Paradise News

Tag: General News

  • BAYELSA: APC Faults INEC For ‘Premature’ Removal Of Timipre Sylva’s Name From Guber Candidates’ List

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for dropping its flag bearer from the list of candidates running the upcoming November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State.

    INEC, in its updated list of Bayelsa governorship candidates, removed Timipre Sylva’s name as APC’s flagbearer for the poll.

    INEC took the decision after a High on October 9, 2023, disqualified Sylva as the party’s candidate.

    While the APC had appealed against the judgment, Sylva’s name was conspicuously missing from INEC’s updated candidate list released on Tuesday.

    Reacting in a statement signed on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the APC noted: “Our Candidate and Party promptly appealed that judgment and brought other processes seeking a stay of the judgment’s execution.

    “Recognizing the extreme urgency of the matter, the Court of Appeal granted an order of accelerated hearing of the matter now fixed for definite hearing on Friday, October 27, 2023. INEC is a party in this matter and has been served with all relevant filings and orders in this matter.

    “Delisting our Candidate, in the circumstances, as INEC has done, is clearly premature, and preempts the outcome of the valid appeal in the matter. This flies in the face of INEC’s established practice of awaiting the decisions of appellate courts before taking action that may be prejudicial to the interest of the appellants.

    “Removing our candidate from the list of governorship contestants in Bayelsa would foist a situation of helplessness on the appellate court, the Candidate and our Party should the appeal succeed. We urge INEC to withdraw its amendment under reference in the interest of fairness.

    “In the meantime, we appeal to the good people of Bayelsa State, especially our teeming members and supporters, to remain calm while the judicial process runs its full course. We have confidence that our candidate will be victorious both at the Court of Appeal and at the polls,” Morka said

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  • Fact Check: Video isn’t proof that United Nations is ‘setting up’ in U.S.

    A video showing dozens of United Nations vehicles parked at a Maryland warehouse gave way to the baseless claim that the organization is establishing its presence in the U.S.

    The caption of an Oct. 18 Facebook video read, in all capital letters: “The United Nations is already coming and setting up shop in U.S. states for when WW3 is officially declared.”

    In the video, a man introduces himself as Alistair Williamson and says he’s in Hagerstown, Maryland. He then shows footage of what he calls a convoy of U.N. armored vehicles and shipping containers that say “U.N.”

     

    (Screenshot from Facebook)

    This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    The video misleads about why the vehicles were in Maryland. 

    We found a YouTube channel under Williamson’s name and it included a longer version of the video shared to Facebook. The longer version was uploaded in September 2017.

    An article linked in the YouTube video’s caption — no longer accessible but archived here — included the location of the Hagerstown warehouse in the video. A portion of the warehouse was previously leased to the U.S. General Services Administration. The U.S. Department of State listed a site under the same address as of 2016.

    When asked about the claim, a State Department spokesperson told PolitiFact that U.N. peacekeeping vehicles were manufactured in the U.S. and stored at a State Department warehouse in Hagerstown, Maryland, until they were shipped overseas. 

    The spokesperson said the vehicles were used exclusively in U.N. peace operations abroad.

    The U.N. conducts peacekeeping operations that include protecting civilians and disarming ex-combatants.

    U.N. peacekeepers include civilian, military and police personnel from member states. Similar claims have been circulating for years about U.N. vehicle sightings in Virginia and Kentucky, Toronto, and New South Wales, Australia. In all cases, fact-checkers confirmed the vehicles were to be shipped to other continents.

    The video doesn’t prove that the United Nations is “setting up shop in U.S. states.” We rate that claim False.



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  • SF Giants manager Bob Melvin weighs in on Shohei Ohtani chase

    SAN FRANCISCO — It didn’t take long for Shohei Ohtani to be mentioned.

    On the day the San Francisco Giants made Bob Melvin the 39th manager in club history, questions were already surfacing about who the Giants would be pursuing in free agency and whether or not this team would add star power to build around its star manager.

    Ohtani, 29, is expected to net the biggest contract in baseball history this winter. Despite undergoing elbow surgery that will likely keep him from pitching until 2025, he remains an elite talent who could fetch $400 million or more on an open market.

