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Coronavirus pandemic could be over within two years – WHO head says
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production unbosom to you the message disclose by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) that he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in under two years.
Speaking in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 had taken two years to overcome.
But he added that current advances in technology could enable the world to halt the virus “in a shorter time”.
“Of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading,” he said.
“But at the same time, we have also the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it,” he noted, stressing the importance of “national unity, global solidarity”.
The flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.
Coronavirus has so far killed almost 800,000 people and infected nearly 23 million.
On Friday, a number of countries announced their highest numbers of new cases in months.
South Korea recorded 324 new cases – its highest single-day total since March.
As with its previous outbreak, the new infections have been linked to churches, and museums, nightclubs and karaoke bars have now been closed in and around the capital Seoul in response.
SOURCES__BBC, Reuters, Aljazeera
IS MODOU LAMIN MARONG THE NEXT GAMBIA FOOTBALL SAVIOR?
Afrinity Production today draw cognizance on Modou Lamin Marong, a Gambian Sweden based professional football player. He is 22 years old and started his football career since he was a kid.
Growing up in the Gambia and from a small village in Niumi Mayamba in the North Bank Region of the Country. Football has always been his passion since he was young.
Lamin Marong played for football clubs like JONSERED IF in which he scored a total goal of 18 and 12 assist before playing for his present team ROBERTSFORS IK which he joined in less than a month and scored 2 goals.
Staying in Sweden for about 4 years, Marong has scores not less than 20 goals due to his unique skills, his pace, fastness and goal scoring ambitions. He made known of his experience in Sweden and how learning under different coaches has helped him.
Modou Lamin Marong has interviews with BBC and other well known Media houses as he plan further on how he want to take The Gambia to the world.
When ask about what his weakness is, Marong replied “My weakness in football is I hate loosing.”
He further said, “Yes football is My Dream. And I am living in my Dreams now”.
BY Amie T. Camara
Corona Virus Update in The Gambia
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production can confidently brief you on the state of Covid-19 in the Gambia.
The Gambia on the 19 reported 14 new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 77. According Standard Newspaper, not all deaths occurred on a single day; sampling dates spanned from the 14th to the 1 7th August.
Out of the 14 deaths 13 are males and 1 female. The new 172 cases registered took the total number of Covid-19 cases ever confirmed in the Gambia to 2,288.
This made the country to have 302 people in quarantine, 1 , 776 active cases, 198 probable cases and a crude fatality ratio of 3.4%. Banjul recorded more cases than any other location within WRI.
Meanwhile, the Gambia yesterday confirmed another 4 deaths which took the death toll to 81 at the moment.
Credit___Standard___Newspaper
President Buhari Calls For Immediate Release Of Malian President Keita
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production reveal to you that President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has called for the immediate release of Malian president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and a return to constitutional order in the West African nation.
According to Channels TV, a statement by the Nigerian State House said Buhari made the call on Thursday during a virtual meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“President Keita and other detainees should be released unconditionally and with immediate effect,” the Nigerian leader said.
He assured that Nigeria is in support of “the efforts of President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, for wider regional and continental consultations, especially on the possibility of detaching ECOWAS and AU troops with the UN Mission in Mali, to protect State Institutions and also act as the first layer of defence in the country to help preserve and protect lives and property.”
According to the Nigerian leader, the removal of the Malian President could have “devastating consequences” for the country and the West African sub-region.
“Today, Mali has not only descended into political chaos but also socio-economic and security disaster with potentially tragic consequences to Mali and the sub-region,” he explained.
While commending the African Union, the UN and other international bodies for condemning the coup in Mali, he called on them to work with ECOWAS in the restoration of peace to the country.
“ECOWAS, the AU, and the UN should not stand by, while the situation deteriorates,” he said.
“Thus far, their strong statements of condemnation are sincerely appreciated and I urge them to continue to walk this route together with us until sanity returns to Mali with the restoration of Civil Administration.”
