World News

Saturday 15 August 2020 VJ Day which marks 75 years since victory over Japan and the moment that finally brought World War II to an end.

To commemorate this anniversary and remember those who served in the Far East, events will take place to highlight the significance of this anniversary and those who remember leaving home for an unknown country and an unknown enemy and how it feels to be known as the ‘forgotten army’ at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, where a remembrance commemoration is taking place.

With a national two minutes silence led by HRH The Prince of Wales the commemorations close at Horse Guards Parade in London where the story of all those that served in the Far East is told.

Victory over Japan 75 years ago brought mixed emotions for those fighting in the malaria ridden jungles of the Far East. With the end of the war finally arriving relief, joy and sadness (at the human cost) was in abundance.

Those who had fought on through the final three months, largely forgotten by people at home, could finally look forward to returning to their loved ones, and some sort of normality.

But for many who had toiled for years in the brutal battlefields, or been prisoners, the end of the war didn’t mean the end of their suffering. The memories of what they endured and the loss of their comrades would live with them forever.

Following a rigorous selection process which took place between 15th – 19th July, Walking With The Wounded (WWTW) is pleased to announce the final team participating in the Walk of Oman expedition.

Formed of five ex-military personnel and one member still currently serving, all six of the team have physical or cognitive injuries and will tackle one of their toughest challenges yet, as they pull a custom-built cart weighing in excess of 300kg (around three times their own bodyweight) across the Omani desert.

Starting on November 20th and ending on December 11th 2020 the team will take on an epic trek inspired by Wilfred Thesiger. Thesiger, a British military officer, travelled across the Arabian Peninsula in the 1940s, and the trek will see the team embrace the same hostile conditions in the Omani desert. The expedition will end on Oman’s Armed Forces Day.

Highlighting the extraordinary courage of the men and women who have been injured, both physically and mentally, while serving their countries, the walk will showcase the need for continued support in aiding the transition from the Armed Forces into civilian life.

Experiencing extreme temperatures as high as 95°F and trekking between 20 km to 22 km per day in what will be an unforgettable three-weeks of strength, determination and grit, the team facing the desert are:

David Adams – David spent 13 years as an Aircraft Technician in the REME, serving in the UK, Afghanistan, Cyprus and Oman. David was medically discharged after a diagnosis of PTSD, following traumatic events whilst serving in Afghanistan.
Sean Gane – Joining the British Army in 1986 as an Infantryman, Sean served for 12 years between ’86 and 2014, leaving and later rejoining. He served on operational tours including Afghanistan and served his last tour in 2009. It was during this last tour Sean witnessed many traumatic events and was later diagnosed with PTSD and hearing and nerve damage. He was medically discharged in 2014.
Ben McComb - Ben joined the Army Reserves in October 2005 and served as a Private Solider until 2011, during which time he was selected for officer training. In 2011, he commenced regular officer training at RMAS and commissioned into the Royal Artillery. Ben has neural impingement and nerve damage in his lower limbs which is incurable. However, his condition is stable due to continuous self-rehabilitation management.
Brian O’Neill – Brian joined the British Army in 1990 aged 17 and served in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Royal Military Police and Military Provost Staff Regiment. Brian served in 7 operational tours including Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant during his 26 years of serving in the Armed Forces. He found the transition from military to civilian life exceptionally difficult.
Andrew Phillips – Having served in the Royal Air Force from 1983 – 1993 as a Junior Technician, Andrew was injured in the build-up to the Gulf War and eventually received a medical discharge due to a spinal cord injury. Struggling with the transition from military to civilian life, he became involved in the Invictus Games which helped him regain focus and a positive outlook on life.
Ashley Winter – Ashley served as a Challenger 2 Tank crewman serving in Kosovo and Iraq. He was diagnosed with Keratoconus ten years ago and has undertaken various physical challenges to inspire others.

The final team of six were chosen following a five-day selection process in which they hiked across different peaks in Grasmere, Cumbria. With the walks varying each day from 5 km to 20 km, the team were able to test their physical capabilities, whilst walking in an unpredictable climate and across tough terrains.

