Under current laws, people in Hawaii must be 21 years old to buy cigarettes
Hawaii is considering raising the minimum age to legally buy cigarettes to 100 years old.
The proposed law would effectively amount to a cigarette ban on the US island by 2024.
Hawaii already has some of the toughest laws on cigarette sales, but Democrat politician Richard Creagan – who is a doctor – believes more needs to be done to ban “the deadliest artefact in human history”.
He told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper: “Basically, we essentially have a group who are heavily addicted – in my view, enslaved by a ridiculously bad industry – which has enslaved them by designing a cigarette that is highly addictive, knowing that it highly lethal. And, it is.
Under current laws, people in Hawaii must be 21 years old to buy cigarettes.
Mr Creagan is proposing raising the cigarette-buying age to 30 by next year, 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022 and 60 in 2023.
By 2024, the minimum age would be 100.- news.sky.com
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For a long time last the Standard Chartered Visa card was one of the few “last man standing” as one after another banks suspended their Visa and MasterCards due to the biting forex shortages. As of July last year a few Stan Chart Visa cards were still working on the now increasingly ludicrous 1:1 principle under which the delusional monetary authorities told everyone RTGS balances were equal to actual USD in your hand.
After suspending their cards, most banks like NMB resurrected them and removed previous limits. The catch? Well now you had to bring your USD, actual USD and deposit it into your bank account. You could then make transactions as high as $10 000 using the Debit Visa as long as you did not exceed the amount you had deposited.
Ever since the Finance Minister ordered banks to separate FCA Nostro and FCA RTGS the StanChart Visa has essentially been dead. Now StanChart too have resurrected their card and joined the pre-funding club. You can now prefund you card by making real forex deposits with the bank and you can go crazy swiping and making online payments to your heart’s content.
Yesterday evening Standard Chartered sent the following message to customers:
Paying for Air tickets, DSTV, ACCA, Hotels, University, Uber and Airbnb are a breeze once you prefund your Standard Chartered debit card. Contact us today!
The perfect hook
The message seems perfectly crafted to suit the frequent needs of people who want these sort of cards. Most airlines now no longer accept bond notes, ACCA has always been paid using British Pound Sterling and other services have always required a card capable of making international payments. It seems like FBC, StandChart is keen to attract these customers into their Visa fold.
Bond Notes
Bond Notes are a currency of notes backed by a bond that the Zimbabwe government announced on 4 May 2016 by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya. The $2 denomination of the notes was finally introduced on 28 November 2016. More notes were… Read More About Bond Notes
The death of the founder of QuadrigaCX – the largest cryptocurrency exchange- last December is proving to be as expensive as it was unfortunate. It’s estimated the founder died with the only encryption key to the exchange’s $190m. If a court filing by Jennifer Robertson -widow to the deceased- is to be believed then the people who had their money in the exchange have been left for dead:
Quadriga’s inventory of cryptocurrency has become unavailable and some of it may be lost.
The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies’ business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere.
Of course, people who had their funds are not taking to this news lightly and some do not even believe that the founder of the exchange actually passed away as the exchange’s Facebook page claimed. The comments section on the post after his death have not exactly been entirely kind;
What makes the situation more unfortunate is the fact that the company kept accepting funds after the death of their founder passed away. Quadriga directors only instructed the exchange to stop taking accepting funds on the 26th of January – well after the man with the passwords died.
Another blip on crypto’s ascendency?
This story is yet another blip on crypto’s wider acceptance and claims of it being the replacement of money as we know it. To the ordinary person on the story the fact that people cannot access $190 million because someone died with a code is pretty appaling. If it’s this easy to affect such a sizeable investment then it’s also clear that crypto’s may not yet be ready for wider adoption.
In fact in the African context, where accountability does not exist, just imagine how many times passwords would disappear just so that governments could steal money.
That’s it, if you want to attend the ‘Zimbabwe Vs Congo’ game next month then you have to buy the ticket online. Two weeks ago ZIFA took a bold decision of starting selling tickets for the ‘Zimbabwe vs Congo’ match online so as to avert the chaos that usually happens on match days.
I must confess the last time I went to watch a match at the stadium it was really chaotic. There were very long and static long queues to buy a ticket to enter the stadium. After one part of the crowd noticed that the queue wasn’t moving and the match was about to start, it forced its way in without even paying.
