Gunmen Kill Worshippers During Church Service In Nigeria, Local Media Report

Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria’s Ondo state during mass on Sunday, killing several people, local media reported.

A doctor at a hospital in Owo, a town in the state in Nigeria’s southwest, told Reuters that “several worshippers were brought in dead”.

Funmilayo Ibukun Odunlami, police spokesperson for Ondo state, said “there was an incident today at the Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo” and police would issue a statement soon.

Local media said gunmen had fired at worshippers and detonated explosives at the church.

Africa’s most populous country has witnessed attacks and kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs, mostly in its northwest. Such attacks are rare in southwestern Nigeria.

Ondo state governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu said he was heading back to the state from the capital Abuja after the “unprovoked attack and killing of innocent people of Owo.”

“We shall commit every available resource to hunt down these assailants and make them pay,” he said in a statement.

Source: REUTERS

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International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

 

Day by day, violence against children in varied conflict zones has been rising; nearing to 250 million children living in nations affected by the conflict is vulnerable. The United Nation recognizes, that there exist more need to done, so that rights of the children protected and at the same time, suffering Is also highlighted. There are numerous harms to the children in conflict; it includes sexual violence, death, addiction, and denial of humanitarian access, abduction, attacks on both schools and hospitals. 

Watch our video against child marriage

Click here to learn more: https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2022/04/wow-we-are-delighted-to-announce-second.html

On June 4th every year, International Day of Innocent Children Victims of aggression is observed. The major aim, behind observing this above day, is to acknowledge the pain suffered by the children across the world, which is caused due to any kind of abuse, which include mental, physical and emotional.

 Origin 

The above day came into being in a special United Nations General Assembly Session, which was held to discuss the condition of Palestine. It is during this session that took place on 19th August, 1982, that organization asserted that it is, appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian as well as Lebanese Children Victims of Israel's acts of aggression. This came after, Lebanon war, which took place in the year 1982 and it had a huge number of child victims. 

Elon Musk Wants To Cut 10% Of Tesla Jobs

 Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker, he said in an email to executives seen by Reuters.

The message, sent on Thursday and titled “pause all hiring worldwide”, came two days after the billionaire told staff to return to the workplace or leave, and adds to a growing chorus of warnings from business leaders about the risks of recession.

Almost 100,000 people were employed at Tesla and its subsidiaries at the end of 2021, its annual SEC filing showed.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

Tesla shares fell nearly 3% in U.S. pre-market trade on Friday and its Frankfurt-listed stock was down 3.6% after the Reuters report. U.S. Nasdaq futures turned negative and were trading 0.6% lower.

Musk has warned in recent weeks about the risks of recession, but his email ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts was the most direct and high-profile message of its kind from the head of an automaker.

So far, demand for Tesla cars and other electric vehicles (EV) has remained strong and many traditional indicators of a downturn – including increasing dealer inventories and incentives in the United States – have not materialized.

But Tesla has struggled to restart production at its Shanghai factory after COVID-19 lockdowns forced costly outages.

“Musk’s bad feeling is shared by many people,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomic research at Dutch bank ING. “But we are not talking about global recession. We expect a cooling of the global economy towards the end of the year. The U.S. will cool off, while China and Europe are not going to rebound.”

Musk’s gloomy outlook echoes recent comments from executives including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs President John Waldron.

A “hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way,” Dimon said this week.

Inflation in the United States is hovering at 40-year highs and has caused a jump in the cost of living for Americans, while the Federal Reserve faces the difficult task of dampening demand enough to curb inflation while not causing a recession.

Musk, the world’s richest man according to Forbes, did not elaborate on the reasons for his “super bad feeling” about the economic outlook in the brief email seen by Reuters.

It was also not immediately clear what implication, if any, Musk’s view would have for his $44-billion bid for Twitter (TWTR.N).

Several analysts have cut price targets for Tesla recently, forecasting lost output at its Shanghai plant, a hub supplying EVs to China and for export.