Ed Parker, CEO of WWTW said: “We are very excited to have been able to take all six candidates as part of the team from the selection week process. The team face an immense challenge ahead of them and each will be tested mentally and physically. Throughout the selection week process, each candidate embraced the task ahead and cemented the bond formed between them that will put them in good stead for the Omani desert.”

The Walk of Oman is supported by The Duke of Sussex in his role as the official Expedition Patron, along with support from the Royal Office of HM Sultan Haitham bin Tariq and in partnership with the Omani Armed Forces. The team will be followed by a support team in case of emergencies during the course of the expedition.

The U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) has resumed business operations following the passage of Tropical Storm Isaias.  

The storm brought heavy rainfall, but with little to no impact to the Territory’s tourism infrastructure, the Department of Tourism has reported.

The overnight curfew has been lifted, major roads are clear, and government offices are open.

The Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas and the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix remain open with normal operations; however, inter-island commuter aircraft reported some delays and cancellations. Travellers are reminded to contact airlines for updates and advisories. 

Seaports have opened, however, the Wilfred "Bomba" Allick Port and Transshipment Center (The Containerport) on St. Croix remains closed to vessel traffic due to high surf conditions. Other maritime and seaplane operations have resumed.

“We once again thank our partners for working in lock step to prepare for this weather event, and pray that those who are now in the storm’s path will be safe,” said Joseph Boschulte, USVI Commissioner of Tourism.

A postcard has helped to find the probable spot where Vincent van Gogh painted what may have been his final masterpiece, art experts say. The likely location for Tree Roots was found by Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Institut Van Gogh.

He recognised similarities between the painting and a postcard dating from 1900 to 1910 showing trees on a bank near the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise. The site is 150m (492ft) from the Auberge Ravoux, where Van Gogh stayed for 70 days before taking his own life in 1890.

"The similarities were very clear to me," said Mr Van der Veen, who had the revelation at his home in Strasbourg, France, during lockdown.

He presented his findings to Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, whose researchers conducted a comparative study of the painting, postcard and the hillside.

Experts and senior researchers at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum concluded that it was "highly plausible" that the correct location had been identified, saying: "In our opinion, the location identified by Van der Veen is highly likely to be the correct one and it is a remarkable discovery.

"On closer observation, the overgrowth on the postcard shows very clear similarities to the shape of the roots on Van Gogh's painting. That this is his last artwork renders it all the more exceptional, and even dramatic."

At the time of his death in July 1890, Tree Roots was not entirely completed.

After a court annulled the site's status the world-famous Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul - originally founded as a cathedral - has been turned back into a mosque following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the decision.

Built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. It became a museum in 1934 and is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

Islamists in Turkey long called for it to be converted to a mosque but secular opposition members opposed the move. The proposal prompted criticism from religious and political leaders worldwide.

Defending the decision, President Erdogan stressed that the country had exercised its sovereign right in converting it back to a mosque. He announced the first Muslim prayerers to take place inside the building on July 24.

"Like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims," he added.

