Federal Government has distanced itself from a website calling for applications for theemploymentof 774,000 across the country as part of the special public works programme of the government.
Describing the website and portal as fake, the Federal Government said the exercise is yet to begin and its commencement would be properly and publicly announced.
In a statement, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, Minister of State for Labour andEmployment, said: “My attention has been drawn to a certain advertorial circulating on Social Media tilted ‘Application Opens For 774,000 Employment By FG: SeeRequirements, Salary And How To Apply’.
“The advertorial goes ahead to state Stipends and Commissions, Requirements, How To Apply, Closing Date, etc.
“As the Supervising Minister over the National Directorate of Employment in which the Special Public Works Programme of the Federal Government is domiciled, and having conferred with the Director-General, Dr. Nasiru Ladan Mohammed Argungu, we wish to alert members of the public that the said advertorial or anything of such presentlycirculating is fake and should be disregarded.
“I have just finished consultation with the Hon. Minister of Finance and we arepresently working out how the scope of the programme would be expanded and executed with other relevant Ministries and stakeholders across the country.
“The public would be duly informed by this office when all the modalities have been graciously approved by Mr. President.
“We are also informed of instructions by certain persons going round in some States to the effect that names of those to be employed under the programme should be compiled.
We also urge these people not to embark on an exercise in futility as the guidelines for such recruitment and those to be involved have not been released by the agency.
“Finally, we assure all that this well-intentioned programme of the Federal Government would be carefully planned and executed in such a way as to meet its target of empowering the largely unskilled labour in rural areas.”
Republican Texas Rep. Mike McCaul on Friday said that the World Health Organization (WHO) and China are working together in a cover-up for allegedly not releasing information about the disease when before the massive outbreak.
“There is a case to be made here that this is the worst cover-up in human history,” McCaul said to Fox News in an interview. “This is a cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party, which has now led to one of the worst pandemics we’ve ever seen.”
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote: “Throughout the crisis, the WHO has shied away from placing any blame on the Chinese government, which is in essence the Communist Party of China. You, as leader of the WHO, even went so far as to praise the Chinese government’s “transparency” during the crisis, when, in fact, the regime has consistently lied to the world by underreporting their actual infection and death statistics.”Arizona Sen. Martha McSally called for the WHO director to step down from his position on April 2.
People wearing protective suits are seen in Biandanshan cemetery in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus disease outbreak, April 1, 2020.
“Late December 2019 ‑- The Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in central China's Hubei Province detected cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.”
On Monday, April 6, China’s Xinhua News agency published the full text of the country’s official coronavirus response timeline.
In rolling out the chronology, the government claimed it had “unreservedly” shared every bit of information on COVID-19 with the international community “since the onset of the epidemic.”
“Upholding the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, China has been timely releasing information on COVID-19 since the onset of the epidemic in an open, transparent and responsible manner, unreservedly sharing with the WHO [World Health Organization] and the international community its experience in epidemic response and medical treatment, and strengthening cooperation on scientific research. It has also provided assistance to all parties to the best of its ability. All these efforts have been applauded and widely recognized by the international community.”
The government’s COVID19 timeline begins with a claim that the first cases of “pneumonia of unknown cause” were detected in the city of Wuhan in “late December 2019.”
That is false.
Scientific reports have said the first cases of what turned out to be the novel coronavirus behind the disease COVID-19 were detected weeks earlier.
One study conducted by a group of China's top scientists and dated Feb. 21 concluded that the “early population expansion of SARS-CoV-2” (the name for the novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan) was detected on Dec. 8 or earlier.
The study stated: “The crowded (Huanan Wholesale Seafood) market (‘wet market’ in Wuhan) boosted SARS-CoV-2 rapid circulations in the market and spread it to the whole city in early December 2019.”
The study raised the prospect of human-to-human spread, although without specifying the means of transmission.
“Tracing back to the first identified COVID-19 patient on 1 December, SARS-CoV-2 has been circulated in humans for more than two months. However, it is still unclear whether the Hua Nan market was the birthplace of the virus, and how it has been transmitted and spread subsequently,” the team wrote.
The Chinese authorities on Dec. 31 had initially said there was no “obvious person-to-person transmission.” The World Health Organization raised the likelihood of human transmission three weeks later.
According to the WHO, China identified the new virus and isolated it on Jan. 7. Five days later, the Chinese authorities shared its genetic sequence for the purpose of developing diagnostic kits. On Jan. 24, the WHO reported that, “New epidemiological information reinforces the evidence that the 2019-nCoV can be transmitted from one individual to another.”
Contrary to the claim that information was shared in a timely and transparent manner, news reports said the Chinese government suppressed information for at least a month after mysterious cases of pneumonia began to emerge in Wuhan.
“On Jan. 3, China’s National Health Commission, the nation’s top health authority, ordered institutions not to publish any information related to the unknown disease, and ordered labs to transfer any samples they had to designated testing institutions, or to destroy them,” the English-language Straits Times of Singapore reported.
On Jan. 9, the Chinese authorities “finally announced” the novel coronavirus outbreak. “Even then, the transmissibility of the virus was downplayed, leaving the public unaware of the imminent danger,” The Straits Times said.
The government prosecuted and arrested doctors and citizens for social media posts about the new virus, accusing them of “spreading rumors” and “misdemeanor,” according the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network, citing Agency France Press and its own reporting.
Meanwhile, international travel from Wuhan continued. According to The New York Times, some 7 million people traveled from Wuhan to more than 21 countries before travel restrictions were imposed. The United States halted entry from China on Jan. 31 for non-Americans.
