TIG Post

Tag: America

  • Siamak Namazi was permitted to spend a week outside the Iranian prison

    An Iranian-American citizen convicted of spying was freed from custody amid rumours that Iran and the US were discussing prisoner releases.

    According to his lawyer, he has been imprisoned in Iran for over seven years on espionage-related charges and has been given a one-week holiday from the Evin prison in Tehran.

    Siamak Namazi’s temporary release on Saturday came as his father, former United Nations official Baquer Namazi, who was also convicted on spying charges, was permitted to leave Iran for medical treatment.

    It was not clear if the moves might be a step towards Siamak’s full release, nor whether it signals the possible furlough or release of other United States citizens detained in Iran.

    Iranian Americans, whose US citizenship is not recognized by Tehran, are often pawns between the two nations, now at odds over whether to revive a fraying 2015 pact under which Iran limited its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

    Soon after news of Siamak’s furlough broke, Iran’s Nournews said an unnamed regional nation had mediated between Tehran and Washington for the “simultaneous release of prisoners”. The semi-official news agency also reported that “billions of dollars of Iran’s frozen assets because of the US sanctions will be released soon”.

    There was no official comment from the Iranian government.

    Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer handling the Namazi cases, said on Twitter that he was “delighted to confirm for the first time in seven years that Siamak #Namazi is spending a night at home with his parents in Tehran”.

    “Baquer Namazi’s travel ban has been lifted. We won’t rest until they return to the US & their long nightmare has ended,” he added.

    Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF representative, was detained in 2016 when he travelled to Tehran to see his son, a businessman arrested in Iran months earlier. Both Namazis were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran on what the US and UN say were trumped-up spying charges.

    Baquer Namazi was granted medical furlough in 2018 and his sentence was subsequently commuted to time served, but Iranian authorities had not permitted him to leave the country. Last October, he underwent surgery in Iran to clear a blockage in an artery to the brain that his family and supporters described as life-threatening.

  • Joe Biden says Trump ideology threatens US democracy

    Supporters of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (Maga) agenda are a threat to democracy, President Joe Biden has said.

    “Maga forces are determined to take this country backwards,” he said in a primetime speech in Pennsylvania.

    Top Republican Kevin McCarthy gave his own address, saying Mr Biden had “severely wounded America’s soul”.

    The duelling speeches come two months before mid-term elections, which will decide the power balance in Washington.

    The Democratic president delivered his speech on Thursday night from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the US Declaration of Independence was signed. He picked up his 2020 campaign theme of restoring the “soul of America”.

    He said he was not condemning all 74 million Americans who voted for Mr Trump two years ago. “Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are Maga Republicans,” he said.

     

    “But there’s no question,” Mr Biden continued, “that the Republican party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”

    Mr Biden said Trump supporters thought of the mob who stormed the US Capitol last year as patriots rather than insurrectionists.

    “For a long time,” he continued, “we told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. But it’s not. We have to defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us.”

    In response, Mr Trump posted a defence of his Maga slogan and said his rival had “threatened America”.

    Throughout Mr Biden’s speech someone was heard heckling and sounding a bullhorn, according to a BBC reporter at the scene.

    Mr Biden addressed the disruption twice, saying the second time: “They’re entitled to be outrageous. This is a democracy.”

    The president, who came into office pledging to unite the country, has recently sharpened his rhetoric against supporters of Mr Trump.

    Last week Mr Biden equated what he called “extreme” Republicans with “semi-fascism”.

  • Ghanaian Landlord allegedly tortures his American tenant 67 times

    An American citizen, Mr. Claude D Convisser, who lives in the Sagnarigu Municipality in the Northern Region, has accused his Ghanaian landlord of torture and threats to vacate an apartment rented to him.

    According to Mr. Claude, a contract agreement he had with the landlord, which allows him to use the apartment for four years has not expired, but the landlord is breaking the agreement to evict him.

