International
Kamala Harris Secures Democratic Presidential Nomination
US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party’s presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November’s showdown against Republican Donald Trump.
Harris, 59, was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates.
The first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party’s nomination, she will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month.
“I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Harris said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon virtual vote.
In the two weeks since Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Harris has gained full control of the party, smashing fundraising records, packing arenas and erasing the polling leads Trump had built over the president.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” Biden posted on X after her nomination.
The nomination milestone came with Harris preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for a swing across seven crucial election states alongside her yet-to-be-named running mate.
The Democratic Party decided on a virtual nomination process — departing with tradition and mirroring the procedure used in the pandemic-hit 2020 election — because of an early deadline in Ohio for submitting the names of certified candidates.
The virtual roll call marks the official beginning of the 2024 convention, with the more traditional festivities getting going when thousands of party faithful descend on Chicago on August 19.
The gathering will feature a ceremonial vote for Harris in what is expected to be a raucous celebration of her rise from California prosecutor to historic candidate vying for the nation’s highest office.
Trump’s White House bid was turned upside down on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, withdrew his candidacy and backed Harris.
– Wave of momentum –
Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice president has made a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump’s haul.
She and her running mate are scheduled to rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania — a crucial swing state, where Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is on the shortlist to join Harris’s ticket.
Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by around 80,000 votes and it is seen as the biggest prize of the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.
The Keystone State is part of the so-called blue wall that carried Biden to victory in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin, two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.
Harris will also tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Georgia, North Carolina Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada as she seeks to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.
In a sign that the Harris campaign is thinking big, US media reported that a raft of senior advisors from Barack Obama’s own historic candidacies in 2008 and 2012 have taken up top positions with her.
Where the now defunct Biden reelection campaign made high-minded appeals to the nation’s founding principles, Harris’s messaging has focused on the future, repositioning the race as a battle for “freedom” rather than the less tangible “democracy” that the president emphasized.
She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September debate and characterizing the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird.”
“Some days I feel sorry for Republicans, because they’ve got to figure out how to run a criminal against a prosecutor,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock said at Harris’s Atlanta event.
On the detail, however, Harris has been tight-lipped.
While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, she hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, meaning voters have no clear picture of her overall vision.
Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris — at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before pivoting to accusing her falsely of pretending to be Black for political purposes.
AFP
International
EU ready to hit US with 21-billion-euro tariff list
He said the goal should be “zero tariffs” and an open market among Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe.
MILAN (Reuters) -The European Union has already prepared a list of tariffs worth 21 billion euros ($24.52 billion) on U.S. goods if the two sides fail to reach a trade deal, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the EU starting on Aug. 1, after weeks of negotiations with major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive deal.
Tajani also told daily Il Messaggero that to help the euro zone economy the European Central Bank should consider a new “quantitative easing” bond-buying-programme, and more interest rate cuts.
The European Union said on Sunday it would extend its suspension of countermeasures to U.S. tariffs until early August and continue to press for a negotiated settlement.
Tajani said the 21-billion-euro package of tariffs the EU has already prepared could be followed by a second set if a deal with the U.S proves impossible.
He added, however, that he was confident that progress could be made in negotiations.
“Tariffs hurt every one, starting with the United States,” he said. “If stock markets fall that puts at risk the pensions and the savings of the Americans.”
He said the goal should be “zero tariffs” and an open market among Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe.
International
Senegal scraps Akon’s $6bn Wakanda-inspired city project
Akon will retain just 8 hectares of the original land allocation, which will be absorbed into the broader development.
• Akon
The government of Senegal has cancelled Akon’s $6 billion plan to build a futuristic “Akon City” on the country’s Atlantic coast, after years of inaction and missed payments by the Senegalese-American singer.
Bloomberg reports that the project, first announced in 2020, was pitched as a tech-driven smart city inspired by Marvel’s Wakanda and promised to transform the quiet village of Mbodiène into a modern hub powered by solar energy and Akon’s own cryptocurrency.
But five years later, the Senegalese government has reclaimed most of the 136 acres of land initially allocated to the singer, after construction failed to begin and financial commitments were not met.
“That project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Sapco-Senegal, the state agency responsible for developing coastal and tourism zones, told L’Agence de presse sénégalaise.”
Bloomberg reports on Wednesday that SAPCO said it would now pursue a scaled-down, state-backed tourism project in the same area, with a budget of 665 billion CFA francs (about $1.2 billion), largely sourced from private investors.
Akon will retain just 8 hectares of the original land allocation, which will be absorbed into the broader development.
Despite the setback, officials say the revised plan could generate up to 15,000 jobs in its first phase, offering long-awaited economic hope for Mbodiène residents.
International
Russian minister commits suicide after sack by Putin
Starovoyt, 53, served as Russia’s transport minister since May 2024.
Russia’s former transport minister Roman Starovoyt killed himself Monday, July 7, 2025, hours after being officially dismissed by President Vladimir Putin.
The country’s Investigative Committee confirmed the incident via a statement on Monday.
Authorities said Starovoyt’s body was found in a Moscow suburb after the firing was announced, with “suicide” being considered the most likely cause of death.
Starovoyt, 53, served as Russia’s transport minister since May 2024.
He was previously the governor of the Kursk region, where Russia had battled a Ukrainian incursion.
The Investigative Committee said: “Today, the body of former Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt was found in his private car with a gunshot wound in the Odintsovo district.
“The main version (considered) is suicide.”
Russian state media and news agencies said Starovoyt shot himself.
It was not clear exactly when Starovoyt died.
(The Star.ng)
Wema Bank’s Digital Bank, ALAT, Emerges Nigeria’s Best Digital Bank @ Euromoney Awards 2025
ALLEGED CONTEMPT: INEC CHAIRMAN ABSENT, COURT FIXES OCTOBER 8
FG Immortalizes Buhari renaming UNIMAID after him
Tech Expert, Zuckerberg trains with UFC champions, Adesanya, Alexander
Organ Trafficking: Ekweremadu bags 10 years in UK prison
