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South Africa Standing Up To Facebook

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Facebook To Be Summonsed Before South Africa’s Parliament Over ‘Harmful Misinformation’ this marks that first time the social media giant has appeared before lawmakers in Africa.

Facebook has been called to appear before the South African Parliament on May 25, 2021 to explain what it is doing about the “harmful misinformation” spreading on its platform,

Facebook has been called to appear before South Africa’s Parliament this month to explain what it is doing about “harmful misinformation” spreading on its platform, marking the first time the social media giant has appeared before lawmakers in Africa.

Opposition MP Phumzile Van Damme says Facebook with appear before the Communications and Digital Technologies Committee on 25 May 2021.

“Facebook’s agreement to the meeting is historic and a source of pride for South Africa as a first in Africa, and one of a few countries in the world to successfully secure a meeting with Facebook. We commend Facebook for agreeing to the meeting which we hope will be constructive,” Van Damme told Stuff. [Disclosure: I am Stuff’s publisher.]

In an article, vocal opposition parliamentarian Phumzile Van Damme stated that, “the aim of discussions with Facebook will be to ensure that the interests of the people of South Africa are protected as well as upholding their constitutional right to freedom of speech. We will stand in opposition to any proposals that would curtail the right of South Africans to share their thoughts and opinions that fall under protected freedom of speech”.

“The reason for inviting Facebook was with the view of ascertaining what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation, particularly as we inch towards the 2021 Local Government Election. Facebook often tailors plans for countries ahead of elections to guard against harmful misinformation. We would like to see the same done for South Africa,” she added.

Along with concerns over misinformation, it will focus on South African users’ personal data being protected and “the beginning of discussions regarding the social media platform paying South African media houses for carrying their content as was recently successfully implemented in Australia”.

In February Van Damme said she was “summoning” Facebook – which has an office in the economic capital of Johannesburg – to appear before South African lawmakers to ascertain “what steps the tech giant will be taking in tackling harmful misinformation”.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2016 made a surprise trip to Lagos and Nairobi, where he said: “The thing that is striking is the entrepreneurial energy. This is where the future is going to be built”.

This week Van Damme said “the aim of discussions with Facebook will be to ensure that the interests of the people of South Africa are protected as well as upholding their constitutional right to freedom of speech. We will stand in opposition to any proposals that would curtail the right of South Africans to share their thoughts and opinions that fall under protected freedom of speech,” she said.

South Africa’s Constitution, which was implemented after Nelson Mandela was voted in as the country’s first democratic president in 1994, is considered one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. Current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was the chief negotiator for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in a landmark deal concluded with the Apartheid government, run by the then National Party.

Meanwhile, the South African Information Regulator recently announced that it was seeking legal advice to get Facebook owned messaging app WhatsApp to revise its privacy policy to the standard used in the EU as the country’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) has a similar privacy regime to the EU. It appears that citizens of the EU would receive significantly higher protection than South African citizens.

However, only 24 out of 53 countries in Africa have adopted #DataPrivacy #DataProtection laws!

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Life Style

Bill Gates quit Microsoft amid sexual probe with staffer

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters
  • In October, when the relationship between the two burst into public view, French Gates was unhappy, so she hired divorce lawyers, setting in motion a process that culminated with the announcement of their divorce.

Bill Gates quit the Microsoft Corp. board in 2020 over an inappropriate relationship with a female employee, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The board members pressured Gates to step down as they began an investigation in 2019 after a female engineer working for the firm had alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over years with Gates, the Journal reported, citing people close to the matter.

During the investigation, some board members decided Gates should no longer sit as a director at the software company he started and led for decades, the people said.

“Microsoft Corp. board members decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from its board in 2020 as they pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate.”

A Microsoft spokesman also said, “Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000.”

“A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”

Meanwhile, Bridgitt Arnold, a spokeswoman for Gates, said, “There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” noting, “Gates’s decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter.”

Gates quit the Microsoft board to focus more on his philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Arnold added

“He had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”

Gates and his wife Melinda French, who co-founded their charity to fight global poverty and disease, announced earlier this month that they were ending their marriage after 27 years.

In a joint statement posted on Twitter, the couple said, “We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”

In a divorce petition, Melinda said their marriage was “irretrievably broken.”

