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“We’ll Set The Fields On Fire In New Zealand And Australia” – Onome Ebi

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With less than 100 days to go until the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand, Nigeria’s Captain Onome Ebi speaks on how the Super Falcons are preparing for their record ninth appearance at the global extravaganza.

The multiple African champions have been drawn in Group B where they will battle out against Canada, Ireland and hosts Australia, and the ambitious Nigerians are slowly folding their sleeves and getting ready to work for a good performance down under.

Q: We are 100 days away from the start of the World Cup. How is Nigeria getting ready?

Our preparation is going on okay and we are focusing on improving on all fronts; from defense to attack. We are adjusting everything to be ready for the World Cup which is fast approaching. We are focusing on the small details which we don’t want to miss and also, we don’t want to repeat mistakes that we have had in the past.

Q. What are your ambitions for this World Cup?

Our ambition, definitely, is to do our best. We approach this World Cup with the mindset of performing to our utmost best and conquering. We had some disappointments at the last TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations where we did not put the best performance.

We have the opportunity at the World Cup where we do not want to disappoint again. I have faith in my team and I like our current state of mind. The team is united and I believe we will be able to do great things at the World Cup. We are motivated and we want to hoist Nigeria’s flag to the highest point.

The ball is in our court as players and we have to do everything to be on fire physically and mentally for this opportunity.

Q. A word about Asisat Oshoala who is having an excellent season. She was injured during the last Cup of Nations. What can we expect from her at the World Cup?

It’s a blessing to have her in this team. She is a great professional and an example for the whole team. Her performance at club level is incredible. Many people forget that few months ago she was injured and today she is up on the pitch putting up huge performances both in the local league and the Champions League.

She is one of the best players in the World and speaking to her, she is also hugely waiting for the World Cup and has already set her targets for the tournament. She is doing everything she can to be on top form.

Q. Nigeria are in Group B with Canada, Ireland and Australia. What do you think of this group?

We are aware that we are in a difficult pool. We have the reigning champions Canada who we have faced twice before, losing one and drawing one. Then we have Ireland and Australia who we have not played against.

We know it will also be very tough against Australia because they will be playing at home. We are under no pressure however and we are calm about these matches.

All of these teams have qualified and earned their right to be at the World Cup. We have to be ready to face them.

Oyo Supplementary Election Peaceful – INEC REC

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The Oyo State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Adeniran Teller, has described the supplementary election which held in Oluyole, Ibadan North-East and South-East local government areas of Ibadan as peaceful.

Adeniran spoke to journalists on Saturday, at the Ward 2, Unit 1 Abbey Technical of the Oluyole Local Government Area of Ibadan, Oyo state, while monitoring the supplementary election in Ibadan.

He said the fact that there were no criminal or political gangs that often unleashed violence during an election, was an element to measure a credible election.

The Oyo REC also added that the commission had not received any bad news or recorded any political violence.

The turnout of voters at the two polling units monitored was quite impressive.

At Ward 2, Idi-Iroko/Ikereku, polling unit 1, Abbey Technical of the Oluyole Local Government Area, the Peoples Democratic Party polled 212 votes, All Progressives Congress had 81 votes while African Democratic Congress had one vote.

The accredited voters at the polling unit stood at 298 while two invalid votes were recorded.

At Ward 7, unit 1, IMG Basic School, Olurinde, Olomi/Olunde of the Oluyole Local Government Area, PDP polled 170 votes, APC garnered 112 votes while Accord Party and ADC scored one vote each.

Supplementary Polls: Rivers Record Low Voters Turnout

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The supplementary election in Port Harcourt Federal Constituency 2, Rivers State, on Saturday, suffered high voter apathy.

Our correspondent who visited some wards and polling units reports that only a handful of voters were seen.

At the St Andrews Primary School in Diobu, Port Harcourt, Ward 11, Unit 24, as at 9:44am only six voters had been accredited; while in Unit 25, only 12 persons were accredited as at 9:50 am.

However in Unit 27, the situation was different as 28 persons were accredited as at 9:46 am.

Also in Ward 5, Unit 8 and 9, Open Space in Creek Road, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission and voting materials arrived early but as at 9:53 am, no voter had cast a vote.

In Unit 29, Ward 10 of PHALGA which has over 700 voting population, only three persons had cast their vote as at 10:03am, while in Unit 30 and 64, no voter had been accredited.

In Ward 10, Unit 41 and 42, Mile 3, accreditation started at 8:30 am but by 10:30 am, only four persons had cast their votes in a polling unit with 709 voters.

In Unit 42, as at 10:04 am, only three persons had voted in a polling unit with 704 registered voters. In Ward 10, Unit 71, accreditation started at 8:50 am, but as at 10:07 am, only one person had cast a vote.

