about the draft budget’s impact on the number of police officers.

“Ultimately we will seek to address the deficiencies that exist within this budget before there is a final agreement ultimately in March,” Mr Givan outlined.

The SDLP’s finance spokesperson, Matthew O’Toole said his party supported the focus on health and for the draft budget to go out for public consultation, however, there were “serious concerns” about cuts elsewhere.

“That is a political choice that Conor Murphy has made, but clearly did not command the support of any ministers outside of his own party at the executive today,” he said.

“Public services have been placed under immense strain over the course of the last 20 months. This is not the time to cut back further.”

Mr O’Toole said the consultation would be “an opportunity for people to have their say on those priorities”.

Ulster Unionist finance spokesperson Steve Aiken welcomed the public consultation, but warned that “serious budgetary choices are needed before any final decision is agreed next year”.

Mr Aiken said the draft budget “has come far too late and left only minimal time or opportunity for genuine engagement”.

“I have seen the real damage caused by single year budgets. To improve public services some degree of certainty needs to be in place not only for a year, but for the years that follow,” he said.

The opening position of the health budget was £6.45bn this year and will rise to just over £7.1bn by 2024/25.

The increase is partially funded by a 2% cut in the baseline of all other departments budgets.

That means that although those departments will still see their budgets rise in cash terms, some will probably experience a real cut when inflation is considered.

The Finance Minister Conor Murphy acknowledged that would present “significant challenges” for some departments but that the executive had agreed health would be its top priority.

Other measures in the budget include an extension of the business rates “holiday”.

Rates are property taxes, but some sectors have been exempt for the past two years as a pandemic support measure.

Those exemptions were due to end in April but most business will get a further one-month exemption with those in sectors like retail, hospitality and childcare getting three months.

Large food shops and utilities will not get an exemption.

The domestic and non-domestic regional rate will also be frozen over the budget period.

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Odinga hopes it will be fifth-time lucky in Kenya

 Veteran Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has ended months of speculation and announced that he will run for president in next August's elections.

The 76-year-old is a popular politician despite having lost presidential races on four previous occasions – 1997, 2007, 2013 and 2017.

The most recent poll saw him run against President Uhuru Kenyatta. But the two men have since moved closer following their famous 2018 “handshake” increased at ending divisions which have proved so deadly.

“I do hereby accept to present myself as a presidential candidate for the presidential elections of the 9th of August 2022,” the AFP news agency quotes him as telling cheering supporters at a Nairobi stadium.

Mr Odinga's main rival for the top job is likely to be the current Deputy President, William Ruto. The current president will be constitutionally barred from running as he will have served two terms.

Mr Ruto has presented himself as being on the side of the “hustlers” against the “dynasties”.

Hustlers refer to those – especially young people – who struggle to make ends meet in an economy that is said to be no longer working for them.

The word dynasties, on the other hand, is a moniker to describe wealthy families, like the Kenyattas and Odingas, who are seen to have dominated politics – and the economy – since independence from the UK in 1963.

Read more:

Kenya’s Deputy President Ruto campaigns for ‘Hustler Nation

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Benin opposition leader in court on terror charges

 The Opposition Leader in Benin, Reckya Madougou, has appeared at the country's Economic Crime and Terrorism Court on charges of financing terrorism.

The former justice minister has been detained for more than eight months.

She is the leader of Benin's largest opposition party - the Democrats - and had hoped to be the first female presidential candidate to come from the major party.

But her candidacy of her was rejected for the presidential election held in April this year.

Ms Madougou has been a lawsuit of trying to disrupt the ballot and destabilizing the country.

She faces a 20-year sentence if found guilty.

Her lawyers and her supporters say the trial is entirely political.

Government officials dismiss claims of political interference and say Benin's judiciary is independent.

Another opposition figure, Joël Aïvo, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday.

The court is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday evening or early Saturday morning.

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US Supreme Court says Texas abortion clinics can sue over law

The US Supreme Court has ruled that abortion providers can sue to challenge a controversial Texas abortion law.

The law, known as SB8, gives people the right to sue doctors who perform an abortion past six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant.

In its ruling, however, the court said that the law can remain in effect, leaving it in place.

Doctors, women’s rights groups and the Biden administration have heavily criticised the law.