So, selling tickets online before the matchday will avoid such scenarios where people are stuck in unmoving queues for buying tickets. Rather, people will just present their electronic ticket (e-ticket) to a ticket agent (ticket seller) for verification and get passage. Evidently, the online ticket selling is more time-efficient than having to wait for a ticket seller at the stadium to waste time looking for change as the queue grows longer.
How the new system works
The e-ticket you buy on ClicknPay will be sent to your email. The e-ticket will have a QR code which a ticket agent will scan at the gate to see if the ticket is valid. So, when you get to the gate you just pull out your phone from the pocket and show the QR code (on e-ticket) to the ticket agent who will then scan it for verification. If it registers in the system, then you are let in.
You can buy these e-tickets using EcoCash, Visa card, Telecash, and Vpayments.
Its a win for ZIFA
Aside from getting rid of long and static queues by selling tickets online, ZIFA could plug financial leakages that came with selling tickets at the stadium. Out of corruption, some ticket agents asked some people to pay half price( half of what the ticket price is going for), for them to get into the stadium. And that half-price money went into the pockets of the corrupt ticket agents instead of ZIFA. Accordingly, by introducing online ticket sales, ZIFA could rake in more money from fans as they earn the money corrupt ticket agents were stealing from it.
Furthermore, ZIFA can earn a bit of foreign currency as Zimbabweans in the diaspora can now easily buy tickets for their loved ones back home with their Visa cards.
However, the new modus operandi (of presenting an e-ticket at the gate) sidelines people with kambudzi phone (feature phone) as they cannot present their e-tickets since their phones have no mobile apps like the Gmail app or internet browser.
ZIFATelecashEcoCash
Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is the football governing body responsible for organizing all football competitions. Read More About ZIFA
Telecash is a mobile money transfer facility that is provided by mobile network phone operator, Telecel Zimbabwe. The product offers great convenience to customers by allowing them to send money across all networks and make payments. When the product was launched, it was said that… Read More About Telecash
EcoCash is a mobile money transfer facility which is run by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. The facility has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception and is arguably the largest mobile money transfer agent considering the huge sums of transactions that the platform is said… Read More About EcoCash
This is one of those opinions I sincerely hope are wrong as I write… If you’re a big fan of Telegram you have to be resigned to the fact that the service hasn’t had bundles for a while. If you were hoping that Telegram’s newfound popularity would translate to bundles, I would advise you not to hold your breath on that one. Why? Well, I think Telegram got popular for the wrong reasons and because of that the likes of Econet, Telecel and NetOne won’t be too willing to embrace the platform.
Captured MNOs?
Telecel and NetOne are state-controlled, and it’s unlikely that the messaging app that became popular because of an unpopular political decision will be embraced by government-owned entities. Remember, Telegram only became an alternative people turned to because the government had instructed network operators and ISPs to block WhatsApp – the more popular and accessible messenger. Though a Telegram bundle might not necessarily be a political move, whichever network provider starts to offer that may be seen as trying to “overthrow the state”. These things escalate pretty quickly, just ask Evans Mawarire.
What about Econet?
Though Econet has time and time again taken the government to court and pursued their motives without fear, I don’t think the network provider would be willing to pick a battle over such a small issue. Though there are a number of customers who do want Telegram bundles, I’m not sure there are enough of them to justify being in the governments’ bad books. The most recent shutting down of the internet also makes me wonder if Econet still stands up to the government. Many knew that the act was illegal (or at least the way it was implemented) and one would expect that Econet would know this as well but they did not challenge the shutdown in court. Only the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Right (ZLHR) challenged the government.
I don’t think the number of people craving Telegram bundles make it worth the hurdles that the network providers would have to contend with, now that the application has been politicized. This means if you just liked Telegram for Telegram and you were using it before the protests then you will have to wait longer for Telegram bundles…
Though one might not be able to tell by just glancing at the two social media sites; Twitter and Facebook have apparently improved how quickly they remove hate speech from their platforms. The improvement is sizeable as well. A report released by the European Commission states that YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are removing 72% of hate-speech within 24 hours when a year ago they removed 28%:
IT companies are now assessing 89% of flagged content within 24 hours and 72% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech is removed, compared to 40% and 28% respectively when the Code was first launched in 2016.
EU really isn’t playing around when it comes to making the internet safer and more bearable for users. Before the stern GDPR, meant to protect user data, was released last year, in 2016 the EU introduced the Code of Conduct which was meant to counter hate speech. They also aimed to improve user feedback and the code of conduct was agreed upon by 4 members; Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. 4 new members namely; Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, Dailymotion decided to join the code of conduct last year and hopefully, more internet businesses continue joining.