Bill and Melinda Gates speak in New York in 2018 (AFP photo)

Although the couple has not said what prompted the divorce, one source of concern for French Gates was her husband’s dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Journal.

A spokeswoman for Gates said in 2019 that he met with Epstein for philanthropic reasons, but regretted doing so.

In October 2019, when the relationship between the two burst into public view, French Gates was unhappy, so she hired divorce lawyers, setting in motion a process that culminated with the announcement of their divorce. Credit: PressTV

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Headlines

BREAKING: Nigerian security forces on alert as ISWAP ‘kills’ Boko Haram Leader Shekau

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Security agencies are currently on alert over the reported killing of Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Boko Haram sect….

On Wednesday evening, reports filtered in that Shekau was killed during a face-off with fighters of the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), around Sambisa Forest.

Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists neighbour each other around the Lake Chad region.

Despite resistance from countries in the Lake Chad region, the terrorists have continued their operation, severally clashing with the Multi-National Join Task Force comprising the security operatives from neighbouring countries.

In an intelligence cited by the team of our reporters, Baana Duguri, an ISWAP Commander, said Shekau’s men and ISWAP fighters engaged in a fierce battle on Wednesday.

The ISWAP fighters were said to have been on the trail of Shekau whom they wanted to capture alive but the Boko Haram leader reportedly committed suicide to avoid being caught.

“The ISWAP fighters surrounded the Boko Harm leader as the shooting ensued between the two sides but Shekau detonated a bomb and killed himself when he observed that the ISWAP fighters wanted to capture him alive,” the intelligence read.

The military authorities are yet to comment on the news about Shekau’s death but top security sources told us that ISWAP’s claim is being verified.

Both the Department of State Services (DSS) and the army authorities are said to be verifying the claim.

Although there have been reports of ISWAP and Boko Haram Commanders being killed in exchange of gunfire, this is the first time that Shekau will be reported to have been killed in a battle with terrorists.

Shekau had been reported dead on different occasions in the past but during encounters with the military.

However, he has subsequently embarrassed the military and government by debunking the claim of his death through videos or audios.

Shekau took over leadership of Boko Haram in 2009 following the death of Mohammed Yusuf, the group’s founder.

by Daily Trust

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Africa & World

Trump In Stormy Waters Again: His Organization Currently Under Criminal Probe

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

The New York state attorney general’s office has widened its probe into the Trump Organization to include an examination of potential criminal wrongdoing, according to the office’s spokesman.

Previously, the office was investigating former President Donald Trump’s namesake company in a solely civil matter with New York Attorney General Letitia James focusing on whether the company improperly valued its assets for loan and tax purposes.

However, now the state’s investigation has entered “a criminal capacity,” spokesman Fabien Levy confirmed to NPR late Tuesday.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” Levy said in a statement. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.”

Levy said additional details couldn’t be shared at this time. It was not immediately clear whether the former president himself, or members of his family, were part of this latest criminal investigation. It’s also unclear when the attorney general notified the Trump Organization of the broadening scope of the probe

The expanded state case against the Trump Organization means the company and former president could face two criminal cases from separate prosecutors.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is already in the middle of a wide-ranging fraud investigation. In February, following a protracted legal battle, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained the former president’s tax returns. Prosecutors have focused on Trump’s business dealings and those of his associates, including his chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and Weisselberg’s family.

Vance has said the statute of limitations for bringing charges against the company will soon expire. His term also ends on Dec. 31.

If one or both of the prosecutors believes there is enough evidence to charge the former president, his associates, or his company, an official complaint will likely be filed by the end of the year.

Trump, Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have denied any wrongdoing and have said the prosecutors are politically motivated.

Newscredit: NPR

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Africa & WorldBusiness

Among 20 Companies Behind World Environmental Pollution, One Operates in Nigeria

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

In 2019, more than 130 million metric tons of single-use plastics were thrown away, with most of that waste burned, buried in a landfill or dumped directly into the ocean or onto land.

Now, a new report finds that just 20 companies account for more than half of all single-use plastic waste generated worldwide. One of the companies, according to the study is Exxon Mobil, an oil exploration company operating in Nigeria through its affiliate company, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited.

