Biden administration slams Elon Musk for repeating a "hideous" antisemitic lie

The White House on Friday accused Elon Musk of repeating a "hideous" antisemitic lie on his social media site X this week, calling it an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans." The White House statement follows decisions by at least two more major corporations to pull their advertising dollars from X after watchdog Media Matters found ads by IBM, Apple, and others were placed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Responding to Musk's post on Wednesday, the White House condemned what it called an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans." Musk on Wednesday endorsed a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was speaking "the actual truth." That conspiracy theory holds that Jewish people and leftists are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants that will lead to a "white genocide." "It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie... one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, referring to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Representatives for Musk and X on Friday again declined to comment on Musk's post on Wednesday. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. on Friday said it was pausing its X ads, while Axios reported Apple, the world's largest company by market value, was also pausing its ads. IBM on Thursday halted its advertising on the platform. "When it comes to this platform, X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There's no place for it anywhere in the world; it's ugly and wrong. Full stop," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on Thursday. Advertisers have fled the site since Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp rise in hate speech on X, civil rights groups have said. Antisemitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and worldwide. Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas after last month's attack, antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by nearly 400% from the year-earlier period, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that fights antisemitism. Musk, chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and founder of rocket company SpaceX, has blamed the Anti-Defamation League for the ongoing drop in advertisers without offering any evidence.

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Bitcoin bounces back to an 18-month high …where crypto prices are headed next

Bitcoin -3.19 percent and other cryptocurrencies rallied Thursday, bouncing back to retest 18-month highs after a correction earlier in the week. Analysts see more upside if digital assets can continue the momentum. The price of Bitcoin has advanced 4% over the past 24 hours to $37,350, having earlier traded near $37,900. Testing levels reached last week marked its highest level since cryptos plunged into a brutal bear market in May 2022. The largest digital asset had slumped in recent days, falling back to the $35,000 zone, but the rally that has carried it some one-third higher over the past month—ending a prolonged period of subdued crypto trading—now appears to have resumed. “The crypto market experienced a new growth spurt,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. “For now, it is not giving up... The chances of further gains are higher than a reversal to the downside. If we accept that Tuesday’s decline was a correction, it has opened the way to $45,000 to $46,000.” Bitcoin remains buoyant on the back of a number of factors, including ongoing optimism that regulators will soon approve the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would be expected to usher in a fresh wave of investor interest. A brightening macroeconomic backdrop has also helped, lifting cryptos alongside the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 amid hopes that the Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates. That said, there do appear to be looming risks for digital assets. Analysts at J.P. Morgan, for their part, believe the crypto rally is overdone. Tailwinds from the possible spot Bitcoin ETF approval are overblown, gains expected over the next year from a change in supply are mostly priced in, and the regulatory backdrop remains unfavourable, the analysts said in a recent note. Beyond Bitcoin, Ether—the second-largest crypto—gained 3% to $2,050. Smaller tokens or altcoins were more mixed, with Cardano climbing 10% but Polygon -2.96 percent falling 2 percent. Memecoins saw big gains, with Dogecoin at 2.37 percent, jumping 10 percent, and Shiba Inu at 0.80 percent, 7 percent higher.

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How Joe Abah tweet Forces Govt To Revise Increase In Courier Licence Fees

By Oludare Mayowa

An innocuous tweet by a public analyst Joe Abah on Saturday has triggered a chain of reactions from the minister of communications and digital economy Isa Ali Pantami over the increase in licence fee for courier services by the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST).
Abah, who was a former Director-General of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform until 2017 and social media enthusiast had written a post on his verified Twitter handle calling the attention of Pantami to the new requirements by NIPOST for courier and logistics services in the country.
“Good morning, Honourable Minister @DrIsaPantami. Have you considered the effect of the @NipostNgn Courier Licence requirements on the digital economy, small business and self-employment? It appears to go against your vision. I would like to understand the logic please,” Abah had written on his Twitter handle.
Abah, who holds a Ph.D. in Governance and Public Policy Analysis has become an authority on issues of governance and also a sensation among the younger generations who follow his tweet enthusiastically and has continued to influence some policy intervention through his social media activities.
However, before his tweet to the minister, he had written; “At a time when govts all around the world (including Nigerian state govts) are reducing taxes, granting tax holidays and helping out small businesses, the Federal Govt wants to enforce Stamp Duty and NIPOST Courier Licence fees? I don’t get it.”
However, in a swift response to his tweet, the minister of Communications and Digital Economy responded that the issue is being investigated by his ministry since he was not involved with the new requirements.

... FOR DETAILS OF THIS STORY, CLICK: https://globalfinancialdigest.com/how-public-outrage-forces-govt-to-revise-increase-in-courier-licence-fees/

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MTN Says Africa Is Not Ready For Super Fast 5G Network

Africa is not ready for next-generation 5G network but would likely be ready to embrace the super-fast technology in about five years from now, MTN’s chief executive of said on Tuesday.
5G networks, now in the final testing stage, will rely on denser arrays of small antennas and the cloud to offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks and serve as critical infrastructure for a range of industries.
“This is the technology that would be used for very specific cases. It would not be a technology for everybody because most people don’t need it, your phone works fine on just 3G,” Rob Shuter told Reuters at a telecoms conference in Durban.
“You also need the equipment itself. So right now there’s no 5G handsets and even the routers that can receive 5G network are very few and very expensive.”
Many of MTN’s users in emerging markets across Africa and the Middle East are still awaiting 4G and are likely to have to get by with 3G connections for years more.
“What we are doing now is to learn from the technology and get our network ready for it but I think 3G is much more relevant in most of our markets,” he said.
Shuter declined to comment on his company’s multibillion-dollar dispute with Nigeria authorities because the matter is before a court in the West African country.
MTN operates in more than 20 frontier markets including war-ravaged Syria and Afghanistan, which account for a third of its annual core profit.

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September 2017 PMI: ICT belies developments in the Tech space - United Capital

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) published its Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) survey for September earlier, showing an improvement in both Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI which rose for the 6th and 5th consecutive month to 55.3 and 54.9 points respectively, amid sustained growth across sub-sectors.

At 54.9 index points, Non-Manufacturing PMI expanded for fifth consecutive month. Save for slowdown in Construction; Management; and Professional, Scientific & Technical activities, other activities improved significantly. 

Accordingly, all four sub-indices sustained uptrend with Business Activity (56.8pts), Inventories (52.9pts) and New orders level (55.4pts) reporting more than a percentage growth while Employment level (54.7pts) grew slower. 

Similarly, Manufacturing PMI (55.3pts) pointed to expansion in manufacturing activities for the sixth consecutive month as performance in all but two (primary metal and petroleum & coal products) of the 16 sub-sectors further strengthening in September.

Employment Level (52.8pts), Production level (58.8pts), Supplier delivery time (55.4pts), New Orders (53.5pts) and Raw materials (56.4pts) sub-indices all expanded.
While the September PMI reading foreshadows yet another positive GDP growth number in Q3-2017, we observe that the slowdown in ICT related activities belies the developments in the tech space both locally and across the world.

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