2030 World Cup: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay Bid To Be Joint Hosts

 Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay have submitted a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

Uruguay hosted the competition’s first ever tournament in 1930 and say they want to bring the World Cup “home” when it celebrates its centenary.

“This is the dream of a continent,” said Alejandro Dominguez, president of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol).

Spain and Portugal have also announced a bid to be joint hosts.

Uruguay beat Argentina in the final to win the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and Dominguez was speaking at the scene of that win – Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium.

“There will be more World Cups, but the cup only turns 100 one time, and it needs to come home,” added Dominguez.

Chile hosted the World Cup in 1962, while the tournament was held in Argentina in 1978.

“It’s right for the World Cup to be hosted where it all began, 100 years later,” said Ignacio Alonso, president of the Uruguayan Football Association.

The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar while Canada, Mexico and the USA will be joint hosts in 2026.

Fifa plans to select the 2030 host in 2024.

The UK and Republic of Ireland football associations agreed in February not to bid for the 2030 World Cup and instead focus on a joint attempt to host Euro 2028.

Source: BBC

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Kenya Plans Nationwide Electric-Car Charging Stations

 Kenya’s power utility firm Kenya Power has launched plans to build infrastructure that will enable the charging of electric vehicles countrywide.

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A six-month trial phase is expected to start in September in the capital, Nairobi, before going to other major towns across the country in two years’ time.

The adoption of electric vehicles in Kenya has been low, partly because of a lack of adequate charging stations for individuals and businesses.

Only 350 out of an estimated 2.2 million registered vehicles in the country are electric, according to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra).

The government hopes to increase the share of electric cars to reach 5% of all vehicle imports by 2025.

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Impoverished Zimbabweans Turn To Scrap Metal Trade As Inflation Bites

 Shepherd Chowe pushes a cart filled with tins, iron rods and other metallic objects down a dusty pathway in Hopley, a poor settlement about 15 km west of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

It is 11 a.m. and Chowe, 46, has arrived at a scrap yard where dozens of metal scavengers await to sell their wares. For two sacks, Chowe gets paid $6.

“I start moving around the township at 8 a.m. … asking people for scrap metal or anything metallic they are not using anymore,” Chowe said, adding that on a good day he takes home $40.

Chowe is among Zimbabweans selling scrap metal for survival as the cost of living soars, piling pressure on a population already facing food shortages and high unemployment, stirring memories of economic chaos years ago under veteran leader Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade rule.

Annual inflation, which hit 256.9% in July, has cast a shadow over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid to revitalise the economy.

By selling scrap metal, Chowe can afford to pay rent, buy food and pay school fees for his two daughters.

“Scrap metal has given us hope,” Chowe said.

Zimbabwe’s steel industry has been struggling since the collapsed of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Ziscosteel) more than a decade ago.

However, in recent years, small steel producers working with scrap yard dealers are picking up the pieces.

“These scavengers help the steel industry which we supply. Sometimes they (steel makers) lack money to pay us, but the metal is always available,” scrap yard owner Fungai Mataga said, as workers loaded metal into a truck headed for Kwekwe in the Midlands, the home of steel manufactures.

Mataga buys cast iron for $0.15 per kg and mild steel $0.22 per kg from scavengers.

“They all come here to sell (metal) for survival,” he said.

The scrap metal trade is not illegal in Zimbabwe, but has raised concerns about vandalism of infrastructure including that of state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe, which has called for the trade to be regulated.

As Chowe leaves the scrap yard, 19-year-old Mike Mavhunga arrives saddled with sacks of tins.

Every day he wakes up at 5 a.m. to walk 10 km to Glen Norah, a township west of Harare, his hunting ground for metal.

“My aim is to get at least two bags of scrap metal which gives me $6. But on a rough day, I get $1 or $1.50,” Mavhunga said. “This is how I survive.”

