On Dec. 4, Destiny 2‘s Black Armory will open its doors to players for the first time. The new Tower location is just one piece of a larger addition to the game, and the first since September’s foundation-shaking Forsaken launched.

Central to Black Armory is the titular forge, or really, set of forges. The new Tower vendor ADA-1 will be your guide to exploring these new locations, all of which are built into existing Destiny 2 destinations. They’re tied to a new three-player survival activity that gives Guardians an opportunity to craft gear from the new weapon pool.

Also coming with the launch of Black Armory is a new raid — not a smaller raid lair, as was common among Destiny 2 expansions during its first year of release. The Black Armory raid, called Scourge of the Past, invites players to explore a rarely-visited, often-clamored-for destination in Destiny lore: the Last City. In typical raid fashion, expect to wait a bit before Scourge joins the rest of the Black Armory content.

Bungie’s newly released extended look covers all the specifics. Check it out.

Abuja, Nigeria – There has been one single promise that has dominated the election manifestos of Nigeria’s presidential candidates as they seek to lure the support of the country’s voters ahead of polls in February: jobs, jobs and more jobs.

This has also been the one issue that has consumed Immaculate Uba, who lost her bank job two years ago.

“It has been a horrible experience I never expected in my life – knowing fully well that you are willing and able to work but can’t secure a job,” she told Al Jazeera in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

“I am still searching for a paid job,” she says. In the meantime, she adds, she’s trying to make a living by doing bead- and shoe-making work.

Shrinking opportunities

Four out of every 10 people in the the country’s workforce are either unemployed or underemployed.

The unemployment rate stood at 18.8 percent in the third quarter of 2017, with underemployment at 21.2 percent.

The National Bureau of Statistics has not released new jobs data since last year, prompting accusations by critics that this is due to political reasons.

Meanwhile a number of companies have exited Nigeria in recent months – the latest being global banking giants HSBC and UBS.

South African casino and hotel operator, Sun International, is also close to shutting operations after its earnings were “hurt by subdued growth and one-off costs”, the company said.

Analysts have blamed the exits on shaky investor confidence, dealing a big blow to foreign direct investment and jobs in Africa‘s most populous nation.

“Nigeria‘s unemployment level is beyond crisis levels, and ought to be the government’s top concern as it has social implications,” Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, told Al Jazeera, describing the joblessness figures as “unsustainable”.

Amid this environment, thousands of young Nigerians are seeing the prospects of landing their dream job fade.

“I had hopes of a very bright career after graduating from university,” says Agnes Uzoigwe attention, a 28-year-old who took her geology degree six years ago.

“I looked forward to a job with an oil company in the Niger Delta area but after almost four years of applying for different roles, I got frustrated,” she adds, fighting back tears.

“The most annoying thing is that it looks like there’s no hope. Those employed by companies are being sacked and people like me with no job experience can’t even imagine getting any job,” she adds.

Uzoigwe’s father, who funded her studies, recently retired as a government employee and is relying on his pension to cater for his family of seven.

After a long period of searching for a job in Abuja, Uzoigwe has now taken up a job as a teacher in a private college. But she says her wage is barely enough to take care of her basic needs.

‘Frustrated people will eventually turn to demagogues’

Nigeria is Africa‘s biggest economy, yet this that has not translated to jobs for many.

Frustrated and desperate, many job seekers have often fallen victim to fake hiring firms which cash in on their need to get a job.

These companies advertise positions with attractive offers, but end up swindling job seekers who are asked to pay “registration and logistics” fees before landing a job.

“With the school system adding roughly a million people a year to the workforce, and a very high birth rate, this represents Nigeria’s biggest challenge,” Nwanze, the analyst, says.

“Frustrated people will eventually turn to demagogues for their daily bread,” he adds.

Political arena

The country’s worsening unemployment situation has negatively affected the government’s image.

President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 elections on the back of a campaign vowing to fix the nation’s economy, but has struggled to fix the worsening economic crisis.

Now, ahead of the February elections, he is promising to generate more employment.

“The next level of effort focuses on job creation across various sectors,” Buhari said in his election campaign’s policy document.

“From an enlargement of the N-Power programme [government loan scheme for young graduates] to investing in technology and creative sector jobs to agriculture and revolutionising access to credit for entrepreneurs and artisans, there is scope for over 15 million new jobs.”

His main challenger for the presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has attacked the government’s job creation record since Buhari assumed office four years.

“Close to 16 million people are unemployed, nine million more than in 2014,” Abubakar said in his own campaign document.

Abubakar has promised to remedy this with “the creation of up to three million self- and wage-paying employment opportunities in the private sector annually”.

