Joe Biden’s getting a big new assist from his old boss Barack Obama this week in the push to defeat President Donald Trump in just over 100 days.
In this file photo taken on January 12, 2017 US Vice President Joe Biden laughs as President Barack Obama speaks during a tribute to Biden at the White House
A preview of a sleekly produced discussion between the former president and vice president that will air Thursday features Biden questioning Trump’s empathy for Americans during the coronavirus crisis.
“He can’t relate in any way,” Biden says.
Obama replies that Biden’s ability to relate to ordinary people was “the reason I wanted you to be my vice president, and the reason why you were so effective.”
The filmed encounter begins with the two men getting out of limousines and wearing masks, before sitting down in a room, mask-free, though at a healthy distance.
Biden leads Trump in the polls but has done almost no in-person campaigning, due to the coronavirus shutdown. At 77, he is in the high-risk category.
While Biden is not seen as an especially charismatic candidate, Obama remains popular and is expected to campaign heavily for his former vice president. AFP
South Africa restaurateurs protested on Wednesday against a coronavirus curfew and an alcohol ban that they said were wrecking their industry.
Protest: South Africa’s restaurant industry says a night-time curfew and a ban on alcohol are destroying business
President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed a lockdown in March, restricting movement and gatherings.
He loosened some of the restrictions in June, allowing restaurants to reopen, initially for take-out and then for sit-down dining.
But last week, as numbers of infections surged, he brought back a night time curfew that starts at 1900 GMT, and banned afresh the sale of alcohol.
“What the government has put in place has been knee-capping,” Sean Barber, founder of the Rockets chain of restaurants, told AFP.
“It has literally wiped out our dinner trade. It’s decimating our industry,” he said.
Waving a placard with the inscription “#JobsSaveLives”, 32-year-old waiter Divine Moyo remarked “open we are, but normal is not the case”.
Many patrons were still sceptical about dining out, but lockdown measures have added to the eateries’ woes.
“It’s just been quiet,” lamented Moyo. “I’m going to bed hungry, my family is struggling.”
In Cape Town, a city popular with tourists, restaurant owners laid out rows of empty tables and chairs along pavements or in the middle of streets in what they dubbed a “One Million Seats on the Streets” demonstration.
The industry employs an estimated 800,000 people.
Restaurant Association of South Africa CEO Wendy Alberts said nearly a third of restaurants had already shuttered since the onset of lockdown and more closures were looming.
Her members want the government to urgently consider “lifting the liquor ban, having the curfew lifted”, among other demands.
“We want them (government) to consider just giving us a glass or two of wine with a main meal ordered. We want them to take the curfew away, (and) to allow us to just let our businesses to survive this,” said Jo-Ann Hinis, co-owner of Espresso cafe and bistro in Johannesburg.
Some of the placards carried during the protests read “#SaveOurIndustry” and “No Booze, we all loose.” AFP
US actress Amber Heard on Wednesday said her ex-husband Johnny Depp threw dozens of bottles at her “like grenades”, as she gave evidence for a third day at his London libel action.
Amber Heard has accused ex-husband Johnny Depp of sustained verbal and physical abuse
Heard, 34, said Depp, 57, had lobbed “all the bottles in reach” towards her during an explosive 2015 row on a trip to Australia.
Depp is suing the publishers of British tabloid The Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the author of a 2018 article that labelled him a “wife beater” at London’s High Court.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star has emphatically denied 14 claims of violence that NGN said proves its story, and sought to portray Heard as calculating and dishonest.
The article in The Sun caused him serious reputational damage, he argues.
But Heard has accused Depp of sustained verbal and physical abuse, as well as displaying “extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour”.
The couple met on the set of the 2011 film “The Rum Diary”, married in 2015 but divorced two years later.
– ‘Violent nights’ –
Wednesday’s cross-examination focused on Heard’s allegations that Depp repeatedly assaulted her in Australia, fuelled by drink and drugs, as well as other incidents in the US.
“He started picking them (bottles) up one by one and throwing them like grenades,” she said during questioning by one of the actor’s lawyers, adding he lobbed around 30 in total.
“He threw all the bottles that were in reach, all except for one which was a celebratory magnum-sized bottle of wine.”
