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Biden Edges Closer To Lead USA, Trump Claims Fraud


Democrat Joe Biden took a huge step Wednesday to capturing the White House, with wins in Michigan and Wisconsin bringing him close to a majority, but President Donald Trump responded with fury as his campaign sued to suspend vote counting.
In a brief address on national television, flanked by American flags and his vice presidential pick Kamala Harris, Biden said he wasn’t yet declaring victory, but that “when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
By flipping the northern battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin, Biden reached 264 electoral votes against 214 so far for Trump. By adding the six of Nevada, where he is narrowly ahead, or the larger prizes of hard-fought Georgia or Pennsylvania, Biden would hit the magic number of 270 needed to win the White House.
In stark contrast to Trump’s increasingly heated rhetoric about being cheated, Biden sought to project calm, reaching out to a nation torn by four years of polarizing leadership and traumatized by the Covid-19 pandemic, with new daily infections Wednesday close to hitting 100,000 for the first time.
“I know how deep and hard the opposing views are in our country on so many things,” Biden, 77, said.
“But I also know this as well: to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart.”
American presidential elections are decided not by the popular vote but by securing a majority in the state-by-state Electoral College, which has 538 members.
US media organizations called Michigan for Biden where he had a lead of some 120,000 votes. Earlier, Biden claimed Wisconsin, with a narrower but insurmountable lead.
The two states, along with Arizona — another that Biden was projected to flip — put the Democrat within arm’s reach of making Trump the first one-term president in 28 years.
Trump claims being cheated
However, Trump, 74, claimed victory unilaterally and made clear he would not accept the reported results, issuing unprecedented complaints — unsupported by any evidence — of fraud.
“The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself,” he tweeted, alleging without proof or explanation that “secretly dumped ballots” had been added in Michigan.
Trump’s campaign announced lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia and demanded a recount in Wisconsin.
In Michigan, the campaign filed a suit to halt vote tabulation, saying its “observers” were not allowed to watch at close distances.
In Detroit, a Democratic stronghold that is majority Black, a crowd of mostly-white Trump supporters chanted “Stop the count!” and tried to barge into an election office before being blocked by security.
The Trump campaign said it was also suing to halt the counting of votes in Pennsylvania — after the president called overnight for Supreme Court intervention to exclude the processing of mail-in ballots after the close of polls.
And it demanded a recount in Wisconsin, citing unspecified “irregularities.”
The president’s personal lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, accused Democrats of sending in fraudulent ballots. He also provided no evidence.
“This is the way they intend to win,” Giuliani told reporters in Pennsylvania’s largest city Philadelphia. “We’re not going to let them get away with it.”
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien claimed they had won in Pennsylvania, despite the result still being calculated, and he rejected the call giving Biden a win in Arizona.
‘We have to be patient’
In a reversal of roles, the US election brought statements of international concern, with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer warning of a “very explosive situation” that could create a “constitutional crisis.”
An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors votes around the West and former Soviet Union, found no evidence of election fraud and said that Trump’s “baseless allegations” eroded trust in democracy.
The most crucial — and messiest — contest may yet wind up being in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead had narrowed to 200,000 votes.
“We have to be patient,” said Tom Wolf, the Democratic governor of the state where Republican lawmakers had prevented millions of mail-in ballots from being counted before Election Day.
“They’re going to be counted accurately and they will be counted fully,” Wolf told reporters.
The race also tightened in Georgia, a state once seen as solidly Republican, where Trump was up by just under 40,000 votes.
Richard Barron, election director of heavily Democratic Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, told reporters in the counting room that he hoped to finish later Wednesday.
The tight White House race and recriminations evoked memories of the 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
That race, which hinged on a handful of votes in Florida, eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which halted a recount while Bush was ahead.
The US Elections Project estimated total turnout at a record 160 million including more than 101.1 million early voters, 65.2 million of whom cast ballots by mail amid the pandemic.
News
France Urged to Address Colonial Legacy as Senegalese Activists Call for Reparations in Dakar Roundtable
Reporter: Sandra Ani


France’s colonial legacy came under renewed scrutiny as journalists, historians, and pan-African activists gathered at African Memorial Square in Dakar for a powerful roundtable advocating reparations and economic justice.
The event highlighted growing demands for France to take full responsibility for its historical role in Senegal and across West Africa.


