Two black women in New York and Georgia looking to put Trump in jail

Two jurisdictions in the United States where legal troubles could land former US president Donald Trump in jail are the state of New York, and Fulton County in the state of Georgia where the Attorney General and District Attorney respectively are African America women. And they are fierce in their pursuit of justice.

Meet Leticia James popularly known as “Tish” of New York, and Fani Willis of Georgia.

Since 2019, James’s office has been conducting an investigation of business practices inside the Trump Organization and family.

Trump has fought fiercely in court, but month after month, James has succeeded in unearthing financial records that appear to be adding up to a giant legal hazard for the former president, analysts say.

“He should be very concerned,” said George Albro, co-chair of the New York Progressive Action Network who has known James going back to when he was a union officer in New York City and she was a public defender. “She’s going to take this to its logical conclusion.”

James is investigating whether Trump inflated the value of his properties for the purpose of acquiring loans against them, and significantly lowering the value of those same properties for the purpose of paying lower taxes on them.

The attorney general’s office said in a court filing that an appraiser hired by Trump before the conservation agreement set one of his property’s value at $56.5 million and the easement’s value at $21.1 million – an amount Trump claimed as an income tax deduction.

The attorney general’s office, in an August court filing, said it was investigating whether the assessment was “improperly inflated” to increase the tax benefit. In filings, prosecutors cited emails from Trump Organization representatives to the appraisers arguing for a higher valuation.

And in Fulton County in Gerogia, the district attorney investigating whether Trump illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election has hired an outside lawyer who is a national authority on racketeering, a source familiar with the matter said.

Fani Willis has enlisted the help of Atlanta lawyer John Floyd, who wrote a national guide on prosecuting state racketeering cases. Floyd was hired recently to “provide help as needed” on matters involving racketeering, including the Trump investigation and other cases, said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation.

The move bolsters the team investigating Trump as Willis prepares to issue subpoenas for evidence on whethe

The investigation of Trump focuses in part on his phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, asking the secretary to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss, based on false voter-fraud claims.

Willis – a Democrat who in January became the county’s first Black woman district attorney – will have to navigate a fraught political landscape. She faces pressure from Democrats in Atlanta and nationally to pursue an aggressive prosecution, along with scrutiny from Republicans in a state historically dominated by that party.

r the former president and his allies broke the law in their campaign to pressure state officials to reverse his Georgia election loss.

Willis has said that her office would examine potential charges including “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering” among other possible violations.

 

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“It’s time for churches to be taxed” – says The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

“The Ugly,” played by Elizabeth MacLean on the DNT popular show The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly has called on the government to consider taxing churches because they have clearly become business ventures by which charismatic pastors are making money.

Whereas the more traditional churches had established long traditions of building schools and hospitals, the so-called one-man churches are conning innocent congregants and using their money to live lavish lifestyles, “Ugly” opined.

“These pastors boldly state ‘I need ten people to give me GHC1,000 right now’ and people would line up and pay the money,” she said. And these people truly believe that they are paying these monies for blessing but in reality all they are doing is funding the lavish lifestyles of these pastors,

In an internet poll conducted by DNT ahead of the show, which airs Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8pm Ghana time, 83.78% of respondents agreed that the church has become a business.

But arguing in the contrary, Georgette Kyei who played “The Good” last Friday insisted that the government should not be persuaded to alter its policy because of a few bad apples who have found their way into the clergy.

“The Good” began by pointing out that these churches are not registered as profit making businesses and so they cannot be taxed.

“Besides, is the government also going to begin taxing NGOs, which some are also using to make money?” The Good argued. Also policemen and women who take bribes in the open as well as government officials who receive kickbacks are all known to rake in money but are not taxed so why single out the clergy?

The show was moderated by “The Bad” who was played by Rabiatu Abdallah.

On Monday March 1, the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will argue whether it was a good idea for the president and his vice to take the new COVID-19 vaccine together considering the order of presidential succession and the third in line being a member of the opposition party.

Grace Adorboe, DNT News, Accra.

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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy convicted and jailed for corruption

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Monday found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.

The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved.

The court said Sarkozy is entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet.

This is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption.

