The Minority in Parliament is pressing the government to urgently engage with U.S. authorities in hopes of securing an exemption from a newly introduced 10% levy on Ghana’s exports to America.
Ranking Member of Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, made the appeal, warning that the additional charge would make Ghanaian goods more expensive abroad, undermining their competitiveness and threatening exporters.
“The newly imposed 10% tariff on Ghanaian exports to the U.S. will undoubtedly increase costs for Ghanaian products in that market. Ghanaian goods risk losing their competitive edge—an outcome that could severely impact businesses and livelihoods that rely on exports,” he cautioned in a social media post on Friday.
Oppong Nkrumah believes the government must act swiftly and take advantage of existing diplomatic tools—particularly those available under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA)—to negotiate a reprieve.
“At a time when economic diplomacy has been enhanced in the erstwhile government under pillars like the AfCFTA, Ghana must engage the United States and ultimately seek a waiver for our nation,” he added.
He also noted that if the administration’s proposed 24-hour economy is to thrive, it would need a vibrant export sector—something that could be severely undermined if the tariffs are left unchallenged.
While the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs have not yet issued any public remarks on the development, there is growing anticipation that business groups and sector players will soon voice their stance on the matter.
The big storm in northeastern Tennessee had strong winds that knocked over power lines and trees. Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man was in a car that got hit by a tree.
On Wednesday, there was a very serious tornado warning for the southern part of Nashville. The towns of Spring Hill, Chapel Hill, and Eagleville were also in danger.
A tornado alert was given in Columbia, which is about 45 miles south of Nashville. According to Lynn Thompson, who helps run Maury County 911, people in Columbia got hurt and their homes got damaged. Thompson said to The Associated Press that he couldn’t give more information: “We have too much to do right now. ”
A big storm hit Gaston County in North Carolina, so the government declared a state of emergency on Wednesday evening. Emergency workers were clearing roads of fallen power lines and trees and were helping people, officials said. The New Hope Fire Department went to help when a tree fell on a car. Officials said that one person died in the car and another person was taken to the hospital.
Over 135,000 people did not have electricity in the state by Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage. us
Tornadoes were spotted in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio on Tuesday night, according to the US National Weather Service. The storms came one day after a deadly tornado hit a town in Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service said tornadoes hit several counties in western Ohio on Tuesday: five in Warren County and one each in Darke, Mercer, and Auglaize counties. The weather service is checking Franklin and Butler counties to see if tornadoes hit there too. A tornado hit Jefferson County, but experts will have to check the damage to figure out how strong it was, according to Jeff Craven, a weather expert in Pittsburgh.
On Wednesday, the crews looked at the damage from the big storms with hail and heavy rain. The storms also caused power outages for many utility customers.
The area of Portage in Kalamazoo County was heavily impacted, with a FedEx building being torn apart and over twelve mobile homes being destroyed. Roughly 50 people were stuck inside the broken building because of fallen power lines.
Over twelve houses were ruined in a group of mobile homes in Pavilion Township, and 16 people were hurt, according to Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.
On Wednesday afternoon, Samantha Smith held a box as she left her mom’s damaged home in Pavilion Township, which is about 137 miles west of Detroit. The box had her grandmother’s remains inside. Being able to find the most treasured items gave Smith a rare feeling of relief during the terrible storm.
Her mom, dad, and brother got hurt in the storm but they made it through.
“I have thanked God so many times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My children are doing well and are healthy. ” “We need to recover what we lost. ”
Travis Wycoff went out on Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had hit the Portage area. He helped an older couple out of their partly fallen home and saved a service dog from a house.
“Many people were running in the streets to find other people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just very chaotic. ”
In southern Indiana, a tornado hit on Wednesday morning and damaged homes in a neighborhood near the city of Sellersburg. Sellersburg is about 12 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.
The storm messed up 24 buildings, according to the Clark County Emergency Management Agency.
Candice Holmes, who lives in the Lewis & Clark neighborhood north of Sellersburg, said that she, her husband and son went to their bathroom for safety when they heard the storm coming and the wind suddenly got very strong.
“It was really frightening. ” Please simplify this text. “I’m happy that we’re still alive,” Holmes said to WDRB-TV.
Tornadoes were also found in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas, and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia tornado happened on Wednesday in eastern Ohio. It was the 11th tornado in the state this year, even though the state usually only sees an average of two tornadoes a year.
Large pieces of hail the size of baseballs fell on Wednesday in areas just southwest of St Louis, Missouri. There was heavy rain which caused sudden flooding and at least one person had to be rescued from the water near Sullivan, a town that was hit by a small tornado just two days ago. Large balls of ice also damaged things in the Kansas City area.
On Tuesday, there were big storms in the central United States after heavy rain, strong winds, hail, and tornadoes hit the area the day before. The Plains and Midwest have been hit hard by tornadoes this spring.
