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primorcoin · 3 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://primorcoin.com/meta-to-launch-metaverse-hardware-store-elon-musk-buys-twitter-for-44b-and-apecoin-pumps-to-new-highs-hodlers-digest-april-24-30/

Meta to launch metaverse hardware store, Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44B, and ApeCoin pumps to new highs: Hodler’s Digest, April 24-30

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44B — crypto industry reacts

Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion this week, or $54.20 per share in cash. After the deal was accepted, Musk said he hoped that “even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

The crypto industry’s reaction was mixed, with Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer describing the acquisition as a “hostile takeover” antithetical to the idea of freedom, while Bitcoin bulls Anthony Pompliano and Michael Saylor welcomed the move.

ApeCoin (APE) hits a new all-time high ahead of this week’s Otherside land auction

Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated ApeCoin (APE) hit a new all-time high of $22.60 on Thursday amid growing excitement about the upcoming Otherside metaverse land auction, which is being held by Animoca Brands and BAYC creator Yuga Labs.

Otherside is a forthcoming metaverse project within the BAYC ecosystem, and it is hosting the sale of its first 100,000 land parcels on Saturday. Wallets that already hold a BAYC or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT will be able to claim a land parcel for free.

Meta will open physical metaverse-themed store in San Francisco Bay Area

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is set to open a retail store in Burlingame, California that will sell virtual reality and metaverse hardware. The store will be located on Meta’s Burlingame campus and will feature a wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays what users see using Meta headsets.

The store will also provide demos for anything related to virtual reality headsets, video communications displays and smart glasses. “The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the Metaverse in the future,” said store head Martin Gilliard.

Central African Republic will adopt Bitcoin as legal tender: Report

The Central African Republic (CAR) reportedly passed a bill this week enabling Bitcoin to be used as legal tender alongside the franc. The CAR now joins El Salvador in taking the ambitious plunge into fully adopting BTC.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s chief of staff, Obed Namsio, was quoted as saying that the move was aimed at making the CAR one of the “boldest and most visionary” countries in the world. The nation of 5 million has one of the smallest economies in the world with a gross domestic product of roughly $2.4 billion.

Brazil’s Senate approves ‘Bitcoin law’ to regulate cryptocurrencies

The Federal Senate of Brazil also made a strong crypto move this week, passing the country’s first bill governing cryptocurrencies. The bill will enable the government to create a regulatory framework for the local crypto industry.

Senators have discussed providing crypto miners with incentives for setting up shop in Brazil, and they are also looking to introduce heavy punishments for any fraudulent or bad behavior in the sector.

In order to become law, the bill must next be approved by the Federal Senate’s Chamber of Deputies and then signed off by President Jair Bolsonaro.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $39,032, Ether (ETH) at $2,854 and XRP at $0.62. The total crypto market cap is at $1.77 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are ApeCoin (APE) at 60.14%, STEPN (GMT) at 20.28% and Kava (KAVA) at 13.88%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Zilliqa (ZIL) at -23.84%, Waves (WAVES) at -23.07% and Axie Infinity (AXS) at -23.02%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Bitcoin will never become zero because it has intrinsic value beyond its technological and monetary merits.”

Lili Zhao, director of ecosystem growth for Neo

“There’s a pre-pandemic world and a post-pandemic world, and a post-pandemic world has a lot more government deficits — it has a lot more uncertainty related to growth.”

Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital

“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

“We were given a big gift when China banned crypto mining and trading — it was a big mistake for them.”

Greg Tanaka, Palo Alto City Council member

“Our survey shows something we have advocated over a long time: talking about the survival of digital assets is firmly over — the question is now about evolution.”

Julian Sawyer, CEO of Bitstamp

“The problem with [Bitcoin] is you can’t have truly free trade unless you have private trade.”

Edward Snowden, government surveillance whistleblower

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin repeats rare weekly chart signal that resulted in 50% BTC price dips

Bitcoin’s price traded largely sideways this week while still experiencing some volatility. The asset traded both above $40,000 and below $38,000 at times during the week, based on Cointelegraph’s BTC price index.

Bitcoin could be headed for negative price action, according to pseudonymous Twitter personality “Nunya Bizniz.” Bizniz pointed out a pattern on Bitcoin’s chart that has previously occurred prior to 50% price drops — the downward sloping of the asset’s 20-week and 50-week moving averages. This chart pattern has occurred twice before, each time seeing BTC’s price subsequently decline by more than 50%.

FUD of the Week

STEPN impersonators stealing users’ seed phrases, warn security experts

Blockchain security firm Peckshield exposed multiple phishing websites for Web3 lifestyle app STEPN. According to the company, bad actors have been able to create and attach dubious MetaMask browser plugins that can be used to steal users’ seed phrases.

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs stolen in Instagram phishing attack

The Instagram account belonging to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project was hacked on Monday. According to various unconfirmed social media reports, roughly 100 NFTs worth a combined $400,000 were stolen as part of a phishing attack and fake airdrop. Users believed the links used to carry out the attack were legit since it coincided with the one-year anniversary of BAYC’s launch.

