1/PRESS BRIEFING BY GOVERNOR HOPE UZODIMMA ON THE SECURITY SITUATION IN ORLU ZONE, MONDAY, JANUARY 25 2021

2/This afternoon, I received a very disturbing report on the activities of a group of Militants who unleashed a shooting spree in the Orlu area of the state,killing and maiming innocent citizen in the process.

3/I am totally appauled by this sad report which appears to paint a picture of near breakdown of law and order in the Orlu area. The government condemns in its entirety this act of extreme hooliganism and brigandage.

4/This is completely unacceptable to this administration. Those behind this callous barbarism will surely regret their actions.

5/Consequently, I have directed the security agencies to fish out without fail, all those behind the carnage and immediately bring them to book.

How the 36 Nigerian states got their names. A thread 🧵

1. Abia

Abia is an acronym from the four main groups of people in the state as at the time it was formed in 1991: Aba Bende Isuikwuato Afikpo.

2. Adamawa

Adamawa was named after a warrior, Modibbo Adama Bin Ardo Hassan, that conquered the region in the beginning of the 19th century.

3. Akwa-Ibom

Akwa Ibom is named after the Qua Iboe (or Kwa Iboe) River.

4. Anambra

The state got its name from the corrupted version of Oma Mbala (Ànyịm Ọma Mbala), a popular river in the area.

BREAKING: 100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”

Maik Baumgaertner and Ann-Katrin Mueller report about open letter for @SPIEGEL_English

🔸What follows is the text of the open letter in full 🔸

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and call on the European Union to withdraw from this agreement

The signal sent by both the timing and the substance of CAI is that European leaders are set on pursuing access to Chinese markets, even if this is at the expense of the bloc’s values and national security.

The deal is not only poorly timed but is also based on a naïve set of assumptions about the character of the Chinese Communist Party. It further entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values.

The outcome of seven years of negotiations, the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era. The Chairmanship of Xi Jinping has been marked by a steep deterioration in the human rights situation everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang. 5/32

I guess with the selection of Service Chiefs, our troublemakers have moved on from evicting each other over the farmer-herdsmen clash to another topic. I run a ranch @owonikokofarms & it has both a farm & livestock section. So have some interesting insights #NigeriaCattleProblem

1-/ First, let us agree that avoiding Beef or its byproducts is like avoiding air. It is everywhere from your food to household items. It is called CASH COW for a reason. Even the film for food wrapping use Fatty Acids. Hence you should care about #NigeriaCattleProblem

Smart countries build smart livestock value chain. It is a critical ingredient for building smart voter base as well. The milk, meat and byproducts are necessary products in connecting the brain neurons of a child (future voter)

3-/ As usual, with the #NigeriaCattleProblem we’ve been problem finders not solution makers. The crisis of next week will be different from last week’s. After skirmishes, we will move on for future replay. Funny is that even smart people don’t understand the problem.

4-/ The focus often is on the Farmer-Herdsman clash and the avoidable deaths, blood and tears that underline that conflict. The farmer-herdsmen clash is just a symptom of #NigeriaCattleProblem

Last month marked 4 years since the Battle of Aleppo was concluded.

Since then, over 500 projects have been implemented in the city, and 2500 projects in the governorate.

An extensive thread of the progress that has been made over the past four years:

4.2 million m2 of rubble and debris has been removed, and the removal of circa 6070 destroyed or burnt vehicles.

117 water sanitation projects have been implemented, in addition to the implementation of asphaltation projects amounting to 1.2 million m2 of asphalt.

Circa 4650 lamp-posts have been rehabilitated or installed to relight the city. Many of these run on solar lightning.

47 green spaces and parks have been rehabilitated, including the Central Park of Aleppo. This year (January 2021), Aleppo City Council has already begun rehabilitating three more parks - Seif Al Dawla Park, Al-Ansari Park, and Al-Sukari Park.

#CentralAfricanRepublic (THREAD)

1) 200 to 300 rebels attacked the capital #Bangui today (PK9, PK11, PK12 & Bimbo areas).

Govt, #Russian & #Rwandan troops repelled them. But the rebels remain in the hills & areas surroundings the capital.

Read @CrisisGroup statement 👇

2) The rebels were generally equipped or light weapons (including #AK47 & grenades), several #RPG & probably mortars.

No report of the casualties yet.

3) It's unlikely that they really wanted to size the capital, if not they would have come in bigger number.

They seem to be trying to isolate the capital from the rest of the country that they already control largely & install an attrition warfare just at the capital doors.

