Workers manufacture Open G smartphones, which can speak local Ivorian languages, at a factory in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast July 22, 2022. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
An entrepreneur in Ivory Coast has created the country’s first locally-made smartphone, which aims to improve accessibility with voice commands in local languages for users who can’t read and write. Founder Alain Capo-Chichi said he wanted to create the phone to help people like his parents, who are illiterate, use features like transferring money and sending messages. Alain said he has created the Open G phone to help people like his parents, who are illiterate, use features like transferring money and sending messages, thus creating a solution for Africa’s uneducated populace who have previously faced a major challenge in accessing key features that comes along with these phones.
The locally-made smartphone joins the list of other locally-made smartphones produced in other countries in Africa. Africa recently joined the list of countries with locally manufactured smartphones globally in 2019, when Rwanda launched a locally-made phone by Mara Group. The group recorded an important feat as it became the first to manufacture the first-ever ‘Made-in-Africa’ smartphone model. The phones named “Mara Phones” were launched on October 7, 2019, in Kigali, Rwanda and as a result gave a boost to the country’s ambitions of becoming a regional technology hub.
The Hainan provincial government said in a “Carbon Peak Implementation Plan” the Island in the South China Sea will become China’s first region to ban sales of gasoline- and diesel-powered cars to curb climate-changing carbon emissions. Sales of fossil fuel-powered cars will be banned by 2030 and electric vehicles promoted with tax breaks and by expanding a charging network. The announcement comes as China struggles through its hottest, driest summer in decades, which has wilted crops and shrunk rivers and reservoirs used for generating hydropower. “By 2030, the whole province will ban sales of fueled vehicles,” according to the plan, which was released Monday. A deputy Chinese industry minister said in September 2017 that Beijing was working on a plan to stop making and selling gasoline- and diesel-powered cars, but the government has yet to release details. Hainan aims to have electric vehicles account for 45% of its vehicles by 2030, the plan said. It said cities would develop “zero-emissions zones” where fossil fuel-powered vehicles would be banned. The ruling Communist Party is promoting electric cars to help clean up China’s smog-choked cities and gain an early lead in a growing industry. China accounted for more than half of last year’s global electric car sales.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N718.19 million to secure the 45-kilometre Abuja rail tracks and stations. This was disclosed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Mohammed Bello during a briefing on Wednesday in Abuja. “In the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of today, I presented a memo and the council approved a contract to two companies for the provision of security services for the Abuja Light Rail Mass Transit System,” the minister told reporters during the briefing. “These companies are Messrs Al-Ahali Security Guards Limited and Messrs Seaguard Security and Protective Company Limited
The cities of Jos, Kaduna and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja will witness top class football action this weekend as the quarter-final matches of this year’s AITEO Cup competition (men’s version) take place.
Niger Tornadoes and Lobi Stars are the combatants in Jos to determine a slot in the semi finals while top-tier teams Wikki Tourists and Nasarawa United clash in Kaduna.
Kogi United, the surprise team of this year’s competition, are up against Kano Pillars at the Area 3 Stadium, Abuja.
It would be recalled that the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, at its meeting of 18thAugust adopted the resolutions of a peace meeting of Club representatives with NFF officials that agreed to a rebooting of the AITEO Cup Competition 2022 (men’s version) from the quarter-final stage.
A notice to Football Associations of the States hosting the quarter-final matches has clarified that the fourth match between Heartland FC of Owerri and Katsina United FC is determined to have been won and lost, with Heartland FC the winners and already in possession of a semi-final ticket.
AITEO CUP COMPETITION 2022
QUARTER FINAL FIXTURES (MEN)
Niger Tornadoes Vs Lobi Stars – 27/08/22 – Jos – 4pm
Wikki Tourists Vs Nasarawa United – 27/08/22 – Kaduna – 4pm
Kogi United Vs Kano Pillars – 27/08/22 – Area 3, Abuja – 4pm
Chairman of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa has warned Nigerians not to travel to Northern Cyprus. The commission made the statement while Speaking to State House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, Dabiri-Erewa said there is little the Federal Government can do to diplomnatically resolve issues in the territory because Northern Cyprus is not recognised by the international community except Turkey. The warning comes amid reports many Nigerian are being killed in Northern Cyprus. Dabiri-Erewa also urged Nigerians in Diaspora not to be afraid to invest in the country because of insecurity. While admitting that the country’s insecurity challenge is a source of concern, she said it is only temporary because of stiff measures currently employed by the Federal Government to tackle the situation.