New York State Assembly passes ban on new BTC mines that don’t use green power

The New York State Assembly passed a bill earlier this week that aims to place a two-year ban on all new proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency mining facilities that are backed by carbon-generated power. The bill also states that current miners who rely on carbon-powered rigs won’t be able to renew their permits once they expire.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Crypto Valley and the Crypto Oasis: Ralf Glabischnig

“A few spots worldwide will attract the people who can afford it because it’s safe for their family — and those people bring the business.”

The loss of privacy: Why we must fight for a decentralized future

As early blockchain adopters, we must bring decentralization to the masses and fight with the tech behemoths that are its natural enemies.

Decentralized credit scores: How can blockchain tech change ratings

Borrowing and lending are two important parts of DeFi, but they have been missing an effective operating credential: a decentralized credit rating.

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#Blockchain #Coinbase #CoinbaseNews #Crypto #CryptoNews #DOGE #DogeCoin #ElonMusk #SHIB #Shibaswap #ShibaToken #TraedndingCrypto

#Blockchain #Coinbase #coinbaseNews #Crypto #CryptoNews #DOGE #DogeCoin #ElonMusk #SHIB #Shibaswap #ShibaToken #TraedndingCrypto #CryptoPress #Trending Cryptos

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hellodistinguishedstudentllama · 3 years ago

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THIS IS REAL: Rep. Pramila Jayapal Claims USA’s ‘Poverty Rate’ is the ‘Fourth Highest in the World’ - Sean Hannity

FACT CHECK: The actual list is South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Sao Tome and Principe. Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Guatemala... Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal tweeted -then deleted- a message to her followers Thursday erroneously claiming the “poverty rate” in America is the 4th highest on the planet. “The U.S. has nearly ONE-THIRD of the world’s billionaires. Meanwhile, our poverty rate is the 4th highest in the worl... from FB Mashes https://ift.tt/3o39ZHo https://ift.tt/2XYqHNF

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foodramblings · 3 years ago

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“Transcript of Jeffrey Sachs' full speech, 26 July 2021, at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit: What we’ve been hearing is how the system actually works right now and I want to emphasize we have a World Food System. It’s based on large multinational companies. It’s based on private profits. It’s based on a very, very low measure of international transfers to help poor people, sometimes none at all. It’s based on extreme irresponsibility of powerful countries with regard to the environment, and it’s based on a radical denial of rights of poor people, as we just heard. It’s interesting we ask . . . we heard from the minister of DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) . . . “What’s wrong with your country?” Well we don’t even start by saying: The King (Leopold II) of Belgium created a slave colony for 30 years. The government of Belgium ran the slave colony for another 40 years. The CIA assassinated your first popular leader, Mr (Patrice) Lumumba and then installed another dictatorship for the next 30 years and then Glencore (corporation) and others now suck out your cobalt without giving you tax income. We don’t reflect on that. We say, “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you govern properly?” And so we have a system, but we need a different system. We cannot turn this over to the private sector; we already did, about a hundred years ago. Not only to the private sector (but) to the private sector with the US military behind it. With the defense of these property rights in the Minister of Honduras’s country where United Fruit ran the country for a long time and their attorney was the Foreign Minister of the United States, Secretary (John Foster) Dulles; and his brother (Allen Welsh Dulles) was the head of the CIA, and overthrew the next door neighbor, Mr (Jacobo) Arbenz, (Guatemala), to make sure that United Fruit could have its property. So we have a system, but we need a different system. And the different system has to be based on principles of human dignity, in the Universal Declaration (of Human Rights), principles of sovereignty, principles of economic rights, because these are not Nice Things To Do. In 1948 all the governments said that food is a right, social protection is a right, not A Nice Thing, not A Pleasant Thing, a right. That was 73 years ago. The SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) are nothing more than our generation’s attempt to honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I come from a country that not only doesn’t care about the world’s poor; it doesn’t even care about its own poor. One in seven Americans is hungry right now . . . and they DON’T CARE. The poor people care, but one political party, all it cares about is cutting taxes for the rich and filibustering any solution. So we’re in a world that’s really tough. The private sector’s not going to solve this problem. I’m sorry to say to all of the private sector leaders, “Behave, pay your taxes, follow the rules! That’s what you should do.” And what the governments should do is the following; they won’t, but they should: First the G20 should become the G21, by inviting, systemically, the chairperson of the African Union and the African Union to be the 21st “country”. The European Union is a member of the G20, as the EU. If you add the AU as the 21st for the G21 you add 1.4 billion people to representation at that crucial event. That will change decisively the discussion, because 1.4 billion people are not at the table for finance right now, and they need to be. So my first recommendation is the G21. I love the G20. Add one seat! 1.4 billion people, with the AU represented. Second. We need an order of magnitude change of development finance. The rich countries just borrowed $17 trillion for COVID. The poor counties, NOTHING, because the rich countries can borrow at 0% and the poor countries pay 5% or 10% coupon rates or have no access at all. So the world exposed its grotesque inequality this past year and a half. Rich countries didn’t say, “We tighten our belts, why don’t you?” My country spent $7trillion of emergency funding. Not one penny for anybody else, by the way. $7 trillion! It didn’t even cross the imagination of the US Congress to include a few crumbs for the rest of the world. But the poor countries cannot borrow. That’s what we should have heard from the World Bank. I didn’t hear that from the World Bank. I didn’t hear real numbers. Real numbers are in $trillions right now because the world economy is $100 trillion a year. But we don’t talk about real numbers, but my job, all I know in this world is long division . . . divide by $100 trillion and then see whether you’re talking about something real or not. So, that’s the second thing. We need massively to increase the lending and borrowing capacity of poor countries at near zero interest rates like the rich countries have. Then they could get something done. By the way, for COVID vaccines what we really need is for the United States to sit down with China, with Russia, with the European Union and the UK one day around the table and allocate these vaccines, rather than hoarding them. That’s all it would take. And then we’re going to have national pathways. This is a wonderful idea, but they’re going to need financing and so everything that I’ve been saying, I know the numbers; that’s all I do for 40 years is add up what’s missing. You want electricity? It has to be purchased. You want digital access? It has to be purchased. You want safe water, irrigation? It has to be purchased. This is what I do for a living is add up these numbers … and then find out that then somebody makes up something and names one hundredth of what’s really needed. It’s not even hard! By the way the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has done wonderful studies in the last 2 years showing that we have a financing gap of about $400 to $500 billion a year for the basics for the SDGs. They show the gap, but nobody comes up with the number, the solution, which wouldn’t be so hard because that’s just not a big number. It’s 0.5% of world output. So if we really care we wouldn’t have the G7 saying “We love education, therefore we’re going to give $3 billion for education.” That’s what they said at the summit, but what UNESCO has show is that you need at least $30 billion a year, minimum, but nobody looks at numbers; they just make up nice “check-the-box”. So we need the real numbers of finance to back the national pathways. The final thing is, we need the UN as the core and central institution of this world, because this is the only way we’re going to have a civilized world is a strong UN. And it cannot be that the whole UN budget is less than my neighborhood’s budget in New York. The UN core budget this year is $3 billion. New York City’s budget is $100 billion. And then we say why don’t things work well? Because the rich are hoarding everything. Final point: Rather than our 3 billionaires going in space, well they could go into space and stay there and leave their money behind. That would be one idea. Another idea is we have 2,775 billionaires on the current list. Their combined net worth is $13.1 trillion. Now I have it on good authority you don’t need more than $1 billion to be comfortable, but they have an excess of $11 trillion over just the $1 billion. So we should be taxing that and having a civilized world. Thank you. Jeffrey Sachs SDG Advisor”