Source___Channels TV
Our Biggest Challenge Has Been The Attitude Of Nigerians – Boss Mustapha
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production unveil to you the challenges made known by the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, on Thursday, as he ripped into the attitude of Nigerians, placing the blame for the country’s failure to have halted the escalation of the pandemic in Nigeria.
In an impassioned speech during the briefing of the PTF, Mustapha who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation said everything was put in place to stop the pandemic from spreading as much as it has in the country. The only thing missing was the right attitude.
“Our biggest challenge has been the attitude of Nigeria; that is our biggest challenge,” he said, reflecting on the fact that confirmed cases in the country have exceeded 50,000 with the death toll just 15 cases shy of 1,000.
A visibly upset Mustapha suggested that rather than follow guidelines, Nigerians thought only about their rights, failing to realise that the rights came with “correspondent responsibilities”.
“We would have flattened the curve. We would have dampened this ravaging virus by now if we had just complied with the simple instructions,” he lamented.
Another area Mustapha took up issues with Nigerians is in testing.
Since the first case of the pandemic was confirmed in Nigeria on February 27 and as Nigeria struggled to contain the spread, there have been concerns about the country’s testing capacity.
Although the country has ramped up its testing capacity, the PTF Chairman is unsatisfied with the attitude of Nigerians towards getting tested.
Nigeria with a population estimated at over 200 million has not tested up to 500,000 samples while South Africa with a population of 57 million has tested more than three million people.
Apart from the attitude, Mustapha doesn’t see any major problem with Nigeria’s response.
For him, money wasn’t really the problem. Neither was it the absence of a plan.
Source___Channels TV
US demands restoration of UN sanctions against Iran
By Amie T. Camara
As confidently known by Afrinity Production, we can clearly disclose to you the United States moved on Thursday to restore U.N. sanctions on Iran, this includes an arms embargo, arguing Tehran was in violation of a nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015 even though it is unveil to Afrinity Production that Washington itself abandoned that agreement two years ago.
To clear this to you, you have to know that all the remaining parties to the nuclear deal – Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China -are immediately notified by the Security Council, in letters seen by Reuters, that they did not recognise the U.S. move.
The United States acted after the Security Council resoundingly rejected its bid last week to extend an arms embargo on Iran beyond its expiration in October.
“It is an enormous mistake not to extend this arms embargo. It’s nuts!” Pompeo told reporters at the United Nations as he harshly criticized what he described as the “one-sided, foolish” nuclear deal negotiated by former U.S. President Barack Obama.
President Donald Trump has called it the “worst deal ever.” The pact aimed to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief and is enshrined in a 2015 Security Council resolution. Washington argues that it can trigger the snapback process because the resolution still names it as a participant to the nuclear deal.
Germany, France and Britain on Thursday described the U.S. attempt to trigger a sanctions snapback as “incompatible” with their efforts to support the already fragile nuclear deal, while Russia and China said it was “illegitimate.”
Source___Aljazeera
Joe Biden presents US election as a fight for the nation’s soul
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production gladly brings to you former US Vice President Joe Biden acceptance speech of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination during a speech he delivered for the largely virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington.
Afrinity Production can clearly disclose to you that Joe Biden has formally accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, describing in a televised speech to a virtual convention his vision for a new United States that is facing multiple crises at once.
“It is an America we can rebuild together,” Biden said, pledging to make control of the coronavirus outbreak his first act if elected president.
“We will never get our economy back on track. We will never get our kids safely back in schools. Never have our lives back until we deal with this virus,” Biden said.
“Joe Biden gave the speech of his lifetime, and he accomplished what he needed to, presenting an optimistic, forward-thinking voice for voters,” said Nichola Gutgold, a professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State University.
“He came across as ‘the president next-door’ offering a glimpse of his life as a young boy growing up in a small town, combining a folksy decency with policy points,” Gutgold told Al Jazeera.
