COVID-19: Queen Elizabeth joins her first official video call

Queen Elizabeth II has kept up with technology throughout her reign. She made her debut appearance on the video conference call on Thursday. 

This is a digital platform that has become handy as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The 94-year-old monarch logged in from Windsor Castle, where she has been staying during the COVID-19 outbreak, to speak with carers and discuss how they have been coping.

“Interesting listening to all your tales and stories,” she said, according to an excerpt of the call released by Buckingham Palace.

“I’m very glad to have been able to join you today.”

Her daughter Princess Anne, 69, also logged in for an engagement marking a nationwide week of events highlighting the work of people who care for relatives or friends with a disability, mental or physical illness.

Alexandra Atkins, 24, who looks after her mother, father and grandmother, said it was a “just unreal” to see the royals on the call.

“It hit me that I was sitting in my bedroom talking to Princess Royal (Anne) and the Queen,” she said.

The queen’s eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, revealed last week that he has been “doing the Facetime” to stay in touch with family and friends during the coronavirus lockdown.

“But it isn’t the same is it? You really want to give people a hug,” he told Sky News television.

The Queen has always shown an interest in new technology. She sent her first email long before most people, from a computer at a British Army base in 1976.

In 2014, she sent her first tweet during a visit to London’s Science Museum, expressing her pleasure at opening a new gallery and signing it “Elizabeth R”. The “R” stands for “regina”, Latin for queen.

More recently, she held a lockdown weekly audience from Windsor with Prime Minister Boris Johnson — but on an old-fashioned rotary telephone.

See how Charly Boy is celebrating his 7th birthday

Popularly known as Charly Boy, veteran Nigerian singer and human rights activist, Charles Oputa will be 70 in some days. He chose to celebrate it by talking about his large family.

Charly Boy took to his Instagram page on Thursday, June 11, 2020, to talk extensively about his family.

According to him, he has nine children, (six from his previous marriages) and three from his present marriage to Diane Oputa also known as Lady D.

The music star went on to reveal that he has been married to her for over 40 years and they have sixteen grandchildren.

"I have sixteen, not ten, not five, not fifteen but sixteen grandchildren and I believe say God don bless me and my prayer to ordinary Nigerians is that may God bless you," he said.

He went on to caption the video with a very cute and personal message to mark the special day.

"My Family. My Children. My health. My Spiritual Alertness. My Pedigree&Heritage. My Late Parents. My Spiritual Guardian. The Beauty of my Soul. CharlyBoy. The Spirit Of Contentment. A Simple Life. A Good name.

My People, Everyone who is alive can find something to be grateful for if they look for it. May God bless you too more than he blessed me.🙏 #charlyboyat70."

The singer turns 70 on June 19, 2020. Charly Boy is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, television presenter, publisher, producer, and activist.

COVID-19 : PTF says rise in cases not unusual

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has said that the recent increase in the recorded cases of coronavirus in the country is not unusual.

This was made known by the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, during the PTF briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

He attributed the increase in the number of infections reported in the last few weeks to the eased lockdown. The director-general said, 

“As we have eased the restriction that we have instituted across the country, we have expected the numbers to increase. 

We have announced it several times to expect an increase in numbers. So, this increase in numbers is not unusual.

As we increase testing and relax the lockdown, this is a virus that goes from one individual to the other, therefore, it is most likely that we will see an increase in numbers. 

Whether that increase continues or not depends on our collective action. Sometimes, these numbers are necessary to remind us of the reality. 

While the number of deaths as a proportion might appear small, these are all people that many of us have gotten to know, and every day, you get to hear about one other friend or relative that, unfortunately, have passed away.”

Kaduna House of Assembly impeach deputy speaker

We learnt that the Kaduna State House of Assembly has impeached the Deputy Speaker. This was as a result of a vote of no confidence on him during a sitting of the House.

The sitting was presided over by the Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Alhaji Yusuf Zailani. We gathered that details of the allegations against the impeached Deputy Speaker were not made known during the sitting.

However, the members have elected Dr Isaac Zankai, member representing Kauru constituency as the new Deputy Speaker.

Minister of Power - Nigerians enjoy 18 - 24 hours of power daily

The minister of Power, Sale Mamman has said that Nigerians now enjoy between 18 to 24 hours of electricity daily. He revealed this in an interview with NTA. 

He said the President Buhari-led administration had improved the infrastructure in the power system, and had upgraded the 330KVA which is the highest voltage in the country. He said, 

“We have also improved the 132 substations. Kashimbilla has been completed which is 40mw. We have reached up to 70 per cent of Zungeru in Niger. 

