LAGOS: Funmi Ilori once had a dream about creating the biggest library in Africa. Now she drives vans packed with books to poor areas of Lagos to help children discover a love of reading.
“Readers are what?” she asks about 15 youngsters, sitting on little plastic stools in a classroom in a small converted lorry.
“Leaders!” they shout back in unison.
One of Ilori’s iRead Mobile Library vans recently stopped at the Bethel primary school in the working class district of Ifako, in the heart of megacity Lagos.
Inside the school compound, slides and seesaws rust in the humid air. The head teacher, Ruth Aderibigbe, said her 200 or so pupils only have textbooks at their disposal.
“Books cost a lot of money,” she said.
When iRead turned up at the school two years ago with its wide selection of books, from toddlers’ coloring books to children’s novels, plus a few for adults, she welcomed it in with open arms.
“The children involved in the program now speak and spell better in English,” she said.
Inside the van, a young boy aged about 10 held a copy of “Half of a Yellow Sun,” the international bestseller by the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The book has clearly been well-read: its spine barely held the pages.
Adichie last week became embroiled in controversy after a French journalist asked her during a visit to Paris whether there were any bookshops in Nigeria.
“I think it reflects very poorly on French people that you have to ask me that question,” she responded, going on to rue what she said was France’s racist and colonial view of Africa.
Ilori is aware of the row and understands why the question would offend. But she sees a wider problem and has dedicated herself to trying to resolve it.
“Public libraries are functional in Nigeria, well, at least in Lagos. But not many people maximize the use of them,” she said.
“We need to catch new readers from a young age. In rural communities, there are children that have never held a book.
“I advocate for community libraries everywhere. Just as churches are springing up, libraries should be springing up.”
Ilori is a former primary schoolteacher who began a book-lending business in 2003.
“Books in a basket. I was going door-to-door,” she recalled.
Books could be borrowed for just a few hundred naira (a couple of dollars) but her experience led her to realize that few adults in Nigeria’s bustling economic hub had the luxury of having time to read.
Ten years after starting the “books in a basket” scheme, she came up with the mobile library idea and applied for funding from a Nigerian government development initiative.
The pitch was successful and landed her 10 million naira, which, with the exchange rate at the time, was the equivalent of about $60,000.
With it, she bought a lorry and a small minibus.
Now, thanks to the grant and sponsors, she has been able to take on 13 employees, buy 1,900 books and four vans.
She visits four to six schools every day, organizing reading workshops on evenings and at weekends for out-of-school children in slum areas with the help of volunteers.
The vans function like real libraries: children choose a book that they read at home, bring it back the following week and write a compulsory “review” on what it’s about.
Sade chooses her favorite adventure story, even though she already knows it off by heart.
“Reading is my hobby. Books give me ideas and they help me know better,” she says.
Adinga plumps for “Bioenergy Insight,” a magazine on renewable energy that he found on the shelves.
“Are you sure you’re going to read that?” asks one of the volunteers, amused. The young boy pulls a face and puts back the magazine, eventually choosing a comic book.
Afterwards, the schoolchildren, dressed in white and green uniforms with a bow tie for the boys, proudly troop back into class.
Tucked under their arms are books such as “Toy Story” or “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
Ilori looks and says there’s something missing. “We need more African children’s books now,” she says.
As Adichie said in an interview published in The Atlantic in February 2017, the books she read as a little girl “and I think this is true for many other young children in countries that were formerly colonized, didn’t reflect my reality.”
On the road with Nigeria’s first mobile library
On the road with Nigeria’s first mobile library
Man charged in Tupac Shakur killing files motion to dismiss the case
LAS VEGAS: An ex-gang leader is seeking to have all the charges against him dismissed in the 1990s killing of rap music icon Tupac Shakur.
Attorney Carl Arnold filed the motion on Monday in the District Court of Nevada to dismiss charges against Duane Davis in the 1996 shooting of Shakur. The motion alleges “egregious” constitutional violations because of a 27-year delay in prosecution. The motion also asserts a lack of corroborating evidence and failure to honor immunity agreements granted to Davis by federal and local authorities.
“The prosecution has failed to justify a decades-long delay that has irreversibly prejudiced my client,” Arnold said in a news release. “Moreover, the failure to honor immunity agreements undermines the criminal justice system’s integrity and seriously questions this prosecution.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the filing. He has said evidence against Davis is strong and it will be up to a jury to decide the credibility of Davis’ accounts of the shooting including those in a 2019 memoir.
