Biden has given no indication that he intends to exit the race, and his campaign has flatly dismissed the suggestion. But that has done little to silence critics who are openly questioning whether Biden is the right person to take on Donald Trump, a figure the president – and his party – view as a grave threat to American democracy.

In the unlikely scenario Biden decides not to run, the most obvious choice to replace him would be his 59-year-old vice president and running mate, Kamala Harris. But it would not be automatic – and other candidates would likely challenge Harris, who has suffered her own low approval ratings, for the nomination.

Already some Democrats are looking past the vice-president at other possible contenders – Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, California governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland governor Wes Moore.

It’s a sign that Democrats have yet to fully embrace Harris as Biden’s heir apparent.

“To even discuss Biden stepping down while COMPLETELY IGNORING THE VP … is a serious look into how we see the importance, capacity and seriousness of women of color,” writer Tanzina Vega, said on X.

Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the highest-ranking female elected official in US history and the first Black and first Asian American to serve as vice president.

Democrats, traumatized by Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, rallied behind Biden in 2020 over a younger, more diverse and progressive field of candidates that included Harris. As a candidate, Biden promised to be a “bridge” to the next generation of Democratic leaders, which many interpreted as commitment to serve one-term and before passing the baton to Harris.

But when the time came to make a decision, Biden argued that he was still the Democrat best-positioned to beat Trump.

For the past three and a half years, Harris’s barrier-breaking vice-presidency has divided Democrats. Negative press, some of it self-inflicted, compounded by sexist and racist attacks, and a challenging policy portfolio weighed on public perception of the former California senator. Nearly 50% of voters have an unfavorable view of Harris, according to 538’s polling average, compared with the roughly 40% who view her favorably, figures that are comparable with Biden’s.

Despite a rocky start to her tenure, Harris has eased into the role, especially since becoming the administration’s leading voice on abortion rights. On Monday, Harris marked two years since the second anniversary of the US supreme court decision that overturned Roe v Wade with a fiery warning that Trump would not hesitate to further restrict women’s reproductive rights in a second-term.

Nodding to her background as a prosecutor, the vice president declared: “In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.”

Harris’s clear defense of abortion rights, by far Democrats’ strongest issue, stands in stark contrast to Biden. During Thursday’s debate, Biden fumbled an attack on Trump over Republican bans on the procedure, pivoting bizarrely to immigration and raising the case of a young woman murdered in Georgia.

Moments after Biden finished the debate, it was Harris who came to his defense first in a pair of interviews. On CNN and MSNBC, Harris spun his performance, saying voters must look at the last three-and-a-half years of accomplishments and not just at the 90-minute debate. Harris conceded that Biden had a “slow start” but insisted he finished “strong.”

“I’m talking about the choice for November,” she said on CNN. “I’m talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime.”

In a sharp back-and-forth, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper pressed Harris about calls for Biden to step aside.

“I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three-and-a-half years of performance,” she said, emphasizing his legislative and executive achievements he’s pulled in his first-term.

At a rally in Las Vegas the following day, Harris doubled down on her support.

“In the Oval Office, negotiating bipartisan deals, I see him in the situation room keeping our country safe,” she said, adding that the election would not be decided by “one night in June”.

The Atlanta debate was the first of the election cycle, with a second scheduled in September. The Biden campaign has agreed to a vice-presidential debate between Harris and Trump’s eventual running mate, but the terms have not yet been to confirmed.

In a hypothetical matchup against Trump, Harris performed roughly on par with Biden, trailing the former president by six points in a February Times/Siena poll. Biden trailed Trump by five points in the same poll. Meanwhile, the poll found Harris ran stronger than Biden with Black voters, though worse with Hispanic voters and men.

Biden’s age has long been an electoral challenge. But his shaky debate performance shocked even his staunchest supporters. At a rally on Friday, Biden acknowledged his stumbles, but insisted he was still the best candidate to defeat Trump.

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he said at a post-debate rally in North Carolina. “I know I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.”

But mounting concerns about Biden’s mental acuity have drawn even greater scrutiny of Harris, particularly from the right. Republicans have sought to make Harris a boogyman, with Nikki Haley warning during the GOP primary a vote for Biden was a vote for “a President Harris”.

With the convention scheduled for mid-August in Chicago, and the formal nomination process to take place virtually at some point before that to meet an Ohio ballot deadline, many Democrats have said there is not enough time to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.

Former South Carolina lawmaker and Democratic commentator Bakari Sellers, who endorsed Harris in the 2020 primary, said wishing for an alternative to emerge at this stage was futile.

“You’re not nominating Gretch or Gavin or Wes over Kamala. Stop it,” he wrote on X, adding: “Choice is Trump, Biden or couch. I choose Joe.”

