US President Donald Trump plans to end US birthright citizenship, and Yemeni teacher turns home into school for 700 children.
Stacey Abrams is the first black female nominee for governor
Stacey Abrams, the first black woman nominee for the governor’s post in the US state of Georgia, is vying to make history, reports BBC.
Abrams, a 44-year-old lawyer and former state legislator, is competing against Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brian Kemp.
Kemp represents the Trump brand of Republicanism that focuses on tax cuts, protecting gun rights and rounding up criminal illegals in his truck.
Whereas Abrams is a progressive woman who has made an impression on minority voters, a group which her campaign was focussed on.
Among 945,000 Georgia residents who have already cast an early vote, about 30 per cent are black. A total of 6.9 million out of the 10.4 million residents have registered to vote, which is more than ever.
“Her campaign means everything to me,” says Jaylen Black, a 21-year-old who is volunteering for the Abrams’ campaign.
“And when Stacey was running, it wasn’t just that she was a black woman but she just felt so real as a candidate,” she added.
Now, Trump targets US birthright citizenship
US President Donald Trump Tuesday said he will seek to end the right of citizenship for US-born children of non-citizens and illegal immigrants, reports Reuters.
Trump would target the citizenship right through an executive order, he told news website Axios. The right of US citizenship is granted to US-born children under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution
Criticising Trump’s move, US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said he could not scrap the right with the stroke of a pen.
“You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order,” Ryan said in an interview with radio station WVLK.
We are the last generation that can save our planet, says WWF
A new report by the World Wildlife Fund says that global wildlife populations have fallen by 60 per cent in just over four decades due to growing pollution, deforestation, climate change and other man-made factors, reports CNN.
The Living Planet Report 2018 states that more than 4,000 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibian species have declined rapidly between 1970 and 2014.
The crisis is “unprecedented in its speed, in its scale and because it is single-handed,” said Marco Lambertini, WWF’s director general.
“Now that we have the power to control and even damage nature; we continue to (use) it as if we were the hunters and gatherers of 20,000 years ago, with the technology of the 21st century,” he added.
According to the report, 90 per cent of seabirds have plastics in their stomachs. It has also found that the number of polar bears is expected to decline by 30 per cent by 2050 as global warming causes Arctic ice to melt.
“We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it”, WWF UK Chief Executive Tanya Steele.
Singer Pharrell Williams demand Trump stop playing his music at rallies
American singer Pharrell Williams has asked US President Donald Trump to refrain from playing his music at rallies after his song ‘Happy’ was played at a Trump event in Indiana barely hours after Pittsburgh synagogue attack, reports The Guardian.
“Pharrell has not, and will not, grant you permission to publicly perform or otherwise broadcast or disseminate any of his music,” states the letter from the Pharrell’s lawyer Howard King.
“There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose,” the letter read.
Adele, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and Queen are some of the other musicians who have ordered Trump to stop using their music.
Yemeni teacher converts his home into a free school
A Yemeni teacher’s home in government-held city of Taiz is now a school for 700 students, reports Reuters.
Al-Shorbagy opened the school following the civil war saying he had nowhere to send his own children.
“All the schools closed down and we had a problem that our kids were on the street,” Al-Shorbagy said. “We opened this building as a community initiative. It was my national and humanitarian duty towards my neighbourhood”, he added.
The facilities inside the house are basic, with exposed brick walls and ripped curtains are used to divide up space for classrooms. Classes include maths, science and English. Even with lack of facilities, the school is oversubscribed.