The report, published Tuesday by Australia’s Minderoo Foundation, offers one of the fullest accounting, to date, of the companies behind the production of single-use plastics that researchers believe could account for as much as 10% of global greenhouse emissions by 2050.

Single-use plastics are meant to be thrown out immediately after use, such as bags, drinking straws, bottles and packaging.

The study identifies 20 companies as the source of 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, while the top 100 companies account for more than 90%.

Nearly all the single-use plastic manufactured by these companies — 98% according to the report — is made from ” ‘virgin’ (fossil-fuel-based) feedstocks” rather than recycled materials.

At the top of what the foundation calls its “Plastic Waste Makers Index” is the energy giant Exxon Mobil, followed by the Dow Chemical Co. and China’s Sinopec. The report found that Exxon Mobil was responsible for 5.9 million metric tons of such waste in 2019, while Dow and Sinopec contributed 5.6 million and 5.3 million, respectively. Taken together, the three companies account for 16% of all waste from single-use plastics such as bottles, bags and food packaging, according to the report.

In a statement, Exxon Mobil said it “shares society’s concern about plastic waste.” The company said it is “taking action to address plastic waste” but said the problem requires collective action from “industry, governments, nongovernmental organizations and consumers” alike.

The report also traced the money invested in the production of single-use plastics, finding that 20 institutional asset managers hold shares worth close to $300 billion in the parent companies that make up the foundation’s rankings. The top three investors are U.S.-based Vanguard Group, BlackRock and Capital Group, which according to the report have an estimated $6 billion invested in the production of single-use plastics.

“The trajectories of the climate crisis and the plastic waste crisis are strikingly similar — and increasingly intertwined,” former Vice President Al Gore said in a statement that accompanied the report.

“Since most plastic is made from oil and gas — especially fracked gas — the production and consumption of plastic are becoming a significant driver of the climate crisis, already producing greenhouse gas emissions on the same scale as a large country and causing the emission of other harmful toxins from plastics facilities into nearby communities — disproportionately harming people of color and those in low-income communities,” he wrote.

The report warned that in the next five years, the global capacity to produce the materials needed for single-use plastics could grow by more than 30%.

“An environmental catastrophe beckons: much of the resulting single-use plastic waste will end up as pollution in developing countries with poor waste management systems,” according to the report.

Solving the issue will require drastic changes from producers, investors and banks, the authors wrote. The report said that producers of polymers — known as the building blocks of plastics — should begin disclosing their single-use plastic waste “footprint,” while banks and investors should move to “phase out entirely” any financing that goes toward the production of single-use plastics.

But confronting the challenge will also require “immense political will,” according to the authors, who noted that roughly 30% of the sector, by value, is state-owned.

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Headlines

Nigeria eyes $3 billion Eurobond sale to fund budget deficits after sixth sale

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Nigeria plans to issue $3 billion or more in Eurobonds as international capital markets (ICM) open up and interest rates decline, the government said on Tuesday, after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted markets last year.

The West African country had planned a Eurobond issue early last year after its sixth sale in 2018, but it decided to defer the 2020 sale due to market turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, the head of the debt office told Reuters the government was looking to pick advisers.

“The plan is to raise the sum of $6.183 billion from a combination of sources,” President Muhammadu Buhari said in a letter to parliament seeking approval for the debt raise.

“From recent trends in the ICM, it is now possible for Nigeria to raise funds in the ICM. We estimate that Nigeria may be able to raise $3 billion or more, but not more than $6.183 billion in a combination of tenors between five to 30-years.”

Nigeria emerged from its second recession since 2016 in the fourth quarter, but growth is fragile. The government expects a 2021 budget deficit of 5.60 trillion Naira to be financed largely from foreign and local borrowings.

Buhari said it wanted to moderate debt service costs by accessing relatively cheaper funds abroad, especially as global interest rates fall below 2020 levels while local rates begin to rise.

In February, the West African country said it would trim offshore borrowing to 30% of its total loans from 40% currently, in a bid to strengthen domestic markets.

Nigeria has been in talks with the World Bank for a $1.5 billion loan, but approvals have been delayed due to concerns over reforms to its currency.

Last week, the country let its Naira weaken on the official market against the dollar in a possible move by the central bank to unify its numerous exchange rates.