Posted by: Christian Fellows; Source: TheGuardian

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Japan’s fertility rate, which has seen a precipitous fall for many years, has reached another record low as the government ramps up efforts to encourage young people to get married and start families — even launching its own dating app.

The nation of 123.9 million people only recorded 727,277 births last year, according to new data released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on Friday. The fertility rate – defined as the total number of births a woman has in her lifetime – dropped from 1.26 to 1.20.

For a population to remain stable, it needs a fertility rate of 2.1. Anything above that will see a population expand, with a large proportion of children and young adults, as seen in India and many African nations.

But in Japan, the fertility rate has been well below that stable marker of 2.1 for half a century, experts say – it fell below that level after the 1973 global oil crisis pushed economies into recession, and never recovered.

The downward trend has accelerated in recent years, with the number of deaths overtaking births each year and causing the total population to shrink – with far-reaching consequences for Japan’s workforce, economy, welfare system and social fabric.

In 2023, the country recorded 1.57 million deaths, according to the Health Ministry – more than double the number of births.

And Japan’s not having much matrimonial luck, either – the number of marriages fell by 30,000 last year, while the number of divorces rose.

Experts say the decline is expected to continue for at least several decades and is to some extent irreversible due to the country’s population structure. Even if Japan were to boost its fertility rate tomorrow, its population will keep falling until the skewed ratio of young people to older adults balances out.

Still, the government is now  racing to soften the impact, launching new government agencies to focus specifically on this problem. It has launched initiatives such as expanding child care facilities, offering housing subsidies to parents, and in some towns, even paying couples to have children.

In the capital Tokyo, local officials are trying a new tack: launching a government-run dating app, which is in early testing phases and will be fully operational later this year.

“Please use it as ‘the first step’ to begin marriage hunting,” the app’s website says, adding that the AI-matchmaking system is provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Users are asked to take a “values diagnostic test” but there’s also an option to put in the desired traits of a future partner.

“Based on your values and the values you seek in a partner, which can be determined by taking a diagnostic test, AI will introduce you to a compatible person,” it said. “What cannot be measured by appearance or conditions alone may lead to unexpected encounters.

The app even caught the eye of billionaire Elon Musk, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I’m glad the government of Japan recognizes the importance of this matter. If radical action isn’t taken, Japan (and many other countries) will disappear!”

Experts have told CNN this scenario is unlikely – the fertility rate is expected to even out at some point, and the country will adjust. Japan may look very different at that point, from its demographic makeup to its economy and domestic policies, but it won’t simply vanish.

“Marriage is a decision based on one’s own values, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is working to build momentum for marriage so that those who think they ‘intend to get married eventually’ can take that first step,” says the dating app’s website.

Users must be single, over 18 years old “with a desire to get married,” and be living or working in Tokyo, the website says.

It also lists the government’s other measures to support couples – such as providing information on work-life balance, child care and housing support, men’s participation in housework and child-rearing, and career counseling.

“We hope that every single one of you who wishes to get married will think about what being in a ‘couple’ means to you,” it says.

Related video

Source:CNN, Author: Jessie Yeung and Hemari Semans

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The Biden administration is quickly invoking an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally,  a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

Biden unveiled the sweeping executive action Tuesday afternoon at the White House, attempting to use executive action to affect the situation on the border after a bipartisan measure failed earlier this year. The action marks the administration’s most dramatic move on the US southern border as Biden tries to gain the upper hand on immigration just weeks from the first presidential debate – by using the same authority former President Donald Trump tried to use in office.

The White House announced the action would take effect at midnight.

In a speech at the White House, Biden said Republicans in Congress who blocked a bipartisan border deal left him no choice but to take executive action.

“I’m moving past Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border,” Biden said.

The new executive action bars migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum – a departure from decades-long protocol – once a daily threshold is met. Unless they meet certain exemptions, migrants will be turned away to Mexico or returned to their origin country.

Border authorities encountered around 3,500 migrants crossing the border unlawfully on Monday, according to a Homeland Security official, above the threshold needed for the executive action to take effect.

Members of the Texas National Guard stand guard near a razor wire fence to inhibit the crossing of migrants into the United States, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on June 4. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

Homeland Security officials have recently been arresting just under 4,000 migrants daily at the US-Mexico border, a brief reprieve from record numbers late last year. The number of people crossing the US southern border has consistently been a challenge for the Biden administration as officials grapple with record migration across the Western Hemisphere.

The measure could be turned on and off. Senior administration officials told reporters Tuesday it would be lifted when there’s a daily average of less than 1,500 encounters in between ports of entry.

Unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking, those who present an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life and safety – among select others – are exempt. Migrants can also still request an appointment through the Customs and Border Protection mobile application, known as CBP One, to present their asylum claim at a port of entry.