Despite the prison sentence, HuffPost France Editor-in-chief Geoffroy Clavel said it’s likely Sarkozy will avoid time behind bars: “The judge said Sarkozy could ask for his year in prison to be commuted at home under electronic surveillance. Sarkozy could also appeal and ask for another trial.”

Sarkozy’s co-defendants — his lawyer and longtime friend Thierry Herzog, 65, and now-retired magistrate Gilbert Azibert, 74 — were also found guilty and given the same sentence as the politician.

The court found that Sarkozy and his co-defendants sealed a “pact of corruption,” based on “consistent and serious evidence”.

The court said the facts were “particularly serious” given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest. In addition, as a lawyer by training, he was “perfectly informed” about committing an illegal action, the court said.

Sarkozy had firmly denied all the allegations against him during the 10-day trial that took place at the end of last year.

The corruption trial focused on phone conversations that took place in February 2014.

At the time, investigative judges had launched an inquiry into the financing of the 2007 presidential campaign. During the investigation they incidentally discovered that Sarkozy and Herzog were communicating via secret mobile phones registered to the alias “Paul Bismuth.”

Conversations wiretapped on these phones led prosecutors to suspect Sarkozy and Herzog of promising Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about another legal case, known by the name of France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

In one of these phone calls with Herzog, Sarkozy said of Azibert : “I’ll make him move up … I’ll help him.

In another, Herzog reminded Sarkozy to “say a word” for Azibert during a trip to Monaco.

Legal proceedings against Sarkozy have been dropped in the Bettencourt case. Azibert never got the Monaco job.

Prosecutors have concluded, however, that the “clearly stated promise” constitutes in itself a corruption offense under French law, even if the promise wasn’t fulfilled.

Sarkozy vigorously denied any malicious intention.

He told the court that his political life was all about “giving (people) a little help. That all it is, a little help,” he said during the trial.

The confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and his client was a major point of contention in the trial.

“You have in front of you a man of whom more that 3,700 private conversations have been wiretapped… What did I do to deserve that?” Sarkozy said during the trial.

Sarkozy’s defense lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, argued the whole case was based on “small talk” between a lawyer and his client.

The court concluded that the use of wiretapped conversations was legal as long as they helped show evidence of corruption-related offenses.

However, even if Sarkozy was to escape jail, Clavel said a conviction would deal a blow to the chances of a political comeback: “It’s a big story in French politics. There have been suggestions the conservative Republican party could draft in the former president as its candidate to take on Emmanuel Macron in next year’s national elections. But a conviction could stop that.”

Sarkozy withdrew from active politics after failing to be chosen as his conservative party’s presidential candidate for France’s 2017 election, won by Emmanuel Macron.

He remains very popular amid right-wing voters, however, and plays a major role behind the scenes, including through maintaining a relationship with Macron, whom he is said to advise on certain topics. His memoirs published last year, “The Time of Storms,” was a bestseller for weeks.

Sarkozy will face another trial later this month along with 13 other people on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.

His conservative party is suspected of having spent 42.8 million euros ($50.7 million), almost twice the maximum authorized, to finance the campaign, which ended in victory for Socialist rival Francois Hollande.

In another investigation opened in 2013, Sarkozy is accused of having taken millions from then-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to illegally finance his 2007 campaign.

He was handed preliminary charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of stolen assets from Libya and criminal association. He has denied wrongdoing.

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Australia cuts Myanmar military ties amid ‘rising death toll’

Australia has suspended its defence cooperation programme with Myanmar amid concern about the “escalating violence and rising death toll,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said as the country’s military steps up its crackdown on enormous protests against its coup last month.

Myanmar was plunged into turmoil after the army detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and officials from her National League for Democracy party on February 1 and seized control of the country. The coup has triggered a national Civil Disobedience Movement and mass protests in which dozens have been killed.

“We continue to strongly urge the Myanmar security forces to exercise restraint and refrain from violence against civilians,” Payne said.

Australia’s bilateral defence ties with Myanmar’s military are restricted to non-combat areas such as English-language training which have continued even after the brutal crackdown in Rakhine state in 2017 that led hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh.