The Chinese authors of another coronavirus study published in the medical journal The Lancet identified the “system onset” date of the very first patient as Dec. 1, 2019.
This chart published in the Lancet study puts the early hospitalization cases reported in Wuhan on a timeline of symptom onset dates. Almost all were prior to the China alert on Dec. 31.
Source: “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China”, The Lancet, Jan. 24, 2020
Last week, Bloomberg News, citing three unidentified U.S. officials, reported that the U.S. intelligence community has concluded China had underreported the number of cases and deaths in the country.
China’s state-run media have regularly dismissed criticism of the country’s coronavirus information handling as “fake news.” Chinese officials have said they provided scientific reports and data and ordered an unprecedented mobilization to prevent the virus from spreading.
Life is mystery and dynamic. When others are crying, some people are actually enjoying life. Life is never easy, because it's not a childish play. For everything, it is guided with principles. Come to think of it, to every child born to any family, it is valued, and celebrated, whether the family has something or nothing. The question here is, “what is the force ( reason ) that keeps one living on this planet? Is it position? Family? Love? Money? Influence?
People want to take their lives, others want to enjoy theirs more. For sure, either one is a solution or the person is a problem. Any one who is a problem, becomes problem even to those around such a person. Anyone who lacks understanding of who he is or what he wants, lacks understanding of the purpose why he is alive, and such a person is problematic.
Such a person can live to destroy creatures of the great creator that he cannot attempt to create. They are people, when they behave, you will be wondering, what's running in the mind, the vein and artery of this individual. They are the problem to be solved.
Others want it by all means, anything can be a bait, and they can prey on any. To them, means justifies the end, and there is nothing like lines to be considered. I think, that's why we read suicide news almost everyday. Because the driving force is sinking, and no hope of and kind again because no moral value considered, the life lacked pure foundation and it is easily frustrated.
Every living being that has spirit, soul and body ought to have purpose, reason, the driving force that is based on bible, because every other books contradicted themselves in one way or the other, except the bible that has shown itself a manual of life. That is, it does not miss lead the readers
Many always focus on now and misbehave without considering the fact that, tough times will not always last, that it is only tough people that can last longer than tough times. It is important to note that hope keeps life alive.
Killing oneself has never solved any problem, rather exposes the person to danger of dying more than once. So, it is better for one to examine it's life and develop it to be hopeful, so it can be meaningful, then it will be useful.
I want to take you To ECCLESIASTES 12: 13 – 14 for your checks.
APC has announced the picking of presidential form of PMB, the form is actually picked for Mr president while he is still in China. APC stated that that the form was picked by "a well-mean Nigerian"
On the other hand, PDP is saying that for a group to pick a form of #45m is violation of Nigria law. In expression of their stand through press statement made by publicity Secretary, "
Bee populations in North America have been in decline since the 1940s. This is of great concern to the agriculture industry because about 75 percent of specialty crops depend on the services of pollinators – of which bees are the most economically important.
In the United States, honey bees and native bees are the most economically important species contributing approximately $15 billion in crop value. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) invests in research to investigate the reasons for the declining populations, promote pollinator health, reduce honey bee colony losses, and restore pollinator habitats.
Since 2008, NIFA has invested about $49 million in grants on research, education, and extension programs that address bee health. Among these is Michigan State University’s Integrated Crop Pollination project, where researchers and extension specialists have developed sustainable pollination strategies for both wild and managed bees. One of their successes was to develop landscape models to identify where best to establish native plants to enhance crop pollination, such as marginal soil sites near pollinator-dependent crops. Another project went to the University of Maryland, where researchers, extension specialists, and beekeepers refined and validated best management practices to minimize losses from pests and diseases.
In Minnesota, where the average mortality of honey bee colonies reached a record high of 51 percent in in 2014-2015, NIFA supported a multi-faceted University of Minnesota project to examine bees’ natural defenses against parasites and diseases, breed bees to enhance these traits, and develop ways to improve the overall management practices of honey bee colonies. Research findings include documenting the anti-microbial properties of propolis, which honey bees collect from tree resins to help fend off diseases in the hive. This is a major reversal in perception because beekeepers had long considered propolis to be a sticky nuisance.
NIFA-funded researchers at Washington State University (WSU) are using advanced technology to understand the honey bee’s past and preserve the best of the present in order to improve the species’ future. The team is studying the genetic consequences of parasites and diseases on the honey bee, which is not native to North America, and is using cryopreservation (freezing) to store honey bee semen in WSU’s Honey Bee Germplasm Repository. Identification of desired traits will allow beekeepers to select honey bee strains that are adapted to their specific geographic needs and be better able to fight off diseases and pests.
China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump. Photo: Nicolas ASFOURI / POOL / AFP
China is saddling poor nations with unsustainable debt through large-scale infrastructure projects that are not economically viable, the head of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) said on Monday.
The criticism targeted by President Donald Trump in a trade war that has sent ripples through economies around the world. Washington seeks to ramp up development finance in the face of China’s global ambitions.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping’s unveiled “Belt and Road” initiative, aims to build an infrastructure network connecting China by land and sea to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
China has pledged $126 billion for the plan, which has been praised by its supporters as a source of vital financing for infrastructure-starved partners in the developing world.
But in an interview with Reuters in Johannesburg, OPIC CEO Ray Washburne warned that the Chinese strategy created a debt trap for many poor nations.
“Just look at any project in these countries and they’re overbuilding the size,” he said. “We try to have countries realise that they’re indebting themselves to the Chinese.”
Washburne is not the first to warn of growing debt linked to Chinese infrastructure projects.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in April cautioned China’s Belt and Road partners against considering the financing as “a free lunch”.