    As of Wednesday, the Giants were considered the third-most likely team to sign Ohtani at plus-500 odds (bet $100 to win $500) according to BetOnline.

    Melvin was asked directly about trying to recruit three of the biggest free agents: Ohtani, 25-year-old Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto and 30-year-old lefty Blake Snell, the former American League Cy Young Award winner who played the last two seasons for Melvin in San Diego.

    “We’ll see, right?” the skipper said. “Those are all pretty good players. We’d like to have every one of them. But financially, that’s a stretch. All those guys will be talked about and hopefully I have an impact on that and we’ll see how it goes.”

    Melvin was asked about his strong ties to players from Korea and Japan, having previously worked with Ichiro Suzuki in Seattle, Hideo Nomo in Detroit and Milwaukee and Ha-Seong Kim in San Diego, among others.

    “I do have some familiarity there,” he said. “In Oakland, we opened up a couple times in Japan as well. Hopefully that resonates.”

    Melvin didn’t hide his hope that the Giants find a big bat to power an offense that ranked second-to-last in the National League while scoring just 4.16 runs per game and dead last with a .695 OPS this year.

    It’s fair to wonder if the Giants have relied too much on platoons without any star power in their everyday lineup.

    “It’s not like it wasn’t for (the Giants’) lack of effort last year to bring in stars, it just didn’t come to fruition,” he said. “But yes, to an extent, there are guys who create stability for the team. These guys are in the middle of the order. These guys are going to play every day and then you match up around them. There’s always a conversation to try to create that.”

    Melvin said he already talked to Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi about it.

    “Every team out there has platoons and matchups, it’s how many you have and adjustments you need to make,” Melvin said. “Farhan realizes there probably needs to be some stability in the middle of the order here.”

    The question is whether or not the Giants are willing to spend big to acquire that kind of player.

    Ohtani is clearly the best hitter available in free agency this winter and there’s a steep drop-off to the next-best options: third baseman Matt Chapman, who Melvin managed in Oakland, first baseman Rhys Hoskins, outfielders Cody Bellinger and Teoscar Hernandez, or designated hitter J.D. Martinez.

    When it comes to the trade market, the Giants are considered the second-most likely team (plus-300, per BetOnline) to acquire Mike Trout if the three-time American League MVP is traded from the Los Angeles Angels, who squandered their years with Ohtani and Trout and might now consider rebuilding.

    Trout, 32, has seven years remaining on his contract and is owed $37 million annually. He has a full no-trade clause, but USA Today reported in September that the Angels were open to trading Trout if he indicated he wants out this offseason. Trout told reporters last month that he’ll have conversations with Angels leaders soon.

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  • P&ID Case: We Won But UK Judge’s Findings Raise Serious Concerns About Nigeria’s Contracting Practices — Robinson Uwak

    The Nigerian Government’s victory over the Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited is a relief for the nation and a strong rebuke of the country’s pattern of domestic and external contracting over the years.

    This was according to Robinson Uwak, a former House of Representative member from Akwa Ibom State.

    Reacting to Nigeria’s victory in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER, Uwak congratulated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the victory.

    Uwak, however, noted that the Federal Government must treat the judgment as a mild rebuke to Nigeria’s domestic and external contracting where breaches are rife, as well as corruption among some cadres of the civil service.

    “The voiding of the sum, which would amount to half of our over N11 trillion, is a welcome relief to our dear country, Nigeria at a time of severe economic and social difficulties.

    “I consider this lifeline given to us as a huge opportunity to save our foreign reserve, which has depleted considerably and revamp the potency of the naira,” Uwak added.

    The former lawmaker advised the federal government to address loopholes in contracts and awards through urgent reforms “as there are still pending international arbitrations involving Nigeria.”

    “Once again, I congratulate the President and Nigerians on this important victory,” he added.

    In 2010, P&ID entered into an agreement with Nigeria to construct a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State.

    But the company claimed the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government failed to fulfill its end of the bargain.

    P&ID then approached a London court, accusing Nigeria of breaching the terms of the contract.

    The court ruled that Nigeria should pay P&ID $6.6 billion in damages, plus interest.