The court has previously heard that Depp’s finger was severed during the alleged incident. The Hollywood star blamed his ex-wife for the injury, which she denied.
“I don’t think he meant to sever the finger but yes he did continue the attack,” she told the court.
Heard admitted that she got angry “at times” but “not to the extent where I would throw anything at him offensively”.
Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws also asked her about an alleged December 2015 incident of domestic violence in Los Angeles, which Heard has described as “one of the worst and most violent nights of our relationship”.
She defended claims Depp slapped her, dragged her by the hair through their apartment — pulling clumps of her hair out — and then repeatedly punched her in the head.
“I had two black eyes, a broken nose, a broken rib… I had bruises all over my body,” she said, after Laws argued a nurse who had examined her shortly after the row said she found no bruises.
Laws told Heard that the account was “just nonsense”, adding that the only blood the nurse could find was fresh and on her lip.
“You had just bitten your lip because there was fresh blood on it. Had you just done that for (the nurse’s) benefit?” Laws asked.
“Of course not,” Heard replied.
The three-week trial is expected to run into next week, with a judge expected to rule on the case at a later date. AFP
Cracks are appearing in Madagascar’s government after its health minister requested international help to cope with a surge in COVID-19 cases despite an official campaign to promote a touted fix for the virus.
Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina drinks a sample of Covid Organics which he touted as a remedy for coronavirus
The government has been distributing a herbal drink that President Andry Rajoelina has proclaimed as a cure for coronavirus and protection against it, despite warnings the brew has not been clinically tested.
Hospital officials in the capital Antananarivo have said they are running out of beds as infections have surged in recent days.
“The government would like to express its dismay at the discovery of a letter signed by the minister of public health urgently requesting support in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic,” government spokeswoman Lalatiana Rakotozafy said in a statement dated Tuesday.
In a letter addressed Monday to donors, Health Minister Ahmad Ahmad made an “urgent appeal” to development agencies.
“Over the past weeks, the COVID-19 epidemic has evolved in a very critical way in Madagascar with notable flare-ups in certain regions, particularly in Antananarivo,” it said.
The health ministry itemised what it called its “most urgent needs” — oxygen bottles, 337 ventilators, 2.3 million face masks, 697,000 pairs of gloves and 533,200 medical blouses.
The ministry’s appeal “is a personal initiative”, taken “without consulting” either the government or Rajoelina, the government statement said.
“It is clear that many crucial points in the management of this health crisis have escaped the vigilance of the minister of public health,” it said.
To date Madagascar, a poor Indian Ocean island-nation, has recorded 8,162 coronavirus cases, including 69 deaths.
President Rajoelina has been promoting an infusion derived from artemisia — a plant with proven anti-malarial properties — as a homegrown cure for COVID-19.
The drink, which has been called Covid-Organics, has been distributed not only in Madagascar but also in several other countries, mainly in Africa.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that there have been no published scientific studies to validate claims for the drink, and mainstream scientists have pointed out the potential risks from untested concoctions.
– Poverty –
Most of Madagascar’s 26 million inhabitants live in grinding poverty with limited access to healthcare, and regularly take herbal teas for a variety of common ailments.
The government has blamed the recent jump in cases on “increased testing capacity”.
“Positive COVID-19 cases did not take (Covid-Organics) or only took it sporadically, without following the prescribed dosage,” said official documents sent to AFP on Tuesday.
On June 4, Education Minister Rijasoa Andriamanana was sacked after announcing a plan to spend $2.2 million (1.9 million euros) on sweets and lollipops for children to ease the “bitter taste” of the drink.
The expense sparked outrage, fanned by the Malagasy press, and the order was cancelled. AFP
Kim Kardashian West on Wednesday opened up about her husband Kanye West’s bipolar disorder, calling on the media and public to show “compassion and empathy” in light of the rapper’s recent erratic behavior.
US realty TV star Kim Kardashian (L) and husband US rapper Kanye West attend the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in February 2020
West launched his presidential campaign Sunday in a rambling speech where he made bizarre comments about abolitionist Harriet Tubman, revealed he had wanted to abort his now seven-year-old daughter, and broke down in tears.
