2019 Entry Level Recruitment at United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA)
Entry Level Recruitment (Customer Service & Teller)
- Job TypeFull Time
- QualificationOND BA/BSc/HND
- LocationLagos
- Job FieldBanking Customer Care Finance / Accounting / Audit
Details
- We’re looking for individuals who’re problem solvers, customer centric & efficient to join our team.
- OND holders can now apply to join our tellers team.
- BSc. Holders can apply to join our customer service team.
Method of Application
Interested and qualified? Go to United Bank for Africa (UBA) career website on docs.google.com to apply
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
2019 Entry Level Recruitment at United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA)
Trump says he put 'no pressure' on Ukraine, as tension mounts
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Trump says he put 'no pressure' on Ukraine, as tension mounts
AFP / SAUL LOEBDonald Trump, embroiled in a scandal over his communications with Ukraine, is facing growing calls from Democrats for impeachment proceedings to be launched against him
US President Donald Trump on Monday swatted away mounting pressure from Democrats demanding his impeachment, rejecting accusations he had offered aid to Ukraine only if it investigated his political rival Joe Biden.
Battered by the burgeoning scandal during his first full day at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump tried to shift the controversy toward Biden, accusing the former vice president, without evidence, of engaging in corruption in Ukraine.
Democrats have fumed as Trump's administration has blocked Congress from obtaining a whistleblower's secret complaint allegedly detailing the president's actions, and they ramped up their demands for the document that sparked the latest crisis.
The complaint reportedly centers on Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, and a possible attempt to coerce him into digging up damning information about Biden's son's business dealings in Ukraine.
In the days before the phone call Trump ordered his chief of staff to withhold almost $400m in military aid earmarked for Ukraine, the Washington Post and New York Times reported late Monday, quoting senior administration officials.
The officials were instructed to tell lawmakers the freeze was due to an "interagency process", but to provide no additional information, the Post said.
In a startling earlier admission, Trump acknowledged addressing alleged corruption involving Biden and son Hunter on the call.
"Joe Biden and his son are corrupt," he said in a bald attack, providing few details other than to say Hunter Biden, who once served on a Ukrainian natural gas company's board, "took money from Ukraine."
To date, there has been no evidence of illegal conduct in Ukraine by the Bidens.
Trump also insisted that, in his call with the Ukrainians, "I put no pressure on them whatsoever," and "I did not make a statement that you have to do this or I won't give you aid."
GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / WIN MCNAMEEHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who so far has been hesitant to start impeachment proceedings against Trump, signaled that could change
Biden fired back on Twitter: "So release the transcript of the call then."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who so far has been hesitant to start impeachment proceedings against Trump, signaled that could change.
If the administration does not produce the whistleblower complaint, "they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation," she said Sunday.
The Democratic chairs of three key intelligence-related House committees on Monday threatened subpoenas against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo if he does not produce documents related to a meeting between Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials.
The three said seeking to enlist a foreign actor to interfere with elections undermines US sovereignty and democracy, "yet the president and his personal attorney now appear to be openly engaging in precisely this type of abuse of power involving the Ukrainian government ahead of the 2020 election."
- 'Corrupted his office' -
Several Democrats argue that Trump's call for Ukraine to investigate Biden -- and what they suspect was a threat to condition the aid to Ukraine on the country doing so -- is impeachable conduct.
That view may be pushing House leaders toward a tipping point for launching removal proceedings, along with their Democratic Senate colleagues.
Trump "has fundamentally corrupted his office," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told reporters, accusing Republicans of being "complicit in that corruption every single day that they stand with him."
On Monday night, seven freshmen House Democrats announced their support for impeachment in an essay published in The Washington Post.
"If these allegations are true, we believe these actions represent an impeachable offense," wrote the representatives, all of whom are veterans of the military or intelligence community.
The Senate's Republican leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber's intelligence committee was launching a bipartisan inquiry into the whistleblower complaint.
That move drew praise from some Republicans, while others insisted that Democrats were on a fishing expedition.
