Angola News Wire

Luanda – President João Lourenço arrived Thursday evening in Luanda from Paris (France), where he attended the Summit on the Financing of African Economies.

On arrival at Luanda’s 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, João Lourenço, accompanied by the First Lady, Ana Dias Lourenço, received welcoming greetings from the Vice-president Bornito de Sousa, from government members and Presidency officials.

The Paris Summit that gathered a dozen of African and European leaders and representatives of international political and financial organisations, approved a Usd 33 million fund aid for African countries.

During the meeting organised by the French Government, Angola defended a change to the Covid-19 vaccine production strategy.

On the fringes of the Summit, President João Lourenço met with his counterparts from France, Emmanuel Macron, South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa.

João Lourenço also met with Tony Blair, head of the Institute for Global Change, the former UK prime minister, and with various French business people, with whom he discussed the foreign investments in Angola, as part of the reforms underway in the country.

This is the second time President João Lourenço visits France, in his capacity as Angolan Head of State. The first was in May 2018.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Moçâmedes – The governor of sout-west Namibe province, Archer Mangueira, today, Thursday, requested the collaboration of civil society in combating the plague of locusts that is affecting the province, with technical and human means.

Speaking at a meeting with municipal administrators, farmers and members of civil society, which served to address the issue, he said that communities should help in the rapid identification of hotspots for immediate combat.

He asked civil society to collaborate in the acquisition of sprayers, fumigation vans and volunteers to help the teams on the ground.

“If we are not effective in this fight, we are going to live a situation of widespread hunger,” the governor warned, looking at the trail of destruction left by the locusts in the fields of farming families.

Despite recognising the good collaboration of community agents and traditional authorities, he considered it was still not enough to contain the insects.

The plague of locusts is affecting the municipalities of Moçâmedes, Bibala, Tômbwa and Virei, the latter being the most critical, where the insects have already devastated five hectares of farmland.

In Moçâmedes 42 devastated fields were counted so far.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – A court in New York said it had no powers to decide on the case filed by Aenergy SA against the Angolan government and referred the case to the Angolan justice system, according to the US press.

The case is a lawsuit brought in the US by the company Aenergy, in a case about the supply of General Electric’s electric turbines, whose contract was cancelled by the Angolan government.

In the ruling, issued Wednesday, the judge in the case, John P. Cronan, gave the parties 30 days to present an agreement, in which they submit to Angolan jurisdiction to settle the dispute that dates back to 2019.

Cronan noted that the federal jurisdiction in New York “does not have jurisdiction” to deal with the case and that the Angolan justice system “is the appropriate forum” to decide on the case, which relates to alleged contract fraud worth USD 1.1 billion.

With this decision, the New York court welcomed the request presented by the Angolan government, in September 2020, for the case to be referred to arbitration, arguing that the parties were bound by arbitration clauses.

The US district judge argued that when Aenergy SA and its subsidiary conducted their business, in Angola, with the Angolan government, they decided to “subject themselves to the Angolan law”.

The business relationship between Aenergy and the Angolan government began, in 2017, when the energy company was contracted to build and operate several power plants.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

ROME – Italy was one of the world’s hardest hit nations at the start of the pandemic. As the Italian government continues to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions, the country’s art cities are starting to see a return to tourists in their museums, galleries and bars and restaurants. The numbers are far from those of the past but there is an air of optimism that pervades the squares and streets in cities like?Florence, so badly in need of a return to visitors.?

COVID-19 infections and deaths have been on a steady decline in Italy in recent weeks and the Italian government has decided the curbs in place to limit the spread of the virus can be gradually relaxed across the country.

Vaccinations are also continuing at a steady pace and in the country that suffered the second highest death toll in Europe, after Britain, there is a general feeling of optimism among the population.

In art cities like?Florence that have suffered a huge toll from the lack of tourism, visitors have started to trickle back as museums and galleries reopened their doors. Monica Milandri runs a small 14-room boutique hotel right next to the Gucci restaurant in an enviable position, the central Piazza della Signoria.

She says that for the time being bookings have been forthcoming exclusively from Italians, most who come for the day or stay just one night and for the moment these arrivals are just over the weekend. ?

Milandri says some hotels in?Florence, particularly smaller ones, will not be reopening any time soon after the huge losses they suffered because of COVID-19. The virus, she says, has caused tremendous damage to the sector.

She says her hotel alone has lost 92 percent of its traffic compared to 2019. She fears this year it will not be easy to return to the numbers of the past. Italians, she says, do not normally visit art cities in the summer so her hope is for a return of foreign travelers as soon as possible. But as one walks in front of the beauty of?Florence’s Duomo and exquisite bell-tower by Giotto, the bars and restaurants in the square have gone back to being populated and many are enjoying their capuccinos sitting in the sun at the tables outside, a sight that had been forgotten. The eerie emptiness of recent months has gone.

