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Joyce Banda, Malawi's new president, has announced the presidential jet and fleet of 60 Mercedes limousines would be sold in a move applauded by a British cabinet minister as an example to other African leaders. Mrs Banda said she was happy to "offload" the presidential perks, adding: "I can well use private airlines. I am already used to hitchhiking." It means that the 62-year-old head of state – the second woman to hold the position in Africa – will fly to the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in London this weekend with British Airways. Andrew Mitchell, the UK International Development Secretary who...

Plastic banknotes set to be unveiled this week stick together when new meaning that shoppers could find themselves accidentally handing over more than one note at once, it has emerged. England's first polymer banknote, a new £5 featuring the image of Winston Churchill, will be formally revealed by the Bank of England on Thursday. But the Bank itself has warned that the notes might stick together when they are new, raising the prospect of users handing over more money than they intend.

Leading members of Congress are calling on President Barack Obama to fire one of his top advisers amid a deepening scandal over accusations the White House intentionally misled lawmakers and the American public about the contents of last summer’s comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran, according to a letter sent Monday to Obama and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The lawmakers are pressing Obama to fire deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes following revelations he and other officials “spearheaded the charge to mislead elected lawmakers and the American people about the Iran nuclear deal and the negotiations that led to...

Donald Trump assailed the media on Monday for what he said was a misrepresentation of his comments on debt, rejecting the notion that he would have the United States default on his debt. "I said if we can buy back government debt as a discount. In other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back as a discount, if we are liquid enough as a country we should do that. In other words, we can buy back debt as a discount," the presumptive Republican nominee said in a telephone interview on CNN's "New Day." Those who...

Putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 concludes a long, concerted drive to reimage U.S. currency. More to the point, it illustrates a profound, probably permanent shift in American historiography. Tubman joins the historical pantheon of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, and Ben Franklin. Going forward Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and Susan B. Anthony will decorate the back of the $10. The New York Times calls the changes the “most sweeping and historically symbolic makeover of American currency in a century.” OK, no problem, we say, and maybe a good thing. Tubman on the $20...

The European Central Bank announced Wednesday that it will phase out the 500 euro banknote because of concerns that this banknote "could facilitate illicit activities" ... Europe's top law enforcement officials maintain that the 500 euro banknote (worth about $576) makes it easy for criminals to launder money since it's so easy to move around undetected. In a report last year, Europol said cash was still the "instrument of choice" for terrorists and 500 euro notes were in high demand, though they're not popular for everyday transactions. ...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- When you think of felony forgery your thoughts might turn to Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde shooting it out with the Texas Rangers. Not for some local school cops. For one day, public enemy number one when it came to forgery was 13-year-old eighth grader Danesiah Neal at Fort Bend Independent School District's Christa McAuliffe Middle School. Now 14, Daneisha was hoping to eat that day's lunch of chicken tenders with her classmates using a $2 bill given to her by her grandmother when she was stopped by the long arm of the law. "I went...

The Democratic Party is poised to change the name of its annual fundraisers from The Jefferson and Jackson Day Dinners to the Harriet Tubman and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Day Dinners, where crow will be served to atone for the sins of slavery and misogyny and celebrate the triumph of racial- and gender-identity politics over reality. Not really. But the $20 bill is about to get a pc makeover, with Harriet Tubman, an obscure figure in U.S. history (an escaped slave who aided the Underground Railroad), replacing the 7th president of the United States, a man who gave...

Before presidents were the standard, a variety of American figures could be found on our banknotes. Twenty dollar bills, soon to be updated. (Photo: selbstfotografiert/CC BY-SA-3.0)This week, the U.S. Treasury announced a number of changes to the banknotes’ designs, most prominently changing the face featured on the $20 bill from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman. The makeover—the first change to the portraits featured on banknotes since 1928—incorporates numerous women and African-Americans from US history, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. While the currency overhaul seems novel to us, banknote portraiture has changed frequently enough that 53 individuals...

