Global economies, companies hit hard as virus cases top 17 million

 

Economies from Europe to the United States on Thursday reported record slumps and companies from banks to car makers warned of losses in the latest fallout from the pandemic that has infected more than 17 million people across the globe.

Six months after the World Health Organization declared a global emergency, countries around the globe are struggling to control infections even as they seek to restart damaged economies.

Even nations that appeared to have largely curbed the disease are being gripped by resurgences, with Australia on Thursday reporting a record number of new infections and its deadliest day of the pandemic.

Despite efforts in place to contain the virus, COVID-19 has killed more than 666,000 people around the world and total infections have passed 17 million since the disease first emerged in China late last year.

As governments try to weigh lockdown measures against the need to revive economies, the United States its economy had contracted 32.9 percent in the second quarter — the worst on record since 1947.

Germany said its GDP had shrunk a record 10.1 percent during the same period although experts saw a recovery already on its way.

Belgium and Austria also said their economies shrank by 12.2 percent and 10.7 percent.

Across the globe, companies were also taking a hit with Airbus, VW, oil producer Shell, UK bank Lloyds and Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic all reporting losses.

Global daily cases are now approaching the 300,000 marks, with the curve showing no sign of flattening — it took just 100 hours for one million new cases to be recorded.

Southern and western regions of the United States were grappling Thursday with a renewed surge of coronavirus infections as the death toll in the world’s worst-affected nation passed 150,000.

Brazil is second to the US in terms of cases and fatalities and also reported a sobering figure as it surpassed 90,000 deaths.

In Japan, Tokyo’s governor called for restaurants, bars and karaoke parlours to shut earlier as the Japanese capital reported a record number of new infections.

“The current situation is more serious than before,” said Yuriko Koike. “There were several clusters in Tokyo… We have no time to waste.”

Surge in Australia

Days after Australian authorities expressed hope that a Melbourne lockdown — now in its third week — was bringing persistent outbreaks under control, the surge is a warning that initial successes in managing COVID-19 can quickly unravel.

Thirteen deaths and 723 positive tests were reported in the southeastern state of Victoria alone, well beyond the previous nationwide record of 549 cases set on Monday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the steep rise in numbers was “very concerning”.

In Hong Kong, where authorities fear a worrying third-wave of infections could cripple the healthcare system, the government reversed a day-old ban on restaurants serving dine-in customers following widespread public anger.

All restaurants in the city of 7.5 million had been ordered to only serve takeaways as part of a raft of ramped-up social distancing measures.

But social media was quickly swamped by photos of primarily blue-collar workers forced to eat on pavements and in parks — and even inside public toilets to escape a torrential downpour.

EU travel list

The EU is due Thursday to update its list of countries approved for travel to the European bloc, which it reviews every two weeks. The United States was not on the list and is not expected to be included.

The EU’s safe list does, however, include Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

The bloc is expected to announce that Algeria is being removed from the list after a resurgence of coronavirus.

Several European countries have slapped restrictions on travel to and from Spain, while officials elsewhere bicker over the seriousness of the current outbreak.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, fresh from announcing quarantine for travellers returning from Spain, suggested the rest of Europe could be facing a second wave — despite his own country’s dismal figures.

France’s health minister hit back on Wednesday, saying his country was categorically not in a second wave.

Spain, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic, insists it is a safe destination and was critical of Britain’s blanket quarantine, which includes islands without significant outbreaks.

Brazil also wants visitors back, and on Wednesday reopened travel to foreigners arriving by plane. It had closed its air borders to non-residents on March 30, when the virus was just taking hold in South America.

SOURCE: Guardian

Senior Catholic Nuns Abusing Power

Some senior nuns are abusing their power, including by denying sisters healthcare and warm clothes, a report in a Catholic journal said on Friday.

The Jesuit review Civilta Cattolica said that the problem of abuse of power by senior nuns “has not so far had sufficient attention”.

The abuse “mostly does not take the form of sexual violence and does not concern minors,” the journal noted.

Some mother superiors cling to power for decades or bring members of their own family to live in the convent to be “hosted and cared for for free”.

These relatives can end up being buried with members of the convent.