Iniobong Paul, a hotelier who lost her job two years ago, told Al Jazeera she hopes that the political promises will be realised after the elections.

“It’s not been easy,” she says, adding that she looks forward to working again.

“It’s really been a trying time for me.”

EFL: Championship, League One & League Two updates – Live – BBC Sport

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Netflix will adapt the beloved stories of children’s author Roald Dahl, including Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, The Twits, and more. The new versions will be animated series as opposed to previous live-action film adaptations.

“Netflix is known for innovative and high-quality storytelling,” added Gideon Simeloff, Strategy Director for The Roald Dahl Story Company, in a Netflix press release. “There is no other place in the world that can deliver animated entertainment for the whole family at such quality and scale.” 

“Immersing ourselves in the extraordinary worlds of Roald Dahl stories has been an honor and a massive amount of fun, and we are grateful for the trust the Roald Dahl Story Company and the Dahl family have placed in our team to deliver more moments of shared joy to families around the world,” commented Melissa Cobb, Vice President of Kids & Family Content at Netflix. “We have great creative ambition to reimagine the journeys of so many treasured Dahl characters in fresh, contemporary ways with the highest quality animation and production values.” 

The full list of titles currently in the Netflix agreement is: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Boy – Tales of Childhood, Going Solo, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Esio Trot, Dirty Beasts, and Rhyme Stew.

The animation ensures that these adaptations don’t overlap significantly with popular film versions of Dahl’s work – particularly 1996’s Matilda, starring Mara Wilson, and 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. The series can remain faithful to the books, as with A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix, and animation offers freedom (even though live-action CGI has developed enough for a 2016 attempt at The BFG).

“Our mission, which is purposefully lofty, is for as many children as possible around the world to experience the unique magic and positive message of Roald Dahl’s stories,” said Dahl’s widow Felicity. “Roald would, I know, be thrilled.”

Operations at Yemen’s lifeline port of Hodeidah have dropped by almost 50 percent over the past two weeks, with shipping companies deterred by insecurity in the flashpoint Houthi-held city, according to the United Nations.

Saudi and UAE-led forces are fighting to oust the rebels that have taken over most of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. 

As 70 percent of imports come in through the vital Hodeidah port, a drop in the arrival of wheat and other supplies would affect food stocks in Yemen where 14 million people are facing possible starvation after nearly four years of war, the UN’s World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

“WFP is very concerned about a nearly 50 percent decrease in operations at Hodeidah port over last two weeks,” Herve Verhoosel, a spokesperson for the agency, told reporters in Geneva. 

“Shipping companies appear to be reluctant to call to Hodeidah port because of the high levels of insecurity in the city,” he said.

The WFP, which provides rations to eight million Yemenis each month, has been trying to scale up its efforts to avert famine.

It has two more months worth of food stocks in the impoverished country, Verhoosel said.

“Any disruptions to the port operations would hamper humanitarian efforts to prevent famine as well as increase food prices in markets even further, making it extremely difficult for the majority of Yemenis to feed their families,” he added.

On Monday, a single vessel was at Hodeidah port, which was “not normal” for a port whose current offloading capacity is for seven vessels, he said, adding: “We need to reassure the private sector to say ‘come back to the port’.”

UN envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, who was in the Saudi capital, Riyadh on Monday, is seeking a role for the world body in supervising the port.

He continues his consultations ahead of peace talks planned in Sweden next month, UN spokesperson Rheal LeBlanc said.

Bombing campaign

After the Houthis swept through most of the country in 2014 and deposed its government, a Saudi-UAE military coalition, backed by the US, intervened in 2015 with a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Since then, data collected by Al Jazeera and the Yemen Data Project has found that more than 18,000 air raids have been carried out in Yemen, with almost one-third of all bombing missions striking non-military sites.

Weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals, as well as water and electricity plants, have been hit, killing and wounding thousands.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, and according to Save the Children, as many as 85,000 children under five “may have died from extreme hunger” or disease since 2015. 

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Man City and Man Utd live in the Champions League – Live – BBC Sport

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Christine Blasey Ford and her family have received death threats and moved four times since Ford testified that Brett Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court justice, sexually assaulted her in high school. Ford also received support from celebrities, including Lady Gaga and Alyssa Milano, and activists like #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, as well as countless Americans. 

Amid her painful public experience, Ford’s neighbors and colleagues created a GoFundMe campaign to help fund her ballooning security expenses. By the time it ended, the campaign raised $647,610, surpassing its goal of $150,000. On Nov. 21, Ford announced that a portion of the money will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors. She is researching the possibilities and will update donors upon her decision. 

