See how some of Kemi’s fans reacted to the photos she shared;
@hardeyholar87 wrote “Beautiful like momma”
@ayomi_shindara wrote “Our beautiful Dara my namesake she so cool I just love her keep making your mom happy …may she never have a single regret of riding you to the world”
Popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, has taken to her Instagram IG to share multiple videos and photos of her Cartier gold and diamond bracelets.
The mother of one narrated how she was lured by her younger sister, into the lifestyle of buying bracelets.
She wrote
“My sister said to me the other day, every big girl I know has cartier bracelets except you. I said to her, what is Cartier? I’m kinda a big girl so I went and bought three at the same gaddem time.
The ones with diamonds. I also threw in a Chopard bracelet. Looks lovely, huh?
Crazy thing is, up until December 2020, I had only one bracelet….but now I’m racking up a nice collection… To be honest, can’t figure out why I didn’t care much for jewelry before. Kinda loving it now. ”
US track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson has been suspended for one month from the Olympic team after testing positive for THC, a chemical found in marijuana, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced on Friday
“The rules are clear, but this is heartbreaking on many levels; hopefully, her acceptance of responsibility and apology will be an important example to us all that we can successfully overcome our regrettable decisions, despite the costly consequences of this one to her,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart in a press release.
Richardson had booked her spot at the Tokyo Olympics with a runaway victory in the women’s 100m at the US Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon last month. Due to the positive test, her Olympic trials results were automatically disqualified and she will not be allowed to participate in her signature 100m race at the Tokyo Olympics later this month.
“Richardson’s competitive results obtained on June 19, 2021, including her Olympic qualifying results at the Team Trials, have been disqualified, and she forfeits any medals, points, and prizes. Beyond the one-month sanction, athlete eligibility for the Tokyo Games is determined by the USOPC and/or USA Track & Field eligibility rules.”
“Sha’Carri Richardson’s situation is incredibly unfortunate and devastating for everyone involved,” USA Track and Field said in a statement. “Athlete health and well-being continue to be one of USATF’s most critical priorities and we will work with Sha’Carri to ensure she has ample resources to overcome any mental health challenges now and in the future.”
It’s unclear whether Richardson will miss the Games altogether. She may still be eligible to compete in another event besides the 100m, such as the 4x100m relay.
Richardson appeared on NBC’s TODAY show on Friday morning and said: “I just want to take responsibility for my actions, I know what I did, I know what I’m supposed to do, I’m allowed not to do and I still made that decision. I’m not making an excuse or looking for any empathy in my case.”
Richardson cited finding out from a reporter that her biological mother had passed away as part of the reason she consumed marijuana, saying: “I was just thinking it would be a normal interview and then on the interview to hear that information come from a complete stranger, it was definitely triggering, it was nerve shocking because it’s like who are you to tell me that?
“From there just blinded by emotions, blinded by bad news, blinded by just hiding hurt, honestly for the fact that I can’t hide myself, so at least in some type of way, I was trying to hide my pain.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the USADA label cannabis as a banned substance as it “poses a health risk to athletes, has the potential to enhance performance and violates the spirit of sport.”
“Everything I do comes from me naturally. No steroid(s). No anything. This incident was about marijuana. After my sanctions are up, I’ll be back and able to compete and every single time I step on the track I’ll be ready to compete for whatever anti-doping agency to come and get what it is that they need,” Richardson concluded.
Meanwhile the presence of marijuana on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substance list has long been controversial. Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati was originally stripped of his 1998 Olympic gold medal after testing positive for THC but that decision was overturned since it wasn’t on the banned substance list at the time. USADA singles out three reasons why cannabinoids are banned: athletes could endanger themselves and others because of slower reaction times and poor executive function and decision making, marijuana can be “performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines,” and the use of “illicit drugs that are harmful to health” is “not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people around the world”.
As for the moral high-horse bit: can anyone reasonably argue, in this day and age, that an athlete using marijuana deserves a boot from the Olympics because such behavior is “not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people around the world?” In a world where momentum for legalization is growing (it’s legal in Oregon, where Richardson competed at Trials)? In a situation where someone may have turned to a legal substance to cope with grief? Come on.
None of these reasons seem to apply in Richardson’s case. She endangered no one at the track: quite the opposite, she distanced herself from the competition. The performance-enhancing benefits of marijuana are, if not specious, at least very much up for debate. A 2018 literature review published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, for example, said that “although cannabis use is more prevalent in some athletes engaged in high-risk sports, there is no direct evidence of performance-enhancing effects in athletes.” Even USADA’s statement on Richardson’s suspension acknowledges “her use of cannabis occurred out of competition and was unrelated to sport performance.”
A bloody wave of shootings, arson and other criminal violence has engulfed parts of Port-au-Prince, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and trapping others within dangerous areas of the Haitian capital, aid agencies say.
Most recently, a series of killings on Tuesday night claimed the lives of radio journalist Diego Charles and activist Antoinette Duclair among others, according to a statement by Haiti’s government.
