Kwara Lawmaker Donates Education Materials To Public Schools

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June 12, 2022

The Senator representing Kwara Central, Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe has facilitated instructional materials such as Textbooks, Whiteboards, Writing Items and others to selected public schools in Kwara Central Senatorial District to ensure an effective approach to teaching delivery.

The gesture is complementary to the lawmaker’s various educational interventions ranging from the facilitation of classrooms, ICT tools, Science Laboratory equipment and furniture for teachers and students, all of which are intended to improve the quality of education accessible to the people of his constituency.

At the presentation of the items to the schools, Senator Oloriegbe, represented by his aide, Ajani Jimoh Olanrewaju reiterated his desire to elevate the standard of education, saying that the idea of the intervention was to strengthen the channels of communication to aid effective teaching by stimulating the students’ interest in learning.

“The purpose of this intervention is to give the teachers access to necessary materials that will be used to complement teaching in the bid to achieve the learning objectives through learner-centred approach to encourage higher levels of student performance”

“We are committed to facilitating projects critical to the improvement of the standard of education and this is evident in the various interventions we have made in the education sector. We shall remain unrelenting in our efforts to extend the intervention to every part of the constituency. The areas that are yet to be touched will be the principal considerations in the approaching interventions.”

“The teachers are enjoined to make judicious use of these items to realise the purpose for which they were facilitated and most importantly, they should not be mismanaged, else they will not stand the test of time.”

The Chairman, Education Committee, Iponrin town, Muhammad Akanbi expressed delight over the gesture and lauded the lawmaker for always reporting back to his people and for giving Kwara Central Senatorial District what he described as effective representation.

“We are grateful for this gesture which again lends credence to your resolve to make quality teaching accessible to the people at the grassroots. I applaud you for the consistency you have displayed in delivering effective representations to the people. I enjoin the students to emulate the goodwill of Oloriegbe, who himself is a product of the public school, in always contributing to the development of public education when they grow into adults.”

In their respective remarks, the principals of the benefitting schools appreciated the lawmaker for his unceasing interventions to enhance educational development, promising that the items will be effectively used to facilitate the delivery of quality learning outcomes.

“These instructional materials are essential tools that play critical roles in easing the learning of every subject in the schools’ curriculum. They allow the students to interact with words, symbols, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in reading, listening, thinking, and speaking which will, in turn, enhance their cognitive capacity,” the Principal, Ilorin Grammar School, Junior Section, Abdulrahman Zubair Akeyede said.

The benefitting schools are Ilorin Grammar School, Ilorin; Government Day Secondary School Tanke, Banni Community Secondary School, Ilorin, Temidire Community Secondary School, Asa, and Iponrin Community Secondary School, Iponri, Ilorin East LGA.

North Korea Fires Suspected Artillery Pieces Into Sea – Seoul

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Zoe Maven

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June 12, 2022

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South Korea’s military said North Korea test-fired suspected artillery pieces into the sea on Sunday, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for greater defense capability to cope with outside threats.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected several flight trajectories believed to be North Korean artillery on Sunday morning. It said South Korea maintains a firm military readiness in close coordination with the United States amid boosted surveillance on North Korea.

During a national Security Council meeting convened to discuss the suspected launches, South Korean officials expressed concern that North Korea is upgrading weapons systems that pose a direct threat to South Korea and reaffirmed they would sternly deal with such North Korean efforts, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

The North’s artillery tests draw less outside attention than its missile launches. But its forward-deployed long-range artillery guns are a serious security threat to South Korea’s populous metropolitan region, which is only 40-50 kilometers from the border with North Korea.

The suspected artillery launches were the latest in a spate of weapons tests by North Korea this year in what foreign experts call an attempt to pressure its rivals Washington and Seoul to relax international sanctions against Pyongyang and make other concessions.

South Korean and U.S. officials recently said North Korea had almost completed preparations for its first nuclear test in about five years. In March, North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. in breach of a 2018 moratorium on big missile tests.

Taiwan Says It’s Willing To Engage With China

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Zoe Maven

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June 12, 2022

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Taiwan does not want to close the door to China and is willing to engage in the spirit of goodwill, but on an equal basis and without political preconditions, according to Premier Su Tseng-chang on Sunday.

Relations between Taipei and Beijing, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, are at their lowest in decades, with China increasing political and military pressure to get the island to accept its sovereignty.

Earlier on Sunday at a security forum in Singapore, China’s Defence minister said the Chinese government sought “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan but reserved “other options”.

Speaking to reporters after China banned the import of grouper fish from Taiwan on safety grounds, a move Taipei called politically motivated, Su said Taiwan has always had goodwill towards China.

China has refused to speak to Tsai since she was first elected in 2016, viewing her as a separatist who has refused to accept that China and Taiwan are part of “one China”.

Tsai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and while they want peace with China will defend themselves if attacked.

Taiwan’s people, who live in one of Asia’s most freewheeling and liberal democracies, have shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

French Go To Polls To Give Macron Working Majority Or Not

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Zoe Maven

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June 12, 2022

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French voters on Sunday went to the Polls in the first of two rounds that will decide whether President Emmanuel Macron gets a working majority in parliament or ends up without the support needed to drive through his reform agenda.