Biden and his administration made clear that they would have rather had bipartisan legislation to sign that addressed the crisis at the border.

“Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s broken, fixed. To hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges. But Republicans have left me no choice,” Biden said in the speech from the East Room of the White House.

Critics have blasted the move as akin to steps taken under Trump. As a candidate, Biden blasted the Trump administration as “inhumane” on the border. On a call with reporters Tuesday previewing the new action, one official defended the steps as separate and apart from Trump’s, while acknowledging they’re prepared for legal challenges, “frankly, from both sides of the political spectrum.”

“The Trump administration attacked almost every facet of the immigration system, and did so in a shameful and inhumane way,” one official said Tuesday. “The action will not ban people based on their religion, it will not separate kids from their mothers. There’re also narrow humanitarian exceptions to the bar on asylum, including for those facing an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life or safety – the Trump administration’s actions did not include these exceptions.”

The president responded to criticism from progressives and others who have likened the move as similar to steps taken under Trump.

For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you that be patient and the good will of the American people is wearing thin right now. Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act. We must act consistent with both our law and our values. Our values as Americans. I take these steps today, not to walk away from who we are as Americans, to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come,” he said.

Biden also directly repudiated the former president.

“I will never demonize immigrants, I will never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. And further I’ll never separate children from their families at the border. I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs. I will not use the US military to go into neighborhoods all across the country to pull millions of people out of their homes and away from their families, to put detention camps while awaiting deportation, as my predecessor says he’ll do if he occupies this office again,” Biden said.

Senior administration officials acknowledged that federal resources are strained, which could pose a challenge, but they maintain that the measure will help them remove people more quickly. Migrants who don’t claim a fear may be removed within days or hours, while those that do will be screened and, if found ineligible, removed.

Homeland Security officials have been preparing for an anticipated rise in border crossings, consistent with previous years when numbers tick up in the summer, including shifting resources to meet a potential surge and getting personnel in place. Senior administration officials Tuesday cited the measure as a tool to help head off that potential increase.

The action also relies heavily on cooperation from Mexico, who previously agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela as part of an effort to cut down on illegal migration in the hemisphere and has significantly ramped up immigration enforcement as part of ongoing efforts.

Officials declined to say Tuesday if any new agreement had been reached with Mexico around Tuesday’s executive action.

Source: CNN, Author: Priscilla Alvarez and Donald Judd

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Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.

The recent arrests come as Nigeria seeks to regulate its mining operations of critical minerals, curb illegal activity and better benefit from its mineral resources. The clean energy transition, a shift away from coal, oil and gas and toward renewable energy and batteries has spiked global demand for lithium, tin and other minerals. Illegal mines are rife in the country’s fledging industry as corruption among regulatory officials is common and the mineral deposits are located in remote areas with minimal government presence. Officials say profits from illicit mining practices has helped arm militia groups in the north of the county.

In the most recent arrests in mid-May, a joint team of soldiers and police conducted a raid on a remote market in Kishi, in the country’s southwestern Oyo State. Locals said the market, once known for selling farm produce, has become a center for illicit trade in lithium mined in hard-to-reach areas. The three-day operation resulted in the arrest of 32 individuals, including two Chinese nationals, local workers and mineral traders, according to the state government and locals. Loads of lithium were also seized.

Miners work at an illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

Jimoh Bioku, a Kishi community leader, said there had been “clandestine searches” for the mineral at remote sites tucked away in the bush in the past years by Chinese nationals before “they engaged people to dig for them and turned the market into a transit point.” The community was “particularly worried about the insecurity that usually follows illegal mining and that was why we reported to the state government,” he said.

China is the dominant player in the global EV supply chain, including in Nigeria where China-owned companies employ mostly vulnerable people leaving Nigeria’s far north — ravaged by conflicts and rapid desertification — to work in mining operations throughout the country. China’s nationals and companies are frequently in the spotlight for environmentally damaging practices, exploitative labor and illicit mining. There have been at least three cases of illegal mining arrests involving Chinese nationals in two months.

President Bola Tinubu has repeatedly blamed illegal mining for the worsening conflicts in the country’s north and asked the international community for help to stop the problem, which provides armed groups with the proceeds needed to sustain and arm themselves.

Women work at an illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

The Chinese embassy in Abuja did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment on the arrests and claims of illegal operations. But in a statement last year following a report by The Times of London alleging Chinese miners were bribing militants for access, the embassy said it “always encouraged and urged the Chinese companies and nationals in Nigeria to abide by the laws and regulations of Nigeria.”

