Today on A Day In Your Neighbourhood, Olasunbo Okoromi visits the Sogidowo Plank Market. It’s located in Itamaga, Ikorodu, Lagos, South-west Nigeria. It is home to all things that has to do with Building and Construction.
A Day In Your Neighbourhood – Wukari Yam Market
Olasunbo Okoromi visited the Adiyn Yam Market in Taraba State, Nigeria’s North-Central. This yam market is the largest yam market in West Africa.
The Agenda – Education & Covid-19
On The Agenda, Henry Williams speaks to an Educationist Beula Marshal on the impact of Covid-19 on Education.
Russia’s Putin Signs Law To Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions
President Vladimir Putin signed legislation on Friday that will require businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions and has been described as Russia’s first step towards carbon regulation to combat climate change.
Russia, which exports oil and gas, joined the Paris climate change pact in 2019. It aims to cut its 2030 emissions to 70% of 1990 levels, a target it should hit easily because of de-industrialisation since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.
The new legislation will introduce mandatory carbon reporting for the largest greenhouse gas emitting companies, starting from January 2023. The information will be gathered by a government body.
Vladimir Burmatov, chairman of the parliamentary committee on ecology and environmental protection, has called the legislation a first step towards carbon regulation in Russia.
Vladimir Chuprov, a Greenpeace spokesman in Russia, welcomed the law.
“It’s not as ambitious as it could be. But compared with what there was, or rather what there wasn’t, this is very good news,” Chuprov said.
“An accounting system is being introduced, carbon dioxide is becoming a substance subject to government regulation. An emissions accounting and reduction system is emerging. This is a prerequisite for a greenhouse gas emissions trading system.”
Russia has been accused of setting an unambitious emissions target.
Putin has said it is a myth that Moscow is not taking climate change seriously, but has warned of the danger of the push for carbon neutrality being turned into a tool of “unfair competition.”
IBM’s Jim Whitehurst To Step Down As President
International Business Machines Corp said on Friday President Jim Whitehurst, who played a major role in Big Blue’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat two years ago, will step down from his position.
The company did not specify when Whitehurst, who was named President in January 2020, would leave IBM or who would replace him.
Shares of the U.S. technology firm were down nearly 3% in early trading.
Whitehurst, however, will continue to work as senior adviser to Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna and the rest of the executive leadership team, IBM said.
The company has been restructuring since Krishna took the reins a year ago to focus on cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Whitehurst, who was the former CEO of Red Hat, was supposed to lead IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy.
New Saudi Airline Plan Takes Aim At Emirates, Qatar Airways
Saudi Arabia plans to target international transit passenger traffic with its new national airline, going head-to-head with Gulf giants Emirates and Qatar Airways and opening up a new front in simmering regional competition.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pushing economic diversification to wean Saudi Arabia off oil revenues and create jobs, announced a transportation and logistics drive on Tuesday aimed at making the kingdom the fifth-biggest air transit hub.
Two people familiar with the matter said the new airline would boost international routes and echo existing Gulf carriers by carrying people from one country to another via connections in the kingdom, known in the industry as sixth-freedom traffic
The strategy marks a shift for Saudi Arabia whose other airlines, like state-owned Saudia and its low cost subsidiary flyadeal, mostly operate domestic services and point-to-point flights to and from the country of 35 million people.
The Saudi expansion threatens to sharpen a battle for passengers at a time when travel has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
War Looms As U.S. Forces Quit Main Base In Afghanistan
American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Center they buried 20 years ago in a country that the top U.S. commander has warned may descend into civil war without them.
“All American soldiers and members of NATO forces have left the Bagram air base,” said a senior U.S. security official on condition of anonymity.
U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that the U.S. withdrawal is “on track,” but that some American forces still will be in Afghanistan in September as part of a “rational drawdown with allies.”
Even so, the Bagram pullout brings an effective end to the longest war in American history.
The base, an hour’s drive north of Kabul, was where the U.S. military has coordinated its air war and logistical support for its entire Afghan mission. The Taliban thanked them for leaving.
“We consider this withdrawal a positive step. Afghans can get closer to stability and peace with the full withdrawal of foreign forces,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.
Other Afghans were more circumspect. “The Americans must leave Afghanistan and there should be peace in this country,” said Kabul resident Javed Arman. But he added: “We are in a difficult situation. Most people have fled their districts and some districts have fallen. Seven districts in Paktia province have fallen and are now under Taliban control.”
For the international forces, more than 3,500 of whom died in Afghanistan, the exit came with no pageantry. A Western diplomat in Kabul said the United States and its NATO allies had “won many battles, but have lost the Afghan war”.
It was at Bagram, by a bullet-ridden Soviet-built air strip on a plain hemmed in by the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush, that New York City firefighters and police were flown to bury a piece of the World Trade Center in December, 2001, days after the Taliban were toppled for harbouring Osama bin Laden.
It was also here that the CIA ran a “black site” detention centre for terrorism suspects and subjected them to abuse that President Barack Obama subsequently acknowledged as torture.
Later it swelled into a sprawling fortified city for a huge international military force, with fast food joints, gyms and a cafe serving something called “the mother of all coffees”. Two runways perpetually roared. Presidents flew in and gave speeches; celebrities came and told jokes.
An Afghan official said the base would be officially handed over to the government at a ceremony on Saturday.
The U.S. defence official said General Austin Miller, the top U.S.commander in Afghanistan “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the force” stationed in the capital, Kabul.
