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Just in: FG begins payment of N77k allowance to NYSC members

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Federal Government has officially commenced payment of N77,000 monthly allowance to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members.

The announcement of a pay increase by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which earlier brought relief and excitement among corps members nationwide, was met with disappointment following delay in implementation of the new allowance.

For almost six months after the announcement in September 2024, serving corps members were paid the previous N33,000 allowance introduced in 2020 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

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Confirming the development a serving corps member in Kwara State, simply identified as Adepoju, said the scheme had commenced N77,000 payment, describing the increase as “long overdue.”

He said that the payment was possibly being disbursed in batches, noting that while some corps members had already received theirs, others were still anxiously waiting.

Also, Nigerians on social media, have begun reacting to the development, which came following an assurance from the Minister of Youths that the federal government would pay backlog of the N77,000 allowance.

A Twitter user, @ToluDaniel10, expressed his thoughts, writing: “NYSC is finally paying 77k to corps members 👏🏽. If you have this girl’s DM, go say a big thank you. I bet the government wouldn’t have listened to you if not for her.”

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Another user, @fimlex2, wondered why the space was still quiet compared to when the scheme failed, tweeting:

“NYSC don pay corpers 77k now, see as everywhere just quiet.”

Similarly, @jess_odii confirmed the update: “NYSC has finally started the 77k payment today.”

For @dreyymo, the news called for celebration, sharing the development with excitement emoji: “NYSC don pay 77k oooo💃💃💃 I feel good 💐❤.”

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Meanwhile, this increment aligns with the new minimum wage adjustments advocated by labour unions and the government. [Tribune

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Video: Watch Dr Nwambu of CCLCA analyse ex-River HoS allegations against suspended Gov Fubara

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Hammering on developments from last week opening of suspended Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s underbelly by his HoS, Dr George Nwaeke.

Dr Nwaeke had over the weekend narrated all the hidden atrocities of Fubara and his Chief of Staff, Edison Ehie.

Watch clip below:

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AI will replace many doctors and teachers in ten years time – Bill Gates warns

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By Francesca Hangeior

Over the next decade, advances in artificial intelligence will mean that humans will no longer be needed “for most things” in the world, says Bill Gates.

That’s what the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist told comedian Jimmy Fallon during an interview on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in February.

At the moment, expertise remains “rare,” Gates explained, pointing to human specialists we still rely on in many fields, including “a great doctor” or “a great teacher.”

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But “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.

In other words, the world is entering a new era of what Gates called “free intelligence” in an interview last month with Harvard University professor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks. The result will be rapid advances in AI-powered technologies that are accessible and touch nearly every aspect of our lives, Gates has said, from improved medicines and diagnoses to widely available AI tutors and virtual assistants.

“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.

The debate over how, exactly, most humans will fit into this AI-powered future is ongoing. Some experts say AI will help humans work more efficiently — rather than replacing them altogether — and spur economic growth that leads to more jobs being created.

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Others, like Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, counter that continued technological advancements over the next several years will change what most jobs look like across nearly every industry, and have a “hugely destabilizing” impact on the workforce.

“These tools will only temporarily augment human intelligence,” Suleyman wrote in his book “The Coming Wave,” which was published in 2023. “They will make us smarter and more efficient for a time, and will unlock enormous amounts of economic growth, but they are fundamentally labor replacing.”

AI is both concerning and a ‘fantastic opportunity’

Gates is optimistic about the overall benefits AI can provide to humanity, like “breakthrough treatments for deadly diseases, innovative solutions for climate change, and high-quality education for everyone,” he wrote last year.

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Talking to Fallon, Gates reaffirmed his belief that certain types of jobs will likely never be replaced by AI, noting that people probably don’t want to see machines playing baseball, for example.

“There will be some things we reserve for ourselves. But in terms of making things and moving things and growing food, over time those will be basically solved problems,” Gates said.

AI’s development does come with “understandable and valid” concerns, Gates wrote in a 2023 blog post. Today’s top-of-the-line AI programs are rife with errors and prone to enabling the spread of falsehoods online, for example.

But if he had to start a new business from scratch, he’d launch an “AI-centric” startup, Gates told CNBC Make It in September 2024.