Who was the most efficient?
Facebook was apparently the best at addressing hate speech with an 82% takedown rate and Zuckerberg’s company also had the best feedback rate at 92.6% whilst Twitter and Facebook did not do as impressively with scores 60.4% and 24.6%. Seems Facebook isn’t always the bad guy as we are coming to believe.
Which types of hate-speech are most popular?
The most common forms of hate-speech were;
Xenophobia – 17%
Sexual orientation – 15.6%
anti-Muslim – 13%
The European Commission doesn’t have an iron fist
With the GDPR in one hand and the code of conduct in the other, it may seem like the EC is trying to their best to make it hard for internet entities to go about their business but there is some leeway. Vĕra Jourová’s (European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers, and Gender Equality) statement concerning their approach to the code of conduct shows there’s room for reasoning;
I always said I did not wish to see the removal rate at 100%. I am glad to see there aren’t over-removals. I have always said, in case of doubt, do not delete
These days the statement “Going paperless” is often attached to the financial sector. Well, Court of Justice of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) can also brag to use that statement as well.
COMESA partnered with CaseLines a United Kingdom-based company to implement what can be called a digital justice system. This new system will see the COMESA court which is located in Sudan dump paper files in favor of computers and other electronic gadgets.
Like every other sector that digitizes, COMESA’s digitalizing of the justice system will accelerate the flow of information and save a lot of time and money on paper and related work such as storing and organizing paper files. Speaking about COMESA’s achievement, the Registrar at the COMESA Court of Justice, Nyambura L. Mbatia said:
In line with the UN’s SDG 16, one of the objectives of the COMESA Court is to eliminate financial and practical barriers to justice. By adopting CaseLines, the Court will become more efficient and processes such as physical filing will become obsolete. This will make a huge difference for our Judges and for litigants dealing with the Court and will bring us closer to achieving access to justice for all citizens of the COMESA Region.
Although technology had revolutionized service delivery in many sectors across COMESA (and Africa), the justice system remained attached to paper-based working and legacy IT systems, resulting in inefficient services. So in a way, I think these manual-heavy processes resulted in unnecessary duplication and increased margins of error. But with digitization that can be avoided.
The Future: Digitization and fair trials
In the future, digitization could even help to address issues such as subjective bias in judicial decision-making. You know the judicial system is corrupted in many African countries, so perhaps digitization in the form of blockchain technology could present the opportunity to increase accuracy and transparency through secure, auditable distributed records.
Mobile network operators have had a quiet year thus far, with no launched products yet to be announced. However, if a picture circulating on social media is to be believed then Econet is allegedly working on a new set of bundles to add value to their existing offerings.
Is this a new set of bundles for Econet subscribers?
Apparently, this set of bundles will be available under the *143*6# which makes sense once you consider there are 5 options on the *143# USSD menu right now. At the time of writing the *143*6# USSD code is not functional so if it was being tested then that option only appeared briefly.
[Update] – It seems these bundles are actually a work in progress and you can get them to pop up by doing the following:
Dial *143#
Enter 6 and send
It’s beyond doubt that they are working on this…
So what will be new?
If the picture is to be believed then Econet will be adding access to the following sites:
Angela Ahrendts, the former high fashion boss of Burberry brought in to revitalise Apple’s retail stores, is stepping down after five years.
Apple said Ms Ahrendts will leave the company in April “for new personal and professional pursuits”.
She is one of its highest paid executives, earning nearly twice as much as boss Tim Cook in 2017.
Ms Ahrendts will be replaced by Deirdre O’Brien, whose role as vice president of people will expand to cover retail.
During her time at Apple, Ms Ahrendts opened a number of flagship stores, aimed at creating a “community space” as opposed to just selling the firm’s latest product.
Mr Cook said: “She has been a positive, transformative force, both for Apple’s stores and the communities they serve. We all wish her the very best as she begins a new chapter.”
Transformation
Ms Ahrendts was previously chief executive of Burberry, where she oversaw its transformation from a British brand best-known for its checked raincoats to a leading name on the world’s catwalks.
By the time she left in 2014, she was one of the FTSE 100’s highest paid chief executives.
In 2017, Ms Ahrendts earned $24.2m, compared to Mr Cook who took home $12.8m.
Apple recently reported a sharp fall in revenue from its iPhone and hinted that it could lower prices to boost demand.
