NEWS : visa application for Nigerians, other new immigrant workers ,UK opens up

 

The United Kingdom said it has opened a skilled workers visa application for Nigerians and other foreign nationals intending to migrate and work in the country.

“Applications for the new skilled worker visa open today (1 December), meaning the brightest and the best from around the world can now apply to work in the UK from 1 January 2021,” UK government said in an article on its website.

Under the points-based immigration system, the UK government said, points will be awarded for a job offer at the appropriate skill level, knowledge of English and being paid a minimum salary. Skilled worker visas will be awarded to those who gain enough points.

“The new immigration rules will ensure that businesses can recruit the most highly qualified from across the globe to drive the economy forwards and keep the UK at the frontier of innovation,” the government said.

It will also encourage employers to focus on training and investing in the UK workforce, driving productivity and improving opportunities for individuals, especially those impacted by coronavirus.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said the “government promised to end free movement, to take back control of our borders and to introduce a new points-based immigration system. Today, we have delivered on that promise.

“This simple, effective and flexible system will ensure employers can recruit the skilled workers they need, whilst also encouraging employers to train and invest in the UK’s workforce.

“We are also opening routes for those who have an exceptional talent or show exceptional promise in the fields of engineering, science, tech or culture.”

Patel disclosed that people will normally “need to be paid at least £25,600 per year unless the ‘going rate’ for that job is higher.”

Applications are made online, and as part of this, people will need to prove their identity and provide their documents. Once someone outside the UK has gone through all these steps, they will usually get a decision within 3 weeks.

“They will need to have enough money to pay the application fee (ranging from £610 to £1,408), the healthcare surcharge (usually £624 per year) and be able to support themselves (usually by having at least £1,270 available),” the government said.

“The visa lasts for up to 5 years before it needs to be extended.”

The student route and Child Student route visa system opened on 5 October 2020 to eligible international students from across the globe.

NEWS : coronavirus vaccine, Facebook says it will remove

Facebook on Thursday said it would remove posts that containFacebook on Thursday said it would remove posts that contain claims about Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts, as the social network acts more aggressively to bat down coronavirus misinformation while falsehoods run rampant.

The move goes a step beyond how Facebook had handled misinformation about other kinds of vaccines. The company had previously made it more difficult to find vaccine misinformation that was not related to the coronavirus by “downranking” it, essentially making it less visible in people’s news feeds.

But Facebook said it planned to take down Covid-19 vaccine falsehoods entirely if the claims had been discredited or contradicted by health groups including the World Health Organization, the United States Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This is another way that we are applying our policy to remove misinformation about the virus that could lead to imminent physical harm,” the company said in a blog post. “This could include false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccines.”

Facebook added that it would also take down “false claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips, or anything else that isn’t on the official vaccine ingredient list.”

The social network has long been hesitant to wade into the fraught space of determining what is true or false information on its platform. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has made it clear he “does not want to be the arbiter of truth” of what is posted on the site.

But Mr. Zuckerberg has also taken an active role in combating the spread of coronavirus misinformation. Facebook has created new products and tools to inform the public about the potential dangers of the virus. Mr. Zuckerberg emailed Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infection disease expert, as early as March to offer his help in fighting the virus. Dr. Fauci has since appeared on multiple live-streamed interviews on Facebook with Mr. Zuckerberg.

Because of the novelty of Covid-19 vaccines, not all false claims may be taken down immediately, Facebook said. The social network said it also plans to continue sending people to its Covid-19 Information Center, which contains verified and up-to-date information about the virus.

Facebook’s decision to remove vaccine-related misinformation is not without precedent. The company previously removed misinformation about the polio vaccine in Pakistan, as well as misinformation on the measles vaccine in Samoa during outbreaks of the illnesses.

NEWS : Corruption , Court Sentences Austrian Ex-Finance Minister To Eight Years In Jail For Corruption

 

A Vienna court on Friday sentenced a flamboyant, jet-setting former Austrian finance minister to eight years in prison in the country’s biggest corruption trial since World War II.

r was found guilty of abuse of power and involvement in kickbacks totaling 9.6 million euros ($11.7 million) over the sale of state-owned apartments.