All of Italy’s 20 regions, apart from one in the north of the country, Valle d’Aosta, have been placed in the low-risk yellow level and the government has announced further easing of restrictions in the coming weeks.

A nightly 10 o’clock curfew is being extended immediately to one hour later and to midnight on June 7 and then lifted altogether from June 21. Gyms will reopen next and from June restaurants will also be able to serve customers indoors and not just outdoors. But for the moment, masks and social distancing remain mandatory.?

In a further effort to reopen the country to tourism, mandatory quarantine for arrivals from European Union countries, Britain and Israel has been removed providing visitors pass a negative COVID-19 test. US airlines are providing COVID-19 safe flights — requiring testing — to Italy. The country is ready to welcome foreigners back as it awaits a European Union “Green Pass” scheme which will further facilitate safe movement between countries.

Source: Voice of America

PARIS – It’s a grand day for the French. Cafe and restaurant terraces reopened Wednesday after a six-month coronavirus shutdown deprived residents of the essence of French life — sipping coffee and wine with friends.

The French government is lifting restrictions incrementally to stave off a resurgence of COVID-19 and to give citizens back some of their signature “joie de vivre.” As part of the plan’s first stage, France’s 7 p.m. nightly curfew was pushed back to 9 p.m. and museums, theaters and cinemas reopened along with outdoor cafe terraces.

President Emmanuel Macron, among the first to take a seat at a cafe terrace, was seen chatting with Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was attending a movie later in the day.

Actress Emmanuel Beart went to a movie theater opening in the center of Paris where her latest film “L’Etreinte” (“The Embrace”) was showing — among the scores of movies produced during the shutdown.

France is not the first European country to start getting back a semblance of social and cultural life. Italy, Belgium, Hungary and other nations already have started allowing outdoor dining, while drinking and eating indoors began Monday in Britain’s pubs.

Eateries in France have been closed since the end of October, the longest time of any European country except Poland, where bars and restaurants reopened Saturday for outdoor service after being closed for seven months.

Some French cafe and restaurant owners have spent days preparing for Wednesday’s milestone, even though rain is forecast for large swaths of the country, including Paris.

Still, the government has put limits on how much fun can be had. Restaurants are can fill only 50% of their outdoor seating areas and put no more than six people at a table. Movie theaters can only seat 35% of capacity, while museums must restrict entries so there is 8 square meters of space (86 square feet) per visitor.

Starting June 9, the French government plans to extend the curfew until 11 p.m. and to permit indoor dining at restaurants and bistros starting. The final phase of the three-stage reopening plan is scheduled for June 30, when the curfew will end and all other restrictions will be lifted, if pandemic conditions allow.

France has recorded more than 108,000 deaths due to COVID-19, among the highest tolls in Europe. But deaths, admissions to critical care units and the coronavirus infection rate are now on the decline.

“What counts is the dynamic,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told BFMTV. Vaccinations “have changed the givens.”

About 40% of France’s adult population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Rain or shine, restrictions or not, a good number of people are expected to take advantage of their new freedom on Wednesday.

At least that’s what Jérôme Haeffelin, the owner of Le Ponthieu, a Right Bank bistro in a crowded district of Paris, hopes. He invested 20,000 euros ($24,000) to create an outdoor terrace.

“We’ll try hard to enforce (the rules), to stack the odds in our favor and stay open in the long run,” Haeffelin said.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky Tuesday said the United States appears to be on a path out of the pandemic, noting the most recent seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases and deaths is the lowest since the pandemic began.

During a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing, Walensky said the most recent figures indicate “we should all have cautious optimism.”

Senior White House COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt added to the good news, noting case numbers this past week were down in all 50 states also for the first time in the pandemic.

While vaccination rates have slowed, Walensky said the U.S. continues to vaccinate 1.5 and 2 million people per day. She said in less than a week since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC authorized and recommended use of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents 12 and older, more than 600,000 young people received the vaccine.

Walensky also noted that 60% of all Americans 18 or older have received at least one shot, a good sign the nation will easily meet U.S. President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% with at least one shot by the 4th of July.

During the same briefing, Senior White House Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci sought to reassure Americans about the efficacies of the COVID-19 vaccines. He presented recent studies showing the current vaccines available in the U.S. are proving effective in providing protection against variant strains of the virus, including the B.1.6.7 variant, originally identified in India.

Walensky said the CDC is working on its guidance for U.S. school-age children for when they return to school later this year or, perhaps, attend summer camps in the next few months. She said the guidelines will be based on how many young people may be vaccinated in the next few months, so they are still being developed.

Source: Voice of America