09 December 2022

  • The implementation of Nigeria’s first digital electoral register has run into early trouble. It appears both children and the dead are appearing on the register, despite the introduction of fingerprint and facial recognition technology. Some are pointing to corruption as the reason for the glaring errors and 23 officials are now being investigated. However while it’s certainly shown up issues, the result may ultimately turn out to be beneficial, as the transparent roll, now totalling 93.5 million people can be reviewed by the public, and as a result, students and civil society organisations have taken it upon themselves to sift through the data and identify illegitimate or illegal entries.

  • In France, a recent plan to ban short haul flights that can be easily replaced with a train route has been approved by the European Commission. Although the ban has only been approved for three routes thus far, the move represents the manifestation of a call made by the nations’ Citizen Convention on Climate — a citizens assembly tasked with making suggestions for how to reduce France’s carbon emissions. Although the commission said that the ban could legally only be applied to routes where there were truly sufficient rail replacements, other routes may be added to the ban as rail services improve.

  • Meanwhile, in the US, Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to make a deposition, as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the media giant. Dominion, which produced voting machines used in US elections, has levelled a 1.6 billion dollar lawsuit against Fox and other media companies for making and amplifying claims that their machines were rigged in the 2020 US presidential elections. Rupert and his son Lachlan are the highest ranking officials to be questioned in the ongoing legal battle.

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