"The Democrats are cranking up the outrage machine again, beating the impeachment drum," Senator John Barrasso said.
"They're hoping they have something here. I just don't see it."
With pressure building, a handful of Republicans in the Senate -- which would put Trump on trial should the House impeach him -- have indicated they want the president to be more transparent.
But most congressional Republicans have either defended the president or remained silent.
Senator Marco Rubio acknowledged it was inappropriate for Trump to discuss rival Biden on a call with Ukraine's president, but said that was "different" from being an impeachable offense.
All eyes will be on Washington Thursday, when the administration official who blocked congressional review of the whistleblower document, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, testifies publicly before a House panel.
Launching impeachment proceedings could be politically risky ahead of an election, especially given the high hurdle of convicting the president in the Republican-led Senate.
Of the 235 House Democrats, 154 of them, plus Republican-turned-independent Justin Amash, support launching an impeachment inquiry, according to Politico.
Murders of land activists spike under Philippines' Duterte: watchdog
News
Murders of land activists spike under Philippines' Duterte: watchdog
AFP/File / NOEL CELISDuterte had created 'a culture of impunity and fear', the report said
Murders of environmental activists and land defenders in the Philippines have risen sharply under President Rodrigo Duterte, an international rights watchdog said Tuesday, alleging his speeches and policies have "emboldened" the killers.
Campaigners who challenge powerful logging, mining and fruit growing interests have long faced deadly violence in the Philippines, but the recent increase marked a "disturbing" jump, according to a report from Global Witness.
In July, the group said 30 killings in the Philippines last year made it the deadliest country in the world for land defenders -- a first since the group began reporting such deaths in 2012.
"Since President Duterte came to power, there's been a huge increase in the killings of land and environmental defenders including indigenous activists," senior Global Witness campaigner Ben Leather told AFP.
The report said the toll was at least 113 since Duterte became president in mid-2016, while no fewer than 65 were killed in the three years before his rule.
"The president's aggressive rhetoric against defenders, coupled with the climate of violence and impunity fostered by his drugs war, has only made things worse," Leather added.
AFP/File / KARL MALAKUNASEvironmental defender Ruben Arzaga was shot dead in 2017 while on a mission to confiscate chainsaws and other equipment used to destroy Palawan’s rainforests
Duterte's presidency has been marked by his internationally condemned anti-drugs campaign that authorities say has resulted in more than 5,500 dealers or users being gunned down by police.
Rights groups say the true toll is at least four times as high.
The president also threatens enemies in his frequent, rambling public statements that are peppered with profanity and are part of his popular appeal in the Philippines.
During a 2017 press conference, he threatened to bomb tribal community schools, which he accused of pushing students to become communist rebels, according to Global Witness.
"The President's brutal 'war on drugs' has fostered a culture of impunity and fear, emboldening the politically and economically powerful to use violence," the report added.
- 'Complicit' -
The report cited a series of killings carried out since Duterte won a landslide election victory on his promise to fight crime and corruption.
AFP/File / KARL MALAKUNASPalawan island is known as the country's last ecological frontier
In 2017, a member of an environmental watchdog group was shot dead while attempting to confiscate illegally cut timber destined for boutique hotels being built amid a tourist boom on Palawan island, known as the country's last ecological frontier, the report said.
The victim was the 12th member of the group to be killed since 2004, it added.
A community leader in Mindanao was shot dead in a 2016 ambush after speaking out against a mining project run by a company headed by a businessman who was an election campaign donor for Duterte, Global Witness said.
It said it also investigated cases of ranchers growing pineapples and bananas for fruit multinationals on land claimed by tribesmen, one of whom was killed -- allegedly by security guards of a Del Monte Philippines contract grower in 2017.
In 2016, security guards of another rancher who grows bananas for Dole Philippines destroyed the houses of tribesmen claiming the land, uprooted their crops and chased them off the property with gunshots, the report said.