One of the biggest projects, the Mambilla, which has been lingering for over 40 years, has commenced.

We have improved our services. Before this government, they gave light for less than 10 hours a day, but today I can tell you that we give light from 18 to 24 hours in a day.”

He added that, 

“Before now, we had less than 3,000mw of capacity generation but today we can generate up to 5,500mw capacity although we cannot transmit all due to some constraints."

The minister of Power assured that power supply would further improve after Siemens AG of Germany begins work in the sector.

BamBam stuns in beautiful new photos

Popularly known as BamBam, former housemate of the Big Brother Naija reality TV show, Bamike Adenibuyan, has shared new photos of herself.

And boy! Peep the glow! She shared the adorable photos on her Instagram page. BamBam captioned the pictures, 

"la vie est belle mais c'est ton choix

#live #love # learn"

Which easily translates to, "Life is beautiful but it's your choice.

#live #love #learn"

See the pictures below 

Rape: Senate considers bill to stop stigmatisation of victims

The House of Senate is considering a bill to stop the stigmatisation of rape victims.

Although we really don't know how this is going to be achieved, reports have it that the bill has passed a second reading at the house of senate.

The title of the bill is self-explanatory:

"A Bill for an Act to Prohibit the Stigmatisation of Victims of Rape and Insurgency in order to encourage victims of rape to testify in court and victims of insurgency to be reintegrated into the community of his or her choice."

The bill was sponsored by Niger State’s Sani Musa, and was first read in the House in December 2019.

The bill will “provide a new lease of life for victims of rape,” the senator said, but little has been said about how exactly this ban on stigmatisation will work.

Another senator, Sandy Onor of Cross River, added that the bill “is action not words.” We must ensure that prosecution for rape and brutality against women is accelerated in our judicial process. Let justice be served in a way it should be served.

One would assume that an education, not a ban, would be the way to stop people from stigmatising against rape and insurgency. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what punishments this bill has for those declared erring.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary updates the definition of racism

Merriam-Webster is changing its definition of “racism” after a young black woman, Kennedy Mitchum, emailed requesting the official definition of the word be amended to reflect the reality of how racism works.

Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”

The 22-year-old who recently graduated from Drake University with a degree in law, politics and society, emailed the dictionary’s publishers about making the change and was surprised that they responded and agreed to update the entry.

She told CNN,

“I kept having to tell them that definition is not representative of what is actually happening in the world. The way that racism occurs in real life is not just prejudice; it’s the systemic racism that is happening for a lot of black Americans.”

After sending an email on a Thursday night, she got a reply from editor Alex Chambers the next morning. In the email, provided to CNN, Alex Chambers replied;

“This revision would not have been made without your persistence in contacting us about this problem. We sincerely thank you for repeatedly writing in and apologize for the harm and offense we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner.”

Mitchum said she was “super happy because I really felt like that was a step in a good direction for a lot of positive change for a lot of different positive conversations that can really help change the world and helps change how people view things.”

Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster editor sent a statement that the dictionary’s second definition is “divided to express, first, explicit institutional bias against people because of their race, and, second, a broader implicit bias that can also result in an asymmetrical power structure.”

He said:

"This second definition covers the sense that Ms. Mitchum was seeking, and we will make its wording even more clear in our next release."

University offers George Floyd’s 6 year old daughter full scholarship

Texas Southern University has announced that it will give a full scholarship to George Floyd‘s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna when she attains the age to go to college.

The school made this known on Facebook that the gesture is a way it “honors the memory of George Floyd on the day that he is laid to eternal rest.” It said:

“TSU honors the memory of George Floyd on the day that he is laid to eternal rest. Mr. Floyd was a lifelong citizen of the Third Ward and a revered graduate of Jack Yates High School. 

The Board, in conjunction with the TSU Foundation Board, has approved a fund to provide a full scholarship for Floyd’s beloved daughter, Gianna. 

TSU’s executive and academic staff will prepare a place for Miss Floyd if she wishes to attend the University”. 

See photos from DBanj birthday bash

Popularly known as the Koko Master, Nigerian singer and producer, D'Banj turned a year older few days ago. 

He has now released pictures from his birthday celebration. DBanj captioned the pictures thus:

"God is faithful. Had so much fun. Wanna Thank You all for Making my bday so Special . I’m Speechless . 🙏🙏🙏🙏. Guess the first VIP to Show Up. Love you all 😄😄😄🎯. #StressfreeZone"