Finance ministers from the G7 nations will meet in London next month for their first major face-to-face talks in over a year, with pandemic recovery plans high on the agenda, Britain said Tuesday.
The ministers will meet at Lancaster House on June 4 and 5, a week before the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall, southwest England.
Britain has hosted three meetings of global finance ministers since it took over the G7 presidency in January, but all have been virtual due to restrictions.
However, June’s meeting, in which Britain will “seek to progress” its priorities of “building a green and inclusive global economic recovery” following the pandemic, will be in person as restrictions are eased.
The ministers will be joined by the European Commission, World Bank, IMF, and OECD “in the first in-person Finance Track meeting in over a year”, the finance ministry said.
The G7 summit in Cornwall will be the first since Joe Biden became US president, with the global response to Covid-19 and climate change expected to dominate the talks.
It will be the group’s first in-person meeting in nearly two years after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the global health crisis.
Leaders and ministers from the seven nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — have met virtually in recent months.
Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7 throughout 2021, has invited leaders from Australia, India and South Korea to attend as guest countries.
Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle, currently under bankruptcy protection after the pandemic pushed into a record loss last year, said Tuesday it plans to axe 85 percent of its workforce in Spain.
The no-frills airline has informed unions of its plans to axe up nearly 1,200 cabin crew in Spain as part of a group-wide restructuring programme.
Norwegian will retain just two of its five bases in Spain — in the southern coastal cities of Malaga and Alicante — as part of a reduction of its short-haul operations.
Like other airlines, Norwegian has been hit hard by the dramatic drop in air travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic and last year saw passenger numbers plummet by 81 percent to just 6.87 million.
Placed under bankruptcy protection in both Ireland and Norway, the carrier saw its bottom-line loss widen 15-fold to 23 billion kroner (2.2 billion euros, $2.7 billion) last year.
It has already closed its long-haul operations — where it had been a pioneer in launching low-cost transatlantic flights in 2017 — to instead focus on the Nordic market.
But the company racked up repeated losses, partly because of technical misfortunes. Its Boeing 777 Dreamliners encountered problems with their Rolls-Royce engines, and then its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded, as elsewhere in the world, after two fatal crashes.
At the same time, the company’s ambitious expansion programme saddled it with mountains of debt.
Spain, the world’s second most visited country after France before the pandemic, is the only country outside of Scandinavia where Norwegian said it plans to maintain a “permanent presence”.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has again approved the extension of the deadline for NIN-SIM data verification to June 30.
The extension was as a result of the virtual meeting chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, and attended by the chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Adeolu Akande, the executive vice-chairman/CEO of NCC, Prof Umar Garba Dambatta and the director-general/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Azeez.
A statement jointly signed recently, by both the Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Dr. Ike Adinde and Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, Kayode Adegoke, explained that the postponement of the deadline was also based on the request by stakeholders for an extension till June 30 in order to make it easier for all citizens and legal residents to register.
The earlier deadline was June 6, but that has been extended by another three weeks.
For example, almost 54 million people have obtained their NIN and this can translate to up to 190 million mobile numbers since empirical evidence suggests that each unique NIN maps to three to four phone lines. The much-awaited Android enrolment system is now ready for deployment and this has the potential to significantly accelerate the speed and ease of enrolments.
Nigerian musician, Chidinma Ekile, popularly known as Chindima has expressed regrets for `wasting’ so much time doing secular music. The singer who spoke recently on the reason she is now opting for gospel music said “the devil has been winning too long.”
She vows never to return to secular music. Chidinma who refers to herself as Mummy GO and end-time soldier said she wants to use all of her talents to work for her “father who is in heaven.” “Our God is faithful, He never lies and He does whatever He says. So I’m here today, it’s been a long journey. “I had an opportunity to spend time with Him, it’s a rare privilege to spend time with Him and He told me a lot of things and He said, He has been waiting for me. “So, He is happy to receive me. God has been very intentional about me.