During the trial, a co-defendant — who was also best man at Grasser’s wedding — admitted passing on insider information enabling a consortium to buy 60,000 government-owned flats for 961 million euros, one million euros more than a rival bidder.

Just three years later, the consortium valued the apartments at about double the price.

Grasser, who as finance minister had decided to sell the flats and knew of the bids, and his co-defendants received kickbacks totalling 9.6 million euros.

“Only Grasser could have passed on information” to the winning consortium, judge Marion Hohenecker said. 

She rejected a claim by a co-defendant that the relevant information had come from Joerg Haider, the controversial former head of the far-right Freedom Party who died in 2008 and who had himself faced multiple corruption allegations.

During his time in office, Grasser, now 51, frequently graced the tabloids with his wife, the heir to the Swarovski crystal empire.

At the time the one-time Haider protege was seen as a political star with a possible future as chancellor.

Heinz Mayr, former head of the law faculty at Vienna University who has followed the trial, said the defendants’ attempts to explain the events surrounding the deal at times seemed “very far-fetched”.

“There were a lot of inconsistencies that could not be explained,” he told AFP.

One of these explanations, highlighted in the verdict, was Grasser’s claim that the 500,000 euros he had deposited in cash at Vienna’s Meinl Bank — which filed for bankruptcy this year after it was accused of laundering more than $500 million euros — had been gifted to him by his mother-in-law.

His mother-in-law denied this and prosecutors were able to prove that he had not met her in Switzerland at the time he said she handed over the cash.

The case, which has attracted major media interest in the wealthy EU country, involved 14 defendants facing an array of charges including breach of trust, bribery, taking kickbacks, falsifying evidence, money laundering and fraud.

The case also touched on alleged corrupt payments related to the renting of an office block in the city of Linz.

The verdict was based on hundreds of witness statements as well as tapped telephone calls in which one of the defendants wonders how he could reasonably explain receiving hundreds of thousands of euros to the prosecution.

Grasser, along with several defendants who were also found guilty, will appeal, his lawyer said.

NEWS : Obasanjo downs ‘reconciliation with Gani Adams’ reports

 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has shot down reports of “reconciliation” with Aare Ona Kakanfo, Gani Adams.

The “peace meeting” was purportedly held on Wednesday in Lagos.

In a statement by spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said his visit to a Yoruba leader, Ayo Adebanjo, was not a reconciliatory one.

“It is true that I paid a personal visit to Chief Ayo Adebanjo at his residence in Lekki Phase 1 on December 2, 2020 and I met Gani Adams there.

“I have no quarrel with Gani Adams, but for his past way of life, which was not in accord with my standards and principles.

“I have in the past, both in government and out of government, refused to grant Gani’s request to visit me.

“If at all anybody feels I have a quarrel with him or her that needs reconciliation, such reconciliation will, no doubt, take place in my residence in Abeokuta only,” Obasanjo said.

In 2001 when Obasanjo was in power, the police arrested Adams, then National Coordinator of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC).

He was taken into custody more than one year after former Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Mike Okiro, declared him wanted for the alleged murder of Afolabi Amao.

Amao was the Divisional Police Officer of Bariga police station in Lagos.

Adams was also accused of culpability in violent ethnic clashes in the South-West. Authorities insisted the OPC played a major role.

He, who still has a huge followership in Yorubaland, was at different times remanded in prisons in Lagos, Abeokuta and Abuja, the nation’s capital.

NEWS : UK Government Announces Point-based Immigration System For Skilled Workers

 In a bid to attract the brightest and the best from around the world, the UK Government has announced application for skilled workers visas.

According to a statement released by the UK’s Secretary of State, Priti Patel, the new immigration system would open on January 1, 2021.

Points will be ascribed to applicants for having a job offer at the appropriate skill level, knowledge of English and being paid a minimum salary.

Applicants will be awarded five-year skilled worker visas, open to extension, for earning points, the statement noted.

The statement read, “The new immigration rules will ensure that businesses can recruit the most highly qualified from across the globe to drive the economy forwards and keep the UK at the frontier of innovation.

“It will also encourage employers to focus on training and investing in the UK workforce, driving productivity and improving opportunities for individuals, especially those impacted by a coronavirus.