Two army patrol vans with armed personnel were stationed in front of the RAC Center at the Elekahia Primary School at about 12:45 pm when our correspondent visited the area.

In Khana Local Governmentnt Area, voting and accreditation commenced in Ward 7, Unit 15 in Bagha cimmunity.

Also in Ward 4, Unit 5 in Sogho commumity, voting and accreditation were going on simultaneously.

Our correspondent reports that earlier, a town crier went round Lumene and Bagha Community, urging registered voters to come out and vote.

In Khana LGA, there was a huge presence of security personnel which several voters complained about, and touted was akin to being in a war situation.

Speaking on the huge security presence, a registered voter who gave his name as Savior queried, “Why is there so much presence of security operatives here?

“This alone can scare voters from coming out. Are we in a war situation? It is not necessary and you can see that our people are afraid of coming out,” he remarked.

But speaking with newsmen, the chairman of Khana LGA, Dr. Thomas Bariere, said the presence of the security personnel was to discourage any form of violence, going by the experience recorded during the main elections which held in the area last month.

Bariere explained, “In order to guide against a repeat of what happened that led to this rescheduled election security operatives would have to be deployed in their numbers to secure the area, election materials and personnel, so that the process will be peaceful.

“The voters are ready and they are voting as you can see they are going to their different polling units.

“Thank God the BVAS is working fine and fast. And we are confident that within the time given by the INEC voting will start and concluded,” he noted.

VP Osinbajo Praise Nigeria’s First Professor Of Medicine

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Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has eulogized the country’s first Professor of Medicine, the late Prof. Theophilus Oladipo Ogunlesi saying he showed what it meant to live by values necessary to build people and institutions while also contributing to the common good of the country.

He stated this on Friday in Sagamu, Ogun State, at the funeral service of the late Ogunlesi, who became the first Nigerian Professor of Medicine in 1963.

Prof. Ogunlesi died on January 19 this year at the age of 99.

The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, other dignitaries and government officials also graced the funeral service held at the Anglican Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Sagamu, Ogun State.

The VP, on behalf of the President, and the Federal Government, commiserated with the family of Prof Ogunlesi, the government and the people of Ogun State, even as he praised the late professor of medicine for his impact on society.

Recalling an interview the late Professor of Medicine granted in 2017, Prof. Osinbajo observed that, indeed, Ogunlesi lived a life that was dedicated to public service.

The Vice President referenced some direct quotes by Prof Ogunlesi from the interview.

For instance, he quoted him saying, “Real wealth means being fulfilled in the assignment God has committed into your hands, and being able to put smiles on the faces of other people who are in need.”

Also, the VP noted that the late Ogunlesi stated in that newspaper interview, that his “lifelong business has been, and still is, to take care of the sick, promote health and prevent sickness, through health education, and helping the poor and the needy as best as I can.”

Describing him as a great Nigerian, an African colossus, and a man who, by his scholarship and practice, made global impact in medicine, Prof. Osinbajo observed that the late Prof. Ogunlesi was the first professor of medicine in Nigeria, the first Nigerian head of the Department of Medicine at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, and the first president of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.

On retirement, the late Ogunlesi was also Professor Emeritus of Medicine since 1983 at Nigeria’s Premier Medical School, the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

U.S. Deploys B-52 Bomber For Exercise With Republic Of Korea

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The American B-52 Heavy Bomber Flew Over The Korean Peninsula Once Again, Participating In A Joint Air Drill Alongside The South Korean Air Force.

South Korean Fighter Jets, Including The F-35a And F-15k, Joined Forces With American F-16 Combat Jets For This Exercise.

This Demonstration Of Enhanced Military Cooperation, Featuring The Nuclear-Capable American Aircraft, Comes Just A Day After North Korea’s Most Recent Ballistic Missile Launch.

This Year Marks The Third Time That The B-52 Bomber Has Been Involved In Joint Exercises With South Korea, Each Instance Occurring In Close Proximity To North Korean Provocations.

Exploring North Brother Island, U.S.A.

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The North Brother Island is an uninhabited island which is part of a twin islands group that are located in the East River which flows through New York City, in the State of New York, within the United States of America.

Designated today as a bird sanctuary, the North Brother Island was uninhabited until 1885, when the Riverside Hospital moved from Roosevelt Island, which mission was to treat and isolate victims of the Smallpox, however, later the hospital expanded in treating other quarantine diseases.

The island since the beginning had a fascinating, but very tragic history. Perhaps the most famous resident to ever stayed in the nowadays abandoned hospital was “Typhoid Mary” Mallon, who bore the unfortunate distinction of being the United States’ first documented asymptomatic carrier of the bacteria that causes typhoid fever.