Nigeria is emerging as a new source of lithium in Africa as the world’s largest producers, like Australia and Chile, are unable to fulfill the growing demand worldwide. But illegal activities thrive in Nigeria’s extractive sector, denying the government due revenues, said Emeka Okoro, whose Lagos-based SBM Intelligence firm has researched illicit mining and terrorism financing in northern Nigeria.

And the combination of conflict and climate change effects, such as once fertile land rapidly turning into useless arid sand in northern Nigeria, has produced a cheap workforce for mining sites.

The arrests of “both Chinese nationals and young Hausa boys from conflict-affected regions underscore a troubling pattern,” Okoro told the AP. “The socioeconomic strain stemming from conflict and the repercussions of climate change has given rise to a vulnerable demographic desperate for survival.”

To fight resource theft that causes losses of $9 billion to the government annually, according to the country’s extractive industry transparency watchdog, the West African nation has set up a 2,200-strong “corps of mining marshals” earlier in the year.

A woman works at an Illegal tin mining site in Jos, Nigeria, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)Read More

While existing law enforcement agencies are still combating the problem, the new corps is geared at curbing “the nefarious activities of illegal miners,” said Segun Tomori, spokesperson for the solid minerals ministry.

Before the Kishi raid, the mining corps arrested two trucks laden with lithium on the outskirts of the capital Abuja in April. Later that month, the corps raided a location in Karu, Nasarawa State, near Abuja, leading to the arrest of four Chinese nationals and the seizure of tons of lithium. Tomori said the cases are now in court.

On April 22, a federal court in Ilorin, in the north-central region, convicted two Chinese nationals for illegal mining and sentenced them to a one-year jail term, although with an option of a fine.

Nigeria has long neglected the solid minerals sector, which allows some communities like the northern-central town of Jos — which is tin-abundant — to depend on subsistence mining for their livelihood.

For those communities where livelihood is tied to mining, Tomori said the government is encouraging artisanal miners there to form cooperatives and operate legally.

Source: Apnews.com, Author: Taiwo Adebayo

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Hungary and China signed a number of new agreements on Thursday to deepen their economic and cultural cooperation during a visit to the Central European country by Chinese President Xi Jinping, a trip meant to solidify China’s economic footprint in the region.

Xi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks in the capital Budapest as part of the Chinese leader’s final stop on a five-day European tour that also took in Servia and France. During a press briefing following the talks, Orbán praised the “continuous, uninterrupted friendship” between the two countries since his tenure began in 2010, and promised that Hungary would continue to host further Chinese investments.

“I would like to assure the president that Hungary will continue to provide fair conditions for Chinese companies investing in our country, and that we will create the opportunity for the most modern Western and the most modern Eastern technologies to meet and build cooperation in Hungary,” Orbán said.

Beijing has invested billions in Hungary and sees the European Union member as an important foothold inside the 27-member trading bloc. In December, Hungary announced that one of the world’s largest EV manufacturers, China’s BYD, will open its first European EV production factory in the south of the country — an inroad that could upend the competitiveness of the continent’s auto industry.

Hungary is also hosting several Chinese EV battery plants and hopes to become a global hub of lithium ion battery manufacturing, and has undertaken a railway project — part of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative — to connect the country with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

On Thursday, Xi said he and Orbán agreed the Belt and Road Initiative “is highly consistent with Hungary’s strategy of opening to the east,” and that China supports Hungary in playing a greater role within the EU on promoting China-EU relations.

Hungarian and Chinese officials concluded a strategic partnership agreement and signed 18 other agreements and memoranda of understanding, but no major investments were announced at the news briefing.

However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó later said in a video on Facebook that initial discussions had begun on China developing a freight railway bypass of Budapest and a rail link between the capital and Budapest Ferihegy airport.

Orbán, a nationalist populist leader who has pursued deeper ties with Beijeing while distancing himself from his more mainstream partners in the EU, noted during the news conference that three-quarters of investments in Hungary last year came from China, and spoke of Beijing’s role in the world’s shifting balance of power.

“Looking back at the world economy and commerce of 20 years ago, it doesn’t resemble at all what we’re living in today,” Orbán said. “Then, we lived in a single polar world, and now we live in a multi-polar world order, and one of the main columns of this new world order is China.”

He added that Hungary would seek to expand economic cooperation with China to the field of nuclear energy. Hungary is currently working with Russia on adding a new reactor to its Paks nuclear facility, which is expected to go online by the end of the decade.

Budapest residents met with road closures and increased security during Xi’s visit as groups of his supporters and critics gathered in various points of the city to demonstrate.

Hundreds of people gathered near Budapest’s Buda Castle waving Chinese and Hungarian flags, hoping to catch a glimpse of Xi’s motorcade. Many Chinese nationals in red baseball caps and claiming to be volunteers with China’s embassy were present.

