₦airaland Forum

Tanzanian Idris Sultan 'held' for Magufuli face-swap
31 October 2019

Popular Tanzanian comedian Idris Sultan is being held by police after sharing face-swap photos of himself and President John Magufuli, his lawyer says.

His lawyer said he was being held under the controversial Cybercrimes Act, which forbids using a computer system to "impersonate" someone else.

If charged and convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.

Sultan was called into a police station on Wednesday, according to a relative.

Police and Mr Magufuli's office have yet to comment.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50249600

dnawah:
am not seeing jack.the event did not happened at real time.

When your superintendent makes more than the governor: public education's priority problem
BY JAMES QUINTERO, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/21/18 03:00 PM EST 163THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
The American education lobby is caught in a pickle.

On one hand, advocates and influencers are trying to convince people that public education is chronically underfunded, even going so far as to claim that schools are “starving.”

On the other hand, watchdogs have documented countless examples of waste and misuse of funds—everything from the McKinney school district’s $70 million high school football stadium to the La Joya school district’s $20 million water park to the Brownsville school district’s 65-foot, state-of-the-art digital scoreboard that is “the largest of its kind in Texas.”

Other examples exist too, but perhaps the most instructive involves superintendent pay packages. After all, leadership starts at the top.

It’s a problem nationwide, but we’ll focus on Texas for now.



In terms of straight salary, school superintendents are among the highest paid public servants in the state. Sitting atop that group is the head honcho of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (ISD). He took home a whopping $406,484 for the 2017-18 school year. That was followed closely by the heads of Grand Prairie ISD ($405,795), Conroe ISD ($393,984), and Katy ISD ($386,850).

In all, Texas has nearly 100 superintendents earning the equivalent of $250,000 or more and 800-plus who are paid $100,000 or more. About 350 earn more than the Texas governor.

It’s not just that superintendent salaries are supersized. They’re also growing fast.

From 2013-14 to 2017-18, superintendents in Grand Prairie, Conroe, and Katy ISD saw their salaries soar by about 30 percent. In each case, salaries increased far faster than student enrollment, which grew by 5.9 percent, 12 percent, and 15 percent respectively. In the case of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, its top administrator’s salary climbed by 16.7 percent while student enrollment edged up only slightly, by 4.5 percent.

Of course, superintendent salaries are just part of the problem. Rich benefit packages are also an issue.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with providing benefits. But there’s a difference between offering competitive compensation and giving away the store. To illustrate this point, look at what Grand Prairie ISD offered its superintendent.

In addition to a $400,000-plus salary, the superintendent also receives a $1,000 monthly automobile allowance, a $1,000 monthly housing allowance, a $50,000 “retention supplement,” and is reimbursed for her contribution to the state pension plan.

But wait, there’s more.

In 2016, the district purchased a $700,000 house for the superintendent to live in. The property features a “long private driveway [that] leads to a four-bedroom home, with a barn and a pool.” It rents out this palatial estate to its superintendent for a paltry $2,000 per month, half of which is covered by the aforementioned housing allowance.

Also, the district pays for routine maintenance and, shockingly enough, it spent $160,000 in taxpayer money to renovate the property and install new tile, countertops, ceiling fans, and more.

How rampant overspending like this improves student outcomes is anyone’s guess, but it certainly puts to shame the idea that schools are “starving.” If anything, just the opposite is true.

And if any further evidence is needed, one need only look to superintendent severance packages.

Some Texas school districts are paying their top administrators a lot of money to leave. From 2013 to 2017, Texas ISDs forked out $18.3 million in severance payments to 141 superintendents, according to the Texas Monitor. And in some cases, those payments defy logic.

