Miley Cyrus has revealed that she lost her virginity to her ex-husband, actor Liam Hemsworth at the age of 16.
The 27-year-old singer made this known while discussing her personal life in an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alexandra Cooper, revealing her first sexual experience was a threesome with two girls.
Miley also got personal as she spoke on heartbreak, sex, and how Liam, 30, was the first man she had sex with at the age of 16.
‘I didn’t go all the way with a dude until I was 16,’ she said on the sex podcast. ‘But I ended up marrying the guy, so that’s pretty crazy.’
The singer confessed that she lied to the actor about it not being her first time.
‘I lied and said he wasn’t the first so I didn’t seem like a loser,’ she said adding that she couldn’t think of anyone so she chose a friend.
‘It was a lie that I held on to for like 10 years,’ Miley said.
She added: ‘The first time I ever hooked up with anyone was with a girl, two of them,’ and that they went beyond ‘first base.’
Discussing her sexual experiences with girls years before she met Liam and had sex with him at 16, she said: “When I was 11 or 12 my friends were starting to tell me what they were doing with guys and I didn’t really understand it,’ she said.
‘So I got most of my girlfriends to hook up with me.’
‘I was attracted to girls way before I was ever attracted to guys,’ the Wrecking Ball singer said. ‘When I was like 11-years-old I thought Minnie Mouse was super f******g hot.’
Cyrus and Hemsworth, 30, were first linked in 2008 after they were both cast in the film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel “The Last Song.”
Their pair got engaged in 2012 but broke things off the following year, only to reconcile in 2015 and then tied the knot in December 2018. The marriage lasted less than a year before they split in August 2019.
Describing her relationship with Liam, she said: ‘The relationship I had for 10 years was an amazing time in my life,’ she said.
‘I love who I am so much right now if any of those things hadn’t happened I’m not sure that I would be the same person.’
Shortly before the eviction show this evening, Big Brother issued a stern warning to all the housemates over the various clashes that almost turned violent. He summoned them to the lounge and played video clips of some of them quarreling and almost going physical.
He asked Nengi, Kaisha, Erica, Lucy, and Wathoni to stand up and addressed them. He told them to resolve their outstanding issues and control their tempers as physical violence is prohibited in the house.
He specifically issued Kaisha and Nengi a final warning for violating Paragraph 1 of Article 18of the rule book which is dedicated to prohibited behaviour. It states that Big Brother is a game that encourages individual expression. However, there are types of behavior that will not, under any circumstances, be tolerated in the Big Brother House. Both ladies clashed in the house yesterday August 15.
Big Brother also extended the final warning to the other housemates.
The female housemates have at various times clashed, hurling insults at each other and almost going physical.
Hollywood Actor, Brad Pitt has fired back at ex-wife Angelina Jolie after she filed a request earlier this week to remove Judge John W. Ouderkirk from their almost four-year-long divorce battle.
The former couple who first split in 2016 after 12-years together and six children, Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12 are facing a custody battle in their divorce drama.
Angelina, 45, filed papers on August 7 claiming that Judge Ouderkirk who married the former couple at their French estate Château Miraval in 2014 -failed to disclose other ‘business relationships’ he had with Pitt’s lawyers, suggesting that he would be ‘biased’ during their divorce case.
Jolie alleged in her filing that Ouderkirk ‘failed to make timely mandatory disclosures of ongoing business and professional relationships between himself’ and Pitt’s legal team.
She added in her request that she was ‘never afforded the opportunity to even raise a concern or to object to the ever-increasing business relationships between Judge Ouderkirk and [Pitt’s] counsel — relationships that were providing a steady stream of income to Judge Ouderkirk and the potential for future work.’
‘These are precisely the type of repeat customer circumstances that create doubts about a privately-compensated private judge’s ability to remain impartial.’
But Pitt, 56, according to legal documents obtained by PEOPLE magazine, has responded in papers filed on Thursday, August 13, calling Jolie’s filing a ‘Hail Mary’ – an American Football reference to deliberately delay a game .
In the legal documents, Pitt’s legal team accuses the actress of making a ‘transparently tactical gambit’ to delay matters, adding that it will be their own children who are ‘hurt most’ by the hold up.
The documents say Jolie’s request is ‘a thinly-veiled attempt by Jolie to delay the adjudication of long-pending custody issues in this case.’
According to Pitt’s lawyers, Jolie had been made fully aware that Ouderkirk had accepted ‘additional new engagements’ involving the actor’s team, and that she had ‘never objected’ to Ouderkirk’s ‘continued involvement’ in the proceedings until now.
In Pitt’s response, he also pointed out three times where Jolie and her lawyers are said to have asked to extend Ouderkirk’s appointment to their ongoing divorce case.
The documents add that Pitt is concerned about how the divorce delays will affect their children:
‘Unfortunately, the individuals hurt most by Jolie’s transparently tactical gambit are the parties’ own children, who continue to be deprived of a final resolution to these custody issues
Jolie’s lawyer, Samantha Bley DeJean, responded to Pitt’s filing in a statement to PEOPLE saying: ‘It is unfortunate that Mr. Pitt’s team has sought to intervene ahead of Judge Ouderkirk’s response.’
‘One can only conclude that this is an attempt to obstruct or influence Judge Ouderkirk’s answer. Any delay in these proceedings is due to their zealous attempt to create an unrecognized special exception for their client’s benefit.’
The report adds that a source close to Pitt’s team claim that it was Jolie’s team who actually knew the judge first, and that ‘the only excuse for their filing is that her team knew they were likely to lose and they needed to stall by changing the referee in the fourth quarter.’
‘This is the Judge who married them, someone who her team knew well and who her team actually introduced to the couple,’
Big brother Naija lockdown housemate, Kaisha has been evicted from the house.
Neo, TrikyTee, Kaisha, and Wathoni were the four contestants with the least votes from viewers last week. As usual, other housemates were asked to nominate two housemates for possible eviction.
After the housemates casted their votes, Ebuka announced Kaisha as the next housemate to be evicted from the house. He thereafter announced that Neo, Wathoni and TrikyTee were safe.
Kaisha in her interview with Ebuka, said she wasn’t surprised the other housemates voted for her eviction because she knows they don’t like her.
She said she liked Neo when she first saw him and might pursue ‘something’ with him after the show.
Meanwhile, see how viewers voted in the fourth week of the reality TV show.
A schoolgirl who claimed a ten-year-old boy was the father of her unborn child has given birth to a baby girl.
Darya Sudnishnikova was 13 years old when she became famous in Russia after insisting that she was made pregnant by her 10-year-old boyfriend, Ivan.
Darya even went on prime-time TV earlier this year claiming Ivan was the father and Ivan backed up her story.
Darya later said she had been raped in her hometown Zheleznogorsk by a boy aged 16. She claimed she said Ivan was the father because she was too embarrassed to admit to the rape.
Ivan, now 11, chose to stand by her and he remains her “boyfriend”.
Darya announced today on Instagram that she has welcomed a daughter after going through a “tough” delivery.
The girl had to travel to Krasnoyarsk in Siberia to find doctors who will accept her, she said last week.
She wrote on Instagram: “That’s it, I gave birth to a girl at 10 am. It was tough, I’ll tell you everything later, I’m having a rest now.”
Police are still investigating the alleged rape case and are expected to take a DNA sample from the newborn girl to find out if the 16-year-old boy is the father.
Meanwhile, Ivan wants to remain in the life of Darya and her child. Not long before giving birth, Darya revealed that Ivan stays over at her house sometimes and may take over fatherhood of her child when he’s 16.
