Milton Daniels Bishop: May 2017

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Manchester bombing: Live updates

(CNN) At least 22 people were killed in a terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England on Monday night. Get live updates below.

Key developments

Children are among the 22 dead; dozens are injured
Man detonated improvised explosive device as concert ended
Attack carried out by one man who died on scene, police say
Prime Minister: Police think they know identity of attacker
23-year-old man arrested in connection with attack
'Evil losers': US President Donald Trump weighs in on attack

Man City manager's family safe

Pep Guardiola

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s wife and two daughters emerged unhurt after attending the Ariana Grande concert.

According to a source close to Guardiola, Cristina Serra and daughters Valeria and Maria were inside the Manchester Arena before escaping unharmed.

Friday, 12 May 2017

Trump threatens Comey in new tweet

(CNN) President Donald Trump issued a thinly veiled threat Friday to fired FBI Director James Comey, an extraordinary development in the ongoing feud between the President and the agencies investigating alleged ties between his campaign and Russia. The tweet seemed to suggest there are possibly recorded conversations between Trump and Comey that could be leaked to counter the former FBI director if necessary: "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press."

When he fired Comey earlier this week, Trump garnered comparisons to President Richard Nixon and his infamous decision to remove the special prosecutor investigating Watergate crimes in 1973. The Watergate scandal accelerated drastically when it was revealed Nixon taped conversations in the White House. Trump didn't provide further details Friday on whether he was taping conversations. Soon after tweeting the threat to Comey, Trump invoked former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified before the Senate earlier this week that he was not aware of any evidence demonstrating collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

"When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?" Trump tweeted.

Clapper, however, qualified his remarks by saying he had been unaware of an FBI investigation into the matter until Comey announced it to the public at a House hearing in March. And it's unclear how much Clapper would know about developments in the investigation after he left office earlier this year.

It's not unheard of for presidents to record conversations, using different systems to do so, with and without participants' knowledge. Six presidents secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations between 1940 and 1973, according to historian and CNN contributor Julian Zelizer.

Tapper: The real reasons Trump fired Comey 03:23

Trump's reasoning behind firing Comey

The official White House version of how Comey came to be fired was that deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, fresh on the job, wrote a memo expressing concern about the way Comey had handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

But mounting evidence suggests Comey was actually fired because of the Russia probe.

Sources have told CNN that Trump's decision to ax Comey was made after he grew increasingly frustrated with him following a congressional hearing last week in which he said he was "mildly nauseous" over the idea that he helped sway the 2016 election. A source close to Comey told CNN's Jake Tapper Wednesday there are two specific reasons why Trump fired the FBI director:

1. Comey never provided the President with any assurance of personal loyalty.

2. The FBI's investigation into possible Trump team collusion with Russia in the 2016 election was accelerating.

Trump's surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence, have struggled to keep up with the shifting narrative on how and why the decision was made, and Trump tweeted Friday it was "not possible" for his team to recount details and talking points with "perfect accuracy."

On Thursday, Trump, discussing the firing of Comey, told NBC News that he was frustrated by the ongoing investigation and believed it was motivated by Democrats' fury at losing the election.

Trump told NBC's Lester Holt: "And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'"

Comey has not yet responded to the Senate intelligence committee's invitation to testify in closed session next week, Democratic and Republican spokespersons for the committee told CNN Friday.

Trump floats canceling briefings for accuracy 01:10

Trump threatens press

Comey was not Trump's only target of an apparent threat Friday -- he also suggested the possibility of ending White House press briefings. "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump tweeted. "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced backlash from the press Thursday during her briefing after her comments on the Comey timeline conflicted with Trump's remarks to NBC.

Hospitals in England hit by 'large-scale ransomware' attack

London (CNN) Hospitals in the UK were crippled by a "large-scale" cyber attack on Friday that forced operations to be canceled and ambulances to be diverted. Health workers reported being locked out of their systems and seeing messages demanding ransom payments to regain access. NHS England described the incident as a "ransomware" attack.

At least 16 organizations connected to the National Health Service (NHS) in England reported being affected. "The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor," NHS Digital said in a statement.

"At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed. We will continue to work with affected organisations to confirm this."

The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust reports IT problems on its website.

NHS Digital said it was working with the government's National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to help the organizations affected "to manage the incident swiftly and decisively." It said the attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS.

Barts Health NHS Trust in London said on its website it was "experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals."

It has had to cancel routine appointments and ambulances are being diverted to neighboring hospitals, Barts said.

The problem is also affecting the switchboard at Newham hospital, Barts said.

The East and North Hertfordshire Trust also said it was "experiencing significant problems with our telephone network," in an online statement.

Another NHS Trust in Derbyshire tweeted: "We are aware of a major IT secure system attack. All IT systems have been temporarily shut down. More information will be available shortly."

‘Removal Of Ethics Committee Members Not In FIFA’s Best Interest’

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Chief ethics investigator Cornel Borbely and ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert on Wednesday (May 10) said that the reform of FIFA had been rolled back by years and FIFA’s code of ethics was “a dead letter”.

