₦airaland Forum

A team groomed at the Edo Innovation Hub, Benin, has won the Rosatom Atoms for Africa competition, defeating over 65 participants from across the continent.

Speaking to journalists in Government House, in Benin, after a closed-door session with Governor Godwin Obaseki, Founder of Xigma, Derick Nwasor, thanked the state government, EdoJobs and Edo Innovation Hub for creating the platform for entrepreneurs to succeed.

“We came to inform the governor that we won the first prize in the Rosatom Atoms for Africa competition, which created an opportunity for us to visit the world first Nuclear Power Plant in Obninsk, Russia,” he said.

Managing Director, Edo State Skills Development Agency, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, thanked the governor for creating a platform like EdoJobs which has led to the success of Edo youths in the Rosatom Atoms for Africa Competition.

She urged Edo youths to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Obaseki-led administration through EdoJobs and Edo Innovation Hub to improve their lives.


In another development, a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Kenneth Imansuangbon, has urged members to vote in credible executives at the party congresses scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Edo PDP congresses is scheduled to begin on February 1 where the party’s ward executives would be elected.

According to Imansuangbon, the bastion of any political party is reflected in the type of leadership elected at the grassroots level.

US Democrats have been dealt a major blow in their efforts to call witnesses at President Trump's impeachment trial.

They needed four Republicans to vote with them to allow witness testimony, but one of the few wavering senators said he would not support the measure.

Lamar Alexander said the Democrats had proved Mr Trump acted inappropriately but it was not an impeachable offence.
The announcement paves the way for the possible acquittal of the president by the Senate as early as Friday.

The Democrats had especially wanted to call former National Security Adviser John Bolton who reportedly said Mr Trump told him directly that he was withholding US military aid to Ukraine until it agreed to investigate his rival, Joe Biden.

What did Lamar Alexander say?
In a statement late on Thursday after a long question-and-answer session at the Senate, Mr Alexander, who represents Tennessee, said the Democrats had proven that Mr Trump's actions were "inappropriate".

But the 79-year-old said: "There is no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution's high bar for an impeachable offence."

He added: "The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday."


Democrats were hoping that four Republican senators - Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, as well as Mr Alexander - would enable them to reach the 51 votes necessary to call witnesses. On Thursday, Ms Collins joined Mr Romney by saying she would also vote for more witnesses.

Mr Alexander's announcement is a sign that Republicans will be able to block the move and put an end to Mr Trump's trial with his expected acquittal. A two-thirds majority in the Senate is required to remove him from office, and Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.

Each side is expected to present closing arguments in Friday's session, before the Senate votes on hearing witnesses. If the vote were to end in a tie, it would mean that the motion had failed unless US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, decided to break it, which is unlikely.

Why is Bolton so important?

A bombshell report in the New York Times earlier this week said that Mr Bolton had written in his upcoming book that the president told him directly that military aid was being withheld from Ukraine in exchange for dirt on a Democratic political rival - the key impeachment charge against the president.

The report reinvigorated Democrats' attempts to call new witnesses to the trial, and simultaneously energised Republican efforts to push the process through without anyone being called.

If the reports about Mr Bolton were true, and he testified to that effect, he would be the first witness in the process to directly link the president to an alleged quid pro quo (exchange of favours) with Ukraine and an abuse of presidential power.

Mr Trump's lawyer expanded their defence in the Senate earlier this week.

He suggested that anything a president did in service of his own re-election could be considered to be in the public interest, and therefore not impeachable.

The tactic shocked Republicans and Democrats alike.

The White House pushed back against the publication of Mr Bolton's book, citing security concerns. The National Security Council alleged that the book had "top secret" details that must be removed, a claim Mr Bolton rejects.

Mr Bolton's lawyer Charles Cooper responded to the NSC letter last week by saying the book contained nothing classified as top secret.

"We do not believe that any of that information could reasonably be considered classified," Mr Cooper wrote in an email to the White House on 24 January, the Washington Post reported .

Mr Cooper also said he had asked for an expedited review of a chapter about Ukraine, adding that Mr Bolton was "preparing" for the possibility he could be called to testify in the trial.

Accepting new friend requests
Someone sent me a friend request - but I don’t know this person, what should I do?

Sometimes people want to network or make a lot of friends on social media so they send friend requests to people they don’t know.
Before you accept a person you should have a look at their profile - try to see who they are.

Do you have friends in common?
Are you from the same town?

You do not have to accept the request if you don’t feel comfortable sharing private information with the person. Don’t feel pressured to do so.

Check your privacy settings so that this person does not see your private information if you don’t want them to.

