Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States, has praised her boss, President Joe Biden, a day after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her as his successor. “Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the last three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said on Monday in her first public appearance since the 81-year-old US leader abruptly announced his withdrawal from the November polls a day earlier. “In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have two terms in office,” Harris said at a White House event to honour college athletes, where…
Author: KahawaTungu Editor
Democratic politicians and commentators in the United States have heaped praise on President Joe Biden since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday. Representative Maxine Waters, for instance, called Biden a “kind and decent man”. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, extolled his “vision, values and leadership”. But while political leaders showered Biden with compliments, bombs continued to rain down on Gaza, killing dozens and sparking another wave of mass displacement in Khan Younis. For many Palestinian rights advocates, the carnage and abuses in Gaza will define Biden’s place in the history books, as the US remains steadfast in its…
Ugandan security forces have surrounded the headquarters of the main opposition party in advance of a planned antigovernment rally over alleged corruption and human rights abuses. Police and soldiers cut off access to the office of the National Unity Platform (NUP), which sits near the capital, Kampala, on Monday. The threat of protests has angered longtime President Yoweri Museveni, who claimed it to be a plot being operated by unnamed “foreigners”. NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi claimed that the blockade prevented people from entering or leaving, while some have been roughly detained. “These cowards have turned the National Unity Platform Headquarters…
Israel’s military has launched artillery and air strikes on eastern Khan Younis shortly after demanding residents leave what it had previously designated a humanitarian zone. The barrage of attacks early on Monday came less than an hour after the evacuation order. At least 30 people have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza. The enclave’s population, most of which has been displaced and is in desperate need of shelter and food, has found it increasingly difficult to find security as they have been pushed into shrinking “safe zones” by Israel’s bombardment. The military on Monday had ordered people to…
The Ivory Coast has received the first doses of malaria vaccine from the world’s largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, and began rolling out a new vaccination drive across the country earlier this week. Malaria remains a significant health issue in the Ivory Coast, causing up to four deaths per day in the country with a population of 28 million. According to a 2022 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria causes more than 600,000 deaths worldwide per year with 95 percent of cases occurring in Africa and 80 percent…
At least 40 Haitians have been killed at sea and several people were injured after their boat caught fire, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. The boat, which was carrying more than 80 people, departed from Fort Saint-Michel in northern Haiti on Wednesday for the Turks and Caicos islands, a 250km (155-mile) journey, the IOM said on Friday, citing the country’s migration authority. The boat caught fire off the coast of Cap-Haitien in Haiti’s north, according to the United Nations migration agency, which said 41 people were rescued by the Haitian coastguard. Eleven people were being treated for injuries,…
Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Friday he will run for another presidential term in Oct. 6 elections. The candidacy aims “to continue the national liberation struggle,” Saied said in a video on the presidency’s Facebook page. Opposition parties, many of whose leaders are in prison, have accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to crack down on his rivals in the 2024 elections and pave the way for him to win a second term. The re-election bid was announced the same day a court jailed opposition leader Lotfi Mraihi, a potential presidential election candidate, to eight months…
Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies. After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and canceled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrikeone of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded…
Russian drones launched in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday hit energy infrastructure facilities in two regions in the country’s north, officials said. Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 of 17 Russian drones over five regions in the east, north, and centre of the country, the air force said. One of the Shahed drones hit an energy facility in the Sumy region while another struck a site in the Chernihiv region, regional officials said. Also Read: Palestinians urge world to end Israel’s illegal occupation after ICJ ruling Repair teams were rushed to the sites of the strikes, they said. There…
Activists and legal experts in the West Bank say Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has found that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is unlawful, will do little to improve life for Palestinians. Other states must now apply collective pressure on Israel to end its rule over Gaza and the West Bank, including annexed East Jerusalem, if the situation there is to change, they say. The world’s highest court concluded on Friday – with 12-3 judges in favour – that Israel is forcibly displacing Palestinians from their lands, exploiting water sources, annexing large swaths of the occupied…
Acting Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja announced a ban on protests within the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) for an unspecified period of time. “As a result, no demonstrations will be permitted in the Nairobi Central Business District and its surroundings until further notice to ensure public safety,” he said. This comes after weeks of youth-led anti-government demonstrations that have, majorly, been conducted around the Nairobi CBD and its environs. Kanja said the protests that began in June have not only led to massive destruction of property but also tremendous loss of lives following the infiltration by criminal elements.…
Joe Biden has renewed a call for Congress to ban assault rifles, including the model that was used in the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet after a gunman shot at him from a nearby rooftop during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. “An AR-15 was used in the shooting of Donald Trump. This was the assault weapon that killed so many others, including children. It’s time to outlaw them,” Mr Biden told the audience at a convention in Las Vegas. His demand came as he returned to the campaign trail for…
Prominent Democrat Adam Schiff – a California congressman running to be the state’s next senator – has called on President Joe Biden to “pass the torch” and allow another Democrat to challenge Donald Trump in November. Mr Schiff said that Mr Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history”, and he could “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing Democrats to support another candidate. “Our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump…
Israeli forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south. In one Israeli air strike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed, the health officials said. Another strike killed a man in Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave’s eight refugee camps, where 23 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school a day ago. Israeli tanks also shelled the eastern areas of Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi…
Under the denuded slopes of Mount Nyiragongo volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, traders in Kibati town bartered over sacks of charcoal, a product of deforestation that an ongoing conflict has pushed to unprecedented levels, the United Nations says. Motorbikes piled with freshly sawn planks zipped down the main road in Kibati, a community that has remained under Congolese army control even as a two-year insurgency by the M23 militia advanced in conflict-torn North Kivu province, displacing more than 1.7 million people. “In the camp, we’re dying of hunger. We’ve decided to make charcoal so we can feed our children,” said displaced vendor…