New Allegations Surface in Tucker Carlson’s Fox News Exit

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April 27, 2023

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

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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

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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.

Attempts To Silence Journalists Increase In Europe: CPJ

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Zoe Maven

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April 26, 2023

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The Committee to Protect Journalists says the European Union needs to do more to protect media workers adding that Reporters across Europe are working under increasingly challenging conditions with attempts to silence them growing seadily.

According to an extensive report released on Wednesday, the US-based body said that while the European Union has introduced laws to support media freedom over the years, progress in finding sustainable solutions to combat threats against journalists within the bloc has been slow.

The report went on to state that some governments used the COVID-19 pandemic to control the media, including restricting access to journalists and withholding public-interest information, adding that Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has tested the EU’s ability to protect journalist safety.

More than 10 journalists were killed in Ukraine last year while many in Russia have been targeted by Moscow’s wartime censorship laws. In its world press freedom index, nine of the top 10 countries are in Europe, but the CPJ argues that the environment is getting bleaker.

Tom Gibson, CPJ’s Europe representative, told Newsmen that Journalism and journalists were under threat like never before. If we look at the conditions in Europe, the intention to try to silence journalists has increased.

He said they have also seen a daily increase in online harassment and digital threats against journalists, including threats from very rich and powerful individuals who want to silence them through vexatious lawsuits called SLAPP – or strategic lawsuit against public participation.

Gibson lamented the lack of support for independent media, describing what he called “media capture” in some EU nations with some governments seeking to control media by financing them and undermining independent journalism.

In September 2022, the European Commission introduced the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), seeking to protect “protect media pluralism and independence in the EU”.

But according to Gibson, some EU nations are actually putting up a bit of a fight to stop the EMFA from being adopted, since it addresses threats of “media capture”, and is also an anti-SLAPP directive.

The CPJ noted that while the European Parliament has set up a committee to investigate alleged breaches of EU law in the use of surveillance software, better solutions are needed. For example, Gibson warned that some regulations aimed at tackling online surveillance threaten encryption.

In Greece, journalists Thanasis Koukakis, Stavros Malichoudis and Eliza Triantafillou say they have become targets of state-sanctioned surveillance because of their work.

Iranian Authorities Crack Down On Celebrities

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Zoe Maven

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April 26, 2023

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Authorities in Iran have established a special force to crack down on celebrities who spoke out in support of the widespread anti-government protests last year.

According to internal documents obtained by the BBC, In September 2022, a so-called “Celebrity Task Force” was launched in Iran and ordered to investigate the tax history of famous individuals known to be supportive of the protest movement.

The documents were obtained through a Middle Eastern intelligence source that reveals how the government took swift and coordinated action in an attempt to deter celebrities from not following the official line.

The first letter, dated 22 September, identified the committee’s chairman as the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili, who has been sanctioned by the European Union.

Another document, from 26 September, renamed the task force as “Celebrities Committee” and made its operations permanent.

At least 141 well-known figures in Iran were listed as potential targets of the new task force, including football star Ali Daei, actress Taraneh Alidoosti, and Oscar-award-winning director Asghar Farhadi.

At the time, the committee’s responsibilities were split between the culture and intelligence ministries dealing with “artists, singers and media personalities” and the sports ministry and Revolutionary Guards handling athletes.

The third document, from 1 November, discussed what to do with the footballers who were allegedly supportive of the protests at the Qatar World Cup, suggesting that a well-known player and coach should have their assets frozen.

Protests rocked Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was allegedly beaten by the “so-called” morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly.

Mahsa’s death encouraged thousands to take to the streets to protest against the mandatory hijab laws and the heavy-handed tactics used to squash dissent.

Iranian authorities responded with brute force, with nearly 20,000 people arrested, 110 on charges that could lead to the death sentence, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

In the latest crackdown, Iran’s cyber police have announced the arrest of 40 Instagramers for allegedly posting “half-naked or immodest pictures of women”.

War Crimes Suspect Free Amid Sudan Crisis

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Zoe Maven

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April 26, 2023

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A former Sudanese politician Ahmed Haroun, held in Kober prison in the capital Khartoum, facing charges by the International Criminal Court, says he and other former officials are no longer in jail, following reports of a break-out.

Reports emerged earlier this week of a prison break at Kober – where Ahmed Haroun was serving a sentence alongside Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s former president.

On Tuesday, Haroun confirmed in a statement aired on Sudan’s Tayba TV that he and other Bashir loyalists who served under him had left the jail – but said he would be ready to appear before the judiciary whenever it was functioning.

In an audio message circulating on social media, Haroun claimed the group had been aided in their escape by prison guards and the armed forces.

An army spokesman denied any army involvement, saying the military “does not have any supervision over prisons”. He said the military was coordinating with police to return inmates to prisons.

But plenty of Sudanese will believe this is just the latest example of Gen Burhan, leader of Sudan’s armed forces, trying to restore Bashir’s Islamist lieutenants to the forefront of Sudanese politics.

The ceasefire in Sudan has allowed several countries to evacuate their nationals from the country. Several evacuation flights carrying UK nationals from Sudan have landed in Cyprus, while a boat evacuating more than 1,600 people from dozens of countries has now arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Haroun was a key player in the Sudanese government’s brutal response to two long-running and still unresolved civil wars – in Darfur (from 2003) and South Kordofan (from 2011). He was indicted by the ICC in 2007 for his alleged role in the atrocities in Darfur – described as the first genocide of the 21st Century – when he was the country’s interior minister.

Haroun who was arrested in 2019, after veteran leader Bashir was ousted by the military amid mass protests, faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes, with charges including murder, rape, persecution and torture.

Mukesh Kapila, a former UN coordinator for Sudan, described Haroun as “extremely dangerous” and “unreliable”, adding he had “many followers who have been lurking for the last two decades”.

Thousands more are reported to have fled Sudan and the UN has warned that this is likely to continue. Lines of buses and other vehicles are continuing to leave Khartoum despite rocketing prices of fuel and bus tickets.

There is also concern for those who are left behind, with an estimated 24,000 pregnant women currently in Khartoum who are expected to give birth in the coming weeks.