3 gifts not to buy this holiday

According to the National Retail Federation, 32% of us want consumer electronics this year, and 40% yearn for digital entertainment like DVDs and video games. If you’re looking for a high-end stocking stuffer, gadgets may seem like the way to go.

Be careful. People usually have very specific preferences that you couldn't guess, no matter how well you know them. Just because a new technology is sleek and popular doesn’t mean everyone wants it. To help you avoid an un-merry moment, here are three gifts Santa should avoid this holiday season.

Cheap tablets

At first, a tablet looks like the perfect gift. It’s small and fits into an ambiguous box, so recipients will have a hard time guessing what it is. The product’s marketing speak touts cameras, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, processors and storage that surely won’t disappoint.

Tablets also come dirt-cheap. It’s not that unusual to find a tablet under $50 that appears to be exactly what your recipient needs and wants.

Here’s what you need to know.

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro dies at 90

Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear war, tormented 11 American presidents and exerted almost total control over the last remaining communist government in the Western Hemisphere, has died. He was 90.

President Raúl Castro delivered a statement on Cuban television to confirm his brother's death:

“With profound pain I appear to inform our people and the friends of the Americas and of the world, that today, November 25, at 10:29 pm, the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz died. In compliance with the expressed will of the Companion Fidel, his remains will be cremated. In the early hours of Saturday the 26th, the funeral organizing committee will provide our people with detailed information on the organization of the posthumous tribute that will be done for the founder of the Cuban Revolution. Ever onward to victory!”

For 47 years, Castro maintained his grip over the island nation by forging close bonds with the Soviet Union, Venezuela and China, inspiring a wave of anti-American leaders throughout Latin America along the way.

His undoing began with surgery in 2006 that forced him to cede power to his brother, Raúl Castro, and forever changed the image of the man. Gone was the romantic vision of the bearded, cigar-smoking guerrilla leading his group of rebels through the mountains of Cuba, replaced by occasional pictures and videos of a frail, old man recovering in bath robes and track suits.

Fidel Castro bids farewell to Cuba's Communists as he says he will die soon

Fidel Castro has made what is likely to be his final speech to Cuba's Congress, telling the assembled politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution's ideals would live on.

The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party - a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018.

5 TECH ITEMS YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY IN LAGOS TRAFFIC

Due to the notoriety of Lagos Traffic, many vendors have taken advantage of selling all sorts of items. You can buy almost anything on Lagos highways. Lagosians are already used to this because after a hectic day at work, they may be unable to go to the market. Hence, they resort to patronise these vendors. The truth is you don’t have to buy everything from these street sellers in Lagos because you may regret patronising them later especially if you have the knack for buying gadgets. This is because the standard of these items are very low and nothing to write home about counterfeit. i gather 5 of these tech gadgets you should never buy in Lagos traffic.

Phone Charger/ battery

Phone chargers and battery are meant to have ampere to make it compatible with your phone. You can either buy a 1 amp charger or 2.1 amp charger. If you buy the wrong charger, your phone may explode. The fact is these items sold on the street don’t have any of these features. These chargers are just produced with the mindset that it will work with any device. This is impossible. It is either the charger is too slow or won’t work at all. The same for batteries.

Earpiece/headphones

This is the least item you should think of buying in traffic. The earpiece/headphones are write-offs and fake. If you don’t want to spend N250.00k every day, you should save money to buy an original one.

Phone

Yes, you can a phone on the road. If you buy these phones, you will not be allowed to test it whether it is working properly or not. The attraction is just that these phones are very cheap. Even when you buy these phones in traffic, you will not have time to peruse it.

Jeremy Clarkson fires back at Netflix's claim that his new show cost Amazon $250 million

Netflix's claim that his new show, "The Grand Tour," cost Amazon a whopping $250 million.

"Amazon spent far less than Netflix would have you believe,"Clarkson told CNN. "It's nowhere near as expensive as people have been saying."

Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos recently told The Telegraph that "The Grand Tour," starring Clarkson and the "Top Gear" team, cost Amazon "about a quarter of a billion dollars." The Financial Times had previously reported that Amazon had paid $250 million for three seasons of the show.

Clarkson disputes that number. While he wouldn't reveal how much the show actually cost, he said he knew the figure and it wasn't close to $250 million.

The first episode of the show's 12-episode first season dropped on November 18.

Black Teen Shot Dead In West Virginia

A 15-year-old black boy was shot dead by a 62-year-old white man in West Virginia’s capital Charleston after the two bumped into each other at a local store and were involved in an altercation, according to reports Wednesday.

