Thousands of Haitians prepare to trek through Panama's jungle and on to the U.S.

Haitian migrants in Necoclí, Colombia, walk toward boats that will take them to the town of Acandí, across the Gulf of Urabá. The boats can't keep up with the number of Haitians looking to travel from Colombia through the jungle to Panama to eventually reach the U.S.

Carlos Villalón for NPR

NECOCLÍ, Colombia — This town's Caribbean beaches used to fill up with tourists but there's no longer room. Instead, thousands of Haitian migrants who can't afford the hotels have pitched tents on just about every patch of sand, National Public Radio (NPR) reports.

According to the report, Nearly 20,000 Haitians, who are on their way to the United States, are now holed up in Necoclí, forming a human bottleneck even bigger than the recent migrant logjams on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Tents pitched at Necocli's beach in September. About 19,000 migrants are living in the town, some staying in hotels and many other camping out on the beach.

Carlos Villalon for NPR

Bruno Noel got to Necoclí two weeks ago with his wife and 6-month-old son and notes his many compatriots speaking Haitian Creole on the boardwalk. "This is like a smaller version of Haiti," he quips, the report states further adding that Lacking visas, Noel and other Haitians are taking a roundabout, overland route to get to the U.S. Many moved to Brazil, Chile and other South American nations following Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake. But now that countries in the region have eased pandemic travel restrictions, throngs of Haitians are heading north. Many believe they will have a better chance to get into the U.S. — and to stay there — now that Donald Trump has been replaced in the White House by President Biden.

811m people are hungry, appeal against food wastage - UN

The UN food agency has launched an urgent appeal for action to reduce the amount of food that is wasted, saying lack of food, hunger and malnutrition affect every country in the world, NAN reports.

According to the report, The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday that 17 per cent of all food available to consumers in 2019 ended up being thrown away.

An additional 132 million people face food and nutrition insecurity today because of the COVID-19 pandemic, FAO said, ahead of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, on Wednesday, 29 September.

The problem of food waste is a global one and not limited to wealthy nations alone, said Nancy Aburto, Deputy Director of FAO’s Food and Nutrition Division Economic and Social Development Stream, speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition are impacting every country in the world and no country is unaffected; 811 million people suffer hunger, two billion suffer micronutrient deficiencies – that’s vitamin and mineral deficiencies – and millions of children suffer stunting and wasting, deadly forms of under-nutrition.”

"Made In Lagos" album reaches number 1 on the chart

Nigeria's Musician, Wizkid

Cool FM 96.9 Abuja reported few days ago that Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos‘ album reached number one on the chart.

According to the report, Nigerian superstar singer, Wizkid (Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun) is now holding the record of longest stay on Billboard World Albums Chart.

He tallied with Fela Anikulapo Kuti last week.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's ‘The Best Of The Black President‘ album, a compilation released in 1999, spent forty-five weeks on the Billboard World Albums Chart, making it the longest-running album on the chart for a Nigerian singer.

However, according to current updates, Afrobeats sensation Wizkid has broken the record by spending a total of 46 weeks on the Billboard World Albums rankings with his 2020 ‘Made in Lagos’ album.

Wizkid’s ‘Made in Lagos‘ album reached number one on the chart, while Fela’s ‘The Best Of The Black President‘ peaked at number three.

SPECIAL REPORT: Inside Nigeria’s worsening kidnap-for-ransom scourge

A study of reported cases of Kidnap-for-ransom in the media reveals that the crime has become perhaps the biggest security threat in Nigeria.

Tears dropped down the cheeks of Catherine Ukpekpi as she narrated her family’s ordeal. It was April and her husband, Ben, the leader of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Cross River State, had been kidnapped four weeks earlier. It was the second time in 16 months that he had been kidnapped.

Mrs Ukpekpi said the circumstances of both incidents were identical. Just as in December 2019, he was again abducted at the front of their house in Calabar, and by people she suspected were the same.

“Two days later they opened communication and said we should pay N150 million before they release my husband. I asked them N150,000 or N150 million? They said ‘madam N150 million! We abducted your husband for money. Pay us N150 million, not a kobo less. He is the NLC chairman’”.

2023 Campaign Posters For Ailing Ex-Lagos Governor Surface In London

Former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu

Images of the APC leader were on display at some London train stations.

From Sahara reporters, New York comes this report of political campaign posters of former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu.

See the full story below, curtesy of Sahara Reporters:

Campaign posters for the ailing All Progressives Congress National Leader and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, to run for Nigeria’s president in 2023 have emerged in London, United Kingdom where he is currently receiving treatment.

