Politics
Donald Trump Planning to Hold Campaign Rallies At Drive-In Movie Theaters
Donald Trump, a man who needs constant adulation in order to exist, hasn’t held a campaign rally since March, and it’s absolutely killing him inside. With large-scale group gatherings still a ways off, his campaign is exploring alternate ways to stage his beloved rallies. According to The Daily Beast, one option under consideration is to hold them at drive-in movie theaters. The idea of a drive-in campaign rally is “picking up some steam” within Trump’s campaign, and the president will reportedly be presented with an initial round of options as early as next week, The Daily Beast adds. Now a few things to note: Even if held at a drive-in, there’s nothing to say Trump’s loyal supporters will follow social distancing guidelines and remain in their vehicles. We’ve already seen thousands of hi...
Ogun PDP gets new executive committee
File Photo The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, deepened on Friday, as the faction loyal to Senator Buruji Kashamu, inaugurated its new state executive members to steer the affairs of the party for the next four years. The oaths of office which was done in batches of 15 persons were administered by a lawyer and notary public, Victor Owokoya and Oluwatoyin Omomehin, respectively. The inauguration, ceremony which took place at the State Party Secretariat in Abeokuta, also saw the new exco members getting cars from the Omo-Ilu Foundation, courtesy Senator Buruji Kashamu. Ogun PDP had been enmeshed in a battle of supremacy between the loyalists of Kashamu and party faithful loyal to a former House of Representatives member, Oladipupo Adebutu. Speaking with newsm...
Edo APC leaders vow to replace Governor Obaseki during primaries
Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo state have vowed to replace the incumbent governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, during the primary election of the party, saying no amount of blackmail and intimidation would cow them into submission. In a statement issued Thursday in Abuja, the APC leaders said their views represent the several thousands of APC leaders, stakeholders and members In Edo State whose determination to replace Mr Godwin Obaseki in the forthcoming gubernatorial election is unwavering. Among those who signed the statement were a former Minister of State for Works, Engr Chris Ogiemwonyi, three former deputy governors, Dr Pius Odubu, Rev. Peter Obadan and Lucky Imasuen respectively. Others were Gen. Charles Airhiavbere Rtd, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Hon. Saturday U. Idehe...
Ivory Coast’s Guillaume Soro faces war crimes lawsuit in France
File Photo Ivory Coast’s former prime minister Guillaume Soro, a rebel leader before he entered politics, is facing a lawsuit in France for war crimes, torture and murder, lawyers told AFP. The plaintiffs say the case is being filed in France because Soro has been living in the country since 2019. Late last month, he was handed a 20-year jail term in Ivory Coast for embezzlement, money laundering, and buying a mansion in the West African country’s main city Abidjan with public money. The Abidjan court fined him nearly seven million euros ($7.6 million), ordered the confiscation of his Abidjan home and barred him from civic duties for five years, which effectively eliminates the 47-year-old from contesting presidential elections due in October. Soro denies all accusations. The latest lawsui...
PDP rejects N108 ex-depot fuel price, insist on N70 pump price
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the new ex-depot price of N108 per litre of the Premium Motor Spirit insisting on a new pricing template that must accommodate a pump price of between N60 to N70 per litre to reflect the crash in the price of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market. The party described the N108 ex-depot price as fraudulent and a far cry from the appropriate pump price template that should not exceed N70 given the prevailing situation in the international oil market. In a statement issued by the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP maintained that the N108 ex-depot price with a projected additional N9 per litre Expected Open Market “completely unacceptable to Nigerians.” The statement read: “The federal gov...
Court restrains Nigerian government from extraditing Senator Kashamu
Associated Press Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, restrained the Federal Government from extraditing Buruji Kashamu, a Nigerian senator, to the U.S. to answer drug charges. Delivering judgement, Justice Abang, held that neither the federal government nor any of its agents could validly initiate extradition proceedings against Kashamu in view of subsisting judgements and orders in favour of the plaintiff, which had remained unchallenged. Abang particularly noted that the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 6, 2014 (in suit No:49/2010) and another judgement of July 1, 2016 given by the Federal High Court, Abuja (in suit No: 479/2015), which prohibited Kashamu’s extradition on account of the U.S. drug allegation, were still subsisti...
