Africa is nobody’s prize to win or lose, says Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, who believes it is the responsibility of Africans to take charge of their own interests and develop their continent to its full potential. To do that, Africa needs strong trade relations around the globe. That’s why coming together as a region has never been more important than it is now.

And since Africa is the continent with the youngest, fastest growing population, it is equally important to harness the power of youth to build relations and develop potential.

Africave was awarded a sizable grant by the SAP CSR team which it will use to build and train a team of three fulltime staff to run the organization. Besides covering a new, lean tech stack, the grant will also be used to develop the skills of young employees who will be mentored by high achieving, well established professionals at top global organizations ranging from Goldman Sachs to Google to UNESCO. Africave’s advisors include Oprah Winfrey’s longest-serving Chief of staff, Libby Moore and it has operations in the USA and Europe working to recruit young digital talents.

This winter has been by far the hottest recorded in Europe, scientists have announced, with the climate crisis likely to have supercharged the heat

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) data dates back to 1855. It said the average temperature for December, January and February was 1.4C above the previous winter record, which was set in 2015-16. New regional climate records are usually passed by only a fraction of a degree. Europe’s winter was 3.4C hotter than the average from 1981-2010.

“Whilst this winter was a truly extreme event in its own right, it is likely that these sorts of events have been made more extreme by the global warming trend,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S. But he added: “Seeing such a warm winter is disconcerting, but does not represent a climate trend as such. Seasonal temperatures, especially outside the tropics vary significantly from year to year.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday took up June Medical Services v. Russo, which considers the constitutionality of a 2014 Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic, a credential many abortionists do not have. According to critics of the law, it threatens to shut down all but one abortion clinic in Louisiana, which sees roughly 10,000 abortions every year

“Louisiana’s abortion businesses have a long and well-documented history of serious health and safety violations that have systematically placed women and girls at risk,” said Marilyn Musgrave, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List’s vice president of government affairs. Advertisement 89 “The state has an obligation to regulate these businesses just as they regulate all other ambulatory surgical centers,” Musgrave added. “It is disingenuous for anyone to claim they care about women and yet actively work to lower the bar on women’s health and safety

After months of internal hand wringing, the Democratic Party’s biggest financial backers have flocked to former Vice President Joe Biden. And Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator running as the scourge of the elite, is trying to turn it against him.

As the Democratic presidential race shifts into a two-person contest, two campaigns with two very different funding models are now being put to the test: Biden’s bid backed by longtime Democratic donors and bundlers who have now united behind him, and the massive grassroots movement of small-dollar donations that has fueled Sanders. In a sense, the dueling models are a microcosm of the competing visions for the Democratic Party itself: whether it will continue operating under the status quo, or shift towards the grassroots-led model the progressive wing has been pushing for years. Whoever prevails will not just get the party’s nomination, but could possibly determine its future financial model.

“The folks who, for a long period of time would not give me money for the campaign because they did not think [Biden] was going to be the leading candidate turned — particularly turned when Pete [Buttigieg] and Amy [Klobuchar] came on board and since [Michael] Bloomberg dropped out,” says attorney Stephen Cozen, founder of the law firm Cozen O’Connor and a Philadelphia-based Biden donor who has been raising money since he entered the race. “I’ve had a tremendous influx of contributions to the campaign from people who have said ‘You were right all along.'”

President Trump came to Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday and mocked the former vice president’s recent series of campaign gaffes, saying, “there’s something going on there.”

Trump was also asked Thursday night if he thought Biden is “damaged” as a result of the impeachment proceedings against him. The president assented, citing Biden’s son, Hunter, who was scrutinized by Trump’s legal team for holding a high-paying job at Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was vice president.

Chinese social media censors blocked neutral information about the coronavirus outbreak when they targeted references to the outbreak on WeChat and other platforms, a report has found. Hundreds of keywords and keyword combinations, including “Wuhan seafood market” and “Sars variation” were censored in late December, as doctors sought to warn about the new virus.