One mother superior “took her mother into the sisters’ community until her death, allowing her to share the community space for about 20 years.”

“Every summer she left the community to take her mother on holiday,” the article said.

Being a superior, in some cases, “seems to guarantee other exclusive privileges, such as taking advantage of the best medical care, while a simple nun cannot even go to an optician or dentist, because ‘one has to save money'”, it said.

Some nuns have requests for warm clothes turned down because the convent says it doesn’t have money.

“The superior’s closet is full of clothes bought with community money without consulting anyone, while others barely have a change of clothes,” the report said.

“Unfortunately, for some sisters this is the daily reality: a reality that for the most part they can’t make known, because they don’t know where to turn, or for fear of retaliation.”

 Complicity between the mother superior and the convent bursar “ends up allowing complete control of assets”.

The message that is given is that “governing is synonymous with privilege, to the detriment of the weakest”, while the convent “is more like a prison than a community”.

 In January, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz revealed that former nuns “abandoned” by the Catholic Church, including some who became prostitutes to survive, had been sheltered at a Vatican residence set up by Pope Francis.

 In some cases, mother superiors had withheld documents from nuns who wanted to leave the convent, and in others nuns were just told to leavet, the Brazilian cardinal said.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has often focused on helpless members of society, whether migrants fleeing persecution and famine, or the homeless, prisoners and prostitutes.

 

SOURCE: Guardian

Facebook Rolls Out Fresh Measure To Tackle Fake News

 

 As part of its on-going commitment in connecting people to accurate sources and combating misinformation, specifically around COVID-19, Facebook said it will be rolling out a new on-platform campaign across some countries in sub- Saharan Africa.

Named ‘Three Questions To Help Stamp Out False News’, the social media giant said new initiative is aimed at educating and informing users about how to detect potential false news, and was created in consultation with a number of its third-party fact-checking partners.

 

“Delivered on Facebook’s platform, users will see a series of creative and educative adverts, featuring a link to a dedicated website, which ask users to challenge the information they see on posts by asking themselves the following: Where’s it from? If there’s no source, search for one; what’s missing? Get the whole story, not just the headline; and how does it make you feel? People who make false news try to manipulate feelings,” Facebook said.

 

This campaign comes on the heels of last month’s context notification update, which lets people know when the news articles they are about to share are older than 90 days, providing greater visibility and context to help make informed decisions about what to share. Commenting on the initiative, Facebook’s Public Policy Manager, Programmes and Campaigns, EMEA, Aïda Ndiaye, said: “We know misinformation is an on-going challenge, which is why we have invested heavily as a business in addressing misinformation, and more recently around COVID-19. We continue to focus on combating this.

 

“This campaign is just another step in taking our responsibility of improving the accuracy and quality of information on Facebook seriously. We remain committed to working with industry experts and the community on our platforms, to tackle misinformation and empower people with resources that help them decide what to read, share, and trust,” Ndiaye said.

United States President, Donald Trump has called for the postponement of the 2020 election.

 

President Trump Calls For Postponement Of US Elections

 

 The American leader made the call on Twitter.

 Trump expressed concern that the election would be fraudulent.

 His reason was the controversial universal mail-in voting.

 “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”, he tweeted.

 

SOURCE: Herald

Akpabio Exposes Nigerian Lawmakers...

Nigerian Minister, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Godswill Akpabio,  has submitted a list of lawmakers and companies who were awarded contracts of the commission.

 

Last week, The NDDC Minister who was summoned by the House of Reps committee to explain the misappropriation of funds in the Commisson going up to N40billion, disclosed 60 percent of NDDC contracts were awarded to lawmakers and their companies.

 

However, the panel did not allow Akpabio to expatiate on these claims.

 

Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker, House of Reps who accused Akpabio of making unsubstantiated claims to discredit the reps, dared the Minister to publish the names of lawmakers and their companies or risk the wrath of the house.

 

The Minister who took the threat seriously submitted the list of lawmakers who benefited from NDDC contract in a letter addressed to the National Assembly last  Thursday which was also sent to Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

 Senator Nwaoboshi (Delta North) was awarded 53 contracts while Nicholas Mutu got 74 contracts.