She wrote: “He does not live with me, he stays overnight sometimes. At 16, he will take over the fatherhood, but it depends on how everything goes on between us.”
Manchester City midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne has been named Premier League Player of the Season for the 2019/20 campaign.
The Belgian playmaker, 29, saw off competition from Liverpool trio Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Southampton striker Danny Ings, Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope and Leicester’s Golden Boot winner Jamie Vardy to win the honour.
Despite City finishing second for the Premier League 2019/20 campaign, De Bruyne enjoyed a productive season since arriving at the Etihad in 2015. He recorded 20 assists, equalling the league record set by Thierry Henry in 2003 and also scored 13 times to help City finish as the division’s highest scorers for the third successive season.
Liverpool’s right-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold was named Young Player of the Season, while his manager Jurgen Klopp won the award for Premier League Manager of the Season.
Robert S. Trump, the younger brother of US President Donald Trump, died on Saturday night, August 15, in Manhattan.
He died at the New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in Lennox Hill. He was 71.
His death was announced by The White House but they did not give a cause.
Reacting to Robert’s death, Donald Trump said in a statement: “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend.
“He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”
Robert Trump, who took blood thinners, had experienced brain bleeds which began after a recent fall, according to a family friend.
President Trump went to Manhattan on Friday, August 14, to see his brother at the hospital.
“I have a wonderful brother,” the president said on Friday at a White House news conference before departing to visit him. “We’ve had a great relationship for a long time, from Day 1.”
The two had in fact been estranged for years before Donald Trump’s run for the White House.
On Saturday, when Robert Trump was not expected to live much longer, the president called the hospital from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, New York Times reports. He shortly held a news conference but did not mention his brother’s health. Friends who spoke to him said he was downcast.
Robert Trump had no children, but he helped raise Christopher Hollister Trump-Retchin, the son of his first wife, Blaine Trump, even giving him his last name.
Robert is survived by his second wife, Ann Marie Pallan, his brother, Donald Trump, and his sisters, Maryanne Trump Barry and Elizabeth Trump Grau. His brother Fred Jr. died in 1981.
BBNaija Lockdown housemate, Nengi, has disclosed that she doesn’t mind getting intimate in the reality show despite the camera.
Nengi made this known during a conversation with Ozo. She said that viewers and housemates will always talk so she does not care if she has sex on national television.
Ozo asked: “Will you care about public if you do it (sex) on national tv?”
Nengi responding said: “No I will face dem if it happens, they will still talk about other things.”
The female housemate had earlier complained that condoms in the house are reducing faster.
The first housemates caught getting intimate in this Lockdown edition were Praise and Ka3na who were not even into any serious relationships.
Nigerians on social media have criticized BBNaija housemate, Nengi after a photo of her and Davido clubbing together in 2013 surfaced the internet.
Nengi who claims she’s currently 22yrs old has been dragged for lying about her age as she looks older than a 15-year-old girl in the photo which she took with Davido 7 years ago.
Some fans also noted that if she was actually 15yrs back then in 2013, then clubbing with Davido is a crime because she was still a minor.
However, others believe she’s just trying to play smart in the house, so she can mingle with both the old and young in the house.
A video making rounds on social media shows the moment residents of Ikota Housing estate in Ajah, Lagos state, converged for prayers over the faulty transformer in their area.
A Twitter user @Kay_Tylor who posted the video online, revealed that Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDP) officials have brought four different transformers to their area and the four have gone bad, throwing them into perpetual darkness.
This prompted the residents to converge to pray against the principalities and powers causing the transformers to go bad all the time
“4 transformers bad in 1yr. The Ikota Housing Estate community in Ajah Lagos, had to result to prayers. Divine intervention desperately sought. @Gidi_Traffic @EKEDP”, she tweeted.
Genevieve NNaji has been chosen as an ambassador of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2020.
The Nollywood actress and producer has joined the list of 50 celebrated filmmakers and actors invited as the ambassadors of the TIFF.
This comes a month after The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, released its list of new members and Genevieve was among the 819 members invited by The Academy alongside other invitees such as Priyanka Chopra, Brie Larson, Natalie Portman, Olivia Wilde, and more.
The esteemed Toronto International Film Festival which will kick off from September 10 to September 19, 2020, is opting for digital screenings and virtual red carpets in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many of the ambassadors will engage with audiences through interactive digital experiences and events. For instance, filmmaker, producer and screenwriter Cianfrance will lead a dialogue session and actor-producer, David Oyelowo will be a guest speaker as part of the TIFF Rising Stars program, Deadline reports.
Geoff Macnaughton, Senior Director of Industry & Theatrical, TIFF said: “In a time of disruption, professionals from around the world still look for occasions to come together, share innovative ideas, buy and sell content, and find creative ways to collectively forge ahead towards a safer, healthier, and inclusive future. This year, delegates can expect to find community, connection, inspiration, and talent — the foundation that will serve as the way forward.”
Nollywood actress and mother of one, Tonto Dikehhas advised people to stop begging for support and start networking with strangers.
The actress disclosed that she achieved her success through strangers. She added that her success was not influenced by her friends and family. She went on to advise people to leave their comfort zone if they want to grow.
She wrote;
“Stop begging for support. Start Networking with strangers
As harsh as this may Sound! You need to leave your comfort zone to Grow.. 100% of my Life success today I achieved through total strangers, NOT FRIENDS, NOT FAMILY….. Let that Sink!!!”
DMW boss, Davido’s fiancée and mother of his first son, Ifeanyi, is now the new ambassador for Payporte.
Chioma who just like Davido has been staying away from social media, signed the deal today with her manager, music executive, Ubi Franklin, and CEO of Payporte, Eyo Bassey.
sharing the good news, Ubi Franklin wrote;
“Chioma to me few months ago – “Ubi I want to make xxx amount before December” Me to Chioma “say no more” 😂😂😂😂💰💰💰💰 https://536776705b854c06f476710359eee8f6.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Chioma wrote on her page;
“I’m looking forward to a very exciting Partnership with @payporte as their Official Brand Ambassador. In fact I’m already having an amazing experience. Thank you to The MD/CEO @payporte Mr Eyo Bassey @officialeyobassey Thank you to my Manager @ubifranklintriplemg”
Terry Waya, the father of one of Big Brother Naija Lockdown housemates, Kiddwaya, has said that children of successful or rich people in Nigeria hardly become rich on their own.
Waya made this known while airing his view on a TV program, Your View.
According to the stylish billionaire claimed that it is easier for a poor man’s child to rise to the top than the child of a rich man
Once Kidd Waya made it clear who his father was, all eyes turned on Terry Waya. People who have forgotten him suddenly remembered him and his flamboyant lifestyle.
The younger Waya has been vibrant on the reality show.
Big Brother Naija housemate, Erica recently had a discussion with billionaire son, Kiddwaya where she advised him to stop flirting around girls in the house.
Erica said flirting around girls in the house has made him lose his prestige, as almost all the girls in the house now feel like they can get him if they want to.
Stressing further, she said he has brought himself low by flirting in the house, to the extent that Wathoni and Kaisha feel they can get him.
“Even somebody like Wathoni feels she can get to you. I’m sure Kaisha will feel the same way too”, Erica said.
Big Brother Naija housemate, Kiddwaya and his love interest in the house, Erica were recently spotted having a nice time at the HOH lounge.
During their mini romance session, they discussed about their affection towards each other and how it all started.
Erica revealed her feelings for him became stronger after they made out on Saturday night. She said although it wasn’t planned, she just couldn’t hold back herself.