Overall, first quarter revenue fell by 5% to $84.3bn compared to the same period last year.
Analysts at Wedbush Securities said its initial reaction to Ms Ahrendts departure was surprise “as she was one of the key executives at Apple and a linchpin around running 500-plus retail stores on five continents and potentially was seen by some as a future heir to Cook as chief executive further down the line”.
But it said because Apple is entering a critical period amid sluggish demand for the iPhone, Ms O’Brien’s 30 years working for the firm is positive “as an outsider running retail going into one of the most pivotal, defining periods for Cook & Co in the company’s history would have been a risky endeavour”. – bbc.com
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes this season’s Premier League title race “won’t be decided until the last fixture or two”.
Successive draws against Leicester and West Ham mean leaders Liverpool will be overtaken by City on goal difference if they win at Everton on Wednesday.
Third-placed Tottenham are only five points off top spot – and still have both teams above them left to play.
City host Leicester and are at Brighton in their last two league games.
Liverpool’s last two fixtures sees them travel to Newcastle before playing Wolves at Anfield on 12 May, the final day of the league season. Tottenham are at Bournemouth on 4 May and host Everton on the final day.
City’s game against Everton has been brought forward from 23 February, as Guardiola’s side play Chelsea the following day in the Carabao Cup final.
It means Liverpool’s game in hand, which will be played on the same day, is at in-form Manchester United.
As Liverpool were knocked out at the opening stage of both domestic cup competitions, City are guaranteed to end the season having played at least seven more games than Jurgen Klopp’s side.
That number will rise should they reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, whilst City also have a more favourable draw in the last 16 of the Champions League as they face Schalke. Liverpool have a heavyweight tussle with five-time winners Bayern Munich.
Guardiola accepts the additional workload could count against his players, particularly in what he calls the “terrible month” of February, when the competing priorities of four competitions must be balanced.
He says his side cannot look beyond Everton but, if they can get through that, and then Sunday’s home Premier League game with Chelsea, City will be getting towards the point where they can start to think about trophies, knowing they still have a chance of completing an unprecedented quadruple.
“It takes a big mental effort to be consistent in every single competition, when you know, if you lose one game, you can lose that competition. It demands a lot of stress,” he said.
“At the same time, when you get to March, the days are longer, the sun is out, the training sessions are in better conditions and you can take a coffee outside. If you are still in four competitions it is an extra plus because you realise you can do something special.
Max Verstappen is the driver Lewis Hamilton “fears the most”, says Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
Horner believes the Dutchman, 21, is ready to take the fight to Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in a title battle, should his Red Bull team prove competitive in 2019.
Verstappen finished fourth in the drivers’ championship in 2019.
“He has all the skills to take on Lewis or Sebastian or whoever it is,” said Horner.
“I don’t think he lacks anything to take those guys on and he’s probably the driver they fear the most.”
Verstappen, who had an error-strewn start to last season, eventually won two races – in Austria and Mexico – and finished only two points behind third-placed Kimi Raikkonen.
Horner says he has grown in the past year and is “in a better place to deal with the challenges he faces”.
He added: “Max has evolved so much. He is more worldly, more experienced. He is very quick and very determined and has his own character. He is now in a very rounded position. He has absolute determination and zero fear.”
Hamilton is aiming for a sixth world championship this season to move just one short of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record but Horner said it was inevitable that his ability would sooner or later begin to decline.
“Lewis is at a different stage of his career,” Horner said. “He has all that experience but he is 34 and at some point it is only natural that the brightness of that talent will start to fade.
“Can he have that speed all the time? It’s just human. In 10 years, it will be the same for Max.”
New drivers, new challenges
Verstappen has a new team-mate at Red Bull this season following Daniel Ricciardo’s move to Renault.
Horner said Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who is entering only his second season in F1, was “very quick” but that Verstappen’s greater experience means “the team will be looking to him to lead the development”.
He said Verstappen had learned from his mistakes and that the ‘community service’ charge he served for starting an altercation with Force India’s Esteban Ocon following their crash in Brazil last year had opened his eyes.
The 21-year-old was forced by governing body the FIA to attend a race of the all-electric Formula E series and observe the stewards.
Horner said: “It was interesting talking to him after the Formula E race. Not that he was particularly impressed by Formula E, but he came way from being with the stewards and said: ‘Crikey, these guys have got difficult decisions to make in terms of do they impose a penalty or do they not.'”