AFP/File / Noel CELISDuterte's anti-drugs campaign has resulted in more than 5,500 dealers or users being gunned down, authorities say. Rights groups say the true toll is at least four times as high
Dole and Del Monte dominate the industry in the Philippines, which the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation ranked as the world's second-largest exporter of both bananas and pineapples last year.
Continuing to do business with these ranchers "makes both companies complicit with the violations", Leather said.
Del Monte Philippines, in a statement, denied the report's allegations, adding that it "vigorously promotes the welfare of stakeholders across its global supply chain".
Dole Philippines, controlled by Japan's Itochu Corp, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Jellyfish thrive in the man-made disruption of the oceans
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Jellyfish thrive in the man-made disruption of the oceans
AFP / Philippe LOPEZJellyfish are breeding at a much higher rate than before, thanks to changes in their enviroment wrought by human activity
Thousands of them plague our beaches to the horror of holidaymakers who dread their sting, but thanks to man's disruption of the oceans, jellyfish are thriving.
Jellyfish have been on Earth longer than we have -- they are believed to have roamed the oceans for nearly 600 million years.
But human activity, from over-fishing to plastic waste and climate change, has created an environment in which they are even more at home.
The proliferation of the jellyfish could lead to what some observers are calling the "jellyfication" of the oceans, which are facing profound changes according to a draft UN report due out on Wednesday.
Fabien Lombard, a French marine biologist at the Sorbonne University specialising in the ecology of plankton and jellyfish, would not go that far.
"There are more jellyfish in certain zones in the world," he told AFP: the Black Sea, off the Namibian coast and the Sea of Japan.
It is not clear if their presence has increased in other parts of the world, because it is difficult to actually count them, although worldwide database was set up in 2014 to track them.
Jellyfish, which were among the first inhabitants of the planet, today live in all the seas and oceans of the world and at every depth.
The invertebrates have no brain, are 95-98% water and float and swim with the ocean currents.
They are incredibly diverse creatures, appearing in a huge range of colours and sizes.
- 'Absolutely incredible quantities' -
Jellyfish even reproduce in different ways during their life cycles.
Adults spawn, releasing a huge quantity of eggs and sperm into the water. The fertilised eggs sink to the ocean depths before hatching a small polyp, which can then clone itself.
When vast numbers of jellyfish mass together it is known as a "bloom". In the past these would happen at regular intervals, said Anais Courtet, a biologist at the Paris Aquarium -- every 12 years in the Mediterranean, for example.
"Today, this cycle is no long respected and you see it every year," she added.
AFP / Philippe LOPEZJellyfish can be found in all the seas and oceans of the world
For Philippe Cury, a specialist in marine ecosystems at France's National Research Institute for Development, this is due to manmade factors such as overfishing, deep-sea trawling and the heating of the oceans.
"These three factors provoke eruptions of the jellyfish population," he said. "These always happen," he added, "but they are a lot more frequent and we sometimes see absolutely incredible quantities."
Overfishing has eliminated some of their natural predators, such as tuna and sea turtles that are often accidentally caught in nets, but also the fish who feed on plankton.
With their predators reduced in number, the jellyfish have more plankton to feed on themselves and have thrived unchecked.
- The human factor -
Deep-sea trawling has also helped them. The trawlers drag giant nets across the ocean floor pulling up everything indiscriminately: sponges, worms and coral.
That leaves an environment in which the jellyfish polyps can breed unchecked, Cury explained.
And they have made human objects part of their own habitat too, from buoys right up to oil rigs.
"They adore plastic," said Lombard. Plastic waste of just a few centimetres can serve as a breeding colony to them.
YOMIURI SHIMBUN FILES/AFP / YOMIURI SHIMBUNThe sheer size of some jellyfish can be a threat to fishermen if they caught in their nets
And while global warming and the acidification of the oceans might have hit some species, it has done jellyfish no harm, said Courtet.
Their proliferation has got to the point where they are even now interfering with human activity -- and this goes way beyond stinging unwary holidaymakers.
It's a problem for fishing, for fish farming and for desalination plants. They can even clog up the cooling systems on nuclear installations.