The incident happened after the teen James Means went to sit on friend’s porch following the altercation with William Pulliam, who walked past the two boys. Pulliam and Means had a confrontation again after which the man shot the teen twice in the abdomen, Means’ friend Clayton Ferguson told police.

“The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off the street,” Pulliam told police, according to a criminal complaint filed by Charleston Detective C.C. Lioi.

A 6-year-old boy was behind the Thanksgiving surprise outside Hillary Clinton's home

A 6-year-old boy named Liam was behind the effort to surprise Hillary Clinton on Thanksgiving Day with a series of colorful signs posted near her Chappaqua, New York, home, his mother told Politico.

On Thursday, Clinton tweeted an image of the signs featuring messages such as "Thank-you, Hillary," "You are loved," and "An American hero."

"I was greeted by this heartwarming display on the corner of my street today," Clinton wrote. "Thank you to all of you who did this. Happy Thanksgiving."

View image on Twitter

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Hillary Clinton 

✔@HillaryClinton

I was greeted by this heartwarming display on the corner of my street today. Thank you to all of you who did this. Happy Thanksgiving. -H

9:40 PM - 24 Nov 2016

 
•  41,80241,802 Retweets
 
•  218,610218,610 likes

It was one of her first tweets since conceding the election to Donald Trump earlier this month.

Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say

The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation.

Russia’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda machinery — including thousands of botnets, teams of paid human “trolls,” and networks of websites and social-media accounts — echoed and amplified right-wing sites across the Internet as they portrayed Clinton as a criminal hiding potentially fatal health problems and preparing to hand control of the nation to a shadowy cabal of global financiers. The effort also sought to heighten the appearance of international tensions and promote fear of looming hostilities with nuclear-armed Russia.

Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to claim the White House. The sophistication of the Russian tactics may complicate efforts by Facebook and Google to crack down on “fake news,” as they have vowed to do after widespread complaints about the problem.

Trump and the white power problem

I’ve written a lot of pretty rough things about Donald Trump over the last 18 months. I’ve called him an entertainer and an emotional extremist, a guy with a black hole at his center. I’ve likened him to P.T. Barnum and a dime-store psychic.

Not once, though, have I suggested that Trump is, personally, a racist or an anti-Semite, which are labels people throw around too often these days. He’s always struck me as an opportunist more than anything else — an act in search of an audience, which he just happened to find in some of the darkest corners of the American psyche.

I figured that if a loud chunk of conservative voters had been anxiously agitating for someone to champion, say, antipoverty programs instead of a wall, Trump would have jumped on that horse just as quickly. Whatever his flaws, I didn’t take him for a devoted bigot.

It’s only now, after another staggering week in our fast unraveling society, that I find myself asking a question I really never imagined asking.

Does the president-elect of the United States feel some genuine kinship with the white nationalists he’s managed to embolden? Or does he just think it’s not a big deal if a bunch of crazy guys go around saluting him like Nazis?

Embattled Syrians from east and west Aleppo play football match amongst the devastation in 'bid for reconciliation'

A friendly football match has been held between the eastern and western neighbourhoods of the divided Syrian city of Aleppo, it has been reported.

The match was said to have been organised by the government in a bid towards reconciliation after rebel forces in the besieged east turned down an invitation to participate.

Ex-residents of opposition-controlled territories who now live in the western side of town formed the "east" team - with no one leaving besieged areas to take part, The Independent reported.

Robbers attack football icon, Luis Figo's house, make away with €500,000 worth of jewellery's

Former Barcelona and Real Madrid player Luis Figo's Madrid mansion was attacked on Wednesday night while the footballer wasn't around and the robbers made away with jewellery worth €500,000 according to reports in the Spanish media. According to top Spanish magazine, AS, who reported the story;

BREAKING NEWS: Masked intruder armed with a knife and sawn-off-shotgun cuts the throat of elderly woman and kills a man as he holds 70 monks and nuns hostage at retirement home near Montpellier in France

Two people are dead and more than 70 monks were being held hostage by a masked man with a knife and sawn-off shotgun in in Montpellier, France.

Local residents claim the armed man stormed the retirement home at around 9.45pm but they are unsure of his motives as anti-terror police surround the building.

At least 70 monks and nuns, who have served as missionaries in Africa, reside in the home in Montferrier-sur-Lez, north of the city. 

Those killed are thought to be an elderly female supervisor who was stabbed several times and a man who was working with her.