“They will need to have enough money to pay the application fee (ranging from £610 to £1,408), the healthcare surcharge (usually £624 per year) and be able to support themselves (usually by having at least £1,270 available).”

“This simple, effective and flexible system will ensure employers can recruit the skilled workers they need, whilst also encouraging employers to train and invest in the UK’s workforce.

“We are also opening routes for those who have an exceptional talent or show exceptional promise in the fields of engineering, science, tech or culture.”

NEWS : Boko Haram Attacks Are International Conspiracy To Split Nigeria – Army

 

The Nigerian Army has said that the Boko Haram attacks are an international conspiracy to “cut Nigeria to size” and to destabilise the peace of the country.

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col Sagir Musa, stated this, claiming that there are some international paymasters sponsoring Boko Haram.

Musa stated this in an article he shared on social media and with journalists.

The army spokesman said, “The recent killing of our people on a rice farm in Borno State was unexpected, inhuman, cowardly, dastardly and sadistic cruelty by the Boko Haram terrorists. There is no normal human being that will take pleasure in such inhuman massacre of defenceless and armless civilians, working on their farms; but that is the nature of terrorism and those who sponsor it.

“There is an international conspiracy to cut Nigeria to size and compromise national renegades making attempts to destabilise and dismember Nigeria if possible in subservience to the international paymasters; who are the owners of Boko Haram. They train them, arm them, finance them and supply their logistics.

“Without this treacherous international support of Boko Haram; they would have since been defeated. Yet, we can defeat them through our unity and unflinching support and encouragement of our security forces, particularly the military.”

NEWS : Biden holds roundtable with workers; Trump draws rebukes for questioning election integrity

 

President-elect Joe Biden sought to keep a focus on the economy Wednesday by holding a virtual roundtable with workers and small-business owners affected by the downturn.

During the event, Biden called on members of Congress to “come together and pass a robust package of relief” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump taped a 46-minute address from inside the White House in which he repeated debunked and misleading claims that his election loss was the result of widespread voting fraud and corruption.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, chided Trump for questioning the integrity of the state’s election, comments he said are responsible for a volley of threats against election workers. Christopher Krebs, the government’s ousted top election security official, also denounced such threats, calling them “un-American” and “undemocratic” in a Washington Post Live event Wednesday.

Key GOP senators dismiss possibility that Senate would reject electoral votes

By Mike DeBonis, Rachael Bade and Paul Kane

Key Republican senators sent a stark message Wednesday to supporters of Trump who are counting on Congress to step in and reject President-elect Joe Biden’s victory: That isn’t going to happen.

Under federal law, Congress will meet in a Jan. 6 joint session to accept the votes of the electoral college, which formally votes Dec. 14. Any lawmaker can join with a companion from the other chamber to raise an objection to any state’s votes, prompting a debate and votes in each chamber on whether to accept the challenge.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told Politico that he intended to make such a challenge, and several other members, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), have enthusiastically joined efforts to question Biden’s victory.

But no senator has publicly entertained joining the effort, and on Wednesday, several key Republican senators dismissed the possibility that the Senate would reject electoral votes or even join a House member’s challenge.

President’s attorneys urge Michigan legislators to respond to unproven allegations of election corruption

By Tom Hamburger

Trump campaign lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jenna Ellis gave opening statements before a Michigan House panel Wednesday night citing unproven allegations that the state’s election process had been corrupted.

In his statement, Giuliani referred to alleged “massive fraud” in Detroit ballot counting and he repeated baseless claims about an election hardware company called Dominion Voting Systems.

Ellis said in her opening statement that the legislature has a constitutional mandate “not to allow a corrupt” election. She said that the founders provided “a tool — state legislators — to combat corruption” in elections.

That interpretation of the constitutional responsibility of state legislatures is disputed by many election experts who worry that it could lead them to attempt to overturn certified election results.

Norm Eisen, a former Obama appointee who serves as counsel to the Voter Protection Project, called the Trump attorneys’ interpretation “constitutional disinformation that has no basis in law.”

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested two Democrats on Wednesday who he believes would make a good agriculture secretary — “if” Biden becomes president.

