7th November 2022 |
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Good Morning. A woman was on her way to claim a ticket that won $100,000 when she bought another lottery ticket for $300,000. She won the $300,000 too.
When they say lightning never strikes in one place twice, they have no idea about this woman.
Social Media. Twitter has formally announced its $7.99 "Twitter Blue" subscription service. The announcement comes after half its staff were laid off on Friday after being acquired by billionaire Elon Musk. Twitter said in an update on iOS devices that those who "sign up now" for "Twitter blue with verification" can receive a blue checkmark on their accounts "just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow."
Iran. The government has confirmed for the first time that it supplied Moscow with combat drones. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Saturday that the drones were shipped to Russia before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Tehran of lying and said Ukrainian forces were destroying at least 10 aerial drones per day.
Ghana. Hundreds of protesters have marched through capital, Accra, calling for the resignation of President Nana Akufo-Addo amid an economic crisis that has seen fuel and food costs spiral to record levels. A quarter of the population lives on less than $2.15 per day. Its cedi currency plummet by more than 40 percent against the dollar this year, making it one of the worst-performing currencies. Consumer inflation topped 37 percent in September.
1994 Oldest Heavyweight Champ Emerge
George Foreman, age 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he defeats 26-year-old Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas. More than 12,000 spectators at the MGM Grand Hotel watched Foreman dethrone Moorer, who went into the fight with a 35-0 record. Foreman dedicated his upset win to “all my buddies in the nursing home and all the guys in jail.”
NIGERIA
One Billion Barrel Questions
The Story
Nigeria's exploratory activities in the country's north and a purported discovery of one billion barrels of crude oil there are both causing grave concerns among stakeholders.
What are the concerns?
Stakeholders have raised questions about the development's secrecy amid transparency concerns. More than a year after the news of the discovery of a billion barrels of crude oil reserve in the Gongola basin, which is situated between Bauchi and Gombe states, not much has been heard about the development. The absence of the details of spending by the Frontier Exploration Services (FES), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) responsible for oil prospecting, in the NNPC's recently released 2021 audited reports further raised questions over the purported discovery.
Does this mean the reported discovery is false?
That's not clear. Reiterating the need for further oil exploration last year, Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, reported the discovery of about one billion barrels of crude oil in the North East. “From the evaluation results that we are getting, the reserve that has been discovered in the North East is about a billion barrels", Sylva had said. But while the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) established a fund through which 30% of NNPC profits now go toward frontier exploration, the over 40 years of spending, estimated by some stakeholders to be more than $3b, has been kept from the public, along with crucial information on how the nation arrived at a one billion barrel discovery.
Some geologists, explorationists, and energy experts have expressed concerns over the viability and reliability of a one billion barrel crude oil reserve in the region, with some suggesting that the frontier exploration remained a northern political agenda. "For years, the government has been wasting scarce resources on frontier basin exploration without meaningful results. If indeed there is a find of one billion barrels in reserves in the North, why are oil and gas companies not scrambling for the acreages?", Ameh Madaki, Managing Partner, BBH Consulting, said while questioning the reported discovery. SOURCE
AFRICA
Climate Change Reparations
The Story
Stakeholders from around the world have gathered in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for COP27-UN Climate Summit Africa, for talks on Climate Change control, and the early signs are good.
What signs?
Amidst numerous competing issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation, food shortages, and an energy crisis, climate change and its impact continue to draw attention among world leaders. In an early sign of potential positive outcome of the talks, after two days of preliminary talks, negotiators have reached an agreement over the question of vulnerable nations receiving payments for the loss and damage suffered from climate change.
What agreement did they reach?
The negotiators reached an agreement to formally discuss the subject of reparations to poor nations impacted by climate change. "The fact that it has been adopted as an agenda item demonstrates progress and parties taking a mature and constructive attitude towards this," said the U.N.'s top climate official, Simon Stiell, who added that "This is a difficult subject area. It's been floating for thirty plus years. So that the fact that it is there as a substantive agenda item, I believe it bodes well."
The subject of reparations to poor nations has had a significant stalling effect on climate change talks for years, with rich nations like the United States pushing back against the idea. About 110 world leaders are expected to attend the talks, according to the organizers. SOURCE
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ASIA
Strength In The Face Of Growing Crisis?
The Story
Amidst growing anti-government protests across the country, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched a new satellite-carrying rocket on Saturday.
Is this linked to the protests?
While the announcement came seven weeks after the protests began, following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, there's little or no link between both development. Iranian state television broadcast dramatic clips of the rocket launching from a desert launch site into a foggy sky, while reporting that the solid-fueled rocket, which it named a Ghaem-100 satellite carrier, had been successfully launched by the Guard. The location, which resembled Iran's northeastern Shahroud Desert, was not mentioned in the report. The commander of the aerospace division, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, expressed hope that the rocket will soon be used by the Guard to launch a brand-new satellite called Nahid into orbit.
What's the significance of this?