During their discussion however, Erica was seen running her lips down his nipples while Kiddwaya blushed and laughed in excitement. They also locked lips severally as Kidd talked about her smile.
Housemate Rebecca Nengi Hampson has revealed she graduated with a second class upper division from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers state.
She disclose while having a private question and answer session with Ozo.
According to her, she was one of only 20 students to graduate with a 2nd class upper in a class of over 500 students.
“I graduated with 2:1. We were 500 people in my department” she told him.
22-year-old Nengi studied communications at the University of Port Harcourt. She is an entrepreneur from Bayelsa State, a former model and MBGN Top 5 contestant.
Big Brother Naija housemate and billionaire son, Kiddwaya jokingly warned Tolanibaj to stay away from him after she hugged him in the kitchen.
Tolanibaj hugged Kiddwaya, and after the hug, Kidd told her not to try it again before Erica comes for him. He warned her not to put him in trouble with his ‘madam’.
Reacting to Kidd’s statement, Tolanibaj said she is aware and she can’t try to cross her boundaries because she knows who Kiddwaya is.
Lucy then stepped into the case, saying even if a war starts, Prince also has muscles to fight for Tolani.
BBNaija “Lockdown” housemate, Ozo has sent a lovely message to her sister, Ugy Aneke who recently married her long time best friend. Ugy caught the attention of the online community after coming out to show support for her brother, Ozo.
Ozo wrote;
“Dear Ugy, @narccyugy
I always say that family is not an important thing, it is everything ❤️❤️❤️
I want to wish you a happy married life, I know you would have loved me to be there but I’m absent due to circumstances beyond my control and I’m sure you are happy with me where ever you are.
It seems like yesterday,
Remember when you made that list of qualities of a ‘perfect man?’ Well, you found him. Lots of love now and always.” May you have a marriage full of love and happiness!”
“I’m so thankful to have a sister like you. And I wish you and your husband life long joy.” I love you sis❤️❤️❤️
Loveday Etomi, the fiancé of the woman who was crushed to death by a tanker in Ajah only weeks to her wedding, has spoken out following her death.
Immaculate Emife Okochu reportedly died at the scene of the accident, her fiancé said. He then narrated how he was in traffic when he got the call that she was involved in an accident and how he parked his car and ran on foot to the scene to find her “cold”.
Immaculate was a store manager at the Cold Stone Creamery Nigeria in Apapa. She was reportedly rushing to work when she took a bike to escape the Lagos traffic. Unfortunately, a truck rammed into the bike she was on, crushing her on Badore Road in Ajah around 11am on Wednesday, August 12.
Friend say she was first taken to a hospital in the area, and from there, she was referred to the General Hospital, Marina, where she was declared dead.
Mourning her, her fiance expressed his love for her and said no one could ever replace her.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez were pictured soaking up the sun onboard their £5.5m superyacht in St Tropez, France, on Thursday, August 13.
The Juventus striker, 35, and model, 26, also enjoyed a dip in the French Riviera during their gateway.
Georgina flaunted her toned curves in a racy black bikini on board the luxury vessel, while Cristiano displayed his ripped physique as he went shirtless in a pair of black patterned swimming shorts.
US President, Donald Trump’s brother, Robert Trump is in a New York hospital with an undisclosed illness, the White House announced on Friday, August 14.
According to the White House, Donald and his younger brother Robert are very close and the president is expected to visit his brother Friday in the New York hospital.
“We can confirm the report that the President’s brother is hospitalized,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN.
Robert Trump, 72, is one of four other siblings to the President, including the late Fred Trump, Jr. He was a former top executive at the Trump Organization.
Billionaire daughter, Florence Otedola popularly known as Dj Cuppy has shared a conversation between herself and her ex-boyfriend.
This is coming few days after the disk jockey revealed she might remain single for ever, claiming her ex gave shattered her heart to pieces.
Moments ago, she took to her Twitter page to share a convo between her ex who said he heard her song at the airport at Frankfurt and he was calling her to inform her of how viral her song has gone.
In the conversation, she also vowed never to forget him, adding that he broke her heart
Nollywood actress/filmmaker, Maryam Charles, took to social media to advise married women to take care of their husbands.
The actress said that men go through a lot from the time they were born till the time mantle of provisions is placed upon them and they deserved to be pampered by their wives. She went on to recount how her husband work hard to provide for the family.
“I sometimes look at my husband and I’m amazed at how hard/smart he works just to provide a better life for our family
I’m not saying women don’t also hustle or provide, I’m just giving props to the men. They have it rough and it shouldn’t be so. To the women who have a responsible man by their side, take care of your man. Pamper him. Pleasure him. Praise him. Make him feel good because the words of our mouth serve as fuel for them. Force him to relax from time to time because if you leave them, these men will work and work and work lol
To all the boys and young men out there, always strive to be a responsible man.
And please, don’t listen to those who say marriage is a scam. Marriage is a beautiful thing if you are blessed with the right person. But if you don’t want to get married, nothing spoil. Again, don’t listen to wrong advice from foolish people.”, she wrote.
One of the most remarkable results in Champions League history ends with Bayern putting eight past Barca!
The Catalans were put to the sword by the rampant Bundesliga champions, exiting Europe in embarrassing fashion Barcelona’s attempt to bring the Champions League back to Camp Nou after a five-year absence ended in humiliation on Friday, as Bayern Munich trounced them 8-2 in the quarter-final.
Muller and Coutinho, the latter still a Barca player, each got two, while there were also goals for Perisic, Gnabry, Kimmich and Lewandowski. Alaba’s own goal actually levelled the game at an early stage, but Suarez’s goal was a consolation.
This was a complete humbling for one of the biggest clubs in world football.
Bayern march on. They will face Manchester City or Lyon in the last four and must surely back themselves to clinch a treble now. At Barca, Quique Setien’s future looks extremely uncertain. His team have capitulated.
The Enugu State government has demolished the house of an architect, John Jerry Emejulu, who had earlier demolished part of the Enugu Airport fence, claiming ownership of a portion of the land.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, on Thursday, said Mr Emejulu, accompanied by hundreds of armed thugs and bulldozers, had demolished up to 2km of the Enugu airport fence before the Nigerian Air Force and Police intervened to arrest the situation.
“This is certainly unfortunate, unbecoming,” Sirika said during a visit to the airport on Thursday.“ Emejulu has done his best.
But in doing his best, he has given the opportunity to government to show how not to wilfully destroy public assets belonging to 200 million people. It’s totally unacceptable.”
Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has inaugurated indigenous security network code-named “Operation Amotekun”.
Akeredolu headed the inauguration ceremony of the “Ondo State Security Network Agency” which took placed Yesterday, August 11, 2020.
This is coming several months after the bill setting up the security outlet was passed into law by the state House of Assembly and signed into law by the Governor.
Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Governor Akeredolu assured that with a workable synergy among the leadership of the security agencies and that of Amotekun, a water-tight strategy capable of arresting crimes even before they occur would be deployed.
Akeredolu who reassured people of the state that the forthcoming election in the state would be very peaceful in the ceremony in which no fewer than 192 recruited members of the corps were inaugurated, stated that community policing became necessary to curb all forms of insecurity in the state.
In his words… “It was so horrible that marauders laid siege to the highways as well as in the farmlands waiting to kidnap or devour anyone in sight. With the launch of the Amotekun, we resolved that it shall be no retreat, no surrender. We are not going to be intimidated or blackmailed.