Less than two months after re-election, Macron faces a strong challenge from a united left-wing bloc that polls show could deprive the president of an outright majority even if it does not take control of parliament.

Government insiders expect a rather poor showing in Sunday’s first round for Macron’s coalition “Ensemble”, with record numbers of voters seen abstaining.

Hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon’s bloc hopes to capitalise on anger at the rising cost of living.

Ivan Warren, who voted for Macron in the presidential election, said it was important to hand him a majority.

At risk is Macron’s ability to pass his reform agenda, including a pension reform he says is essential to restore public finances. His opponents on the left are pushing to cut the pension age and launch a big spending drive.

Initial projections after the presidential election showed Macron was on course to get a majority in parliament. But the president has kept a low profile since the vote, taking two weeks to form a government and only rarely making appearances.

Meanwhile, Melenchon has successfully forged an alliance between his France Unbowed movement, the Socialists and the Greens.

Projections now show Macron and his allies, including the new party of his former prime minister Edouard Philippe, could fall short of a majority of 289 by as many as 40 seats.

Mali’s Junta Creates Body To Write New Constitution

By

Zoe Maven

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June 12, 2022

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The leader of Mali’s military transitional government has created a body in charge of writing a new Constitution.

The team will include a president, two rapporteurs and experts and will be able to consult, all political parties and the civil society including religious organisations and traditional authorities.

This presidential decree has already been published in the Official journal and Colonel Assimi Goïta will be in charge of choosing the members of this committee who will have to present to him a draft version of the text in two months.

This decision comes just days after the junta announced on June 6 it would stay in power for two additional years, before organising democratic elections in March 2024.

The West African country is facing sanctions from its regional partners of the ECOWAS as it did not meet the deadline for elections to be held by the end of February this year.

Negotiations with the West African nations are still underway but the ECOWAS said it regretted the 24-month timetable. They had given Bamakao 16 months maximum to transfer their power to a civilian entity in order to lift the sanctions.

With this new decision, the ruling military wants to show it is trying to move fast. But it is yet to be seen if the drafting team will be able to meet the tight target of handing a copy in just two months.

Commonwealth Leaders To Press Rwanda On Human Rights

By

Zoe Maven

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June 12, 2022

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Rights groups are urging leaders attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this month to pressure Rwanda to release dissidents and improve its grim record on freedom of expression.

The East African country, ruled by President Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide which left some 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis dead, has often come under fire for rights abuses.

In a joint statement 23 organisations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, expressed grave concerns about the human rights situation in Rwanda as it prepares to host the meeting in June 2022

The campaigners asked the Commonwealth to insist that Rwandan authorities “immediately drop the charges against and release all of those currently detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression”.

Kigali should also “publicly commit and guarantee that civil society and media — including those from Rwanda — will be allowed to work freely and raise human rights issues without fear of reprisals during and after their participation in CHOGM”, they added.

The biennial event had originally been scheduled in 2020 before it was pushed back twice because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The campaigners also urged the CHOGM attendees to press Rwanda to allow an international investigation into high-profile cases involving rights violations, notably the death of gospel singer Kizito Mihogo.

His music was banned by Kagame’s government and he was found dead in his cell in February 2020, just days after he was caught trying to flee the country.

Utah Green Hydrogen Project Receives $504 Million Department of Energy Loan Guarantee

By

Angel Gimalo

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June 12, 2022

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A green hydrogen project in Utah has received a $504.4 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, the first guarantee awarded to a clean energy project in nearly a decade.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project will combine 220 MW of alkaline electrolysis with two 4.5-million-barrel salt caverns to store clean hydrogen.

The project is intended to capture excess renewable energy when it is most abundant, store it as hydrogen, then deploy it as fuel for the Intermountain Power Agency’s IPP Renewed Project. The hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle power plant would be incrementally fueled by 100% clean hydrogen by 2045.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project received a conditional commitment from LPO in April. This is the first time a green hydrogen project has received a loan guarantee from DOE.

The Utah project is planned to include retiring existing coal-fueled power generating units at the IPP site; installing new natural gas-fueled electricity generating units capable of utilizing hydrogen for 840 MW net generation output; modernizing IPP’s Southern Transmission System linking IPP to Southern California; and developing hydrogen production and long-term storage capabilities.

IPP would use renewable energy-powered electrolysis to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The new natural gas generating units, expected to be supplied by Mitsubishi Power, would use 30% hydrogen fuel at start-up, transitioning to all hydrogen fuel by 2045 as technology improves. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power would be the offtaker for electricity produced by the facility.

U.S. Weather: More Than 70 Million Under Heat Warnings

By

Angel Gimalo

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June 12, 2022

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More than 70 million are under heat warnings and advisories this weekend through early next week as a potent heat dome sends temperatures soaring to levels the National Weather Service is calling “potentially deadly.”

The big picture: The heat wave, made worse by a long-term, climate change-influenced drought, shows signs of eventually swelling into the middle of the country and then eastward through next week.

