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Good morning. Popular cryptocurrency trading platform Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5m to an Australian woman when processing a $100 refund, and failed to notice the error for seven months. The company launched a legal action but discovered that the woman had bought a house with $1.35m and transferred the rest into different accounts.
Long day in court for this one.
Australia. 35,000 immigrant workers will be allowed to enter the job market as part of a labor market relief plan as Canberra lifted its migrant jobs cap to 195,000, a record number. Most jobs will be in agriculture, health, and engineering.
Poland. $1.3 trillion has been sought in WWII reparations from Germany. About six million Poles were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground. Germany has argued compensation was paid to Eastern Bloc nations in the years after the war.
Football. Chelsea has signed forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after being swapped for Marco Alonso. The player spent one season with FC Barcelona. A surprising move considering he scored 13 goals in 24 games for FC Barcelona, and he had played at rival Arsenal prior.
Business. Elon Musk claims the cancellation of the $44B Twitter acquisition is related to claims made by a former Twitter employee regarding security protocols in the company. The former employee stated that Twitter has little control over user data and that its employees are working for foreign intelligence agencies.
2004 Joshua Dariye Arrested in London
Joshua Dariye, then governor of Plateau State, was arrested in his Marriot Hotel room in London by the Metropolitan Police. In 2018, he was eventually jailed in Nigeria for charges bordering on money laundering and diversion of the state’s N1.162B ecological fund. On April 14, 2022, the federal government of Nigeria granted Joshua Dariye a presidential pardon.
NIGERIA
Lawan and Akpabio on Edge
The Story
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the dates for the release of the final lists of candidates in the 2023 general elections.
What's the date?
The final list of candidates for Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives seats will be released on September 20, ahead of the list of candidates in state elections (governorship and state Houses of assembly). The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at the ”Expert Meeting on Conducting Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections in Volatile Security Environment”, an event organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in conjunction with INEC.
How about the states list?
Yakubu, who said that the publication of the final lists was in line with Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election, said the list of candidates in state elections will be released two weeks later on October 4. While appealing to political parties and candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns, Yakubu said "campaign in public by political parties will officially commence on September 28 as provided for by Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022".
Senate president Ahmed Lawan and former governor of Cross River State, Godswill Akpabio, will know their fate in the elections when the INEC list is released. While INEC has said that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) risks not having candidates in the senatorial election in Yobe North senatorial district and Akwa Ibom North-west senatorial district, unless the names of valid primary election winners are submitted, the party insists that Lawan and Akpabio will be its flag bearers in both senatorial districts. The final list will reflect INEC's decision on the subject. Source
ASIA
Crime Against Humanity
The Story
The United Nations (UN) in a new report has said that China may have committed crimes against humanity in the Xinjiang region of the country.
May have?
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, whose tenure just ended, stated this in the report which follows her visit to China in May. The report says China's "arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. Bachelet, who was President of Chile from 2014 to 2018 when she took the UN job, has been previously accused by some diplomats and Rights groups as being soft on China. "Serious human rights violations have been committed in Xinjiang in the context of the government's application of 'counter-terrorism and counter-'extremism' strategies'", the 48-page report read in part.
What step is the UN taking on this?
The UN also stated that the Chinese authorities were involved in "violations of reproductive rights through the coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017". While noting that a lack of government data "makes it difficult to draw conclusions on the full extent of current enforcement of these policies and associated violations of reproductive rights", the report recommended that Beijing take prompt steps to release all those unjustly detained in training centres, prisons and other facilities. "To be perfectly honest, the politicization of these serious human rights issues by some States did not help", Bachelet said on the difficulty faced in preparing the report.
What's China saying?
China has consistently denied the allegations, and in a 131-page response Beijing rejected the UN report. During a briefing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, while describing the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as "a thug and accomplice of the U.S. and the West", said the report is "completely illegal and void". While observers have commended the release of the report, its impact is said to have been undermined by its timing. "She put out the report - which was her job - but avoided the aftermath. It doesn't show the necessary leadership on how to take this forward", said Olaf Wientzek of the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Source
EMPLOYMENT
Since launching in 2004, Chicken Republic (Subsidiary of Food concepts) has already opened 59 stores in Nigeria and Ghana.
