Sheffield United Secure EPL Promotion With Win Over West Brom

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April 27, 2023

Sheffield united beat west Brom at Bramall lane to win promotion back to the premier league after two years in the championship.

Norway international sander Berge gave the home side the lead after the break when he was teed up by Iliman Ndiaye following an awfully under-hit back pass from Taylor Gardner-Hickman.

The blades, who went into the game needing just three points from four games to secure promotion, had been sluggish up until then but overwhelmed the away side from thereon and Anel Ahmedhodzic scored with a controlled close range volley to seal victory with just under 15 minutes to play.

Paul Heckingbottom’s side will join title winners Burnley in the top flight next season.

The play-off chasing visitors had enjoyed the better of things up until the opening goal but Karlan grant headed a great chance wide in the opening minutes and a penalty shout was turned down when Brandon Thomas-Asante was felled on the edge of the area.

Berge’s goal totally knocked the stuffing out of Carlos Corberan’s men though and the blades’ margin of victory could have been more comprehensive at the end.

Fauci Denies Responsibility For Covid Lockdowns

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faith Jegede

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April 27, 2023

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Dr Anthony Fauci, the medical face of the U.S. coronavirus response admitted that “something clearly went wrong” with the country’s COVID-19 response in an interview where he agreed that his mask mandates had failed— but absolved himself from some of the most impactful results of his anti-infection recommendations.

“Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down. Never. I never did,” said when questioned about the “heavy-handed” policies he suggested throughout the pandemic.

The embattled doctor said what he gave were public-health recommendations that echoed the CDC’s recommendation, and people made a decision based on that.”

The former chief medical advisor to the president whined that he was accused of shutting down the economy for relaying the national public health agency’s suggestions to shut down schools and businesses during the height of the pandemic.

Fauci repeatedly came under fire for sea-sawing on several preventative measures, most memorably mask mandates — he originally told Americans masking was not necessary before back peddling and pointing to the practice as a necessity to overcome the pandemic.

America’s top infectious disease expert admitted that Covid vaccine mandates he championed may have fueled a dip in confidence in routine shots.

In a rare admission of culpability, Fauci said the policies were ‘counterproductive’ and turned vaccine sceptics off rather than gain their favour.

Sudan Crisis: WHO warns of Biological Hazard at hijacked Laboratory

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Cleopatra Okohai

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April 27, 2023

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The World Health Organization (WHO) says there’s a “high risk of biological hazard” at a laboratory caught up in the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

Officials said it was unclear who was behind the occupation of the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum.

The city has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The WHO told press on Tuesday that workers can no longer access the lab.

And it warned that power cuts were making it impossible to properly manage material at the lab.

Officials said that a broad range of biological and chemical materials are stored in the lab. The facility holds measles and cholera pathogens, as well as other hazardous materials.

A lack of power is also putting depleting stocks of blood bags stored at the lab at risk of spoiling.

In a press conference on Wednesday, WHO officials said it is conducting an “extensive” risk assessment of the potential public health threat following the seizure of the lab.

Fillipa Lentzos, Associate Professor in Science and International Security at King’s College London, said: “It could create a risky situation, but it’s a regular health lab, not a high containment facility.

“The agents which are in the lab are all diseases which are endemic in the region anyway, so they wouldn’t really be classified as high risk,” she said.

The lab is near the centre of Khartoum and not far from city’s main airport.

It lies just outside the area where Sudan’s military headquarters are located, and where a lot of the fighting has been taking place.

New Allegations Surface in Tucker Carlson’s Fox News Exit

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faith Jegede

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April 27, 2023

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New allegations that give an alternative explanation for the exit of Fox News’ ace anchor Tucker Carlson, have surfaced and it is faith related.

A source revealed to reporters that Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch had taken exceptions to Carlson’s remarks in a Friday night speech

“He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” The source said.

Following the information void, created by fox news’ refusal to explain why a beloved anchor was let go, multiple theories have begun to surface.