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courtneytincher · 5 years ago

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The CAR Murders: A Critical Cold Case in the New Cold War Points to ‘Putin’s Chef’

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyST. PETERSBURG, Russia–It’s been more than a year now since someone murdered three Russian journalists on a dark road in a remote corner of the Central African Republic.Within days of the killings on the night of July 30-31, 2018, as The Daily Beast reported at the time, there were suspicions the journalists had been set up. Since then, the official investigations have gone nowhere or been diverted down blind alleys, and if the Kremlin and its front men have their way—which they normally do in the Central African Republic—the case will go completely cold. But the families of the victims, their colleagues, and the exiled Russian tycoon who sent the journalists on their fatal mission in the first place say they are determined to see justice done. Their investigations have peeled back layer after layer of an ostensibly private “company” noteworthy for conspiracy and corruption, which Russian President Vladimir Putin evidently employs to extend his influence around the world.Russian Journalists Murdered in Africa May Have Been Set UpAmericans concerned about the ruthlessness of Moscow’s operations to subvert or dominate other countries should take note as evidence mounts that some of the central figures in the cyberattacks on the U.S. presidential election in 2016 may also be implicated in the Africa homicides. The victims were Orkhan Dzhemal, 51, a famous Russian war correspondent; Alexander Rastorguyev, 47, a film director; and Kirill Radchenko, 33, a cameraman. They had traveled to Africa to make a documentary about the “Wagner Group,” a highly secretive private military contractor allegedly created by the infamous Russian billionaire and Putin crony, Yevgeny Prigozhin.He is the same figure named in a detailed indictment by the Mueller probe in February 2018 and in the subsequent Mueller Report released this year as the money man behind the Internet Research Agency, a troll factory here in St. Petersburg that set out to defeat Hillary Clinton, then help elect Donald Trump in 2016. (Prigozhin told a Russian state news agency that he was not upset about his indictment. “Americans see what they want to see,” he said.) But the troll factory is just one of many operations that are part of what his underlings refer to as “The Company.”Prigozhin, often given the anodyne sobriquet “Putin’s chef,” initially built his fortune on huge Russian government catering contracts, but the tentacles of his organization are spread far and wide, and in some surprising places. He even has a firm that makes candy, and there are many here who would tell you the sweets have a sinister background. “These are bloody chocolates, produced by the same people who attack and kill journalists,” claims Yegor Alekseyev, a blogger from St. Petersburg. “Two men broke my nose and smashed my teeth in 2016 after I published stories about Prigozhin’s ‘troll factory.’ These are dangerous people backed up by the [Russian government’s] special services.”In 2014, when Putin made his move to take the Crimean peninsula away from Ukraine and launch covertly a separatist revolution in the east of that country that has now cost more than 13,000 lives, combatants linked to a mysterious organization of mercenaries started showing up. Many of its recruits appeared to have come from Russian military intelligence, the GRU, especially the special forces component known as Spetsnaz. They answered to a former officer named Dmitry Utkin, nicknamed “Wagner.” These operatives also surfaced in Syria, in Sudan, and in the Central African Republic. Their objective was not only to extend Russian influence, but to take control of industries and especially natural resources, further enriching their backer, who was soon reported to be Prigozhin. He has issued pro forma denials, but evidence of Prigozhin’s ties to the group has continued to mount, especially in the private investigations of those trying to get to the bottom of the Central African murders. * * *DUELING INVESTIGATIONS* * *Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once reputedly the richest man in Russia–an oligarch so wealthy and powerful that Putin felt threatened, and finally managed to put him away in prison for almost a decade. When Khodorkovsky was released in 2013, he went to Britain and has since worked as one of Putin’s most active opponents in exile.It was Khodorkovsky who funded the fatal trip to the Central African Republic by Dzhemal, Rastorguyev, and Radchenko to report on the Wagner Group’s activities, and it is Khodorkovsky who has underwritten the most exhaustive investigation of their murder. “Somebody has to put evidence together for the day Putin’s crooks end up in court,” Khodorkovsky told The Daily Beast last year. He hired journalists, military experts, private detectives and others to delve into the killings, and issued a “final report” under the auspices of his Dossier Center on the anniversary of the murders.The picture that emerges over the course of almost 80 pages is highly detailed and deeply disturbing. For starters, the Dossier investigators addressed the official version put forth by Russian authorities and the CAR security forces, many of them trained and funded by the Kremlin directly and also by Wagner personnel. Their claim is that the Russian documentary makers were ambushed on a back road at night by bandits wearing turbans and speaking Arabic who shot all three of them dead. The killers let the local driver, named as Bienvenue Douvokama, escape in his car and the sketchy account of the attack came from Douvokama. When the official version failed to satisfy the victims’ families, friends, or colleagues in the independent press, a Prigozhin-backed news agency, RIA FAN, conducted its own investigation of the murder and named Dominique Christophe Raineteau as the mastermind, claiming that he was a French mercenary or agent in league with terrorists.