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“Today, somebody could raise billions of dollars for a new AI company [that’s just] a few sketch ideas,” he said, adding: “I’m encouraging young people at Microsoft, OpenAI, wherever I find them: ‘Hey, here’s the frontier.’ Because you’re taking a fresher look at this than I am, and that’s your fantastic opportunity.”

Gates predicted AI’s potential years ago

Gates saw the AI revolution coming nearly a decade ago: When asked which industry he’d focus on if he had to start over from scratch, he quickly chose AI.

“The work in artificial intelligence today is at a really profound level,” Gates said at a 2017 event at Columbia University alongside Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. He pointed to the “profound milestone” of Google’s DeepMind AI lab creating a computer program that could defeat humans at the board game Go.

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At the time, the technology was years away from ChatGPT-style generative text, powered by large language models. Yet by 2023, even Gates was surprised by the speed of AI’s development. He’d challenged OpenAI to create a model that could get a top score on a high school AP Biology exam, expecting the task to take two or three years, he wrote in his blog post.

“They finished it in just a few months,” wrote Gates. He called the achievement “the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface [in 1980].”

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US Senator Cory Booker breaks record

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* Delivers 25-hour longest speech against Donald Trump

By Francesca Hangeior

A Democratic United States lawmaker shattered a record for the longest speech in Senate history Tuesday, staying on his feet for more than 25 hours to deliver a fiery protest against President Donald Trump’s “unconstitutional” actions.

Senator Cory Booker’s display of endurance — to hold the floor he had to remain standing and could not even go to the bathroom — recalled the famous scene in Frank Capra’s 1939 film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

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The longest Senate speech on record before Tuesday was delivered by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Booker, only the fourth Black senator to be popularly elected to the body, blew past that deadline, his voice still strong but emotional as he topped out at 25 hours and five minutes.

“Strom Thurmond’s record always… really irked me,” he later told broadcaster MSNBC.

“That the longest speech on our great Senate floor was someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate.”

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The public galleries of the Senate chamber gradually filled as the moment he broke the record approached, with more Democratic lawmakers joining the session — although Republicans largely stayed away.

“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong,” Booker said as he wrapped up.

He also quoted his mentor John Lewis, a 1960s civil rights movement leader, who urged campaigners to get into “good trouble,” before finally pronouncing “Madam President, I yield the floor.”

The 55-year-old New Jersey native had found a moment for some humor as he passed the record, joking: “I want to go a little bit past this and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling.”

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Although Booker’s talk-a-thon was not actually blocking the majority Republican Party from holding votes in the Senate, as would be the case in a true filibuster, his defiance quickly became a rallying point for beleaguered Democrats.

Booker, a former presidential candidate, seized command in the chamber at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) Monday and finished at 8:05 pm Tuesday.

He lashed out at Trump’s radical cost-cutting policies that have seen his top advisor Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, slash entire government programs without consent from Congress.

The senator said Trump’s aggressive seizing of ever-more executive power had put US democracy at risk.

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“Unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds. And institutions which are special in America, which are precious and which are unique in our country, are being recklessly — and I would say even unconstitutionally — affected, attacked, even shattered,” Booker said.

“In just 71 days the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy,” he said.

But he had words of encouragement for Trump opponents, saying as he concluded that “the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

Booker later went into detail about how he withstood the physical demands of the speech.

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“My strategy was to stop eating. I think I stopped eating Friday and then to stop drinking the night before I started on Monday,” he told reporters in the Capitol.

The approach “had its benefits and had its really downsides… different muscle groups start to really cramp up” with dehydration, he added.

In a statement sent by his office, Booker added that he was “tired and a little hoarse.”

Democratic lawmakers, in the minority in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have struggled over how to blunt Trump’s efforts to downsize government, ramp up deportations and shred much of the country’s political norms.

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“I just want to thank you for holding vigil for this country all night,” Senator Raphael Warnock told Booker on the floor.

Booker dedicated much of his speech to criticizing Trump’s policies, but to pass the time he also recited poetry, discussed sports and entertained questions from colleagues.

“If you love your neighbor, if you love this country, show your love. Stop them from doing what they’re trying to (do),” he said.

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