    This award had grown to $11 billion by the time the case was finally resolved.

    The Nigerian government appealed the judgment, arguing that the contract was obtained through fraud and bribery.

    In a recent ruling, Justice Robin Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London agreed with the Nigerian government and overturned the award.

    Justice Knowles found that P&ID had engaged in “a cynical scheme” to defraud Nigeria and that the contract was “void as being contrary to public policy.”

    He also found that the Nigerian government had been “compromised” by the fraud and was unable to properly defend itself in the arbitration.

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  • Fact Check: This video shows Lebanese protesters supporting Palestinians in 2021, not 2023

    An Oct. 13 Instagram post suggests a video of people scaling a wall is current footage of Lebanese demonstrators supporting Palestinians as violence persists in Gaza with Israel and Hamas at war. 

    “BREAKING: Protesters in Lebanon are currently storming the border with Palestine in support of Gaza,” text above the video says.  

    But this video is old, and this post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    The video is from TikTok, and the handle of the user who shared it is visible in the Instagram post. We couldn’t find the original video — that account appears to have been deleted — but we found another post from a different account that posted the footage in May 2021.

    A May 2021 YouTube video and a May 2021 X post feature the same video.

    Photos and video from news outlets in 2021 show the same scene from different perspectives, capturing Lebanese protesters at the country’s southern border with Israel demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians. 

    But the video in the Instagram post doesn’t show protesters in Lebanon “storming the border” in October 2023. We rate that claim False. 

     



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  • 49ers’ Brock Purdy in concussion protocol ahead of game vs. Bengals

    SANTA CLARA — Quarterback Brock Purdy is in the NFL’s concussion protocol, after reporting symptoms on the 49ers’ flight home from Monday night’s loss at Minnesota.

    Purdy is allowed to partake in Wednesday’s walk-through practice but not in the afternoon session against the defense, which also will be held at a lighter tempo with no pads, coach Kyle Shanahan said.

    Asked if Purdy can get medically cleared for Sunday’s home game against the Bengals, Shanahan said: “He does have enough time, he just has to go through the process.”

    Purdy played the entirety of the 22-17 defeat, and Shanahan said it’s possible the concussion is traced to a hit on a third-and-1 sneak that was stopped for no gain. Purdy converted on a fourth-and-1 dive, then threw an interception with 5:30 remaining.

    Shanahan said there were no indications during the game — such as sideline talks with quarterbacks coach Brian Griese — nor immediately afterward in the postgame press conference that Purdy may have endured a head injury,

    Sam Darnold would be in line to start in place of Purdy. Brandon Allen has been the 49ers’ emergency No. 3 quarterback through seven games.

    The 49ers started 5-0 before losing in Cleveland and Minnesota. The Bengals (3-3) are coming off their bye.

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  • NSCDC Arrests 11 Suspects For Vandalism, Illegal Mining, Other Offences

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), FCT Command, has arrested 11 individuals suspected of involvement in vandalism, illegal mining, and other offences.

    Among the items seized, the authorities uncovered five cartons of tiles and a used explosive bottle.

    The operation, detailed in a statement released by ASCI Okomanyi Comfort, the Public Relations Officer of the FCT Command, took place across different areas in the nation’s capital.

    The suspects were captured by the Mines and Steel Development Unit of the Command following a tip-off about their unlawful excavation practices, which had led to the vandalism and destruction of critical infrastructures like transmission cables, transformers, and degradation of a part of Katampe Extension, where they were apprehended.

    A search operation in the suspects’ huts led to the discovery of five cartons of tiles and an item suspected to be a used explosive bottle, which will undergo further investigation.

    The individuals arrested for illegal mining activities are Abubakar Suleman, Sanusi Abubakar, Abdullahi Musa, Adamu Hashiru, and Ibrahim Abdullahi.

    Those apprehended for vandalism of government infrastructures and scavenging are Ayu Isimailu, Micheal Joseph, Solomon Leo, Aliyu Shamsudeen Kashim Mustapha, and Onyeishi Monday

    According to the statement, the FCT NSCDC Commandant, Olusola Odumosu, said the command remained dedicated to combating vandalism and criminal activities and safeguarding critical assets and infrastructures under the new FCT administration.