A change is coming to Hagia Sophia, which has endured since the 6th century, outlasting the Byzantine empire and the Ottoman era. Now, once again, it will be a mosque. But Turkish officials say Christian emblems, including mosaics of the Virgin Mary which adorn its soaring golden dome, will not be removed.
Making changes at Hagia Sophia is profoundly symbolic. It was Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, who decreed that it should be a museum. President Erdogan is now taking one more step to dismantle Ataturk's secular legacy, and remould Turkey according to his vision. The Turkish leader - who presents himself as a modern day conqueror - is making no apologies for the change. He says anyone who doesn't like it - and plenty abroad don't - is attacking Turkey's sovereignty.
Reclaiming Hagia Sophia plays well with his base - religious conservatives - and with Turkish nationalists. Critics say he's using the issue to distract attention from the economic damage done here by the Covid19 pandemic.
But many in the international community argue that the monument belongs to humanity - not to Turkey - and should have remained unchanged. They say it was a bridge between two faiths, and a symbol of co-existence.
Shortly after the announcement, the first call to prayer was recited at Hagia Sophia and was broadcast on all of Turkey's main news channels. The cultural site's social media channels have now been taken down.
Unesco has said it "deeply regrets" the decision to turn the museum into a mosque and called on the Turkish authorities to "open a dialogue without delay."significance as a religious and political symbol
The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church has condemned the move, as has Greece - home to many millions of Orthodox followers.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said it was an "open provocation to the civilised world".
"The nationalism displayed by President Erdogan... takes his country back six centuries," she said in a statement.
The court ruling "absolutely confirms that there is no independent justice" in Turkey, she added.
But the Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court, said in its ruling on Friday: "It was concluded that the settlement deed allocated it as a mosque and its use outside this character is not possible legally."
"The cabinet decision in 1934 that ended its use as a mosque and defined it as a museum did not comply with laws," it said.
The Church in Russia, home to the world's largest Orthodox Christian community, immediately expressed regret that the Turkish court had not taken its concerns into account when ruling on Hagia Sophia.
It said the decision could lead to even greater divisions.
While the move is popular with conservative religious supporters of President Erdogan, Turkey's most famous author, Orhan Pamuk said the decision would take away the "pride" some Turks had in being a secular Muslim nation.
"There are millions of secular Turks like me who are crying against this but their voices are not heard," he told the BBC.

Just a mere 27 months after the untimely death of our Great Mother of Africa, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, who transitioned on 2 April 2018, her youngest daughter, Zindzi Mandela, made so much in her image, was laid to rest right next to her mother in Johannesburg, South Africa on 17 July 2020.

Zindzi’s death will, of a surety, be felt by her family, the people of South Africa, and the world at large for years to come.

I was so blessed to have met Zindzi when she was a young woman, and what amazing times we had over the years.

No matter whether eating some of the best food in the world prepared by none other than Mama Winnie, falling out laughing on the veranda in Orlando West at some anecdote that Mama Winnie told us, anxiously awaiting results of medical tests, flying across the world, walking the plains of the Holy Land, or hearing her strong and kind laughter on the Thursday before she transitioned as she thanked me for the 1000th time for taking such good care of her mom and reminding me of how much my beloved BFF loved me, followed by a kind and loving text assuring me of how much she loved me and signed “your daughter Zindzi,” Zin always showed care and love and respect for those who shared the walk of life with her.

And as much as I ascribe to the reality that we never really die as long as we are held in the hearts and spirits of those who remain, I AM going to miss Zin for all that she was, for all that she is, and for all the hope and promise she was in the process of giving to the legacy of her Great Mother and for the benefit of our nation -- really and truly she is gone way too soon.

When I consider the fire in her belly, the passion in her heart for justice, fairness and well-being for others, the power in her soul, I am reminded of so many strong, courageous Black warrior women, who were created for and destined for unravelling the status quo as was she.

Great women like The Dahomey Amazons: The All-Female Warriors of Benin in West Africa; Sojourner Truth, the African American warrior who spoke out and stood against racial and sexual inequalities; Harriet Tubman, an African American abolitionist who risked her life time and time again to free more than 300 enslaved men, women and children, and was a Union spy during the American Civil War; Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh one of the great leaders of the Mino.

In 1890, King Behanzin used his female Mino fighters alongside the male soldiers to battle the French forces during the First Franco-Dahomean War, wherein the French army lost many battles because of the female warrior’s skill in battle.

Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa of the Edweso tribe of the Asante, who fought and beat the British; Queen Nanny, a Jamaican national hero, a well-known leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the 18th century.

Amanirenas, one of the greatest queen mothers, who ruled over the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush in northeast Africa and led her army against the Roman Emperor Augustus and won.

Carlota Lukumí, a Yoruba captured and taken to Cuba to work on a sugar plantation who in 1843, along with another enslaved woman named Fermina, led an organized rebellion at the Triumvarato sugar plantation and won.