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Africa Needs Access To Low-Cost Capital – Zambian President

 President Hichilema Hakainde of the Republic of Zambia has expressed concern that national incomes for African countries remained low coupled with high inequality and poverty rates partly due to huge infrastructure deficits and low levels of human development and private investment.

To address this the Zambian President underscored the need for Africa to access low-cost capital and a establish predictable, competitive and stable economic policy environment.

“I am greatly convinced that the importance of the African Union Financial Institutions has been well established and very well-articulated in a way that it has now become common knowledge amongst the wide variety of stakeholders involved in this inspiring and expected ground-breaking journey,” President Hichilema has stated.

President Hichilema stated in a speech read on his behalf at the AU Member States Ministers of Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning, and Integration which focused on “Improving Africa’s access to Capital: Debt Management and the Rising Influence of Credit Rating Agencies.”

A document made available to the Ghana News Agency in Tema explained that the 5th Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee also made far-reaching recommendations on assessments by the Member States on the state of the debt crisis in their respective countries as a way of promoting transparency and accountability, which in turn facilitates debt restructuring and reduces vulnerabilities.

To address longer-term challenges and achieve financial stability and autonomy, President Hichilema stressed the need to speed up the operationalization of African financial institutions as indicated in Article 19 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union.

Ambassador Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, reiterated the need to accelerate domestic resource mobilization to reduce reliance on foreign capital.

He said AU Agenda 2063 stipulated that for it to be fully and effectively implemented, 75-90 percent of financial resources must be mobilized domestically across Africa.

“As we harness the spirit of innovation, one key issue that we need to realize is that the African Union is a source of value creation. It is a brand that is lucrative politically, diplomatically, strategically; and, inter-alia, commercially.

“Therefore, AU policy organs like this Specialized Technical Committee (STC) need to come up with ways and means of transforming this source into value capture to drive our progress as a continent, and in this way, relying on our own resources,” Ambassador Muchanga stated.

Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, Chair of the Bureau of the STC and Deputy Minister for Finance of Ghana, noted that additional structural reforms such as debt restructuring and reprioritizing public spending were required to ensure long-term debt sustainability.

“We need to collectively work together to transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.

“Reconfiguring the global debt relief architecture, including reinstating the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), will be crucial in supporting debt-ridden African countries’ transition towards a path of sustainable debt in the medium to long term,” Dr Kumah stated.

The Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors at the end of the meeting recommended the establishment of a regulatory institution in Africa to strengthen mechanisms for tax transparency, effective and prudential fiscal management and combating illicit financial flows.

The Ministers reiterated the need to establish an African Credit Rating Agency based on self-sustainability and political and financial autonomy, and adopt the Tax Strategy and the Strategy on curbing Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).

The STC meeting accepted the proposal of Afreximbank and ATIA to be designated as AU Specialized Agencies.

The STC requested AU Member states to ensure a significant proportion of their annual budgets are committed to the financing of industrialization projects, supported by prudential taxation policies and practices to enhance domestic resource mobilization, to minimize rigidities in credit creation.

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Wife Of Nigerian Killed In Italy Demands Justice

 The wife of a Nigerian street trader who was killed in Italy has told the BBC she is seeking justice following his “painful death”.

Aliku Ogorchukwu, 39, was reportedly selling handkerchiefs in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche on Friday when he was chased and beaten to death.

A 32-year-old Italian has been arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery.

A video circulating online shows a man on top of Ogorchukwu, punching him with his bare hands.

None of those who witnessed the broad daylight attack appeared to intervene.

“This is a form of wickedness I don’t know,” Ogorchukwu’s wife, Charity Oriachi, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa.

Ms Oriachi said she had received help in coming to terms with her husband’s death but was tired of “talk”. Now, she was only interested in justice, she insisted.

Her family had lived in Italy for a long time, she said, stressing that her husband had never sought any trouble.

The killing has sparked outrage in the local community, including Nigerians, who took to the streets over the weekend and are planning another demonstration soon.