Masked gunman stormed retirement home (pictured) in Montepellier, France, and is now on the run

Pictures from the scene tweeted by Henry A Pinto: Emergency services including armed police at the scene tonight as hunt for gunman continues 

BREAKING: Nigeria Presidential Aircraft Crashes Source

One of the presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian Air Force, has crashed at the Nigerian Air Force base in Makurdi.

The Agusta AW 101, which is a medium-lift helicopter specially designed for military operations, was one of the jets recently handed to the Air Force by the federal government.

According to a report by TheNewGuru, the plane reportedly crashed due to poor training of crew members who manned its operation.

But the Director of Information of the Nigeria Air Force, Group Captain Dele Famuyiwa, has denied the report that one of the aircraft crashed.

“It was not a crash. I wouldn’t call it a crash because it just fell on the ground in Makurdi.”
Source: https://thewhistler.ng/story/breaking-nigeria-presidential-aircraft-crashes

'Sindr' is the Catholic Church's Tinder for confessions

Do you want to confess your sins but don’t know where the closest confessional is? You are...probably a lapsed Catholic. But perhaps you could benefit from a new app the Catholic Church is introducing next year that lets users search for confessionals and Holy Mass.

The Catholic app is being nicknamed “Sindr” by some, though that makes it sound more like you get to swipe right to commit sins—which is already what Tinder is for. But Catholics are hoping this gets younger members of the faith more involved, what with having to balance their faith in a "frenetic world," or so the app demo says.  

No drugs, alcohol found in driver in Tennessee school bus crash, death toll hits six

 

No drugs or alcohol were found in the system of the man accused of vehicular homicide in the crash of a Tennessee elementary school bus that killed six children and critically injured several more, police said on Wednesday.

Johnthony Walker, 24, was driving the bus full of students home from Chattanooga's Woodmore Elementary School on Monday when it veered off a road, flipped on its side and smashed into a tree and telephone poll, according to a police affidavit.

Officials said five children were killed initially: a kindergartner, a first-grader and three fourth-grade students. Police said on Wednesday evening that a sixth child had died.

Walker was driving on a narrow, winding road at well above the speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 kph) when he lost control, leaving the bright yellow bus mangled and nearly severed in two, the affidavit said.

Justin Bieber accused of punching fan

Justin Bieber has been caught on video appearing to slug a fan.

TMZ posted the footage of Bieber in Barcelona while on tour Tuesday.

In the video, Bieber is being driven in a car approaching Palau Sant Jordi stadium.

A group of screaming fans are greeting the car containing Bieber when a man sticks his hand in the window and appears to touch the singer.

Bieber's hand can then be seen making contact with the man's face.

watch video

At least 40 killed in east China scaffolding collapse

 

At least 40 people were killed in a scaffolding collapse Thursday morning at a construction site in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangxi, state media reported.

A work platform at a power plant cooling tower being built in the city of Fengcheng came tumbling down at about 7:30 a.m., an official with the local Work Safety Administration said by telephone.

He put the confirmed death toll at 22 but the official Xinhua News Agency said that figure had risen to at least 40 by midday. Xinhua did not cite its source for the information and calls to local government information offices rang unanswered.

Xinhua said an unknown number of others were still trapped in the debris.

Television footage and photographs from the site showed iron pipes and wooden planks strewn across the floor of the massive concrete cooling tower.

China has suffered a series of major industrial accidents over recent months blamed on corruption, disregard for safety and pressure to boost production amid a slowing economy.

Trump to Accept Inauguration Funds From Corporations and Big Donors

 President-elect Donald J. Trump will allow corporations and wealthy individuals to make large donations to fund the activities surrounding his inauguration, complicating his promise to eliminate special interests from influencing his government.

Mr. Trump plans to ban money from registered lobbyists, whom he has purged from his transition team and barred from working for his administration. But the restrictions will be lighter on corporations and individuals — the groups that have traditionally provided a vast majority of funding for the festivities surrounding the transfer of power.

The restrictions, which members of the Presidential Inaugural Committee cautioned have yet to be finalized, represent a continued march back from standards set in 2009, when President-elect Barack Obama banned gifts from lobbyists, political action committees and corporations, and put a cap of $50,000 on individuals.

Science says these 7 tactics will help you win any argument

You don't have to resort to yelling.

Skye Gould/Business Insider

After a highly controversial US election, you're likely to come in contact with someone you don't share the same views with.

It's easy for these calm discussions to turn ugly. If they involve family members, it can make the holidays especially stressful.

These are the most successful tactics to help you get your point across in a courteous and educated way.