    Visibly worried Mr. Claude said in the landlord’s attempt to get him out of the house, he has subjected him to all forms of inhumane treatments, including physical torture, which he has reported to police in Tamale.

    He said the police were however yet to press charges on the landlord despite his several attempts to pursue the case.

    “They beat me up 67 times. I have reported the beatings to the Northern Regional Ghana police service and the Sagnarigu local station. The police have done nothing about the beating which has left me with broken right ribs and a broken bone on my left hand…”

    He said fearing for their lives following several threats, his workmates, security guard and house cleaner, have all left the apartment.

    The landlord, Mr. Claude added threatened to unroof the apartment and demanded he vacates the house immediately.

    Mr. Claude speaking to the media, appealed to authorities especially the police in Tamale to effect an arrest on the landlord and his accomplices, to save him from the continuous torture.

    Source: Alidu Abdur Rashid, Contributor

  • Coronavirus deaths in Latin America hit global high

    Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed Europe on Friday to become the region hardest-hit by coronavirus deaths, as India passed the sombre step of recording over two million infections. The world’s worst-hit region had reported 213,120 fatalities, 460 more than Europe, according to an AFP tally based on official data registered at 1700 GMT.

    Worldwide there have been more than 19 million cases and over 715,000 deaths from the virus first reported in China at the end of last year.

    The virus has flared up again in areas where it appeared to have been curbed, but it has steadily spread across sprawling territories in India and Africa.

    India’s cases have doubled in three weeks, reaching two million on Friday following a record daily jump of more than 60,000 new infections.

    It was only the third country after the United States and Brazil to surpass two million cases. Official figures show the world’s second most populous country has also recorded 41,500 deaths.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, with tens of millions of migrant workers losing their jobs almost overnight.

    But with the economy in tatters, restrictions have been steadily eased.

    Experts say the true number of cases and deaths are grossly under reported as the cause of death in the country of 1.3 billion people is rarely properly recorded.

    What’s more, the stigmatization of those infected puts off many from getting tested.

    “There’s both the fear of the disease as well as of isolation and quarantine,” Rajib Kumar, who heads the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP.

    However, there are some positive indicators in Africa, where health authorities warned against complacency amidst hopes that the pandemic is peaking in some countries.

    “African countries are doing their best, despite… limitations,” such as weak health systems, Mary Stephen of the World Health Organization Africa office, told AFP on Friday.

    Some countries have seen declines of around 20 percent in cases but there remain fears of a second wave.

    “Because we don’t see many people like we used to see in Italy, like 1,000 people dying (a day), people tend to relax, they think the risk is not so much in Africa,” said Stephen in a phone interview from Brazzaville.

    Mexico passes 50,000 deaths The world is putting its hope that an effective vaccine will be available sooner rather than later.

    Up to 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be made available for poorer countries by 2021, announced Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

    The vaccines, priced at a maximum $3 per dose, would be produced at the Serum Institute of India.

    In Latin America, which is already the region with the largest number of cases at 5.3 million, deaths continue to soar.

    Over the last week, 44 percent of global deaths from COVID-19 — 18,300 out of 41,500 — happened in the region.

    More than half, some 2.9 million, are in Brazil, which has also recorded 98,500 deaths among its 212 million people.

    Only the United States has been worse hit.

    The second worst-affected country in Latin America, Mexico, passed 50,000 deaths on Thursday.

    In the United States, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools could reopen this fall if they meet certain criteria.

    Schools in several US states have reopened for in-person classes — but some have already been hit by large quarantines of students and staff following fresh outbreaks.

    The US economy regained 1.8 million jobs in July, according to government data, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2 percent.

    But with COVID-19 cases spiking in several states economists raised concerns that the labor market could ake a turn for the worse.

    Cycling worlds at risk International sport continues to be affected by the virus despite many professional events restarting.

    Organizers of the world cycling championships, set for Switzerland next month, warned the event may be called off because of local health rules.