In a viral video shared on Monday on Arise TV, images of the APC leader were on display at some London train stations.

SaharaReporters observed that several groups had of recent campaigned for the frail APC leader and shown support for his presidential ambition, even though he had yet to officially declare his interest in succeeding Buhari in 2023.

The adverts were also said to be on display at the popular London’s Heathrow Airport. Tinubu’s photographs were splashed on the walls.

Career Path: Young Boy Wishes To Be A Killer

Did you miss this? Well, don't fret, this is it, the video of young boy with a stunning career choice that has sent many wandering. The lad wishes to be a killer. Yes, that's what he said. See it here in the video below curtsey, Arise News:

Bobrisky apologises to Tonto

Via her post on IG, Bobrisky is apologising to Tonto with this message: “Tonto, I humiliated you here so is a must I come back here to apologize for calling you out !!! I honestly didn’t know what came over me, but I later realize I was wrong... pls find it in your heart to forgive me. Yes I might have be there for u as friends, the truth is you were also there for me at some point of my life. Pls find it in ur heart to forgive me once more. We necessarily shouldn’t be friends no more but let me apologize for calling you out.

“To my fans, and to tonto fans I’m sorry many of you are disappointed at me, pls forgive me and I promise never to repeat dis no more.

“@iamfaithojo mummy thanks for giving me the best advice God bless you ma, you are truly a mother who don’t support evil.”

What helps you cope with stress?

Photo credit: Medical News Today

Stress can feel like a baseline condition for many of us – especially during a pandemic. But there are ways to support yourself through the very worst of it, whether through help, sleep or radical self-care, The Guardian reports.

“Style and sustainability don’t have to be two separate things - Jazmine Rogers

Black and Mexican creator Jazmine Rogers (@thatcurlytop), says “Style and sustainability don’t have to be two separate things. They can be one and the same, and sustainable living itself should be fun.”

This is curtained in a report posted on Instagram’s official account few days ago.

2023: NORTHAN GOVERNORS OPPOSE POWER SHIFT TO SOUTH

Northern States Governors’ Forum at an emergency meeting on Monday in Kaduna

Governors of the 19 states in the North have opposed the call by their southern counterparts that the Presidency should be zoned to the South in 2023, Channels Television reports.

This formed part of the resolutions reached on Monday when the governors held an emergency meeting with traditional rulers in the region at the Government House in Kaduna State, the report stated.

According to the report, Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, read out the communique containing the resolutions on behalf of his colleague which submits among others that zoning the office of the President as being agitated by southern governors is against the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, stating further that any president elected must meet the constitutional requirements which include scoring the majority votes, and polling at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in two-thirds of the 36 states of the Federation.

BIMPE – THE PROUD GIRL

Bimpe, a girl from an extremely poor home is been the hope of her family. She’s exceptionally brilliant, distinctively beautiful and quite proud, and she’s the only choice of the governor’s son for a wife. This spells a very bright future for her, as well as her family and friends. However, many including her mother have advised her severally to bury her pride to avoid undue difficulties and hazards of life. But she claims she’s not by nature ‘proud’, she says it’s just a way of packaging to win confidence and attention in the heart of everyone, her own way of fooling the world. Really, she’s been quite fortunate with such act over the years because she gets anything she desires from anyone without losing a thing, not even her virginity. But suddenly, she’s confirmed pregnant just as soon as the marriage rites between her and the governor’s son commences.

Now, this is not a true life story. But if you were to do a resolution for this story what would it be? Yes, rack your brain on it guys.

Ebonyi landlords directed to renovate their buildings

Dave Umahi, Ebonyi State Governor

“All buildings in rickety shapes and some leaking roofs must be renovated by the landlords before November 30, 2021.”

Ebonyi State Government has ordered owners of dilapidated buildings situated on major roads in Abakaliki, the state capital, to renovate them before November 30, News Agency of Nigeria reports.

According to the report, the Commissioner, Ministry of Capital City Development, Peter Nwebonyi, gave the directive at a meeting with the Ebonyi State Landlord Association on Friday in Abakaliki.

Mr Nwebonyi said the government’s directive was to enable structures to match the present level of development in the city adding that the state government spent resources constructing flyovers, streetlights and concrete roads, and required the landlords to play their part by rehabilitating their buildings, the report stated.