Mount Belinda is a stratovolcano that is located on the Montagu Island in the sub-Antarctic Scotia Sea, which is part of the group of South Sandwich Islands that form the British overseas territory of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
Being a steep volcano built from hardened lava flows and volcanic ash over a period of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, it is one of the most intriguingly beautiful ones from the area.
With an elevation of 1,370 meters (4,490 feet), Mount Belinda is still active, where its small peak is a small summit situated within a sloping ice field that fills the largest caldera known in the island group.
The broad summit caldera is approximately 6 km (4 mi) in diameter and is entirely filled by permanent ice of uncertain depth, which is almost impossible to be measured due to the activity of the volcano.
Even though until 2001 Mount Belinda was considered to be inactive, it suddenly erupted producing large quantities of basaltic lava, melting the thick cover of ice that had accumulated while the volcano was dormant, which made it very interesting for the scientists since it was believed to have some similar processes with some on Mars.
The highest activity was marked in 2005 which produced some 4 km (3 mi) long lava flow, extending from the summit cone of Mount Belinda to the sea. The activity of the volcano almost ceased by 2007, where in 2010 there was only activity from scattered fumeroles and cooling lava.
The whole island is almost 90% covered with ice and snow, with most of the exposed rock limited to vertical sea cliffs, making it difficult to get to the island, although even though there are almost no visitors per year.
Nevertheless, there are tours that offer cruising the Antarctic area, where this island is possible to be seen, if the tour operator is willing enough to offer something more extraordinary, from the already extraordinary sights that are listed on the tours.
Globally -renown kit manufacturers, NIKE have extended their contract agreement with the Nigeria Football Federation until December 2026.
President of NFF, Mr Amaju Melvin Pinnick said on Thursday that negotiations had been on-going for the past one month before the American foot-and-bodywear behemoth agreed to extend their relationship with Nigeria Football.
“We talked about several areas they needed to look into and we finally got a deal and extension of the contract until December 2026. I give the credit for this to Members of the NFF Executive Committee and the General Secretary. The new agreement lends credence to NIKE’s faith in Nigeria Football and what we are doing as a Federation. It is a wake-up call for our other sponsors and partners to extend their agreements and for more players in Corporate Nigeria to support the Nigeria game.
“We have also succeeded in getting our partners Nigerian Breweries PLC to extend their contract with the NFF by one year. Initially, their relationship with the NFF was due to end this year. We got talking and met several times, and finally they agreed to extend by another year after which they will perform a review of the relationship.”
Meanwhile, kit giants NIKE officially opened their Lagos mega-shop on Thursday. The impressive office is located at the expansive Ikeja Mall, in the heart of one of the city’s main business districts. The mega-shop is the first of planned major outlets on Lagos island and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
August 25, 1875 — At 10.41 on the morning of this day, 27-year-old Matthew Webb, exhausted and suffering from delirium, put his feet on the beach at Calais.
He had been in the water nearly 22 hours but had become the first person to swim across the Channel from England to France without artificial aids.
His achievement was celebrated all over the world. It brought him instant fame and he received a hero’s welcome wherever he went.
Webb was born in the English Midlands at Dawley, Shropshire, in 1848, one of 12 children produced by Thomas and Sarah Webb. His father was a doctor.
At the age of 12, Matthew enrolled as a sea cadet with the naval training ship HMS Conway in Liverpool. He became an experienced sailor and throughout his years at sea became a very good swimmer. He eventually became a captain with the Cunard shipping line.
Before that he demonstrated his heroism while serving as Second Mate aboard the Cunard steamer ‘Russia’ which was sailing from New York to Liverpool in 1873.
During a gale in mid-Atlantic a crewman was washed overboard and Webb dived in, trying to rescue him. He was in the water for 37 minutes, close to being lost. Webb failed to find the sailor but he was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Humane Society of Great Britain and he became a national hero.
He resigned from Cunard the following year having decided to seek fame and fortune as a professional endurance swimmer. Captain Webb’s exploits over the following eight years led one newspaper to describe him as “probably the best known and most popular man in the world”.
His popularity soared when he conquered the English Channel. After covering himself with porpoise oil to fend off the cold, he dived off Admiralty Pier, Dover, at 1pm on August 24, 1875, and swam towards Calais, trailed by a flotilla of three boats. An artist from the Illustrated London News was aboard one of them.
