ZAMBIANS VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SEEN AS TOO CLOSE TO CALL

 LUSAKA - Zambians started voting on Thursday in an election showdown between President Edgar Lungu and main opposition rival Hakainde Hichilema that looks too tight to call and comes amid mounting debt and a flagging economy.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) with long queues seen at voting booths in the capital Lusaka, which could point to a huge turnout in Africa's second biggest copper producer.

 

The electoral agency says it expects to declare a winner within 72 hours after polls close.

 

Some voters walked to polling stations with chairs, a Reuters witness said, while others shared pictures of long queues on Twitter.

 

At a voting station in the Kabwata suburb of Lusaka, first time voter Ben Mulenga, 19, braved the early morning cold and arrived two and half hours before voting started because he anticipated long queues.

 

"The things that are happening in our country, including the bad state of the economy and the high levels of unemployment need to be addressed," said Mulenga, a student at the University of Zambia.

 

Zambia became the continent's first country during the coronavirus pandemic to default on its sovereign debt in November.

 

Lungu was among the earliest voters. Wearing a black leather jacket, a white face mask and accompanied by his wife, he waved to a cheering crowd as he left in his motorcade.

 

"We are winning, otherwise I wouldn't have been in the race if we were not winning," Lungu told reporters shortly after voting in Chawama township in Lusaka.

 

Some 54% of registered voters are 34 or younger, statistics from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) show.

 

That could help Hichilema, who is facing Lungu for the third time and has placed the economy front and centre of his campaign, political analysts said.

 

Zambia's economy will be among the continent's slowest growing economies this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates. read more

 

"As you can see we are suffering. Financially we are in crisis, definitely I want to make a change," said Cassidy Yumbe, a 41-year-old driver and father of four as he waited to vote.

 

Zambia owes in excess of $12 billion to external creditors and spends 30%-40% of its revenues on interest payments on its debt, credit rating firm S&P Global estimates.

 

In office since 2015, 64-year-old Lungu narrowly defeated Hichilema, the CEO of an accountancy firm before entering politics, in a disputed election the following year.

 

The president has touted the new road, airport and energy projects he has overseen as laying the groundwork for economic development and growth.

 

His push for greater state control over the mining sector - an approach that has sparked fears of resource nationalism among international investors - will create jobs, he says.

 

But so far his debt-financed infrastructure splurge has failed to pay economic dividends, and unemployment remains high.

 

That has left him open to attack from Hichilema, who says the debt cost is too high and is frustrating development in the country of 18 million people.

Reuters

COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 146 RECOVERIES AND 108 NEW INFECTIONS

 Luanda – Angola reported in the last 24 hours, the recovery of 146 patients, 108 new cases and 6 deaths from Covid-19.

According to the daily data update , among those recovered, 35 live  in Cunene Province, 34 in Lunda Norte, 30 in Lunda Sul, 19 in Moxico, 13 in Huambo, 8 in Huila, 5 in Luanda and 2 in Benguela.

 

The new patients, according to the report, were diagnosed in the provinces of Luanda, 65, Lunda Sul, 14, Benguela, 8, Moxico, 6, Cuando Cubango, 5, Lunda Norte, 4, Bié, 2, Uíge, 2, Cabinda with 1, Cunene, 1, and Huambo with one.

 

With ages ranging from 2 to 87 years, the list included 71 males and 37 females.

 

The deaths were registered in the provinces of Lunda Norte (2), Moxico (2) and Cunene (1).

 

The Laboratories processed 2,839 blood samples.

 

At least 226 people are in institutional quarantine, while 143 patients receive medical treatment in the hospital and 740 contacts of positive cases are under epidemiological surveillance.

 

Angola currently has 43,998 positive cases, plus 1,063 deaths, 40,809 recovered patients and 2,126 active cases. Of the active, 11 are critical, 25 serious, 75 moderate, 32 mild and 1,983 asymptomatic.

Google may cut pay of staff who work from home

Google employees in the US who opt to work from home permanently may get a pay cut.

The technology giant has developed a pay calculator that lets employees see the effects of working remotely or moving offices.

Some remote employees, especially those with a long commute, could have their pay cut without changing address.

Google has no plans at this time to implement the policy in the UK.

Employees in many businesses have proved that working from home permanently is viable during Covid pandemic.

Many companies are looking ahead to how employees will work as the pandemic recedes, even as the US continues to battle the Delta variant of the disease.

Silicon Valley firms, some of which are keen to get employees back to their desks, are experimenting with employee pay structures.