    NSCDC Arrests 11 Suspects For Vandalism, Illegal Mining, Other Offences

    “Let me relay unequivocally that the protection of all Critical National Assets and Infrastructures in the FCT is not negotiable.

    “As the lead agency saddled with this responsibility under the law, we will relentlessly discharge our duties without compromise.

    “Based on this resolve, the Command has effected the arrest of these 11 suspects out of which 5 are suspected illegal miners, 4 suspected vandals of public assets and infrastructures and 2 suspected scavengers.

    “Upon sighting our team, a lot of them took to their heels but this effort will be sustained with more reinforcement to stop their existence in that location”, Odumosu said.

    He added, “We have commenced thorough investigations to unravel their level of involvement in the offences charged. Rest assured that those found culpable would be prosecuted and if otherwise, be set free after due diligence is observed and in accordance with the extant laws”, he added.

    Odumosu also reiterated the Command’s dedication to continuous cooperation with other security agencies and sought consistent information and actionable intelligence from the public to rid the FCT of unscrupulous elements sabotaging the government’s efforts.

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  • Fact Check: Video shows protesters outside a police station in 2012, not Israel’s embassy in Bahrain

    A nighttime scene captured in a video shows a group running at a walled-off building and throwing flaming projectiles at it. 

    “The Zionist regime embassy in Bahrain,” the caption on an Oct. 20 Instagram post sharing the video said. “Protesters attacked with molotov cocktails the Israeli regime embassy and set it on fire.” 

    This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    That’s because this footage has been online for more than a decade. 

    It appears in a YouTube video posted Dec. 30, 2012, with this caption translated by Google from Arabic to English: “The Revolution Media Center in Bahrain obtained scenes of a demonstrators attack on a police station on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama. It is reported that the attack occurred last Saturday (November 3, 2012). This attack came after Professor Hassan Mushaima’s health deteriorated in Al-Khalifiya prisons, as his cancer returned due to medical negligence in the prison.”

    We couldn’t confirm the precise date this footage was filmed. 

    A Nov. 6, 2012, Facebook post labeled it Nov. 5, 2012. A Nov. 5, 2012, UPI story reported that “some youths tossed Molotov cocktails at the Sitra Police Station about 1 a.m.” that day.

    And an Oct. 1, 2012, AFP story reported that 32 people were facing trial for allegedly attacking a police station in Sitra with Molotov cocktails following an Aug. 26, 2012, attack on the station.

    Israel didn’t even have an embassy in Bahrain in 2012, according to news reports and the website of Israel’s embassy in Bahrain. Israel’s foreign minister opened one for the first time in 2021 in the country’s capital, Manama. 

    And an image of the police station on Google Maps looks like the building in the video. 

    Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have rallied outside of the Israeli embassy in Bahrain since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, but the building wasn’t set on fire.

    We rate claims this video shows people attacking Israel’s embassy False.

     



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  • The last time US yields rose so much, it sank the economy twice

    By Ye Xie and Michael Mackenzie, Bloomberg News

    There’s a good reason why investors are amazed that something hasn’t broken in the economy yet: The last time U.S. government bond yields climbed so far, so fast, the nation plunged into back-to-back recessions.

    The 10-year Treasury yield — a key baseline for the cost of money across the financial system — has jumped more than four full percentage points over the past three years, briefly pushing it this week over 5% for the first time since 2007. It’s the biggest increase since the run up in the early 1980s, when Paul Volcker’s efforts to slay inflation pushed the 10-year yield to nearly 16%.

    In one sense, the similarities are no surprise, since Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s interest-rate hikes have been the most aggressive since then. In another, it underscores just how much times have changed.

    In the 1980s, the monetary policy onslaught set off two recessions. Now, the economy has continued to defy pessimistic forecasts, with the Atlanta Fed’s estimate showing that in the third quarter it likely even gained steam.

    Of course, policy was more restrictive during the Volcker era. Adjusted for consumer-price increases, the “real” 10-year Treasury yield — or what it paid after inflation — was around 4% by the time the second downturn of the period started in mid-1981, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s around 1% now.