Biden won the 2020 race for the White House with 306 electoral votes, and Attorney General William P. Barr said Tuesday that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

“I realize this might hurt their chances but if Biden becomes pres he should select an Iowan or Heidi Heitkamp or Collin Peterson to be Ag Secretary,” Grassley tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “They’d be able to get things done for IA/Midwest farmers even w Democratic House & Republican Senate.”

Heitkamp, a Democrat, served as North Dakota senator from 2013 to 2019, losing her reelection bid to Republican Kevin Cramer. Peterson, one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He lost his 2020 reelection bid to Republican Michelle Fischbach.

Among the potential candidates for the agriculture spot are Heitkamp and Democratic Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Marcia L. Fudge (Ohio) and Chellie Pingree (Maine).

A handful of Republican senators have congratulated Biden, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has urged Trump to concede. But most Senate Republicans have refused to refer to Biden as the president-elect. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged “the incoming administration” at a news conference Tuesday but has stopped short of congratulating Biden, saying “the future will take care of itself.”

Grassley’s tweet about Biden stood in contrast to a message he sent two days after the 2016 election, when he acknowledged Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump, like Biden, won 306 electoral votes.

“Just observed first meeting of Pres/Elect T &PresObama,” Grassley tweeted then. “Looks like things went well Both said so TRANSITION IS ON/ Read Ist Tim 2:1-2&pray.”

Trump releases 46-minute video repeating baseless accusations of voter fraud

By Colby Itkowitz

Standing behind a lectern with the presidential seal and flanked by the American flag, Trump taped a 46-minute address from inside the White House in which he repeated debunked and misleading claims that his election loss was the result of widespread voting fraud and corruption.

The president tweeted a two-minute teaser, calling the speech possibly the most important of his presidency, and then quickly posted the speech in its entirety.

In his most extensive comments since the election, Trump repeated and expanded upon many of his false claims that the election was rigged. He suggested overturning the results, invoked the special counsel Russia investigation as evidence that he has been a target of a coordinated effort to end his presidency and called on the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the results.

Repeating his baseless allegation that millions of votes in swing states were cast illegally, Trump said that the “results of the individual swing states must be overturned and overturned immediately” and that, “hopefully, the courts, in particular the Supreme Court of the United States, will see it, and, respectfully, hopefully, they will do what’s right for our country.”

He claimed in the speech that the surge in mail-in voting, which was expanded because of the coronavirus pandemic, was “a scam” to tamper with the results. The U.S. Justice Department has said — as have several states and courts — that it has found no evidence of widespread fraud or security breaches in the election that would have changed the results.

Biden calls on Congress to ‘come together and pass a robust package of relief’ amid pandemic

By Felicia Sonmez

During a virtual roundtable with Americans who shared their stories of how the coronavirus pandemic has affected them financially, Biden called on Congress to immediately pass a relief package — even as he acknowledged that any bill passed during the lame-duck session would only be a “down payment” on a larger effort to come once he takes office.

“The point is, the full Congress should come together and pass a robust package of relief to address your urgent needs now,” Biden told the participants in Wednesday’s roundtable.

After listening to several participants talking of the economic hardship they have faced during the pandemic, the president-elect prefaced his remarks by noting that there’s very little he can do at the moment.

“To state the obvious, my ability to get you help immediately does not exist. I’m not even in office for another 50 days. And then I have to get legislation passed through the United States Congress to get things done,” he said.

Biden then outlined his priorities for helping Americans get back on their feet, including extending unemployment insurance; ensuring businesses have the resources they need to open safely; providing states and cities with funding so workers can go back to work; and preventing Americans from getting evicted during the pandemic.

Ultimately, Biden said, he thinks Congress is “trying like the devil” to come to an agreement. But he added that “what happened was the president said he wouldn’t support it, and, apparently, Republicans in the Congress said — the House, the Senate — said they wouldn’t support it.”

“So it’s now back to square one again,” he said.

At one point in his remarks, Biden held up the face mask that he usually wears while in public, directly challenging those who have opposed face coverings on the grounds that they violate their freedom.

“When I have this mask on, it’s less about me being safe. It’s about me making sure that you’re safe,” he said. “It’s a patriotic thing to do. It really is. You know, I hear all this about, ‘Well, it’s a great sacrifice of my freedom.’ Well, tell that to all the people who went to World War I and gave their lives, and World War II, and the Korean War, and talk to me — I mean, come on.”

