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Financial Time Lib, Los Angeles, CA (2025)

04/20/2020

GERMANY SENDS CHINA $130 BILLIONS BILLS INVOICE FOR ‘CORONAVIRUS DAMAGES ‘.

GERMANY has rattled China after joining the UK, France and the US in a rare attack, after Berlin called out Beijing’s responsibility for the global pandemic and even issued a £130bn invoice.
On Saturday, Donald Trump warned that China should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for unleashing the coronavirus pandemic.
President Trump told reporters: “It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t, and the whole world is suffering because of it.
“If it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. But if they were knowingly responsible, then there should be consequences.
He said the Chinese were “embarrassed” and the question was whether what happened with the coronavirus was “a mistake that got out of control, or was it done deliberately?”
President Trump and his senior aides have repeatedly accused China of lacking transparency.
This week the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started, revised its number of fatalities by with a sudden 50% jump in the figure.
The UK has joined US intelligence officials in investigating claims that the virus originated in a Wuhan virus lab and not a wet market.
A bombshell op-ed this week in Germany’s largest tabloid newspaper, Bild, joined this outrage by drawing up an itemised invoice for €149bn (£130b).
The list includes a €27 billion charge for lost tourism revenue, up to €7.2 billion for the German film industry, a million euros an hour for German airline Lufthansa and €50 billion for German small businesses.
Bild calculated that this amounts to €1,784 (£1,550) per person if Germany’s GDP falls by 4.2 percent, under the title “What China owes us.”
China responded by claiming the invoice “stirs up xenophobia and nationalism”.

04/14/2020

CONVID19~PREZ WEAH ABSORBED LOANS OF MARKET WOMEN.

It is clear that several market women and small informal petty traders, who have loans with commercial banks and other creditors, will suffer significantly from the loss of the number of selling and trading days occasioned by the Stay-At-Home order. The Government is working with lenders to show some understanding of our vulnerable borrowers. In this direction, I propose to the Honorable Legislature that the Government fully pays the loans owed by market women, and petty and small traders in affected counties as part of the requested budgetary reallocation. This will be a strong stimulus for these individuals. They have built their businesses from scratch with little or no help from the Government and deserve protection during these trying times. This program will further help the banks to increase lending to new borrowers, the Liberian President stated.

04/14/2020

THE LIBERIAN EMBASSY IN BEIJING IS QUIET ON FOREIGN ISSUES FACING ITS CITIZENS.

04/10/2020

What about our brothers and sisters who do hand to mouth business?. Please leave your comment.

04/07/2020

AMERICAN WWE LEGEND, HULK HOGAN BELIEVED THAT THE WORLD NEEDS REPENTANCE AND NOT VACCINES.

Pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan suggests the Lord will end coronavirus if mankind repents.

“Maybe we don’t need a vaccine … the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus,” Hogan wrote.

04/01/2020

AWARD WINNING SCIENTIST DIED OF THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS.

World-renowned virologist Gita Ramjee has become the first Indian-origin South African to have died after contracting the novel coronavirus that has killed five people in the country.

Ramjee, a stellar vaccine scientist and an HIV prevention research leader, had returned from London a week ago but reportedly showed no symptoms of COVID-19.

Ramjee, aged nearly 50 years, was the Clinical Trials Unit Principal Investigator and Unit Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) offices in Durban.

"We are deeply saddened to inform you of the tragic passing of Prof Gita Ramjee in hospital today," said a statement issued by SAMRC President and CEO Glenda Gray.

"Prof Ramjee died of COVID-19 related complications," Gray added.

In 2018, Ramjee was presented with the Outstanding Female Scientist Award in Lisbon by the European Development Clinical Trials Partnerships (EDCTP) for her lifetime commitment to finding new HIV prevention methods, which are conducive to the lifestyles, circumstances and perceived risk factors that South African women are faced with.

"This award is an acknowledgement of the unwavering determination by a global community to forever change the trajectory of the HIV/AIDS epidemic," she had said at the time.

"Professor Gita Ramjee is a towering HIV prevention research leader whose work continues to contribute immensely to the global response to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic," Gray had said after the Indian-origin scientist received the award.

Ramjee was married to pharmacist Pravin Ramjee, a South African of Indian descent.

Her funeral arrangements have not been announced. Attendance at funerals in South Africa is highly restricted and requires permits as the country is going through a 21-day nationwide lockdown announced last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

03/30/2020

As the coronavirus intensify across Africa Countries are shutting down their major cities.

Ghana 🇬🇭 Lock Down, a footage from Buduburam Camp.