One of which, is that Carlson’s speech had religious sentiments that Murdoch had found too extreme, Carlson in the speech had said that national politics has become a Manichean battle between “good” and “evil.” And that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs wanted to destroy America and could not be persuaded by facts.

Carlson said, “We should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates…I’ve tried. That doesn’t work, I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will” he said, suggesting that the answer was prayer.

“That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” the source said

Carlson also allegedly, wasn’t even fired and remains on the Fox News payroll.

Lagos Begins Massive Demolition of Illegal Buildings

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Cleopatra Okohai

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April 27, 2023

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The Lagos State Government on Wednesday embarked on the demolition of illegal and non-conforming buildings in the Banana Island area of the state.

The development was part of the state government’s efforts to tackle the frequent cases of building collapse in the state.

The exercise was carried out by officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit and the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority.

The team was also led by the leadership of the agencies which include, the General Manager of LASBCA, Gbolahan Oki, and the Task Force Chairman, CSP Shola Jejeloye.

According to a statement by the state Ministry of Information, the affected buildings were in contravention of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Development Law (2019).

It was also said to be in line with the agency’s core statutory responsibilities of identification and removal/demolition of distressed, illegal and non-conforming structures in the State.

“The exercise is in compliance with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s directive last weekend when he visited the site of the seven-storey building that collapsed on Banana Island.

“Governor Sanwo-Olu said the site of the collapsed building was not originally part of the Island’s plan,” the statement added.

No fewer than seven persons were rescued from the rubble of a seven-storey building under construction that collapsed on Wednesday, April 12, on First Avenue, in the area.

LN247 reported that construction workers were performing their daily tasks in the building that had been under construction for months when it suddenly caved in around 4.58pm.

It was learnt that while some of the workers at the site escaped unhurt with some sustaining varying degrees of injury, some other workers, who were unlucky, got trapped beneath the rubble of the collapsed structure.

In a bid to rescue the trapped victims, some eyewitnesses, including construction workers at the site of adjoining buildings within the premises, raised the alarm and alerted relevant emergency agencies who mobilised to the scene to commence rescue operations.

Shortly after the incident, the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, in a statement posted on its verified Facebook page, said no approval was given for the construction of the collapsed structure.

This is as the body of an adult male was however recovered from the rubble during the recovery efforts of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency.

The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, who confirmed this in a statement on Friday, April 15, disclosed that the body of the male victim was found in the morning, almost 48 hours after the incident.

While leading a delegation to have an on-the-spot assessment of the incident on Saturday, April 22, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu ordered the demolition of no fewer than 20 buildings in the area without valid building approvals, especially those seen to have violated building regulations and plans of the State.

The governor also frowned at the issuance of a permit to sand fill the Lagos Lagoon without regard to the topography of the area.

Sanwo-Olu also expressed displeasure over the approvals given to developers by the federal government in connivance with some corrupt officials of the Lagos State government.

Nigeria Lose To Bulgaria In Opening Game At IHF Championship

By

Emenike Agu

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April 27, 2023

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Nigeria’s under-24 male handball team on Wednesday lost their opening game to hosts Bulgaria at the fourth international handball federation emerging nation’s championship.

The game played at the palace of culture and sports in Varna saw the hosts beat their African rivals 23-19 to make it their second win in the tournament where they had earlier defeated Azerbaijan.

Nigeria managed to stay close in the game and exerted some pressure on Bulgaria, especially with the first half ending 11-13 in favor of the hosts.

The Europeans however showed they wanted the win more, beating the Nigerian team being coached by Solomon Yola by four points to stay top on group d.

Nigeria will face Azerbaijan on Thursday, with a win securing them a spot in the tournament’s placement matches.

Meanwhile, the two wins have qualified Bulgaria to the semi-finals of the tournament where they face Cuba, the top team in group c, on Saturday.

Bayelsa Women’s Breast Milk at Risk of High Toxic Metal – Researchers

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Cleopatra Okohai

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April 27, 2023

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A study carried out by researchers at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has found high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium detected in the breast milk of diabetic and non-diabetic postpartum mothers.