I think of Queen Nzinga Mbande, a highly intelligent and powerful 17th-century ruler of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms (modern-day Angola), who around the turn of the 17th century fearlessly and cleverly fought for the freedom of her kingdoms against the Portuguese.

I think of Muhumusa, a feared leader of the East African Nyabingi priestesses who was influential in Rwanda and Uganda and in 1911, she proclaimed “she would drive out the Europeans” and “that the bullets of the Wazungu would turn to water against her.”

I think of my BFF, Nomzamo Winifred (Winnie) Zanyiwe Madikizela Mandela her intelligence, beauty, fearlessness, and courage that kept a freedom movement alive with her capacity to inspire millions to be free.

And now added to the annuals of Great Warrior Women is Zindziswa (Zindzi) Mandela, who possessed the fearlessness to battle against apartheid, the fortitude to resist against injustices, and the fervor to defy inequality.

So big is Zindzi’s life, so powerful her own voice that I hesitate to speak of her in the past tense, for I know while the body expires, when we are in God, our spirit never dies, rather we merely transition to a higher plane.

Zindzi was a fortress of passion and energy. She was charming, eloquent, very funny, often making fun of the past hurts and troubles she and her family endured, when she allowed herself to think about them at all, and she was very, very brave.

Zindzi was a strong, bold and valiant activist for righteousness, the courageous defender of the weak, an unafraid protector of the downtrodden, and an audacious voice for the forgotten, no matter the cost.

A survivor, who endured unutterable trauma and indescribable horrors at the hands of the heinous apartheid system.

Often branded a terrorist, a troublemaker, names called to deflect from the malevolent behaviours of the oppressor who in truth and fact were the real terrorists, killers and looters, but no matter what the enemy called her, Zindzi rose to the challenges and contended against the oppressors, heroically.

In her beloved and cherished role as mother, she was deeply divided with the tasks of balancing the responsibility of caring for herself, giving to her children, and fighting for her nation and its freedom.

Zindzi fought for the needs of millions of other children, not born of her body, but born in and of her spirit.

Having seen and heard firsthand of unspeakable things done to her mother, that no child should have to endure, memories etched permanently in her spirit, although needing care for her tattered heart, Zindzi always found a way to prevail.

Even though scarred from the pain of her past and bearing a responsibility to right the wrongs, almost too heavy for a mere mortal to bear, Zindzi carried her load with dignity and grace.

Amazingly, she had compassion for others, even those who disappointed her, optimistically trusting that maybe they just did not understand the miles of bad road she had traversed.

No matter the cost, Zindzi lived in the framing of a sublime truth uttered eons ago by Galileo: “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

How blessed we have been, even for too short a time, to have been graced by Zindzi’s use of good sense, kindness, forbearance, amazing reason, and sharp intellect.

Truly, she has left a path of positive action, courage, fortitude and loving care for us to follow allowing us the material of her life’s living to forge a bridge of justice, peace and well- being for our people.

“For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever… Their righteousness endures forever.”

VIVA ZINDZI VIVA!

“For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever. They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. They have distributed freely; they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever…”.

An activist in India has become the first person from a tiny African-origin ethnic group to become a legislator in the country.

Shantaram Siddi is from the Siddhi community – descendants of Africans who travelled to India as merchants or slaves from the 17th Century onwards. Only about 50,000 remain.

He has been appointed to the assembly in the state of Karnataka. He’s also the first college graduate from his community.

He said he would continue to work for the rights of India’s tribes.

Speaking of his joy at the announcement, Mr Siddi told news site The Hindu: “I thought someone may be playing a prank.”

A message on his social media read: “I thought someone may be playing a prank. I went home for lunch. It was then that my wife and I started getting calls continuously, congratulating me for the nomination,’’ says Shantaram Siddi, the first from his community in any house of legislature –https://t.co/EhyfH5QvH9 — Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) July 23, 2020.”

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has praised the family of the country's first Black President Nelson Mandela for revealing that his daughter, Zindzi, who had passed, had Covid-19. The gesture will "encourage acceptance" of those infected, Mr Ramaphosa said.
The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Zindzi was buried alongside her mother, anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Only close friends and relatives attended the funeral service in Johannesburg because of coronavirus restrictions.

