Happening now: President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken to the podium to deliver the #SONA2021 before a hybrid sitting.

#SONA2021 | Ramaphosa briefly commemorates the release of the late former president Nelson Mandela from the Victor Verster Prison in Cape Town in 1990.

'It was clear that freedom was tangible.'

#SONA2021 | Ramaphosa likens the country's resilience to that of the fynboos.

"We have risen time and time again from the depths of darkness to herald a new day."

#SONA2021 | Ramaphosa hails the efforts of front liners and essential workers amid the raging coronavirus pandemic. We have made mistakes but we have also stood together.

"It is a story of solidarity and compassion."

#SONA2021 | Ramaphosa: This year is about change, progress and rebirth.

2022 Japanese Government (MEXT) undergraduate Scholarship

Duration- 5 years, beginning in April 2022
For those majoring in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or a six-year course in pharmacy, the term of the scholarship is 7 years.

(The first year is language training.)

For students who are willing to pursue an undergraduate degree in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Science at a University in Japan, the Ministry of

Education, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Government of Japan is offering undergraduate scholarships.

Award: Monthly allowance of JPY 117,000 (445,071.36 Nigerian Naira) and other benefits like travelling expenses, supplemental regional allowance, transportation allowance and

Application period-Recruitment for those arriving in Japan next April is made between April and May of the previous year. First screening is conducted between May and August by the Japanese Embassies or Consulates General.

Amid the hail of accusations that the EU wanted to put a hard border on the island of Ireland last Friday, it's worth pointing out what the ill-fated resort to Article 16 was about:

2/ Under the Commission's trade mechanism, any Covid vaccines leaving the EU for third countries would need export authorisations, ie to ensure vaccines were not being exported which were actually part of an avanced purchase agreement between member states + pharma companies

3/ Any movements of exports from one member state to another would NOT have required such an export authorisation

4/ Because of the NI Protocol, Northern Ireland would typically have availed of NOT having to had export authorisations for any vaccines being sent there from Belgium (or wherever)

5/ However, someone in the Commission spotted the fact that, also under the Protocol, there was unfettered movement of goods between NI and GB

Here is the thing about these 2015 conversations that many appear to have refused to move on from.

They should be a teachable moment. Sadly, aren't asking the right asks. Too many people from my neck of the woods (SE/SS) keep insisting on narratives that won't stand scrutiny.

I'll speak for the Igbo side, we are letting ourselves down in what should be a race to advance our agenda within #Nigeria

Yes, it is undeniable that there was an element of ethnic chauvinism in the coalition that came together against GEJ, but to attribute his loss simply to that factor is to completely miss the lessons of 2015, and as a result, set yourself up for another failure.

I'll talk about two of these:

First, Benue. In 2015, Benue state voted for Buhari.

No one within the set of people who keep shouting about ethnic jingoism ever seems to ask themselves why.

There are/were two reasons: first, Gabriel Suswam's government was unbelievably bad.

As of January 2015, Benue owed workers almost a year in salaries, and he never got as much as a reprimand from Abuja.

Instead, Suswam was mollycoddled by the GEJ govt.

The assassinations of #MirwaizFarooq & #AbdulGhaniLone that reveals the ugly face of #Pakistan’s proxy war in #Kashmir. A #Thread

Pakistan is a festered wound in the lives of #Kashmiris that has been eating away the soul of Kashmir for decades now.

Some sane leaders in #Kashmir who saw through the devilish design of #Pakistan & tried to save its people from this snake in the grass were either sidelined or worse killed in cold blood.
This includes the two most influential leaders of Kashmir #MirwaizFarooq & #AbdulGhaniLone.

What happened with them?
At 7:15 p.m. on 13 Feb 1990, #terrorists shot Lassa Kaul, 45, director of the government-run #television station as he stepped from a vehicle in front of his home.
It shook Mirwaiz Farooq, Lassa Kaul was his dear friend.
#Kashmir

Mushir-ul-Haq, Vice Chancellor of #Kashmir University, another friend of Mirwaiz Farooq was kidnapped on 6 April 1990, together with his personal secretary Abdul Gani Zargar, and their bodies were found on 10 April 1990. #murdered by #terrorists

#MirwaizFarooq was upset because the series of murders and the ineludible slippage of #Kashmiri Youth into the spiral of #Violence which made him question the direction in which the masses were being led.
#Kashmir

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The latest IMF report on China was released yesterday and provides a lot of good information and intelligent insight on the Chinese economy. The IMF’s measure of China’s adjusted fiscal deficit (including estimated off-budget

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spending) is projected to rise to 18.2% of GDP in 2020 from 12.6% in 2019. The authors correctly note the worrying surge in debt and warn that Beijing must continue to try to contain financial stability risks, but I notice that they are projecting average GDP...