“It was unlike any other convention speech in American history.”
Democrats used the four-day convention programme to frame the November election as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency and laid out a series of centre-left policies on key issues confronting the nation.
Source__Aljazeera, Reuters
As U.S. Schools Move to Reopen Despite Covid-19, Teachers Threaten to Strike
By Amie T. Camara
It is clear to Afrinity Production that Educators and families around the United States continued to grapple this week with the complicated realities of opening schools in the middle of a pandemic, as teachers’ unions threatened strikes, colleges rethought reopening plans on the fly, and school districts, discovering new cases, improvised quarantines and classroom cleanings.
The voice of teachers in the reopening debate took center stage Wednesday in Michigan, where the Detroit Federation of Teachers voted to authorize their executive committee to call for a strike over plans to open public schools for in-person learning.
“It’s just simply not safe for us to return into our buildings and classrooms right now,” the union said in a video statement before the vote, noting more than 1,400 virus-related deaths in the community.
New York City’s powerful teachers’ union sought to ramp up pressure on the mayor on Wednesday to delay or call off his plan to reopen the city’s 1,800 schools on Sept. 10. The president of the United Federation of Teachers threatened to sue the city or to support a strike if the city could not satisfy a list of safety demands, and called for all students and staff members to be tested before school starts.
Public sector employees are legally barred from striking in New York, but teachers have threatened to hold sickouts if they believe school buildings are not safe.
College-bound students were thrown a curve ball Wednesday when the College Board said that more than 178,000 students who signed up to take the SAT college admission test on Aug. 29 would probably not be able to do so because nearly half the testing sites in the nation are closed or operating at limited capacity. All told, some 402,000 students were scheduled to take the test that day.
Source___Reteurs
APC in Nigeria Resolves Leadership Tension In Cross River
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production is pleased to disport to you that, the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nigeria has resolved the lingering leadership tension in the Cross River State chapter of the party.
The meeting according to Channels TV, was held on Tuesday at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, held at the instance of the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee and Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni.
APC’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
He noted that deliberations at the meeting centred on the leadership of the party in Cross River State, where the two factions led by Etim John and John Ochalla respectively, were in contention.
Senator Akpanudoedehe, after hearing presentations from parties, stressed the need for those present to come to an amicable resolution.
He explained that it was important for members to unite together to prepare the APC for the fast-approaching elections in Cross River.
At the end of deliberations, Senator Matthew Mbu was unanimously mandated to assume the office of the Cross River State Chairman of the Party.
The decision was subsequently approved by the Governor Buni led APC Caretaker/Extra Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee.
“Commendably, the two factional chairmen have expressed relief at having been able to sink their differences in the interest of moving the party forward in the state,” the statement said.
Source___Channels TV
Kamala Harris Accepts Vice President Nomination, Blasts Trump As ‘Failure’
By Amie T. Camara
Afrinity Production unveil to you the history made by Kamala Harris on Wednesday when she accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president, while joining Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to condemn President Donald Trump’s profound “failure” as a leader.
In her vice-presidential acceptance speech on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Harris said “there is no vaccine for racism” as she offered her vision for a more inclusive country.
Ms. Harris said she was committed to the values that her mother had taught her and to a “vision of our nation as a beloved community — where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, no matter where we come from or who we love.”
She said she imagined the United States as “a country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth” and also as a place “where we look out for one another” and “we rise and fall as one.”
Harris, the first black woman on a major party’s White House ticket, accused Trump of turning “our tragedies into political weapons.” And she urged Americans to vote for Joe Biden, “a president who will bring all of us together.”
“Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” the former California prosecutor charged in her acceptance speech.
“We’re at an inflection point.”
Biden, who faces Trump on November 3, is due to give his own acceptance speech today, closing a Democratic convention held wholly online and on television due to coronavirus safety precautions.
SOURCES
Channels TV And
The New York Times
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