Serena Williams will hope to move a step closer to a record-equalling 24th major when she meets Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic, while Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open title defence faces its first real test against Frances Tiafoe in the second round on Wednesday.
American Williams has been stuck on 23 majors since triumphing at Melbourne Park in 2017, losing four Grand Slam finals since to remain one short of Margaret Court’s record.
But the 39-year-old was at her vintage best in her 6-1 6-1 drubbing of Laura Siegemund in the opening round and will hope to make quick work of world number 99 Stojanovic.
In the men’s draw, world number one Djokovic will continue his bid for a record-extending ninth Australian Open title and 18th Grand Slam crown.
The Serbian looked very much at home on the distinctive blue surface in his 6-3 6-1 6-2 victory over Jeremy Chardy in the first round but 2019 Australian Open quarter-finalist Tiafoe is set to pose a much sterner test.
After his protracted move from Atalanta was completed at the start of the year, Amad has made an impressive start to life at Manchester United Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has wisely pleaded patience with Amad since he finally completed his protracted move to Manchester United.
Despite forking out £37million to Atalanta for the winger, aged just 18, Amad is being given time to adjust to English football.
Although his appearances have been limited to Neil Wood’s under-23 side, he is a part of United’s first-team bubble and a regular in senior training.
Perhaps to the United boss’ surprise, his integration into sessions at Carrington has gone smoother than anticipated, with the youngster already shining.
He also made headlines for an outrageous piece of skill that left United fans desperate to see him involved in the first-team sooner rather than later.
Solskjaer admitted that Amad was in his thinking when he named the matchday squad for the Premier League clash against Everton, ultimately missing out.
United Arab Emirates is about to make history for the as it seeks on Tuesday to place a probe around Mars.
The Hope spacecraft, launched from Earth seven months ago, is about to reach the decisive moment in its long journey – orbit insertion.
Currently moving at over 120,000km/h (75,000mph), it must fire its braking engines for 27 minutes to be sure of being captured by the planet’s gravity.
Success would enable Hope to begin its mission to study Mars’ climate.
Hope is the first of three missions to arrive at the Red Planet this month. On Wednesday, the Chinese Tianwen-1 orbiter will also try to make it into orbit, while the Americans turn up on the 18th with another big rover.
Recent digging across Lagos metropolis has drawn the ire of well meaning Lagosians concerned about the degradation of the environment.
The planned installation of fiber optic cables has seen digging along setbacks of the express way, bus stops and environs creating an eyesore environmentally.
Looking back over a decade ago to the Fashola administration which was strong on environmental sanitation and beautification, we recall the slogan “Eko oni baje” (Lagos will not go bad) which makes a lot of us nostalgic when we see such abuse perpetrated by the very government that should protect such legacy.
The Ambode administration which followed in 2015 tried in to uphold these values with beautification projects such as parks and areas for recreation. It built new roads across the state though it faltered on its refuse disposal plan which many hold was partly the reason why it couldn’t secure a second term.
We have seen over the years a drastic roll back of the beautification of Lagos state suggesting that such a laudable plan has been aborted or isn’t priority.
It is obvious that the Sanwo-Olu administration is trying to create jobs with the employment of direct labour in the execution of these projects but it shouldn’t do so at the expense of the sanity of the environment and safety of Lagosians.
Some of the holes being dug for these cables are as deep as six feet and are left open for long periods before they are covered. While they remain open, they remain a death trap at night in poorly lit parts of Lagos and when they are eventually closed, they are done in such a haphazard manner that it isn’t returned to the original pristine state it was before the project.
The Ministry of Environment (MOE)/Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency(LASEPA) should wake up to its responsibility of environmental protection as this falls under its purview. It should ensure compliance with global practice when such projects are being executed.
Road Signs and reflectors to warn road users and pedestrians should be on display at designated points to avoid accidents.
While we very much welcome technological infrastructure and we commend the Lagos state for being at the forefront amongst the comity of states in this area, it should not be at the expense of our environmental sanity because at the end of the day, repair of the man-made problem is done with hard-earned tax payers’ money.
Government should ensure that tax payers’ money isn’t used to solve problems that have been created as a result of its ineptitude.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson paraphrased a line from the New Testament Saturday night as he accepted the 2020 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his COVID-19 relief efforts and other charitable causes during the pandemic.
The award is given to a player in recognition of his “outstanding community service activities off the field, as well as excellence on it.”
The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award is one of the most prestigious honors given to an NFL Player.
Every season, each of the NFL’s 32 franchises nominates one player to receive the award.