TROUBLE IS GUARANTEED

Rayo Abe, Professional Housewife

The message today is about trials and temptations and as such we bring you this very beautiful piece titled “Trouble Is Guaranteed”, a two part ministration by Rayo Abe, a professional housewife popularly known as the “Lagos House Wife”, an Instagram user with a passion for women and family. Trust you would be blessed and edified by the message:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by JESUS. Family. Food. Business. (@lagoshousewife)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by JESUS. Family. Food. Business. (@lagoshousewife)

Credit: LagosHouseWife

Hosting FFK at Aso Villa evidence of Buhari’s capacity to forgive -Femi Adesina

L-R: Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Femi Fani-Kayode, Fmr. Nigeria's Minister of Aviation

Special Adviser to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has explained why his principal hosted an unsparing critic of the regime and former minister Femi Fani-Kayode in Aso Villa following his defection to the ruling All Progress Congress, Punch Newspapers reports.

In the report, Adesina wrote:

Not a small ruckus has been caused by the defection of former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week.

An icing on the cake, or the salt added to injury (depending on which side you are), was his reception at the Presidential Villa by Muhammadu Buhari, father of the nation. The development has been rocking the polity for many days.

FFK is by no means a miscellaneous personality, and whatever he does, or does not do, attracts loads of attention.

Northern Elders regret not supporting Jonathan in 2015, advises South on 2023 polls

NEF Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed

The Northern Elders Forum on Wednesday said it regretted backing then candidate Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential election, instead of the then incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

The position of the NEF was made known by its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.

Ahmed, who spoke on a programme on Arise TV: “The Morning Show,” said Buhari had since succeeding Jonathan let down a majority of Nigerians who trusted in his leadership before the 2015 polls.

He said: “Is there any Nigerian who is not disappointed in President Buhari, including diehard APC (All Progressives Congress) people?

A well informed, sensitised and educated citizenry is the bedrock of effective regulation - NAFDAC

NAFDAC-DG-Prof.-Mojisola-Adeyeye

The National Agency for Food And Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says measures are in place to sensitise Nigerians on some major public health challenges, NAN reports.

In the report and according to NAFDAC, some of the various infractions that impact negatively on public health and healthcare delivery system include the use of Azo-dyes in Palm Oil and “ Sniper’’  to preserve foodstuffs.

The assertion was made by the Director-General, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye at the Flag-Off of the agency’s sensitisation campaigns in Lagos on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the sensitisation campaign is taking place nationwide.

According to the Director General, the campaign themes are multifaceted with clear, concise, informative and educative messages.

Trump Sues His Niece and The New York Times Over Leaked Tax Documents

Then-President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Dec. 7, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Mary L. Trump, The New York Times and three of its reporters of conspiring in an “insidious plot” to improperly obtain his confidential tax records and exploit their use in news articles and a book.

The lawsuit claims that the Times reporters, as part of an effort to obtain the tax records, relentlessly sought out Mary Trump, the former president’s niece, and persuaded her “to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office” and turn them over to The Times.

That action, according to the lawsuit, breached a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement of litigation involving the will of the former president’s father, Fred C. Trump, who died in 1999.

International Week of the Deaf: How Nigerian Sign Language Interpreters help children dispel fear of Coronavirus

 SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM

Sign Language Champions

A major recurring problem in the integration and empowerment of the deaf in Nigeria is communication; ease of communication with their hearing families, seamless communication in schools.

In Nigeria, over 27 million people are estimated to live with various disabilities.

While physical disability tops the chart with 27.09% of this number according to a Shelby Treat Report (2016),  Deafness/Hearing Loss is the second largest form of disability in Nigeria with 23.76% an estimated 6.4 million people.

It is even more worrisome as studies show that 75 per cent of deaf children and young adults were not genetically born deaf but health complications, lack of good medical care, ignorance and poverty have often contributed to the challenge.

The Nigerian Deaf Community and Struggle with Communication

Businesses must accept e-naira payment - CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria says the e-naira which is set to launch October 1, 2021, is a legal tender equal to the value of the naira and thus must be accepted as a form of payment by all merchants and business outlets.

Featured on Business Morning, a Channels Television programme, on Monday, Musa Jimoh, CBN’s Director of Payment System Management, said that eNaira which is Nigeria’s first digital currency is a legal tender just as the naira.

“Today, anywhere you present naira to pay, compulsorily it must be accepted because that is our fiat currency’, Jimoh said. “ So, the same way naira is accepted that you can’t reject it, is the same way e-naira must be accepted. Anywhere in this country where e-naira is presented, it must be accepted. So, merchants must accept e-naira as a means of payment.”