“It is incontrovertible that the existing security framework is being overstretched and we had to devise a means of confronting the challenge of insecurity head-on. That was when the concept of Amotekun came up. As Yorubas, we are not known to surrender to our adversaries and if our forebears did not, we should not.
“On 4th March, this year, just two months after the launch of Amotekun in Ibadan, the Bill setting up the Corps was signed into law, after diligent and thorough work by the State House of Assembly. The import of this is that the Amotekun Corps is now a legal entity, not just the idea of an individual.
“I am saying it again, that my ambition is not worth the insecurities that our people are confronted with, where at some point, people were afraid of travelling out of the state.”
See more photos from the inauguration ceremony below…
BBNaija, housemate, Kiddwayaon Friday disclosed that his relationship with fellow housemate, Erica would continue after the reality television show.
Kiddwaya made the disclosure during a conversation with Bright O.
Bright O had asked what would happen to Kiddwaya’s relationship with Erica at the end of the reality television show.
Responding, the 27-year-old said: “Yes of course definitely will.”
Kiddwaya is currently in a love triangle with Erica and Laycon.
A few days ago, Kiddwaya had said he would support Erica if she opted for Laycon ahead of him. The 27-year-old had also described Erica as just his friend.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigerian youths to take over the leadership of the country from the older generation, who are currently in power.
According to The Nation, Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday while delivering a keynote address at a virtual interactive session with youths to mark this year’s International Youth Day.
The programme was organised by the Youth Development Centre, an arm of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Oke – Mosan, Abeokuta.
Obasanjo said: “Unless you squeeze out those who are in office and those who want to remain in office perpetually, some after the age of 80, they will not want to be out.
The type of change I am talking about, that I believe we can all embark upon, is to subscribe into the constitution of political parties in favour of youth. Or if you like it, you call it affirmative action in favour of youths
For instance, if you say, in the constitution of a political party, not less than 50 per cent of those who hold executive office within the party will be less than 40 years of age.
You’re just making sure that people that are 40 years of age will hold 50 per cent of executive office within the political party.
You can even go beyond that and say that people who will be put up for election, not less than 50 per cent of them, will be less than 40 years of age. That’s affirmative action. That’s positive discrimination in favour of youths.
I am saying this because if you leave it entirely for people to do it for you, nobody will do it for you. You have to do it for yourself.”
Nengi has disclosed that she underwent a liposuction procedure in a conversation with Ozo on Friday August 14.
The beauty queen who maintained that liposuction is nothing to be ashamed of, added that she regrets ‘not blogging about her experience and would consider blogging her next surgical procedure’.
Nengi said;
“When I tell people I have had liposuction, they always said I should not be talking about it. The way I look at it there is nothing there at all.
“If I ever had a procedure again I will blog about it. I even regret not putting it in a blog like the white girls do ’cause’ I had a bombass experience and it came out really nice.”
Oil magnet, late Chief (Dr) Sir Anthony Obiagboso Enukeme, the CEO of Tonimas Oil and Gas, was laid to rest in his home town in Neni, Anambra State, in grand style.
This comes days after a Requiem Mass, attended by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, was held in his honour at Christ the King Cathedral (CKC), Aba, Abia State.
Chief Enukeme’s burial attracted a large crowd in spite of the lingering Covid-19 pandemic.
Photos from the funeral of the Onowu Neni show that he was buried in an elaborate glass casket that cost millions of Naira. Unverified reports claim it cost 34 million Naira.
His funeral Mass held on Friday, August 14, at St John’s Parish in Neni, Anaocha LGA, Anambra. The Thanksgiving Mass will hold on Sunday, August 16 in the same church.
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday August 14, announced that 329 new cases of Coronavirus were recorded in the country.
A breakdown of the new cases across states in the country is as follows; Lagos-113, Kaduna-49, FCT-33, Plateau-24, Kano-16, Edo-15, Ogun-14, Delta-13, Osun-10, Oyo-8, Ekiti-6, Bayelsa-6, Akwa Ibom-5, Borno-4, Enugu-4, Ebonyi-3, Rivers-2, Bauchi-1, Nasarawa-1 , Gombe-1, Niger-1.
There are now 48,445 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country and 973 deaths has been recorded. 35,998 patients who recovered from the disease have also been discharged.
Lebanese Ambassador to Nigeria Houssam Diab on Friday August 14, stated that most Nigerian girls in Lebanon were not trafficked but entered the country legally.
Diab who said this during a visit to the Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja, further stated that the Nigerian ladies who recently cried out for help from Lebanon did so because they could no longer be paid by their employees as a result of the recent economic downturn.
He added that the suspension of the issuance of visas to domestic workers since May had also contributed to the situation.
The Ambassador said;
“As of May 1, the Lebanese government has stopped issuing visas for domestic workers coming from Nigeria.
“This will definitely stop any new cases from arising; they will not be able to get into Lebanon, the specificity for the issue at Lebanon is that all these girls are entering into Lebanon legally.
“There is no human trafficking illegally into Lebanon.
“About 90 per cent of the agencies involved in it are Nigerian agencies and they apply through Lebanese agencies in Lebanon through the security general to acquire work visas and work permits for the ladies.
“This is how it is; so by stopping the issuing of the visas, we would have stopped new cases from arising.”
Diab further disclosed that the Lebanese government and the Nigerian government has successfully evacuated 500 Nigerian ladies from Lebanon with 200 more to be evacuated soonest. The Ambassador added that there are about 5,000 Nigerians living in Lebanon, and majority of them are gainfully employed.
Speaking during the meeting, Geoffrey Onyeama said the evacuation process has shown the strong bilateral relations between the two countries in spite of the recent explosion in Lebanon.
The minister added that the temporary ban on visa issuance, will give Nigeria time to review the whole situation and to ensure that we get our labour laws in place.
Quique Setien is on the verge of being sacked by Barcelona after the club’s Champions League campaign ended in disastrous defeat to Bayern Munich.
The 61-year-old Spaniard was only appointed in January but is expected to be relieved of his duties after Barcelona finished trophyless first time in 12 years, according to Sky Sport Italia.
Barcelona lost the La Liga title to Real Madrid and Copa del Rey to Valencia.
The decision to sack Setien comes after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in Lisbon on Friday night, which ended their Champions League campaign.
A brace from Thomas Muller and Philippe Coutinho and a goal each from Robert Lewandowski, Serge Gnabry, Ivan Perisic, and Joshua Kimmich, secured the win to take the dominant Bayern side to the Semi-Finals.
Barcelona’s first goal came from an own goal by David Alaba before Luiz Suarez got his side’s second goal.
At full-time Setien told reporters: ‘Right now we feel enormous frustration and all we can do is make conclusions and think about the future.
‘Barca is a club that is so great that this will cause us a lot of damage and obviously some things will have to change.
‘The truth is this is a tremendously painful defeat.
‘Barcelona want to recover their identity. Right now, it’s too soon to think about whether I will stay or not. It doesn’t depend on me.
‘We have to reflect, taking the situation into account and the importance that such a humiliating and painful defeat means.
‘I’m hurt, evidently, by such a hefty defeat.’The way it came about has been tremendously painful.
‘I’m not worried about my future right now, but a defeat that is very painful for the club and the fans.’I know what a defeat of this calibre means.
‘We have to analyse what happened today from a bigger perspective. I know that the credibility of a coach diminishes when something like this happens. This isn’t what worries me at the moment.
‘We have to accept the defeat how it is. We were beaten by a very good team.’Apart from the first few minutes, they were clearly better than us for the rest of the game.’
Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu also had this to say after the humiliating defeat.
He told Spanish press: “It’s a really heavy defeat.
“I want to congratulate Bayern, who played a great game. They deserve to go through to the semi-finals.
“We weren’t at our best, nor near it. Today was a disaster and now we have to make decisions.
“We’ve already thought about some of them. Today isn’t a day for decisions.
“We want to apologise to the fans, members and Barcelonistas.”
When pressed on who may be involved in those decisions, he refused to give a clearer answer.
“I’m not going to say what [decisions] they are because some of them have already been made and others will be made,” he added.
“Today is a day to reflect. From tomorrow, we’ll try to lift the spirits of all the Barcelona fans and we’ll make decisions from next week.”
The Kano state police command have released the photo of the man who locked up and starved his biological son, Ahmed Aminu, 30, for seven years in Kano State.
A statement from the spokesperson of the state police command, DSP Abdullahi Haruna, said Aminu who is a resident of Farawa Quarters, Kumbotso Local Government area of Kano State, locked up his son inside his car garage (solitary confinement) within his house for about seven (7) years without proper feeding and health care.
Haruna in the statement said good samaritans reported the incidence leading to the rescue of the victim at about 11:15 pm on Thursday night August 13. DSP Haruna said upon investigation, the father confessed to having locked up Ahmed who is looking emaciated and dehydrated for three years and on allegation of indulgence in suspected Drug-Abuse.
The statement reads
“The Kano State Police Command wishes to inform members of the general public that on the 13/08/2020 at about 2315hrs, information received revealed that one *Aminu Farawa* ‘m’ of Farawa Quarters, Kumbotso LGA Kano State locked up his biological son, one *Ahmed Aminu* ‘m’ 30 years old of the same address inside his car garage within his house for about seven (7) years without proper feeding and health care.
Team of Operation Puff-Adder was raised and immediately swung into action. The victim was rescued and rushed to Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital Kano and admitted.
The father was arrested. Preliminary investigations revealed that the father confessed to having locked-up the victim for three (3) years on allegation of suspected Drug-Abuse. Those that reported the incident said he (the father) locked him up for 7yrs, however, the father confessed 3yrs.”
Haruna said the Command’s Commissioner of Police CP Habu A. Sani, psc ordered the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for discreet investigations.
The Supreme Court in Angola has handed a five-year jail sentence to Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of the country’s former president, for $500m fraud.
The 42-year-old was accused of trying to embezzle up to $1.5bn from the sovereign wealth fund, which he oversaw from 2013 to 2018.
He was later charged with stealing $500m from the fund and transferring it to a bank account in Switzerland.
His father, José Eduardo dos Santos, led the country for 38 years. He was president from 1979 until he resigned in 2017, and was replaced by his former defence minister, Joao Lourenço.
On Friday August 14, judge Joao da Cruz Pitra jailed Jose Filomeno dos Santos, also known as Zenu, for five years.
“For the crime of fraud … and for the crime of peddling influence … the legal cumulus condemns him to a single sentence of five years in prison,” judge Joao da Cruz Pitra said.
Three co-defendants, including the former governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Valter Filipe da Silva, were sentenced to between four and six years in prison for fraud, embezzlement and influence peddling.
Zenu is the first member of the former presidential family to be prosecuted as part of an anti-corruption campaign led by President Joao Lourenco, who came to power in 2017.
Back in February, Angolan investigators froze the assets of Zenu’s billionaire half-sister, Isabel dos Santos.
She is being probed for a long list of crimes in Angola, including mismanagement, embezzlement, and money laundering during her stewardship of the state-run oil giant, Sonangol.
Social media users have gone ballistic after Barca were thrashed 8-2 in the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League tonight.
Bayern’s swashbuckling and unmatchable style of play blitzed through Barca’s defense as goals from Lewandowski, J.Kimmich, Thomas Muller, Ivan Perisic, S. Gnabry were enough to downsize a toothless Barcelona team.
Philipe Coutinho, Barcelona’s player on loan at Bayern also scored two goals against his team, as captain Lionel Messi looked on, but couldn’t help his teammates.
As usual one could have expected player of the year Lionel Messi to score goals and help out his team, but the Argentine looked hapless throughout as he couldn’t even muster a goal.
With this result Bayern Munich now joins Rb Leipzig, PSG, Manchester City and Lyon in the UEFA champions league semi-finals.
Social media users as usual have reacted. See some reactions below.
Search Engine Optimization. If you want anyone to be able to find your website, SEO is a big deal. There are many services and plugins for WordPress that claim to give you a leg up in your SEO efforts. Today, we’re going to use a plugin called SmartCrawl to optimize SEO. The full name is “SmartCrawl WordPress SEO checker, analyzer, and optimizer,” which is a mouthful, so we’ll stick with “SmartCrawl” for simplicity’s sake.
How to Install the SmartCrawl Plugin
Log in to your WordPress admin panel.
In the left column navigation, mouse over the “Plugins” link and click the “Add New” link.
In the “Search plugins…” box, enter “SmartCrawl.”
Once you have located the plugin, click the “Install Now” button.
When the plugin has been installed, click the “Activate” button.
Running SmartCrawl for the First Time
In the left column navigation, mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Dashboard” link.
If this is your first time using the plugin, I’d suggest accepting all of the “Quick setup” default settings. To do that, just scroll down and click the “GET STARTED” button.
Click the “ACTIVATE” button to start the initial “SEO Checkup.” The checkup will take a few minutes (or longer if you have a lot of content) to scan for suggestions to optimize SEO.
When the checkup is complete, it will present you with an overall SEO score based on a scale of 100. The “Checkup” section below the score will give you a lot of good recommendations for SEO improvement.
The Best SEO Settings for SmartCrawl
There are a lot of options available in SmartCrawl. We’re going to do an overview and talk about where settings are made. As far as what the “best” settings are, the fact is, there are no general best settings.
What’s best for your site depends on which keywords you want the site to rank for. If you have a pretty good idea of where you want to show up, some keyword research will sharpen your focus and lead you to what’s best for your site.
An SEO tool like SmartCrawl can help you find what’s missing, but it can’t fill in those blanks for you. Blog optimization and great SEO for a food blog cannot be transferred to a music blog. They will be completely different.
The advantage that a plugin like SmartCrawl provides is that it points out where you need to apply your keyword research to be the most effective.
That being said, let’s go over the main settings that are available to optimize SEO.
SmartCrawl Title & Meta Settings
In the left column navigation mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Title & Meta” link.
Homepage
Here’s where you set your site title, description, and keywords. When you make changes in the fields, the plugin will show you an example of how your listing might look in Google.
The other options on the page are for social media sites if you want to provide different titles and descriptions. You can duplicate your entries for those or leave the defaults.
If you have a logo or other identifying image, you may want to add that in the “Default Featured Images” option for Open Graph and Twitter Cards. That will serve as a default, but you can always choose a unique featured image for each post or page when you are creating them to really optimize SEO.
Post Types
As you can probably see, the settings here are virtually the same as those for the homepage. But since these are general settings, we’re not going to enter a specific text title and description as we did for the homepage. We’ll use the variable placeholders, like %%title%%.
Click the + icon to list available variables.
What the placeholders do is control how the information for the post or page will be presented. So, for example, everywhere we use the %%sitename%% variable, the name of your website that you specified in the general WordPress settings will be displayed.
Similarly, any time we use %%title%%, the title of the post or page will be displayed. The variables are useful for things like titles since they’re different for every page.