The Rebel Saint of South Sudan
After 30 years of service in Sudan, often defying her superiors’ orders, a remarkable Indian nun is forced to ask herself whether she’s made any difference at all. Ground Zero in the City of Wau Sister Gracy sits on the edge of her seat as she guides her Landcruiser through the back roads of Wau, South Sudan. She knows every dusty path by heart. At five feet tall, she barely clears the steering wheel. She smiles as she peers over the dash, keeps a rosary hanging from the rearview, and has a habit of grinding the gears when she’s distracted, as she is now. The 60-year-old nun has one hand on the wheel while the other points out the demolished huts that pass by, burned down and bombed out. Furniture, grain sacks, family photos, remnants of looting litter the roads. We keep an eye out for mil...
Axl Rose Just Took a Shot at Steve Mnuchin, and The Treasury Secretary Fired Back
Axl Rose is the most enigmatic of rock stars. The Guns N’ Roses front man doesn’t release music nearly often enough, and he’s not prolific on social media. When he does unleash, oh boy, folks pay attention. The Hall of Famer let fly with a tweet Wednesday night, taking full aim at Steve Mnuchin, the polarizing Secretary of the Treasury. “It’s official! Whatever anyone may have previously thought of Steve Mnuchin he’s officially an asshole,” Rose tweeted. It’s official! Whatever anyone may have previously thought of Steve Mnuchin he’s officially an asshole. — Axl Rose (@axlrose) May 6, 2020 Mnuchin, who looks like a guy who’s great at counting money but not big on beefs, actually shot back. “What have you done for the country lately?,” reads his tweet, which he completed with an emoji...
An Elegy for Karachi’s Empress Market
The dismantling of Karachi’s markets and informal shops isn’t just robbing the city of its soul. It threatens the survival of the very people that make it a city. A group of women in faded patterned saris sits by the side of a road, some shaded by umbrellas, with bags of dried nuts in front of them—almonds, pistachios, cashews. The image would rack up a lot of Instagram likes, if it weren’t for the devastating landscape—mounds of sand, steamrolled expanses, clouds of dust, debris, and the stark sight of a building smack in the middle. Or that these women aren’t sitting on a pavement, protected and secure in their work. They’re on the side of the road, an easy target for harassment, being pushed out from the only place they’ve ever worked, where their fathers worked, and where their childre...
Havana Youth: Q&A with Greg Kahn
Photographer Greg Kahn’s new book explores youth culture in Cuba. Greg Kahn was sitting at his fixer’s house in Cuba one night when he heard the thump of a bass beat echoing through the streets. He wandered outside, where he found a plaza with hundreds of kids dancing to electronic music. “It was current music that I had been listening to in the States,” Kahn said. “It just totally flipped that idea of everything that Cuba is.” Khan points to this moment as the foundation for his work over the next two years, and the subject of his new book “Havana Youth” (Yoffy Press). “Havana Youth” (Yoffy Press) “Havana Youth” is the DC-based freelancer’s first book, and its pages reveal the color and vibrancy of young Cuban society, brought to life by Khan’s meticulous attention to detail and intimate ...
Chyno: Beirut Battle Rap
This week on The Trip podcast: Beirut-based, Syrian-Filipino rapper Chyno on Lebanon, rap, and revolution. I’ve been thinking here in Beirut about the many-sided… let’s call them gifts, that America has given to the Middle East. And of course when you wade into it, when you look at yourself and your country in the mirror, you’ve first got to walk your mind through a vast swamp of evil action and intention. From cluster bombing to propping up Saudi hoodlums to supporting the instincts of Israel’s politics, there’s a lot to regret, past, present and future. But tucked inside the exports of empire, sort of the opposite of a poison pill, there’s also this wonderful counter-programming, an exported American liberalism, a real and instinctual belief in free speech that is a beacon for many ...
Gilles Khoury: The Heart of the Lebanese Revolution
This week on The Trip podcast: journalist (and protestor) Gilles Khoury on what sparked the Lebanese revolution and what’s next. Welcome to the Egg, the battleworn concrete theater that has become epicenter of Lebanon’s revolution, where today a rally of small business owners and entrepreneurs kicks off with a singing of the national anthem. Small business is the heartbeat of Lebanon’s economy, and they’ve been terribly affected by the banking crisis since the revolution began, leading to a wave of layoffs across the country. Our guide here is a singular voice in Lebanese media, a young writer named Gilles Khoury who writes a weekly, whimsical slice-of-life column for the French-language paper L’Orient Le Jour, about Beirutis and their hopes and dreams, and lately, about their revolution. ...