In May, Katy ISD’s board unanimously approved a massive $750,000 payout to its now ex-superintendent, equal to twice his annual salary. Last year, Garland ISD’s superintendent was given $448,115 in severance payments. Though by the time he cashed out his benefits, unused sick leave, and other perks, the payout had ballooned $686,225. In Johnson City ISD, a school district of fewer than 750 students, its superintendent’s annual salary totaled $149,547 and yet he received a $256,727 severance payment — even though the district was dealing with an almost $1 million budget deficit.

The fact is that public education isn’t underfunded. Boards and administrators have plenty of money — they’re just not spending it in the right place, i.e. in the classroom. That much is clear from the abuses above.

This is an important lesson that lawmakers should remember when the advocates and influencers come demanding billions more for public education, in Texas and elsewhere. Throwing gobs more money at this problem is not going to solve the root issue.

James Quintero leads the Think Local Liberty project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He can be reached at jquintero@texaspolicy.com.

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/417802-when-your-school-superintendent-makes-more-than-the-governor-public

The Washington Post
By
Joby Warrick,
Ellen Nakashima and Dan Lamothe
Oct. 29, 2019 at 7:41 p.m. EDT
U.S. commandos zeroed in on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s final hideout with the help of an extraordinarily well-placed informant, an Islamic State operative who facilitated the terrorist leader’s movements around Syria and even helped oversee construction work on his Syrian safe house, according to U.S. and Middle East-based officials knowledgeable about the operation.

The mole’s detailed knowledge of Baghdadi’s whereabouts as well as the room-by-room layout of his sanctuary proved to be critical in the Oct. 26 raid that ended with the death of the world’s most-wanted terrorist, the officials said.

The informant was present during the assault on Baghdadi’s compound in the Syrian province of Idlib, and he was exfiltrated from the region two days later with his family. The man, whose nationality had not been revealed, is expected to receive some or all of the $25 million U.S. bounty that had been placed on Baghdadi’s head, according to the officials. One official said he was a Sunni Arab who turned against the Islamic State because one of his relatives had been killed by the group.

The Islamic State defector had been cultivated as an asset by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the predominantly Kurdish militia that became the ground troops for the U.S.-led campaign to destroy the terrorist group’s self-proclaimed caliphate in eastern Syria. SDF leaders then handed control of the agent to U.S. intelligence operatives, who spent weeks vetting him until they were sure he was genuine, the officials said.

A months-long effort to exploit the intelligence breakthrough began in the summer, but only in the past month did the informant’s tips lead to an opportunity to act.

“It was assessed for quite a while that the person might have the key to the lock,” said one U.S. official familiar with the matter. “That only really seriously became clear within the last couple of weeks.”

SDF leader Gen. Mazloum Abdi told NBC News on Monday that one of his organization’s informants had helped lead the Americans to Baghdadi’s compound, and said personal items, including underwear, were taken from the compound for DNA testing to confirm Baghdadi’s presence in the building. Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has officially commented on the presence of a high-level mole inside the mission to kill or capture Baghdadi.

One official knowledgeable about the informant said the man was a trusted facilitator and logistics aide who was involved in helping Baghdadi move among safe houses in the Idlib area before relocating to the compound where he met his end. The informant, who was described as a committed and even enthusiastic participant in the mission, provided essential personal details about the reclusive terrorist leader, including the fact that he always traveled with a suicide belt so he could kill himself if cornered. The informant was so trusted that at times he escorted members of Baghdadi’s family to get medical care.


U.S. officials said the informant was vetted with particular care as intelligence agencies sought to avoid a repeat of the CIA’s 2009 disaster at Khost, Afghanistan, when a Jordanian informant with promising information about al-Qaeda leaders detonated a bomb during a meeting, killing seven American intelligence operatives along with a Jordanian and an Afghan driver.



One U.S. official said the informant flipped sides because he had “clearly lost faith” in the Islamic State. Despite his help, plans to kill or capture Baghdadi were scuttled or shifted multiple times as the situation changed on the ground.