You can set the variable for posts, pages, and media. Unless you have a compelling reason to change the defaults, I would suggest leaving them as they are. When you get deeper into methods to optimize SEO, you may want to experiment with the variable placement and use.
Taxonomies
Taxonomies are tags and categories. Follow the same format for these as you did for the previous settings.
Archives
If you are the only author on your site, you’ll want to disable the author archive. You do that by clicking the toggle switch and the “SAVE SETTINGS” button.
Settings
Here’s where you set the separator that’s displayed wherever the %%sep%% variable is used.
SmartCrawl Social Settings
In the left column navigation mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Social” link.
Accounts
From the “Type” dropdown, choose an account type, person, or organization. “Person” requires only your name. If you select “Organization,” you can also specify a logo image.
In the “Schema markup” section, leave “Enable schema markup output” checked.
Enter your Twitter username and the URLs for your Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Youtube accounts, then click the “SAVE SETTINGS” button.
OpenGraph
This should be enabled by default, and you want to leave it enabled. It manages how social media sites collect data from your own.
Twitter Cards
This should be enabled by default, and you want to leave it enabled. You have an option for how links will be displayed on Twitter, either with or without images. If you change the default setting, click the “SAVE SETTINGS” button.
Pinterest Verification
To get your Pinterest Meta Tag, log in to Pinterest. In the Account Settings area, scroll to the “Website” field. Add your website URL and click the “Confirm website” button. The meta tag will be displayed.
Enter the Pinterest Meta Tag in SmartCrawl and click the “SAVE SETTINGS” button.
SmartCrawl Sitemap Settings
In the left column navigation, mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Sitemap” link.
Sitemap
This section controls what is included and excluded from the sitemap. By default, everything the plugin can crawl on your site is included. In most cases, that’s what you want to optimize SEO in WordPress.
If you do want to exclude pages or posts from your sitemap, you can enter the IDs in the “Exclusions” section and click the “SAVE SETTINGS” button.
Crawler and Reporting
These are not available in the free version of this WordPress SEO optimizer. You’ll need to upgrade to the paid version.
Settings
Toggle on “Include images” in the “Include images” section if images are an essential part of your site and you want people to be able to find them in a Google search.
Toggle on “Google” and/or “Bing” in the “Auto-notify search engines” section. When those are active, the search engines will be notified any time your sitemap changes.
Leave “Style sitemap” enabled if you want the page styled if someone views the sitemap in a web browser.
Leave “Automatically update my sitemap” enabled in the “Automatic sitemap updates” section.
If you are using a different method to generate and manage sitemaps, click the “DEACTIVATE” button. Deactivating sitemaps removes all of the options we discussed here.
SmartCrawl Advanced Tools
In the left column navigation, mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Advanced Tools” link.
The most interesting thing here is “Automatic Links,” but the feature isn’t available in the free version of the plugin.
The “URL Redirection” section lets you set up 301 redirects for pages that have moved to a new URL. I wouldn’t advise using a plugin like this to manage redirects.
The “Moz” section connects the plugin to your Moz account. A handy feature, but if you have a Moz account, you probably aren’t’ reading this. But by all means, check out Moz and sign up for a free account over there. There is much to be learned from the data it can provide.
SmartCrawl General Settings
In the left column navigation, mouse over the “SmartCrawl” link and click the “Settings” link.
Most of these settings can be left as they are by default. If you use another SEO analysis tool like Yoast, disable “Readability Analysis” in the “Builtin modules” section.
In the “Search Engines” section, you can add verification links from Google and Bing if you haven’t already done that as part of your site setup and launch.
No need to change anything in the “User Roles” section.
The “Import / Export” section is used to transfer all the settings you’ve changed to a new installation, or to import settings from another SEO plugin like Yoast.
That’s how to set up SmartCrawl for the best results
It’s not the end of the SEO road by any means, but it’s a good start, and infinitely better than most of us could do without the plugin. Search engine optimization is one of those subjects that is difficult to master because the playing field is continually changing.
But keep yourself reasonably up to date with what’s going on, and check back into SmartCrawl from time to time to make adjustments. It may help you stay ahead of the pack.
Have you used other SEO plugins for WordPress? How much manual work do you do for SEO (if any)? Let me know in the comments.
The Kano State Police Command have rescued a 32-year-old man, Ahmad Aliyu who was allegedly locked up by his father and stepmother for seven years in Farawa Babban Layi, Mariri Quarters in Kumbotso Local Government Area of the state.
According to report, Aliyu spent days without food and water and drank his urine. He was allegedly locked up by his parents on the suspicion that he had started smoking and getting involved in drug consumption.
Aliyu was rescued after a concerned neighbor alerted the police in Farawa and Human Rights Network, who came to rescue him.
When the police and the human rights group arrived, the stepmother insisted that Ahmad was not at home, which forced the team to break down places in the house in search of him.
The police thereafter arrested the man and his wife and took away their victim.
According to its Labour Force Statistics report released on Monday, the number of unemployed Nigerians went from 20.93 in 2018 to 21.76 million in the second quarter of 2020.
This means more than 17 million Nigerians have become unemployed since December 2014, while the total working age population has grown by almost the same number in those six years.
For the first time in the history of the revised NBS unemployment reports, the number of people in the labour force willing to work dropped.
There are now at least 10 million people in the labour force unwilling to work, according to NBS.
A man has been jailed for life for stabbing his father to death in an argument over their broadband speed connection.
Stephen Gallagher, 55, attacked 76-year-old Thomas multiple times with a knife, telling him to “die” as he pleaded for his life, Swansea Crown Court heard on Monday August 10.
The incident occurred on September 10, 2019, in their home in Cwmbran, South Wales.
Thomas Gallagher had walked away from his son during the wifi row which sparked the ‘intense attack’, according to Prosecutor Mark Wyeth QC.
Gallagher said: ‘He irritates me when he ignores me during an argument. He walked away and slammed the door so I rushed upstairs and grabbed the knife.
Stephen Gallagher grabbed the phone away from his father Thomas, smashed the phone on the floor, and stabbed him more than a dozen times.
‘I entered the room grabbed the phone off of him, smashed it on the floor and stabbed him.’
He stabbed his father in the chest, neck, back, and hands during the chilling attack.
Gallagher then called 999 and confessed what had taken place to the phone operator, and went into “some detail”, prosecutor Mark Wyeth told the court.
“He stated that his father was indeed dead in the lounge. He stated his father had asked him to leave and he hadn’t wanted to leave,” he said.
“There is collateral evidence that referred to Mr Gallagher’s difficulties with drinking in the past and there had been a history of hostility by him towards his father.”
Mr Gallagher senior
The 55-year-old also admitted that while he was stabbing his father he shouted ‘die’ at him.
He told police: ‘I could see he was in pain and he said ‘Steve’ – I wanted to finish him off stabbed him again and told him to die.’
Mr. Wyeth said: ‘Such was the intensity of this attack Mr Gallagher was not able to defend himself and there was no evidence of defensive injuries.’
The court heard moments after the attack a postwoman arrived at their home with a delivery.
Mr. Wyeth said: ‘A postal worker attended at the premises, her name was Michelle Slater. She noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the defendant’s demeanour. She described him as calm and said she could smell aftershave.
‘She did not know Mr Gallagher senior’s body was a short distance away from her at that point.
‘That was within half an hour of the killing.’
Paul Lewis QC, defending, said: ‘It is beyond comprehension that what started as an argument over such a trivial matter as the internet provider at their home could result in this tragic murder.