Red Bull’s hopes
Red Bull will reveal their 2019 challenger on 13 February
Red Bull are starting their first season with new engine partner Honda after ending an often-fractious relationship with Renault, and Horner said he expects them to move forward from last year, when they won four races but were usually “in the void between Mercedes and Ferrari and the rest”.
“Progress is our target,” he said. “The objective is to be more consistent across all circuits and hopefully with more horsepower than last year, that will only help to reduce that gap.”
He said Honda had “had a strong winter” and were “making good progress” but “it will all depend on what the others have done”.
Red Bull have for the past five years had a power deficit to the best engines.
Horner said Red Bull accepted that they may have to take some grid penalties for using more than the permitted number of engine parts this season.
“It’s a huge challenge to do the season on three engines,” he said. “We’d rather take a penalty if it means consistent progress. We’re extremely hopeful the performance will be a step from where we’ve been the last few years.”
Red Bull’s rivals
Leclerc has already experienced life in his new Ferrari during end of season testing in Abu Dhabi
Horner said it would be “very interesting” to see how Charles Leclerc gets on in his first season at Ferrari, following his promotion from Sauber.
“Charles is a really exciting talent. Sebastian [Vettel] is 31. He has a youngster coming in and starting to put pressure on.
“Seb had Kimi [Raikkonen] pretty easily covered and may have to work harder. But he could find another level. It could be good for him.”
Ferrari enter the season with a new team boss following the replacement of Maurizio Arrivabene with Mattia Binotto, who moves up from technical director.
Horner said: “It’s a big job for Mattia because you can’t do both roles, you are either a team principal or a technical director. He’s probably running between two offices at the moment.”
And he said Mercedes could stumble under pressure if their dominance was not as great as in the past.
“With a team like that, how they deal with pressure of not winning consistently, it will be interesting to see how they handle that in terms of expectations management,” he said.
Rule changes – imposed and to come
F1’s bosses have changed the technical rules this year to force teams to run a new front wing design that they hope will make the racing better, by making it easier for drivers to follow another car.
But Horner said he believed it would make no difference to the on-track action, although he said it might lead to some variability early in the season because “some people will have got it right and some people will not”.
He claimed that F1 owners Liberty Media “would probably accept it was a mistake” to think they could “just take off a front wing and say it will make racing better”.
Horner described this as “quite a naive approach”.
He said Liberty had made some positive changes to the sport in terms of its promotion but added: “The more concerning thing is what is their blueprint for regulations and financially for what they want F1 to be from 2021 onwards.”
He said he believed Liberty had “absolutely” underestimated the task of running F1 and he raised concerns about their methods for reducing costs by introducing a budget cap.
“It’s vitally important any restructure is done on a fair and equitable basis. Financial regulations and governance are an enormously hard thing to police fairly and we are waiting to see how they do that.” – bbc.com
US President Donald Trump has announced in his State of the Union speech that he will hold a second nuclear summit with North Korea’s leader this month.
In an address to the nation with the theme “Choosing Greatness”, he vowed once again to build a border wall.
While appealing for political unity, the Republican president also said “ridiculous partisan investigations” could damage US prosperity.
In a rebuttal, Democrats accused Mr Trump of abandoning US values.
His primetime address came less than a fortnight after he backed down to end the longest ever US government shutdown when Democrats refused to fund a US-Mexico border wall.
Federal agencies could close again if no spending plan is agreed by the end of next week.
What did he say about North Korea?
The president said in his 82-minute speech on Tuesday night that he would meet Kim Jong-un in Vietnam from 27-28 February.
“Much work remains to be done,” Mr Trump said, “but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one.”
Plans for a second summit have been in the works since the two leaders’ historic talks last year.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim’s meeting last June in Singapore was the first ever between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
While Pyongyang has not conducted any atomic or ballistic missile tests since last summer, it has yet to agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.
The US envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, is in Pyongyang for talks, paving the way for the second leadership summit.
What might a second summit achieve?
Analysis by Laura Bicker, BBC News, Seoul
Mr Trump’s goal will be to extract pledges from Kim Jong-un without giving too much ground. The Trump administration has said it is not willing to lift sanctions, but it has mentioned helping out the North’s economy.
However, handing over such aid to a secretive state which has yet to declare a list of its weapons facilities or allow in independent inspectors is bound to raise more than eyebrows.
So Mr Trump has to extract a written pledge from Mr Kim. Otherwise these summits will be seen as all show, and very little substance.
As for Mr Kim’s bargaining chips, we have been told he could be prepared to give up his nuclear production site known as Yongbyon.
