Politics
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Tom Tillotson: The Midnight Voter
This week on The Trip podcast: Drinking baijiu with Tom Tillotson in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. At the stroke of midnight in the high mountains near the Canadian border, in a lodge on the property of the abandoned Balsams Resort, there’s a table covered with red-white-and-blue bunting, a podium, two closet-sized voting booths. Five voters, 30 journalists, four TV trucks, two cakes celebrating the 60th anniversary of the midnight voting at Dixville Notch, NH. Now, you may think this a departure from our usual subjects. But for me, the performative small-town democracy of New Hampshire’s primaries has always been the stuff of drinking podcasts. Photographer Shane Carpenter and I were first dragged up here to Dixville Notch 16 years ago by a hard-drinking fringe presidential candida...
Eva Castillo: Manchester Defender
This week on The Trip podcast: Eva Castillo on Presidential politics and immigrant advocacy in New Hampshire in the time of Trump. So this was it, election day in New Hampshire, the real starting gun of the race is that is now settling in. And if the Democratic primary looks a bit different nationally than it did when New Hampshire’s results started rolling in (Rest in peace, campaign of Mayor Buttigieg), critics of the first-in-the-nation primary usually point to one main factor: race. The numbers don’t lie: New Hampshire is a very Caucasian state. It is 93% white; that’s like, whiter-than-Wyoming White. Not to be essentialist here, but that not only affects how voters respond to candidates, but also how candidates respond back to voters; the kind of questions they get asked in those famo...
‘Becoming’ Doc Reveals Michelle Obama Was “Disappointed” In Black Voters For 2016 Turnout
Source: Netflix / Courtesy of Netflix Michelle Obama is clearly disappointed with Black people who didn’t come out to vote in the 2016 presidential election, and she’s letting her frustrations known in her upcoming Netflix documentary “Becoming.” According to the New York Post, Michelle Obama says it was a “slap in the face’’ that minorities didn’t go to the polls in 2016 — and has no plans on re-entering the political spotlight amid a push to make her Joe Biden’s running mate. “It takes some energy to go high, and we were exhausted from it … when you’re the first black anything,’’ Michelle Obama explained in the film, referencing husband Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential win. “You know, the day I left the White House, it was painful to sit on that stage, and then a lot of our folks didn’t ...
Jadon Sancho looked up to former Manchester United star Wayne Rooney
Manchester United target and Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho has admitted looking up to Wayne Rooney as a youngster. The Bundesliga winger is believed to be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s priority signing for the summer despite the increasing uncertainty surrounding football. Sancho represents the missing piece to United’s otherwise exciting attacking in Marcus Rashford as a left-winger, Anthony Martial as a striker and Bruno Fernandes as an attacking-midfielder. The former Manchester City man would slot in with ease in the right-wing position and give Solskjaer a new dimension to his attack. Sancho has been dropping a few hints over a potential move to the Red Devils with Dortmund reportedly looking for a somewhat realistic fee of €100m. In the video above, Sancho says: “Who did I look up to ...
Kogi begins payment of April salary
The Kogi State Government has began the payment of April salaries to civil servants. In spite of the agreement to pay 80% salaries to workers, those in the grade levels of 1-6, were paid in full, while pensioners who retired before harmonization also got their pensions in full. Similarly, all political appointees and the legislators in the state were all paid 80% as salaries in line with the slash in salaries paid in April. The salary payment was confirmed by the Kogi State Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Asiwaju Idris Asiru, who assured that the commitment to workers by the present administration would not be taken for granted. According to the Commissioner, the covid 19 pandemic has opened up new thinking and government has decided to remodel and equip the Special...
Petrol to sell at N117 per litre as PPMC cuts ex-depot prices
AHA Taxis The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Wednesday, slashed the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, to N108 per litre, a move reflecting the drop in crude oil prices. It is also expected to result in a lower pump price at petrol stations by end of this week. In a memo to oil marketers and other stakeholders in the petroleum marketing business, dated May 5, 2020, with the subject: ‘Re: PPMC Petroleum Products Prices for May 2020,’ the PPMC also slashed the ex-depot price of Automotive Gasoline Oil, also known as diesel, to N164 per litre for depots in Lagos and N166 per litre for depots in Oghara, Calabar, Port Harcourt, among others. The indicated that the new prices would take effect from May 5, 2020. The ex-depot price is the price at whi...
NCDC: Nigeria’s coronavirus response powered by electronic data tool
The Federal Government has said that it is using an electronic data collecting tool developed during the Ebola outbreak to drive Nigeria’s response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, stated this at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19. According to him, the centre is making use of data to drive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country for proper management. “The agency developed an electronic data collecting tool after the Ebola outbreak. The tool was the reason why Nigerians see the data of cases every day. The NCDC also has a tool for logistics management. We can tell with this tool where every single mask, medical gown or sanitiser has gone,” Dr Ih...
Huawei P40 Lite to Launch in South Africa
Image sourced from Connected Devices Huawei is about ready to release the first device from its highly-anticipated P40 series. According to the Chinese tech giant, the P40 Lite is more powerful and robust than its predecessors – it also marks the second Huawei smartphone to launch in South Africa that comes standard with Huawei’s HMS ecosystem. The Huawei P40 lite is powered by the Kirin 810, a high-end 7nm chipset, which is integrated with a Mali G52 GPU that boasts excellent graphics processing capabilities. In addition, the 4200MAh battery and 40W Huawei SuperCharge support offer lower power consumption and long-lasting battery life. With its 6.4-inch Punch FullView Display, 90.6% screen-to-body ratio and 48MP quad-camera, Huawei believes this handset is all about creating and viewing h...
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...