4) Its not excluded they may also be trying to play with the psychology of the Constitutional Court which will proclaim the final results of the elections in the coming days.

5) One thing is sure, with the new offensive of the rebellion, including at the capital doors, it becomes more difficult, if not unwise, to organize the second round of the elections for National Assembly.

Noticing this map going around showing the long term impact of Communism on the former East Germany (noticing also there were underground churches in the former DDR as well as an official church in which Angela Merkel's father was a pastor). In the West, the pre-war continues.

CCHP’s Executive Director, Mei Kwong, kicks off today’s webinar with an introduction to @CCHPCA and @TheNCTRC! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Sheri Gaskins from @CMSGov provides a great overview of telehealth in Medicaid! "Telehealth is not a service - it is a delivery mechanism." #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

A telehealth toolkit has been developed by @CMSGov and provides an up-to-date view of telehealth in Medicaid! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Q&A with Sheri Gaskins from @CMSgov: "In general, states have a great deal of flexibility of what can be furnished by Telehealth in FQHCs/RHCs." #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

Check out the Medicaid & CHIP Telehealth Toolkit Checklist for states from @CMSGov! #MedicaidTelehealthCCHP

I have watched with concern the recent development in Oyo and Ondo States in which quit notices were given to Fulani herders, with the subsequent burning of the property of Fulani herdsmen in some parts of Oyo State.

These happenings have increased the tension and unduly raised the temperature in the country.

The ugly development in these two states are symptomatic of the continued threat to the unity of our country that we have witnessed on a higher scale in recent times and in different parts of the country — including the South-East and South-South zones.

I strongly appeal to all of us to work for peace and take initiatives that can douse the tension. All Nigerians have a responsibility to begin to take measures that will reassure people across board that a united Nigeria will benefit everybody better than a disintegrated country.

The deafening silence by key stakeholders, leaders and others who we think should speak out is worrisome. This silence is a dangerous tell-tale sign that things are wrong. This is not good for our country.

Most 🌍 comparisons for C19 go wrong as they don't considering demographics.

For countries I've managed to src detailed death data for, here's total d/1m numbers.

Sure,🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 look similar to 🇧🇷🇵🇪, but just look at the differences <60, 🇵🇪 4x larger.

So what does this mean?

1/9

Basically, fewer >80, means they've had⏫spread, and ⏫younger deaths, but👀equal.

Here ranking⏫2⏬by age are:
▶️20 countries
▶️NY city
▶️The World
That I've 👀at so far.

50% marks the median age, e.g.
🇮🇹 47
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿41
🌍30
🇳🇬18

So expecting similar deaths overall is silly.

2/9

So how have deaths actually played out?

Here are the props. by age to late Dec for places with detailed data.

Looks like NYC, 🇧🇷 & 🇵🇪 have seen far more in the young.

Now these all have younger pops. so is spread the same? Are diff just down to demographics?

3/9

No, many factors, the biggest age, and the likelihood of death in each age band.

🌍serology studies have sampled a similar risk in each 10yr band, with this going up 3 fold with each band.

Here is a plot of what🌍avgs are.

So what else do we need to worry about?

4/9

Factors like:
▶️healthcare: beds nos, better care, etc
▶️comorbidity rates: e.g. obesity, OECD 4x India, but only effects 15%
▶️lifestyle impacts: carehomes VS elderly@home
etc

But, many cancel out.
e.g. 1st🌍better healthcare, but fatter.

What about a lack of treatment?

5/9

THREAD.

Former Australian Prime Minister @MrKRudd interviewing China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi for @AsiaSociety.

Rudd is making opening remarks in Mandarin.

Rudd (returning to English): It gives me no pleasure that the current state of the US-China relationship is 'probably the worst that we've seen in the nearly half a century.'

Rudd: The key challenge for the future is what we will do for the extraordinary decade of the 2020s which lies ahead

1. Sees China work within the framework of rules-based order that we've been developing together.

Rudd:

2. World adjusts and becomes more accommodating of China's values and interests and Chinese leadership becomes more apparent.

Rudd:

3. International machinery works better to preserve open systems.

Rudd disagrees with 4th that we are destined for war.

THREAD ON CHINA AND GLOB0HOM0

The conventional understanding of right & left, liberal & conservative, breaks down when applied to China

China, while ostensibly communist, differs from other communist countries and from Western leftist ideology in several important ways.

I.