“We have our vision of what happened in CAR,” RIA FAN editor Yevgeny Zubarev wrote in an email to The Daily Beast. “It was a planned provocation but you are never going to publish our conclusions… Your publication is neither going to mention in a negative light Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the main suspect of this crime; nor the Western (French) special services, the possible accomplices,” wrote Zubarev.Actually, the RIA FAN conclusions are quite interesting, because they do not agree at all with the official government versions blaming unknown Arabic-speaking thieves. The general thrust of the RIA FAN report is that the Russian journalists were killed in order to embarrass Russia (if not indeed to blame Prigozhin and Putin). The agent who organized the murders, according to RIA FAN, was Raineteau, a French mercenary who is protected by the French secret services, and Khodorkovsky himself, who supposedly paid Raineteau to set up the team Khodorkovsky had sent. RIA FAN notes the extensive French-Russian rivalry for resources and dominance in Africa as the motive for the French plot, and says Khodorkovsky’s motive is to “discredit any activity of Russia abroad, particularly in Africa and the revenge directed at the Russian Federation.”All of this makes for a fascinating narrative of conspiracy, and is typical of disinformation that tries to ascribe presumed motives—“who benefits from the crime”—as proof when it is really self-serving conjecture. There is some hearsay in the RIA FAN report, but the documentary evidence linking Raineteau to the killing is virtually nonexistent, while the account compiled by Khodorkovsky’s investigators appears to be based largely on minute examination of phone records and emails (albeit without any explanation of how they were obtained). The narrative developed by the investigators for Khodorkovsky’s Dossier Centre goes roughly like this:The three journalists made a critical mistake when they were looking for a “fixer” to set up appointments, transportation, lodging, translation and the like while they were in the CAR. Even though they were investigating one Prigozhin operation, Wagner, they asked a journalist working for another Prigozhin company, RIA FAN, for help. This may not be quite as unusual as it sounds, because journalists working for conflicting media often believe they have more common bonds as professionals in the field than as servants for their bosses in the home offices. That may have been the case where the request for advice from FAN journalist Kirill Romanovsky was concerned.He in turn suggested they contact by text message a Dutch man with experience in the CAR as a United Nations employee or contractor who went by the name of “Martin.”The RIA FAN report would later suggest Martin was none other than the mysterious French operative Raineteau. But the Dossier Centre investigation concludes “with a high degree of probability that the fixer ‘Martin’… never existed.” Rather, “he was invented by the coordinators of a thoroughly planned operation.”“Martin” did not show up at the airport as expected, when the crew arrived, and they never once laid eyes on him or, for that matter, spoke to him on the phone. Everything was handled by text messages, including Martin’s claim that he was 376 kilometers from the CAR capital Bangui in the town of Bambari, where they were headed initially the day they were killed. According to the Dossier Centre report, cell phone records show “Martin,” or at least that phone, never left the capital.The Dossier Centre investigation notes that the local driver the crew hired, Bienvenue Douvokama, is believed to be an agent or informer for the local gendarmerie, and was in “constant operational contact with gendarme Emmanuel Kotofio” who “tracked the journalists’ movements and was in their immediate vicinity.” (Kotofio is quoted by RIA FAN saying he and Douvokama are old friends and just like to shoot the breeze.)Kotofio, in turn, “maintained contact with a man identified by the Dossier Centre as an ‘instructor in surveillance, counter-surveillance, recruitment and intelligence work’” from another Prigozhin company, M-Finans, run by one Aleksandr Sotov, who then reported to Valery Zakharov, a Russian adviser to the president of the CAR and head of a team of instructors in Prigozhin’s “Company.”On the fatal night of July 30, according to the Dossier Centre, Kotofio the gendarme passed through a military checkpoint at the town of Sibut, on the same road the journalists would take only minutes later. With Kotofio were three Caucasians, “presumably Russians,” according to the Dossier Centre report. Kotofio drove back to the checkpoint later at 8 p.m. The journalists’ driver reported their murder about 45 minutes later at a village near the scene.The following day, according to the Dossier Centre, a “disinformation campaign” began to confuse and impede any outside investigation.According to emails obtained by the Dossier Centre, which cannot be independently verified, Prigozhin is personally involved in running the Company’s projects in the Central African Republic.