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With recent happenings, those calling for monitoring and regulating the use of social media may, after all, be right. It has become the vogue to use social media to tarnish hard-earned reputations under the guise of freedom of speech, forgetting that where your freedom ends is where someone else’s begins. A recent report in the media space asking the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike, to probe his appointment of a veterinarian as the permanent secretary of the FCTA Health and Environment Secretariat is laughable and a desperate craving for cheap publicity. There is no rule that says only medical doctors must head the secretariat. It will be recalled that similar opposition arose during the Ibrahim Babangida era when Pharmacist Julius Adelusi was appointed as minister of health. Medical doctors collectively opposed the appointment and called for his replacement with one of their own. However, the administration swiftly dismissed their claims, reminding them that pharmacists are also integral to the medical field and that the head of government reserves the right to appoint whomever he believes is most capable of delivering results. This resistance from medical doctors was not unique to the health sector. When the late Akinyele Benson was appointed minister of sports, critics questioned his qualifications because he openly admitted knowing little about sports. Despite this, his leadership proved exemplary, outshining expectations of professionals in the field. Similarly, there were murmurs when Prof. Dora Akinyuli, a pharmacist, was appointed as minister of information. However, she silenced critics by excelling in her role and leaving an indelible legacy. Thus, it is not surprising to see this pattern repeated with Dr. Baba-Gana Adam’s appointment, as critics, particularly some medical doctors, raise unnecessary concerns. Indeed, Wike deserves commendation for his judicious selection of permanent secretaries for the various Mandate Secretariats in the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). For the first time under the Wike administration, permanent secretaries were appointed, and in his quest for excellence, he selected highly qualified individuals, ensuring most of them were square pegs in square holes, professionally suited for their roles. By appointing the first crop of permanent secretaries, the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is firmly on the right track in the FCT. This baseless media war against selected permanent secretaries, including Dr. Baba-Gana Adam, is therefore unnecessary and inconsequential. Instead, there is a need to commend the minister for prioritising competence and for providing unwavering support to ensure a strong foundation for the secretariat’s operations. Under Wike’s leadership, the FCTA health sector has made remarkable progress in delivering healthcare services to grassroots communities in the nation’s capital. Competence, capability, and capacity should be the watchwords in public service, principles that Dr. Baba-Gana Adam has reinvigorated since his assumption of office. Under his leadership, the secretariat has witnessed the resuscitation of the Drug Revolving Services Fund monthly meeting, which had been abandoned prior to the appointment of Ezenwo Wike, CON, as FCT minister. Dr. Adam also initiated the review and enforcement of technical committees to ensure they function according to laid-out plans and guidelines. Furthermore, billions of naira owed to drug suppliers, which had been withheld by the previous administration, were approved for payment by the minister, showcasing the administration’s commitment to strengthening healthcare delivery and fostering trust in the system. For the purpose of this write-up, we shall focus on the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat, where Dr. Baba-Gana Adam has been named the pioneer permanent secretary. Whatever anyone may say, Dr. Baba-Gana Adam came prepared for the job. As a seasoned veterinary doctor with over three decades of experience in public service, he has demonstrated competence and commitment to improving healthcare delivery in the FCT. On assuming duty, Baba-Gana expressed gratitude to Wike for appointing him and vowed to make a difference by advancing the secretariat’s goals in alignment with the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda. His proactive response to the cholera outbreak in parts of the city center is a testament to his focus and dedication. The federal government’s commitment to revitalising the health sector is evident from the launch of the National Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) and the endorsement of the Sector-wide Compact by President Tinubu, the 36 state governors, and the FCT in December 2023. In line with this, the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat has emphasised the importance of medical palliatives, recognising their critical role alongside food palliatives in addressing the nation’s challenges amidst limited resources. Dr. Baba-Gana Adam also highlighted the significant achievements under Wike’s leadership, including improved funding, conducive work environments, and securing accreditation for Postgraduate Medical Residency Training Programmes. He commended the minister for his steadfast commitment to training a highly skilled health workforce, continuous hospital improvement and expansion, and the implementation of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), which