‘There was an argument between father and son. What began as a trivial argument led to the defendant go to his bedroom and retrieving the knife.’
Judge Paul Thomas QC said: ‘You killed him because he was asking you to leave his house following a row about broadband speed and connection.
‘Instead of walking away you went to your bedroom and took a lock knife. You brought that downstairs to where he was with one intention which you used to stab him to death.
‘You attacked him repeatedly with that knife and you did so with such savagery and without any semblance of mercy towards him.’
Sentencing him at Swansea Crown Court, the judge handed him a life sentence with a minimum of 13 years and four months and said he would not be eligible to be considered for release until 2033.
“As you know, you may, in fact, never be released,” he added.
Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden has named Kamala Harris as his running mate for the US 2020 presidential elections.
Biden’s campaign announced on Tuesday August 11 that the former California attorney general Harris will be his vice-presidential pick, making her the first Black and South Asian American woman to run on a major political party’s presidential ticket.
Harris, 55, who is more than 20 years younger than Biden, is a former prosecutor and has been a senator from California since 2017.
Biden’s decision gives Harris a big advantage in 2024, if Biden were elected president in November and decides not to run for a second term.
“I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person,” Biden announced in a statement Tuesday.
“I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they’ve lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus. This president says he “doesn’t want to be distracted by it”. He doesn’t understand that taking care of the people of this nation — all the people — isn’t a distraction — it’s the job. Kamala understands that.”
“I need someone who understands that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. And that if we’re going to get through these crises — we need to come together and unite for a better America. Kamala gets that.”
“I first met Kamala through my son Beau. They were both Attorneys General at the same time. He had enormous respect for her and her work. I thought a lot about that as I made this decision. There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign.”
“Her record of accomplishment — fighting tooth and nail for what’s right — is why I’m choosing her. There is no door Kamala won’t knock on, no stone she’ll leave unturned, if it means making life better — for the people.”
Apple CEO, Tim Cook has become a billionaire after the Cupertino-based iPhone maker broke all previous records to become the world’s most valued company at over $1.84 trillion.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the net worth of Cook has eclipsed $1-billion mark, officially making him a billionaire.
“Cook owns 847,969 shares directly and took home more than $125 million last year as part of his pay package,” reports the BBC.
The milestone comes 9-years after Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011.
Last week, Apple surpassed Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable company.
The massive earnings helped Apple shares closed up 10.47 percent to become the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company, surpassing the largest oil producer in the world.
Apple is now closing in on the milestone of being the first company to be valued at $2 trillion. Back in 2018, Apple was also the first US company to cross the $1-trillion mark.
However, Cook still has a long way to meet up with other CEOs on the Bloomberg Billionaires’ list, like Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ($187 billion), former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates ($121 billion) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($102 billion).
Muhammad Babandede, the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said that they will be reciprocating travel bans and restrictions on Nigeria by any country.
The Immigration CG who said this in reaction to the inclusion of Nigeria by the US to its list of countries with visa restrictions, told TheSignature50 magazine that Nigeria also has the right to dictate who it allows in or restricts entry from.
Babandede said;
“I can tell you that US is a country, it is a nation like Nigeria. They have the right to restrict who will enter their territory or not just like we can restrict US citizen or whomsoever from entering Nigeria.
“So they have the right, but I want people to know that Visa restriction is not a Visa ban, it is a ban for people who want to take residency not people who want to go for short visits.
“You are aware that President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR just launched a new visa policy for Nigeria, the visa policy has 79 classes of visa. So, we will be in a position to say to countries, if you allow us for short visits we will allow you for short visits and if you stop us from other visits, we do the same, because the new visa policy is based on reciprocity.
“So, we will test this for a year and see those who reciprocate and we take actions for those who do otherwise.”
On his achievements so far since being appointed head of the NIS, Babandede said;
“When I came on board, I was really ashamed to find Immigration office, especially commands been kept in federal secretariat, we are law enforcement agency, we ought not to be in a Federal Secretariat. So i made a commitment to myself that every year, I want to commission two new buildings – commands.
“And we have developed a model for each command. I am glad to say that 2017, we did two – Kano and Jigawa, 2018 we did two – Plateau and Abia, and 2019 we did three – we commissioned Adamawa, Zamfara and Uyo.
“This year 2020, God’s willing we will commission around five or eight, depending on the availability of fund.”
President Buhari has appealed to Nigerians to exercise more patience in his administration’s fight against insecurity.
In a statement released on Monday August 10, Buhari disclosed that they are investing heavily in acquiring modern equipment. He added that when the equipment arrive, security operatives will undergo training ahead of deployment to the field.
The statement read;
We are working very hard to ensure the security situation in every part of Nigeria improves very soon. As part of our efforts, we are investing heavily in acquiring modern equipment. Some have arrived, some are being cleared at the Ports, and we have others still on their way.
Our government is doing its best on the question of equipment, and the military know. We understand the importance of properly equipping our personnel, so that they can deliver their best.
I ask for some patience with the acquisition of equipment, especially with the impact of Covid-19 on global supply chains. And then when the equipment arrive, we need to train personnel for their usage, ahead of deployment to the field.
I want all Nigerians to rest assured that we are doing our very best in this regard. You will see substantial improvements very soon. Security of the lives and property of all Nigerian people will continue to be a priority for us.
At least 13 people are understood to be injured after a massive explosion erupted from a gas station in Russia
The blast happened in Volgograd city in Russia. According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, a propane tank caught fire at a gas station in Volgograd’s Traktorozavodsky district.
Firefighters reached the site at 11.30am local time. An initial attempt to contain the fire was unsuccessful.
Video footage of the explosion shows a large ball of fire sent flying up into the sky and the huge flames could be seen from a distance followed by thick, black smoke.
It was first reported only four to six people were caught in the initial blast but rescuers were also injured due to several small explosions.
All were taken to the hospital and the fire is now under control.
The cause of the blast is not clear yet, but local media has reported the explosion occurred in the fuel tank.
Eyewitnesses say the explosion shook the windows of many houses within the area.
Ten victims were taken to the hospital while another two refused hospitalisation. At least one person was in critical condition.
One of the firefighters, an employee of the Emergencies Ministry, has suffered serious burns. Local reports claim at least 50 percent of his body burned by the time he was taken to the hospital.
This explosion comes just days after more than 200 people were killed in an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.
Bambridge Accountants reports that 5,816 people gave up US citizenship in the first half of 2020 — a 1,210 per cent increase on the previous six months in which only 444 cases were recorded.
The first two quarters of 2020 also rank as having the first and second highest numbers on record at 2,909 and 2,907 respectively.
In the whole of 2019, a total of only 2,072 Americans gave up their citizenship.
Bambridge specialises in preparing and filing taxes for US and UK expats, particularly those in creative fields such as acting.
The firm cites the pandemic as a motivating factor for US expats to cut ties and avoid the current political climate and onerous tax reporting.
Alistair Bambridge, a partner at the firm, told CNN: “These are mainly people who already left the US and just decided they’ve had enough of everything.”
He adds: “What we’ve seen is people are over everything happening with President Donald Trump, how the coronavirus pandemic is being handled, and the political policies in the US at the moment.”
There are approximately 9 million Americans living outside of the US.
Each year they are required to file tax returns, and report all of their foreign bank accounts, investments and pensions.
Mr Bambridge explains: “The current pandemic has allowed individuals the time to review their ties to the US and decide that the current political climate and annual US tax reporting is just too much to bear.”