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Business

Shell in-talks with Nigerian govt to sell stakes in Niger Delta’s oilfields

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with the Nigerian government to sell the Anglo-Dutch company’s stake in onshore oilfields, CEO Ben van Beurden said on Tuesday.

Shell, the operator of the West African country’s onshore oil and gas joint venture SPDC, has struggled for years with spills in the Niger Delta as a result of pipeline theft and sabotage as well as operational issues. The spills have led to costly repair operations and high-profile lawsuits.

Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting, CEO Ben van Beurden said that Shell can no longer be exposed to the risk of theft and sabotage.

“We cannot solve community problems in the Niger Delta, that’s for the Nigerian government perhaps to solve. We can do our best, but at some point in time, we also have to conclude that this is an exposure that doesn’t fit with our risk appetite anymore,” van Beurden said.

“We’ve drawn that conclusion, and we’re now talking to the Nigerian government on the way forward.”

Nigerian Oil Minister Timipre Sylva confirmed the government was in talks with Shell on how to divesting its onshore stakes.

The sides are considering transferring the stakes to SPDC or to another local company or selling it to a foreign company, Sylva said in a statement.

In February, a Dutch court held Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay unspecified damages to farmers, leading van Beurden to call its Nigerian onshore assets as a “headache”.

Last year Shell also lost a Nigerian high court case that could lead to $44 million in damages for spills.

Shell’s Nigerian onshore joint venture SPDC has sold about 50% of its oil assets over the past decade. Shell’s stake in SPDC gave it 156,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent in 2020, of which 66,000 barrels were oil.

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Opinion

Contest Election: It is a Money Spinner – Reno Omokri Tells Nigeria Girls

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s media aide, Pastor Reno Omokri has advised girls who live in Africa to contest elections, if they intend to make money.  He described politics in Africa as a money-spinning venture. 

Reno, in his official page advised the ladies to free their slaves (boyfriends) who they always ask money from, by either getting a job, or starting business or contesting election, which he said is a money-spinner that would give them all the money they want.

“On your birthday, your boyfriend threw a party for you.  On his birthday, you want him to take you out for a romantic dinner.  When you visit him, you ask for transport fare.  If he visits you, you demand for money. 

You use his phone and exhaust his data, then ask for more data.  Be honest with yourself, is he (your boyfriend) in a relationship, or is he in bondage? “Slavery officially ended on Monday, December 18, 1865.  Free your own slave.  If you need money, ask your father or get a job or start a business. If you live in Africa, you can also contest for election.  It is a money-spinner”

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Headlines

Senate uncover Gbajabiamila’s N7bn fraud

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

The Director-General of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Lanre Gbajabiamila, the Board chairman, and its directors, have been accused of monumental fraud, abuse of office, massive corruption, and unlawful diversion of public funds.

Senate Committee on Finance on Monday said that it has uncovered alleged monumental fraud of over N75billion in the National Lottery Trust of Fund, NLTF.

This is even as the agency was also accused of violating due process in the award of contract worth N1.12 billion tagged “Intervention budget distribution” which was requested for in a letter dated 12 March, 2014.

Chairman of the Senate panel, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West) disclosed these yesterday in Abuja during the ongoing Investigation into the remittances by ministries departments and agencies, MDAs from 2014 to 2020 and payment of one percent stamp duty on all contract awards within same period.

According to Adeola, NLTF, during the period under review declared N7 billion, but said further investigation by the committee revealed that the money spent on good course is more than what was declared  by the agency as Internally Generated Revenue IGR and therefore demanded explanation on the source of the excess fund spent by the agency.

He said: “We discovered another monumental fraud from the National Lottery Trust Fund for money ordinarily should have been used for good course in accordance with their Act. 

“The total money accruing to them in the period under review is about N7 billion but by the time we marry this money with the good course to be provided, we noticed that the amount expended on good course is even more than the amount that is declared. 

“And the question is where do you get this excess fund? Do you have any other source of income? The answer is no. And what that simply implies is under declaration of revenue.”

The total procurement cost for the contract awarded without due process was N800 million, while consultancy service was N185 million and the Public Awareness and Media cost N50 million while N50 million was spent on project administration and N25 million was spent on contingency.

Findings by our correspondent revealed that the consultancy fee which was about N185 million was expected to be N80 million which was the 10% of the contract cost.

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