Davis is originally from Compton, California. He was arrested in the case in September 2023 near Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest.
Davis is accused of orchestrating and enabling the shooting that killed Shakur and wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight after a brawl at a Las Vegas Strip casino involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Authorities have said that the gunfire stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”
In interviews and a 2019 tell-all memoir that described his life as a leader of a Crips gang sect in Compton, Davis said he obtained a .40-caliber handgun and handed it to Anderson in the back seat of a car from which he and authorities say shots were fired at Shakur and Knight in another car at an intersection near the Las Vegas Strip. Davis didn’t identify Anderson as the shooter.
Shakur died a week later in a nearby hospital. He was 25. Knight survived and is serving a 28-year prison sentence in connection with the killing of a Compton man in 2015.
Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s death and died in 1998 at age 23 in a shooting in Compton. The other two men in the car are also dead.
A Las Vegas police detective testified to a grand jury that police do not have the gun that was used to shoot at Shakur and Knight, nor did they find the vehicle from which shots were fired.
Algerians campaign to save treasured songbird from hunters
- Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin”
- Caging the wild birds cause them to suffer from serious health problems due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment, say advocates
SETIF, Algeria: With its vivid plumage and sweet trill, the goldfinch has long been revered in Algeria, but the national obsession has also driven illegal hunting, prompting calls to protect the songbird.
Amid a persistent demand for the bird that many choose to keep in their homes, conservation groups in the North African country are now calling for the species to be safeguarded from illegal hunting and trading.
“The moment these wild birds are caged, they often suffer from serious health problems, such as intestinal swelling, due to abrupt changes in their diet and environment,” said Zinelabidine Chibout, a volunteer with the Wild Songbird Protection Association in Setif, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.
Goldfinches are native to Western Europe and North Africa, and raising them is a cherished hobby in Algeria, where they are known locally as “maknin.”
The bird is considered a symbol of freedom, and was favored by poets and artists around the time of Algeria’s war for independence in the 1950s and 60s. The country even dedicates an annual day in March to the goldfinch.
Laws enacted in 2012 classified the bird as a protected species and made its capture and sale illegal.
But the practices remain common, as protections are lacking and the bird is frequently sold in pet shops and markets.
A 2021 study by Guelma University estimated that at least six million goldfinches are kept in captivity by enthusiasts and traders.
Researchers visiting markets documented the sale of hundreds of goldfinches in a single day.
At one market in Annaba, in eastern Algeria, they counted around 300 birds offered for sale.
Back to the wild
Chibout’s association has been working to reverse the trend by purchasing injured and neglected goldfinches and treating them.
“We treat them in large cages, and once they recover and can fly again, we release them back into the wild,” he said.
Others have also called on enthusiasts to breed the species in order to offset demand.
Madjid Ben Daoud, a goldfinch aficionado and member of an environmental association in Algiers, said the approach could safeguard the bird’s wild population and reduce demand for it on the market.
“Our goal is to encourage the breeding of goldfinches already in captivity, so people no longer feel the need to capture them from the wild,” he said.
Souhila Larkam, who raises goldfinches at home, said people should only keep a goldfinch “if they ensure its reproduction.”
The Wild Songbird Protection Association also targets the next generation with education campaigns.
Abderrahmane Abed, vice president of the association, recently led a group of children on a trip to the forest to teach them about the bird’s role in the ecosystem.
“We want to instill in them the idea that these are wild birds that deserve our respect,” he said. “They shouldn’t be hunted or harmed.”
World’s oldest person dies at 116 in Japan
- Tomiko Itooka was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya
- As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older
TOKYO: The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, has died aged 116, the city where she lived, Ashiya, announced on Saturday.
Itooka, who had four children and five grandchildren, died on December 29 at a nursing home where she resided since 2019, the southern city’s mayor said in a statement.
She was born on May 23, 1908 in the commercial hub of Osaka, near Ashiya – four months before the Ford Model T was launched in the United States.
Itooka was recognized as the oldest person in the world after the August 2024 death of Spain’s Maria Branyas Morera at age 117.
“Ms Itooka gave us courage and hope through her long life,” Ashiya’s 27-year-old mayor Ryosuke Takashima said in the statement.