Big tech companies including Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter have offered less pay for employees based in locations where it is more inexpensive to live.

But smaller firms such as Reddit and Zillow have said they will pay the same no matter where employees are based, saying that this improves diversity.

A Google spokesperson said: “Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from.

“Our new Work Location Tool was developed to help employees make informed decisions about which city or state they work from and any impact on compensation if they choose to relocate or work remotely.”

Alarm

One Google employee, who works in Seattle but has a two-hour commute, told Reuters that they would get a 10% pay cut if they decided to work from home full time.

“It’s as high of a pay cut as I got for my most recent promotion,” the employee said. “I didn’t do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut.”

Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said Google’s move raises alarms about who will feel the impact most acutely, including families.

“What’s clear is that Google doesn’t have to do this,” Professor Rosenfeld said. “Google has paid these workers at 100% of their prior wage, by definition. So it’s not like they can’t afford to pay their workers who choose to work remotely the same that they are used to receiving.”

A Google employee in Stamford, Connecticut, which is an hour away from New York by train, would be paid 15% less working remotely, and there were 5% and 10% differences in the Seattle, Boston and San Francisco areas.

Google will not change an employees pay if they work fully remotely from the same city.

Some businesses, such as US technology giant Cisco, have put in place a hybrid working plan that has no mandates about how often employees go into the office.

Cisco expects that less than a quarter of its workforce will want to be in an office for three or more days a week.

But other firms, such as Goldman Sachs, want workers to return to offices.

The investment bank’s boss David Solomon in February said that working from home was “an aberration” rather than “the new normal”.

………………………………………………………

Africans call for “reciprocal action” against nationals of countries that bully black people

Since the graphic murder of George Floyd which video sparked global outrage against police brutality against black people in America, the new generation of Africans across the globe have begun openly voicing calls for reciprocal action against nationals of countries that bully and kill black people.

These sentiments are reflected in a viral image of a young lady holding up a sign that read “We are not our ancestors; We will f__k you up.” T-shirts and other art products have emanated from that image sporting just the first part of the poster’s message.

  

The global Black Lives Matter-influenced protests seem to have momentarily quelled police brutality against blacks in America, but the barbaric action still persists in America and other parts of the world.

African students are routinely murdered in Ukraine in the guise of them “drowning.” African house helps in the Middle East are routinely abused and killed with no diplomatic consequences whatsoever.

The Chinese whose diet practices have been fingered as the source of coronavirus that has ravaged the entire world had the nerve to maltreat Africans and throw them out on the streets in Guanghou claiming they are the source and carriers of the virus.

Even Indians have gotten in the act with the inexplicable murder of a Nigerian professor.

The latest barbaric act against an African is by Indonesian Immigration officials who arrested a Nigerian diplomat in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Jakarta, placed him in a tight corner in a moving vehicle and tortured him as someone closely videotaped the incident.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Now Africans are saying on social media that if protests won’t work, and diplomacy won’t work, then the time may have come for reciprocal action against nationals of countries where black people in general are maltreated and killed.

“This is insane and despicable. Why is this necessary,” asked one lady.

“I don’t condone victimizing innocent people, but what choice do we really have,” asked one post. Another supported the approach saying “Oh yes. I’m an advocate for a reciprocal gesture. It’s the only language bullies understand. No matter how much you cry and shout, if you don’t fight back you’ll continue to run until you hit a brick wall and then battered.”

Another contributor echoing the need to fight back insisted that “there’s a plot of extermination of our kind.” He pointed out that governments cannot protect Africans because “governments are mostly doing what they are told to do.”

On one platform, a woman who posted “two wrongs don’t make a right” got attacked with comments such as “neither does one wrong,” “Lady, go back to school and learn that in Maths double negative amount to a positive.”

But the unfortunate outcome of this cry for reciprocal action is that no one wins. But one post pointed out that “it’s better that no one wins than for us to lose all the time.”

Does it have to come to this? After Middle Easterners resorted to what is termed “terrorism,” their nationals have largely been exempted from targeted maltreatment. Diplomatic victimization still persists against their countries, but at least at the personal level, dehumanization of Arabs have largely subsided.

It remains to be seen if the so-called reciprocal actions are what it would take to get oppressors of black people to realize that it actually hurts when treated like sub-human.

DNT News, Accra

 

………………………………………………………

Floods hit Turkey’s north after south ravaged by wildfires

The floods are the most recent disasters experts say are connected to climate change to hit Turkey in recent weeks.