“Australia has finally ended a training programme it should never have started in the first place,” Anna Roberts, the executive director of the London-based Burma Campaign, said in a statement. “Twelve more countries are still engaged in training and cooperation with the Burmese military. Countries providing training to the Burmese military have sided with the military, which is shooting peaceful protesters. They cannot claim non-interference in Burma’s internal affairs when they are helping one side. A military which is killing civilians.”

Security force officers kick a protester in Mandalay on March in a still image from a video obtained from social media [Shiro/via Reuters]

Soldiers advance to break up a crowd of protesters in Yangon on March 3. Australia said it was suspending a training programme with the Myanmar military over the increasing violence and rising death toll [File: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA]

The Burma Campaign said that the 12 countries still providing training to Myanmar’s military include China, India, Pakistan and Ukraine. Campaigners are calling for a complete arms embargo on the country.Australia will also redirect immediate humanitarian needs to the mostly Muslim Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, Payne said on Monday and bypass Myanmar government bodies.

“We have also looked at the development programme and development support that we are providing and redirected that with an absolute focus on the immediate needs of some of the most vulnerable and poor in Myanmar which is one of the poorest countries in ASEAN,” Payne was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Australia said it would continue to demand the immediate release of Sean Turnell, an economist and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, authorities said. Turnell has been detained with limited consular access since the coup.

Myanmar’s main trade unions have called for a general strike from Monday, following huge protests on Sunday. The demonstrations triggered a harsh response with the police and security forces using tear gas, stun guns and live bullets to break up the crowd, according to videos shared by local residents.

Soldiers were also deployed to public buildings around the country, sparking confrontations, the Myanmar Now news agency reported.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is tracking arrests, says 1,790 people had been detained since the coup as of March 7. A total of 1,472 remain in custody.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA, REUTERS

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Huge blasts in Equatorial Guinea’s Bata kill many, wound hundreds

More than a dozen people have been killed and hundreds wounded in a series of powerful explosions at a military base in Equatorial Guinea’s largest city of Bata, according to officials.

In a statement on national television, President Teodoro Obiang said the blasts on Sunday were caused by negligence related to the use of dynamite at the military base. No other details were immediately available.

Obiang, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1942, said at least 15 people were killed and 500 wounded in the explosions.

His statement came some two hours after the health ministry said on Twitter that 17 people had so far been confirmed dead, while the number of wounded stood at 420.

There were fears the death toll could rise.

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Local television showed groups of people pulling bodies from piles of rubble, some of which were carried away wrapped in bedsheets. There were also media appeals for people to donate blood, saying hospitals are overwhelmed.

Pick-up trucks filled with survivors, many of whom were children, drove up to the front of a local hospital where some victims were filmed lying on the floor.

In the blast area, iron roofs were ripped off half-destroyed houses and lay twisted amid the rubble. Only a wall or two remained of most houses. People ran in all directions, many of them screaming.

“We hear the explosion and we see the smoke, but we don’t know what’s going on,” a local resident named Teodoro Nguema told the AFP news agency by telephone.

‘Catastrophe’

Equatorial Guinea is a small country of some 1.4 million, with the majority of the population living in poverty despite rich oil reserves.

Obiang’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president with responsibility for defence and security, appeared in the television footage at the scene inspecting the damage, accompanied by his Israeli bodyguards, according to AFP.

Teodorin, as he is known, is increasingly seen as the designated successor of the 78-year-old president.

Translation: Following the explosions that occurred today in the city of Bata, Spanish nationals are recommended to remain at home, the embassy said. 

After the blast, the Spanish embassy in the capital, Malabo, requested its nationals to remain at home. “Following developments in Equatorial Guinea with concern after the explosions in the city of Bata,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya on Twitter.

Separately, the French ambassador in Equatorial Guinea, Brochenin Olivier, expressed his “condolences for the catastrophe that has just occurred in Bata”.

William Lawrence, a former US diplomat and Regional Security Officer in West Africa, called the incident “highly shocking” and said Equatorial Guinea was not ready for a disaster of this scale.

“This is going to have quite a devastating effect on many levels,” he told Al Jazeera. “Equatorial Guinea is one of the richest countries in Africa, with the least distribution of its oil wealth. There has been many coup attempts since independence and so this is going to rock the boat.”

In the short term, the country’s leader will have to account for what happened, said Lawrence.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of disaster preparedness training on this scale, and I suspect a lot of what’s going on today is winging it and already the country’s health services are hit quite hard by COVID-19, so this will be an added burden,” he added.