A Hungarian lawmaker with the opposition Momentum party told The Associated Press that he and a colleague had been approached by a group of such men on Wednesday as they attempted to place EU flags on a bridge in Budapest.

In a video obtained by the AP, the lawmaker, Márton Tompos, said that the men, all wearing red baseball caps, confronted him to make sure that no flags or symbols referencing China-claimed Tibet or Taiwan would be hung on the route of Xi’s motorcade.

They told me that they were volunteers for the Chinese embassy here, and they said they wanted to make sure that there weren’t Tibetan or Taiwanese flags, because that wouldn’t be nice,” Tompos said. The men wouldn’t let his colleague proceed “until he showed them that it was an EU flag,” he added.

Other minor conflicts broke out during the day between Tibetan protesters and some of the red-capped Chinese nationals, who attempted to prevent activists from displaying Tibetan flags by obscuring them with their own Chinese national flags.

One activist, Tenzin Yangzom, a campaign coordinator for the International Tibet Network, criticized Hungary’s government for “allowing the Chinese police to be operating on Hungarian streets.”

“This is not China, is it? This is Hungary, it’s a free country, you have freedom of speech,” she said.

Related videos:

Source: apnews.com, Author:Bela Szandelszky

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The apex court consequently adjourned the cases indefinitely. The cases, which were called separately, were filed by broadcaster and lawyer, Richard Sky, and a human rights activist, Dr Amanda Odoi.

The business of the day was to deal with fundamental issues standing in the way of the substantive suits. 

Motions

When Mr Sky’s case was called yesterday, his legal team, led by Paa Kwesi Abaidoo — who had originally filed an application for an interlocutory injunction to prevent the transmission of the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill to the President for consideration and subsequent assent pending the final determination of the substantive case — notified the court of two motions.

The first motion sought leave of the apex court to amend the reliefs sought in the interlocutory injunction, while the second sought leave to file supplementary affidavits in support of the injunction. 

Objection

Counsel for the Speaker of Parliament, Thaddeus Sory, raised a preliminary legal objection to the first motion on grounds that his affidavit in opposition to the interlocutory application objected to the relief the plaintiff was seeking leave to amend.

He added that allowing the plaintiff to amend it would defeat his objection, which he had raised earlier in his affidavit in opposition to the interlocutory application. “He (Mr Sky) cannot avoid the consequences of that objection by filing a motion for leave to amend those reliefs and render my objection redundant,” he said.

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, opposed the objection, stating that the rules of the court did not allow for such a process to be undertaken without the permission of the court.

Mr Dame further questioned the grounds for the objection as the new reliefs in his view were not any different in material fact except for a grammatical correction.  “I do not see any error in procedure adopted by counsel for Mr Sky in seeking leave to amend a relief.

A close look at the relief shows no material difference from the reliefs originally sought,” he argued. 

Court’s view

The court dismissed the preliminary objection, saying it was unnecessary and did not seek to help the court in any way. “Every party has an inherent right to present the appropriate formulation of their reliefs or other process before the court to enable the court to determine the real matters in controversy,” the Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, who was the President of the panel, said.

Other members of the panel were Justices Mariama Owusu, Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Ernest Gaewu and Yaw Darko Asare. They subsequently directed lawyers for Mr Sky to file a fresh motion paper for the interlocutory injunction with supporting affidavit and statement of case by May 17.

The panel also gave lawyers of the Speaker of Parliament and the Attorney-General up to seven days after May 17 to respond. 

Language

Before the second case was called, the panel expressed worry over the choice of words used by both the plaintiff and lawyers for the Speaker of Parliament in the suits, describing them as inappropriate and scandalous.

Specifically, Justice Torkornoo cited the description of the private members in one of the plaintiff’s processes simply as “these persons”. “It is inappropriate to refer to the private members as ‘these persons’,” she said.

The Chief Justice also cited the use of “despicable” and “desecration” in processes filed by lawyers for the Speaker of Parliament when the second case was called. She, therefore, urged the parties to employ courteous language in their processes, give lawyers for the Speaker of Parliament the chance to change the wording of their legal documents and re-file their affidavit in opposition. 

In a writ invoking the jurisdiction of the apex court to interpret and enforce the Constitution, Mr Sky is seeking an order from the court to restrain the Speaker and Clerk of Parliament from presenting the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill to the President for his assent.

He is further seeking an injunction against any attempt to enforce the Bill, especially the aspect that criminalises same sex relationship. The writ filed at the Supreme Court on March 5, 2024, contends that the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill contravenes many provisions in the Constitution such as Article 12 (1) which enjoins 

all arms of government to respect and uphold the fundamental human rights of all persons, Article 15(1) which protects the dignity of all persons, and Article 18(2) which protects the privacy of people.