The Nigerian government has asked Italian authorities to quickly “bring the perpetrator of the heinous act” to justice.
Suspect not released

The suspect – a white man named as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo – has been ordered to remain in jail as the investigation continues.

His defence lawyer told the media the suspect had said he was sorry and that there was “no racial element” involved.

A police investigator said Ogorchukwu was attacked after the trader’s “insistent” requests to the suspect and his partner for spare change.

The partner, identified as Elena D, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Ogorchukwu had touched her arm, but that did not bother her.

Ms Oriachi now wants to see the suspect “face to face”, to understand why he killed her husband, the family’s lawyer told the Associated Press.

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US Kills al Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri In Drone Strike In Afghanistan

 The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, President Joe Biden said Monday in a speech from the White House.

“I authorized a precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield, once and for all,” Biden said.

Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden’s personal physician.

Zawahiri was sheltering in downtown Kabul to reunite with his family, Biden said, and was killed in what a senior administration official described as “a precise tailored airstrike” using two Hellfire missiles. The drone strike was conducted at 9:48 p.m. ET on Saturday was authorized by Biden following weeks of meetings with his Cabinet and key advisers, the official said on Monday, adding that no American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike.

Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of Zawahiri’s presence in the area, the official said, in “clear violation of the Doha agreement,” and even took steps to conceal his presence after Saturday’s successful strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family, including his daughter and her children, who were intentionally not targeted during the strike and remained unharmed. The US did not alert Taliban officials ahead of Saturday’s strike.

In a series of tweets, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, “An air strike was carried out on a residential house in Sherpur area of Kabul city on July 31.”

He said, “The nature of the incident was not apparent at first” but the security and intelligence services of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and “initial findings determined that the strike was carried out by an American drone.”

The tweets by Mujahid came out prior to CNN reporting Zawahiri’s death. Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan “strongly condemns this attack on any pretext and calls it a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.”

Read Full Story …. HERE >>> :   

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Nigeria Adds 10 Million New Voters Ahead Of Polls

 Nigeria’s electoral commission says it has added more than 10 million new voters to its register.

In the latest numbers released on Monday, most of the newly registered voters were young people.

The year-long voter registration exercise ended on Sunday.

Next February, Nigerians will elect a new president to succeed Muhammadu Buhari – who has served the two terms allowed by the constitution.

Voters will also elect state governors and legislators

In the last election in 2019, there were 84 million registered voters, according to the electoral commission.

Analysts say the youth vote could be a deciding factor in the coming general election.

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Kidnappers Of Nollywood Actors Demand $100,000 Ransom

 Kidnappers of prominent Nollywood actors and members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornel, have made contact with the families of the stars demanding a total of $100,000 to release them.

This contact according to the Guild was via their families. The actors were reported missing after their family members confirmed they didn’t return home from a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu state in Nigeria.

Both actors are renowned for starring in movies shot in Enugu and Delta States.

On Saturday, the AGN national president, Emeka Rollas, told a source that “the kidnappers have made contact with the families and are demanding the sum of $100,000. We pray to God for his intervention and for Him to put confusion in their midst.”

He continued; “We are also working closely with the different security operatives, but we are not sure what to expect from them because the same thing is happening everywhere in the country.”

Mr Rollas also said members of the Guild are working closely with the families of the victims and the security forces to ensure their safe release.

Mr Rollas added, ‘‘the kidnappers cleared the monies in Cynthia Okereke’s account this morning’’.

As part of measures to forestall a repeat occurrence, Mr Rollas said that the Guild had ordered its members not to shoot outside of the metropolis and to ensure that they make adequate provisions for security in their locations.

AGN’s Director of Communications, Monalisa Chinda, broke the news of the kidnap of the actors in a press statement.

Ms Chinda said their kidnap had increased fear amongst members about the safety of actors filming in the country.

Source: thechronicle.com.gh

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