* * *THE PAIN OF THE FAMILIES* * * The Kremlin remains deaf to the victims’ families’ demands to question Prigozhin and his men on the ground, including commanders of the Russian militia working for CAR’s leadership. Alexander Radchenko’s, the father of the cameraman, says it is easy for him to connect the dots identifying the main suspects. Since July 30, 2018, the day his son’s body was found in CAR, Radchenko has been analyzing reports by private investigators and journalists, and read and watched interviews with Moscow’s key man in CAR, Valery Zakharov, a former Russian military intelligence officer, who is now the country's main security adviser. “The investigators–along with Russian diplomats, FSB, GRU–back up the Russian military instructors working in CAR instead of questioning the main guy, Zakharov,and his bosses,” Radchenko told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.The heartbroken father has written more than 30 petitions to Russian state detectives investigating the criminal case. Some of his requests ostensibly were taken into consideration, but most of them were ignored. Radchenko told The Daily Beast that in his opinion the murder was “undoubtedly a set up.” Over the last six months, the father says, he has seen enough evidence collected by independent reporters to conclude that “Yevgeny Prigozhin, Valery Zakharov and his aide Alexander Sotov are the principal suspects to be questioned about the murder of my son.” But Radchenko sounds hopeless: “Every time I ask the state detective on this case, Igor Zolotov, to call them for questioning, he seems too shy and tells me: ‘We should not bother such important men, they must be busy.’”Putin’s Man in the Central African Republic: Is Valery Zakharov at the Heart of Russian Skulduggery? Khodorkovsky’s team has tried to fill that investigative gap. “We have done our part of the job, presented mobile phone billing to demonstrate that Zakharov, his aid Alexander Sotov, the gendarme they trained and the crew called each other dozens of times during the two days before the murder,” Maxim Dbar, Khodorkovsly’s spokesman, told The Daily Beast. “We have no authority to question the key suspects."Irina Gordiyenko, a reporter for independent Novaya Gazeta, especially wants to know who killed Orkhan Dzhemal, the father of her son. “I want to ask both Zakharov and Sotov about the billing data, what sort of actions they coordinated from the moment of the journalists’ arrival in CAR,” Gordiyenko said in a recent interview with The Daily Beast. “I have questions for Zakharov about CAR gendarmes being trained in Russia. I want to ask the Russian MID [ministry of foreign affairs] why the journalists’ belongings have not been moved to Russia, why our diplomats consult with Prigozhin’s Wagner about the official version of the murder to give to the public.”Somebody shot Rostorguyev from a 7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle. Two bullets hit the journalist’s heart. “Only a professional could fire so accurately in the dark,” Gordiyenko added her doubts. The United States imposed sanctions against billionaire Prigozhin and his Concord holding company in 2016 for constructing a military base for Russian forces near Ukraine. But neither the sanctions, nor the links to the CAR murder that shook the entire country, has slowed the growth of Prigozhin’s business empire. Concord keeps working on immense state contracts, his Zinger Development group is planning to build an artificial island in the Gulf of Finland, and foreign tourists keep buying his chocolates at Eliseyev Emporium, a historic architectural landmark on Nevsky Prospect. Jessica from Vermont was purchasing Marzipans shaped as carrots, half a pound of Lukum and chocolates with lime taste. “I am not sure I know who Prigozhin is, I am sorry,” the tourist told The Daily Beast.Prigozhin has access to the highest offices in the Kremlin and cooperates closely with the defense ministries of both Russia and the CAR. The power is on his side. “The murder of the three journalists is not going to be investigated, at least there will never be public knowledge of who ordered the killing,” a political analyst close to the Kremlin, Sergei Markov, told The Daily Beast. “Prigozhin has created private military forces to help Russia, he is fighting the war against Russia’s enemies that are constantly undermining our power, so of course Moscow will not go against him to support the dossier created by Putin’s enemy, Khodorkovsky.” In the eyes of much of the world, however, Putin’s name will be linked forever to the murder of the three journalists just as it is linked to the killing of journalists Anna Politkovskaya or Natalia Estemirova.Dzhamal, Rastorguyev, and Radchenko were—and remain—important symbols for Russians who still believe the search for solid facts and the truth is the only way to combat corruption and the disinformation used to disguise it, even if the quest costs you your life.Anna Nemtsova reported from St. Petersburg, Christopher Dickey from Paris.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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olaluwe · 5 years ago