South Africa is the African country worst hit by coronavirus, with more than 320,000 cases. There have been more than 4,600 deaths, and government projections estimate this could rise to 50,000 by the end of the year. Despite public awareness of how the virus is spread, its symptoms and effects, there have been some reported cases of stigmatisation of those infected.

"I would like to thank the Mandela family for the very important gesture of sharing this information with the nation. This is a virus that affects us all, and there should never be any stigma around people who become infected," he tweeted ahead of Zindzi Mandela's funeral.

He added that revealing the cause of her death, was "a final act of solidarity in the life of a woman who devoted her life to the cause of her fellow South Africans."

Ms Mandela had "during our years of struggle brought home the inhumanity of the apartheid system and the unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom," Mr Ramaphosa said in a statement after her death.

Zindzi Mandela, 59, was Nelson Mandela's sixth child and his second with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his second wife.
Mourners gathered for her funeral service in Johannesburg have praised her as a freedom fighter.

"The invisible enemy took her away from us when she has survived bullets, torture and the pain inflicted by the apartheid system," Nomvula Mokonyane, an official from the governing African National Congress, was quoted as saying by EWN news site.

"She survived the most brutal regime at an early age, and we thought that this crisis and this invisible enemy that we are faced with today, she is going to survive because she has seen worse," said Julius Malema, the leader of the radical opposition EFF party.

Despite her father's fame Ms Mandela was an activist in her own right and was serving as ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death. She grew up at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. With her father imprisoned on Robben Island, she endured years of harassment and intimidation by the apartheid regime, along with her sister Zenani, and her mother Winnie.

Zindzi Mandela read out her father's rejection of then-president PW Botha's offer for his conditional release from prison at a public meeting in February 1985. Through his foundation, Nobel peace laureate and former archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu said that "speech in Soweto, on behalf of her father... reinvigorated the values and principles of the struggle".

Ms Mandela "played a critical role symbolising the humanity and steadfastness of the anti-apartheid struggle", he added. Most recently, she was known for her vocal support for radical land reform in South Africa.

Only two of Nelson Mandela's six children are still alive: Zenani Dlamini, Zindzi's sister; and Pumla Makaziwe Mandela, a daughter from his first marriage, to Evelyn Mase.

US President Donald Trump has worn a mask in public for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The president was visiting the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington, where he met wounded soldiers and health care workers.

"I've never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place," he said as he left the White House.

He has previously said that he would not wear a mask and mocked Democratic rival Joe Biden for doing so. But he recently said: "I think when you're in a hospital, especially in that particular setting, where you're talking to a lot of soldiers and people that, in some cases, just got off the operating tables, I think it's a great thing to wear a mask."

The change of tone came as the US recorded 66,528 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a new daily record.

Speaking to Fox Business Network, he said: "I'm all for masks."
Trump added that he "sort of liked" how he looked with one on, likening himself to the Lone Ranger, a fictional masked hero who with his Native American friend, Tonto, fought outlaws in the American Old West.

But when the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in April began recommending people wear masks or cloth coverings in public to help stop the spread of the virus,
Trump told reporters he would not follow the practice.

"I don't think I'm going to be doing it," he said back then. "Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens - I just don't see it."
Some media reports have suggested aides have repeatedly asked the president to wear one in public.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last month, Mr Trump suggested some people might wear masks to signal disapproval of him.

He also said he took issue with people touching their faces after taking their mask off. "They put their finger on the mask, and they take them off, and then they start touching their eyes and touching their nose and their mouth. And then they don't know how they caught it?" he said.

The US has seen another 66,528 infections in the past 24 hours, a record for one day, and a total of almost 135,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Louisiana has become the latest state to order that masks be worn in public.
Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards also ordered the closure of bars across Louisiana, and tightened restrictions on restaurants, which will no longer be able to serve customers inside.