has significantly boosted staff morale and success rates in postgraduate medical training. Dr. Baba-Gana noted that Wike, often referred to as “Mr. Projects,” is focused not only on infrastructure but also on building sustainable systems to improve health outcomes. Who is Dr. Baba-Gana Adam? Born in Maiduguri, Borno state, he had his early education at Yerwa Central Primary School and Federal Government College, Maiduguri. Adam pursued tertiary education at the School of Basic Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state and the University of Maiduguri. Dr. Adam is a seasoned public servant with extensive experience spanning over three decades in areas such as Logistics Planning, Research & Statistics, Project Monitoring & Evaluation, Outdoor Advertisement & Signage, and City Management. Since joining the FCTA in 2002, he has held several leadership roles, including at the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Parks and Recreation Department. As the immediate-past record-setting director of the Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage, he oversaw critical operations, including the one-stop-shop vetting and permit processing of Masts & Towers in the FCT. Dr. Adam’s contributions to urban renewal, beautification, and environmental services have been widely recognized. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the FCTA Merit Award for Outstanding Performance and the Nigerian Institute of Management Fellowship Award. Certainly, since his appointment as permanent secretary, the secretariat has raised its performance bar. Collaborating with the Mandate Secretary, Dr. Adedolapo Ayokunle Fasawe, Dr. Baba-Gana Adam is poised to make significant strides in advancing health services in the FCT. Indeed, Minister Wike deserves commendation for prioritising competence and for identifying the best talents from over 44,000 employees in the FCTA to lead its critical sectors.Judge says lawsuit over former NFL player Glenn Foster Jr.'s jail death can proceed

F5 director Alan Higginson sells $197,810 in stockNone

H aughty defiance has become Emmanuel Macron’s go-to tone during a second term marred by chaos, acrimony and recrimination. During his prime-time television address to the French nation last week, following the toppling of the centre-right prime minister he appointed only three months ago, Mr Macron loftily declined to take responsibility for France’s worst political crisis in decades. “Some people are tempted to blame me for this situation,” the president acidly observed after accepting Michel Barnier’s resignation. “It’s much more comfortable.” In fact, he suggested, responsibility lay entirely with the political forces who, in delivering the first no-confidence judgment on a government since 1961, had committed an “anti-republican” act of sabotage. The leftwing daily Libération offered a pithy and apt two-word headline riposte to such presidential hauteur: “ Flagrant déni” (“In flagrant denial”). Beyond the blame game, though, what now? As the disastrous consequences of Mr Macron’s decision to hold snap legislative elections in the summer continue to unfold, France finds itself without a functioning government for the second time in six months. Having squandered his relative majority, and handed unprecedented kingmaker status in the Assemblée to Marine Le Pen’s far-right MPs, the president is searching for a fourth prime minister in the space of a year. There is no reason to suppose the next one will find it easier than Mr Barnier to negotiate a parliament divided into three warring blocs. But there can be no fresh elections until July. The markets are spooked , and there is no budget in place for 2025. Mr Barnier’s fate was sealed by Ms Le Pen’s refusal to endorse an austerity budget that targeted pensioners – a constituency crucial to her chances of success in the next presidential election. Having pledged to name a new prime minister within days, Mr Macron could opt for another centrist or centre‐right figure, in the hope of better placating her. This arrangement, almost certainly, would also end in tears at a time of Ms Le Pen’s choosing. A more durable, and ethical, solution would be for Mr Macron to finally demonstrate the humility he should have shown after the chastening outcome of his summer gamble. The July snap poll was narrowly, but indubitably, won by the New Popular Front (NPF) – a leftwing alliance including the Socialist party and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed. Fearing that an NPF-led government would attempt to reverse parts of his legacy, including deeply unpopular plans to raise the retirement age, Mr Macron found reasons not to appoint a prime minister from the broad left. That decision was undemocratic, self-indulgent and turned the largest parliamentary bloc of MPs implacably against him. It was also deeply anti‐republican. Mr Macron’s political career has been built on the back of “republican” votes loaned to him to ward off the threat of a Le Pen presidency. In July, the first far-right government in postwar history was only averted by a similar mobilisation and the hasty formation of the NPF alliance. If he is to avoid a lame duck presidency degenerating to the point where his own humiliating resignation becomes unavoidable, the president needs to recognise that election losers don’t get to dictate terms. Instead of cynically looking to Ms Le Pen to prop up the next government, Mr Macron should move from talking the talk when it comes to republican values, to walking the walk.

