Category: Foreign

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will be making Palm Beach, Florida, his permanent residence instead of his Trump Tower apartment in New York City.

He has owned the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach since 1985 and has spent more time there during his presidency than at his penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York.

“My family and I will be making Palm Beach, Florida, our Permanent Residence,” Trump said on Twitter.

“Despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year, I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,” he said, referring to New York.

A life-long New Yorker, he was raised in the city’s Queens borough and later moved to Manhattan. Trump Tower serves as both his residence and the headquarters of the Trump Organization, his real estate company.

“As President, I will always be there to help New York and the great people of New York. It will always have a special place in my heart!” Trump said.

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Trump, a Republican, has feuded with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats.

“Good riddance. It’s not like @realDonaldTrump paid taxes here anyway. He’s all yours, Florida,” Cuomo said in a tweet.

De Blasio said on Twitter: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out or whatever.”

He filed to change his primary residence in late September in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the New York Times reported.

He is running for re-election in November 2020 and, if he wins, would make the White House his home until January 2025.

U.S. lawmakers will cast the first vote on Thursday in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives takes up a measure that sets up the next steps in the fast-moving effort.

The vote will be the first formal test of support for the inquiry launched on Sept. 24.
Democrats, who control 234 seats in the 435-seat chamber, need a simple majority to approve the resolution.

The measure calls for public hearings and the release of transcripts from closed-door proceedings.
It also outlines what rights Republican lawmakers and Trump himself would have to participate as the process moves ahead.

Republicans have accused Democrats of trampling on Trump’s rights and keeping the process too secret.
Representative Jim McGovern, who authored the legislation to be voted on, said as the debate kicked off:”I do not take any pleasure in the need for this resolution.”

“There is serious evidence that President Trump may have violated the Constitution.

“This is about protecting our national security and safeguarding our elections,” McGovern, Chairman of the House Rules Committee, said in a House speech.
Representative Tom Cole, the committee’s top Republican, complained that rules being set by Democrats for the impeachment procedure mark “a partisan exercise.”

“Today’s resolution fails to give the minority the same rights as were present during the Clinton impeachment and it fails to offer the same due process protections given to Presidents Nixon and Clinton,” Cole said referring to House investigations of former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

The U.S. Constitution gives the House broad authority to set ground rules for an impeachment inquiry and Democrats say they are following House rules on investigations.

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They have promised to hold public hearings on the case against Trump.

The impeachment inquiry focuses on a July 25 telephone call, in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy to investigate his Democratic political rival Joe Biden, a former U.S. vice president, and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the inquiry a sham.
Lawmakers on Thursday plan to hear closed-door testimony from Tim Morrison, the top Russia specialist on Trump’s National Security Council.

Morrison resigned from his position on Wednesday, a senior administration official said.
Members of the three committees conducting the investigation expect Morrison to fill in more of the details about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Morrison listened in on the July 25 phone call and said the call “could have been better,” according to acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor.

All applicants must apply in person at the nearest Embassy or High Commission of China.

To apply for a travel visa to China requires the following documents:

Passport – Your original passport with at least six months validity and two blank visa pages; including one photocopy of your passport’s data and photo page.

• China visa application form – Download the application form, fill it out manually and sign it. (Take the completed application form along to the Visa Centre to submit your application).
• One recently taken passport photo – full face, front view, bare-head, and against a light background (size: 48 x 33mm). Follow the Chinese Embassy photo guidelines.

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• Proof of legal status (only required if you’re not applying for the China visa in your country of citizenship).
• Details of your visit to China: confirmed return ticket, proof of hotel reservation, etc.
• If you’re going to stay with family or friends in China and cannot present the hotel confirmation, you need to provide an invitation letter. The letter must include the following:
• Your personal information: name, gender, and date of birth
• Details of your planned trip to China: arrival and departure dates, place(s) to be visited, accommodation arrangements etc.
• Information of the inviting party: name(s), contact number, address, and relationship to you.
• If necessary, the consular officer may request you to provide additional documents or require an interview.

By Vincent Ikuomola, Abuja

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Zubairu Dada has hinted of impending review of the country’s foreign policy.

This is as ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Ignatius Olisemeka warned that foreign policy should never be run on a charitable basis.

They spoke yesterday in Abuja at the maiden Annual Foreign Policy Public Lecture 2019 organised by the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN).

Dada said on assumption of office, President Muhammadu Buhari gave them a nine-point agenda to execute in the ministry. According to him, agenda includes the review of the country’s foreign policy.

He added that the directive to review the country’s foreign policy was as a result of global dynamism and the need for the country to change with time.