“I can’t remember how many times that we felt like, ‘Okay, we’ve got him,’ ” the official said. “The last couple of months, we felt it was coming together, but it wasn’t until about the last month where we felt, ‘Okay, this time it’s for real.’ ”

The raid’s timing was influenced by the risk that Baghdadi was about to move. “That was the fear ...[the] forcing function,” the official said.

Continue Reading
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/islamic-state-turncoat-inside-baghdadis-hideout-critical-to-success-of-raid-officials-say/2019/10/29/e702c2fa-fa86-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html

The Washington Post
October 28, 2019 at 3:14 PM EDT


“It’s embarrassing to us as a nation,” Trump said of crime in the country’s third-largest city. “All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison. It’s true.” He later claimed that the number of homicides nationally would be “incredible” if you excluded the number of murders in Chicago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/28/trumps-comparison-chicago-afghanistan-is-odd-not-reason-you-might-assume/?outputType=amp#aoh=15723942391559&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24sashingtonpost.com
© 1996-2019 The Washington Post

Lebanon's PM Hariri offers resignation amid protests
38 minutes ago BBC October 29, 2019
Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he is resigning, amid protests that have gripped the country for almost two weeks.

Mr Hariri said Lebanon had reached a deadlock and needed a shock to break the crisis.

The announcement was met with cheers from protesters in Beirut.

The protests began against now-scrapped plans to tax WhatsApp calls, but quickly widened to target political corruption and economic turmoil
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50225100

Kurdish informant provided key intel in operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
The informant proved to U.S. intelligence that he had direct access to Baghdadi this summer by turning over the ISIS leader's used underwear and a sample of his blood.


Source close to Baghdadi proved he had access to leader by stealing his used underwear and blood sample
OCT. 28, 201914:30
Oct. 28, 2019, 2:30 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 28, 2019, 3:14 PM EDT
By Richard Engel and Daniel Arkin
Kurdish-led forces allied with the United States provided information — including used underwear for a DNA analysis — that was key to the operation that killed the Islamic State group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Kurdish forces in Syria said Monday.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Gen. Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces said his intelligence service had a source deep in al-Baghdadi's inner circle who described a room-by-room layout of the terror leader's compound on the Turkish border, including the number of guards, floor plan and tunnels.

Kurdish intelligence operatives who managed the source passed that information to American forces, giving U.S. Special Ops a better understanding of al-Baghdadi's safe house before striking it, according to Abdi.

Abdi said the unidentified source was on location during the raid and left with the attacking U.S. forces.

For more on this story, watch “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.

The source, whom Abdi described as one of al-Baghdadi's security advisers, proved to U.S. intelligence that he had direct access to al-Baghdadi this summer by turning over the ISIS leader's used underwear and later a sample of his blood.

U.S. intelligence tested those samples and got positive DNA matches for al-Baghdadi, kicking the hunt into high gear. The informant stole the underwear about three months ago and the blood sample was taken roughly one month ago, a Kurdish official said.

President Donald Trump thanked Syrian Kurds on Sunday for their role in the U.S. operation.


For many Kurdish people, the brief acknowledgment — coming after Trump thanked Russia and other nations — did not sufficiently recognize their role in the raid, as well as the 11,000 men and women the Kurdish-led forces have lost in the almost five-year fight against ISIS.

The perceived lack of recognition only adds to hardening feelings among Kurds in northern Syria, furious over Trump's decision to withdraw, a move that critics see as a betrayal of the longtime U.S. allies and one that cleared the way for Turkey's incursion in the region.

Image: FILES-US-IRAQ-CONFLICT-IS-BAGHDADIThe chief of the Islamic State group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi purportedly appears for the first time in five years in a propaganda video in an undisclosed location on April 30, 2019.- / AFP - Getty Images
Abdi nonetheless praised the raid early Sunday, adding that there was "joint intel cooperation on the ground and accurate monitoring" for five months.

"Thanks to everybody who participate in this great mission," he said on Twitter, tagging Trump in the post.