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growth of just over 6% between 2012 and 2025, including a downward revision of their 2021 forecast from 8.2% to 7.9% (which I still think is a little high).

As I’ve long argued, it will be impossible for China both to control the surge in debt and to achieve growth...

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targets above the real underlying growth rate of the economy, which I suspect is 2-3% at best. I know the IMF is constrained in what it is able to say about the Chinese economy if it wants to remain part of the advisory process, but I do think that after 10 years...

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of watching this game we should be a lot more explicit about the relationship between unreasonably high GDP growth targets and high credit growth. There really is no point in advising Beijing to get financial risks under control while at the same time approving...

What You Should Know About The New Lagos-Ibadan Standard Railway, Also Called Buhari-Train

Thread...

On 7th March 2017, the Vice-President, @ProfOsinbajo, in a groundbreaking ceremony, unveiled the standard Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Lagos-Ibadan line is the first part of a new 2,773km Lagos-Kano standard gauge line.

A quick reminder that the Track laying was completed on 28th March 2020, and delivery of rolling stock from CRRC Tangshan was completed in May 2020.

The Lagos-Ibadan rail line is a double-track standard gauge rail, the first of its kind in West Africa. The train covered the 156km journey between Ibadan and Lagos in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

After the official inauguration, travel time will be cut to two hours, according to a statement by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCEC), the project’s contractors.

1) MORE on #Saudi #UAE arms freeze: As we shift to reassuring Gulf dictators that we will continue to “defend” them and sell them “defensive” weapons, notwithstanding arms freeze and pending JCPOA, keep in mind that this is exactly what “propping up” abusive dictators means.

2) These dictators do not represent the people of their country, they’re not legitimately elected, and they’ve repeatedly shown that they see the freedom of their citizens as an existential threat. It’s a fallacy to confuse “defending” them with defending their “country”.

3) It’s also a fallacy to assume that their “security concerns” are national security concerns. They’re first and foremost personal concerns for survival and preservation. This is why they fear democracy and democratic Islamist including the Muslim Brotherhood most of all.

4) The US should have no interest in defending, protecting, and yes propping up abusive self appointed government leaders in the UAE Saudi Egypt. Or apartheid leaders in Israel, where the ruled Palestinians have no say, so also dictatorial.

5) The distinction that “defensive” weapons sold to them might be ok so long as @JoeBiden ends “offensive” weapons used in Yemen is a false one. The wrong is equal. The principle is the same & quite simple: the US should not aid abet support abusive, tyrannical government leaders

This week data from all Brazilians were leaked, and when I say "all", it is in the literal sense. The refinement and depth of this data are frightening. @carissaveliz @TweetinChar @johnchavens @DorotheaBaur @privacyint @maria_axente 1/n 👇

There is still no certainty about where the data leaked, but there are suspicions (still not confirmed) that they are from Serasa: an Experian company in Brazil. The leak was of everything imaginable of 220 million inhabitants. 2/n 👇

Being all citizens, this includes ordinary citizens, including minors, police, ministers, presidents, judges, military, deputies, senators, judges, businessmen, religious leaders, people with disabilities, etc. But what kind of data? 3/n 👇

The list is really big: full name, date of birth, home address including lat/lon, social security numbers, ID, driver's license, relatives up to the 3rd degree, credit score, bank account, employer history, salary, working hours per week... 4/n 👇

...car brand, color, plate, chassis, phone number, phone provider, billing, credit score, social class, companies you own or have participation, where and when you graduated, 401(k), IRS, consumer behavior...well, think of any data, and it seems to be there 5/n 👇

Thread: There is the usual talking point going around the pro-Iran-Regime-Lobby in which Israel is once again presented as somehow doing something wrong by seeking to work with the US on Iran threats...or that Israel could start a "war"...the usual "war" bogeyman myth

The fact is that Israel is the one being threatened. Israel doesn't run proxy groups throughout the Middle East and arm them illegally by giving militias weapons...or have whole days devoted to bashing Iran or soldiers marching on Iran's flag. Only Iran does that.

There is never going to be a "war" with Iran, war is the talking point to claim that those who oppose the Iran regime far-right extremists are "hawks" or "for war"...which is nonsensical. Iran's regime can't afford a war, that is why it arms militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,Yemen

Iran knows how to get the poor to do the fighting for it...recruiting people from Pakistan and Afghanistan, not to defend their own communities, but sending them to Syria while they are attacked at home by extremists. Awful.