Why it matters: Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S. each year, and climate change is making these events more likely, severe and long-lasting.

The public health threat of this particular heat wave is especially elevated because of the high overnight minimum temperatures, which in many locations are breaking records. For example, at 1 a.m. local time Saturday morning, Phoenix was still at 100°F.

“Extreme and deadly heat will continue through this weekend,” the NWS forecast office in Phoenix stated, noting the “minimal overnight recovery.”

Forecasters noted that Phoenix may see its earliest-ever 90°F overnight low temperature.

Of note: The city has opened numerous cooling centers for those without access to air conditioning.

By the numbers: Heat advisories blanket nearly the entire state of Texas and Oklahoma, and extend as far east as Tennessee.

These advisories and a more serious warning, known as an excessive heat warning, also are in place all the way to the West Coast, with triple-digit heat roasting California’s Central Valley.

Daily temperature records already have been set beginning Friday, and more are likely to fall Saturday and beyond. Overall, temperature departures from average during this heat wave are about 10 to 20°F or more above normal for this time of year.

Friday’s record highs included:

109°F: Las Vegas.

123°F: Death Valley, Calif., where the hottest temperature in the world was recorded. This was one of the earliest 123-degree readings ever recorded in the U.S., tweeted weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.

113°F: Phoenix.

103°F: Austin.

100°F: Albuquerque

98°F: Houston

What’s next: High temperatures in the Southwest are likely to peak Saturday and Sunday, before the core of the high-pressure area, or heat dome, shifts eastward and parks itself over the Tennessee River Valley.

The clockwise air circulation around this high will pump hot and humid air northward.

The National Weather Service is forecasting high temperatures on Tuesday into the upper 90s as far north as Chicago and Minneapolis, with triple-digit heat potentially reaching Iowa.

Computer model projections show that the heat may not relent for parts of the Central U.S., South and Southeast until next week, before the heat potentially slides back to the West.

Context: More frequent and severe heat waves are one of the clearest manifestations of human-caused global warming, studies show.

In multiple instances, including last year’s deadly Pacific Northwest heat wave, researchers have found that extreme heat events are occurring today that would be virtually impossible without human-caused global warming.

Plastic-To-Hydrogen: Green Light For £21m Scottish Plant

By

Angel Gimalo

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June 12, 2022

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Plans for a £20m facility in West Dunbartonshire that will turn plastic waste into hydrogen have been approved.

West Dunbartonshire Council has given the green light for the site at Rothesay Dock on the north bank of the River Clyde.

The plant, which will take an estimated 15 months to construct, will be the second of its kind in the UK.

The plans were lodged by Peel NRE, which is part of Peel L&P.

Peel said the facility would use new technology to create a local source of sustainable hydrogen from non-recyclable plastics otherwise destined for landfill, incineration or export overseas.

The hydrogen will be used as a clean fuel for HGVs, buses and cars, with plans for a linked hydrogen refuelling station on the site.

It follows a move by the UK government to double its hydrogen production capacity target by 2030 as part of the recently-published Energy Security Strategy.

Exploring Saint Nicholas Abbey, Barbados Central America & The Caribbean

By

Angel Gimalo

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June 12, 2022

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Saint Nicholas Abbey is a historic plantation house which serves also as a museum and rum distillery, and it is located in the Parish of Saint Peter, in the northern part of the Caribbean island country of Barbados.

Even though it is called abbey, there is no church connection to it since it has always been a sugarcane plantation house.

Considered to be one of just three mansions that remain in the Western Hemisphere which follow the interesting Jacobean architectural style, the Saint Nicholas Abbey was built in 1658 by Benjamin Berringer.

The main features of the mansion are the elaborate multi-curved gables, Tudor arches, decorative chimneys and casement windows which make this architectural masterpiece one of the finest historic sites in Barbados.

Throughout the years, the owners changed, where the abbey’s first owner was killed in a duel by their neighbor Sir John Yeamans, who then married Berringer’s widow.

Therefore he claimed the Saint Nicholas Abbey as his own property, however, fortunately for Berringer’s family who took Yeamans to court, brought back their family heirloom.

Then the mansion was transferred to family members, so that in the end to be passed by marriage to Charles Cave in 1834.

The abbey functioned as a plantation and sugar processing factory until 1947, and nowadays the sugar cane is moved from the plantation to a factory in the vicinity.

Today the abbey is owned by the architect Larry Warren, who also built the Saint Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway in order for visitors to have the best experience while visiting the plantation.

In addition, the mansion serves as a museum that successfully recreates 18 century plantation with a drawing, dining, and study room, as well as hallway, and additional rooms on the second and third floors.

Attracting several thousand visitors throughout the year with its astonishing architecture and historical furnishings, the Barbados Tourism Authority is even listing it as one of the “Seven Wonders of Barbados” that deserve to be seen in person.

All in all, a definite architectural gemstone of the lesser known Jacobean architectural style, the Saint Nicholas Abbey is certainly a piece of Barbadian history that should be well known around the world.