“He is very mindful of me. I’m not here because I want fame. I’ve had all of that and I think I’ve had enough of all of that. “So, right now is the time to work for my father. He is the one who has called me I did not bring myself here.” “As a matter of fact, I did not want to be here but I’m going into ministry in full force. “So, most of you might not understand my ways because you don’t know where I’m coming from, and that is because a lot of time has been wasted. “So, I need to catch up with time. I’m moving with time, there is no time. “The enemy has been winning for too long. I’ve had my share of influence and all of that, but now I’m using all of that, everything the enemy thought he had given to me though was given to me by God, while he was lying that he gave them to me, now I’m using all of that to work for my father.” “So, when you see me doing some very extreme thing, just understand where I’m coming from, there is no time. There are too many people out there we have to bring back into the house. “Jesus is coming soon, sooner than you expect. So we cannot allow them to miss out on that. Now is the time to do the work,” she said.
Chindima is currently signed on with the Eezee concept and has released her first gospel song titled: “Jehovah overdo”.
The United States is expected to authorise the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children age 12 and up by early next week, according to US media reports.
Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization for its Covid vaccine for children and teenagers between ages 12 and 15, according to CNN, citing a government official.
“The FDA will have to amend the emergency use authorization for the vaccine, but the process should be straightforward,” CNN reported.
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant that approval by early next week. After the FDA decision, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee will meet to recommend how the vaccine should be used.
A spokeswoman for the FDA declined to give details on the approval timeline, telling The Washington Post: “We are working to review this request as quickly and transparently as possible.”
The Pfizer vaccine is currently authorized for people 16 and older in the United States.
The US pharmaceutical giant said in late March it had submitted data from a clinical trial of 2,260 12- to 15-year-olds that showed the vaccine was highly effective and well-tolerated.
Further testing on younger children is ongoing.
Moderna is conducting trials of its vaccine in teens, with results expected in the summer, as well as in younger children.
Johnson & Johnson is also planning pediatric trials for its vaccine.
Expanding vaccine authorization to include adolescents could open up the US mass vaccination program to millions more people.
The national vaccination rate peaked around April 11, according to official data, and although 55 percent of US adults now have had one or more doses all in a bid to seek immunity against Covid.
The people most eager to get their shots have, for the most part, already rolled up their sleeves and done so.
But vaccine hesitancy remains a major obstacle: a large percentage of US adults don’t plan to get the shot and could potentially refuse to get their children vaccinated.
Among Republican voters, 29 percent say they will never take the vaccine, compared to five percent of Democrats and nine percent of independents, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
UN rights experts voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that imprisoned dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad was so ill he risked “serious complications and possible death”, demanding he be released immediately.
Nourizad, who has written and directed several films, has since 2019 been serving a prison sentence totalling over 17 years on charges of insulting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.
“We are seriously concerned at the mistreatment of Mohammad Nourizad and his continued imprisonment for expressing his opinion,” six independent UN experts, including those on the human rights situation in Iran, on torture, and on the right to freedom of expression, said in a statement.
The experts, who are appointed by the United Nations but do not speak on its behalf, warned against “his continued detention despite medical professionals finding he cannot stay in prison given his serious health condition.”
“The resulting denial of adequate medical care may amount to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” they said.
The experts, who also included the UN special rapporteurs on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, on the right to physical and mental health and on extrajudicial executions, pointed out that Nourizad had carried out hunger strikes in detention and refused to take medications to protest his imprisonment and his family’s mistreatment by the authorities.
“He has also reportedly attempted suicide in prison, and began to self-harm as a form of protest on February 19, 2021,” their statement said.
This was particularly worrying, it said, since he has been diagnosed with a heart condition and has frequently lost consciousness while in detention.
He also suffers from diabetes, according to Amnesty, which last month warned that Iranian authorities were “cruelly toying with the life” of Nourizad.
The UN experts said the filmmaker was transferred to Loghman Hakim Educational Hospital in Tehran on April 14 after fainting, and had been injected with a substance he did not know the content of and had not consented to.
“It is clear that Mohammad Nourizad is not in a medical state to remain in prison,” the experts said, pointing out that the Iranian judiciary’s own legal medical organisation and other medical professionals had reportedly found he should be released on medical grounds.