Organized by advocacy groups including the Association of Descendants of Senegalese Soldiers, the Front for the Withdrawal of French Military Bases (GASSI), and JIF’AFRIK, the roundtable brought together influential voices pushing for reparatory justice and structural transformation.
Among the key speakers were Babacar Dioh of the Thiaroye 44 Movement—a coalition of descendants of Senegalese tirailleurs—and Souleymane Jules Diallo, leader of JIF’AFRIK. Discussions centered on two central demands: official reparations for colonial-era injustices and the urgent renegotiation of trade and military agreements that activists say perpetuate economic dependence.
“The time for symbolic gestures is over,” said Dioh. “We are now filing an official reparations claim and taking concrete steps to hold France accountable.”
Speakers called for the dismantling of existing neocolonial frameworks, stressing the ecological, financial, and social harm that has endured beyond the colonial period. The roundtable marks a turning point in Dakar’s positioning as a hub for coordinated African-led advocacy aimed at restoring historical justice.
This event adds momentum to a growing continental movement seeking tangible reparative action from former colonial powers and reinforces the call for equity, autonomy, and acknowledgment of historical truths.
News
Gov Mbah Inaugurates Committee to End Gender-Based Violence in Enugu


The Enugu State government has inaugurated a steering committee to eliminate Gender-Based Violence, GBV, in the state, declaring zero tolerance for the social malaise.
The inauguration took place at the Government House Enugu.
The panel, which is chaired by the Commissioner for Children, Gender Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ngozi Enih, draws its membership from the Nigeria Police Force, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro Industrialisation, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ministry of Human Development and Poverty Reduction, Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education as well as the Civil Society.
Inaugurating the panel known as the Steering Committee for Strengthening Institutional and Community Responses to End Gender-Based Violence/Domestication of Enugu State Gender Policy using the Oputa Panel approach, Governor Peter Mbah restated his administration’s commitment to not bringing perpetrators of GBV to book, but also putting in place proactive measures – activities, infrastructure, and systems in place to prevent them.
Mbah, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, said, “We take gender-based violence seriously. We have zero tolerance for it, and in Enugu State, we are ready to go the extra mile to deal with it.
“If you notice, the government has selected people that are very committed to this goal. This is not an activity where we just want to check-off the list. We will track this. We will monitor this, and we will have quarterly engagements on the successes that this particular committee has achieved in terms of reference that we are going to send.
“We will tighten those terms of reference indicators, so that we monitor what we are doing both in terms of cost input and the value added. It’s very important to us. Many people will be involved – civil society, the police and various ministries.”
He however, said that the effort was to protect everyone, men and women alike, as GBV was not restricted to any gender.
“The whole idea is to hold people responsible that are involved in matters relating to gender violence and deter people that by culture or by association get involved in that, protect women, protect our children, and in the case of violence against men, protect our men because most times we misconstrue gender violence to mean women, but it can also be men too.
“We encourage our men to speak out and to make sure they understand that the policy that Enugu State is soon going to domesticate is for everyone, and not only for the female gender,” he stated.
In her remark, Mrs. Enih, explained that the Oputa Panel approach was inspired by the need to cover all local peculiarities in domesticating the policy on GBV, restarting government’s confidence in the members of the panel.
“The approach we are going to use is the Oputa Panel approach, and in the Oputa Panel approach, we are going to tour the 17 Local Government Areas to get firsthand information about what our people are going through because policy is meant for the people, and a policy should suit the people.
“Again, every community has its peculiar problems, so that’s why the government decided that if we have to domesticate the gender policy, we have to hear from the people who own the policy and know the changes that they desire to see. That is the reason we are using this approach.
“The committee members are to also serve as judges. As we gather this information from our people, we will come back to tailor it in a way to suit the people of Enugu State, and then our policy is ready.
“We want the people to know that there is a gender policy for them. I can assure you that when the people are aware that there is such a policy, they will seek for the enforcement of that policy. So, this is not going to be one of those policies that will just lie on the shelf,” she said.


Digital solutions provider, Globacom, has congratulated Christians in Nigeria on this year’s Easter celebration, and urged them to emulate the noble qualities of Jesus Christ.
The company, in a goodwill message to the Christian faithful in the country, lauded their perseverance through the Lenten period which preceded Easter. It enjoined them to always promote the ideals of selflessness, love and peace among all as a way of demonstrating the virtues of the exemplary life of Jesus Christ.
“Peace, love and sacrifice are the central message of Easter. Christ offered himself in atonement for the sins of the world and he lived a life which made Him an eternal symbol of peace and goodwill for mankind”, Globacom added.
The company enjoined all Nigerians to share in the lessons of promoting selflessness, a necessary ingredient in the growth and development of every society. It also enjoined all Nigerians to join hands to make Nigeria a better place for all.
Easter is celebrated yearly at the end of the Lenten season of fasting and prayer considered as a ritual of purification for the Christian faithful. It also precedes the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday and His eventual resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The company assured its customers of seamless voice, data and Short Messaging Service (SMS) during and after the Easter celebrations, while urging them to avail themselves of the various data and voice offerings on the network.
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