    And two more top 10 women players — Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens — withdrew from the US Open tennis tournament over coronavirus concerns, joining women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia and Spain’s reigning men’s champion Rafael Nadal.

    Source: Pulse Ghana

  • US Supreme Court backs protection for LGBT workers

    America’s top court has ruled that employers who fire workers for being gay or transgender are breaking the country’s civil rights laws.

    In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court said federal law, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, should be understood to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

    The ruling is a major win for LGBT workers and their allies.

    And it comes even though the court has grown more conservative.

    Lawyers for the employers had argued that the authors of the 1964 Civil Rights Act had not intended it to apply to cases involving sexual orientation and gender identity. The Trump administration sided with that argument.

    But Judge Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump, said acting against an employee on those grounds necessarily takes sex into account.

    “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” he wrote. “The limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands.”

    What does this mean?

    Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex as well as gender, race, colour, national origin, and religion.

    Under the Obama administration, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the anti-discrimination law, said it included gender identity and sexual orientation. But the Trump administration has moved to roll back some protections in health care and other areas.

    While some states in the US had already explicitly extended such protections to LGBT workers, many have not.

    Source: bbc.com

  • Bank of America pledges $1bn to address racial, economic inequality

    Bank of America Corp on Tuesday pledged $1 billion to help communities across the country address economic and racial inequality, the first big bank to vow monetary support following violent protests after the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

    “The events of the past week have created a sense of true urgency that has arisen across our nation, particularly in view of the racial injustices we have seen in the communities where we work and live,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said.

    “We all need to do more,” he said in a statement.

    Major cities across the country were hit by the worst civil unrest seen in years following the death of George Floyd last week, with demonstrators setting fire to a strip mall in Los Angeles, looting stores in New York City and clashing with police.

    The protests come at a time when businesses are looking to reopen after months of coronavirus-induced lockdowns.

    Bank of America said its four-year commitment will include programs such as virus testing and other health services, especially focusing on communities of color, support to minority-owned small businesses, and partnerships with historically black and Hispanic educational institutions.

    Last week, Citigroup Inc Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason, one of the few black executives on Wall Street, published a personal essay on expressing his “horror, disgust and anger” over the killing of Floyd.

    Heads of U.S. lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co also issued statements denouncing racism and discrimination, while CEOs of Canadian banks Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce called for action to tackle racism.

    Goldman Sach Group Inc in April pledged here $300 million to support communities and small business, while JPMorgan in March commited here $50 million to address public health and economic challenges from the pandemic.

    Source: reuters.com

  • Brazil deaths surge as virus pandemic bites Latin America

    Brazil saw its highest number of coronavirus deaths yet Tuesday as more than four months after Covid-19 first emerged in China, the force of the pandemic was beginning to hit hard in Latin America.

    Brazil’s surge came as the World Health Organisation agreed to launch an investigation into its response to the disease, whose unyielding march across the globe since last year has left more than 320,000 dead and shattered economies.

    The illness dismissed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a “little flu” claimed 1,179 lives there in the past 24 hours, the first time Brazil’s daily toll has exceeded 1,000.

    INFECTIONS RISING

    Infections already the third-highest globally are also climbing by the thousands, with the outbreak in the world’s sixth-largest country set to accelerate, and the peak not expected until early June.

    Chile also reported a spike in cases, and deployed soldiers in poor neighbourhoods in the capital Santiago following violent protests against food shortages and unemployment.

    In the US the outlook remained bleak, with a new modelling average released Tuesday suggesting virus deaths could surpass 113,000 by mid-June, underscoring America’s status as the nation worst affected by the pandemic and piling more pressure on President Donald Trump.

    US DEATHS

    The US has recorded more than 91,000 deaths and 1.5 million cases of Covid-19, by far the most of any country.

    Britain has the second highest number of deaths at more than 41,000; while Russia has the second highest number of infections, more than 300,000.

    Trump has fiercely defended his administration’s response to the crisis, repeatedly deflecting blame for the virus’s spread on to Beijing and the World Health Organisation.