State Republican lawmakers are expected to oppose the move.
"If you don't like the mask mandate, then don't like it while you wear your mask," Governor Edwards said. "If you want to be mad at me about it, then be mad at me about it."
Neighbouring Texas has recorded another rise of coronavirus infections, with a record 10,500 new cases just recorded.

The governor of South Carolina has issued an order banning sales of alcohol after 23:00 in bars and restaurants to try to stop the spread of the virus.

Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed on her chat show in a heart-to-heart with husband Will Smith that she did have a relationship with singer August Alsina.

Speaking to Smith on her Facebook show Red Table Talk, the actress said that the relationship happened while the pair were separated.

"We were over," she says. "From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August."

Mr Smith then presses her, saying "an entanglement? A relationship. I was in a lot of pain and I was very broken," she countered.

The pair have been married since 1997, have two children together, and said they are currently back together after a split. The couple said they wanted to do the show to clear up speculation circulating in the media over an interview August Alsina recently gave to a radio morning show, The Breakfast Club.

The rapper said he had been in a relationship with Pinkett Smith and that Smith had given the affair his "blessing", leading to speculation that the Hollywood power couple were in an open marriage.

"The only person that can give permission in that particular circumstance is myself," Pinkett Smith said. "I could actually see how he would perceive it as permission because we were separated amicably and I think he also wanted to make it clear that he's also not a home-wrecker. Which he's not."

She had not spoken to the rapper in years, she added.
Smith asked her what she felt she was looking for in the "interaction" with Alsina about four-and-a-half years ago.

"I just wanted to feel good," she replied, as her husband nodded sympathetically. "It had been so long since I had felt good." Now the couple are back together, Pinkett Smith said they had reached a place of "unconditional love".

Towards the end of the interview, Smith told her: "I'm gonna get you back first."
Pinkett Smith laughed and responded: "I think you got me back! I think we're good on that."
At the end of the chat, the pair fist-bumped. We ride together, we die together. Bad marriage for life," they said in a quote derived from Smith's Bad Boys movies.

US rapper Kanye West has said he is running for president, potentially pitting him against a man he says he admires, Donald Trump.

"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future," he tweeted. "I am running for president of the United States!"

His wife Kim Kardashian West and entrepreneur Elon Musk endorsed him. But it's unclear whether West is really running.

He does not appear to have registered his name with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for November's election. The closest name the FEC database shows is a candidate called "Kanye Deez Nutz West", who filed their papers with the Green Party in 2015 under the address "1977 Golddigger Avenue, Suite Yeezus" and appears to have raised no money.

It is also not the first time West has claimed that he is running for the White House.

At the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, he said he had decided to run for president in 2020.

But last November he pushed the date back, saying he would actually run in the 2024 contest.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked the crowd at Fast Company's Innovation Festival.

"We would have created so many jobs that I'm not gonna run, I'm gonna walk," he said, adding he was considering changing his name for the run to "Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West".

In his tweet on Saturday, US Independence Day, West, 43, did not say if his supposed run would be affiliated with a particular political party.

In any case, contesting the nomination of one major parties would be impossible at this stage, with the election only four months away.

In order to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, West would have to gather a certain amount of signatures and register in states by a particular deadline. The deadline has already passed in some major states but the music star would still technically have time to file in many others.

This year's contest is likely to be a straight battle between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

In 2018, West made a bizarre appearance at the White House with President Trump during which he wore a Make America Great Again hat and made an expletive-filled rant that Trump described as "quite something".

"I love this guy right here," West said, walking behind the desk to hug the seated president, who said: "That's really nice."

The rapper also pushed back on the idea that African-Americans are overwhelmingly Democratic Party voters, saying: "People expect that if you're Black, you have to be Democrat."

Kim Kardashian West retweeted her husband's statement about the presidential run with an American flag.

She has in recent years become a significant voice in the US movement for criminal justice reform and has successfully lobbied President Trump to release several prisoners.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has commended a Nigerian doctoral student in Japan for returning a missing wallet full of money and not taking the 10% reward, his social media assistant Bashir Ahmad has tweeted.