She was quarantined in 1907 when after investigations by medical authorities it was revealed that even though she appears to be in good health, she carried the disease and seven out of the eight families for which she was working had experienced typhoid fever outbreaks.

She was released in 1910 with specific instructions not to return to her previous work as a cook, nevertheless, she refused to do so, which resulted in her return to North Brother Island until her death in 1938.

Still, the most infamous historic event to have happened on the island was the fire that occurred on the sidewheel passenger steamship, General Slocum, which in this unfortunate event on 15 June 1904 burned, and by the time it reached the shore of North Brother Island, over 1,000 people died either from the fire on board the ship or from drowning.

This was the worst loss of life in New York’s history until the attacks on 11 September 2001. After World War Two, as the structures that once housed sick people, were reopened once again, first as a housing for war veterans and later in 1950s as a hospital.

This time it was to house heroin addicts, where the facility claimed to be the first to offer treatment, rehabilitation, and education facilities to young drug offenders, who were confined to this island and locked in a room until they were clean.

By 1963, everything on the small island was closed and abandoned, which until today it is left to rot, and as it is off limits to the public, with certain permits issued by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, there is the possibility for people to come and witness how it would look like when the people are leaving something behind for the nature to take care of.

Due to the overgrowth of trees and small plants, the roads that once brought people to the buildings are today unrecognizable, and if the sea level rise a little bit more with the help of a very strong hurricane, there is the possibility of swallowing the island’s habitats, ecology, structures, and even history.

The heavily deteriorated buildings that are in great danger of collapse, being hidden from the dense forest that slowly captured the entire island, will urge people to get and witness some of New York’s long history, with hope that its history won’t be repeated, as some tend to say.

Once Upon A Time – April 15 – 1955 – Ray Kroc Opens First Mcdonald’s In Des Plaines, Illinois

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1755 Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language” published in London

1861 Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by US President Abraham Lincoln (US Civil War)

1874 First ‘Impressionist’ exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot

1877 Boston-Somerville installs the world’s 1st telephone in Massachusetts

1912 RMS Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as the band plays on, with the loss of between 1,490 and 1,635 people

Historical Events Today Events in 2023

Today in Film & TV

1990 “In Living Color” premieres on FOX-TV

Today in Music

1729 Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” premieres at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany)

Today in Sport

1896 1st modern Summer Olympic Games close in Athens, Greece; USA wins gold medal count, 11; Greece wins total medal count, 46; IOC has retroactively assigned gold, silver & bronze medals to 3 best placed athletes in each event

1947 Jackie Robinson becomes 1st African-American to play in US major league baseball (Dodgers)

1989 96 crushed to death and 766 injured at Hillsborough Football Stadium, Sheffield, England, during FA semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest

1960 Guy Carawan sings “We Shall Overcome” to a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh – popularising the song as a protest anthem

1955 Ray Kroc opens first McDonald’s Inc. fast food restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois

Famous Weddings

1595 Willem I’s daughter of Elisabeth of Nassau marries duke Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne of Broth

1909 Mien Wenneker, Dutch prince Henry’s lover, weds Uncle Cornelis Abbo

1925 Russian writer (“Lolita”) Vladimir Nabokov (26) marries fellow Russian writer Vera Evseevna Slonim (23) in Berlin

Tesla To Build New Battery Factory In Shanghai

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Elon Musk’s Electric Car Company Tesla Says It Is Expanding In China As It Builds A New Factory To Make Its Large-Scale Batteries.

The Firm Says The Plant In Shanghai Will Be Able To Produce 10,000 Of Its “Megapack” Energy Storage Units A Year.

A Megapack Is A Very Large Battery That Can Be Used To Help Stabilise Energy Grids And Prevent Power Outages.

Tesla Already Has Megapack Plant In California, Which Also Produces 10,000 Of The Units Each Year.

Musk Said On Twitter That The New Chinese Plant Will Be In Addition To Tesla’s Us Factory.

Ethiopia Visit: Italy PM Announces Major Gas Plan

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Italy’s Far-Right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has begun a two-day visit to Ethiopia, where she has announced plans for an African Energy Cooperation deal starting in October.

She says the “Mattei Plan” will transform italy into a major energy hub, taking gas from the Mediterranean and North Africa to European Nations.

Italy has increasingly imported gas from Algeria and other African countries rather than Russia.

The Italian government considers the “stability and integrity” of Ethiopia to be a priority for national interest because of its location on the migratory route from the horn of Africa to Europe.

Smoke Bomb Throw: Japan PM Fumio Kishida Evacuated, Unharmed

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Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been evacuated unharmed from a public event after what appeared to be a smoke bomb was thrown at him.

A man was detained at the scene in Wakayama, where Kishida had been due to give a speech.

He was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of business and later identified by the authorities as 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura. His motivation is still unclear.

No injuries were reported.