    On Monday he accused the WHO of being a “puppet” of China, and threatened to make permanent a temporary freeze on US funding to the body.

    BEIJING HITS BACK

    Beijing hit back Tuesday, with the foreign ministry accusing the US of trying to “use China as an issue to shirk responsibility and bargain over its international obligations to the WHO”.

    Russia also denounced Trump’s threat.

    “We are against breaking everything there is for the sake of one state’s political or geopolitical preferences,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

    EU BACKING

    The European Union backed the WHO too, saying it was “not the time for finger pointing” — putting Brussels once again in opposition to Washington when it comes to Trump’s treatment of international organisations.

    With the row threatening the global response to the pandemic, WHO countries adopted a resolution calling for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response, and the measures taken by the agency.

    Both the United States and China voted for the resolution, brought by the European Union at the WHO’s annual assembly, despite earlier fears that the tensions might make a full consensus impossible.

    FINDING BALANCE

    While the political row rages, countries around the world are trying to find a balance between bringing their economies back to life and risking a second wave of the disease.

    The World Bank warned Tuesday that the crisis threatens to push some 60 million people into extreme poverty. The bank anticipates a five percent contraction in the world economy this year, with severe effects on the poorest countries.

    In the US, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the American economy risks suffering “permanent damage” the longer the lockdown continues. US home-building meanwhile plunged by 30 percent.

    UNEMPLOYMENT

    Fresh data also showed the number of unemployed in Britain soared nearly 70 per cent to 1.3 million in three months to March.

    The economic damage caused by the virus has led to unprecedented emergency stimulus measures by governments and central banks, and the latest came from Europe where France and Germany proposed a fund worth 500 billion euros.

    The path back to normality is slow, however.

    Football players in England’s Premier League began returned to limited training on Tuesday, but the league suffered a blow when it emerged there had been six positive tests among players.

    DROP IN EMISSIONS

    One effect of the lockdowns has been a drop in emissions from fossil fuels that cause global warming, with a 17 percent reduction globally in carbon pollution in April and a predicted drop of seven percent in 2020, research in Nature Climate Change said Tuesday.

    However this would still “make barely a dent in the ongoing build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at Britain’s Met Office Hadley Centre.

    Experts have warned that the social distancing measures that have affected more than half of humanity will remain necessary until a vaccine or viable treatment is found.

    VACCINE

    The global race to find a vaccine got a boost Monday when results from a trial by US biotech firm Moderna sparked optimism.

    In China, meanwhile, scientists at Peking University have said they are developing a drug that can help stop the pandemic by using antibodies that can neutralise the virus.

    Trump, for his part, defended his bombshell announcement Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that his own government’s experts have said is not suitable for fighting the coronavirus.

    “It doesn’t harm you,” he insisted during a Cabinet meeting at the White House Tuesday, adding that it “seems to be an extra line of defense.”

    Source: AFP

  • Latin America, Caribbean economies poised for worst economic crisis – U.N. agency

    The economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will contract by a record 5.3% in 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak ravages the region, unleashing the worst social and economic crisis in decades, according to a United Nations agency report on Tuesday.

    The crisis will hit hardest in South America, a region especially dependent on exports to China and impacted by plummeting commodity prices, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said in the report.

    Mexico will also be hard hit, with a contraction of 6.5% this year, according to the report.

    “The crisis in the region in 2020…will be the worst in its entire history,” the agency said. “To find a contraction of comparable magnitude, you need to go back to the Great Depression of 1930 (-5%) or even more to 1914 (-4.9%).”

    The shriveling regional economy will leave almost 30 million in poverty and deepen already alarming levels of extreme poverty in some countries, the agency warned. Unemployment will spike to 11.5%, an increase of 3.4% compared to 2019.

    Latin America has logged more than 100,000 cases of the novel coronavirus to date, according to a Reuters count based on official figures.

    Source: reuters.com