So the "war' talking point is always used to claim Israel wants "war"...or "drives wars"...but there is no evidence of this. Israel is totally open about its goals to deter Iran or keep its entrenchment in Syria away from the Golan. Israel found relative calm with hamas-Hezbollah

On the occasion of the recent turmoil in Ethiopia's insurgent Tigray province, I'm resharing my thread about the history of Belgian expansionism towards the region in the 19th century. 🇧🇪🇪🇹⏳

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During the 19th century, Belgian imperialism did not only affect the Congo, a whole list of other countries were seen as potential colonies. Already in the 1840s Abyssinia (the region which roughly corresponds with Ethiopia) was on the radar of Belgian expansionism 2/14

During the reign of King of the Belgians Leopold I, Belgian consul general in Alexandria Edouard Blondeel van Cuelebroeck was sent on an exploratory mission into Abysinnia. 3/14

At the time, Abyssinia went through an era of internal fueds called "Zemene Mesafint". This was seen as a perfect opportunity to apply some of Belgium's finest 'divide and conquer'-tactics. It promped Blondeel to approach local warlord Biru Goshu of the Gojjam in 1841. 4/14

In order to convince Biru Goshu of the potential to become an ally of Belgium, the local warlord received samples of Belgium's finest industrial products such as: small arms, textiles and jewelry. Blondeel message was clear, he had to showcase the prospects of trade. 5/14

#vanpoli Vancouver's Non-Partisan Association will have a general meeting to elect a new board. Angelo Isidorou has stepped down.

But if the NPA really believes "in an inclusive, compassionate and caring city free from hate, stigma and discrimination," 7 more also have to go:

1. NPA president David Mawhinney

He oversaw Isidorou's addition to the board and signed off on a "Trumpian" press release that reads like Isidorou's work for far-right propaganda site The Post Millennial. He has refused to answer pertinent questions about extremism in his party.

2. NPA director Wes Mussio

He's an outspoken Trump & anti-mask supporter who called Dr. Henry "Dumb Bonnie." He challenged a reporter to a fight "if you are a man" & encourages people to join a far-right social media platform. He claims to be in the process of moving to Florida.

3. NPA director Dave Pasin

He echoed Trump's lies about the US election being rigged, which incited the Jan. 6 takeover of the Capitol by violent right-wing mobs. He has also attempted to defend Isidorou's use of a white supremacist gang sign, as well as Andy Ngo's "journalism."

4. NPA director Chris Wilson

Former BC bureau chief of far-right Rebel Media, which also employed well-known extremists. His videos defend Trump and white nationalist conspiracy theories. He called Catherine McKenna "Climate Barbie" and encourages "harassing" unhoused people.

Perhaps Btselem was an important element to have in Israeli society. Even when I was a soldier I respected the need for a watch group. However, over time the increasingly moved away from legitimate criticism, in favor of demonization of soldiers, Israelis, and Israel.

Today they have shown that they are no longer a rights group, but a political group that is against the state of Israel and the right of Jewish self-determination itself.

Their newest policy paper is an announcement that they have adopted a antagonistic mindset.

They claim that the entire history of Israel and all the policies and actions that occurred from it have stemmed from a principle of Jewish Supremacy. They of course mean Zionism, and I expect in future statements they will conflate the two.

Jewish Supremacy is a term long used by white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and Antizionist groups as a talking point. Btselem has fully adopted it. It contends that Jews are racist supremacists seeking to oppress others. This is simply false framing, and is not a position held by many.

The idea that all the Israel does is under a single principle is inane to anyone who has met an Israeli. Firstly, it implies that politicians, different parties, different people, have been acting in accordance to a general plan. Israeli governments barely plan for the year.

1. It's time for the weekly "data from Sweden" thread.
This week 4 main things.
A. Increase in the number of reports
B. Deaths still being reporting back to mid-december
C. Comparing to France?
D. Data on school suggest closing would help.

Let's go!
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2. First, before this week, somehow the swedish public health agency did not consider COVIC too important and reported on deaths only twice a week.

3. I mentioned last week that things are being taken much more seriously now since the government has passed a new temporary law to allow them to close public places likely to spread the virus.

4. You can read more about it in a great article reporting on the Swedish situation with analysis from @FLAHAULT as well. It's all in French though, but would be happy to help if google translate is not enough.

5. If you've been following me before, you know that I have mentioned many this and all the other issues with the situation in Sweden before. You can find short sum ups in these two videos (also in French and with