Author: Press Room

Hundreds of people came together in Penticton, B.C, on Friday for an anti-racism forum. The event, Confronting the White Elephant Exploring Anti-Racism, was hosted by South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services (SOICS).“We’re hoping that this is just the start, that this starts more conversations, more learning about what is anti-racism and what we could all be doing to make more inclusive and equitable communities,” said SOICS Executive Director Cherry Fernandez.“The title, Confronting the White Elephant, actually comes from a story in the East. The white elephant is looked at as a luxurious gift, often given by royalty, and as such…

US ambassador to Pretoria summoned after saying he was confident that a Russian ship had collected weapons from South Africa.South African officials have hit back at US accusations that a Russian ship collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town late last year. The US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship under US sanctions took on board weapons from the Simon’s Town base in December, suggesting the transfer was not in line with Pretoria’s stance of neutrality in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Western diplomats were alarmed at South Africa…

Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto’s hopes of a day off from the Moira Deeming saga have been dashed as an attempt to shift attention to stamp duty veered back to the controversial MP.The opposition leader was in Frankston calling for the removal of stamp duty for first homes valued up to $1 million when he was quizzed about Ms Deeming’s expulsion from the Liberal Party and threats of legal action.”We are totally focused on the state budget coming up and holding the government to account,” Mr Pesutto told reporters.”Whatever happens in relation to Ms Deeming is a matter for her.”The…

But so was a model Pakistan Air Force jet, army installations in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and even the house of the senior military officer in Lahore once owned by Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. There’s no doubt in the protestors’ minds of who is to blame for Khan’s arrest: Pakistan’s military, which has run the country openly and from the shadows for most of its independent history. We don’t know the truth of the many corruption allegations against Khan. The one he was arrested for involves Pakistan’s largest construction magnate, who was supposed to hand over £190 million…

Africa remains the poorest region in the world. The reasons for poverty in Africa cannot be narrowed down to a single cause. Some factors bedeviling Africa require good governance and effective policy making on the part of Africa. However, some causes of poverty in Africa require global cooperation to solve. Reasons for Africa’s poverty range from poor governance, corruption, wars and violence. In addition, disease burden and poor education are also contributing to poverty in Africa. We have developed a list of the top eight reasons why Africa is still poor.Introduction  Africa has gone through some economic, social, and demographic changes…

For more than a decade, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu struggled in the shadow of his rival Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s most electorally successful politician. The mild-mannered, bespectacled former bureaucrat seemed the antithesis to Erdogan’s bombastic style and was therefore doomed – according to the perceived wisdom – to yet another loss at the polls. Some opposition supporters even feared his presidential candidacy would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as Erdogan has struggled with an economic crisis and the aftermath of February’s deadly earthquakes in southeastern Turkey. However, since the March announcement that he would stand as the…

California’s reparations task force is recommending as part of its set of proposals to make amends for slavery and anti-Black racism that state lawmakers address what it calls “racially biased” artificial intelligence used in health care.The task force, created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, formally approved last weekend its final recommendations to the California Legislature, which will decide whether to enact the measures and send them to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.The recommendations include several proposals related to health care, including some concerning medical artificial intelligence (AI), which the task force describes…

As a debt limit crisis loomed in 2011, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. described early negotiations with Republicans as civil, at one point suggesting that the process was about finding out who was willing to trade their side’s bicycle for the other side’s golf clubs.The genteel vibe came to a halt that summer, when Speaker John A. Boehner walked away from a deal because he was not able to wrangle the Republicans in his caucus. Months later, congressional leaders agreed to raise the debt ceiling and cut trillions in federal spending to avoid default.The bitter compromise convinced Mr. Biden…

Wheat price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few months as investors react to the changing supply and demand dynamics. Wheat was trading at $620, which was close to the lowest level since July 2021. It has dropped by more than 52% below the highest level in 2022. Abundant wheat supplies The main reason why wheat prices are falling is that the world is sitting on abundant supplies as the Black Sea Initiative holds quite well. This means that Ukraine and Russia are all exporting substantial amounts of wheat even as the war rages on. In…

More deals in Europe’s €4tn natural gas derivatives market have moved off-exchange since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as squeezed companies try to save trading costs, the European Union’s securities watchdog has warned.A report on Friday by the European Securities and Markets Authority found the share of trades on the opaque over-the-counter market had jumped from 15 per cent last summer to 27 per cent this year, shifting from the regulated futures exchanges.The agency said the change had been driven by energy groups and may have been linked to a push to save the margin used for trading. Producers and…