Surely the trained eye can tell the rubble of one bombed city from that of another. Reporters on the ground, local residents who are still alive, certain architects and engineers can distinguish building materials, features of the urban landscape, possessions of the unlucky ones who lived there and lost everything — remnants of war-as-usual, common casualties of aggression ever more efficiently enabled by technological advances in the science of devastation — but to me, viewing the pictures from this distance, it all looks pretty much the same. What we couldn’t bear to witness firsthand (only we would if we had to, like all those other ordinary civilians) we are force-fed in images flooding our screens and pages paid for by advertising aimed at those of us still solvent enough to shop. Even the broke and homeless, some of them, still have their phones to keep them connected to something, if only pictures of their ex-lives — like mine in frames on walls and shelves of the small museum where I live among personal artifacts, evidence of a life easily obliterated by a single bomb, but for now peacefully preserving a private history for a perennially self-guided tour. That’s how it feels to me anyway, at the end of a dark year I have no desire to review, except for those few days of beauty, joy and pleasure that caught me by surprise and reminded me of what I’d almost forgotten: a face, a voice, a song, a book, a meal, a work of art, the smashing ocean, the jay in the birdbath, a few words overheard in a stray conversation or read in a letter, an unexpectedly tender tone of gratitude for some minor kindness. Let the newspapers and influencers and rankers and evaluators publish their best-of lists; I am content to reflect in private on gifts of momentary grace that came and went in a flash whose afterglow vaguely lingers. The brokenhearted faces, the shattered, the anxious, the anguished remind me regularly of how luck’s wheel spins and stops wherever it will. On balance, for now, while health holds out and I have a safe place to sleep, I seem to be doing OK, but for a while there, things weren’t going so well and there was no guarantee they’d ever get better. Luckily they did. Even so, friends died. Friendships ended in irreconcilable ideological differences. Loved ones joined the ancestors in an inaccessible afterlife. And yet, there was also that unforeseen exchange with a stranger standing in front of a painting in a gallery that seemed to mean more than what met the eye, like a poem that means more than words can say. That’s what I’m trying to get at, in a prosaic way: the unsayable, the inexpressible, all the news that isn’t fit to print, that slipped through the lines, evaded the cameras, couldn’t be explained or narrated, whose plot could not be summarized because it wasn’t linear but all tangled up in sauce like a steaming plate of pasta that looks so delicious you don’t know whether to eat it or take a picture, or delicately taste it to savor its indescribable ingredients, or try to describe the effect the flavors have on your tongue, as if words could begin to do that. Language, even nonfiction, only goes so far, like a finger pointing at something that won’t stay still. A river is like that: you can’t even step in it once — well, maybe during a drought — but this time of year when rain is doing its thing, as in a normal winter, the flow is moving too fast for you to go with it and all you can do is wonder as you are soaked in astonishment at the inexplicable, the unbelievable, the losses you never saw coming, and the ones you did see coming but couldn’t believe because you didn’t want to, and now you are bereft and all but speechless, as if you were standing in the ruins of a neighborhood you no longer recognize, except for those treasures barely discernible beneath layers of gray dust. A soft brush, deployed with precision by a tough but sensitive hand, can discover what’s been blown away by time.