China's "socialism w Chinese characteristics" is heavily nationalist & even racialist, in contrast to the internationalist & anti-racist bent of Western leftism. They have a clear (though somewhat flexible for political expediency) understanding of who is and isn't Chinese

The Han ethnic majority forms the core of Chinese identity, while other (Asiatic) ethnic groups within Chinese territory are still considered Chinese w equal citizen rights but who will be fiercely repressed if they cause problems (Tibetans and Uighurs)

Everyone else a foreigner

II.

China is fiercely protectionist

Their banning of Western social media served 2 purposes: 1) keep glowy foreign subversion out of their cyberspace, and 2) create domestic alternatives such as Weibo and WeChat for greater economic benefit to themselves

China was let into the World Trade Organization thanks to efforts by Bill Clinton (who took CCP $$$) and George W. Bush. They said China would become more liberal and democratic

THREAD: tomorrow, Jan 25 is the global day of action for Yemen. Here’s a list of everything you can do to support it 🇾🇪👇🏼👇🏼

Show up in person if you can! there are protests happening all over the world. You can look at the action map here and RSVP to one!

Register for the online rally happening tomorrow featuring @mrdannyglover, @jeremycorbyn, @CornelWest , @shireen818 and more! We will be highlighting the importance of ending US/UK/Canadian etc support for the war and the weight of the crisis!

if you can’t get out to a protest, no worries, social media action is super important too! Use these super easy toolkits to take action online.
Here’s one the entire world can use!

Here’s one for the UK! thank you @STWuk ❤️

Unconfirmed points that Pashinyan might sign in Moscow on his official visit:

1- Withdrawal of all Armenian troops from Karabakh, the surrender of 16 settlements in Armenia, a corridor to Azerbaijan through Meghri.

2- Aliyev will demand from Pashinyan to agree to disband the OSCE Minsk Group. Instead of this group, a trilateral or 4-way negotiation format will be created.

3- Aliyev will demand that Pashinyan no longer raise the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, since Azerbaijan has already resolved this issue, and the maximum that the Armenians can count on is cultural autonomy within Azerbaijan.

4- Aliyev will demand from Pashinyan that official visits from Armenia to Karabakh be stopped. All official visits should have permission from Baku. Only private visits, as well as humanitarian visits, can be carried out without the permission of Azerbaijan.

5- In the process of establishing the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Yerevan must cede 16 villages to Azerbaijan and this process must be legislatively enshrined in a special agreement dated January 11.+

The subject of true and false prophesying has been raised recently. See @derekradney especially. It’s important because as @PLeithart notes in his fine commentary on 1&2 Kings, Israel’s history is not so much political as it is prophetic.

One example - Ahab. Not only does he despise & reject the three prophets God mercifully sends him, but he embraces the hundreds who falsely prophesy in God’s name. That latter fact is the issue. It’s not that the false prophets are invoking Baal but YHWH.

Ahab’s prophets are false for numerous reasons but let me cite just one. They aimed to reinforce an unholy alliance between Judah’s future king and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, a disaster that resulted in the attempted destruction of the Messianic hope.

Prophetically backing unholy alliances - defending the union of what God has separated - nearly led to the disastrous destruction of Judah. They are false not simply because of false predictions but because of errant theology.

I’m going to put this as plainly as I can. The Church today is disturbed, divided, and misled because of false prophets. They aren’t false in an obvious sense (or only in a narrow ‘charismatic’ sense) because they operate within otherwise orthodox settings & use orthodox terms.

Vladimir Putin extended his greetings on Christmas and the New Year 2021 to heads of foreign states and governments, as well as executives of international organisations, except Ukraine and Georgia.

Behind our backs, world travelers are using Pakistan's unfrequented North as a pretty comfort couch while badmouthing & resenting the rest of Pakistan... without going in depth about our crises and issues that require an extensive attention and compassionate intersectional look.

So I called this kind lady traveler out. The casual disregard that the hedonistic, escape-seeking mostly-Western travelers flick towards "South Pakistan" is chilling in its disrespect and almost unintentional but certain cruel outcome. (See next).
CC: @samirashackle

Continued from previous.

Travelers who are causing a schism between "North and South Pakistan" are doing great disservice to "both", AND objectifying the people of the North by forcing them to act as prize catches in a trophy hunt.

One byproduct of this "playing favorites" in the house of Pakistan by our honorable guests who often enjoy near complete laissez-faire as the colonial-minded us sit around is the entrapment of mountain people in the objectified hero roles... and it prevents them from having