Reports from earlier this week said that Ikenna Nweke was out buying a take-away in the Japanese city of Tsukuba when he saw the wallet on the ground. He then handed it in to the police.

“The police told me that according to Japanese law, that I was entitled to 10% of the money found inside the wallet but I declined," he told the International Centre for Investigative Reporting.

"I told him that there was no need for that because I was raised by responsible parents, and that I am also a Christian.”

Mr Buhari praised the student "for projecting the values of honesty, integrity and contentment that should be the hallmark of a people", Mr Ahmad said.

Mr Nweke had already received a letter from the Nigerian embassy in Japan saying he was a "good example to all".

The World Bank has categorized Tanzania as a lower-middle income country after the country made economic reforms, including making consistent plans and taking hard decisions aimed at improving its economic development, a senior official said.

"Discipline in financial expenditure and the prevailing peace and tranquility also helped the country to earn the middle income status from the World Bank," Hassan Abbasi, the chief government spokesperson told a news conference in the capital Dodoma.

Abbasi spoke after the World Bank on Wednesday declared Tanzania a middle income country, a goal that has been achieved five years ahead of the country's schedule.
Tanzania had planned to gain the middle income status in 2025.

Abbasi said other values that made the east African nation to earn the middle income status included the reinforcement of the leadership ethics, the implementation of flagship projects and investment in human development.

Responding to the World Bank's announcement, President John Magufuli tweeted commending his fellow Tanzanians for the achievement.

"We had envisaged achieving this status by 2025 but with strong determination this has been possible in 2020," Magufuli wrote in the tweet.

Tanzania last year recorded an economic growth of seven percent, making the country one of the fastest growing economies in Africa.

Tanzania is the second largest economy in East Africa and becomes the second East African Community member state to achieve the middle-income status after Kenya.

Costa Rica looks to restart its tourism industry with the development of 16 health protocols

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) and representatives of the local private sector have unveiled a list of 16 health protocols for the safe reopening of some of the country’s most popular tourism areas that were affected by the Covid-19 global pandemic.
 
The protocols relate to tourism companies in the following industries: accommodation; restaurants; aerial and aquatic recreational activities; travel agencies; tour operators; car rentals; meetings and conventions; tourism transport; adventure tourism; and spa and wellness tourism, amongst others. Further industries are expected to be added gradually.
 
The easy-to-implement protocols establish guidelines on the use of face masks in public and private transport; the cleaning and disinfection of the equipment in tours and sports such as water sport activities; and how to apply social distancing rules when kayaking or white water rafting, for example – two of Costa Rica’s most popular water activities.
 
Costa Rica’s Tourism Minister, María Amalia Revelo Raventós, said: “These protocols are a great step for the country to start getting ready to welcome visitors again. Although the reactivation of the tourism sector will be gradual and linked to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, having these 14 protocols in place will allow business to safely plan, prepare and get ready to reopen.”
 
Gustavo Alvarado, Director of Tourism Management at the Costa Rica Tourism Board, mentioned: “These protocols are easy to implement as they were designed to generate the lowest economic cost to those companies who have struggled the most during the pandemic.”
 
The 16 protocols were agreed among by a committee of 68 professionals from the country’s both public and private sectors. In Costa Rica, the public and the private sectors have been deeply engaged in tourism policy design and implementation since the 1980s. Their cooperation frequently takes the form of co-governance, in which an autonomous institution in charge of policy for a particular economic sector is created, with a board of directors comprising representatives from both the public and the private sectors. This way of working has proved to be very successful for the country, as tourism measures are agreed by a majority and no changes are introduced if a change of Government takes place.
 
The Costa Rica Tourism Board has also been organising regular online trainings and webinars with the country’s tourism partners to keep them up to date on the government’s measures on Covid-19 and to discuss how to implement the health protocols in their businesses.
 
Costa Rica received 78,562 visitors from the UK in 2019.
 

 
Countries’ response to Covid-19, their long-term development and the meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are all threatened by the “invisible infection” of corruption, the Commonwealth Secretary-General has warned.
 