Trump said al-Baghdadi killed himself and three of his children, detonating a suicide vest as U.S. forces closed in on the compound in northwestern Syria.

He also acknowledged other nations he claimed played a part in the operation, including Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian Democratic Forces are led by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which has long angered the Turkish government. Turkey views the YPG an extension of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and the United States.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kurdish-source-provided-key-intel-operation-killed-isis-leader-abu-n1072921

NYC secretly exports homeless to Hawaii and other states without telling receiving pols
By Sara Dorn

October 26, 2019 | 5:55pm

New York City generously shares its homeless crisis with every corner of America.

From the tropical shores of Honolulu and Puerto Rico, to the badlands of Utah and backwaters of Louisiana, the Big Apple has sent local homeless families to 373 cities across the country with a full year of rent in their pockets as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Special One-Time Assistance Program.” Usually, the receiving city knows nothing about it.

City taxpayers have spent $89 million on rent alone since the program’s August 2017 inception to export 5,074 homeless families — 12,482 individuals — to places as close as Newark and as far as the South Pacific, according to Department of Homeless Services data obtained by The Post. Families, who once lived in city shelters, decamped to 32 states and Puerto Rico.


https://nypost.com/2019/10/26/nyc-homeless-initiative-sends-people-across-us-without-telling-receiving-cities/

maxiflexy:
please help us take out that niggarrrrr Shekauuu since we have incompetent military intelligence.

Chelseafan99:
You don't understand.? Ok. A decade ago Africa was a relatively stable and peaceful continent. Sure there were isolated cases of unrest but it was mostly localized. But ever since since the West decided to make a pivot to Africa, starting with NATOs bombardment and setting up of bases, the continent has been irreversibly damaged. In under a decade Africa has overtaken the Middle East as the terrorist capital of the world. The deadliest terror group In the world is African. The more foreign military presence the worse Africa's security situation has been.

Today the following countries are in turmoil:

Nigeria
Cameroon
Niger
Mali
Burkinafaso
Chad
Egypt
Libya
Sudan
Central Africa Republic
Kenya
Uganda
Ethiopia
Somalia

You don't see the correlation between increased foreign presence and the unrest that has bedevilled Africa? In West Africa alone the U.S and France have bases in

Cameroon
Niger
Chad
Mali.

Yet Boko Haram has been waxing stronger.

solar irradiance
The above graph compares global surface temperature changes (red line) and the Sun's energy received by the Earth (yellow line) in watts (units of energy) per square meter since 1880. The lighter/thinner lines show the yearly levels while the heavier/thicker lines show the 11-year average trends. Eleven-year averages are used to reduce the year-to-year natural noise in the data, making the underlying trends more obvious.

The amount of solar energy received by the Earth has followed the Sun’s natural 11-year cycle of small ups and downs with no net increase since the 1950s. Over the same period, global temperature has risen markedly. It is therefore extremely unlikely that the Sun has caused the observed global temperature warming trend over the past half-century.
No. The Sun can influence the Earth’s climate, but it isn’t responsible for the warming trend we’ve seen over the past few decades. The Sun is a giver of life; it helps keep the planet warm enough for us to survive. We know subtle changes in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun are responsible for the comings and goings of the ice ages. But the warming we’ve seen over the last few decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit, and too large to be caused by solar activity.

One of the “smoking guns” that tells us the Sun is not causing global warming comes from looking at the amount of the Sun’s energy that hits the top of the atmosphere. Since 1978, scientists have been tracking this using sensors on satellites and what they tell us is that there has been no upward trend in the amount of the Sun’s energy reaching Earth.