03/29/2020

GERMAN STATE FINANCE MINISTER COMMITS SU***DE AFTER “CORONAVIRUS CRISIS WORRIES “
The body of a man identified as Thomas Schäfer, the finance minister of the German state of Hesse, was found on a high-speed train line in the town of Hochheim between Frankfurt and Mainz, police confirmed Saturday.
The presence of a body on the tracks was first reported by witnesses to paramedics, who were unable to initially identify the remains due to the extent of the injuries.
Investigators said an investigation on the scene confirmed the identity of the man as Schäfer and that the death was likely a su***de. Police did not immediately release further details of the case.
The politician apparently left a note before taking his own life, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing sources close to the investigation. The note, according to the report, referenced Schäfer's reasons for taking the step.
According to media in the state of Hesse, the 54-year-old regularly appeared in public in recent days, for example, to inform the public about financial assistance during the coronavirus crisis.
Schäfer had "considerable worries" over COVID-19
Schäfer was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). He had been active in Hessian state politics for more than two decades and was finance minister for almost 10 years.
Germany's financial capital, Frankfurt, lies in Hesse and is the state's biggest city.
Schäfer had been widely expected to succeed state premier, Volker Bouffier, if he decided not to stand for re-election in 2023.
In a statement, Bouffier said that the state's leadership has received the news with "sadness and disbelief."
Bouffier also said that Schäfer had been living under considerable worry and stress because of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
"His main concern was whether he could manage to fulfill the huge expectations of the population, especially in terms of financial aid," Bouffier said on Sunday. "For him, there was clearly no way out. He was disappointed and so he had to leave us. That has shocked us, has shocked me."
"Our sincere condolences go to his closest relatives," he added.
Outgoing CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Schäfer's sudden death "shocked me, shocked all of us" in the party. "It has hit us and left us sad and stunned," she wrote on Twitter

03/26/2020

US LAWYER LARRY CLAYMAN FILED TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS LAWSUIT AGAINST CHINA.

Lawsuit: China Hid Virus Information, Should Pay Billions
Associated Press • March 24, 2020, at 6:24 p.m.
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — An attorney who represented victims of the Las Vegas shooting massacre has filed a federal lawsuit against China's government over the new coronavirus, saying Tuesday that officials hid information about the outbreak and that U.S. small businesses should receive billions of dollars in damages. The case seeks class-action status for 32 million businesses for lost income and profits.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of five Law Vegas businesses, claims that China's government should have shared more information about the virus but intimidated doctors, scientists, journalists and lawyers while allowing the COVID-19 respiratory illness to spread, attorney Robert Eglet told reporters.

“They engaged in falsehoods, misinformation, cover-ups and destruction of evidence,” the attorney said.

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Eglet represented about 2,500 people last year in an $800 million settlement with Mandalay Bay casino-hotel owner MGM Resorts International stemming from the deadliest mass killing in modern American history — the October 2017 shooting that left 58 people dead and more than 850 injured at an open-air concert on the Las Vegas Strip.
Eglet also won hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements against pharmaceutical firms and healthcare companies after a Las Vegas hepatitis C outbreak and is handling Nevada's largest lawsuits against drug manufacturers accused of fueling the nation's opioid addiction crisis.
His plaintiffs in the coronavirus case filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada are owners of a restaurant, a flower seller, two real estate businesses and a CPR training firm. Eglet said the five are representative of tens of millions of other businesses that could become plaintiffs because they have also suffered economically whose damages could end up in the trillions of dollars. China's government was reckless and negligent as the virus spread, the attorney said.”If they had been transparent with the world this could have been stopped in Wuhan,” Eglet said, referring to the Chinese city identified as the original epicenter of the outbreak. “The world could have come together and gotten the right scientists to Wuhan and stopped it right there.”
Chinese Embassy officials in the U.S. did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment. Court records did not say whether the lawsuit has been served to Chinese officials or their representatives and no defense attorney was identified.
But in comments Tuesday before Eglet announced the lawsuit, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said there is “great anger and strong opposition from the Chinese people" on use of the terms "Chinese virus" and “Wuhan virus” to describe the coronavirus. President Donald Trump is among those who have called it the “Chinese virus" and defended that term.
“I want to point out that it was the U.S. side that started this argument,” the foreign ministry spokesman said. “I wish certain people in the U.S. could heed the reasonable voice at home and from the international community and stop making wrongful remarks that stigmatize China

03/25/2020

CENTRAL BANK OF LIBERIA (CBL) SUSPENDS BANKS CHARGES.