“There’s been frantic calls for blood donations and we have pictures of people lying on hospital floors not getting treatment.”

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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French billionaire MP Olivier Dassault dies ‘in helicopter crash’

French billionaire politician Olivier Dassault has been killed in a helicopter crash, the AFP news agency reported, citing parliamentary and probe sources.

Dassault died around 6 pm (17:00 GMT) on Sunday when his aircraft crashed near Deauville in Normandy, northern France, the sources said.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the 69-year-old, saying on Twitter that Dassault “never ceased to serve our country, to value its assets. His sudden death is a great loss.

Translation: Olivier Dassault loved France. Captain of industry, deputy, local elected official, reserve commander in the air force: during his life, he never ceased to serve our country, to value its assets. His sudden death is a great loss. Thoughts to his family and loved ones.

Sources close to the crash inquiry said the pilot of the helicopter was also killed, and that no one else was on board.

Dassault was the eldest son of French billionaire industrialist Serge Dassault, whose group builds the Rafale warplanes and owns Le Figaro newspaper.

A lawmaker for the conservative Les Republicains party since 2002, Dassault was considered the 361st richest man in the world alongside his two brothers and sister, according to the 2020 Forbes rich list.

He stepped down from his role on the board of Dassault due to his political role to avoid any conflict of interest.

Olivier, seen as the favourite of founder Marcel, was once considered favoured to succeed Serge at the head of the family holding, but that role went to former Dassault Aviation CEO Charles Edelstenne.

“Great sadness at the news of the sudden disappearance of Olivier Dassault,” Valerie Pecresse, a conservative politician who is president of the Paris region, said on Twitter.

“A businessman, but also a renowned photographer, he had a passion for politics in his blood, rooted in his department of Oise. My warm thoughts to his family.”

“I am thinking of his family and loved ones who must feel terrible pain,” said Richard Ferrand, president of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament in which Dassault served as a representative for the Oise area of northern France.

Many of Dassault’s colleagues on the political right also paid tribute.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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These women are shaping the future of African space exploration

In the heart of Cape Town, a control room buzzes with activity. Technicians monitor a grid of screens, scanning data that will soon make its way to astronomers working to deepen our understanding of the universe.

Operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the data is coming from the MeerKAT array — one of the most advanced radio telescopes in the world. Comprised of 64 connected satellite dishes in a remote part of the Northern Cape, the $330 million telescope has put South Africa on the astronomy map. It’s also a key component of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), an international effort that will see thousands of dishes built in remote regions of South Africa and Australia.

South Africa’s MeerKAT array is one of the most advanced radio telescopes in the world.

“This is probably the biggest science project on the whole continent,” says Pontsho Maruping, SARAO deputy managing director. “We’ve already started training astronomers in other African countries.”

“What excites me is the fact that it allows people on the African continent to really contribute to one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world,” she adds.

While an African-born astronaut has yet to launch to space, programs across the continent are on the rise, especially in the fields of satellites and telescopes. Consulting group Space in Africa values space programs on the continent in excess of $7 billion, while countries including Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda have established or expanded their space agencies in the last 20 years.

Several of those programs include women in leadership roles. In celebration of International Women’s Day, meet three inspiring female pioneers shaping the future of space exploration across Africa and beyond.

Jessie Ndaba, space engineer

Jessie Ndaba is the co-founder of Astrofica, a satellite tech company in South Africa.

When South African space engineer Jessie Ndaba and company co-founder Khalid Manjoo named their satellite startup, the choice was easy: Astrofica — a hybrid of “astronomy” and “Africa” — seemed like the perfect fit.

The fully Black-owned satellite tech company, based in Cape Town, specializes in assembling, manufacturing and testing satellite systems — a lucrative focus of the African space industry. According to Space in Africa, 41 satellites had been launched from the continent by August 2020, and that number is likely to triple by 2024. More than $4 billion has been invested in satellite development across Africa so far.

Space “was and is a calling,” Ndaba says, noting that her fascination began with a photo of a rocket engine in a textbook gifted by her grandmother, who raised her in Johannesburg.