He has continued grabbing headlines in recent days for his tweets, later deleted, that accused his wife and mother-in-law of trying to lock him up, and suggested he is seeking a divorce.
Reality TV star Kardashian West wrote in a lengthy Instagram story that she had been reluctant to speak publicly about how her husband’s illness had affected his family “because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy.
“But today, I feel like I should comment on it because of the stigma and misconceptions about mental health,” said the 39-year-old.
Biploar disorder is a mental illness characterized by extreme mood swings.
Patients experience both mania, where they feel euphoric and often act recklessly, and bouts of severe depression that can leave them unable to function and fixated on suicide.
Kardashian West said in her post: “Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behavior know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor.
“People who are unaware or far removed from this experience can be judgmental and not understand that the individual themselves have to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.”
She said she understood that, as a public figure, West’s words were subject to criticism and could evoke “strong opinions and emotions.”
– ‘Brilliant and complicated’ –
But she added that he is a “brilliant and complicated person who on top of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother … has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder.
“Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions.”
She closed out her statement by saying that living with bipolar disorder did not invalidate her husband’s dreams or ambitions, “and as we have all witnessed, many of his big dreams have come true.”
West, one of the world’s best-selling artists, announced he was running for president on July 4.
“We as a society talk about giving grace to the issue of mental health as a whole, however we should also give it to the individuals who are living with it,” said Kardashian West.
“I kindly ask that the media and public give us the compassion and empathy that is needed so that we can get through this,” she concluded.
West, 43, first revealed his diagnosis on his 2018 album “Ye” where he called it his “superpower.”
For reasons that aren’t fully clear, bipolar disorder is often associated with creative people and high-achievers.
Research has shown that many who have it view their condition as an asset, even if it alienates family and friends. AFP
US President Donald Trump announced he was deploying more federal agents to Chicago and other major cities Wednesday to help battle a jump in gun violence and shooting deaths.
US President Donald Trump announced a “surge” of federal agents to crime hotspots including Chicago, following an increase in violence in the nation’s third-largest city
The move came a day after 15 people in Chicago, the country’s third largest city, were wounded in a drive-by shooting at a funeral for a man recently gunned down in what police called gang violence.
But officials made clear that the government was not sending paramilitary forces in to address protests, as it has in a deeply controversial move in Portland, Oregon.
“I’m announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into communities plagued by violent crime,” Trump said at the White House, with Attorney General William Barr and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security chiefs in the audience.
“We want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker,” he said, adding that, for the cities, “Help is on the way.”
– Epidemic of gun violence –
Barr said officers from the FBI, US Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, would be boosted in Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, as part of ongoing Operation Legend, named after four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, shot and killed while he slept on June 29 in Kansas City.
Around 200 officers from those bodies have already been deployed in Kansas City to help with the gun violence there.
The operation is “to protect the residents of those cities from senseless acts of deadly violence by targeting those involved in gang activity and those who use guns to commit violent crime,” said Barr.
Some 200 more agents would be deployed to Chicago and another 30 to Albuquerque, Barr said.
Shootings have spiked in a number of US cities this summer. Chicago has suffered about 1,640 shootings and 414 murders this year, according to police data.
Both figures are up around 50 percent from a year ago. Officials blame frustration and economic pains from the COVID-19 crisis, stepped gang rivalries, and easy access to guns.
New York shootings are also running at their highest levels in over a decade, and many other urban areas are facing similar challenges.
Shootings have accelerated during the summer across the country. More than 60 people were shot in Chicago, including 14 fatalities, over the past weekend alone.
– Law and order theme –
Trump, who has sought to make law-and-order a theme for his flagging re-election campaign, warned Monday he could send federal officers to New York and other Democratic-led cities to protect federal buildings and confront protests that he and lieutenants blame on “violent anarchists.”
For the most part, protests across the country since the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer have been peaceful and focus on racism and police abuse.
Two weeks ago the Department of Homeland Security began sending federal agents, including US Border Patrol officers, to Portland to fend off protests that have seen federal buildings in the city damaged with graffiti and broken windows.
On Monday though 15 mayors pushed back strongly in a letter to Barr and Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, saying they would not accept federal agents in their cities to deal with legal protests.