China accounted for just over a third of Tesla’s global deliveries in 2021, according to company disclosures and data released on sales there. On Thursday, Daiwa Capital Markets estimated Tesla had about 32,000 orders awaiting delivery in China, compared to 600,000 vehicles for BYD (002594.SZ), its larger EV rival in that market.

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said in a tweet it appeared Musk and Tesla were “trying to be ahead of a slower delivery ramp this year and preserve margins ahead of an economic slowdown.”

‘PAUSE ALL HIRING’

Before Musk’s warning, Tesla had about 5,000 job postings on LinkedIn from sales in Tokyo and engineers at its new Berlin gigafactory to deep learning scientists in Palo Alto. It had scheduled an online hiring event for Shanghai on June 9 on its WeChat channel.

Musk’s demand that staff return to the office has already faced pushback in Germany. And his plan to cut jobs would face resistance in the Netherlands, where Tesla has its European headquarters, a union leader said.

“You can’t just fire Dutch workers,” said FNV union spokesperson Hans Walthie, adding Tesla would have to negotiate with a work council on terms for any departures.

In a Tuesday email, Musk had said Tesla employees were required to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours per week, closing the door on any remote work. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” he said.

Musk has referred to the risk of a recession repeatedly in recent comments.

Remotely addressing a conference in mid-May in Miami Beach, he said: “I think we are probably in a recession and that recession will get worse.”

In late May, when asked on Twitter whether a recession was coming, Musk said: “Yes, but this is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen.”

Other companies have cut jobs or are slowing or pausing hiring amid weakening demand.

Last month, Netflix (NFLX.O) said it had laid off about 150 people, mostly in the United States, and Peloton said in February it would cut 2,800 jobs. Meta Platforms (FB.O), Uber (UBER.N) and other technology companies have slowed hiring.

In June 2018, Musk said Tesla would cut 9% of its workforce as the then-loss-making company struggled to ramp up output of Model 3 electric sedans, although data in its SEC filings showed reductions were more than offset by hiring by year end.

Source: REUTERS

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Returnee Busted After Herbalist Exposes Him For Attempting To Kill Daughter For Money

 There were chills and a lot of emotions accompanying the revelations in a video fast making rounds on Facebook, where a man has been arrested for sending his daughter to a herbalist to have her killed for money.

In the video shared by Nana Adu-Boafo Jnr on Facebook, who identifies himself as a chief, military man, writer, author, poet and herbalist, he narrated how the man, Evans Oppong (who is also captured in the video wearing a plain white cloth and sitting on a wooden stool) brought his daughter to him, optimistic that she would be killed for rituals.

He explains in the post that Evans Oppong had just returned from abroad and came to him for help because things were not going on well with him there.

He added that the man explained that he has 12 children and that he wanted to use two of them for rituals, and that was why he went for this daughter from school and brought her to him.

However, unknown to Evans Oppong, he had just walked into a trap.

“This man brought his own biological daughter to me for money rituals. He promised me 10,000 GHc and other good surprises after the rituals.

“I was crying within me because I have sympathy for humans and animals; I don’t kill people, sometimes I don’t even eat my own poultry because I grow so much love for them.

“The sad thing is, he even picked the daughter from school during school hours with the intention of buying her a new dress. This man is a bad man with many evil intentions,” Nana Adu-Boafo Jnr wrote.

Uniformed policemen handcuffed Evans Oppong, and the little girl was whisked away by a worker from the Social Welfare, who also came to the house with the police.

Source: ghanaweb.com

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Poll date finally confirmed

 Luanda – The Council of the Republic gave green light this Friday to the August 24th date for the general elections in Angola.

With such consensus, the Head of State is now in position to issue the official decree that summons the 2022 elections, which, for the first time, will include voting for the Angolan Diaspora.  

 

The first democratic elections took place in Angola in the year 1992, following the signing of the Bicesse Peace Accords. In that process roughly 4.8 million Angolans went to the ballot.

Nigeria: Zipline And Kaduna State Begin Drone Deliveries To Health Facilities

 

Zipline, the global leader in instant logistics, today completed the first drone deliveries in Nigeria’s Kaduna State.
These initial flights mark the final stage of integration with the local health systems and validation with the regulatory authorities.