Having experienced the industry’s evolution over the last 15 years, she says the key to success in the sector is collaboration — and helping people on Earth. “We are all for partnering with other countries in Africa or outside Africa,” Ndaba says, “as long as we are working toward improving people’s lives.”

But she says sometimes that message gets lost, pointing to the common criticism that space endeavors are expensive and that governments like South Africa’s should be investing in improving the lives of its citizens.

“There’s a number of benefits that we get from what we do, but we fail to communicate it to people,” Ndaba says, adding that satellite imagery can be used to assess land quality for farming or housing construction.

“We’re always looking at the challenges that people are facing, and we look for the solution.”

Adriana Marais has set her sights on Mars — and it’s a mission she’s been planning for as long as she can remember.

“If I had to choose a particular outcome for my life, spending my last days on Mars would be it,” Marais says.

In 2015, the South African physicist came a step closer to realizing her dream when she was shortlisted as one of 100 astronaut candidates for the Mars One Project, a private venture to build a permanent settlement on the red planet.

Read more: Perseverance will search for ancient life on Mars. These places are next

But there’s still much to learn about Mars before humans can survive on its surface — or even successfully make the trip. After a nine-month journey just to get there, astronauts will encounter extreme conditions on arrival.

On Earth, Marais is preparing to simulate that harsh environment. In 2019, she founded research organization Proudly Human, which plans to run a series of settlement experiments in extreme environments as part of its Off-World project.

“We will have teams arriving, setting up infrastructure from scratch, and living and doing research in those extreme locations for duration of the experiment,” says Marais.

In December 2019, she traveled to Antarctica to begin setting up a community where selected participants will spend nine months in complete isolation. The project is now on hold because of the pandemic but Marais says Antarctica will be an ideal testing ground.

“Temperatures in the winter in Antarctica range between -60 and -70 degrees Fahrenheit in the interior, and this is the average temperature on Mars in terms of testing infrastructure like water systems,” she says.

According to Proudly Human, the research and technology developed to support life in environmental extremes can also help inform solutions on Earth, where billions of people worldwide lack access to clean water and air, reliable power sources, and a secure food supply.

“I feel we have a duty living in this challenging era,” says Marais, “creating a future that we can be proud of, whatever planet we’re on.”

Ruvimbo Samanga, space law adviser

Zimbabwean Ruvimbo Samanga is a space law adviser for her home country, which began its own space program in 2018.

Growing up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Ruvimbo Samanga first became interested in space as a young girl. But she never thought her love of “all things extra-terrestrial and extra-planetary” could become a viable career, and pursued law instead.

In 2018, she coached a team of law students that made history by becoming the first African entrants to win the prestigious, international Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court competition. That’s when Samanga realized she could combine her two passions into one career — and became a space law and policy adviser.

From there, “the opportunities were boundless,” she says. “I think (space law and policy) just give me the most effective way of bringing about change in the industry. It’s so exciting to see the field developing right before your eyes.”

Space law governs space-related activities, including the use of space technology, damage created by space objects, and the preservation of space and Earth environments — and it has to constantly evolve to keep up with developments in technology.

Samanga represents Zimbabwe on the Space Generation Advisory Council, supporting the UN Programme on Space Applications — which facilitates the sharing of space technology benefits with developing countries that don’t yet have the resources to do it themselves.

“There are a lot of challenges in Zimbabwe and an urgent need for socioeconomic development all around,” she says, pointing to the recent food security crisis brought on by severe droughts.

In 2019, Samanga started AgriSpace, which uses satellite technology to help farmers maximize crop yield.

Samanga built on her expertise to launch AgriSpace in 2019, a company which helps Zimbabwean farmers optimize crop yields. “I realized there was a technological gap — farmers are using archaic and traditional methods,” she says. “To bridge that gap, we use satellite imagery and data to give farmers the necessary information they need to know when to plant, how to plant, what to plant, and where to plant.”

For Samanga, all her work — from law and policy to satellite tech — stems back to her childhood fascination with space. She’s now sharing that dream with students in Zimbabwe, inspiring the next generation of space explorers from the African continent.

“I dream for a world where girls do not have to question themselves and are not questioned,” she says. “My dream is to see more African youth, especially young girls, in the African space industry.”

CNN’s John Lewis and Ian Hooper contributed to this report.