It’s not often that one can take issue with the argument that Barack Obama is needlessly dividing the country, but this might be the exception. The US Treasury has decided to honor Harriet Tubman, the woman who helped innumerable slaves escape to freedom, by putting her face on the $20 bill, replacing President Andrew Jackson. Right now, more people are concerned about finding their next $20 bill than are emotionally invested on whose face will be peering back at them when they get it. Greta van Susteren, however, argues that Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are dividing the country...

In a shocking move likely to crush the US economy overnight, China is refusing to make its new gold-backed Yuan, convertible from or to US Dollars. The new Yuan will be introduced next Tuesday, April 19. When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to add the Yuan to the basket of world currencies used for Global Reserves and International Trade, they wanted China to make the Yuan more reliable as a currency. Since then, China has almost un-pegged its Yuan from the Dollar, allowing its value to fluctuate on world markets. But for years, China has been amassing huge amounts...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday came out against removing former President Andrew Jackson from the front of the $20 bill, saying "pure political correctness" is behind the move. "Andrew Jackson had a great history and I think it's very rough when you take somebody off the bill," Trump said during a town hall interview on NBC's "Today" show.

Biographer Kate Clifford Larson has noted Tubman was comfortable with guns: Harriet Tubman carried a small pistol with her on her rescue missions, mostly for protection from slave catchers, but also to encourage weak-hearted runaways from turning back and risking the safety of the rest of the group. Tubman carried a sharp-shooters rifle during the Civil War. Harriet Tubman’s pistol and saber are on display at the Florida A & M University (FAMU) Black Archives in Tallahassee, Florida. With an image like that, people would work harder just so they could have more Harriet Tubmans in their pockets. We...

In a triumph of common sense, historical awareness, and crazed enthusiasm for a Broadway rap musical, the Treasury Department has announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, which will void a previous decision to take Alexander "Hamilton" Hamilton off the $10. (Update, 4:45 p.m.: Treasury says there will still be some sort of image of Jackson on the back of the bill.) This is great news, and it brings up another important question: Which historical figure should our current president, Barack Hussein Obama, replace when we honor his legacy by putting him on an item...

arriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill, and Jackson will be moved to the back of the bill alongside an image of the White House, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said Wednesday. Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, will remain on the front of the $10 bill, but the back of that bill, which currently bears an image of the Treasury building, will feature leaders of the suffrage movement. The reverse of the $5 bill will be overhauled to include opera singer Marian Anderson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader...

The Treasury Department made it official this afternoon: Harriet Tubman is replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20, and there are other bills getting big changes too.Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced today that in addition to Tubman, the $10 and $5 bills are getting makeovers. And don’t worry, Alexander Hamilton isn’t going anywhere.But the back will be changed to this: The new $10 will honor the story and the heroes of the women’s suffrage movement against the backdrop of the Treasury building… The new $10 design will depict that historic march and honor Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan...

Abraham Lincoln will not be the only person depicted on the $5 bill much longer. The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will overhaul the design of the $5 note, a move overshadowed by its decision to revamp the back of the $10 bill to include women and to feature Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt will be depicted on the back of the updated $5 bill.All three will be portrayed in historical moments in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which...

Harriet Tubman is going to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, according to a report. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday, according to Politico. Sources told the site that he has also decided to keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the $10 bill.

After much speculation on the possible replacement of Alexander Hamilton’s portrait on the $10 bill, it appears the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury will stay put on the heavily-circulated note. While the high-profile support voiced by the cast and creator of the popular Broadway musical, Hamilton, could not have hurt the founding father’s case to remain on the 10, it seems current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew counts himself among Hamilton’s admirers and was reluctant to replace him from the beginning. This doesn’t mean things will stay as they are. CNN notes that a “mural-style depiction of the women’s suffrage...

As it is now widely known, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is set to retire Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill, to be replaced by a woman. Lew, a charter member of America's morally challenged Ruling Class, added that the choice would likely be a woman prominent in the nation's struggle for racial equality. Treasury spokepersons, reflecting the glacial-like pace at which the wheels of bureaucracy turn, added that the change would likely not be implemented until circa 2030, and that changes would be coming to other denominations of America's near-worthless fiat currency that would capture a "set...