Trump gave Interior nominee one directive for a half-billion acres of US land: ‘Drill.’Trump says he can't guarantee tariffs won't raise US prices and won't rule out revenge prosecutions WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump says he can’t guarantee his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won’t raise prices for American consumers. And he's suggesting once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. He also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning “things do change.” Europe's economy needs help. Political chaos in France and Germany means it may be slower in coming BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe's economy has enough difficulties, from tepid growth to trade tensions with the U.S. Dealing with those woes is only getting harder due to the political chaos in the two biggest European countries, France and Germany. Neither has a government backed by a functioning majority, and France could take a while yet to sort things out. But some problems aren't going to wait, such as what to do about U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's America First stance on trade and how to fund stronger defense against Putin's Russia. ‘Moana 2’ cruises to another record weekend and $600 million globally “Moana 2” remains at the top of the box office in its second weekend in theaters as it pulled in another record haul. According to studio estimates Sunday, the animated Disney film added $52 million, bringing its domestic total to $300 million. That surpasses the take for the original “Moana” and brings the sequel's global tally to a staggering $600 million. It also puts the film in this year's top five at the box office. “Wicked” came in second place for the weekend with $34.9 million and “Gladiator II” was third with $12.5 million. The 10th anniversary re-release of Christopher Nolan's “Interstellar” also earned an impressive $4.4 million even though it played in only 165 theaters. Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law - which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — is constitutional, rebuffing TikTok’s challenge that the statute ran afoul of the First Amendment and unfairly targeted the platform. TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court. Executive of Tyler Perry Studios dies when plane he was piloting crashes in Florida ATLANTA (AP) — The president of Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios has died when the small plane he was piloting crashed on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The studio confirmed on Saturday that Steve Mensch, its 62-year-old president and general manager, had died Friday. The crash happened in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa. Photos from the scene show the plane having come to rest upside down on a road. Mensch helped advocate for Georgia’s film tax credit of more than $1 billion a year. Perry hired Mensch to run his namesake studio in 2016. Mensch died as Perry released his war drama, “The Six Triple Eight." The film was shot at the Atlanta studio. US added a strong 227,000 jobs in November in bounce-back from October slowdown WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month, when the effects of strikes and hurricanes had sharply diminished employers’ payrolls. Last month’s hiring growth was up considerably from a meager gain of 36,000 jobs in October. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in September and October by a combined 56,000. Friday’s report also showed that the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1% in October to a still-low 4.2%. The November data provided the latest evidence that the U.S. job market remains durable even though it has lost significant momentum from the 2021-2023 hiring boom, when the economy was rebounding from the pandemic recession. Stock market today: Wall Street hits more records following a just-right jobs report NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records after data suggested the job market remains solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raises immediate worries about inflation. The S&P 500 climbed 0.2%, just enough top the all-time high set on Wednesday, as it closed a third straight winning week in what looks to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8% to set its own record. Treasury yields eased after the jobs report showed stronger hiring than expected but also an uptick in the unemployment rate. Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass NEW YORK (AP) — In an era when online anger and social tensions are increasingly directed at the businesses consumers count on, Meta last year spent $24.4 million to surround CEO Mark Zuckerberg with security. But the fatal shooting this week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson while walking alone on a New York City sidewalk has put a spotlight on the widely varied approaches companies take to protect their leaders against threats. And experts say the task of evaluating threats against executives and taking action to protect them is getting more difficult. One of the primary worries are loners whose rantings online are fed by others who are like-minded. It’s up to corporate security analysts to decide what represents a real threat. Days after gunman killed UnitedHealthcare's CEO, police push to ID him and FBI offers reward NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly four days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still do not know the gunman’s name or whereabouts or have a motive for the killing. But they have made some progress in their investigation into Wednesday's killing of the leader of the largest U.S. health insurer, including that the gunman likely left New York City on a bus soon after fleeing the scene. The also found that the gunman left something behind: a backpack that was discovered in Central Park. Police are working with the FBI, which on Friday night announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. USDA orders nationwide testing of milk for bird flu to halt the virus The U.S. government has ordered testing of the nation’s milk supply for bird flu to better monitor the spread of the virus in dairy cows. The Agriculture Department on Friday said raw or unpasteurized milk from dairy farms and processors nationwide must be tested on request starting Dec. 16. Testing will begin in six states — California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania. The move is aimed at eliminating the virus, which has infected more than 700 dairy herds in 15 states.