 Sen Matthew Urhoghide (Delta South), Sam Anyanwu, including some Edo and Ondo lawmakers are among the beneficiaries of the commission’s contracts.

 It was discovered that Senator Peter Nwaoboshi was awarded 53 projects while Nicholas Mutu was involved in 74 projects.

 The letter read in part: “May I extend to Mr Speaker the compliments of my office and those of the staff of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

 “I refer to the resolution of the House passed on the 21st July 2020 and forwarded to me on the same day Ref. NASS/HR/LEG/3/36/VOL.ll/O8 directing me to respond to the contents therein within 48 hours

 “The investigating Committee on NDDC refused and/or neglected to give me the opportunity to explain that reference to most NDDC contracts yearly being awarded since 2001 from the records allegedly to members of the National Assembty in both Chambers were done without the knowledge of the alleged beneficiaries. However, the two Chairmen of the Committees in both Chambers had adequate knowledge;

 “I never referred to members of the 9th National Assembly as beneficiaries of NDDC contracts as NDDC is yet to fully implement any NDDC budget since the commencement of the 9th National Assembly. In fact. the 2019 budget passed in February and harmonised between the 4th and 5th of March 2020 was received by the Commission in the middle of April, 2020, when same was designated to expire on the 31st of May, 2020.

 “However, it is pertinent to point out that the Clerk of the National Assembly forwarded a letter Ref. NASS/CNA/115/VOL.38/1175, dated 20th March, 2020, without attaching the budget details indicating that the 2020 budget of the NDDC passed into Law was being forwarded (copy of the letter is attached as Annexure ‘A’).

 This anomaly was brought to the attention of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating a purported financial recklessness by the management of the commission in July 2020, though the first outcry was on allegation of missing N40bn which was totally untrue;

 “It has always been known that the two chairmen of the committees on NDDC in both chambers yearly exhibit unusual influence to the exclusion of committee members and even the management of the NDDC in appropriating funds to details embellished in the budget after passage of line items at the plenaries.

 “In the 2019 budget, the Executive Director Projects forwarded to me the attached list of 19 Nos. old contracts amounting to almost N9bn after tax, that the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on NDDC, Honourable Tunji-Ojo, insisted the IMC of NDDC must pay before 2019 budget details could be released to the commission.

 Source: The Herald

Nigeria's CAC adopts electronic distribution of company certificates

As from August 10, 2020, the Corporate Affairs Commission [CAC] will commence full implementation of an electronic system for company registration.With the new development, companies’ registration certificates would henceforth be sent to customers through courier or by electronic service of their choice as against the former practice where the firms come to the commission to physically collect their certificates.

Last week Thursday, some lawyer customers besieged the CAC headquarters in Abuja to protest against the commission’s new method of distributing certificates that they claimed was not favourable.

The Registrar-General and Chief Executive, CAC, Garba Abubakar, who spoke to journalists in Abuja at weekend on some of the reforms being implemented under his leadership, said the new method was adopted to avoid physical contact with clients.

“Based on global standards, company registrations are done electronically without physical presence. The era when lawyers besiege the commission to conduct such transactions is over,” he said.

According to Abubakar, the new electronic system will help to speed up the registration process as well as protect the integrity of documents issued by the CAC.

“The new system is also part of measures to comply with the COVID-19 protocols on physical distancing. These are unusual times as the country has been shut for over two months. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, things have not returned to normal because our system is not fully electronic. We have to interface with customers as we are expected to carry out registration. With the restrictions, it is almost impossible to provide full services the way we did in the past.’He said the CAC had also eliminated the process of searching records manually, following the discovery that it was being compromised.

Abubakar disclosed that two weeks ago, two lawyers were caught at the commission tampering with documents during the process of manual searches. On why CAC delisted Ohanaeze Ndigbo cultural organization, the commission’s boss said it was due to a security report.

‘’We wrote to the security agencies and were told that the organization was yet to get security clearance. Also, we are telling similar organizations such as the South South, Middle Belt, Arewa and North East fora to make sure they get security clearance before we can register them.’’

Source: Guardian

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