The graduate trainee program is to bring in new and fresh ideas to push the company to the next level.
EUROPE
Final Speech
The Story
The outgoing Prime Minister of Britain, Boris Johnson, gave his final major policy speech as PM on Thursday.
What did he say?
As part of activities in his last days in office, Johnson announced the commitment of £700m ($810m) of government funding towards a new nuclear power plant as part of efforts to improve the United Kingdom's energy security. Explaining the need for more nuclear generation capacity, Johnson cited the spike in global gas prices that resulted from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Yes, nuclear always looks relatively expensive to build and to run. But look at what’s happening today, look at the results of Putin’s war. It is certainly cheap by comparison with hydrocarbons today", he said, on the cost of the project, which will reportedly cost about £20b ($23b).
Who is succeeding him as PM?
Johnson's successor is yet to be announced, after a contest that saw more than six candidates reduced to two - Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak. The timing of the announcement of the planned nuclear power plant, called Sizewell C, is even more significant as the new PM is expected to initiate urgent measures to help ease the financial burden of millions of people struggling with rising household energy prices that are projected to go up by 80% from October. Johnson will finally leave office on Tuesday, and hand over to one of the two finalists in the Conservative Party's leadership race. Source
FEATURE
Time Out With Jennifer
Meet her...
Jennifer, an ardent reader of Freshly Pressed jumped on this random question session with us. Jennifer Ajise is a Clinical Research Associate, working with a Contract Research Organization (CRO) that is involved in managing Clinical Trial Data from Phase 1 - to Phase 4, from Study Startup to Study Closeout.
A Generation Zoom-er who is not afraid to take bold strides. You can catch her on social media dumping photos, talking books, and posting goofy toons.
Let's meet you! If you would like to be featured in Freshly Pressed's Time Out With, shoot us a mail at info@freshlypressed.ng or click WhatsApp. We'd love to hear from you.
ASUU strike hits 200th-day, students decry failed negotiations
‘Many try to circumvent’ — Abike Dabiri speaks on restricted entry of Nigerians into UAE
Wike to Ayu: We brought you from gutter to be PDP chairman — don’t be arrogant
Ayu: Those calling for my resignation are children — I won’t step down
EFCC arrests Ogun speaker at Lagos airport
Okada ban: Riders, passengers risk three years imprisonment, LASG warns
Life expectancy in U.S. drops to 76 years
Jennifer Lopez is in 'heaven' with Ben Affleck
Rings of Power’s cost per episode makes it most expensive TV show ever
Putin denies Mikhail Gorbachev a state funeral and will stay away
KNOWLEDGE
QUORA QUESTION: What's the oddest reason for being refused a visa to the USA?
KATHRYN BERCK, Retired US consular(visa) officer:
I saw many fairly odd visa cases over the years, but the most memorable refusal was the one that involved a young woman who begged me to refuse her.
As soon as we were alone in the interview booth, she told me that, although she was pretending to apply for a tourist visa to visit a friend in the US, in fact her family was sending her there to marry a young man whom she despised.
She was in love with another young man she had known all her life, and she just knew, she said, that given more time her family would finally agree.
The long version of this story is somewhere on Quora, but I apparently didn’t bookmark it.
Anyway, I obliged her and refused the visa, she thanked me, then burst into very convincing tears as she left the interview booth and threw herself into her mother’s arms, pretending to be SO heartbroken that their plans were spoiled by the cruel US consular officer.
A year or so later, she successfully married the man she loved.
Makeshift - a Poetry by Michael Verderber. Lion & Lilac
The 33 most exciting streets in the world. Time Out
Archaeologists Unearth Connection Cards Jesus Passed Out After Sermon On The Mount (Satire). Babylon Bee
Inside the most beautiful train stations in the world. Time Out
100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Rolling Stone
TRIVIA
Random Knowledge Quiz Only 1 in 10 Smart People Can Pass.
We know our readers are freakishly smart and can smash this quiz -
- What is another word for lexicon?
- Who composed the Minute Waltz?
INTERNET GIGGLES
Written by Seun, Mercy, Kingsley, and Tosin.
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