Remember also that sometimes people pretend to be someone they are not on the internet.

How much is an hour worth to you?

Whether you’re calculating your time by how much you earn per hour or how much of your day you’re using up, it’s to your advantage to know exactly what your time is worth so that you can both budget and spend it appropriately.

As Romi Neustadt, author of 'You Can Have It All, Just Not at the Same Damn Time', explains in MarketWatch:

Let’s say your hourly worth is $300. The 10 minutes you might spend scrolling through Facebook to take a mental break from a particularly taxing project? That’s 50 bucks, which you might consider it a worthwhile escape.

But 45 minutes of getting lost down the scroll hole without even realizing where the time has gone? That’s $225 down the toilet. If one of your priorities is living in vibrant health, that time could’ve gone toward a yoga class, a run with a friend or a massage.

To be fair, it’s hard to squeeze a massage into 45 free minutes unless your home or workplace is already very close to a massage studio (same goes for taking a run with a friend, unless you’re already near a gym or running trail and you both have the same 45 minutes free). There are reasons we “scroll hole,” as Neustadt puts it. Sometimes we just can’t think of anything better to do with our time.
But the argument Neustadt is making is that we should be trying to value our time a little more, not fritter it away thoughtlessly.

She’s used the hourly worth metric to attach numbers to hours, but you could also use a percentage-based metric; if you spend 45 minutes scrolling social media, for example, you’ve used up 3% of the 1,440 minutes allotted to you every day.


Of course, once you factor in sleep, commuting, hygiene, meal prep, and so on, you might realize that you’re giving 37.5% of the two unscheduled hours you have each day to social media.

And that might be enough to make yourself re-budget your time.

Google on Tuesday launched its first Google Developers Space in Lagos, previously referred to as the Google Launchpad Space.
Google launched the Google Developers Space to provide that home and a space where entrepreneurs, developers and investors could connect and collaborate with each other.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that Google Developers Space is a hub for African developers, entrepreneurs and startups.
Juliet Ehimuan, Country Director, Google Nigeria, said that the space was the next step to Google support for developers across the continent.
Ehimuan said that from Google’s commitment to train 100,000 developers across Africa over 50 per cent had been met.
She said that the commitment had prompted the launch of developer merchant support in the Google Play store making it possible for developers to earn money through apps they build.
“We are excited to continue our journey with the African startup and developer communities.

“Through Google Developer Groups and Women Techmakers, Google provides training aligned with real-life job competency requirements.
Also Read: Nigeria’s Sodiq Yusuff racks up fourth consecutive win at UFC 246
“There are 173 active Google Developer Groups (GDGs) in Africa, providing an opportunity for developers to meet other developers with similar interests at GDG meetup events,’’ she said.
According to her, these include talks on a wide range of technical topics and hands-on workshops. GDGs also host DevFests – community-led developer events focused on community building and learning about Google’s technologies.
Ehimuan said that in 2019, more than 100 DevFest events were held across Africa and Launchpad Accelerator Africa had worked with 47 startups since the first class began in early 2018.

She said the companies had raised millions of dollars in investments and created over 900 jobs across the continent.
Launchpad Africa has accelerated startups from 17 African countries so far: Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
The next class will start at the Google Developer Space in May 2020.


Accelerator Africa head of Operations, Onajite Emerhor, said at the launch that Google was
strengthening its commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa by opening the Google Developers Space.

Emerhor said that Google had partnered Impact Hub to bring the Space to life and worked with a local company called Spacefinish, which designed it specifically to create an environment that fosters collaboration and innovation.

According to her, Google was looking forward to working with startups and other players in the ecosystem from across the continent at the Space.


She said Google would not charge for use of the space, which, in addition to housing Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, will support developer meetups, training, experts office hours.

She said the organization would also not charge for Women in tech events, startup programs outside of Launchpad, partner events that support the wider entrepreneur and developer ecosystem, Google initiatives for empowering people through digital skills training.


NAN reports that earlier Google CEO Sundar Pichai made a commitment to African entrepreneurs in July 2017, to start the Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme and launch a space to house the efforts in Nigeria.

paix:
You just did, what next?

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Mrexcell:
Scroll down at the bottom of each section.

Thanks bro

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Selfie Thread!!
I Dare you to drop a selfie with no make up and no filter �
Let us rate your pics with percentage �
Game starts now!!
That's mine so rate for me☺

Luckysbab:
Go to the section you want to post your topic under, then select "Create New Topic".

The sections are listed on the homepage.

Thanks brother

Please how can I post a topic or something on nairaland

Pls how do I post something on nairaland

Pls how do I post something on nairaland