The carrier would be able to launch a satellite weighing 80kg (176 pounds) into orbit about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Earth, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Iran claims that, like its nuclear operations, its satellite program is intended for use in scientific research and other non-military purposes. But because the program can be used to create long-range missiles using the same technology, the United States and other Western nations have long had reservations about it. This development would draw more attention from the United States, which has criticized prior launches.
Recent Setback
Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit - and in 2013 launched a monkey into space - in the last decade. However, there have been challenges with the program recently. Another satellite-carrying rocket program, the Simorgh program, has experienced five failed launches. Three researchers perished in a fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019, according to the authorities at the time. Later that year, former US President Donald Trump's attention was drawn by a rocket explosion on a launchpad.
In the process, talks to revive Iran's nuclear deal with world powers - which granted Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for a stop to its nuclear program - hit a gridlock months ago. According to Iran Human Rights, an organization based in Oslo, security forces, including paramilitary volunteers with the Revolutionary Guard, violently suppressed the ongoing protests, killiing over 300 people, including 41 children. SOURCE
LIFE EXPERIENCES
Defending a Criminal
Tre Critelli:
What is it like to be the defense attorney of someone you strongly believe to have committed the crime? A whole hell of a lot better than being the defense attorney of someone you strongly believe did not commit the crime.
Representing the guilty is pretty straightforward. The burden is on the government to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. If your client tells you they committed the act, you look for an affirmative defense (e.g. self defense) that is supported by the evidence. If they haven't admitted the act to you, then you do your best to hold the government to its proof by impeaching its witnesses, questioning the foundations of its evidence and arguing against the inferences being made.
Representing the innocent, however, is completely different. In addition to the above, you also have a constant gnawing at you that no matter what you do, it isn't going to be enough. The burden has shifted to you to prove their innocence, and it is much, much harder to prove a negative (e.g. someone didn't do something) than it is to prove someone did something. The case will easily consume you, trumping everything else in your life because someone you have become convinced is truly innocent is at risk of going to prison or facing the death penalty and you are the only one that can prevent it.
If they are convicted, you then get the pleasure of trying to go to sleep each night knowing that if you had just done a little bit more, perhaps asked a different question of a witness or spent just a few more hours digging through documents looking for exhibits, the outcome would have been different and the innocent would be free. It becomes your fault that the innocent person is in prison, even though you did all you could to prevent it. You should have done more. Why didn't you do more? What could possibly have been more important than that? The case gnaws at you for months, years even decades and becomes one of the things that you will never, ever forget.
IPOB to FG: forget 2023 election in Southeast with Kanu in custody
Atiku, Tinubu absent at Arise/CDD town hall for presidential candidates
Shun plan to sell TBS, Lagos tells FG
Over 60 Nollywood actors declare support for Tinubu
Wike increases Special Assistants to 200,000
‘Naira not worth the paper’ — Adeboye faults currency redesign
NIS sacks 8 personnel, redeploys 100 from airport over alleged corruption
Plane conveying 43 passengers crashes into Lake Victoria in Tanzania
Trump hints at contesting, returning to White House in 2024
Man Utd boss Ten Hag: Why I named Ronaldo captain
SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Nikon International Photo Contest
The Nikon Photo Contest nurtures an aspirational community of creators who share important stories and influence the way people think through the global language of imaging. The Nikon Photo Contest International has been held by Nikon Corporation since 1969 to provide an opportunity for professional and amateur photographers around the world to engage with one another.
The contest is open to all, professional and amateur, regardless of age, gender, or nationality.
Application Deadline: February 13th, 2023. APPLY HERE
10 top footballers not coming to the 2022 World Cup. Al Jazeera
Hacked? How to recover your Social Media Accounts. Verge
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Of Papini and Her Curious Kidnap. Medium
Five key takeaways from the Ethiopia peace deal. Al Jazeera
BIOGRAPHY
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., existed from January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016. He was an American professional boxer and activist.
Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22.
During that year, he denounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. He did not fight for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, including his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. He often predicted in which round he would knock out his opponent.
POLITICS TODAY
2023: Oyo's Difficult Options
Four months from now Oyo state electorates would be at the polls to elect their preferred candidate for the governorship seat. More than 10 candidates are in the race for the March 11, 2023 election, including the incumbent governor Seyi Makinde who is seeking a second term.
Makinde's runner-up in the 2019 edition was Adebayo Adelabu, on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but in the current edition, Adelabu failed to secure the party's ticket, as he lost to Senator Teslim Folarin. Following his loss of the ticket, Adelabu decamped to the Accord party, which subsequently nominated him for governor.
TRIVIA
November Quiz
Congrats, you made it to 2nd week in November. Does it feel like Christmas yet? Here’s a trivia game about the new month. We’re going to give you a historical event, and you have to determine whether it happened in the month of November or not.
- Guy Fawkes and other conspirators failed to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate James I. (1605)
- President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. (1863)
- The US declared war on Japan and days later entered World War II. (1941)
- Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released. (1994)
- Al Gore formally conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush. (2000)
- The Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series. (2001)
MONDAY MOTIVATION
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Written by Seun, Mercy, Kingsley, and Tosin.
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