The peer-reviewed study titled ‘Comparison of toxic heavy metals in the breast milk of diabetic and non-diabetic postpartum mothers in Yenagoa, Nigeria’ was published in the PLoS One journal on April 7, 2023.

Arsenic is highly toxic in its inorganic form. Contaminated water used for drinking, food preparation, and irrigation of food crops poses the greatest threat to public health from arsenic. Lead is a naturally occurring toxic metal found in the earth’s crust.

Mercury is toxic to human health, posing a particular threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life; while cadmium exerts toxic effects on the kidneys as well as the skeletal and respiratory systems.

The researchers utilised a cross-section of 72 diabetic and 72 non-diabetic postpartum mothers from three public hospitals in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State.

The researchers said the concentration of the toxic heavy metals detected in the two groups were above the World Health Organisation’s permissible limits, thus showing evidence of risk to the health of the mother and neonate.

According to them, heavy metals exposure could trigger suppression of cytokine production and lower immunity as they bind to albumin and enter the breast milk.

The researchers noted, “Yenagoa is a seaside town with staple consumption of charcoal smoked fish, heavy agricultural fertiliser use, and widespread clandestine (illegal) crude oil refining. It is also the seat of legal crude oil exploration and petrochemical activities in the Niger Delta region. It has experienced several crude oil spills from 1976 till recent times resulting in environmental degradation and the possible release of heavy metals into the environment.

“The research team wonders if maternal diabetes would worsen the excretion of toxic heavy metals in breast milk. A literature search in the major research databases such as MEDLINE, PubMed, and ProQuest yielded few peer-reviewed publications on the subject matter.

“The knowledge gap motivated the research team to embark on a study to compare the concentration of heavy metals in the breast milk of diabetic and non-diabetic postpartum mothers in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to measure heavy metals in the breast milk of diabetic lactating mothers.”

They, however, said more toxicological research on mother and child health might be necessary to validate the conclusions of the study.

Hakuto-R: Japanese Moon Lander Likely To Have Crashed

By

Angel Gimalo

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April 27, 2023

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Image: — A model of the lander of HAKUTO-R private lunar exploration program is displayed prior to livestream of the lunar landing event Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, in Tokyo. Tokyo's ispace company put its own spacecraft into orbit around the moon a month ago. Flight controllers will direct the craft, named Hakuto, Japanese for white rabbit, to descend from 60 miles (100 kilometers) high and land on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A Japanese company hoping to carry out a rare private Moon landing says it is likely its lunar lander crashed on the surface.

Communication was lost with Hakuto-R moments before it was due to touch down at approximately 16:40 GMT on Tuesday.

Engineers are investigating what happened.

The Tokyo-based iSpace had hoped the lander would release an exploratory rover, as well as a tennis ball-sized robot developed by a toymaker.

The craft was launched by a SpaceX rocket in December, and took five months to reach its destination.

“We have not confirmed communication with the lander,” iSpace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said about 25 minutes after the planned landing.

“We have to assume that we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” he added.

Mr Hakamada later said that despite not expecting to complete the mission, the company had “fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase”.

The M1 lander appeared set to touch down after coming as close as 295 feet (89 m) from the lunar surface, a live animation showed.

The lander was just over 2m tall and weighed 340kg, relatively small and compact by lunar spacecraft standards. It had been due for an hour-long landing manoeuvre from its orbit, around 100km above the surface, where it was moving at nearly 6,000km/hour.

After reaching the landing site in the Moon’s northern hemisphere, the Hakuto-R was to deploy two payloads to analyse the lunar soil, its geology and atmosphere. One of them was made by the toy company TOMY, which created the Transformers.

The United States, Russia and China are the only countries to have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programmes.

In 2019, Israel’s Beresheet mission became the first attempt by a private company to land on the Moon. Its spacecraft managed to orbit the Moon but was lost during the landing attempt. An Indian attempt to land a probe on the Moon failed later in the same year.

The primary aim of the Japanese mission was to assess the viability of commercial launches to the lunar surface. It was the first test by iSpace of what they hope will be a series of commercial landers over the next few years, each more ambitious than the previous.