Zipline and the Kaduna State Government expect to deliver medical supplies to hundreds of health facilities to help create a more agile, responsive and accessible health system, subject to final regulatory approval.

“Zipline has a proven track record of health system transformation,” said Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai.

“Today, we’re making our first flights to pave the way toward bringing this proven service to Kaduna State. We are proud to be the very first state in Nigeria to adopt this innovative supply chain to support our efforts in healthcare delivery. Zipline’s system is a powerful next step in Kaduna State’s ongoing efforts to create a smarter, stronger health system that better serves everyone in our state.”

Zipline will operate three distribution centres across the state, covering an area of 46,000 square kilometres and delivering to approximately 500 health facilities serving millions of people.

The company will begin by delivering more than 200 different medical products, including medicines and routine vaccines, with plans to expand to more soon.

Zipline will bring its proven COVID-19 vaccine distribution model to Nigeria.

The company and its partners pioneered this model with the Government of Ghana; to date, they have successfully delivered more than 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

“Investment in the supply chain makes health systems more efficient, effective and equitable,” said Amina Mohammed Baloni, Health Commissioner of Kaduna State.

“Today’s flights are an important step toward ensuring people across Kaduna State have access to the care they need, precisely when and where they need it to drive better health outcomes and foster healthier communities.”

Today marks Zipline’s first deliveries in Nigeria, home to both the largest economy and population on the continent. Its operation will begin with test flights delivering medical supplies to health facilities as part of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s final approval process. Regular commercial operations in Kaduna State are expected to begin later this month, and the company has also signed agreements with a number of other states that it plans to launch later this year.

“Instant logistics enables governments and health systems to optimize their supply chains and reimagine how care is delivered,” said Daniel Marfo, Senior Vice President of Africa at Zipline. “Today’s flights mark one more step toward unlocking these benefits for millions more people, and bringing us one step closer to effective, agile systems that better serve all people.”

Zipline has a demonstrated track record of working with governments and health systems to transform health supply chains to be more efficient, accessible and sustainable. A recent independent study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, showed Zipline’s instant logistics system has significantly increased the availability, reliability and range of inventory at health facilities in Ghana by addressing supply chain challenges.

“With more than 315,000 commercial deliveries worldwide, Zipline has built an impressive record of safe, reliable, impactful service,” said Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and former President of ICAO Council. “Soon, the company is expected to bring this game-changing service to millions more people, and bring us one step closer to a world where anyone can get whatever they need, whenever and wherever they need it.”

Today’s flights were made possible through Zipline and Kaduna State’s collaboration with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and the International Civil Aviation Organization. Nigeria marks Zipline’s third country of operation in Africa following national-scale operations in Ghana and Rwanda, and its fifth globally.

Source: graphiconline.com

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Angola committed to clean energy

 Luanda - The Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, said Thursday in Stockholm, Sweden, that Angola plans to reach a target of 70 percent of energy from non-polluting sources by 2025, favouring clean energy from hydroelectric dams and solar power.

According to the official, who was speaking at the opening of the United Nations Conference on the environment, "Stockholm+50," to that end the country has approved the National Climate Change and Environmental Education Strategies.

"And investments have been made in economic and social infrastructures to mitigate the effects of the prolonged drought affecting southern Angola, particularly the recently inaugurated Cafu canal in Cunene province, where access to water has already been ensured over a 160-kilometre stretch for 350,000 people, thus ensuring better opportunities in food production and livestock," she added.

Angola, according to Carolina Cerqueira, is also involved in preparations for the United Nations Conference on the Oceans, taking into account the importance of the blue economy and marine pollution.

"We draw special attention to the need to show solidarity, fulfil the imperative of sharing the means of implementation, in full recognition of the special situation and the specific needs of developing countries.  Financial resources, technical expertise and strengthening the capacity of our institutions are also everyone's responsibility," she said.

Carolina Cerqueira advanced that the country is committed to modernising national environmental laws, integrating civil society, as well as developing effective national mechanisms to enforce laws in this area.