The divisive law – which came into effect on 1 September – bans abortion after what some refer to as a foetal heartbeat. The law makes an exception for cases of medical emergency, but not for rape or incest.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says that at six weeks a foetus has not yet developed a heartbeat, but rather an “electronically induced” flickering of tissues that will become the heart.

The Texas law is enforced by given individuals – from Texas or elsewhere – the right to sue doctors who perform an abortion past the six-week mark.

At issue at the Supreme Court was whether two groups – Texas abortion providers and the federal government – can sue to block the law.

Friday’s ruling means that lawsuits from the providers can proceed. With the decision, the ruling will head back to the district court.

Once back in the district court, the providers will now be able to file for a stay of enforcement and ultimately challenge the law’s constitutionality.

In the meantime, the law will stay in place. The ban has led to a steep drop in abortions, experts say.

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Mexico truck crash: At least 54 people killed as trailer overturns

 At least 54 people have been killed and scores more injured after the truck they were being transported in crashed in southern Mexico, authorities say.

More than 150 people, said to be migrants from Central America, were crammed into the truck’s trailer when it rolled in the state of Chiapas.

One resident heard a man implore his badly hurt companion: “Remember what you promised your mother! Hold on.”

Pictures show victims strewn across the road next to the overturned truck.

Sabina Lopez, who lives nearby and ran to the scene after the crash, told the AFP news agency that she saw dozens of people screaming in pain, some trapped in the wreckage and others unconscious.

“It was horrible to hear the wailing. I just thought about helping,” Ms Lopez, 18, told AFP.

She said the impact of the crash had broken the container in half and ripped off its roof.

Isaias Diaz arrived 15 minutes after the crash and helped paramedics with those people showing signs of life.

“I saw five, six children who were clearly injured. People with broken legs, ribs, [injured] heads, cuts on their necks,” he told AFP.

“The crying, the pain, the despair. It was a terrible scene,” he added.

Residents offered crash survivors water and mobile phones to contact relatives. They also said the driver and a person with him appeared injured, but then fled.

• Mexico country profile

It is one of the worst accidents of its kind in Mexico. Forty-nine people were confirmed dead at the scene and five more died in hospital, Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón said.

Some 105 people – 83 men and 22 women – were also injured in the crash, he said.

Emergency officials said the victims included men, women and children. Most of the people on board were from Guatemala, but there were others from Honduras, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

The truck was reportedly speeding when it flipped on a sharp bend and hit a pedestrian bridge on a main road leading to the Chiapas state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, at about 15:30 local time on Thursday.

Chiapas, which neighbours Guatemala, is a major transit point for undocumented migrants.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America try to cross through Mexico each year in a bid to reach the US.

Many of them pay smugglers, who illegally transport them in crowded and dangerous trucks on the long journey.

Human rights groups recently criticised the Biden administration for reinstating a Trump-era border policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while claims are processed. The policy has meant that thousands of migrants have been forced to stay in dangerous towns.

The US-Mexico border is the deadliest single crossing in the world according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This year alone, at least 650 people have died trying to cross the border – more than in any other year since IOM’s records began.

There are also many deaths on the perilous journey towards the border, however these are harder to accurately document, the IOM said in a statement.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described the crash as “very painful” and wrote on Twitter that he “deeply regrets the tragedy”.

In a news conference early on Friday, Mr López Obrador said the incident would be investigated and that it served to raise awareness of the need to address the causes of migration through Mexico.

Last month, a migrant caravan heading through Chiapas found that the local authorities had clamped down so hard on people providing lifts to migrants, they effectively had to undertake the entire journey on foot.

That meant carrying their children in their arms in the blistering heat and torrential downpours of southern Mexico’s rural states.

It’s a tactic employed by the government to try to break the migrants’ will, to see if any will give up and turn back or accept asylum conditions in Mexico.

Throughout it all, trucks have continued to transport thousands of migrants right under the noses – or with the complicity – of the state authorities.

Their trailers filled with scores of families standing in cramped and unsafe conditions for hours, it’s a wonder such incidents aren’t more frequent.

Often the biggest danger to the migrants is from suffocation as the people-smugglers fail to provide sufficient ventilation or hydration for the trip.

Yet most of those in this horrific crash came from Central America and will have been escaping economic ruin, the effects of severe weather from climate change on their livelihoods or gang violence. Or some combination of all of these factors.

With that in mind, many thousands more will continue to consider the dangers of the road to be a risk worth taking to flee the unbearable conditions at home.

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