The whole week in the US will have a lot of storms. The Midwest and the South will have the worst weather for the rest of the week. This includes cities like Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St Louis and Cincinnati, where over 21 million people live. It will be sunny during the weekend.
The ex-president’s lawyers asked a judge in Manhattan to delay the New York criminal trial until his claim of immunity in his election interference case in Washington, D.C, is resolved
Merchan did not make a decision right away on Monday, the judge scolded Trump’s lawyers for not filing a document on time and for waiting too long to bring up the issue of immunity. The judge also said that from now on, both Trump’s lawyers and the prosecutors need to ask for permission before making any other legal requests before the trial.
Trump says he cannot be prosecuted for things he did while being president. His lawyers say that some of the evidence and alleged actions in the hush money case happened while he was in the White House and were part of his official duties.
The highest court will listen to arguments on April 25. This is a month after jury selection was supposed to start in Trump’s hush money case. He has four criminal cases and the first one is going to trial. He is trying to become the Republican presidential nominee and win the White House again.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office did not want to say anything. Lawyers need to give their answer to Trump’s request for a delay in court this week.
Trump first brought up the immunity issue in his criminal case in Washington, D.C. It’s about claims that he tried to change the 2020 election results before his followers rioted at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The hush money case is about claims that Trump lied about his company’s records to hide payments to his lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump keep bad stories secret during his 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen gave Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her saying she had sex with Trump while he was married.
Trump’s lawyers say that the evidence prosecutors want to use in the hush money trial, like the messages he posted on social media in 2018 about paying Cohen, were from when he was president and were part of his official duties.
Last year, Trump said he did not do the 34 crimes of lying about his business records. He said he didn’t have sex with Daniels, and his lawyers say the money given to Cohen was for legal costs, not to hide anything.
Last year, a judge said no to Trump’s request to move a case from state court to federal court. Trump had said the case was about his job as president, but the judge disagreed. If the case had been transferred to federal court, Trump’s lawyers could have tried to get the charges dismissed because federal officials are protected from prosecution for things they do as part of their job.
The proof strongly shows that the President was just trying to hide something embarrassing that was personal to him, according to US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in July. “Money paid to keep a movie star quiet is not connected to the President’s official actions. ” It does not show the President’s official duties at all.
It’s not clear if a past president can be charged for things they did while in office.
The prosecutors in the Washington, DC case said Trump doesn’t have immunity and the things he’s accused of doing after losing the election aren’t considered official actions.
The judge in Washington and a higher court didn’t agree with Trump, but now the high court is going to look at it again, which means the case in Washington will be delayed and we’re not sure when it will go to trial.
The United Nations expert has criticised the United States’ actions for attempting to increase help for people in Gaza, like setting up a temporary port and dropping supplies from the air, were called “ridiculous” and “sneaky” as long as Israel keeps receiving military assistance.
Despite warnings of a potential famine five months into Israel’s fight against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, the U.S The military has dropped food from the air to help people in Gaza. They also want to make a temporary port to bring in more help by boat.
Air drops of food will not help much to reduce hunger and malnutrition, and they won’t stop famine, according to Michael Fakhri, who works for the UN and talks about people’s right to food. He said this to the media in Geneva.
He said things could get messy when hungry people fight for food. Regarding the port, he said nobody had requested it. He said using the port and air drops methods should only be done if there are no other options left.
“He said that countries use air drops and maritime piers when they want to deliver aid to enemy territory. ”
Fakhri, a law professor from Lebanon and Canada, was asked by the UN Human Rights Council to write about and give advice on food security around the world. He said it didn’t make sense to do this while the US is still helping Israel with its military.
The United States The new law proposes giving Israel an extra $17. 6 billion in military help as they continue to fight against Hamas after their deadly October attack. 7 times people have been hurt.
“That’s more than just supporting a friend. ” That’s a wedding. “It’s nearly impossible to understand,” he said about the U. SThe US is giving help to Israel and some people think it’s just for show to please people in the US. “The presidential elections are coming soon. ”
“That’s the only logical way to understand these aid announcements because from a humanitarian, international, and human rights perspective, it’s absurd in a dark and cynical way,” he said.
Fakhri, who often says bad things about Israel on social media, told a group in Geneva that Israel is ruining Gaza’s food supply on purpose. Israel says this is not true and they are not stopping aid from getting to Gaza.
In 1944, during the Jim Crow era in the Deep South, George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old African-American boy, became the youngest person in the United States to be executed in the electric chair.
Stinney lived in Alcolu, South Carolina, a segregated mill town where white and black residents were separated by railroad tracks.
Stinney’s family lived in a modest company house until they were forced to leave when he was accused of killing two white girls, 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames. The girls had gone missing while riding their bicycles in search of flowers. Their bodies were found the next day in a ditch, showing signs of violent head injuries.