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Not too long ago, the President of the United State of America Donald J. Trump described Nigeria as a country of amazing people doing amazing things. Is he saying anything new? Certainly not!

Again that cannot be another political masterstroke from the usually ascorbic and combustible American number one citizen to effect of swaying Nigeria and Nigerians to his side comes the next Presidential election.

On the other hand, you can say it without any fear of contradictions that neither he nor America in any existential equations needs Nigeria as much Nigeria and Nigerians need them.

Therefore, it is perhaps the loudest testament yet from a world leader in that bracket to the sterling qualities Nigerians have come to be known for over the years, though, the situations at home may appear a bit off tangent.

Kemi Olufunto, in case you are still wondering, is the Nigerian to join the growing and exclusive club of illustrious Nigerians to have been appointed into a high profile position in a foreign country.

She was recently appointed a minister of children affairs in the United Kingdom by the newly elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

And so she joins eminent personalities like the banker and billionaire business mogul Bayo Ogunlesi who was appointed a member of the economic team constituted by President Donald J. Trump immediately after his victory at the polls in 2017.

The was also the mercurial billionaire business mogul Dehinde Fernandez who until his death was an ambassador plenipotentiary and the permanent representative of the Central African Republic at the United Nations.

Many Nigerians were also both foundational and developmental expatriates in some African countries owing to the shortage of manpower during their post-independence era and gave a good account of themselves and the country.

I can go on and on with the names of Nigerians who had excelled in honorary, elective, and appointive capacities both in Africa and the wider world.

Olufunto 39 was born in Britain to Nigerian parents. But she spent parts of her growing up years in Lagos and only returned to Britain when she was aged sixteen.

She has been a member of parliament since 2017. And while making a post-appointment speech in the parliament makes mention of her difficult childhood growing up in Nigeria.

She specifically related how she lived without a regular supply of pipe=borne water and reading with candlelight. Meanwhile, congratulatory messages have continued to pour in for her on the account of this feat of hers from different quarters.

She has been charged by President Muhammadu Buhari in his congratulatory message heralded by his senior special assistant on media and publicity Mallam Garba Shehu to justify the confidence reposed in her by giving her best at all time.

In the midst of this outpouring joy and congratulations, some people instead are quarreling not with her appointment but with her narrative of her experience.

They see it as an unwarranted and gross misrepresentation of Nigeria's present realities. And they labeled it also as an attempt to make Nigeria looked less developed than it really is and makes the international community sympathetic towards her course.

Though it has been twenty-three years now that she went back to Britain where she had stayed ever since until her appointment as a cabinet minister, things, of course, are not the same as when she was here.

Twenty-three years they argued is a sufficient time for a lot of transformations to have taken place she might not be aware of. Things are much better now they reasoned compared to the Nigeria of in which she grew up.

And they cynically added that she perhaps needed another visit to upgrade her outdated experiences and realign her understanding with the present improved situation of things.

And that I considered not only most uncharitable but hypocritical from people who rather have decided for reasons best known to them to gross over the hard-facts of our reality as a country which nonetheless is still categorized as a third world country.

Without sounding self-deprecating and being economical with the truth, perhaps the critics of Olufunto's right to owning her experiences must be reminded that by the nomenclature of a third-world country Nigeria is not only underdeveloped but ranked very low on some of the most fundamental developmental indices behind countries like Ghana, Rwanda and the likes.

Even as we speak and twenty-three years after Olufunto's re-emigration back to Britain the state of Nigeria's power sector is still nothing to sing hurrah about. The power outage is not only rampant in Nigeria, but we also have communities and children who have never seen electricity all their lives.

Pipe-borne water is on the same crouching pedestal. In Lagos which remains Nigeria's most developed city-state millions of households still rely heavily on boreholes and other unclean sources for their daily water needs simply because the public water corporation is functioning well below the expected capacity. Charges sometimes are arbitrary and supply inadequate and undependable.

In the FCT, on the other hand, public water corporation has not been able to develop a technology adapted to the rocky topography of the environments and so many communities outside the metropolis suffered a shortage of water supply.

In fact, one of the most thriving businesses here is borehole engineering services. Trucks belonging to water engineering companies are a common sight and sound from their drilling activities can be heard from the distance each time you step out.

Basically, we're still where we were twenty-three years ago if not worse off since the likes of Olufunto left the shores of the country.

With the bulk of our commonwealth stole and kept in vaults of foreign banks, it is little surprising we are still stuck in the past and would remain a lot dicey for the country to attain many of its developmental goals and objectives even with a government which pride itself with being parsimonious in power.

I'm not saying it is all grim and final. But the progress has been damn too slow and doesn't speak too well to our potentials as a people. The bottom line is we are not where we ought to be and no attempt should be made on the ground of ay patriotic necessity to paper over what was, what is and may probably continue to be until some ting drastic is done.

No attempt also should be made to coerce anybody into substituting their experiential narrative with a doctored spin to suit any diplomatic necessity and image laundering either. The facts of our situation are already in the public domains and cannot be edited to appeal or massage our national pride if there is anything like that.