“Unilaterally deploying these paramilitary-type forces into our cities is wholly inconsistent with our system of democracy and our most basic values,” they wrote.
“It is concerning that federal law enforcement is being deployed for political purposes,” they said.
But Barr and Wolf stressed Wednesday that the new deployments would partner with local law enforcement to focus on gun violence, which the mayors of Chicago and some other cities say they would welcome.
Wolf said there was a clear distinction with Portland. In Chicago, he stressed, the mission “is to protect the public from violent crime on the streets.” AFP
Zanu PF Deputy Secretary for youth affairs, Tendai Chirau
By Nyashadzashe Ndoro
The opposition MDC Alliance Youth Assembly has criticised “reckless” utterances by the Zanu PF Youth League that they were going to counter the 31 July mass protests against corruption, as “unfortunate and ill thought.”
Zanu PF Deputy Secretary for youth affairs, Tendai Chirau
In a statement seen by Nehanda Radio, MDC Alliance Youth Assembly National spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma said the ruling party youths would be brushed aside “if they stand on the course of the revolution.”
This comes after acting Zanu PF Deputy Secretary for youth affairs, Tendai Chirau vowed to crush the planned 31 July national protest to claiming that they were meant to “unconstitutionally” remove President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“Statements by the delusional ZANU PF Youth League Deputy Secretary one Tendai Chirau that they will counter 31 July is a clear manifestation of wishful thinking and day-dreaming.
“July 31 is about the people, the suffering masses so not even a small youth grouping of a political party in dilapidation like ZANU PF has the capacity to stop Zimbabweans from speaking against corruption.
“Whatever victory Chirau claims they will be celebrating, they better do that inside their Shake Shake building.
“Out there people are hungry and angry hence we are not going to entertain any tomfoolery meant to harbour corrupt government criminals.
“Maybe Chirau needs to dig a little bit into history and his family lineage,” Chuma warned.
Chuma added, “certainly he will find one of his grandfathers, one Chief Jeremiah Chirau who went to bed with Ian Douglas Smith against the masses’ call for freedom.
“We all know what happened to that adulterated masquerade called Chief Chirau.
“He was swept away together with his handler, Ian Smith by the winds of change.
“Just like 1979, July 31 knows no puppets of dictators and those that stand in the way of the people will be swept aside,” Chuma said.
On Monday police stormed journalist Hopewell Chino’no’s home before arresting him. The July 31 demonstration convenor, opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader, Jacob Ngarivhume was also arrested. They were both charged for allegedly inciting violence. Nehanda Radio
Econet Wireless has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of planning a military overthrow of Zimbabwe’s leading telecommunications provider because the former Zanu PF leader’s adviser Christopher Mutsvangwa has interests in telecoms.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s former advisor Christopher Mutsvangwa
The urgent court application filed at the High Court by Econet chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni on Tuesday, accused Mutsvangwa of threatening the telecoms giant with a military coup tantamount to the one that overthrew late former president Robert Mugabe in November 2017.
“This loss value of the Zimbabwe dollar has been blamed on Econet and Old Mutual as it fully appears on the press statements,” Mboweni said in his urgent chamber application.
“Chris Mutsvangwa was on television blaming Econet and threatening them with action similar to the coup that happened in 2017.
“The reference to coup betrays an agenda to destroy Econet from its market leadership position and enthrone another operator.
“Therefore, these warrants are calculated to enrage Econet subscribers and to drive them from Econet.
“If this position is disputed by the Respondents, the Applicant reserves the right to play the video by Mutsvangwa at the hearing.”
“It is also important to mention that Chris Mutsvangwa is married to the current Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa and that he has an interest in telecommunications industry.
“At the time Applicant applied for its initial licence in 1997, Chris Mutsvangwa was a principal in a consortium that applied for telecommunications licence but was unsuccessful.
“As a result, the threats against the applicant must be taken in that context,” Mboweni said.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Commissioner General Godwin Matanga was cited as 1st Respondent with CID’s head of Asset Forfeit Unit Mkhululi Nyoni and Provincial Magistrate Richard Ramaboa as 2nd and 3rd Respondents respectively.