Despite a lack of physical evidence and a trial lasting only 10 minutes, Stinney was swiftly convicted by an all-white jury. It would take 70 years for Stinney to be posthumously exonerated.
The case of George Stinney Jr. highlights the racial injustices and systemic discrimination prevalent in the Jim Crow South, where a young black boy could be sentenced to death based on flimsy evidence and racial bias.
Dr. Bozard concluded that Binnicker and Thames had suffered wounds likely caused by a “round instrument about the size of the head of a hammer.”
File/ReutersMary Emma Thames (left) is pictured with her family in 1943. Thames and her friend Betty June Binnicker were murdered the following year.
Despite rumors that the girls had visited a prominent white family’s home on the day of their murder, which was never confirmed, the police focused their investigation on George Stinney Jr., a young black boy. When law enforcement officers learned that the girls had been seen talking to Stinney, they promptly arrested him.
Stinney was taken into custody, handcuffed, and interrogated for hours in a small room without his parents, an attorney, or any witnesses present. The police claimed that Stinney confessed to the murders, allegedly stating that his plan to have sex with one of the girls had failed.
An officer named H.S. Newman wrote in a handwritten statement, “I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney. He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron about 15 inches long. He said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycle.”
Newman refused to disclose Stinney’s whereabouts as rumors of lynching circulated in the town. Even Stinney’s parents were unaware of his location as his trial rapidly approached. In those days, 14 was deemed the age of responsibility, and Stinney was held accountable for the murder.
A Two-Hour Trial
South Carolina Department of Archives and HistoryGeorge Stinney Jr.’s fingerprints are pictured on this certificate.
About a month after the girls’ deaths, George Stinney Jr.’s trial began at a Clarendon County Courthouse. Court-appointed attorney Charles Plowden did “little to nothing” to defend his client.
During the brief two-hour trial, Plowden neglected to call witnesses or present evidence that could have challenged the prosecution’s case. The key evidence against Stinney was his alleged confession, but there was no written record of this confession.
At the time of his trial, Stinney had not seen his parents for weeks. They were too afraid of being attacked by a white mob to attend the court proceedings. As a result, the 14-year-old was surrounded by strangers, estimated to be up to 1,500 people.
After a deliberation that lasted less than 10 minutes, the all-white jury found Stinney guilty of murder, without recommending mercy.
On April 24, 1944, the 14-year-old was sentenced to death by electrocution.
The Execution Of George Stinney Jr.
Jimmy Price/Columbia RecordGeorge Stinney Jr. (second from right) was likely coerced into confessing to the murder of two girls.
Despite protests and appeals for clemency from both white and black ministerial unions, as well as hundreds of letters and telegrams, Governor Olin Johnston did not grant George Stinney Jr. clemency based on his young age.
On June 16, 1944, Stinney walked into the execution chamber at the South Carolina State Penitentiary in Columbia with a Bible under his arm. Weighing just 95 pounds, he was dressed in a loose-fitting striped jumpsuit.
Strapped into an adult-size electric chair, he was so small that the state electrician had difficulty adjusting an electrode to his right leg. A mask too big for him was placed over his face.
An assistant captain asked Stinney if he had any last words. Stinney replied, “No sir.” The prison doctor prodded, “You don’t want to say anything about what you did?” Again, Stinney replied, “No sir.”
When officials activated the switch, 2,400 volts surged through Stinney’s body, causing the mask to slip off. His eyes were wide and teary, and saliva was emanating from his mouth for all the witnesses in the room to see. After two more jolts of electricity, it was over.
Stinney was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. In a span of just 83 days, the boy had been charged with murder, tried, convicted, and executed by the state.
A Murder Conviction Overturned 70 Years Later
Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesKatherine Robinson, one of George Stinney’s sisters, testifies to what she remembers from the day of his arrest. The 70-year-old case of George Stinney Jr. was re-examined in 2014.
In 2014, George Stinney’s murder conviction was overturned. His siblings asserted that his confession had been coerced and that he had an alibi: he was with his sister Aime, watching the family’s cow, at the time of the murders.
They also cited testimony from Wilford “Johnny” Hunter, who claimed to be Stinney’s cellmate and said that Stinney had denied killing Binnicker and Thames.
“He said, ‘Johnny, I didn’t, didn’t do it,’” Hunter said. “He said, ‘Why would they kill me for something I didn’t do?’”
After months of consideration, on December 17, 2014, Judge Carmen T. Mullen vacated the murder conviction, calling George Stinney Jr.’s death sentence a “great and fundamental injustice.”
George Stinney Jr.’s siblings were overjoyed to learn of their brother’s exoneration after 70 years, grateful that they had lived long enough to witness this momentous event.
“It was like a cloud just moved away,” said Stinney’s sister, Katherine Robinson. “When we got the news, we were sitting with friends… I threw my hands up and said, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ Someone had to be listening. It’s what we wanted for all these years.”