“The Iranian authorities must release him immediately in line with these medical opinions and give him free access to the required medical care and treatment,” they said.
On the day Nigeria announced a travel ban on three countries experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, the country continued its trend of recording low infection and casualty figure from the virus.
There were no fatalities recorded from COVID-19 in Nigeria on Sunday as the country reported its lowest daily infection in several months.
Nigeria recorded 14 new cases on Sunday, an update by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows.
The new figure raised the total number of infections in the country to 165,167.
According to the update, no new death was recorded from the virus which has already claimed 2,063 lives in the country.
This makes it the fourth consecutive day that nobody died from the disease in the country.
The number of deaths recorded from the virus has declined recently with only two deaths recorded in the last 19 days.
The 14 new cases were reported from Seven states; Osun-3, Ogun-3, Kaduna-3, Akwa Ibom-2, Abia-1, FCT-1 and Kwara-
A breakdown of the latest data shows that 252 people were discharged on Sunday after testing negative for the virus. This brings the total number of discharged persons after treatment to 155,361.
“Today’s report includes 248 community recoveries in Kwara State managed in line with guidelines,” the NCDC said.
Meanwhile, 7,743 infections are still active in the country, the infectious disease body said.
Since the pandemic broke out in Nigeria in February 2020, the country has carried out over 1.9 million tests.
The country commenced vaccination against the virus on March 5, beginning with health care workers.
Almost two months after, about 1.2 million people have received their first dose of the vaccines, according to data by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
While Nigeria continues to experience low COVID-19 figures, the country is also taking steps to prevent imported cases from country’s battling with resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
On Sunday, Nigeria announced a ban on travels from Brazil, India and Turkey, countries currently battling with COVID-19 resurgence.
More insects are on their way to dinner plates in Europe under an agreement between EU countries to label them “innovative food” that is safe to eat, the European Commission said Tuesday.
The endorsement means the 27-nation bloc is close to adopting an EU law allowing residents and visitors to tuck into a dish featuring dried yellow mealworm, the larva of the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor.
“The use of insects as an alternate source of protein is not new and insects are regularly eaten in many parts of the world,” the commission noted, announcing the decision.
It added that yellow mealworm must be labelled clearly as such when used in a food product, not least to alert people who might be allergic.
The insect can be used to make burgers, protein shakes and biscuits.
The commission said there are currently 11 other applications for insects to become “novel food” in the EU and they will be considered by the European Food Safety Authority.
The decision on yellow mealworms is expected to be formally adopted in coming weeks, the commission said.
While it noted that this is the first time an insect was being authorised as food in the EU, the commission did say that insects had previously been available for consumption in some member states.
But that was before a 2018 update to the EU regulation on novel foods that requires whole insects to be subject to approval.
Researchers have for years observed the high protein value of yellow mealworms, which contain required fat and amino acids. The larva can grow quickly in a variety of substances including brewer’s yeast, wheat bran, corn starch and potato flour.
They have already long been found in food markets in Southeast Asian countries.
Italy is ready to welcome back travellers, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Tuesday after hosting a G20 meeting that put tourism at the heart of the global post-pandemic recovery.
“It’s time for you to book your holidays in Italy!” Draghi told reporters, promising to provide “clear and simple rules” to ensure visitors could travel around safely.
“The world longs to travel here. The pandemic has forced us to close down temporarily. But Italy is ready to welcome back the world.”
Home to Venice and Florence, Portofino and Capri, Italy had been the world’s fifth-most visited destination, but visitor numbers collapsed by more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2020.
Under rules in place until May 15, for example, tourists from the rest of Europe must self-isolate for five days upon arrival in Italy.
Draghi was speaking after an Italy-hosted virtual meeting of tourism ministers from the Group of 20 most powerful nations.
In a joint statement, they noted tourism was still one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, after countries around the world grounded flights and told citizens to stay at home.
“With nearly 62 million travel and tourism jobs lost globally, representing a drop of 18.5 percent, the outlook remains highly uncertain,” they said.
The statement added: “We emphasize that the resumption of travel and tourism is crucial for global economic recovery because of the direct and indirect economic impact this sector has on others.”
