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Why coronavirus will not be last pandemic – UN report
United Nations The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the latest crisis facing the world, will not be the last until humans release their grip on nature, says a new UN report published on Tuesday. According to the report titled “The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene,” world leaders need to take bold steps to reduce the immense pressure that is being exerted on the environment and the natural world, or humanity’s progress will stall. “Humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. Redefining issues of our time “In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden,” said Achim Steiner, the Administrator of ...
U.S. sanctions Turkey over purchase of Russian defense system
The United States imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey on Monday over Ankara’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defense systems, further complicating already strained ties between the two NATO allies. Turkey condemned the sanctions as a “grave mistake” and urged Washington to revise its “unjust decision.” Senior U.S. officials said in a call with reporters that Ankara’s purchase of the S-400s and its refusal to reverse its decision left the United States with no other choice. The sanctions, first reported by Reuters last week, target Turkey’s top defence procurement and development body Presidency of Defence Industries, its chairman Ismail Demir and three other employees. While limited to one company, they are still likely to weigh on the Turkish economy, analysts said, at a ti...
First Americans vaccinated as U.S. death toll passes 300,000
An intensive care unit nurse became the first person in the United States to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, calling it a sign that “healing is coming,” as the U.S. coronavirus death toll crossed a staggering 300,000 lives lost. Sandra Lindsay, who has treated some of the sickest COVID-19 patients for months, was given the vaccine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in the New York City borough of Queens, an early epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak, receiving applause on a livestream with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. “It didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history. “I want to instil...
VC: I don’t know if Muhammadu Sanusi is still UNIBEN’s chancellor
Ten months after Mallam Muhammadu Sanusi II was deposed as Emir of Kano, the Vice Chancellor of University of Benin (UNIBEN), Prof. Lillian Salami, has asked the Federal Ministry of Education to clear the air on the status of the former monarch as the Chancellor of the institution. Sanusi was appointed Chancellor of the institution in 2015 by the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. He was however deposed as Emir by the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, in March 2020, over alleged “insubordination”. He performed his last official duty as Chancellor of the University during the Convocation/Founders Day Ceremonies of the University in November 2019. Responding to inquiry by journalists over non-inclusion of Sanusi in the University’s 50th anniversary and the VC’s one ye...
AIBA approves new constitution in bid to regain IOC recognition
International Boxing Association (AIBA) has taken a step towards repairing a much-maligned governance structure that has been frequently criticised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after it approved an updated constitution at its virtual Congress. Under the new constitution, AIBA has installed term limits, rebranded the Executive Committee to the Board of Directors and reduced the number of members on the ruling body from 32 to 22. AIBA is hopeful the renewed document will appease the IOC, which last year suspended it as the Olympic governing body for the sport and stripped it of any involvement in the boxing tournament at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because of concerns over its governance, finances and refereeing and judging. The Inquiry Committee, led by IOC Executive Board ...
Air passengers decry upsurge in fares, seek urgent attention to roads, railway
Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in air fares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. Newsmen report that the air fares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. Newsmen found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to...
Nigerian government to implement NIPSS recommendations on population growth
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that his administration will look into the 12-point recommendations by graduates of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) on Population Growth and Human Capital Development in Nigeria, with view of implementing them. The President gave the assurance at the graduation ceremony of the Senior Executive Course 42, held Saturday at the Institute in Jos. The President, represented by Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, charged the graduates to live up to expectations of leading Nigeria out of its problems. “The times levy a demand on institutions such as this one and on its graduates for innovation and creative intelligence in addressing our national challenges. “It is my conviction that the elites both individually and collectively ...
US country music star Charley Pride dies of coronavirus
US country music star Charley Pride has died of complications from Covid-19 at the age of 86, his family said Saturday in a message posted to the singer’s website. Pride’s “rich baritone voice and impeccable song-sense altered American culture,” the statement read further. Born a sharecropper’s son in Sledge, Mississippi, on March 18, 1934, Pride became US country music’s first Black superstar and the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Between 1967 and 1987, Pride delivered 52 Top 10 country hits, won Grammy awards, and became RCA Records’ top-selling country artist. His best-known songs include “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin’” and “Please Help Me I’m Falling.” He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1971, its top male vocalist prize in 1971 a...
NBS: N319.99 trillion e-payments recorded in Q3 2020
A total volume of 2,781,526,188 transactions valued at N319.99trn was recorded in the third quarter of this year based on data on electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking sector, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics has said. It disclosed this in its latest Selected Banking Sector Data which focused on sectorial breakdown of credit, e-payment channels and staff strength of Deposit Money Banks. The bureau said Real Time Gross Settlement transfers dominated the volume of transactions recorded. RTGS systems are specialist funds transfer systems where the transfer of money or securities takes place from one bank to any other bank on a real-time and on a gross basis. The NBS said 1,799,199 volume of online transfer transactions valued at N116.06trn were recorded in Q3 2020. In terms of c...
Pope commits Vatican to net zero carbon emissions by 2050
Pope Francis urged countries on Saturday to work towards net zero carbon emissions and committed Vatican City – the world’s smallest state – to reaching the target by 2050. Francis, who has championed environmental causes since his election in 2013, told a U.N. climate summit the 108-acre (44-hectare) city-state surrounded by Rome would be doing its bit to fight climate change. “The current pandemic and climate change, which are not only environmentally relevant, but also ethically, socially, economically and politically, affect, above all, the lives of the poorest and most fragile,” he said in a video message to the summit. “In addition to adopting some measures that cannot be postponed any longer, a strategy is needed to reduce net emissions to zero,” Francis said. He committed the Vatic...
Police arrest kidnapper of ex-Ekiti commissioner
Ekiti Police Command said it has arrested one person in connection with the kidnap of a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, Mr Folorunsho Olabode. The suspect was among those paraded by Mr Sunday Abutu, the command’s Public Relations Officer, in Ado-Ekiti for their alleged involvement in various criminal activities. Abutu said that the suspect was arrested inside a forest at Ilemeso-Ekiti in Oye Local Government area of the state. “During interrogation, the suspect confessed to being a member of the syndicate that kidnapped Mr Folorunso Olabode, a former Commissioner for Agriculture in the state,” he said. The police spokesman said that the suspect also mentioned other members of his gang, including the two who had earlier been arrested, prosecuted and were now being remanded...
Lagos assembly tasks governor on second wave of coronavirus
Following the ravaging effect of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, called on the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to direct the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, to intensify public enlightenment campaigns to curtail its spread among Lagosians. Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, who presented the matter during plenary on Tuesday, also said it was important for the House to invite the Commissioner for Health, Professor Tunji Abayomi, to brief the House on the state government’s efforts to prevent the spread of the disease in the state. He stressed that there was an urgent need to ensure that all the COVID-19 protocols were strictly observed, even as he the government to ensure that enforcement was total as the most rel...