How can we possibly memorialize the brutal toll of COVID-19? It’s something I’ve been thinking about this week. The US observed Memorial Day on May 31, honoring people who died in military service. Artists, politicians, and activists are now starting to think about how to memorialize the more than 3.7 million people around the world who have died of COVID-19. Temporary memorials have already sprung up over the past 18 months, with flags, painted hearts, and pictures honoring the dead. But plans for new, more permanent memorials are starting to take shape. Some are massive structures, others are quiet gardens,…
Author: Mike Harrison
The trade relationship between the two largest economies in the world has “significant imbalance” and the Biden administration is committed to leveling it, according to the US trade representative.“There are parts of this trade relationship that are unhealthy and have over time been damaging in some very important ways to the US economy,” Trade Representative Katherine Tai told reporters Saturday in response to a question about whether the US would continue with a trade deal signed with China in January 2020 and the tariffs on Chinese goods.“It’s a relationship in trade that has been marked by significant imbalance – that…
While US intelligence officials have reportedly found no evidence to confirm that the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were alien spacecraft, the newly-appointed Nasa chief said that the US space agency is looking into the phenomenon more seriously. During an interview, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told CNN Business that he turned to the space agency scientists, asking them to look at the mysterious events from a scientific standpoint to get a better idea.In April last year, the US department of defense released three declassified videos that showed US Navy pilots encountering what appeared to be UFOs. While the videos had earlier…
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States was wrong to think that it is “powerful enough” to get away with threatening other countries, a mistake, he said, that led to the downfall of the former Soviet Union.Putin made the comments during a press briefing late on Friday as he spoke about US sanctions against Moscow, according to Russia’s news agency TASS.He was speaking just days before a meeting with US President Joe Biden whose cabinet in April imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia, including curbs to its sovereign debt market.”We hear threats from the Congress, from other…
Indian social networking company Koo is now eyeing a push in Nigeria after the African nation indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities on Friday. Taking to Twitter, Koo co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna said that the new microblogging platform, a Twitter lookalike, is available in Nigeria and the Bengaluru-based company is considering enabling local languages too.”@kooindia is available in Nigeria. We’re thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?” tweeted Radhakrishna. Nigeria suspended Twitter in apparent retaliation after the US-based company removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists. Information minister Lai Mohammed cited “persistent use of…
Group of Seven rich nations will seek to overcome long-standing differences on Saturday and strike a landmark deal to close the net on large companies that they say do not pay enough tax.The proposed accord, which could form the basis of a global pact next month, is aimed at ending a decades-long “race to the bottom” in which countries have competed to attract corporate giants with ultra-low tax rates and exemptions.That has in turn cost their public coffers hundreds of billions of dollars – a shortfall they now need to recoup all the more urgently to pay for the huge…
A Chinese virologist, who was among the first to suggest the Covid-19 virus leaked from a Wuhan lab, said that US top coronavirus advisor Anthony Fauci’s emails prove that she was right all along.A trove of Fauci’s emails covering the onset of the coronavirus outbreak was released this week to media under a freedom of information request.In one email sent last April, an executive at a health charity thanked Fauci for publicly stating that scientific evidence does not support the lab-leak theory.Dr. Li-Meng Yan was one of the first to research the emerging coronavirus and previously revealed she was forced…
On October 2nd, 2020, then-President Donald Trump and the first lady tested positive for the coronavirus. As we were all waking up to the news, I got into my car and tuned in to The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 FM in New York, where Charlamagne Tha God, its most outspoken host, wasn’t having it. “I got a few thoughts and one of those thoughts is the reason I’m saying ‘allegedly,’” he said. At the time, the country was accelerating into the third wave of the pandemic, and the president had been appearing at large, mask-less rallies. But the news…
The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering, a regional affiliate of Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has retained Pakistan on “enhanced follow-up” status for sufficient outstanding requirements, while improving the country’s rating on 21 of the 40 technical recommendations of the global watchdog against money laundering and terror financing.Pakistan was put on the grey list by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018 and the country has been struggling to come out of it.The second Follow-Up Report (FUR) on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by the APG also downgraded the country on one criterion.Click here…
Nigeria said on Friday it had indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities, two days after the social media giant removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists.Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the government had acted because of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.Mohammed did not spell out what form the suspension would take or give more details on the undermining activities. His ministry also announced Twitter’s suspension on Twitter When asked about the details of the suspension, a ministerial aide told Reuters: “Wait and see how things…