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Olisemeka, who was the guest speaker, noted that the country’s current foreign policy was too foreign and has not sufficiently stressed the complementarity of domestic and foreign policies.

The former minister under the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar-led military administration, who termed the country’s foreign policy as “Africa as Centrepiece of Nigeria foreign policy”,  warned that foreign policy should never be run on a charitable basis, which has not yielded any tangible benefit to the country.

He cited the incessant killings and destruction of Nigerian businesses in South Africa and other places as an indicative of the weakness in the country’s past foreign policies.

He said: “One lesson that could be drawn from all of this is that foreign policy should never be run on a charitable basis. There must be a price-tag to every effort. That price, whether in goodwill, or in other terms, must be carefully calculated beforehand, demanded and fully exerted when the mission is over or when the time is ripe. It is not at all, as always been argued, a moral issue as to whether one should or not expect appreciation from another country for a good turn done. It is more basic than that. It is simply that one has the right to expect result from one’s own efforts. How that result is achieved is a matter of planning. There is no doubt that when policies are properly and carefully conceived and planned, reward is inevitable. On the other hand, thoughtlessly and carelessly conceived and executed programmes and engagements yield no result.

“This, explains why we could invest so much effort, so much energy and so many resources (as we did in Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and other parts of West Africa) and reap nothing positive from such effort. The reoccurring spate of xenophobic attacks and killing of Nigerians in South Africa, are all indicative of the weakness in our perception of our real interests, weakness in planning, weakness in our approach and style in the Southern Africa liberation struggles. Simply put in one sentence: it was an abysmal weakness in our diplomacy.”

Olisemeka also posited that Nigeria was yet to conceive foreign policy as an instrument for national development.

He posited that the domestic and foreign policy are world apart, as they are oblivion of existence of one another.

By Our Reporter

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday joined other world leaders, business moguls and investors at opening of the third editions of the Future Investment Initiatives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The world leaders attending the summit included the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and His Majesty the King Abdullah of Jordan.

African leaders at the summit included the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta; President Denis Sassou-Ngeuesso of Congo Brazzaville; President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone; President Roch Marc Kabore of Burkina Faso and Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic.

The event, which was launched by the Governor of Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund, Yassir Al Rumayyan, saw participants discussing the challenges, trends and opportunities that were shaping the global investment landscape.

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About 300 leading speakers from 30 countries, with more than 6000 participants were at the opening of the forum.

The massive turn out of participants at the summit was an indication of an expanded scope from the previous conferences.

The conference brings together diversity, cooperation and friendships, connecting capital with ideas, building relationships and doing deals.

Some other panels also looked at how a new era of economic ambition will shape the global economy as well as views from Asia and the Middle East.

Today, the forum will kick-off with talks addressing what’s next for the energy sector and Saudi Arabia’s red sea tourism project.

President Buhari will also today participate in High Level Event, titled: “What is Next for Africa: How will Investment and Trade Transform the continent into the Next Great Economic Success Story?” with Presidents of Kenya, Congo-Brazzaville and Burkina Faso.

The Nigerian leader will also, on the sideline of the FII summit, hold bilateral talks with His Majesty, King Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and His Majesty, King Abdullah ll of Jordan.

By Agency Reporter

Consul-General of Nigeria in Johannesburg Mr. Godwin Adama has confirmed the murder of another Nigerian, Mr. Chikamso Ufordi, in South Africa.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the deceased was allegedly shot dead by unknown assailants in a suspected love affair tangle.

Reacting to the development on telephone yesterday, Adama, however, said he was yet to get the full report.

According to him, although the incident is highly condemnable, incidences like that are common in South Africa with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

“Murder statistics in South Africa indicate that over 50 people are violently murdered in a day, about 20,330 in a year.

Read Also: Another Nigerian killed, 2 others injured by unknown gun men in South Africa

“We are, however, investigating and equally following up police investigations on the matter to see the motive behind the attack.

“We are however not in a hurry to conclude that it was xenophobic or criminal,” Adama said.

He promised that the consulate would partner the South African authorities to arrange a meeting with the locals, Nigerians, the police authority, to further adopt ways of preventing any form of xenophobic attacks in the future.

He appealed to Nigerians resident in that country to operate within the confines of the law and not to engage in activities that would compromise their security.

President of Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA) Mr. Ben Okoli also confirmed the death in a telephone interview with NAN.

\He said Ufordi died on the spot while his companion in his car sustained gunshots injuries.

Okoli, who explained that the incident happened on Friday night (Oct. 25) around Nigel Area of Johannesburg, South Africa, added that the assailants shot at Ofordi who was driving his car with two other Nigerians.