Speaking to the annual conference of the Commonwealth Caribbean Association of Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies (CCAICACB), Patricia Scotland laid bare the devastating impact criminal acts such as fraud bribery and theft have in both financial terms and in their human cost.
 
In her speech to the conference she highlighted that:

It is estimated that every year $1 trillion is paid in bribes globally, while an estimated $2.6 trillion is stolen annually through corruption, a sum equivalent to more than five per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product.
Illicit financial flows cost developing countries $1.26 trillion per year, enough money to lift 1.4 billion people out of poverty and keep them there for at least six years. While the United Nations Development Programme estimates, that in developing countries, funds lost to corruption are 10 times the amount dispersed in official development assistance.
Transparency International states corruption in the health sector alone costs US$500 billion every year, more than the amount needed for worldwide universal health coverage.

The Secretary-General said corruption would not only undermine efforts to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic but also deprive vulnerable communities of vital funding for social and economic development.
 
Speaking to the conference, she said the “corrosive cancer” of corruption is one of the major impediments to achieving the SDGs.
 
She also called for “swift and decisive action” to improve transparency and accountability, and to build confidence that institutions and systems are corruption-free, adding: “Our Caribbean region is now confronted with the triple impacts of the global pandemic, climate crisis and a potential economic tsunami because of the lockdown measures necessary to fight coronavirus.
 
“As we mobilise to adapt to climate change and work to withstand its impacts and those of the natural disasters which bring devastation to our islands, there is this invisible infection of corruption which the world must also continue to fight.”
 

 
The Secretary-General outlined how the Commonwealth Secretariat’s work is crucial in the battle to curb corruption.
 
The approach attacks criminal financial activities on three fronts - research, capacity-building and networking. This is delivered through regional anti-corruption agency networks and training centres, backed up by closer co-operation and learning. The CCAICACB was created by the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2015. 
 
The Secretariat’s work has seen significant success, with recent data showing Commonwealth Caribbean countries are perceived as less corrupt than their non-Commonwealth neighbours.
 
Commonwealth Anti-Corruption Benchmarks have also been developed as the latest tool designed to help governments and public sector bodies with measuring anti-corruption laws, procedures and actions against international good practice.
 
Dale Marshall, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs in Barbados, explained the challenge his country faces in combatting the dual threat of corruption and the pandemic.
 
He said: “Barbados has had to divert all of its available resources to keeping our economy afloat.
 
“At a time when we are almost in a position to establish an integrity in public life commission, when we are just about to establish a special agency to fight corruption, the resources that we would have made available are now having to be diverted to ensuring that we have ventilators, that those people who have been thrown on the unemployment line have food.
 
“We are faced with a choice. Do we focus on the issues of keeping Barbados afloat or do we take some of those resources and dedicate them towards the fight against corruption? It is an impossible choice.”
 
The CCAICACB conference is being held in a virtual format for the first time due to the Covid-19 situation.
 
Two further session of the meeting will be held over the next two weeks, with members presenting and reviewing their recent anti-corruption initiatives as well as sharing ideas and best practice for use across the region.

The Queen’s official birthday was marked with a unique ceremony that was performed by the Welsh Guard at Windsor Castle.

It came after the traditional Trooping the Colour parade was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was only the second time in her 68-year reign that the parade did not go ahead in London.

In what was her first official public appearance since the lockdown began, flanked by officials, Her Majesty sat alone for the ceremony.

Dubbed the mini-Trooping, the ceremony was performed by a small number of Welsh Guardsmen and the band of the Household Division.

The Queen received a royal salute that was followed by a display of marching with strict social distancing measures kept throughout.

It was the first time that Her Royal Highness celebrated her birthday at Windsor Castle – where she and the Duke of Edinburgh have been spending time in isolation since the coronavirus lockdown.

She celebrated her 94th birthday in April, but it is officially – and publicly – celebrated on the second Saturday of June annually. It is also typically accompanied by the announcement of The Queen’s Birthday Honours’ List.

This year, however, she agreed to postpone publication of the list until the autumn.