“We thank her for it.”
Itooka, who was one of three siblings, lived through world wars and pandemics as well as technological breakthroughs.
As a student, she played volleyball.
In her older age, Itooka enjoyed bananas and Calpis, a milky soft drink popular in Japan, according to the mayor’s statement.
Women typically enjoy longevity in Japan, but the country is facing a worsening demographic crisis as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labor force to pay for it.
As of September, Japan counted more than 95,000 people who were 100 or older – 88 percent of whom were women.
Of the country’s 124 million people, nearly a third are 65 or older.
Former UK home secretary mocked for claiming she visited ‘land border’ between Italy and Turkiye
- Suella Braverman was criticized for her ignorance by social media users, public figures
- Italy and Turkiye are separated by hundreds of kilometers and share no border
LONDON: Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman faced widespread ridicule after claiming in a radio interview that she visited a land border between Italy and Turkiye — two countries separated by hundreds of kilometers.
Speaking on LBC Radio on Thursday morning, Braverman, known for her hardline anti-immigration stance, described visiting what she said was a wall built by Italy to stem migration.
“Italy have reinforced their borders. They built a wall. I went to see that wall,” she said.
“They built a wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey. They’ve got drones. They’ve got armored vehicles. They’ve got soldiers. The numbers crossing that border have plummeted.”
The statement quickly went viral, with social media users and public figures mocking the former Home Secretary for referencing a non-existent border.
Italy and Turkiye, located in southern Europe and western Asia respectively, share no land border.
Former Conservative MP Sir Michael Take responded sarcastically, suggesting that people were overreacting and quipping that Braverman should have claimed that “Italy had built (a wall) on its border with Syria.”
How easy of you all to leap on poor Suella Braverman for a simple slip of the tongue.
— Sir Michael Take CBE (@MichaelTakeMP) January 2, 2025
She didn’t mean to say the wall Italy built on its border with Turkey.
She was talking about the wall Italy had built on its border with Syria.
Show Suella some respectpic.twitter.com/ToLZImF7cH
Food critic Jay Rayner also shared the clip, jokingly asking: “And is this wall ‘on the land border between Italy and Turkey’ with you in the room right now?”
Others criticized the apparent ignorance displayed by a senior politician who once held responsibility for national security and immigration.
Portuguese journalist and political commentator Bruno Macaes commented on X: “How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock?”
British politician, former cabinet minister says she went to see the Italy-Turkey border. How did we get to a point where British politics is a global laughing stock? pic.twitter.com/MHvNvSqOAz
— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) January 2, 2025
Following the backlash, Braverman attempted to clarify her remarks, admitting on X that she had misspoken.
“And, obviously I meant Greece’s land border with Turkey which I was honoured to visit,” she wrote.
Bereaved orca seen carrying another dead calf in US waters
- Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering
Washington, USA: A bereaved female killer whale who carried her dead calf for more than two weeks in 2018 has again lost a newborn and is bearing its body, US marine researchers said.
Scientists say whales are among the world’s most intelligent animals, exhibiting complex social behavior including self-awareness and suffering.
The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the endangered orca named Tahlequah, also known as J35, was spotted carrying her deceased calf in Puget Sound off Seattle on New Year’s Day.
“J35 has been seen carrying the body of the deceased calf,” the center said in an Instagram post Thursday.
“This behavior was seen previously by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days,” it said.
When Tahlequah was carrying her previous deceased newborn seven years ago she was seen sometimes nudging its body with her nose and sometimes gripping it with her mouth, US media reported.
“It’s a very tragic tour of grief,” Center for Whale Research founder Ken Balcomb told public broadcaster NPR at the time.
The center said the loss of the latest female newborn was “particularly devastating” because Tahlequah has now lost two of her four documented calves.
“We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation,” the post said.
The center also said Tahlequah’s pod had been joined by another newborn. “The calf’s sex is not yet known but the team reports that the calf appeared physically and behaviorally normal,” the center said.
Tahlequah and her pod mates are Southern Resident Killer Whales, a population listed as endangered in the United States.
There are only three pods in the population, numbering around 70 whales. They spend several weeks of each spring and fall in the waters of Puget Sound.
Their numbers are dwindling owing to a combination of factors, including a reduction in their prey and the noise and disturbance caused by ships and boats, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