“The government vehemently condemns these abominable actions and the blind violence which sows trouble and mourning in every level of the Haitian population,” read the statement, which added that the country’s national police and justice ministry had been instructed to bring the killers to justice.
“These odious crimes and reprehensible actions cannot go unpunished in a democratic society,” it said.
Criminal activity and territorial disputes between an estimated 95 armed gangs are causing “widespread panic” in Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Armed groups have targeted local police and set fire to swathes of civilian homes as well as a camp populated by people with disabilities. The violence prompted an estimated 13,600 city residents to flee their homes in June alone — a massive increase from the 3,400 people displaced by gang activity in the previous nine months, according a report last week by the humanitarian agency.
Nathalie was one of the early victims, forced to flee with her baby earlier this year, after their home was set on fire during a battle between rival gangs, she said. She asked for her last name to be withdraw due to safety concerns.
Her husband had been killed while out buying groceries, the 27-year-old added, speaking to the media from a temporary encampment where she has been living for months. More than 230 other families are also living in the camp due to similar reasons, she said.
They burned down our house, which is why we had to find space in this camp. We were collateral damage in the gang fights between G9 and the other gangs who are looking to take over the neighborhood,” Nathalie said, referring to a federation of gangs led by infamous ex-police officer Jimmy Cherizier, who last week vowed before local media to carry out a “revolution” in the city.
Bruno Maes, UNICEF representative based in Port-au-Prince, told the media his agency had collected “hundreds” of testimonies from other women and children whose homes were also burned down by armed groups.
Fighting has prevented aid agencies from directly reaching many of the displaced families sheltering by the thousands in churches and community centers, Maes said. Others are dispersed across the city.
For now, aid is being funneled through local networks, but he warns that humanitarian workers will need better access as the peak of the Caribbean’s hurricane season approaches.
Insecurity is having a ripple effect on national supply chains, Maes also said. “Gun violence is taking control of more and more space,” he said. Criminal control of major transit arteries in the country’s biggest city — which is also its main port — are slowing food and fuel deliveries to other parts of the country — a serious threat in a population where the UN estimates 46 percent of people are already “food-insecure.”
The chaos also threatens everyday access to medical treatment in the capital, as Covid-19 surges in Haiti. Doctors without Borders has cut back activities in parts of Port-au-Prince, citing recent episodes where medical staff were forced to shelter from stray bullets and armed individuals robbed ambulance drivers.
The US Embassy in Haiti has expressed concern over the violence and called for action from the Haitian government. “The United States urges the government of Haiti to protect its citizens by countering the proliferation of gangs and by holding the perpetrators of violence and their accomplices accountable,” it said in a statement released Wednesday.
But for now, Haiti’s leaders appear unable to contain the violence — a fact that Nathalie, the displaced mother, describes as unforgivable. It’s all happening under the government’s watch, she said. “No one came to our rescue despite days of gang fighting.”
The Prime Minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Bill Cosby is set to be a free man today after nearly three years in prison following a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacating his 2018 conviction on three charges of aggravated indecent assault.
The American comedian and actor have long maintained his innocence until he was charged in late 2015 when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.
On Wednesday June 30, Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeal court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, so the reversal could make prosecutors wary of calling other accusers in similar cases. The law on prior bad act testimony varies by state, though, and the ruling only holds sway in Pennsylvania.
According to reports, the justices voiced concern not just about sex assault cases, but what they saw as the judiciary’s increasing tendency to allow testimony that crosses the line into character attacks. The law allows the testimony only in limited cases, including to show a crime pattern so specific it serves to identify the perpetrator.
In New York, the judge presiding over last year’s trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose case had sparked the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017, let four other accusers testify. Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is now facing separate charges in California.
In Cosby’s case, one of his appellate lawyers said prosecutors put on vague evidence about the uncharged conduct, including Cosby’s own recollections in his deposition about giving women alcohol or quaaludes before sexual encounters.
“The presumption of innocence just didn’t exist for him,” Jennifer Bonjean, the lawyer, argued to the court in December.
In May, Cosby was denied paroled after refusing to participate in sex offender programs during his nearly three years in state prison. He has long said he would resist the treatment programs and refuse to acknowledge wrongdoing even if it means serving the full 10-year sentence.
This is the first year he was eligible for parole under the three- to 10-year sentence handed down after his 2018 conviction.
Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt called the parole board decision “appalling.”
Prosecutors said Cosby repeatedly used his fame and “family man” persona to manipulate young women, holding himself out as a mentor before betraying them.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor who grew up in public housing in Philadelphia, made a fortune estimated at $400 million during his 50 years in the entertainment industry.
President Buhari’s daughter, Hanan graduated with a Distinction in (MA) Fine Art Photography from the prestigious Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom.
The convocation ceremony was held at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.
In attendance were her husband, Muhammad Turad Sha’aban, her sister, Halima Sheriff brother, Yusuf Buhari, brother-in-law, Babagana Muhammed Sheriff, friends and other family members.
