World News for Nigerians Today 6th January 2019

World News Today: Ukrainian Church Gets Independence from Russian Church and Trump Threatens to Declare National Emergency! Continue reading for more…

1. Paris Yellow Vest Protesters Hit the Streets Again

Fresh violence erupted on the streets of Paris on Saturday afternoon as Yellow Vest protesters set fires and clashed with the French police.

French demonstrators marched through the capital and other cities in protest against high living costs.

In Paris, the protests began peacefully but turned chaotic in the afternoon as protesters hurled missiles at riot police and barricaded bridge.

2. Donald Trump Threatens to Declare ‘National Emergency’ Over Mexico wall

US President Donald Trump has said he could declare a state of national emergency to build a wall on the Mexican border without the approval of the US Congress.

His comments came after he met with senior Democrats on Friday and failed to end the standoff which has seen the US government shut down for two weeks.

Trump said the government shut down could last months or years. So far, 800,000 public workers have been unpaid since 22 December.

The deadlock started after Trump withheld support to fully fund the government until he receives his request of $5.6 billion to wall out Mexico.

READ ALSO >> Nnamdi Kanu to Report Buhari to Trump <<

3. German Politicians Including Chancellor Angela Merkel Hacked

Hundreds of German politicians have been hacked and their personal data posted online.

Local media said hackers have released data from politicians across all major parties including credit card details and mobile phone numbers, with Chancellor Angela Merkel among those affected.

The government reacted to the cyber attack by saying, “the people behind this want to damage confidence in our democracy and institutions”.

4. US Sends Troops for Possible Violence in Congo over Election Results

On the eve of the first expected results of Congo’s long-delayed presidential election, President Donald Trump said military personnel have been deployed to DR Congo to protect U.S. assets from possible “violent demonstrations,” while the country’s powerful Catholic church warned of a popular “uprising” if untrue results are announced.

Congo faces what could be its first democratic, peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960, but election observers and the opposition have raised numerous concerns about voting irregularities in the elections.

The first results were initially expected on Sunday has been proposed by the election commission  to be announced next week following delays encountered in the votes counting process.

5. Ghana’s Central Bank Revokes Licenses of Banks

Announcing the decision, Ernest Addison, Governor of Bank of Ghana, said the banking sector cleanup had come to an end, leaving only 23 universal banks out of the 35 banks initially.

While Premium Bank had continually breached the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) requirements since December 2017 making it insolvent, it had also not been able to meet the new minimum capital threshold of about 83 million U.S. dollars as of the December 2018 deadline.

For Heritage Bank, Addison explained that while the bank which was licensed in 2016 was not insolvent, there were anomalies with its licensing, the source of its initial capital and related party transactions.

6. Kidnapper Chases Woman into Karate Studio, Leaves in An Ambulance

A man said to be trying to kidnap a woman in North Carolina, USA chased her into a karate studio. You can already guess what happened?

It all began when the man tried to force a woman into his car outside the karate studio but the woman was able to escape and ran into the nearby studio in search of help.

Head instructor of the studio along with a couple of adult students gave the man the beating of his life time before handing him over to the police.

7. China’s Unification Offer Impossible, Says Taiwan

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan has called for domestic and international support of the island’s de facto independence, days after China’s leader, Xi Jinping, warned that unification with China could be a must.

“It is impossible for me or, in my view, any responsible politician in Taiwan to accept President Xi Jinping’s recent remarks without betraying the trust and the will of the people of Taiwan,” Tsai said in a briefing for foreign reporters in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital on Saturday.

“We hope the international community will pay attention and combine efforts to speak out on our behalf,” she said.

Xi’s speech, her first major address on Taiwan, has given Tsai a chance to position herself as the young democracy’s defender; both to the outside world and to voters who will decide next year whether she stays in office or not.

However, since Xi’s address, there has been lots of support for her on Taiwan social media and even on publications that tend to oppose her.

READ ALSO >> Huawei Punish Staff for Using iPhone for Happy New Year Tweet <<

8. Zimbabwe Dismisses More Than 3,000 Civil Servants

Public sector salaries account for more than 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s $4 billion national budget, a situation seen as unsustainable by foreign lenders like the International Monetary Fund, with which Zimbabwe would eventually like to secure an economic reform program.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is under pressure to repair an economy shattered during nearly four decades of rule by Robert Mugabe.

Now, in a bid to cut unnecessary spending in order to clear more than $2 billion in arrears to creditors which is a precondition to IMF support, 3,365 youth officers from the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation will have to lose their jobs.

“The Youth officers will be paid their cash in lieu of accrued days leave and cash in lieu of notice,” the government said.

READ ALSO >> Doctors Call Off Strike in Zimbabwe as First Lady Intervenes <<

9. Ukrainian Orthodox Church Officially Gains Independence from Russian Church

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially gained independence on Saturday, with the signing of a decree that marked its separation from the Russian church it had been tied to for centuries.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, signed the decree of independence in Istanbul, formalizing a separation that has angered Moscow amid a broader political conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The Ukrainian people who are known to be very pious have waited for this for seven centuries.

The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly denounced the creation of an independent Ukrainian church and severed ties with Istanbul, the historical seat of the Orthodox faith, after Bartholomew I approved the Ukrainian church’s request for “autocephaly,” or independence, last October.

10. Danish PM Says Britons Can Stay in Denmark after No Deal-Brexit

“Of course you can stay. We are preparing legislation that we hope won’t be necessary,” Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussed replied to a tweet sent to him, asking whether British citizens can stay in Denmark after a no deal-Brexit.

In what seemed like a joke, Rasmussen had told the Danish Parliament in October that “I want to make it abundantly clear that no matter the end result of the negotiations, we will of course look after the thousands of British citizens living in Denmark today.”

In December, he had replied to other tweets from concerned British citizens on whether Denmark would “take care of” British citizens if there was no deal.

The Danish PM also said the Legislation will be prepared in early 2019.

 

 

 

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