On Tuesday (May 9) the ruling council of world soccer’s governing body ousted the pair, issuing a statement saying Colombian investigator Maria Claudia Rojas had been nominated as the new head of the investigatory chamber with Vassilios Skouris of Greece, a former president of the European Court of Justice, put forward as head of the adjudicatory chamber.

Several dozen soccer officials, mainly from Latin America, were indicted in the United States in 2015 on corruption-related charges, sparking the worst crisis in FIFA’s history.

German Eckert and Swiss Borbely were at the forefront of efforts to clear up corruption in the organisation and had expressed a desire to continue the work beyond the end of their current mandates, which run until Thursday’s FIFA Congress.

“The removal of the Ethics Committee is not in FIFA’s best interest. It’s against good governance and it’s a setback for the fight against corruption. The Ethics Committee is weakened and incapacitated. The knowhow, the experience of the investigators, of the judges is not translated to the next chamber. This rolls reforms back by years. FIFA will suffer because of this and without the functioning Ethics Committee, the FIFA code of ethics is a dead letter, ” said Borboly.

Eckert said he wondered if the work to combat corruption would continue, as it has for the last four years.

USAID Tasks Nigerian Govt On Water Sanitation, Hygiene

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The United State Agency for International Development (USAID) has said that about 57 Million people in Nigeria do not have access to portable and clean water and are therefore vulnerable to contracting water-borne and other related diseases if nothing is done to address the situation.

The agency has committed the sum of 2.5 million dollars for the improvement of safe water and sanitation in Kaduna and Bauchi states.

At the official launching of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Project (WASH) for Kaduna and Bauchi states, USAID mission Director, Mr Stephen Haykin says unsafe water and poor sanitation largely contribute to the high rate of child mortality in Nigeria.

He, however, asked all stakeholders in the water sector to join forces to ensure success in the achievement of the country’s water sanitation target, which according to him, will improve the living conditions of the people.

According to experts, only half of the nation’s population have access to portable drinking water and sanitation. This trend according to USAID and other stakeholders must be reversed if Nigeria must win the war against the child and maternal mortality.

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources says it is not unmindful of the situation as it is making effort to correct the trend.

The launching of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Project by USAID is to provide support to new reform-minded state governments for the immediate term, and here, Kaduna and Bauchi are the benefiting states.

Meanwhile, Governor Nasir El-Rufai represented by his Chief of Staff, Bashir Saidu and his Bauchi state counterpart underscore the importance of water for sustainable development, hence they say they have committed many resources to the expansion of water projects in both urban and rural centres.

Apart from the infrastructural deficit in most States, stakeholders identify population explosion, obsolete legislations and rural-urban migration as some of the major challenges militating against access to clean water and poor sanitation.

Wike Challenges Women To Fight For Political Power

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The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has advised women to struggle for power, rather than expect men to bequeath power to them on a platter of gold.

The governor urged women not to beg for positions. He said they should set up structures that would help them get political mileage.

According to Governor Wike, “Nobody is stopping women from excelling in the political arena, women must work for their political emancipation. When it comes to power, you have to struggle for it. If you are prepared for politics, you must equip yourself “.

The governor stated that his administration will construct a women development centre with all facilities to empower women while assuring that he will continue to work for their development and growth in all spheres of life.

This was made known during the Women’s Day of the Rivers Golden Jubilee Celebration in Port Harcourt.

Also in attendance was the former First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, who commended the governor on his empowerment towards women.

She said, “Rivers women will remain grateful to Governor Wike for giving them political and professional leverage also that the governor’s choice of female deputy governor and the appointment of the first female Chief Judge and President of Customary Court of Appeal ensured that Rivers women took their pride of place in politics.”

The wife of the state governor, Justice Eberechi Nyesom-Wike described the governor as a women-friendly governor who is implementing policies and programmes to uplift women.

“The Women’s Day is set aside to honour women for their contributions to the creation and growth of the state and the country. The efforts to empower Women must be strengthened because women have attained positions of responsibility, not envisaged before. “

The Wife of Former President of Nigeria, Professor Uche Nnamdi Azikiwe, in her guest lecture titled, “Status of Women and politics in Nigeria said violence can only be reduced across the world when women assume leadership.

“The political marginalisation being suffered by women are man-made.

She, therefore, urged women to unite and play significant roles in their respective communities, calling for urgent steps to address the dwindling fortunes of women in Nigerian politics.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Rivers Golden Jubilee Committee, Chief Ferdinand Alabrabra lauded Rivers women for their roles in the development of the state.

The Women’s Day of the Rivers Golden Jubilee Celebration witnessed Special Songs by New Rivers Vision Women Team, cuisine, art and craft competition, traditional dances and traditional fashion parade.

High point of the event was the special recognition and presentation of gifts to Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, Wife of the Former President, Professor Uche Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ms Ankio Briggs, Deputy Governor Ipalibo Harry Banigo, Mrs Hannah Aguma and other women by the Wife of the Rivers State Governor, Justice Eberechi Suzzette Nyesom-Wike.