MONROVIA –The Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) has, instituted several policy measures to ease the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the Liberian economy, a CBL press release disclosed on Tuesday, March 24, 2020..
Among the measures, the CBL has suspended for three months, all charges on the Automated Clearing House (ACH), Direct Credit (DC) and Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS). Commercial banks are accordingly required to suspend all charges to customers related to these Electronic Payment Channels. The measure will reduce the cost of clearing, payments and transfers for individuals and businesses.
Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) have also suspended for one month, all charges to customers for transfer of money from their bank accounts to their mobile money accounts (vice versa). All merchant payment transaction fees (shops, stores, supermarkets, gas stations, general markets, retail outlets, etc.) using mobile money as payment option for goods, are also suspended for one month.
In line with the measures, the daily transaction limit for mobile money transactions has been adjusted by the CBL for three months as follows: subject to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements:
• Level 1 Category has been increased from US$250.00 to a maximum of US$500.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar;
• Level 2 Category has been increased from US$1,000.00 to US$2,000.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar; and
• Level 3 Category has been increased from US$2,000.00 to US$4,000.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar.
The CBL has also adjusted for three months the monthly aggregate transaction limits for purchasing of goods and transfers through mobile money as follows: subject to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements.
• Level 1 Category has been increased from US$2,000.00 to a maximum of US$3,000.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar;
• Level 2 Category has been increased from US$8,000.00 to US$12,000.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar; and
• Level 3 Category has been increased from US$20,000.00 to US$30,000.00 or its equivalent in Liberian dollar.
Mobile Money Operators and Commercial banks have also agreed to suspend for one month, all charges for person to person (P2P) funds transfer via internet or mobile banking services.
As part of the policy measures, the CBL has also suspended temporarily for three months, the rule on credits (asset classification and provisioning) to borrowers in the aviation, hospitality, tourism, agricultural and businesses involved in cross-border trading, considering the negative impact of the coronavirus on the cashflows of the affected sectors of the economy.
This means that commercial banks and other licensed financial institutions are required to exercise flexibility to borrowers in those sectors and categories of borrowers, including but not limited to flexible restructuring terms, on a case-by-case basis. This flexibility shall not, however, apply to delinquent borrowers prior to the outbreak.
The decisions were reached following recent consultative meetings with both Commercial Banks and Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) regarding measures intended to ease the economic burdens of the pandemic on the population.
Meanwhile, the CBL is requiring all banks and MMOs to put in place preventive measures consistent with NPHIL health protocols. Accordingly, all customers are required to respectfully observe and adhere to these measures.
The CBL reaffirms its commitment of working closely with the banks to ensure availability of liquidity in the system and assure the public not to panic.
The Bank will continue to monitor the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and shall take further steps to ease the adverse effects on the Liberian economy.

03/25/2020

ELLEN’S APPOINTEES FOUND GUITY OF THEIFT

Monrovia – Former Defense Minister Brownie J. Samukai and his two former deputies have been found guilty by Criminal Court C at the Temple of Justice for the crimes of “misuse of public money, theft of property, and criminal conspiracy”. But they were acquitted of economic sabotage.
However, Cllr. Michael Watkins Wright, who represents the defendants, immediately took an appeal following the rendition of the judgment by the Circuit court C judge.
This means an appeal is expected to be filed with the Supreme Court, which will review the judgment.
Defendant Samukai was indicted along with his two former deputies – Joseph F. Johnson, former Deputy Minister for Administration and J. Nyumah Dorkor, former Comptroller.
The trio was indicted for the crimes of misuse of public money, theft of property, money laundering, economic sabotage and criminal conspiracy. But they pleaded not guilty.

“Defendants J. Brownie Samukai Jr., Joseph F. Johnson and James Nyumah Dorkor are hereby adjudged guilty of the crimes of Theft of Property, Misused of Public Money and Criminal Conspiracy,” said Judge Gbeisay on Tuesday, 24 March.
“The defendants are hereby ordered to restitute the amount of US$687,656.35 to the AFL pension saving account and US$460, 000 to the Government of Liberia account, making a sum total of US$1,147,656.35.”
At the same time, the Judge dropped the charge of economic sabotage, saying: “This court having not seen enough evidence of Economic Sabotage and Money Laundering, the both charges are hereby ordered dismissed.”
Meanwhile, “Sentence will be announced pending pre-sentence investigation in obedience to Chapter 31, section 31.5 of the Criminal Procedure Law,” the Judge said.
“The Clerk of this court is therefore, hereby ordered to communicate with the probation service of Montserrado County to proceed to conduct pre-sentence investigation of the defendants here in and report to this court in 15 days as of today’s date

03/20/2020

How Prepared are Liberian Universities for the President’s Directives

Amidst fear of escalation of the deadly Corona virus, the President of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency George Manneh Weah exhibited leadership a few days ago when he announced the closure of universities with further directives for the pursuance of distance learning for the next few weeks. By most standards, this is a good directive that may save lives and foster protection of our educational space.