But they said the crisis was also an “opportunity to rethink tourism for the future”, with Draghi noting the importance of protecting the environment and local communities.
Who remembers Tani Adewumi, the Nigerian refugee in the US who secured the NY State chess championship in 2019, well, he has now won yet another competition to officially become a national chess master at 10.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who was one of Tani Adewumi’s early admirers, had also written two pieces on the youngster and mentioned him in his 2020 book, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope,” enthusiastically tweeted the news on Sunday.
Tani is a reminder: Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. He was lucky that his homeless shelter was near a school with a chess program. It waived the chess club fees for him. He's also a reminder that refugees enrich our country (I say that as the son of a refugee).
It was gathered that the game the 5th grader played to snag the national title was that of the Chess Club of Fairfield County (CCFC). It was earlier billed to hold on May 1, with Adewumi listed as one of the players to compete.
Tani Adewumi came into the global limelight in 2019 after he was discovered and described as a homeless chess genius.
According to the US chess federation, the national chess master title is for any player who reaches a “2200 rating”.
The US body overseeing chess competitions adds: “Less than one percent of rated players hold the title. An Original Life Master is a National Master who played 300 games with a rating [of] over 2200” points amassed from games.
In 2019, Adewunmi, whose family had fled Nigeria for the US over the Boko Haram crisis, made the headlines after winning the 2019 New York chess championship while living in a homeless center on religious asylum.
A GoFundMe page had been set up for him and a total of $254,448 was raised in his name, which helped the chess prodigy and his family to move into an apartment.
Here's the first piece I wrote about Tani when he was homeless and won the state championship: https://t.co/xaXHwFFYvO And a follow-up when readers provided housing: https://t.co/2lQoKrToNC After his latest championship in Fairfield, CT, his chess rating is a tremendous 2223.
Trevor Noah, South African TV host, was thereafter tapped to produce a movie which was to be adapted from three then-yet-to-be published books on how his family escaped terrorism to seek asylum in the US, against all odds.
His father, Kayode Adewumi, said he was beaming ear-to-ear when his fifth-grade son gained the chess master title after winning his latest championship in Fairfield, C.T. on Saturday. He now boasts a chess rating of a tremendous 2223 – whereas a 2200 point is needed to gain the chess master title.
“When he came in first, my heart burst out of my chest,” Adewumi told newsmen in a phone interview on Monday. “I was extremely happy.”
Although Adewumi calls Tani “just a normal kid” who loves watching basketball, he said, “By God’s grace, he wants to be the youngest grandmaster in the world.”
The 10-year-old still has a couple of years to make that happen, with that honour currently belonging to Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin, who was 12 years old when he became a grandmaster in 2003.
However, Tani is well on his way.
For the past several years, the young teen has regularly competed across the United States and is even being coached by Georgian chess Grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili.
Tani joined his school’s chess program in Manhattan and quickly fell in love with the strategy and the deep thinking involved, his father told Newsmen
But despite the boy going on to win accolades and beating out dozens of other young chess players across New York, his family couldn’t afford stable housing and were temporarily living in a homeless shelter.
But after Kristof’s New York Times article, people inundated the family’s GoFundMe fundraiser with US$254,000, which partially allowed them to move to better lodging before moving to Port Jefferson, N.Y., where they currently reside.
In a recent Facebook post, Kristof noted that Tani was a prime example of how “talent is universal, but opportunity is not.” He said Tani was extremely fortunate that the shelter was in a school district where there even was a chess program.
In 2019, with the excess funds from the GoFundMe, the family have since set up a trust called the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation, to help other children in similar circumstances.
Last year, the biography “My Name Is Tani” “and I believe in Miracles” based on their life was published and Tani’s story could even be on the silver screen one day after Paramount Pictures won the rights to his life.
Tani’s father and the rest of his family are thrilled to see how far they’ve come, and he hopes his son’s example inspires other refugee families across the world.
Kayode Adewumi, who is now a real estate salesman in Farmingville, N.Y, had three words for other newcomer families: “Keep hope alive.”
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