On a positive note, those who have retained their citizenship remain eligible for any stimulus payments authorised by the US government in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Asked about the impact of the November election on the number of people giving up their citizenship, Mr Bambridge said: “If President Trump is re-elected, we believe there will be another wave of people who will decide to renounce their citizenship.”
In order to renounce their citizenship, Americans must pay a $2,350 government fee, and those based overseas must do so in person at a US Embassy.
Every three months the US government publishes the names of those who have given up their citizenship.
Department of Homeland Security records show that in 2018, the year with the most recent data available, 761,901 people were naturalised as US citizens
Russia president Vladimir Putin, has announced that his country has finally approved the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, saying he has tested it on his daughter and it worked.
According to Putin, the vaccine was developed at Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, with large-scale production of the vaccine projected to start in September, while mass vaccination may begin as early as October.
The vaccine has undergone just less than two months of human testing but Putin speaking to Government officials on Tuesday August 11 said one of his two daughters is among those who have already had a shot of the new vaccine.
Putin did not specify which of his daughters had received the jab, but said she had a temperature of 38C on the day of her first injection, which then dropped to 37C the next day.
He said she had a slight increase in temperature after the second injection, but she is now ‘feeling well’. He revealed she had a ‘high number of antibodies’.
The next stage of the tests, commonly known as a Phase III trial, will involve thousands of participants. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are more than 100 possible Covid-19 vaccines currently being developed around the world.
This phase III stage is normally considered an essential precursor before a vaccine can receive regulatory approval and be distributed worldwide.
Putin speaking today said: ‘I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks.’
According to Putin the vaccine development is a ‘very important step for the world.’
The Health Ministry said in Tuesday’s statement that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity from the coronavirus for up to two years.
Putin emphasized that vaccination will be voluntary and that medical workers, teachers and other risk groups will be the first to be inoculated.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has lauded Russia’s efforts in developing the vaccine and said that the Philippines is ready to work with Moscow on vaccine trials, supply, and production.
Duterte volunteered to “be the first they can experiment on.”
“I will tell President Putin that I have huge trust in your studies in combating COVID and I believe that the vaccine that you have produced is really good for humanity,” Duterte said, adding that he thinks Russia’s vaccine will be ready for the Philippines by December.
Tottenham Hotspur have announced the signing of midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from Southampton.
The 25-year-old Denmark international who underwent his medical at the club’s training ground on Monday August 10, penned a five-year deal with Jose Mourinho’s side for a fee of £20million.
Hojbjerg will wear the No 5 shirt vacated by Jan Vertonghen who left the club at the end of the season.
After completing his move, Hojbjerg told Tottenham’s official website: ‘What was very important to me is I wanted to play in a club where I could see myself for many years. Tottenham was the one. I’m very proud, very happy, excited.
‘I think there’s a fantastic future ahead for the Club and I wanted so much to be a part of that.’
Justin Timberlake has reportedly signed an ‘infidelity clause’ that could give wife Jessica Biel majority of their assets and primary custody of the kids if he cheats.
This comes after their marriage was allegedly on the brink of divorce last November following his slip-up. At the time, he was caught on camera getting cozy with his co-star, Alisha Wainwright during a night out. He also ditched his ring during the outing.
Timberlake later apologized to his wife publicly (read here) and insisted he didn’t cheat. All was forgiven and they recently welcomed a second child after a secret pregnancy .
To appease his wife’s worries following his slip-up, Timberlake reportedly volunteered to write a midterm agreement that includes an infidelity clause, OK! Magazine reports.
“Justin’s pledged that any proven cheating will result in Jessica getting the lion’s share of their assets as well as primary custody of the kids. He’s adamant that he never cheated, but this is another good way of reaffirming his commitment toward her,” the source said.
The source also said that Timberlake and Biel are in a much better place in their relationship after welcoming their second child last month.
“Justin’s 100 percent confident that they’ve come out stronger from the horrible experience he put them through. However, Jess is still calling all the shots for now, and Justin’s fine with that. He knows how lucky he is that she’s still with him,” the source said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that the novel Coronavirus is proving exceptionally difficult to stop, as the number of cases approaches 20 million with over 700,000 deaths as at today Monday, August 10.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, speaking during a news conference in Geneva on Monday, said in order to completely stop the virus it is important to identify where the human-animal barrier was breached.
“This virus is proving exceptionally difficult to stop,” Ryan said, saying that it was important to reflect on what is known about the virus, in terms of the ease of spread, the multiple transmission modes and the existence of asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission.
“This is not an easy virus and not an easy virus, either, to detect. It’s not an easy virus to stop,” he said.
Ryan explained that an epidemiologic investigation will start in Wuhan, China because that’s where the first clusters of cases were picked up, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that is where Case Zero (the very first case) was.
According to Dr Ryan, finding ‘Case Zero’ helps to distinguish this crossing of the barrier between species.
“If you follow the data and the science, you will find, hopefully, the point at which the disease crossed the species barrier,” he said.
“It is important that we find that, because as long as the animal-human breach has not been discovered, there’s always a chance that that barrier can be breached again,” he said.
Although finding this breach is important, it can take some time, according to Ryan, as the barrier breach for SARS was never fully established.
“The world is at greater risk for these species breaches, Ryan said.
“We are pressuring the biologic system. We live in a biome. We live in a world of biology. And we are creating – actively creating – the pressures that are driving the breaches of those barriers,” he said. “And we need to do better at managing the risks associated with that.”
Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Hassan Diab and his entire government have stepped down, in the wake of last week’s Tuesday August 4 blast which decimated a large portion of the capital Beirut killing more than 160 people.
Lebanon was already suffering through a bad economic crisis, coupled with rising Coronavirus rates. The Lebanese government has been plagued by accusations of corruption and gross mismanagement.
The government has faced major criticism after it was revealed that the bomb blast was linked to a long forgotten stash of explosive chemicals stored at a port in Beirut.
The blast sparked days of violent protests as dozens of protesters hurled stones, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at security forces who responded with several rounds of tear gas, leading to the resignation of three cabinet ministers and seven members of parliament last week.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, addressing the nation on Monday Night in Beirut announced his resignation and that of his government calling the blast a “disaster beyond measure.”
In his speech, Diab berated Lebanon’s ruling political elite for growing “an apparatus of corruption bigger than the state.” “We have fought valiantly and with dignity,” he said, referring to members of his cabinet. “Between us and change is big powerful barrier.”
He compared the explosion to an “earthquake that rocked the country” prompting his government to resign. “We have decided to stand with the people,” he said.
Diab, a self-styled reformer, became PM in December, two months after the previous government was brought down.
His government was supported by major political parties, including the Iran-backed political and militant group Hezbollah.
According to the World Bank, more than half of the country’s population is projected to become poor in 2020 as Lebanon’s currency has lost around 70% of its value since anti-government protests began last October.
A major gas explosion has left one dead with several people injured in Baltimore, Maryland.
According to the Baltimore Firefighters Union IAFF Local 734, three-row houses in northwest Baltimore were completely destroyed and several people were injured on Monday morning, August 10. Multiple people, including children, had been trapped and rescued from the rubble as crews were continuing to search for more trapped occupants.
“This is a major incident,” the IAFF Local 734 said in a tweet. More than 200 personnel were on scene, including officials with Baltimore County Fire, the city’s emergency management office and Baltimore Gas and Electric, the union said.
Two of the homes’ occupants were taken to hospitals in serious condition, the fire department tweeted.
One destroyed home belonged to an 88-year-old U.S. Army veteran, the Baltimore Sun reported. That veteran, Major Watkins, Jr., said the explosion “sounded like Korea.”
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