Let’s go to the significance and lessons of Olufunto's appointment and portfolio. The Nigerian child one cannot over-emphasize is going through a lot. If they are not being sexually violated, they are being sent to the streets to hawk and as beggars.

As we speak, many of them are being trafficked into either prostitution or as house helps to relatives and no-relatives nearby or far off and the monies due to they are not even paid to the parental or guardian facilitators.

Another of their fates is many of them having been caught up in the cross-fire of the fight against insurgency and being used either as a human shield or as suicide bombers. What is more, they are out of school in their scary numbers. And yet there is nothing like the ministry of children affairs. All there is is the ministry of women affairs.

Whereas it is a fact that combine the two are the most endangered and vulnerable groups not only in Nigeria but the world over. What concerned the Nigerian child or youth if you like is lumped together in the ministry of youths and sports and maybe in the ministry of health in a country where inter-ministerial and inter-agency collaborations are still at a foundational level.

Even the sporting side of the ministry of sports has been left to chance over the years. Whereas sports in addition to entertainment are what Nigerian youths are passionate about?

Yet all the developments you see there are down to their innovative and daring spirit of the Nigerian youths and not as a result of any deliberate reforms by successive governments over the years.

The domestic football league is professional only in name. All other things are either semi, quasi in functionality. Or how do you explain for instance, a situation whereby teams shipped out an entire squad of say twenty or thirty-something players and bringing in fresh legs all in the name repositioning the team for greater performance.

However, if properly done the two industries have the capacity to absorb substantial numbers of our youths.

So, if Britain deems it fit to have a ministry of children affairs even when children over there are not suffering what their counterpart in Nigeria suffers and still saddles a Nigerian with the responsibility of overseeing such, it is only appropriate we toy the same line and do the needful.

Nigeria needs a ministry of children affairs if you ask me, and there is no better time than now when all doesn't seem to be going well for the Nigerian child.

It may be too late in the day for the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to make amends but such a plan can be set in motion with a view that by this time next year all would have taken shape and the implementation shall be smooth sailing.

By so doing, many challenges confronting the Nigerian child can be properly looked into and resolved. And posterity will never forget such government that makes such a laudable idea comes to past.

P.S: Once more, I say Congratulations to Kemi Olufunto for her appointment as a minister of children affairs in Britain.

***Friends, if you like this post don't leave without sharing your perspective in the comment section below. Thanks.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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republicstandard · 6 years ago

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2018: Republic Standard's Very Right-Wing Year in Review

So it has come to that time of year again when we look back at the year that has gone by and evaluate everything that has happened. All years are eventful to some degree or another, but I think it is fair to say the rate of ‘happenings’ are increasing, and we have a lot of which to take stock.

If there is one thing that the year has taught us it is that Trump, whether he is genuine about immigration restriction or not, is probably unlikely to fulfill all of his election promises at this point. Replacement fencing and a small deployment of troops to the American-Mexican border are no substitute for a border wall, and so we are thankful at least that he has finally shut down the government as a tactic to receive wall funding. In the Midterm Elections, although gaining seats in the Senate, the Republicans lost the House of Representatives, something which makes the President’s life even harder. On top of this, his endorsement of a criminal justice reform bill, which will cut the prison time required for all kinds of heinous offenses, has confused and annoyed his support base.

The next round-up comes from Britain, where Brexit and little else have dominated the entire political landscape. The Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote, yet her approach to Brexit, which does not resemble the 2016 referendum result, continues to baffle the country. Neither Remainers nor Brexiteers like the current status quo very much, yet there is little they can do about it, because it is apparent that, like Margaret Thatcher, May is a political survivor. There has also been a disgusting surge in the number of former British Army Soldiers being investigated by lawyers for serving on campaigns over the last 60 years. It is still unclear whether legislation will be passed to give them immunity from prosecution, which is something that is badly needed.

The Alt-Right/pro-White movement has, throughout the year, still been in the shadow of 2017's Unite the Right rally, with it having no coherent strategy or coordination. There have been sporadic bouts of infighting, court cases, de-platforming, and activism; but the need for a robust, stable and prosperous pro-White movement continues, as does the struggle to transition from the internet into the real world. The consumption of pro-White media continues to grow though, especially on Youtube, and there are promising signs for the future. Generation Identity, based throughout Europe, and Identity Evropa, based in America, are also seeing healthy growth going into the future.

With regards to democratic elections and taking power, 2018 has shown some remarkable and promising signs. Matteo Salvini’s appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Italy is probably this year’s greatest White pill. Not only did he battle through coalition talks, but he then went on to significantly lower illegal immigration across the central Mediterranean, with the Pro-refugee charities and their ships either impounded or largely out of action in that area. He has also begun the process of tightening migration loopholes in Italy and is also helping to rejuvenate Italy’s native birth rate. His alliance with Viktor Orban of Hungary and other populists in Europe has seen the power of the European Commission in Brussels significantly challenged, especially when it comes to domestic budgets and austerity.

Then there is, of course, Jair Bolsonaro, the right wing ex-Army Officer who won the Brazilian Presidential election. As well as being perfect meme material, he has lifted the spirits of many with his hardline, no-nonsense attitude. Brazil is a country with 90 million White people (47% of the population), who are plagued with crime, corruption, and colossal mismanagement. They need help, and hopefully, Bolsonaro can be their savior to some degree. He is currently building his team so he can be ready to take office on New Year’s Day – not a bad way to start 2019!