I’ve also been told by some sources close to Pyongyang that Mr Kim does want to achieve something his father and grandfather never did. A peace treaty.
The prospect of becoming the US president who ended the 68-year long Korean War is bound to be a tantalising one for Mr Trump.
What did he say about unity?
After two years of rancorous partisanship, Mr Trump on Tuesday night repeated calls for political unity that he has made in his last two annual speeches to Congress.
“Together, we can break decades of political stalemate,” he said. “We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions.”
Mr Trump raised potential areas of agreement, such as infrastructure improvements, lowering prescription drug costs and fighting childhood cancer.
But he added: “An economic miracle is taking place in the United States and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.”
Democrats have launched a flurry of inquiries into the Trump administration since they took over the US House of Representatives last month. – bbc.com
Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova has given a graphic testimony at the trial of the man accused of stabbing her in her home in the Czech Republic.
She suffered damage to ligaments and tendons in her playing left hand when fighting off an intruder in 2016.
The star had surgery and returned to tennis five months after the attack.
“There was blood all over the place,” she said via video-link to avoid being in the same room as the suspect, who denies the allegations.
The suspect, 33-year-old Radim Zondra, faces 12 years in prison if convicted. He is currently serving another prison sentence for a separate offence.
His colleagues have said in court that at the time of the incident, in December 2016, he was at work.
What did Kvitova say?
She said the suspect rang the doorbell and she allowed him to enter as she was expecting a doping test. She said he claimed he had come to inspect the boiler.
While checking the hot water in the bathroom, Zondra allegedly grabbed Kvitova from behind before holding a knife to her throat.
In a struggle to free herself, the knife badly injured her left hand.
She said she offered Zondra money to leave, and he accepted some 10,000 Czech crowns (£341; $440).
Her tendons, fingers and nerves were damaged, resulting in a four-hour surgery.
Kvitova made no public comments after the testimony but her spokesman said she was pleased to put it behind her, AP news agency reports. – bbc
R&B star R Kelly faces sexual abuse allegations from several women
Singer R Kelly has announced a new tour of Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, sparking widespread criticism in light of abuse allegations against him.
The R&B star posted his plans on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but later deleted the posts.
The proposed concerts would come on the heels of a documentary detailing decades of alleged sexual abuse by the artist.
Local politicians have called for him to be barred from entering Australia.
On Tuesday, the 52-year old Grammy-winner tweeted “NEW TOUR ALERT”, but without giving concrete dates of when he would play, and where. On Twitter, many expressed anger and said the singer wouldn’t be welcome in their countries.
‘Physical and emotional abuse’
R Kelly has not been convicted of any crimes in connection with the abuse claims.
The allegations against him were aired in a January documentary, Surviving R Kelly, which featured detailed accounts of his alleged physical and emotional abuse of women.
It claimed the R&B star ran an “abusive cult” in which he is accused of keeping women captive against their wills.
Following the allegations, numerous former music industry colleagues spoke out against R Kelly, and protesters called for a ban on his music and concerts.
Demonstrators hold a protest near to R Kelly’s studio
This is not the first report of a planned R Kelly tour to Australia.
In December, confusion arose when the singer disputed a similar announcement by a tour company, calling it fake news.
At the time, New Zealand victims’ advocate Ruth Money and the non-profit group Women’s Refuge called for the singer to be banned from performing.
“Popular culture has an immense amount to do with shaping the way people think and the way people behave, and the sort of role models that we hold up, particularly to our young people,” she said.
Australia could deny visa
Australia’s opposition Labor party released a statement saying the singer should not be permitted to enter the country.
“Labor strongly supports the refusal or cancellation of visas of non-citizens on character or criminal grounds,” the document said.
Australia’s department of home affairs told the BBC it “does not comment on individual cases”, but Australia has previously barred entry to people in similar situations.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather was denied a visa over family violence convictions. Rapper Chris Brown also had his visa denied based on his history of domestic violence.
And in 2014, the country cancelled a visa for US “pick-up artist” Julien Blanc, citing his derogatory views on women. – bbc.com
The introduction of dozens of new accessibility-themed emojis has been welcomed by disability rights campaigners.
The new characters include hearing aids, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, white “probing” canes and guide dogs.
They follow a complaint by Apple that few existing emojis spoke to the experiences of those with disabilities.
Their inclusion in 2019’s official list means many smartphones should gain them in the second half of the year.