Earlier this week, Miller told journalists in Kabul that civil war for Afghanistan was “certainly a path that can be visualised”, with Taliban fighters sweeping into districts around the country in recent weeks as foreign troops flew home.
Two other U.S. security officials said this week the majority of U.S. military personnel would most likely be gone by July 4, with a residual force remaining to protect the embassy.
That would be more than two months ahead of the timetable set by Biden, who had promised they would be home by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attack that brought them here.
Washington agreed to withdraw in a deal negotiated last year with the Taliban under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, and Biden rejected advice from generals to hang on until a political agreement could be reached between the insurgents and the U.S.-backed Kabul government of President Ashraf Ghani.
More Graduates & Workers Hustle For Alternative Jobs
Correspondent Zoe Okafor was in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital and she met a taxi driver who told her more about the profession.
Jon Mikel Obi Joins Al-Kuwait Sporting Club
Nigeria’s former captain Mikel Obi has joined Kuwaiti side Al-Kuwait Sporting Club, just one month after penning a contract extension with Championship team Stoke City.
The Brigadiers announced the signing of the former Chelsea star on Thursday evening on social media. He will be on a one-year contract with Al-Kuwait.
Stoke City also confirmed that they have terminated Mikel’s contract with the Potters and his eventual departure.
“We can confirm that John Obi Mikel has left the Club,” the English side wrote on their official Instagram handle. “All the best, Mikel Obi.”
Manager Michael O’Neill praised the Nigerian for his professionalism and thanked him for his contributions to the club during his spell with them.
“John is a fantastic professional and was a huge presence for us last season both on and off the field, particularly with the young players in our first-team squad,” the Northern Irish boss said in his tribute to the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner.
“I really enjoyed working with him and would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his contribution and wish him every success for the future.”
The 34-year-old midfielder played 39 league matches for O’Neill’s men during the 2020-21 campaign as they ended 14th on the log. After his stint with Chelsea, Mikel returned to England in August 2020. This was after he discontinued his deal with Trabzonspor in the Turkish Super Lig after a fallout with the club over COVID-19.
Mikel’s move to the oil-rich country will provide a much-needed boost for Al Kuwait who ended third in the domestic league last campaign, finishing behind Al-Qadsia and winners Al-Arabi.
He will be joining other African players including El-Mehdi Barrahma of Morocco, Tunisian duo of Ahmed Akaichi and Rami Bedoui, and Abdulwahid Sissoko from Mali at the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium.
New Animated Movie Told Through Lens Of Mary Magdalene
The new animated film told through the perspective of Mary Magdalene is reaching hundreds of thousands worldwide.
“Chosen Witness” was released in April by Jesus Film Project, an evangelical outreach created by Campus Crusade for Christ that has produced content in over 1,800 languages.
Executive Producer Elizabeth Schenkel says the new video tells the story of Jesus’ ministry, betrayal, death and resurrection “through the eyes of Mary Magdalene.”
“It is significant that this woman was the first of Jesus’ followers to encounter Jesus after he rose from the dead,” Schenkel told The Christian Post.
“Jesus sent her to the Apostles as a witness to His resurrection. For this reason, historically, Mary Magdalene is known as the witness to the apostles, even in some traditions, as the Apostle to the Apostles.”
Magdalene’s elevation to that position was “remarkable, Schenkel said, noting that women at that time were not even considered credible witnesses in a court of law.
“Yet, God chose a woman, a woman who had experienced affliction and redemption, a woman who had dedicated her whole life to supporting the ministry of Christ on the earth, as his first witness,” she added. “This choice speaks of God’s heart for the world, of his desire that everyone might see Jesus. No one is excluded. Anyone could have a special place and calling in God’s mission to the world.”
“Chosen Witness” is meant to show Jesus through three lenses — through the eyes of Mary Magdalene, His heart for outcasts and a glimpse into His life. The video was released in 38 languages on Easter weekend, and there are an additional 250 languages ready to go.
“Within three weeks, on U.S. YouTube alone, we had over 250,000 views,” Schenkel testified. “A number of national Cru teams around the world launched the film on their own websites and built online strategies around that launch.”
Poland had over 6,000 visitors to its unique page during the Easter season, she shared. “We had local staff in the Far East, Southeast Asia and South America who also launched the film on their sites with encouraging results.”
Jesus Film Project wishes to release the film in more languages in hopes that others would “see Jesus in a new way.”
“We were careful to populate our Palestine and Jerusalem [footage] with the people one would have found there at the time of Christ,” Schenkel explained. “Particularly at Passover, Jerusalem was filled with Africans and Asians as well as Middle Easterners. We want our viewers to find themselves represented in that world so they will be encouraged, again, that everyone is welcome, everyone can have a place in God’s Kingdom.”
CRU brought in some of the “finest animators in the business.” The screenplay for “Chosen Witness” was written by Barry Cook, the director of Disney’s animated “Mulan.” The film was directed by Dom Carola, the special effects director of Disney’s animated film “Aladdin.”
“This film was a labor of love, and I like to think of it as the modern equivalent of the beautiful stained-glass windows set in the Gothic cathedrals of Europe. [It’s] a work of art designed to bring the Word of God to life for the people who flock to the internet to find meaning and hope for their lives,” Schenkel concluded.
“Chosen Witness” is streaming at JesusFilm.org, the JFP app and on YouTube in 38 languages.
Jesus Film Project has been producing Christian content since 1979 and is known for its diverse library of media that brings people from all over the world the Gospel.