A second smoking gun is that if the Sun were responsible for global warming, we would expect to see warming throughout all layers of the atmosphere, from the surface all the way up to the upper atmosphere (stratosphere). But what we actually see is warming at the surface and cooling in the stratosphere. This is consistent with the warming being caused by a build-up of heat-trapping gases near the surface of the Earth, and not by the Sun getting “hotter.”

https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/14/is-the-sun-causing-global-warming/

jswitch:
https://selectng.com.ng/why-america-is-the-worlds-super-power/

WHY AMERICA IS THE WORLD’s SUPER-POWER?
The United States of America is regarded today as the most powerful nation in the world, but have you ever asked why America is considered the most powerful nation in the world? If it is by population, USA is not the most populous nation in the world; China is. If it is by land mass, USA is not the largest nation in the world; Russia is. If it is by civilization, USA is not the first country in the world to be civilized; Egypt is. If it is by human and natural resources, USA is not the country with the most human and natural resources; Nigeria is (arguably). So then, what makes the United States of America so great and powerful?
www.selectng.com.ng has put this write up together to x-ray the some of the dynamics that surrounded the emergence of the USA as (arguably) the most powerful nation in the world.
The United States of America rose to become the world power during the closing stages of the Second World War when it quietly and secretly developed its nuclear weapons which were used to wipe out the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This not only made Japan to surrender there by bringing to an end the second world war but it equally sent out a strong warning to all the countries in the world; and the fear among the comity of nations that what has happened to Japan might also happen to any nation that openly challenges the USA; and this made America become the strongest super power in world politics. Coupled with massive industrialization, America leveraged on its nuclear power to stamp her giant feet on world politics by maintaining a strong and firm grip on the world’s economy. America became the world police, the big brother of the world, the invisible hand in the economies of almost every nation on the surface of the earth, and the crusader of capitalism. Her influence in the world has grown so much that “Whenever America sneezes, the whole world catches cold”.
Read also..Grass to grace stories of Honda, Ford and other billionaires
Being fully aware of the pillars of her power, America has ensured that other nations (Except a selected few) are prevented from acquiring or developing nuclear weapons. With the forces of her ‘invincible hand’ through her disciples such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), America ensured that other nation’s economies are crippled so that USA continue to flourish. Whether good or bad, America knows the source of her power and they don’t joke with it that’s why they have continued to wax stronger. Other nations such as China, Germany, Britain and France are also good examples of nations that have kept their source of power close to their chests.

Follow me on twitter @Aganjustice
https://selectng.com.ng/why-america-is-the-worlds-super-power/

Google claims its quantum computer can do the impossible in 200 seconds
By Charles Riley, CNN Business
Updated 9:06 AM ET, Wed October 23, 2019

London (CNN Business)Google claims it has designed a machine that needs only 200 seconds to solve a problem that would take the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to figure out.

The speed achieved by the computer represents a breakthrough called "quantum supremacy," according to a blog post from the company and an accompanying article in the scientific journal Nature.
The results announced Wednesday herald the rise of quantum computers, which can store and process much more information than their classical cousins by tapping into the powerful forces contained in the field of physics known as quantum mechanics.

One big difference: Normal computers use data that exist in only one state at a time — a one, or a zero. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can simultaneously be any combination of zero and one. The difference means much faster processing speeds.

Google (GOOGL) will now try to build "a fault-tolerant quantum computer" as quickly as possible. The company sees applications in designing lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, as well as new medicines
"Achieving the necessary computational capabilities will still require years of hard engineering and scientific work. But we see a path clearly now, and we're eager to move ahead," it said in the post.

BBC Africa , October 21, 2019

The Kenyan ghostwriters doing 'lazy' Western students' work
University students in Europe and the US are paying Kenyans to do their academic work for them.

The global market for academic writing is estimated to be worth $1bn (£770m) annually.

For some, ghostwriting university essays for students who don't have the time or desire to do them can be lucrative, especially in countries with high unemployment among young graduates.

Many say it constitutes cheating, but in Kenya, where many of these ghostwriters are based, it is not against the law.

Kenya Connects went to investigate.
For more on this see the video
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-
50126963/the-kenyan-ghostwriters-doing-lazy-western-students-work