President Joe Biden’s administration has ordered U.S. immigration agencies to stop using the controversial and dehumanising phrase “illegal alien” in reference to migrants. The term was common during former President Donald Trump’s administration, turning up frequently in statements and news releases from both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The Washington Post reported that the shift, which also bans the phrase “assimilation” in favour of “integration”, was outlined in memos sent Monday to ICE and CBP. The White House confirmed the change to the Daily News, but declined to provide further comment. “As the nation’s premier law…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Coronavirus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd is 80 per cent effective against death from the disease, a recent real-world study in Chile has shown. The Sinovac vaccine is also 67 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic infection, 85 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisations, and 89 per cent effective in preventing patients from entering intensive care units, according to the study released by the Chilean government on Friday. Rodrigo Yanez, Chile’s vice trade minister who forged a deal with Sinovac to host the clinical trial of the vaccine told the media that the data showed Chile had…
Our World in Data (OWID), has disclosed that 905 million COVID-19 shots have been administered worldwide. The OWID, is a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change and war. OWID, disclosed this on its official website handle on Tuesday. It added there was already a stark gap between vaccination programmes in different countries, with some yet to report a single dose. “Some countries do not provide data for the number of people who have been partially or fully vaccinated. “A vaccinated person refers to someone who has received at least one dose…
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has generated N466.1 billion revenue in the first quarter of 2021. The statistics obtained from the office of the Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Joseph Attah on Tuesday, showed that the revenue was generated from January to March. The data indicated that the NCS realised the highest revenue in March with N169.4 billion followed by January with N157.6 billion while the sum of N138.9 billion was generated in February. The document showed that customs realised the highest revenue of N216.9 billion within the period under review from import duty. According to the statistics,…
Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Ahmed Saeed, has described multilateralism as the key to confronting major challenges around the world. Saeed, who made the description in an interview with Xinhua, lauded the role the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) had played in fostering regional cooperation and integration. The ADB vice president told Xinhua that he believed international cooperation was vital for overcoming major international challenges, including the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), ensuring equitable and inclusive growth, and climate change. “If we look at every single, significant problem that we must address if we get international cooperation right,…
The latest Press Freedom Index, released on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) no longer include Germany among the leading nations. Of the 180 countries assessed, Germany came 13th, down two spots from last year’s ranking. “Due to many attacks during demonstrations against measures to contain the pandemic, we had to reduce Germany’s grade for press freedom from `good’ to only ‘satisfactory,’ which is clearly an alarm signal,’’ said RSF board spokesperson Michael Rediske. Violence against media professionals in Germany has reached unprecedented levels, he said. There were at least 65 acts of violence against journalists in the country in…
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for specific commitments and real action to fight climate change after speaking out about the severity of the climatic disruptions that have raged on the planet. The UN chief called for the commitments at the joint hybrid news conference with the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, Petteri Taalas to launch the State of the Global Climate in 2020 Report. “We must agree to a common direction of travel. “The United Nations is building a global coalition committed to net zero emissions — to cover all countries, cities, regions, businesses, and financial institutions.”…
Unity Bank Plc on Tuesday announced an asset base of N492.02 billion for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2020. The bank in its audited result released by the Nigerian Exchange Ltd., said its total assets rose by 67.90 per cent when compared with N293.05 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2019. The bank’s customer deposit portfolio grew by 34.4 per cent to N356.62 billion, up from N257.69 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2019. The bank posted gross earnings of N42.71 billion compared with N44.59 billion recorded in the comparative period of 2019. Profit after tax stood…
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has conducted 1,870,915 COVID-19 tests in the country of over 200 million people since Feb. 27, 2020. The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Monday. The health agency tested some 32,741 samples for the coronavirus (COVID-19) in one week. Lower than the 34,997 tests conducted the previous week. The agency said that the 1,870,915 tests were carried out in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. The NCDC disclosed that additional 70 people across the country were affected, bringing the number of…
The Director, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, Mrs Uko Itohowo says COVID-19 has worsened Tuberculosis (TB) cases in Nigeria as about 60 per cent of patients go unnoticed and untreated. Itohowo said this on Monday in a virtual media seminar with newsmen in Ilorin. She said that according to the 2020 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Nigeria is ranked first in leading cases of TB in Africa and sixth in the world. She said currently, TB kills 18 Nigerians every hour, with a record number of 47 Nigerians developing active TB every hour, seven of which are children. Itohowo…