For example in 2007, jellyfish decimated the salmon at a fish-farm off Northern Ireland, stinging the fish, which were unable to escape.
In Japan, fishermen sometimes call off fishing expeditions if there are too many jellyfish in the waters, for fear the weight of the creatures will cause them to lose their nets or even capsize.
"We need ecosystems that function normally, with broad biodiversity," said Cury.
Any thought of fishing the jellyfish themselves -- whether to eat them or just get rid of them -- is not practical, he added. "They reproduce very quickly."
US PGA Tour cancels Hong Kong event over player safety
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US PGA Tour cancels Hong Kong event over player safety
AFP/File / ANTHONY WALLACEThe Clearwater Bay course lies to the east of Hong Kong Island
The US PGA Tour on Tuesday cancelled next month's season-ending event on its Chinese feeder golf circuit in Hong Kong citing "continued demonstrations, civil unrest and safety concerns".
The Clearwater Bay Open, from October 17-20, would have been the climax of the third-tier, 14-event, PGA Tour Series-China.
Instead it became the latest sporting casualty of sometimes violent mass anti-government protests.
Next month's WTA Hong Kong Open featuring many of the world's top women tennis players has already been postponed and last week a horse racing meeting at the city's famous Happy Valley track was cancelled for the first time.
"Due to continued demonstrations, civil unrest and safety concerns in Hong Kong, PGA Tour Series-China is cancelling the 2019 Clearwater Bay Open," said a tour statement Tuesday.
The PGA Tour Series-China has around 50 Chinese players in its 100-plus membership and works closely with the Beijing-backed China Golf Association to stage events, with only two tournaments -- in Macau and Hong Kong -- being hosted outside the mainland.
With a large mainland entry at Clearwater Bay, which lies to the east of Hong Kong Island, there were fears that the event could be targeted by anti-Beijing protesters.
"The safety of our players, staff, fans, volunteers and everybody else associated with our tournaments is always at the forefront of anything we do," PGA Tour Series-China chief Greg Carlson said.
"We have analysed this situation from every angle, and as a group we determined that cancelling the 2019 Clearwater Bay Open is the best decision."
Millions of pro-democracy supporters have taken to Hong Kong's streets for almost four months in the biggest challenge to China's rule since the city's handover from Britain in 1997.
Violent clashes have become more intense across the city in recent weeks with police frequently unleashing baton charges, tear gas and bean bag rounds.
The PGA Tour Series-China season will now end with the Macau Championship from October 10-13.
The tour's most famous graduate is the world number 52 Li Haotong, who won the 2014 order of merit before going on to finish third in the 2017 British Open. He has also won twice on the European Tour.
French chef sues Michelin guide, accusing them of cheese mix-up
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French chef sues Michelin guide, accusing them of cheese mix-up
AFP/File / JACQUES DEMARTHONMarc Veyrat's La Maison du Bois restaurant in the French Alps was demoted to just two Michelin stars in early 2019, just a year after obtaining the maximum three.
Celebrity French chef Marc Veyrat said Tuesday that he has sued the famed Michelin guide after inspectors stripped his restaurant of its coveted third star, claiming they had botched their evaluation, in particular over a cheese souffle.
"I've been dishonoured, I saw my team in tears... to have them call you one evening without warning, without anything written down, without anything, to say 'That's it, it's over'," Veyrat told France Inter radio on Tuesday.
Veyrat's La Maison des Bois restaurant in the French Alps was demoted to two stars from the maximum three last January, just a year after he secured the industry's highest accolade.
He said the move plunged him into depression, and the furious chef later demanded that he be removed from the vaunted red guides -- in vain.
He claims the downgrade came after a Michelin inspector mistakenly thought he had adulterated a cheese souffle with English Cheddar, instead of using France's Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme varieties.
"I put saffron in it, and the gentleman who came thought it was cheddar because it was yellow. That's what you call knowledge of a place? It's just crazy," Veyrat told France Inter.