The worry however for a citizen like myself is the preparedness of teachers and learners on the use of the directed model. The crux of the online model is systems that support learning from diverse locations by both students and teachers. In context, whiles students are gone back home, it is expected that, the universities set up systems that allow teachers to teach from their locations, while the students participate in the studies from Grand Gedeh, Maryland,Grand Kru,Grand Bassa , Monrovia, Margibi, or wherever their location may be. While many infrastructural issues may be involved, the major is internet and computers. Internet to enable both teachers and students use skype, GoToMeeeeting, Zoom or other platforms that the university directs. It further entails every student to possess a laptop, phone or related handheld devices to be able to participate in the discussions from their locations. These factors seem to me would be challenges of implementing the directive of the President in Liberian universities.

This argument is not remote to only universities that are 100% brick and mortar but also those that have online schools in their universities. This reasoning is hinged on the context that, while most of these mixed breed institutions exist, the application of the online model is limited to their online schools. This will mean, departments that hitherto did not apply the online model will have to think of executing the model. The challenging question that begs for answers is the preparedness of students. Are Liberian students and parents prepared for the cost relating to their part of the learning – computers, internet and related costs? It should be noted that, in traditional online programmes, student and their parents are aware ahead of time of these cost implications before enrolling. As part of the prospectus, students are made aware they will need computers, stable internet etc thus parents and guardians are aware and make provision for such. It is proactive for a reader to reason that all university students own mobile phones and as such that will ease the situation. Whiles the line of thinking is reasonable, it is to be noted that, there are student in universities in the capital city – Monrovia who do not possess cell phones, yet others have phones that do not support online activities.

Then also arises the issue of preparedness of teaching faculty. Are lecturers of most of our universities in the know of this mode of teaching? (online). Perhaps the issue of online in itself is unpopular with government until now. As of now. lecturers and professionals’ with online PhDs are literally harassed on the basis of its nontraditional nature. It is a pointer that, our policy makers are not so much in tune of the model thus a lot of infrastructural investments have not been made in that stead.

The good of the President’s directive however is that, if need be, investments would be made to ensure the practical implementation of the model within this period of crisis. This pledge we welcome to train students that will make our nation great and strong.

03/15/2020

Wait a minute, is this coming from the White House?

03/15/2020

Good morning!!!

03/13/2020

CORONAVIRUS HIT LIBERIA’S CLOSEST NEIGHBOR.

Ivory Coast has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, a 45-year-old Ivorian man who had recently traveled to Italy, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
Ivory Coast, Francophone West Africa's largest economy, is the eighth country in sub-Saharan Africa to report a confirmed case after Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Togo, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Back in 2014, when the EBOLA was confirmed in our neighboring countries, the Liberian Government through the ministry of health refused to listen to the citizens and close the borders. Unfortunately, the EBOLA Virus found it way into Liberia via the Guinean-Liberian border killing over 4,500 Liberians. The Ivorian Government on the other hand took a bold step to closed all borders they had with Liberia and Guinea denying people from these two countries from entering the Cote d’ Ivoire in an attempt to protect the well being of the Ivorian citizens. It was on record that traveling from Liberia to Ivory Coast using the airways was expensive than traveling from Liberia to the USA, all these measures was to discouraged travelers from affected zones from entering Cote d’voire. The Ivorian Government strategy worked perfectly and there was no single case of EBOLA was reported before it left the region.

Today, it is confirmed that there is a case of the deadly coronavirus case in Cote dvoire, what is the Liberian Government doing to prevent it from entering our country? Are we playing it cool like we did with the EBOLA Virus that took the lives of our mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers and sons? Are we down playing the popular saying” PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE??

03/09/2020

CRUDE PRICE AT THE LOWEST IN YEARS

Investors dumped stocks on Monday after the price of crude fell by more than 30 per cent to four-year lows, marking oil’s biggest one-day drop since the Gulf war in 1991.

The fall came after Opec members led by Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to agree on deeper production cuts in the face of plunging demand owing to the coronavirus outbreak, effectively launching a price war. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped from $45 a barrel to as low as $31.02.

The price of crude oil at the international market has just dropped to $3.69/gallons. The residents of Monrovia and Liberia as a whole that just experienced a shortage of fuel and suffered some kind of losses due to unexpected increased in transportation fares due to the shortage. Will expect their government to take advantage of this decrease and drop the price at the pumps across the country to.

Dr. Weah, the President of the republic of Liberia who just assured his followers and partisans on 7th March about his commitment to eradicate poverty in the country shouldn’t hold back to act when such international opportunities arise that can have a direct reflection in the living conditions of the citizenry.

Financial Time Lib

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