Other provisions, he argues, are Article 17(1) which provides for equality before the law, and Article 21(a) and (b) which protect freedom of speech and thought. The plaintiff is, therefore, seeking a declaration from the Supreme Court that the Bill sins against all the above stated provisions, as well as Articles 106 and 108, which dictate the mode by which Parliament can pass a Bill.

Again, Mr Sky is seeking a declaration from the court that at the time the Bill was passed, Parliament lacked the requisite quorum as stipulated by Articles 102 and 104 of the Constitution.

Dr Odoi

Dr Odoi, on the other hand, is also at the Supreme Court with a case that the Speaker of Parliament and Parliament in general had violated the Constitution. It is her case that the Speaker of Parliament breached Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution by not giving an opinion on whether the Bill when implemented could lead to financial consequences on the country through a charge on the consolidated fund.

Source: Graphic Online, Author: Justice Agbenorsi

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Arabic will, however, be optional for candidates in Islamic basic schools.

Days extended

Due to the introduction of the new subjects, the 2024 examination will be taken in six days instead of the previous five days — Monday to Friday. The examination will start on Monday, July 8, 2024, and end the following Monday, July 15, 2024.

Throwing more light on the 2024 examination, the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, John Kapi, told the Daily Graphic that new subjects could be introduced any time since it was an examination that was solely Ghanaian, and so it was the government that determined what it wanted to be taught and students examined in.

Mr Kapi said the council had just finished the registration of candidates and was now going to do the breakdown of candidates writing the various subjects. WAEC, he said, was ready for the examination as all meetings related to it had been concluded, adding that sample questions had been sent to schools and posted on the council’s website.

“The printing exercise will start very soon, and so we are on course,” he emphasised. In the case of Arabic, he said it was the first time the subject was being examined at the BECE.
He said the subject could be  best  described as an elective, and could also be written by persons who believed they were proficient in it and wanted a certificate to that effect.

Timetable

Per the official timetable released by WAEC, candidates will write English Language and Religious and Moral Education on Monday, July 8, 2024. On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, candidates will write Science and Computing, which was previously Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), and then write Social Studies and Creative Art and Design on Wednesday, July 10, 2024.

The candidates will write Mathematics and Ghanaian Language on Thursday, July 11, 2024, while French and Career Technology will be written on Friday, July 12, 2024.
Arabic will then be written on Monday, July 15, 2024.

Before the registration for the BECE for School Candidates, the Ghana Education Service indicated that the mandatory subjects were English Language, Mathematics, General Science, Social Studies, Religious and Moral Education, Career Technology and Creative Art and Design.

Ghanaian languages, it said, were classified under elective subjects, with French, Arabic and Computing being the optional subjects.

Curriculum

This year’s BECE candidates will be the first batch to sit the examination under the Common Core Curriculum. In view of that, WAEC said school and private candidates would be examined differently as a result of the introduction of the curriculum.

The curriculum attempts to address the quality aspect in the form of improved learning experiences. The new curriculum seeks to shift learners away from rote learning to acquiring critical learning skills.

Related video

Source: Graphic Online, Author: Emmanuel Bonney

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In an interview with AfricaWatch Magazine, Dr Bawumia highlighted the cedi’s resilience under the President Akufo-Addo administration, emphasizing his position on stabilizing the cedi’s value.

He remarked that despite ongoing global economic challenges, the depreciation of the cedi has been managed effectively, especially when contrasted with the previous NDC administration.

“Why not? We use averages to measure progress in statistics and economics all the time. It is a valid comparison of the management of the exchange rate under our government versus under the NDC government. The point is that notwithstanding the major global and domestic challenges we have been through, it is remarkable that whereas the exchange-rate depreciation between 2009-2016 averaged 13.9%, between 2017-2023 it averaged 13.1%. That is a fact,” Dr Bawumia stated.

The data shows that from 2009-2016, the cedi depreciated cumulatively by 71.1%, and between 2017 and 2023, the cumulative depreciation was 64.6%. So, whether you look at the average or the cumulative, the depreciation of the cedi has been lower under our government, notwithstanding the severe global shocks we have endured. That is the basic truth.”

Dr. Bawumia also defended a remark he made during the NPP’s 2016 campaign, reaffirming his view that an exchange rate reflects a government’s strength when its fundamentals are robust.

He attributed the current exchange rate’s fluctuations to global crises such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the 2019 COVID pandemic.

“Absolutely! It is still true, and I will continue to stand by that statement. We saw that between 2017 and 2021 when the fundamentals in terms of the fiscal deficit, inflation, GDP growth, external balances, and international reserves were fairly strong, the exchange rate was relatively stable,” he said.

“But following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the banking-sector crisis, the excess-capacity energy payments, and the lack of access to international capital markets, the fundamentals of the economy were weakened, and the fiscal deficit and debt levels increased.