His lawyer Emmanuel Ravanas had told AFP late Monday that Veyrat hopes the court will force Michelin to hand over documents "to clarify the exact reasons" justifying its decision.
He said a court hearing has been set for November 27 in Nanterre, just west of Paris.
"For decades, Marc Veyrat has been used to having his cooking graded, evaluated and compared, and he knows quite well that you don't own a star for life... He accepts it all, as long as the criticism is accurate," Ravanas said.
- Skiing accident -
Veyrat, 69, made his name with his so-called "botanical" cooking, employing the wild herbs gathered around his restaurants in his native Haute Savoie region.
Earlier this year the chef, who is instantly recognisable in France for his signature wide-brimmed black Savoyard hat and smoke-tinted glasses, had tried to get Michelin to hand over the inspector notes or the bills proving they had indeed dined at his establishment.
He also claimed that a new generation of editors at the head of the guide were trying to make their names by attacking the pillars of French cuisine.
AFP/File / JACQUES DEMARTHONVeyrat has claimed that a new generation of editors at the head of the Michelin guide were trying to make their names by attacking the pillars of French cuisine
But in a statement Monday, Michelin said it "understands the disappointment for Mr Veyrat, whose talent no one contests, even if we regret his unreasonable persistance with his accusations."
"Our first duty is to tell consumers why we have changed our recommendation. We will carefully study his demands and respond calmly," it said.
Veyrat's recovery of a third star for La Maison du Bois in 2018 capped a comeback after he was forced to give up cooking a decade ago after a serious skiing accident.
He had previously won three stars for two other restaurants.
The intense strains of reaching cooking's highest spheres -- and the financial impacts of losing Michelin stars -- have been highlighted in recent years by the suicides of several top chefs.
French chef Bernard Loiseau shot himself in 2003 after a newspaper hinted that his restaurant was about to lose its three-star status.
And Benoit Violier ended his life in 2016 just months after his Swiss restaurant was named the best in the world in the La Liste ranking.
Bats starving to death in Australia drought
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Bats starving to death in Australia drought
Queensland Bats/AFP / HandoutA fruit bat rescued from drought by Queensland Bats is nursed back to health at their wildlife centre on Australia's Gold Coast
Large numbers of bats are being found severely emaciated or starved to death in Australia amid a prolonged drought that is crippling their food supply, according to wildlife carers and environment officials.
There has been a "rapid increase" in the number of stricken native flying foxes found in areas of Queensland and New South Wales over the past two weeks, rescue group Bats Queensland told AFP.
Volunteer wildlife carer Ashley Fraser said Tuesday that parts of the picturesque Gold Coast, a popular tourist destination, were currently "littered" with hundreds of dead bats.
Though there have been cases of mass bat starvation in the region before, Fraser said her organisation had never dealt with an event on this scale.
"We can expect to see it get worse as well," she told AFP.
"The changing climate is going to worsen the drought and make it a pretty poor environment for bats to try to survive in."
Some flying fox species are listed as vulnerable to extinction. They are also a key pollinator of eucalyptus trees, the koala's main food source.
Queensland's Department of Environment and Science told AFP that officials believed the deaths were linked to the impact on the bats' food supply of the extended drought, as well as recent bushfires and storms.
Fraser said many of the flying foxes rescued by Bats Queensland were so emaciated their bodies had begun shutting down beyond the point of repair, forcing carers to euthanise them.
Even for those deemed fit enough to survive up to seven weeks of rehabilitation, the future remains uncertain.
Queensland Bats/AFP / HandoutA fruit bat hangs in a cage at a rescue centre in Gold Coast, Australia
"We don't want to be releasing them if there's not the food sources out there," Fraser said.
All of New South Wales and two-thirds of Queensland have been declared as in drought, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting below-average rainfall across much of Australia's east for the rest of the year.
Thousands of flying foxes died across Australia during the last southern hemisphere summer in a series of colony collapses caused by heat stress.
The increasingly common phenomenon is the result of extreme temperatures, which cause the bats to fall from trees as their brains boil and they succumb to the heat.
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