“Social media is hugely influential and it’s great to see these new disability-inclusive emojis,” said Phil Talbot, from the disability charity Scope.
“Up to now, disability has been greatly underrepresented.
“We’d also like to see greater representation of disabled people and disability across all parts of the media and social media.”
Approved art
A total of 230 new emojis feature in what is the sixth major update to the official list.
It is maintained by a California-based group made up of representatives of computing companies, software developers and others, who ensure that users of different devices and apps can send emojis to each other.
The various platform owners – including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook and Twitter – can tweak Unicode’s designs to their own liking but are supposed to ensure that each character remains recognisable from one product to another.
The latest approved art includes men and women of different ethnicities using disability aids as well spotlighting individual products.
In addition, men and women are pictured waving a finger by one of their ears, which is meant to represent that they are deaf.
They build on the 13 drawings submitted by Apple in March 2018 after it had consulted the American Council of the Blind and the National Association of the Deaf, among other organisations.
It had noted that one in seven people around the world had some form of disability.
Its addition follows a campaign by Plan International UK, a girls’ rights charity that held an online vote in 2017 for what a period-themed emoji should look like.
The most popular choice was a pair of pants marked by blood but when that was rejected by the Unicode Consortium, the charity pushed for a blood drop instead.
“For years we’ve obsessively silenced and euphemised periods,” said Lucy Russell, head of girls’ rights at the group.
“An emoji isn’t going to solve this but it can help change the conversation. Ending the shame around periods begins with talking about it”. – bbc.com
LeBron James became the fifth player in NBA history to pass 32,000 points and fell to the biggest defeat of his career on the same night.
James, 34, scored 18 points for the Los Angeles Lakers in a 136-94 defeat at the Indiana Pacers.
He had not previously lost by more than 36 points in his 16-year career.
James – who was rested for Saturday’s defeat at Golden State – said he was “on my way to being myself again” after returning from a groin injury.
Lebron within 300 of Jordan
All-time regular-season NBA top points scorers
Player
Points
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee Bucks & LA Lakers)
38387
Karl Malone (Utah Jazz & LA Lakers)
36928
Kobe Bryant (LA Lakers)
33643
Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls & Washington Wizards)
32292
LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat & LA Lakers)
32008
The Lakers have now won 27 and lost 27 during the season and sit 10th in the Western Conference.
“Bottom line, we have to be better,” said Lakers coach Luke Walton.
Pacers fans chanted “Lebron’s going to trade you” at Lakers guard Brandon Ingram during the match, referring to rumours that the franchise had offered as many as six players in a trade to land New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis.
When asked about the speculation, James said: “I know it’s got to be tough on a lot of our guys, especially our young guys.
“They’ve just never been a part of it, and they’re hearing it every single day. I know that the worst thing you can do right now is be on social media.
“And I know all young guys love to be on social media. That definitely can’t help.”
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 24 points for the Pacers as the team matched their own record of scoring 19 three pointers, while the Lakers managed just four. – bbc.com
Jose Mourinho has ‘instructed’ agent Jorge Mendes to contact former club over potential return
Jose Mourinho has set his sights on a return to management with Internazionale, according to reports in Italy.
The recently axed Manchester United manager spent two seasons in Serie A with the club, winning the league in his first season and a historic treble in the second before moving on to Real Madrid.
With a win ratio of 62%, the highest within his glittering managerial career, the Portuguese tactician is said to be keen on a second stint in Italy.
With Inter last winning the league title under his guidance nearly a decade ago, Mourinho, 56, has already instructed his agent Jorge Mendes to contact Inter Milan CEO Beppe Marotta and director Piero Ausilio according to Libero.
Current manager Luciano Spalletti’s future is far from assured with the Nerazzurri with Inter 20 points behind Serie A leaders Juventus, but Marotta has confirmed the forthcoming game against Parma will not make or break his future.
“It is absolutely not true that the Parma game is decisive for Spalletti. We recognise that this is a difficult moment for Inter.
“We are in a transitional period of the season, as there are 16 matches to go and we are in third place. It’s true, our form has been going down lately, but we can count on a strong club, a competitive squad and a coach who is very capable. We’ll emerge from it stronger,” Marotta told Sky Sport Italia.
In the off-season, Spalletti signed a new contract to keep him at the club until 2021, but his future may well be revisited in the summer, and Libero claim the Nerazzurri management are already thinking about a new coach for the next season.