Chinese social media platforms have come under greater pressure to censor content about the Covid-19 illness, which has killed 3,285 and infected more than 95,000. Critical discussion and investigative reports about the virus have been removed from social media sites and Chinese leaders have called for more control over online media to ensure social stability during the outbreak.

“Countering misinformation and uninformed speculation related to the epidemic may help keep public fear in check and remove information that would mislead people about how best to protect themselves. However, restricting general discussions and factual information has the opposite effect and limits public awareness and response.”

But over the past six weeks, this coverage has shifted to mirror pro-Sanders talking points first used in the last presidential campaign, said Clint Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who has been monitoring Russian interference continuously. "What's really come on strong just in the last 30 to 45 days are very similar narratives that we saw in 2016 about Sanders," Watts told NPR.

While Sanders has acknowledged on the campaign trail that he was briefed by the intelligence community about Russia's efforts to boost his campaign, he has been steadfastly opposed to that support, saying at a recent debate: "Hey, Mr. Putin, if I'm president of the United States, trust me, you're not going to interfere in any more American elections."

A statement signed by top Trump administration officials stressed that foreign actors were spreading "false information and propaganda about political processes and candidates on social media in hopes to cause confusion and create doubt in our system." That includes an ever-changing number of candidates and topics based on Russian strategic goals, including reportedly the reelection of President Trump. Following the 2016 presidential election, the intelligence community devoted a substantial portion of its assessment on Russian meddling to RT's efforts to influence politics and fuel divisions in the United States.

In an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Sen. Bernie Sanders said if former Vice President Joe Biden had a plurality of delegates entering the convention he should be the Democratic party's presidential nominee. However, Sanders also said it would be unfair and a disaster if superdelegates selected a candidate on the second ballot that had earned fewer delegates than another candidate in the primary race. "If Biden walks into the convention or at the end of the process has more votes than me, he's the winner," Sanders told Maddow on Wednesda

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: If at the end of the day it turns out that Vice President Biden is going to have more delegates than you do heading into the convention, will you drop out? SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course I'm going to drop out. He will win. We'll run through -- I suspect we will run through the process letting people have a right to vote, but if Biden walks into the convention or at the end of the process has more votes than me, he's the winner.

We fought very hard in the Democratic rules process to get rid of all superdelegates. That is my preference. I think it should be the decision of the people, not Washington insiders. We lost, but what we did get is not getting rid of all superdelegates at convention voting but on the first ballot there will be no superdelegates. In other words, we go into the first ballot, it is representatives, delegates who are represented by the people, and I think that that's right.

Senator Elizabeth Warren entered the 2020 race with expansive plans to use the federal government to remake American society, pressing to strip power and wealth from a moneyed class that she saw as fundamentally corrupting the country’s economic and political order.

Her departure means that a Democratic field that began as the most diverse in American history — and included six women — is now essentially down to two white men: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders

And her ability to raise well over $100 million and fully fund a presidential campaign without holding high-dollar fund-raisers demonstrated that other candidates, beyond Mr. Sanders and his intensely loyal small-dollar donors, could do so in the future.

Epidemics and pandemics have plagued German territory - and the rest of the world - for thousands of years.

One of the first significant outbreaks of disease in what is today Germany can be studied and traced is the Antonine Plague of 165 - 180 CE. While we cannot be certain, this was thought to be a severe strain of smallpox brought back to the provinces Germania Major and Inferior, via returning legions. In their cramped quarters in bases along the Rhine, the disease raged, leading to a significant loss of manpower. 

Far more well known than these pandemics is the Black Death. Originating in the Near East around 1348, three distinct strains of the Bubonic Plague, or Yersinia Pestis bacteria, killed up to a half of the population of Europe - hundreds of millions strong at the time. Central to the spread of this epidemic was the nature of the medieval world. Trade routes pilgrimage destinations and heavily trafficked Hanseatic cities were natural havens for the fleas that carried the bacteria.