As a child, she wrote to a WWII vet. He carried the letter everywhere, and 12 years later, they finally met

Dashauna Priest, 21, with Frank Grasberger, 95. When Priest was in third grade, she wrote Grasberger a letter as part of a class project thanking veterans for their service. Grasberger sought to find Priest for 12 years, and finally met her in late July. (Vitalia Senior Residences at Strongsville)

Dashauna Priest still recalls sitting in her third-grade classroom 12 years ago in Lorain, Ohio, writing a heartfelt thank-you letter to a World War II veteran whom she did not know.

At the time, and in the years that followed, she had no idea that the recipient of her letter would carry the note with him everywhere he went, carefully folded in an envelope. “I’m never without it,” said Frank Grasberger, now 95.

Grasberger, who lives in Strongsville, Ohio, was drafted into the military when he was 18 and spent nearly three years in Germany. He received Priest’s letter, which was part of a class project, while he was on an Honor Flight home from D.C. in 2009. Ever since, the letter has either been folded neatly in his pocket or tucked away beneath the seat of his wheelchair. Wherever Grasberger goes, the letter goes.

Harry and Meghan named among the 'world's 100 most influential people' by Time Magazine

"A VERY airbrushed photo shoot" - Daily Mail.

PDP Governors Beg National Assembly To Rescue Nigeria's Democracy

The Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum has appealed to the National Assembly to rescue Nigeria’s democracy by passing necessary amendments to the Electoral Act, Punch reports.

Specifically, according to the report, the forum urged the lawmakers to rise above partisan politics to pass the amendment to allow for the electronic transfer of election results.

This was contained in a statement titled, ‘Electronic Transmission: PDP Governors Forum Tasks National Assembly Conference Committee To Rescue Nigeria’s Democracy… Asks NASS to be guided by patriotism and national interest.’

TOP 150921 NEWS SNIPPETS

'When it comes to poverty, an already tragic situation has been worsened by the battering Africa’s fragile economies took from the coronavirus pandemic. One in three people are now unemployed in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. The same goes for South Africa, the most industrialised African nation. It is now estimated that the number of extremely poor people in sub-Saharan Africa has crossed the 500 million mark, half the population.

'One of the key reasons for coups in Africa is “sit-tightism” of political leaders. Many of the leaders have had to tinker with constitutional provisions in order to extend their stay in office. According to a May 17, 2021 African Centre for Strategic Studies report titled, “Circumvention of Term Limits Weakens Governance in Africa”, the think-tank posited that Africa has seen a reversal in term limit norms since 2015 as leaders of 13 countries had evaded or overseen the further weakening of term limit restrictions that had been in place. The countries are: Algeria, Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Others include, Egypt, Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

'The report stated further that, “The lack of effective term limits has resulted in Africa having 10 leaders who have ruled for over 20 years and two family dynasties that have been in power for more than 50 years”. In Gabon, there is Bongo dynasty which has been on for 53 years; in Togo, the Eyadema dynasty has been on for 53 years; Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang, has been in power for 41 years, while Cameroon’s Paul Biya has been in power for 38 years. King Mswati III of Eswatini and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda have been in power for 34 years each. Before Idris Déby, 68, was assassinated by rebels on April 20, 2021, he was president of Chad for 30 years. Eriteria’s Isaias Afwerk has been in power for 27 years while Denis Sassou Nguesso of Republic of the Congo has been president for 23 years. Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Gwelleh has been leading his country for 21 years likewise King Mohammed VI of Morocco.  Paul Kagame on his part has led Rwanda for 20 years and still counting.

Met Gala 2021: Photos From The Red Carpet

 Photos: Getty Images / Collage by David Vo

Founded by Eleanor Lambert, the Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit and also known as the Met Ball, is an annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It marks the opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit.

According to a report by Vogue, the Met Gala is typically held on the first Monday in May, but this year, the event was postponed due to COVID-19 and fell right in the middle of fashion month—meaning the stakes for stellar style on the red carpet were especially high. Last night, September 13th, fashion’s biggest night was held at its usual location: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The gala was in celebration of the Costume Institute’s newest exhibition, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” which opens to the public in the Anna Wintour Costume Center on September 18th.

IT’S AN EXPERIENCE

A love photo has just broken Joseph’s long-time relationship. Not guilty though, but the pose from the photo seems a terrific evidence that he’s been two-timing his fiancée, Comfort. The whole world is against the lover-boy and despite his plea of innocence to Comfort and concerned friends the relationship seems to have finally approached a dead end. But as soon as he eventually accepts his defeat and move on with his life with a new found lover Comfort suddenly shows up with a pregnancy and an apology written all over her, claiming she’s carrying his baby.

Now, this is not a true life story. But if you were to do a resolution for this story what would it be? Yes, rack your brain on it guys.