US President Donald Trump’s block on US funds going to organisations involved in abortion care overseas could impact millions of women, Bill and Melinda Gates have warned, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. The Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist runs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife, focusing on health and education worldwide. “We’re … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, the President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, sacked the country’s Attorney-General, Sally Quillian Yates, for giving a direct order to her staff to ignore the executive order issued by the president against admitting people of specifically-named religion and countries into the US in the name of … Read more
On Friday, Donald Trump barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen – from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days. He also suspended the US refugee programme for 120 days, specifically banning Syrian refugees until further notice, reduced the number of refugees who … Read more
Anti-abortion activists are gathering in Washington to join the annual March for Life protest that has the support of President Donald Trump. Organisers expected thousands of people to join the event, held each year to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalising abortion. Vice-President Mike Pence told them: “Life is winning again in … Read more
President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign pledge by signing an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The trade deal, a linchpin of ex-President Barack Obama’s Asia policy, was signed by 12 nations. “Great thing for the American worker what we just did,” said Mr Trump as he dumped the pact with … Read more
During the campaign, President Donald Trump proposed the most significant tax cuts since Ronald Reagan. Trump’s tax plan calls for reducing personal income tax rates from seven to three brackets: 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent. His plan also would increase the standard deduction to $15,000, up from $6,300 for single filers, and to … Read more
President Donald Trump has accused the media of dishonesty over the number of people attending his inauguration. Mr Trump said “it looked like” some 1.5m people had been there when he spoke at the US Capitol on Friday. Later, his White House press secretary said it had been “the largest audience to ever see an … Read more
NOT POLITICS AS USUAL: Loyalty over competence; a candid review of president nana addo’s appointments. 18/01/2017 All over the world loyalty and competence are the two most critical and potent factors political leaders consider before appointing officials to serve in their government after an electoral victory. They are the most critical because a President must … Read more
Former President George H. W. Bush was admitted to an intensive care unit on Wednesday, and his wife, Barbara, was hospitalized as a precaution, according to his spokesman. The former president was admitted to the ICU at a Houston hospital to “address an acute respirator problem stemming from pneumonia,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said in … Read more
All over the world loyalty and competence are the two most critical and potent factors political leaders consider before appointing officials to serve in their government after an electoral victory. They are the most critical because a President must first of all have some considerable level of trust and confidence in an individual before considering … Read more
Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan has warned US President-elect Donald Trump to avoid off-the-cuff remarks once he takes office. He said spontaneity was not in the interests of national security. Mr Trump is known for regularly making broad pronouncements on issues of national importance on his Twitter feed. Mr Brennan also said that Mr Trump … Read more
Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan has warned US President-elect Donald Trump to avoid off-the-cuff remarks once he takes office. He said spontaneity was not in the interests of national security. Mr Trump is known for regularly making broad pronouncements on issues of national importance on his Twitter feed. Mr Brennan also said that Mr Trump … Read more
By Harruna Attah According to some trivia I read about Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister, some time ago, one of the things he missed most after leaving Number 10 Downing Street (Can’t remember whether it was when he lost to Edward Heath in 1970 or when he resigned in 1976) was the telephone. As Prime … Read more
A man who survived cancer despite a grim diagnosis challenged House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on his efforts to repeal Obamacare. “Because of the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today,” Jeff Jeans told Ryan at a CNN town hall event on Thursday. Jeans, who identified himself as a longtime Republican who had worked on … Read more
Ghana’s High Commissioner to Namibia and Botswana, Harruna Attah, has said he lost when President John Mahama lost the 2016 presidential election. In an article titled: ‘Serving my country: Losing an election,’ Harruna Attah, who voted for Mr Mahama in 2012 and 2016, said: “And so Mahama lost, and I lost.” He, however, added: “It … Read more
According to some trivia I read about Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister, some time ago, one of the things he missed most after leaving Number 10 Downing Street (Can’t remember whether it was when he lost to Edward Heath in 1970 or when he resigned in 1976) was the telephone. As Prime Minister, he never … Read more
My non-Ghanaian friends have repeatedly asked with keenness the implications of the recent elections in Ghana. I have sometimes not had the luxury of time to adequately capture the significance in terms of the actual underpinnings of the build up to the elections, the posture of the two main political parties- National Democratic Congress (NDC), … Read more
I am writing you this letter to congratulate you on your historic and epic victory and to thank you for the monumental effort you have put in in order to wrestle the country out of the grips of John Dramani “Dumsor” Mahama. I was a staunch supporter of Mahama when he first assumed the presidency, … Read more
The 2016 presidential campaign confirms what Marx wrote : “all the events and personalities of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice… the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Karl, not Groucho, Marx. We enter the realm of farce. It’s the economy, Stupid! We are experiencing a reprise of the … Read more
Peaceful presidential transitions are difficult to execute, particularly when they involve a defeated incumbent. As usual, the Americans have the most documentation of transitions. While, for the most part, they have gone well, there have been memorable hiccups. In 1800, after the bitterly contested election between Adams and Jefferson, President Adams made some midnight appointments, … Read more