Mnangagwa’s administration accuses Econet subsidiary, Ecocash of driving the country’s volatile foreign currency exchange rate through computer generated bank balances.
Econet on Monday filed an urgent chamber application in the High Court to suspend the execution of a court judgment on the Magistrate’s decision to grant the police with a search and seizure warrant last week Friday.
The Magistrate Court granted the police the search and seizure warrant on basis that the state security had claimed it was investigating the country’s top mobile telephone operator for suspected money laundering. Nehanda Radio
Award winning journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, arrested on charges of inciting violence was on Wednesday visited by an unidentified woman at 4am to allegedly profile him, an issue that has raised concerns over his safety in the cells.
Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin’ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin’ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. Hopewell Chin’ono appeared alongside Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition politician who is accused of conspiring with to mobilize anti government protests planned for July 31.(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Chin’ono appeared before Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna on Wednesday facing a charge of inciting public violence and his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa raised fears over his safety in police custody.
Mtetwa also accused the police of breaking a French door after storming Chin’ono’s Chisipite house in Harare to arrest him on Monday.
Prosecutor Whisper Mabhaudhi challenged bail saying Chin’ono was difficult to arrest and well connected within the international community.
He added that Chin’ono had ordered his worker to block the police from entering his home.
Mtetwa raised complaints the top journalist was not informed of his charge upon arrest as per procedure.
“We complain that the whole process constituted an unlawful detention of the accused.
“We also want it placed on record that since they have his phone, they should not tamper with its contents or delete its social media content,” Mtetwa said.
“The woman went to the cells around 4am and profiled the accused indicating that she was part of the investigating team. Upon asking, the CID said they were not aware who the person is.
“Clearly there is a parallel structure that does not respect the law and Constitutional provisions,” Mtetwa said.
Magistrate Nduna ordered the state to investigate the allegations within three days.
Mabhaudhi said said that there was a likelihood for Chin’ono to abscond adding that the journalist knew the police were coming and that was why he was ready to electronically capture their arrival.
He said Chin’ono had already alerted the whole world that police were at his home.
“This assertion is derived from the fact that when he was arrested, the police, upon arrival at his place of residence, he had already given an instruction to an occupant at his house that he should tell the police that he was not in attendance.
“He once said it in an interview that he helped Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa who allegedly approached him seeking help with outside contacts.This evidence is admissible,” Mabhaudhi said.
“If the accused person is released, he is likely to commit the similar offense.
“He will have time to mobilize people to participate in the July 31 demonstration.
“The accused is mobilising people for demonstrations that intend to remove a constitutionally elected government,” the prosecutor added.
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development has with immediate effect suspended face to face lectures at universities and colleges as part of measures to minimise the risk of contracting Covid-19.
Bulawayo Polytechnic
The institutions are now restricted to online learning but final year students have been allowed to finish writing their examinations.
All students have been given up to Friday to vacate halls of residence and the ministry said it will ensure all institutions have resources and necessary infrastructure for e-learning.
The Higher and Tertiary Education permanent secretary Professor Fanuel Tagwira said the decision to suspend face to face lectures was in response to the increasing Covid-19 cases.
“It is now observed that Covid-19 cases are escalating daily and this may put the lives of students and members of staff in our institutions at high risk” he said.
Prof Tagwira said a lecturer at Chinhoyi University of Technology had tested positive to Covid-19 prompting the ministry to act decisively to protect lecturers and students.
“These are different times. The health of the student and of tertiary institutions staff is vital. So, we are therefore putting health first and ensuring that we migrate to online learning as we put public health first. The events of the past week show that we cannot risk having students going for lectures at our colleges which recently opened.
“As for non-final year students at universities, they had not yet reopened as their lectures were suspended during the first leg of the lockdown. So, their opening is deferred until further notice,” said Professor Tagwira.
He said authorities at the various institutions were working with the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company to facilitate transport for students returning home.
Prof Tagwira said the ministry had also engaged security services to ensure that final year students were allowed to pass through roadblocks to write exams at their respective campuses.
Some university of Zimbabwe students reportedly failed to sit for an exam yesterday after they were denied to pass a check point despite producing student identification cards. The Chronicle