Floods caused by unusually heavy rainfall are ravaging Turkey’s northern coast, tearing down a bridge and leaving villages without power.

The floods on Wednesday came after some of the largest wildfires in the country’s history spread across the southwest.

State broadcaster TRT Haber said one person died from a heart attack in the northern province of Bartin amid the flooding, and emergency workers were looking for another person who was missing.

Thirteen people were also injured after a bridge collapsed in Bartin and there were power outages in 12 villages, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said.

In Sinop province, 240km (150 miles) east of Bartin, a house collapsed due to the deluge and cars were left stranded in water, Reuters news agency footage showed.

A bridge collapsed in Bartin, Turkey following floods and landslidse caused by heavy rains [Ibrahim Yozoglu/Anadolu Agency]

AFAD said a hospital was being evacuated and some roads were closed in Sinop, warning that strong rains in the area were expected to continue.

Turkey’s north is prone to flash floods in the summer when rains are particularly strong. Last year, at least six people were killed in the floods in the region.

The most recent flooding came just days after the United Nations climate panel sounded a dire warning that the world’s greenhouse gas levels were high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades.

Turkey, in particular, has faced a range of disasters related to climate change in recent months.

Raging wildfires burned tens of thousands of hectares of forest along its southern coast during the last two weeks.

Last month, Turkey registered its highest temperature since 1961 – 49.1C (120.4F) in the southeastern town of Cizre.

Water shortages continue to threaten food production and relations with Turkey’s neighbours, who are already jockeying for water rights, particularly related to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

The situation has heaped pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to act.

Polls show climate change is among the top issues for young voters in the country, with seven million more youths projected to be able to vote by the next election, slated for 2023.

Turkey remains one of only six nations yet to formally approve the Paris Climate Accord, a treaty that seeks to slow the rate of global temperature rise through individual commitments by signatories.

Ankara has argued the agreement unfairly classes Turkey as a “developed” rather than “developing” country, which precludes it from accessing extra funding under the treaty.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

…………………………………………………

British embassy worker arrested in Germany accused of spying for Russia was being monitored by MI5

The 57-year-old man, known as David S, is suspected of selling documents to a representative of a Russian intelligence service.

A British embassy worker arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia was being monitored by MI5, Sky News understands.

The British national, named as David S, was detained in Potsdam over allegations that he had been working “for a foreign secret service”, the German public prosecutor said.

A statement from the German prosecutor said: “Until his arrest, David S worked as a local employee at the British Embassy in Berlin.

“On at least one occasion he forwarded documents obtained in the course of his professional activities to a representative of a Russian intelligence service.

“In return for providing information, the accused received cash in a previously unknown amount.”

Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall understands the man’s alleged activities “had been known about for some time” and he was being monitored by British security services.

The arrest is the result of a joint investigation by German and British authorities and was not a “snap arrest”, according to Bunkall.

Investigators have searched his home and office, the prosecutor’s statement said.

Germany’s foreign ministry said it was taking the case “very seriously” and that spying on allied states on German soil is unacceptable.

The Metropolitan Police said the 57-year-old had been arrested “on suspicion of committing offences relating to being engaged in ‘Intelligence Agent activity’ (under German law)”.

The force’s counter terrorism command is responsible for investigating alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act.

David S is expected to appear at the Federal Court of Justice in Germany later.

A UK government spokesperson said: “An individual who was contracted to work for the government was arrested yesterday by the German authorities.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further as there is an ongoing police investigation.”

Labour said the arrest raised “questions” over who is in charge of security issues in government.

The security minister post has been vacant for more than a month after James Brokenshire stepped down to focus on his cancer recovery.

Shadow security minister Conor McGinn said: “Britain’s national security is under threat 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but the UK has not had a security minister in position for over a month.

“Following today’s events, it raises questions about who in Government is overseeing the most serious task of keeping the British public safe and secure.”

………………………………………………

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa due before corruption inquiry

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to appear on Wednesday morning before the country’s long-running corruption inquiry.

It was set up to investigate allegations that his predecessor Jacob Zuma – during his term in office – allowed the wealthy Gupta family to plunder state resources and to influence policy and cabinet appointments.

Both Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.

The corruption is estimated to have cost South Africa $81bn (£58bn) in public funds and lost opportunities.

Mr Ramaphosa was a deputy leader of the governing African National Congress (ANC) party at the time.

He has been called to answer questions on what the party knew, if anything, about the alleged misconduct and if they did anything to try to stop it.

…………………………………………………………