Drake Baer contributed to an earlier version of this story.

---

Skye Gould/Business Insider

Attacking someone's ideas puts them into fight-or-flight mode. Once they're on edge, there will be no getting through to them.

So if you want to be convincing, practice "extreme agreement": Take your conversational partner's views and advance them to their logical - and perhaps absurd - conclusion.

AKON Worried About Kanye ... KEEPING MY EYE ON 'KARDASHIAN KURSE

Kanye West was bound to end up in a hospital ... IF you buy into the long rumored Kardashian curse supposedly haunting all the men in that family, and Akon might be a believer.

Akon was talking about Kanye's breakdown when our photog jokingly asked him if he puts any stock in the alleged curse. Akon's take is very interesting, complete with African proverbs.

Take a look ... especially if your name is Tyga.

Trump reportedly attended only 2 of his daily intelligence briefings since the election

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly turned away the intelligence officials responsible for getting him up to speed on US national security concerns and world affairs, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday night.

Trump, who has been meeting with domestic and international dignitaries in the two weeks since he won the election, has only received two classified intelligence briefings according to the Post, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence reportedly participated in the meetings almost every day.

Post reporters Greg Miller and Adam Entous wrote that Trump got his first classified briefing days after the election, and a second one on Tuesday, before heading to Florida for Thanksgiving.

The intelligence briefing is a summary of feedback from the 16 US intelligence agencies and a roundup of the CIA's secret international operations.

Sources within Trump's transition team who were cited by the Post suggested that, separate from the daily briefings, Trump deems choosing people for national security positions within his administration a priority.

The report follows concerns from within Washington that the president-elect — who has never held public office before — is unprepared for the gravity of daily Oval Office duties.

Lagos cancels monthly environmental sanitation day

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday terminated the monthly environmental sanitation exercise which hitherto held for three hours on the last Saturday of every month.

The State Government, in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the decision to cancel the monthly exercise followed a resolution arrived at Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting which approved the need for a robust review of the environmental laws and procedures in the state in order to meet the present day challenges and to promote a clean and healthy environment.

The Government noted that considering the present economic situation in the country, it was no longer appropriate to restrict movement of people for three hours in a mega city like Lagos at a time they should be pursuing commercial and entrepreneurial activities.

According to government, in the last two decades, Lagos has grown exponentially into a mega city with the attendant huge environmental problems associated with managing a population of over twenty million people.

S. Korea, Japan sign intelligence deal despite China criticism

South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-Koo (R) and Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Yasumasa Nagamine sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement in Seoul

South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-Koo (R) and Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Yasumasa Nagamine sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement in Seoul (AFP Photo/)

Japan and South Korea on Wednesday signed an agreement to share defence intelligence about North Korea, despite protests from opposition parties and activists in Seoul and strong criticism from China.

South Korea's defence ministry said the accord was necessary in the face of growing military threats from Pyongyang, which has conducted two nuclear tests and more than 20 missile launches this year.

"It is ready to conduct additional nuclear tests and missile launches at any time," the ministry said in a statement.

"Since we can now utilise Japan's intelligence capability to effectively deal with North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats, it will enhance our security interests."

Japan's foreign ministry said in a statement the military agreement would allow the two governments to "share information even more smoothly and swiftly".

Gucci Mane proposed to his longtime girlfriend at a basketball game

Rapper Gucci Mane proposed to his girlfriend Keyshia Kaoir at a basketball game last night with one of the biggest rings we've seen in a while...watch the video after the cut...

Trump flip-flops 6 times in 1-hour New York Times interview

In a lengthy Tuesday interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump repeatedly cast aside some of his provocative past statements.

The president-elect’s phenomenal rise to the White House was characterized in part by his boisterous personality and flair for the theatrical. His off-the-cuff responses to journalist’s questions and impulsive attacks against rivals endeared him to conservative voters who wanted a candidate to “tell it like it is.”

But it could be difficult to make governing compromises with the same level of mud-slinging coming from the Oval Office. Trump struck a far more mellow tone during his interview with the Times. Based on early tweets about the session, by Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Mike Grynbaum, Trump backed off of several extreme policy proposals and harsh insults against political opponents. He even backed off his attacks against the Times earlier in the day.

Here are a few instances of times that Trump drastically changed his tune.

Electoral College

During the 2012 presidential election, Trump called the Electoral College “a disaster for a democracy” and said it had made “a laughingstock out of our nation.”

But after he defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote, Trump tweeted that the Electoral College is “actually genius” because it “brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play.”