As the winner, a $250,000 donation will be made to Russell and Ciara Wilson’s Why Not You Foundation, founded in 2014 to fight poverty through education and youth empowerment.
Each nominee for the award who did not win received a $40,000 donation in their name to their chosen charity.
With 2020 plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilson directed his charitable efforts toward feeding children, families and the elderly.
Oregon Lay Pastor, Pastor Joe Wardlow is preparing to build the world’s biggest wooden church because God gave him a mission.
Wardlow’s website says that God told him to build a log church big enough to fit 800 people somewhere on Beavercreek Road in Oregon City, Oregon.
The money would come through online funding and from donations by corporations.
The church will be called Trail’s End Log Church.
Construction on the church has not yet started. However, Wardlow has designed extensive plans for the church’s layout and worked to raise funds. He estimates that the project’s full cost will be $19.7 million.
Wardlow is now fundraising the $2.6 million required to purchase the property where he plans to eventually build the church.
Seventy Christians from evangelical and orthodox backgrounds, including women, have been released from three prisons in Eritrea, some after being held without charge for more than a decade, according to the U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
In what could be an attempt to distract the attention of the international community from Eritrea’s role in the ongoing war in the Tigray region in neighboring Ethiopia, the Eritrean government last Monday released 21 female and 43 male prisoners from Mai Serwa and Adi Abeito prisons near the capital city of Asmara.
On January 27, six female prisoners, who had been in detention since last September, in Dekemhare, which is southeast of Asmara, were also released.
The women were arrested for worshiping in public, a video of which was shared by some on social media, CSW said.
Known as the Tigray War, the armed conflict has been ongoing since last November between the Tigray Regional Government (led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front) and forces supportive of the Ethiopian government, which include military forces from Eritrea.
Nigeria and Belgium are to sign a bilateral education arrangement (BEA) anytime from now.
The minister for education in Nigeria Adamu Adamu made this known in Abuja on Monday when the Belgian Ambassador to Nigeria, Onel Bertrand, paid him a courtesy call.
He said the agreement would drive all educational engagements, transactions and processes between the two countries.
In a statement released by the director of press and public relations, Bem Bem Goong, the minister said Nigeria was interested in the partnership with Belgium in areas such as co-operation in technical education, degrading the out-of-school children phenomenon and development of Information and Communication Technology to drive teaching and learning at all levels of the educational system.
Ambassador Bertrand had told the minister that Belgium was ready to assist Nigeria in areas of high impact technology to support the country’s effort in developing ICT to drive the education sector.
In specific terms, he explained that his country is interested in partnering with faculties of agriculture in Nigerian universities to help develop modern technologies that would improve food production. Already, interest in a partnership with the University of Ibadan has been expressed.
Adamu Adamu told the ambassador that the country had struggled hard to contend with the impact of covid-19 on its educational system.
Nigerian Online Comedy Group, Ikorodu Bois have been nominated for the Favourite African Social Media Star category at the 2021 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
Ikorodu Bois is a popular Nigerian group that recreates and mimics multi-million dollar music videos, Hollywood movie trailers, and epic pictures with household items.
They caught the attention of the producers of the Hollywood movie, Extraction 2, the Russo Brothers, following the remake of the movie trailer which features Chris Hemsworth.
Reacting to their nomination, the group took to their Twitter handle to share the good news with their followers.
They wrote;
“Good news! we have just been nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award. plssss guys vote for us”
The minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has announced that the Federal government is in the process of replacing the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and other data collected by data collecting institutions with the National Identity Number. (NIN)
The minister disclosed this after a facility tour and monitoring exercise of the NIN enrolment process at telecom operators’ offices in Abuja on Monday, February 8.
Dr Pantami said that he had made the suggestion to the national economic sustainability committee and drawn the attention of the central bank to the fact that the NIN needed to replace the BVN as the former was backed by law while the latter was a mare institutional policy.
He commented that the strength of the law was not the same as the policy of an institution.
“BVN is our secondary database, while NIN and the database is the primary one in the country that each and every institution should make reference to NIMC,” he said.
“On the board of NIMC, the CBN governor is a member, dg DSS is a member, chairman of FIRS is a member, INEC chairman, the office of the National Security Adviser, National Population Commission and the Nigerian immigration service are all members of the board. This is to show you that it is the primary database that every institution in the country should reference”
Pantami boasted that Nigeria was at the forefront in Africa regarding data protection regulations, claiming that the level of security in the entire database was 99.9 per cent.
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