Former South African president, Jacob Zuma has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after being found guilty for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.
This is the first time in South Africa’s history that a former president has been sentenced to prison.
Zuma, who wasn’t present for the ruling on Tuesday, June 29, was ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.
Back in January, the Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma had to respond to questions from a judicial commission headed by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. But the 79-year-old former intelligence operative accused the court and Zondo of bias, walked out of one scheduled panel hearing in November, and boycotted another in February.
The panel responded by filing contempt charges against him.
“The Constitutional Court can do nothing but conclude that Mr. Zuma is guilty of the crime of contempt of court,” acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe said in a ruling in Johannesburg on Tuesday. “Mr. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is sentenced to undergo 15 months imprisonment.”
According to report, the government estimates more than 500 billion rand ($35 billion) was stolen from the state during Zuma’s rule, and at least 40 witnesses who’ve appeared before in court linked the ex-president to the looting spree.
However, Zuma, who was forced to quit in 2018, has denied wrongdoing and says the allegations against him are part of a smear campaign.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have detained a 31-year-old Nigerian national for allegedly sneaking into Bangladesh illegally from India.
The Nigerian national identified as Onyebuchukwu Stanley Egwu was arrested in Sylhet, a city in eastern Bangladesh on Monday night, June 28.
Acting on a tip-off, members of Sylhet 46 BGB led by Naik Subedar Md Suruj Mia took positions behind the Tamabil land port in Gowainghat upazila last night.
The Nigerian was said to have allegedly crossed over to Bangladesh illegally from India when a storm started around 9:30pm.
Sensing the presence of BGB, he tried to flee but the BGB personnel nabbed him after a brief chase.
The process of handing him over to the Gowainghat police is currently underway, BGB sources
A new generation of US cold warriors just got some powerful validation.
When Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about China in a New York Times interview in Paris, he offered one of the most revealing insights yet into the Biden administration’s foreign policy. Blinken said that France and the US were “on the same page” on the need to defend the free world order as China gains influence. The alternative, he warned, would be no global order or a Chinese-led world order that would be “profoundly illiberal in nature.”
Blinken, who delivered a tough US message to China in dust-up talks in Alaska in March, was putting colloquial meat on the bones of President Joe Biden’s recent warnings that democracy is under threat — and not only from illiberal trends in the West.
The concept of a new Cold War between the US and China is hardening into conventional wisdom in Washington. One critique however is that the original version was an ideological clash between the capitalists of the West and the communists of the Soviet bloc. The US and China are locked in a more classic duel between a rising power and a declining one — though Blinken certainly seems to see an ideological component.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will soon lead the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations, has adopted a far more strident position for China on the global stage. Beijing is flexing its power in the Pacific and beyond, and events in Hong Kong show Chinese repression on the march within its territory.
But whether Beijing is interested in (or capable of) waging a global battle against democracy is another question. Is Xi’s use of populist nationalism primarily designed to maintain support for an autocratic ruling Party, or is it the authentic expression of a globally ambitious Chinese foreign policy?
Either way, policymaking in Washington and nascent US political campaigns — from economics to infrastructure and from defense improving the social safety net — is increasingly formulated through a lens of inevitable confrontation with China. From here, at least, it’s getting harder to argue that the Cold War analogy misses the mark.
‘The only thing that helps in these times is kindness and empathy’
Media aide to Bayelsa State Governor, Bodmas Kemepadei, has reiterated his call for people to embrace polygamy.
Kemepadei, who is no a stranger to controversy (read HERE and HERE ) stated this on Friday June 25, while reacting to the arrest of 21-year-old UNILAG student, Chidimma Ojukwu for the alleged murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga.
According to the Bayelsa media personality, man’s attempt to practice monogamy has led to cheating, heartbreaks, increase in sex drive and death.
I’ reiterate my earlier position, man is polygamous by nature, in man’s self seeking attempt to practice monogamy, the resultant effects are; lies, cheating, heartbreaks, increase in sex drive and possibly death. So before you crucify her, please read this;
According to Chidinma Adaora, “I stabbed him on his neck twice and later on his stomach after he had forcefully had sex with me initially. I was tired and exhausted and wanted to sleep but Mr Michael won’t have any of that. He became very violent and tried choking me to death.” he wrote.
Mr Kemepadei further said that faithfulness to one woman is not a guarantee of not being stabbed.
A media aide to Bayelsa State Governor, Bodmas Kemepadei, has reiterated his call for people to embrace polygamy.
Kemepadei, who is no a stranger to controversy (read HERE and HERE ) stated this on Friday June 25, while reacting to the arrest of 21-year-old UNILAG student, Chidimma Ojukwu for the alleged murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Super TV, Usifo Ataga.
According to the Bayelsa media personality, man’s attempt to practice monogamy has led to cheating, heartbreaks, increase in sex drive and death.
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