“Inflation reached some 53% at the end of 2022 and you saw the exchange rate depreciate by some 30% in 2022. The fundamentals have strengthened recently, with the declining fiscal deficit, declining inflation, improved external reserves, and so on, and this has resulted in relative stability of the exchange rate. So, my statement still holds true.”

Source: Graphic Online

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Columbia University has cancelled its university-wide commencement ceremony after it cracked down on student protests in support of Palestinians, a campus movement that spurred a wave of similar demonstrations around the world.

In a statement on Monday morning, Columbia said it would prioritise “Class Days and school-level ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, rather than the University-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15”.

Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” it said.

The decision comes just days after the Columbia administration called New York City police onto campus to disperse students who had occupied a school building and erected a protest encampment to show solidarity with Palestinians.

The students have demanded an end to Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and urged Columbia to divest from any companies that are complicit in Israeli abuses against Palestinians.

The Columbia protest encampment and subsequent crackdown by police — during which hundreds of people were arrested — inspired similar initiatives at universities across the United States, as well as in Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

University administrators have accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of using anti-Semitic language and creating an unsafe environment on campus.

US President Joe Biden made similar claims during a speech last week addressing the protest movement.

Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” Biden said on Thursday. “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.”

But the demonstrators have rejected those allegations, saying the decision to send police officers to break up the Gaza encampments and arrest participants is what put students in harm’s way.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting on Monday from a Gaza encompment at George Washington University in Washington, DC, said the protest there has “definitely grown” in recent days.

“There’s tent after tent of water or food, and signs saying, ‘Everything is free just like Palestine will be one day,’” Culhane said.

Mariam, a Jewish student demonstrator who spoke to Al Jazeera using only her first name, said anti-Semitism allegations are intended to divert attention from Gaza.

It’s meant to take the focus away from the genocide in Gaza, and it is meant to take the focus away from our demands,” she said.

Those demands include protecting pro-Palestinian speech on campus, divesting from the Israeli state and ending academic partnerships with Israeli institutions.

“We are going to stay here,” Mariam added. “It doesn’t matter what the police do, what the university administration does. We are going to keep fighting until our demands are met.”

Monday’s announcement at Columbia also came as The Israeli military ordered Palestinians  in eastern Rafah, part of the southern Gaza Strip, to leave the area before an expected ground assault.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said in a statement that a Rafah offensive “could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area”.

manitarian crisis and a lack of food, water and medical supplies.

“Rafah had become the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of families, deprived of any semblance of safety. With nowhere else to go, they are facing the threat of prolonged displacement and death,” Egeland said.

Source: Al Jazeera

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When Xi Jinping arrived in Italy for a state visit in 2019, he was given a lavish wecome, with private tours of Roman landmarks and a dinner serenaded by opera singer Andrea Bocelli, topped with a crowning flourish – Italy’s decision to join Xi’s signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

Five years on, the Chinese leader returns to Europe in a very different climate. Xi landed in France Sunday, and while the pomp and ceremony may remain during his six-day European tour, views on China across the continent have shifted dramatically since his last visit.

In the past weeks alone, the European Union has launched trade probes into China’s wind turbines and procurement of medical equipment, and raided offices of Chinese security equipment maker Nuctech as part of an investigation into subsidies. Germany and the United Kingdom in recent days also arrested or charged at least six people for alleged espionage and related crimes linked to China.

And in March, Italy formally exited the Belt and Road, costing the program its only G7 member country, in a blow to China and its leader.

Behind these developments are mounting economic grievances that have the EU preparing for a potential major trade confrontation with China – as well as growing suspicions about Beijing’s global ambitions and influence driven by alarm over China’s deepening ties with Russia as it wages war against Ukraine.

“China is seen increasingly as a multi-faceted threat in many European capitals. But there are divisions within Europe over how fast and far to go in addressing concerns about China, both in the economic and security spheres,” said Noah Barkin, a Berlin-based visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Now, Xi’s trip – with stops in France, Serbia and Hungary – is an opportunity to woo his critics, but also showcase that even as views are hardening in some parts of Europe, others still welcome China with open arms.

Beijing is keen to dampen Europe’s push to address alleged trade distortions, which would come at a bad time for its flagging economy. It also wants to ensure Europe doesn’t draw any closer to the US, especially amid uncertainty over the outcome of the upcoming US election.

Major breakthroughs with China’s toughest critics will be hard to come by unless Xi is ready to make surprise concessions. And the trip could instead serve to underscore divisions – not only between Europe and China – but those within Europe that could play to China’s favor, analysts say.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome, Italy, on March 23, 2019. Abaca Press/SIPAPRE/Sipa/AP

The Chinese leader met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

Von der Leyen has spearheaded the EU’s rallying cry to “derisk” its supply chains from China over concerns about securing its key technologies, and is driving a high-stakes anti-subsidy investigation  backed by France into the influx of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports to Europe.