The report claims former Chelsea man Antonio Conte remains Marotta’s first choice, but Mourinho’s name cannot be excluded with possible negotiations between Inter and Mourinho’s delegation set to start this month. – bbc.com
DERECK Chisora could roar back into action against Kiwi KO specialist Joseph Parker on April 20.
The Finchley heavyweight is a huge fans’ favourite against after sensational 2018 performances against Carlos Takam and Dillian Whyte.
Frenchman Takam was KO’d with a brutal round-eight howitzer in July but Whyte completed the double over Del Boy on December 22 with a savage 11th-round KO.
Chisora impressed against the Body Snatcher in his bid for revenge for their 2016 classic, but he was deducted two points late in the fight and went out on his sword looking for a knockout blow.
Whyte will headline a pay-per-view O2 show on April 20 after refusing three offers from Anthony Joshua for a rematch on his doomed April 13 Wembley show.
And Chisora versus Samoan ex-WBO world champion Parker is set to join the card after social media sensation Dave Allen agreed to fight Lucas Browne.
field in jeep
Promoter Eddie Hearn told Boxing Social: “Dave Allen against Lucas Browne, obviously, is a fight for that card.
“A few other big things are in the pipeline, I’d quite like to make Chisora against Joseph Parker for that card as well.
“Kind of like a heavyweight night. We’ll see where that goes over the next few days.”
Chisora batted away retirement questions after a pinpoint left-hook from 30-year-old Whyte left him needing medical attention in the ring just two days before Christmas.
But the medical suspension he is under, as a standard precaution, ends on February 20, leaving the 35-year-old warhorse free to get back in the action where he belongs.
Parker has 19 KO wins from 25 but he failed when he stepped up against Joshua and Whyte in 2018. -TheSun
Zimbabwe’s police force (ZRP) has come to an agreement with the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) to develop staff and enable the police force to deal with crime more efficiently using technology. Apart from staff development, the agreement signed last week will also factor in some software.
The Deputy Commissioner-General, Stephen Mutambi expressed worry over criminals adopting technology:
Quite worrisome though, is the fact that criminals are also taking the opportunity to manipulate advances in technology to broaden broaden and perpetuate their criminal enterprise and sophistry.
In this regard, I would like to express my profound gratitude to HIT for partnering the ZRP in the research and development of technologies that are aimed at enhancing ZRP’s capacity to fight crime.
What’s the software for?
According to Mr Mutambi, the software ZRP is getting will help in the following areas:
Scenes of crime
Central Criminal Bureau
Central Firearms Registry
Forensic Science Laboratory
Central Intelligence Unit
Criminal Records Office
Foreigners Identification Bureau
The fact that the ZRP is seeking external help to address their lack of technological proficiency comes as no surprise as they basically admitted they can’t deal with cybercrime in any capacity just last year. Superintendent of the ZRPs General Crime Division Amos Tavaziva said;
Use of plastic money to ease liquidity challenges has also come with its fair share of challenges as cyber-crimes have also increased in the country.
We need modern equipment and expertise to help us in gathering evidence.
We have to rely on service providers via court orders. This is a new crime trend for the police, the judiciary and the prosecution.
There is a need for training. Yes, we have convictions buts not as much as you would want to hear.
This is an interesting partnership and hopefully, it will put an end to the surge of card cloning and other cyber crimes that most citizens are helpless against.
Facebook has finally started rolling a feature that allows users to delete sent messages on Messenger. This means you can now delete messages from everyone’s view on Facebook Messenger just like how you do it on WhatsApp.
How does this feature work?
The retracting feature works just like that of WhatsApp, allowing users to delete accidental messages or media files (voice messages, photos, videos) from the recipient’s end. It makes the texts disappear from their end and displays a message saying ‘This message was removed’.
Facebook has added the 10-minute limit as a way to keep people from abusing the feature. As head of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky put it as reported by Techcrunch:
We need to make sure we don’t open up any new venues for bullying. We need to make sure people aren’t sending you bad messages and then removing them because if you report them and the messages aren’t there we can’t do anything
If the option doesn’t show up, wait for the update
The option works in individual and group conversations and is supported on both Android and iOS versions of Facebook Messenger. However, if it is still not available on your device, you might have to wait a bit as the feature ishas just started rolling out worldwide (in Zimbabwe it has been rolled out since I now have it).
WhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows mobile phone users to exchange messages without having to pay for Short Message Services costs. WhatsApp Messenger application is compatible with different mobile phone models such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. The… Read More About WhatsApp
Standard Chartered Visa Card with US dollars