Russia’s Navalny says he is facing jail beyond 2050

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Zoe Maven

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April 26, 2023

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President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, has said he is being investigated on terrorism charges which could see him imprisoned beyond 2050.

Navalny who was speaking via video link from his penal colony, calling the new case against him “absurd, is already facing 11 and half years in prison on a range of charges, which his supporters say are trumped-up.

Navalny said in court on Wednesday that a new criminal case has been opened which would see him judged by a military tribunal on “terrorism” charges.

He said it related to a criminal case opened against him in October on allegations of creating an extremist group, inciting hatred against state officials, and calling for unauthorised protests.

Navalny’s latest court appearance was part of a pre-trial hearing related to the amount of time authorities are giving him to familiarise himself with the case files. He is due to reappear in court next week.

His current prison term comes to an end in 2031, but if he is given the maximum punishment in all cases opened against him he will stay behind bars beyond 2050, according to investigative project Agentstvo, citing lawyers.

After his appearance on Wednesday, Navalny said he had been returned to solitary confinement, having spent 15 days there already.

Meanwhile, another high-profile Russian dissident is facing five years in jail in the city he led for several years. The prosecution in Yekaterinburg says former mayor Yevgeny Roizman took part in a YouTube discussion last August where he negatively assessed the way Russian troops were being used in Ukraine.

Until his arrest in August, the ex-mayor was one of the last remaining prominent opposition politicians in Russia who hadn’t been killed, detained, or forced out of the country.

In interviews, he was often asked why he hadn’t fled Russia, like so many of his fellow activists. “I can’t flee,” he said shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “It is unacceptable for me to do that.”

Earlier this week, in yet another show of Russia’s crackdown on dissenting opinions over the invasion, an interior ministry worker was sentenced to seven years in jail for spreading “fake news” about the war in a personal phone call.

Sergei Klokov was detained a few weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 when his phone was tapped. He reportedly told a friend over the phone: “We think we are fighting fascism, but there isn’t fascism there. There isn’t.”

Russia has intensified a crackdown on its critics at home since invading Ukraine last year, with many in exile or behind bars.

Sweden Rocket Accidentally Lands In Norway

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Zoe Maven

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April 26, 2023

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A research rocket launched by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) from northern Sweden has malfunctioned and landed 15km inside neighbouring Norway.

According to an SSC statement, the rocket was part of a research programme in which experiments are carried out in zero gravity at 250km above the Earth. However, the rocket took slightly longer and more westerly trajectory than expected.

The projectile landed on Monday in an uninhabited region in Målselv municipality, 40km (25 miles) northwest of the planned target location in Sweden. It was unclear if there was any damage to the surrounding area.

Researchers said they hope experiments carried out by the rocket will contribute to the transition away from fossil fuels to green energy technology as well as help understand how planets are born.

The rocket was a TEXUS-58 and is part of a European initiative commissioned by the European Space Agency. It rocket was launched from the Esrange Space Center, which is surrounded by a large landing area about twice the size of Luxembourg.

Philip Ohlsson, head of communications at SSC said it landed in the mountains at 1,000 metres altitude and 10km [6.2 miles] from the closest settlement. He added that there is a routine in place when things go wrong, and both Swedish and Norwegian governments as well as other actors are informed.

The SCC said the rocket was recovered on Tuesday in “good condition” and was transported back to the centre by helicopter. An investigation is under way to determine what led to the malfunction.

Also, Marko Kohberg, head of rocket and balloon operations at Esrange Space Center said the occurrence is a deviation that they take seriously, adding that they are now investigating the reason why the rocket flew farther northwest than normal, although it was still too early to speculate about the cause.

In the meantime, Norwegian officials have responded sharply to the incident and said they were not informed. A spokesperson from its foreign ministry said the Norwegian authorities take any unauthorised activity on the Norwegian side of the border very seriously.

The spokesperson said in the event of any border violation, those responsible should immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities, including the foreign ministry, through the right channels but that the ministry had not yet received a formal notification of the incident from the Swedish authorities.