“With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions,” Ford wrote in an update on the GoFundMe campaign page. “All funds unused after completion of security expenditures will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors.” 

The fundraiser’s original intention was to help Ford and her family stay safe. 

“Not only has the right wing smear machine started, but she is receiving serious threats against her and has had to engage a security force to protect her family,” the campaign page said. “This is all really expensive and she needs our help.”

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty.”

Ford previously published a message on the campaign page to thank her supporters. She explained that their donations were helping pay for security, housing, transportation, and other related expenses. In her new post, she added that the donations have helped enhance the security of her home and provided “physical protection and security” for her family. 

Ford said she’s hopeful that her family’s life will return to normal and that she sends her “heartfelt love and support” to the women and men who wrote to her to share “similar life experiences” with her. 

“Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty,” she wrote. 

If you have experienced sexual assault, you can call the free, confidential National Sexual Assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or access 24-7 help online by visiting hotline.rainn.org.

A United Nations report has warned that global efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions are off track, with emissions reaching a record high of 53.5 billion tonnes in 2017, the first rise after three years of decreases.

The ninth annual UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report released on Tuesday, analysed the impact of climate policies implemented by individual countries, and whether they are enough to limit the global average temperature rise to a relatively safe threshold of below 2 degrees Celsius by 2030.

The assessment comes a few days before a UN climate conference starts in Poland. The talks will produce a “rule book” on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

According to the report, emissions by 2030 will need to be around 25 percent lower than 2017 levels to limit global warming to 2C, and 55 percent lower to limit the rise to 1.5C.

“Increased emissions and lagging action means the gap figure for this year’s report is larger than ever,” the report stated.

.@UNEnvironment just published the #EmissionsGap Report, finding that Global CO2 emissions increased in 2017, after 3 years of stabilization. The message is clear! We urgently need a large-scale actions to bridge the #EmissionsGap https://t.co/bL14Z2MZpB #UN4ALL pic.twitter.com/UwkVYY5QCY

— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) November 27, 2018

Current climate policies are set to lower emissions by up to 6 billion tonnes by 2030, meaning global warming of around 3C by 2100.

“If the emissions gap is not closed by 2030, it is very plausible that the goal of a well below 2C temperature rise increase is also out of reach,” the report said.

Nations must raise their #ClimateAction ambition by
3X to meet the 2°C warming target
5X to meet the 1.5°C warming target
We urgently need a large-scale push to bridge the #EmissionsGap: https://t.co/hpEut7Gn1B pic.twitter.com/u0vEYso0AA

— UN Environment (@UNEnvironment) November 27, 2018

A report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last month said that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require rapid and unprecedented changes.

“If the IPCC report represented a global fire alarm, this report is the arson investigation,” UNEP deputy executive director Joyce Msuya said in a statement.

“The science is clear; for all the ambitious climate action we have seen – governments need to move faster and with greater urgency. We are feeding this fire while the means to extinguish it are within reach,” he added.

The UNEP report also said that non-national institutions such as city, state, and regional governments, are increasingly committing to climate action, as well as private and civil society organisations.

These were an important element in achieving global emissions goals, the report said.

Although estimates on the potential emissions reduction vary, some 19 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and equivalent could be reduced by their actions by 2030. This would be enough to close the 2C gap.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Image: Junko Kimura / Getty Images

Stephen Hillenburg, creator of the iconic SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon, died on Monday following a long battle with ALS.

Hillenburg, 57, created SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon after working as a marine biologist and contributing to the show Rocko’s Modern Life, ushering in one of the most popular and successful cartoons in American television history. SpongeBob has been going strong since its debut in 1999 and earned Hillenburg two Emmys in his lifetime.

Hillenburg revealed his ALS diagnosis in 2017. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, ALS is a nervous system disease that cause the brain and spinal cord to deteriorate, causing muscle weakness, discomfort, and loss of motor control. While therapy can slow down the onset of ALS, there is still no known cure.

The ALS Association works to raise awareness of ALS and fund research to fight back against the deadly disease.

In a statement obtained by Variety, Nickelodeon paid tribute to Hillenburg and expressed condolences to his friends and family.

“We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS,” Nickelodeon said in its statement. “He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family. Steve imbued SpongeBob SquarePants with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere. His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”

Hillenburg also directed The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which came out in 2004. He intended it to be the show’s finale, and left the show for many years after, only returning in 2014.

Steve Hillenburg is survived by his wife Karen Hillenburg, his son Clay, his mother Nancy Hillenburg, and his brother Brian Kelly Hillenburg, per Variety.