The Yellow Vest movement, which initially was groups of people protesting a fuel tax, evolved into France’s most significant civil unrest since the 1960s. Weeks of protests involving both left and right wingers, students, workers and the elderly forced Emmanuel Macron into appeasing them with concessions. It is unclear how this movement will continue, as efforts to maintain momentum are always tricky, but at this stage, it seems their activism will genuinely change France. The only worry is that the Far-Left will hijack the Yellow Vests, something which its organizers must be alert to in the coming weeks and months ahead.

What else is there to say? We continue to live in the Cultural Marxist dystopia, the wars in the Middle East go on, and most Western Politicians still don’t work in the interests of their nation and its citizens. There have also been rapid developments in AI technology, and the world also marked the 100th anniversary of the First World War. Terrorist attacks occur on and off; mass immigration continues unabated and global billionaires with questionable loyalty continue to buy political parties with donations.

The struggle goes on, and go on it must. 2018 was undoubtedly a lot better than 2017 for right-wingers, and I hope 2019 will bring White pills to countries that need them, with Sweden and Germany the first coming to mind. It seems that demographics will continue to be the most critical issue, with the anti-White agenda being ramped up to ever more dizzying levels of barking madness.

Also, please spare a thought over the festive period for White South Africans, especially the farmers, who are faced with having their land confiscated, and are also suffering constant attacks, rape, and murders. Their situation is desperate and very little help is being offered in the way of political support, defense or evacuation.

On a final note, if you’re not a content creator yourself, then do try to support (in whatever way) the dissident right media that you consume. It does take many hours to write, edit, make videos, manage websites, organize conferences, give speeches and combat censorship. If you’ve been viewing dissident right content for a while now, and you haven’t given a little something, perhaps now is the time. After all, it’s the Season of goodwill and all that.

Here’s to a happy and productive 2019.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine http://bit.ly/2SmFbyN via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine

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brookstonalmanac · 6 years ago

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Events 12.4

771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne king of the now complete Frankish Kingdom. 1110 – The Kingdom of Jerusalem captures Sidon. 1259 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels. 1563 – The final session of the Council of Trent is held. (It had opened on December 13, 1545.) 1619 – Thirty-eight colonists arrive at Berkeley Hundred, Virginia. The group's charter proclaims that the day "be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." 1676 – Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt. 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the Second Jacobite Rising. 1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers. 1786 – Mission Santa Barbara is dedicated (on the feast day of Saint Barbara). 1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published. 1829 – In the face of fierce local opposition, British Governor-General Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation declaring that anyone who abets suttee in Bengal is guilty of culpable homicide. 1861 – The 109 Electors of the several states of the Confederate States of America unanimously elect Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice President. 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta. 1865 – North Carolina ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed soon by Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within 2 weeks 1867 – Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange). 1872 – The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged. 1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison; he is later recaptured in Spain. 1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published. 1893 – First Matabele War: A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers is ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors on the Shangani River in Matabeleland. 1906 – Alpha Phi Alpha the first black intercollegiate Greek lettered fraternity was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 1909 – In Canadian football, the First Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26–6. 1909 – The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association. 1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office. 1939 – World War II: HMS Nelson is struck by a mine (laid by U-31) off the Scottish coast and is laid up for repairs until August 1940. 1942 – World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends. 1943 – World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile. 1943 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States. 1945 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.) 1949 – Sir Duncan George Stewart was fatally stabbed by Rosli Dhobi, a member leader of the Rukun 13, in Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia during the British crown colony era in that state. 1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida. 1956 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the first and last time. 1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name. 1967 – Vietnam War: U.S. and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta. 1969 – Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers. 1971 – The Indian Navy attacks the Pakistan Navy and Karachi. 197 1 – The PNB Ghazi, a submarine belonging to the Pakistan Navy, sinks during the course of the Indo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971. 1977 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire. 1977 – Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100. 1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco's first female mayor. 1979 – The Hastie fire in Hull kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee. 1981 – South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei "homeland" (not recognized by any government outside South Africa). 1982 – The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution. 1984 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 107–150 civilians in Mannar. 1991 – Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut; he is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon. 1991 – Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years. 1992 – Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa. 1998 – The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched. 2005 – Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage. 2006 – Six black youths assault a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana. 2014 – Islamic insurgents kill three state police at a traffic circle before taking an empty school and a "press house" in Grozny. Ten state forces die with 28 injured in gun battles ending with ten insurgents killed. 2015 – A firebomb is thrown into a restaurant in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing 17 people. 2017 – The Lamborghini Urus is the world's fastest SUV. Reaching speeds of 190 miles per hour. 2017 – The Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan has been imploded, after a day of failure to be imploded. It is about 30 miles from Detroit, Michigan. It first opened on August 23, 1975. 2017 – The Winklevoss twins are the first Bitcoin billionaires. They are known for suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea from their social website ConnectU during 2004, which is now social media site Facebook. 2017 – The Thomas Fire started near Santa Paula and became the largest wildfire in modern California history after burning 440 square miles (281,893 acres; 114,078 ha) in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

#Events

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