China earlier this year opened an investigation into the price of EU-imported brandy in a move that could hit France’s cognac sector and is widely seen as retaliation for the probe.

In his meetings, Xi will likely press Beijing’s message that “derisking” from China is perilous for Europe – while pushing back on European concerns about China’s alleged overcapacity and subsidies and instead highlighting the role Chinese EVs can play in European and global efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Xi used similar rhetoric in a meeting in Beijing with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last month, in which critics accused the German leader of being too soft on China in the latest sign of divergence on China policy between Brussels and Berlin.

But such talk, without any tangible trade or reciprocal market-access commitments, is unlikely to move the needle for Von der Leyen, who wants to find ways to address perceived trade distortions before EU parliamentary elections in June, observers say.

Macron too signaled his desire to push Xi on economic ties ahead of the visit.

“I’m calling for an ‘aggiornamento’ because China is now in excess capacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe,” the French president said, using the Italian word for update, in an interview Sunday with French outlet La Tribune Dimanche.

Xi, however, may see more opportunity to win goodwill during his one-on-one time with Macron, which is expected to include not only meetings in Paris but what Elysee sources described as more “personal” time in the Pyrenees mountains of southern France

France has built this reputation of being a fairly independent actor in the EU and willing to create some space with the US,” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

“Xi may want to work on Macron to see if he can get more European distance from North America,” as well as tightening his rapport with this important EU player, Chong said.

In a statement released by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs after his arrival, Xi said the two countries had throughout their relations set “a model for the international community of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation between countries with different social systems.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron visit a garden in Guangdong during Macron’s state visit to China last April. Jacques Witt/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Push for peace

The war in Ukraine – a crucial sore point in Europe-China relations – is also expected to be on the agenda in meetings early this week, where Xi may seek to bolster China’s attempts to position itself as peacemaker.

President Xi will explain to President Macron about China’s relations with Russia … (that) China can be a broker to bridge the gaps between Europe and Russia,” said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University, pointing to an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland as a potential venue for a diplomatic push.

But Beijing has appeared to do little to move the Kremlin toward European visions for peace in Ukraine, despite repeated efforts to push Xi to use his rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has said he plans to visit China this month, according to Russian state media.

Xi’s visit comes as the US and its European allies grow increasingly vocal about concerns China’s exports of dual-use goods to Russia are powering its war machine. Beijing defends that trade as a regular part of its bilateral relations.

Macron and Von der Leyen would likely warn Xi their relationship “risks deteriorating further” if China continues to provide those goods, according to Barkin in Berlin.

However, “there is little evidence that these messages are leading to noticeable changes in Beijing’s behavior,” he said, adding that “at some point soon” Europe could decide to move more aggressively in sanctioning Chinese firms selling such goods.

A warmer welcome

Xi’s stops in Serbia and Hungary are likely to be much less contentious – something the Chinese government likely factored in when mapping out the visit, observers say.

“In Belgrade and Budapest, Xi will not have to listen to the criticism he hears in other European capitals,” said Barkin. “Their leaders welcome Chinese investment, and they don’t have a problem with China’s deepening ties to Russia.”

Xi’s visit to Belgrade will coincide with the week of the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that killed three. The attack, part of a wider bombing campaign by NATO in the Balkans during the spring of 1999, drove Beijing’s deep enmity for the alliance, even as the US said it was an accident.

Any commemoration of the event by Xi could underscore the deep divisions between China and NATO, which Beijing sees as an embodiment of American overreach and a source of Europe’s security challenges – a view that has driven it closer to Russia.

Xi may also look to highlight Chinese investments in both Belgrade and Budapest in a message to the rest of Europe.

Non-EU member Serbia, which Beijing earlier this week described as an “iron-clad” friend, has seen growing trade and investment ties with China under President Aleksandar Vučić.

In January, the Balkan nation announced a deal that could see more than $2 billion of Chinese investment in wind and solar power plants and a hydrogen production facility, Reuters reported at the time.

In Hungary, Xi will look to deepen his relationship with increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a useful ally for China in the European Union, where he has blocked or criticized EU efforts to hold China to account on human rights issues.

The central European country has also emerged as an increasingly important production hub in Europe for Chinese automotive suppliers including EV makers – a situation that analysts say could help Chinese firms maneuver around existing and potential EU tariffs.

That means Xi is likely to exit his trip on a very different note from the one he begins with.

“There, at least, the optics will be that there’s a lot of acceptance of Xi,” said Chong.

Source: CNN, Author: Simone McCarthy

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