Politics
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Zoltan Istvan: The Transhumanist Candidate
This week on The Trip podcast: Zoltan Istvan has come from the future with a message New Hampshire doesn’t want to hear. Here they are in the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office, paying their thousand dollars to be on the official primary ballot. They are the lesser-known candidates, the dramatic fringe of each presidential primary election up here. And they are the stars of my quadrennial quixotic reporting project with photographer Shane Carpenter. And listen, they aren’t like Tom Steyer lesser-known, they’re like Vermin Supreme lesser-known, Mary Maxwell lesser-known, Zoltan Istvan lesser-known. Almost nobody knows these people, but they’re running anyway. This is the fifth primary that Shane and I have spent ducking out of mainstream campaign press events to track down the people...
Electioneering on the Eve of the Virus
Nathan Thornburgh and photographer Shane Carpenter were in New Hampshire last month for their longterm reporting project on the state’s odd presidential primary. In hindsight, it looks more surreal than ever. It is unnerving to look at the pictures at this moment, in this week. Photographer Shane Carpenter and I have been working on a longterm project about the New Hampshire presidential primary for four election cycles spanning 16 years, but the things I’ve come to love about the campaign up there—the intimacy of retail politicking, the electricity of the big rallies—now just trip alarms in my mind. All the handshakes. All the pressed flesh, the leaning in, the campaign buses filled with coughing staffers, the moist microphones, the communal pens at the polls. The collective spittle of a ...
CSO commends National Assembly move to probe alleged N40 billion fraud in NDDC
Pool Photo A Civil Society Organisation, under the aegis of Niger Delta Movement for Peace & Justice, NDMPJ, has commended members of the National Assembly for setting up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the alleged N40billion fraud levelled against the Interim Management Committee (IMC) in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). National Coordinator of NDMPJ, Comrade Etifit Nkereuwem in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Uyo, said his organisation had long expected the National Assembly to take action against the Interim Management Committee which was inaugurated without backing in line with its oversight function. Nkereuwem regretted that the reason behind President Buhari setting up the IMC and forensic audit to end the financial recklessness and properly...
President Buhari makes new appointments
Pursuant to the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Establishment Act 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of retired Inspector-General of Police, Barrister Suleiman Abba, CFR, Mni, as Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund. The President also approved the appointments of the following as Executive Secretary and members of the Board respectively: — Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto – Executive Secretary— Mr Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri – Representing Ministry of Police Affairs— Inspector-General of Police – Representing Nigeria Police Force— Usman Bilkisu – Representing Ministry of Justice— Mr Ben Akabueze (DG, Budget and National Planning) – Representing Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning— Engr. Mansur Ahmed – Representing Organised Labour— Dr. Michael Bamide...
Court convicts 717 for lockdown violation in Kano
The Kano mobile courts have convicted 717 persons for violating the subsisting lockdown order in the state in the last 4 days. Kano has 11 mobile courts that were inaugurated by Kano Chief Judge, Justice Nura Sagir to sit in various parts of the state to enforce the lock down order recently. Baba Jibo Ibrahim, Spokesman, Kano State judiciary, told newsmen in Kano that from Sunday 3 May to Wednesday 6 May 2020, the 717 offenders were arraigned and convicted for violating the lock order, disclosing that there were those sentenced to rendering community services, payment od fines and those who received strokes of cane as punishment. Ibrahim explained that “out of the 717 persons convicted are some Muslim clerics from Minjibir local government. The court ordered that they should go and sanitiz...
Nigeria extends ban on all flights by another two weeks
The Presidential Task Force on the control of the pandemic has announced a two-week extension of the ban of all flights in Nigeria which is due to expire on Thursday. Chairman of the task force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said at its briefing in Abuja on Wednesday. He said: “Tomorrow (Thursday) marks the last day for the enforcement of the closure of Nigeria’s airspace to flights. We have assessed the situation in the aviation industry and have come to the conclusion that given the facts available to us and based on the advice of experts, the ban on all flights will be extended for an additional four weeks.” The Task Force has also alerted that the outcomes of the modeling it has adopted suggest that dangers lie ahead for the country. He said...
Lenovo’s New Gaming Smartphone Shown in Leaked Videos
Sourced from XDA Developers. Lenovo’s first gaming phone, the Lenovo Legion, has leaked in a series of promotional videos showing off the device. The Verge claims a “trusted” anonymous source provided the unreleased material, as well as some new specs. There isn’t a guarantee yet that these videos will reflect the final design of the product, but they do offer an interesting look at what it may be. Per XDA Developers, the videos indicate that the phone will feature 90W wired charging, “30 minutes to 100%” it claims, thanks to a beastly 5,000mAh dual-cell battery. A USB-C charging port, SIM card tray, data port, an extra USB-C port – no headphone jack, and a microphone hole on the top of the device. The device’s back features a symmetrical design similar to the letter Y, a design feature on...
Vodacom’s Chatbot Answers up to 20 000 Customer Queries per day
With the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in full effect, Vodacom has put numerous measures in place to protect customers and employees. These include measures that have seen frontline agents now working from home as well as stepping up its reliance on TOBi – Vodacom’s chatbot. Using the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, TOBi was created and designed to resolve issues as quickly and efficiently as possible online. According to the network provider, TOBi now solves between 10 000 to 20 000 customer queries a day via SMS, WhatsApp, the My Vodacom app and on the Vodacom website. “Since TOBi’s launch, we have seen how the deployment of a powerful chatbot can transform the way our customers engage with the brand, especially when the chatbot is of high quality,” says Ugestra Alwar, Man...
Multi-Frame: Q&A with Sarah Palmer
Photographer Sarah Palmer on her process, blending images at Trump rallies, and accessing Celine Dion without a press pass. Canadian photographer Sarah Palmer’s unique double-exposure photography blends the emotion and theatrics of politics, sports, and even music into complex and nuanced imagery. It’s a niche she’s developed over years, and has employed for clients such as Buzzfeed News, The Walrus, and The Washington Post. But that wasn’t always the case. Palmer, who talked to R&K from her home in Toronto, still remembers her first portfolio review, in which a top photo editor told her she’d never get hired for the style because it was too ‘out there.’ “It just crushed me,” Sarah said. “But it also just pissed me off, because I thought, ‘Yeah, well I’m going to.’ And so then I just k...