Captain Webb was stung by jellyfish eight hours into his swim, but he carried on after receiving brandy from a supporter in one of the boats. It was said that at one stage he also paused for a cup of tea, served while he was treading water.
Finally, after 21 hours and 45 minutes of swimming, often against the tide, he waded onto the beach at Calais at 10.41am, the morning after he set out. Having swum the equivalent of 39 miles (62km), he was helped ashore and boarded a waiting carriage that took him to a hotel.
A hero’s welcome wherever he went was enjoyable and flattering but Webb needed money. And so for the next few years, as well as treading the lecture circuit, he took part in various races and stunts.
He beat the United States champion, Paul Boyton, in a much publicised race off Natasket Beach in the town of Hull, Massachusetts.
But Webb had a wider repertoire and performed feats such as floating in London’s Westminster Aquarium for 60 hours.
He repeated the performance at the Boston Horticultural Show a year later, where this time he floated in a tank for 128 hours!
Then, on July 24, 1883, Captain Webb attempted his final stunt: he was offered $2,000 if he could successfully swim through the Whirlpool Rapids of Niagara Falls.
Friends tried to talk him out of it saying it was suicide, but his reckless determination prevailed.
Thousands watched as the swimmer plunged into the river and headed towards the mighty rapids.
Unfortunately, his friends were right and Webb drowned after being sucked down by a whirlpool about 10 minutes after entering the water.
One visitor to the Falls later commented: “It truly is crazy to think a person could survive at the foot of that mad, loud, gargantuan crush of water. It’s like the weight of heaven itself descending all at once.”
It was four days before Captain Webb’s mangled body was recovered. He was buried at nearby Oakwood Cemetery.
In a special edition the Illustrated London News reported the death of “the bravest and greatest of swimmers”.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has rejected the proposed payment of N10, 000 per session by each parent to assist the Federal Government in making more funds available for universities.
On Wednesday, it was reported that the National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria proposed the levy and sought an audience with the government over the lingering strike by ASUU.
“We have submitted a letter to the Office of the Education Minister, seeking an audience where we hope to discuss a proposal.
“We are proposing a sum of N10, 000 per parent every session that will be directly paid to the universities. That will be our own contribution apart from other statutory payments in making more funds available to the universities.
“It can be called parent support levy for universities. We are at the receiving end of the industrial action. We plead with the ASUU and Federal Government to immediately resolve their differences,” NAPTAN’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Ademola Ekundayo, disclosed this during an interview on Tuesday.
But reacting to the proposed levy on Thursday, ASUU’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the parents should intervene by joining the body in mounting pressure on the apex government.
Osodeke made the call while speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday.
“I think what this association should be doing is to tell the government to perform its function. They should put pressure on the government to use Nigerians’ money to fund education as it is done in other countries.
“We can’t be calling ourselves the giant of Africa and we are the worst in education. You see students from Nigeria going to Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo, and other small countries to study but nobody from these countries is coming to Nigeria to study.
“So they should add to the pressure coming from ASUU to ensure that the government prioritise education. That is more important than the N10,000”.
1609 Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1718 Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans founded
1768 Captain James Cook departs from Plymouth, England, on his first voyage on board the Endeavour, bound for the Pacific Ocean
1894 Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet
1944 French General Charles de Gaulle walks the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation
1990 UN security council authorizes military action against Iraq
1991 Linux is born when Linus Torvalds sends off an email announcing his project to create a new computer operating system
HISTORICAL EVENTS TODAY
TODAY IN FILM & TV
1955 16th Venice Film Festival: “Ordet” directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer wins Golden Lion
TODAY IN MUSIC
1998 “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” debut album by Lauryn Hill is released (5 Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Billboard Album of the Year 1998)
TODAY IN SPORT
1875 Captain Matthew Webb makes the 1st observed and unassisted swim across the English Channel in 21 hours and 45 minutes
1960 AFL begins placing players names on back of their jerseys
MORE FACTS….
1958 Momofuku Ando markets the first package of precooked instant noodles (Chikin Ramen)
1804 Alicia Thornton becomes first female jockey in England riding at Knavesmire in Yorkshire
FAMOUS WEDDINGS
1749 British admiral Samuel Hood (24) weds Susannah Linzee in Portsmouth, England
1870 German composer Richard Wagner (57) weds Franz Liszt’s daughter Cosima Liszt (32) at a Protestant church in Lucerne, Switzerland
1885 “Little House On The Prairie” author Laura Ingalls (18) weds Almonzo James Wilder (28)
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