Biden added: “You’re helping other people. It’s not you. It’s other people. Other people. And, so, I think we have to change the mind-set here a little bit. It’s got to be about giving.”

Trump allies Sidney Powell and Lin Wood urge Georgians to boycott Senate runoffs

By Amy Gardner and David Weigel

Sidney Powell, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign, led a rally in a northern Atlanta suburb in which she exhorted hundreds of the president’s supporters not to participate in the Senate runoffs in part because she said the state’s voting machines are not trustworthy.

“I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all unless your vote is secure,” Powell said. “There should not be a runoff. Certainly not on Dominion machines.”

Powell claimed falsely that the machines, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems, were rigged to weight Biden’s votes more heavily than Trump’s, that a hand recount was a sham, and that state and local election officials have been destroying ballots and other evidence of fraud. She has presented no proof of her claims.

Lin Wood, another Trump ally who helped lead Wednesday’s event, made similar claims, stating, “We’re not going to vote on your damn machines made in China. We’re going to vote on machines made in the USA!”

Wood took aim at just about every state Republican leader in Georgia, including Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Sen. David Perdue, Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the state party chair, David Shafer, even though some of them have stood by Trump and echoed his false claims of fraud.

“If they don’t fight for Donald Trump, including Loeffler and Perdue, send them all home!” Wood exclaimed to the crowd. “You are criminals!”

Powell insisted that the results in Georgia and other states had been altered, affecting races up and down the ballot, though the hand audit of all ballots completed last month showed that to be impossible. She suggested an election conducted entirely with paper ballots “that are signed and have a thumb print on them,” which would violate Georgia’s constitutional requirement of a secret ballot.

Iowa Democrat wants U.S. House to review results of race she lost by six votes

By Colby Itkowitz

A Democratic House candidate in Iowa is challenging the results of a race she lost by six votes, appealing directly to the U.S. House for its review.

Rita Hart, a former Iowa state senator, says a recount that narrowed Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s lead from 47 votes to just six left many legally cast ballots uncounted, including from active-duty military members overseas.

“We all watched #IA02 close from 47 votes to 6, but there are still ballots that haven’t been counted,” Hart tweeted. “The only way to ensure all Iowans’ votes are counted is a full examination of this election by the U.S. House that will consider every ballot cast.”

The district is currently represented by Democrat Rep. David Loebsack, who chose not to run for reelection.

Iowa certified Miller-Meeks the winner Monday, but under the Federal Contested Elections Act, Hart intends to file a petition to the House Administration Committee asking that it review all the votes cast, including those left out in the state’s recount.

The request from Hart, whose razor-thin loss marks the closest congressional election since 1984, will at minimum allow her to present her case to the House committee. The panel can then decide whether to conduct its own investigation and, after its conclusion, make a recommendation to the full House about who should fill the seat.

Democrats hold a slim majority in the House, which is all it would take to override the state’s certification of Miller-Meeks as the winner and award Hart the seat.

White House declines to say whether Trump will attend Biden’s inauguration

By Felicia Sonmez

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday declined to say whether President Trump will attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, telling reporters that the announcement is up to Trump to make.

Outgoing presidents traditionally attend the inauguration of their successor. Biden’s inauguration is scheduled to take place Jan. 20 on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

“Is the president seriously considering skipping the inauguration?” a reporter asked McEnany during a news briefing Wednesday.

“I’ll leave that to the president to make his announcement,” McEnany replied. “He tweeted something to the effect of he knows what his decision is, and he’ll make his decision at the right time.”

Asked what rationale Trump could possibly have for skipping the event, McEnany declined to say.

“I’m not going to speculate on the president’s decision. I’ll leave that to him to announce it,” she said.

Trump has repeatedly made false claims that Biden won the election as a result of widespread election fraud. Pushing back against Trump’s baseless assertions, Attorney General William P. Barr said Tuesday that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

On Thanksgiving, when a reporter asked Trump whether he plans to attend the inauguration, the president said he had made a decision but was not ready to announce it.

“I don’t want to say that yet,” Trump said. “I mean, I know the answer. I’ll be honest, I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say it yet.”

He then went on to make more false claims of election fraud.