With a high forward dividend yield of 7.4%, Medical Properties Trust ( MPW 1.39% ) is of natural interest to investors seeking an income stream in their portfolios. Its business model, if executed conservatively, could indeed lead to steady and long-lived returns. But this is probably not the right stock to buy if you're looking for dividend income. Here's why. There's plenty of reason for caution As you probably know, Medical Properties Trust a real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on buying and making equity investments in hospitals and clinical spaces to rent them out to hospital and healthcare companies. The recent problems with MPT can be summarized in one chart: MPW Total Assets (Quarterly) data by YCharts . As you can see, its total assets , which are $15.2 billion, have fallen over the last three years as the company has been forced to sell off its properties to stay solvent relative to its debt load. It was still offloading its assets as of the third quarter. As a result, its quarterly revenue, which was $255.8 million in Q3, also fell, as it had fewer sources of rental income. In the same period, its cash from operations (CFO) collapsed to reach $59.2 million in the third quarter. Out of necessity, its dividend was sharply cut as well. At the heart of the company's issues is its debt load of nearly $9.3 billion. More than $1.2 billion of that sum is due in 2025, with an additional $2.1 billion due in 2026. There is no way that its operating cash flow will be enough to cover those debts even if 100% of it is dedicated to repayment. Therefore, more properties will be sold, and the top line will shrink further. That is not to imply that investors who buy the stock today will be safe from seeing their dividend cut. Over the trailing-12-month (TTM) period, it paid out $364.1 million in dividends. Even with the recent cut, maintaining such a consistent cash outflow over the long-term seems unlikely, especially considering the business's need for capital for debt repayment and growth. There isn't a bargain here Some investors may point to MPT's low valuation as evidence for the stock being worth a buy despite its grim financials. After all, its price-to-book (P/B) multiple of just 0.5 implies that the market is valuing the stock at less than the historical cost of its tangible assets. Such a wild disconnect is often a sign of the market overreacting and dumping shares of a business, perhaps one with a run of bad luck despite sound fundamentals. But MPT's valuation makes perfect sense if you consider the current situation, in which its assets are being liquidated, often at a loss, to cover the burden of repaying the principal and interest of the debt that was used to purchase them. In other words, the company is consistently failing to generate returns in excess of its cost of capital across a hearty handful of its biggest investments. The ranks of its senior leadership have not recently changed despite that situation coming to light. Therefore, there is little indication its capital allocation strategy is going to become more efficient than it was before. Nor is there much hope that economic factors will give way to a more favorable operating environment anytime soon. There won't be a big influx of demand for hospital floor space. And while such spaces are presently scarce enough to be valuable, there isn't any driver for them to become more valuable than before. In closing, you probably shouldn't buy Medical Properties Trust stock today, and it has long been time to sell if you are holding it. If you're still interested in investing in it as part of a turnaround play strategy , just watch it from the sidelines for now. There's no cost associated with waiting to see if it can somehow make headway on its pressing problems, and there's absolutely no rush to invest.A LIFE LIVED FOR OTHERS

Former lawmaker Mary Murphy, longest-serving woman in Minnesota House, suffers stroke

Trump Threatens 100 Percent Tariffs On Any ‘BRICS’ Nation That Abandons US Dollar