    But the surprising economic strength has nevertheless injected large amounts of uncertainty into markets, where bond yields have pushed up sharply over the past several months amid increasing conviction that the Fed will keep interest rates high.

    Whether such resilience can be sustained remains to be seen. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman closed his bearish bets against long-term bonds Monday, saying the economy is slowing fast.

    Yet the year began with similar calls, accompanied by expectations that the bond market would rally as the Fed changed course.

    Instead, bond prices have kept tumbling. The Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Total Index is down about 2.6% this year, extending its losses since the peak in August 2020 to 18%. In comparison, the worst peak-to-trough drawdown previously was a decline of about 7% in 1980, when the Fed’s key benchmark hit 20%. This selloff has been more painful because rates had been low, depressing the income payments that help to offset the hit.

    Another factor has been the sharp increase in the federal deficit, which is flooding the market with new Treasuries at a time when traditional big buyers, including the Fed and other major central banks, have pulled back on bond buying. That’s seen as one reason why yields have marched higher in recent weeks even as the futures market shows traders think the Fed’s rate hikes are likely done.

    “A hard landing is sort of our base case scenario — but I can’t point to any data and say, ‘This is a clear leading indicator of a recession and look right here,’”said Priya Misra, a portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management

    “Conviction levels are low,” she said. Investors who had been buying bonds “have all been hurt,” she said.

    With assistance from Edward Bolingbroke.

    ©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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  • How Minister Caught Immigration Officer Watching BBNaija While Keeping Foreigners On Queue At Airport

    Minister-of-Interior-Olubunmi-Tunji-Ojo

    The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Wednesday, revealed how he caught an officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) watching Big Brother Naija reality TV show instead of screening foreign passengers at an undisclosed airport.

    Tunji-Ojo stated this during an interview monitored by THE WHISTLER on Human Rights Radio, popularly known as ‘Brekete Family’

    According to the minister, he caught the officer while he was arriving in the country from a foreign trip. The unnamed officer was said to be watching the reality TV show instead of attending to passengers seeking visa on arrival to the country.

    Tunji-Ojo said there was a need for better service and efficiency in NIS operations, especially in dealing with foreign visitors who are capable of bringing economic benefits to the country.

    He called for collaboration among stakeholders to improve the image of the country in the international community, admitting that it is difficult for one individual to bring the desired change.

    “Anybody that’s entering Nigeria, the way our people will talk to you is no longer like before. Just two weeks ago I came in from Italy, and as I was coming out, they came and welcomed me and wanted to carry my bag but I said no.

    “I told them not to call their colleagues and that they should return to their duty post where they call for a visa on arrival. The plan that President Tinubu has, if all of us join hands, this country will be better.

    “One person cannot bring change, all of us must change Nigeria. So, when I got there to see what they’re doing, because they didn’t know I was coming, I saw people waiting in the queue, people that wanted to collect visas, and foreigners that wanted to enter Nigeria were not being attended to.

    “I walked to the place because I appeared casual and I didn’t go with any convoy escorts. When I got there, I looked at the computer, the officer was supposed to give people visas, what I saw was Big Brother Naija. Immediately, I told the officer to leave, since you like the air conditioner at the airport, they will redeploy you to another place.

    “I know what the president tasked the ministers with. He said we must be briefing him on everything we are doing and how we achieve them because he wants the country to be better. How do you explain keeping foreigners that brought money to spend in our country? You kept them waiting while you watched BBNaija with the computer the government bought for you to do its work.”

    Speaking further, the Minister revealed that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has cleared additional 52,000 passport backlog within one week

    “All pending passports within three weeks were cleared on October 2nd. However, there was a new backlog of 52,000 due to increased applications by Nigerians. Fortunately, this backlog was cleared within a week. It’s expected that the backlog will be under 10,000 within the last week, and the system will be fully stabilized, ensuring passport processing within two weeks at most.”

    The minister further said that the present government is committed to protecting Nigerians’ rights.

    “This particular government cares about you and will protect your rights, nobody should treat Nigerians’ rights as a privilege,” he said

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