2020 Democrat Michael Bloomberg dismissed the idea that stop and frisk was a discriminatory policing practice. Bloomberg, in his first town hall televised by CNN, was asked by host Anderson Cooper on Wednesday if the policy, whether "intentionally or not," was "a racist policy." "No," the former New York City mayor, 78, said before touting his work in diversifying the police department and how elements of the approach were still kept in place "by all cities."

Under the stop-and-frisk framework, individuals were detained for a short period of time to check if they had illegal weapons or other contraband. The way in which the New York City Police Department administered the policy was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in 2013, the last year of Bloomberg's 12-year tenure as mayor.

Bloomberg was pressed on a range of issues, including how President Trump and his administration were "not ready" to respond to a epidemic such as coronavirus, his weaker-than-expected debate performances in which the candidates just "talk over each other," and how he supported President Barack Obama despite former Vice President Joe Biden's insistence he did not. The billionaire information services entrepreneur was also pushed on his stance on reparations.

A leading Republican said he will make a criminal referral to the Justice Department concerning special counsel Robert Mueller’s case against Trump adviser George Papadopoulos in connection to Russia “dirt” tipster Joseph Mifsud.

“Remember the whole story that Papadopoulos needed to be really treated badly and sentenced to some time because he really stopped the FBI from being able to find Joseph Mifsud?” Nunes asked Laura Ingraham. “Well, it ends up that's not true. That’s not what the 302s say. The 302s actually say that Papadopoulos was actually trying to help the FBI, and they're the ones that said that Mifsud was going to be in the United States.”

Mueller’s team argued in its August 2018 sentencing memorandum for Papadopoulos that “his lies were material to the investigation,” and “his lies to the FBI in January 2017 impeded the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.” Mueller’s team claimed that Papadopoulos’s lies “substantially hindered” its ability to “effectively question” Mifsud when the FBI located him in Washington. The team also claimed Papadopoulos’s lies “undermined” its ability to “challenge” Mifsud or even “detain or arrest him” while he was in the U.S.

TWO OPPOSING but equally malignant approaches to the coronavirus epidemic are emerging. One would flood the information space with lies, while the other would shut that space down to all voices but one. Their sponsors, not surprisingly, are Russia and China.

Evidence suggests Moscow is spreading propaganda designed to stoke anxiety about the virus and distrust in authorities’ efforts to fight it. Meanwhile, citizens in China are suffering not from a deluge of misleading material but from a dearth of open discussion.

U.S. officials say thousands of Russian-linked accounts on social media have been posting “almost near identical” messages about the coronavirus in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French — all echoing narratives on state-run media. These stories mostly target the West, alleging, for example, that the virus was forged in a U.S. lab to be unleashed on the Chinese people. Bill Gates and George Soros, in some tellings, were in on the plot.

CBS News moderators Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell struggled to keep the seven unruly candidates in line as six of them rushed to attack Bernie Sanders, who they now realize is on an unstoppable march to the nomination.

“I guess the only way to do this is jump in and speak twice as long as you should,” Biden said as ex-South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg went on a long sermon about how Sanders would cost Democrats the House majority, a statistic based on polling conducted by Michael Bloomberg’s campaign

The Democratic presidential candidates jockeyed for position in South Carolina on Wednesday after a contentious debate the night before in Charleston in which they sparred over key policy areas including health-care costs, gun control and foreign affairs in a testy debate — and talked over one another a lot

Seven Democrats took the stage for the 10th Democratic debate: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); former vice president Joe Biden; former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.); investor Tom Steyer; and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg. Several candidates attacked Sanders for the costs of his health-care proposals, and others squared off with Bloomberg over a range of policy matters, including his massive wealth.

Rep. Clyburn endorses Biden, offering a boost ahead of S.C. primarySanders takes fire in an unruly debate that left no candidate truly enhanced

U.S.-India relations exhibit a bipartisan character in both countries. This is more than just two charismatic leaders and the offer of free hats pulling in a crowd. The U.S. and India have a lot to offer each other. The easy get is security. Both want a stable and prosperous South Asia and a reasonable Pakistan. Both want to tackle the scourge of transnational Islamist terrorism and curb the worst destabilizing acts of Chinese expansion. The U.S. and India have forged something new and unprecedented. We are not old-fashioned treaty allies, but we are way more than just friends.

Second, now comes the hard part—forging the economic bonds. This was a disappointment to both sides, which had hoped to seal at least a small-ball trade deal for the visit. This is difficult for India, which traditionally has had an inward-looking economy with heavy government controls. Still, India knows it’s time to change. India now has the world’s fifth-largest economy, and it’s time to harness that economic potential to drive real growth. Nothing will make that happen faster than partnering with the United States.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan GrishamMichelle Lynn Lujan GrishamCapitol Christmas tree lights up Washington Here are 16 places celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day for the first time this year New Mexico releases plan to provide free college to all state residents: report MORE (D) on Tuesday signed into law a measure that grants courts the permission to authorize temporary seizures of guns from individuals deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.Grisham said in a statement that the so-called red flag law would reduce the state’s “unacceptable suicide rate and other forms of gun violence.”

The office added that the law would address the “unconscionably high” per capita rates of firearm deaths and suicide in the state. The firearm death rate in New Mexico was 18.5 per 100,000 people in 2017, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Citizens have a right to bear arms and we cannot circumvent that right when they have not even committed a crime or even been accused of committing one," he wrote. "'Shall not be infringed' is a very clear and concise component of an Amendment that our forefathers felt was important enough to be recognized immediately following freedom of speech and religion."

Sen. Sanders, on the other hand, is ignoring, dismissing, or even attacking the very Democrats

Buttigieg's remarks are potent because he is not the candidate who has won support from the most vulnerable House Democrats who have already endorsed a presidential contender.

We can prioritize either ideological purity or inclusive victory. We can either call people names online or we can call them into our movement. We can either tighten a narrow and hardcore base or open the tent to a new, broad, big-hearted American coalition,” Buttigieg said.

SALEM — Republicans in the Oregon Senate fled the Capitol on Monday to stop Democrats’ bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions after the plan cleared a legislative budget committee earlier in the day.At Monday’s 11 a.m. Senate floor session, just one Republican showed up: Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend. Democrats waited as sergeants at arms searched Capitol offices to see if they could round up any other Republicans. But they were unable to find any, so Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, adjourned the chamber until Tuesday.

Under the state Constitution, a two-thirds majority of the Senate must be present to conduct business including voting on bills. That means Democrats, despite their supermajority, need at least two Republicans to be present. Courtney said he does not plan to ask the governor to send the state police looking for the Republicans, and Brown said without a request from Courtney she lacks the authority to do so.

“If (Senate Republicans) don’t like a bill, they need to show up and change it or show up and vote ‘no,’” Gov. Kate Brown said in a during a briefing with reporters. Instead, the senators “have chosen to take a taxpayer funded vacation … Oregonians should be outraged and I am, too.”

CASALPUSTERLENGO, Italy — Europe confronted its first major outbreak of the coronavirus as an eruption of more than 150 cases in Italy prompted officials on Sunday to lock down at least 10 towns, close schools in major cities and cancel sporting events and cultural touchstones, including the end of the Venice carnival.

The perception of a rising threat was amplified on television channels, newspaper headlines and social media feeds across Europe, where leaders could face their greatest challenge since the 2015 migration crisis.

The Trump administration has barred entry to the United States by most foreign nationals who have recently visited China, where the virus first appeared and spread. Much of the world has adopted similar controls, but the virus has continued to spread, most notably to South Korea, where more cases have been recorded than anywhere else outside China, and this past week to Iran, where eight deaths have been reported.