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The House of Representatives has introduced the Counter Subversion Bill 2024, which aims to impose stringent penalties on Nigerians who fail to recite the national anthem.

According to the proposed legislation, anyone found guilty of refusing to recite the national anthem shall be fined N5 million, face a 10-year prison sentence, or both. Anyone who destr%ys a national symbol or a place of worship shall be liable to the same punishment.

The Bill, sponsored by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, is set for its second reading, where its general principles will be debated. The Bill “stipulates that anyone found guilty of destroying national symbols, refusing to recite the national anthem and pledge, defacing a place of worship with intent to incite violence, or undermining the Federal Government shall face a fine of N5 million, a 10-year prison sentence, or both”.

The Bill also “states that anyone who sets up an illegal roadblock, performs unauthorised traffic duties, imposes an illegal curfew, or organises an unlawful procession will be subject to a fine of N2 million, five years in prison, or both upon conviction”. Also, any person who “forcefully takes over any place of worship, town hall, school, premises, public or private place, arena, or a similar place through duress, undue influence, subterfuge or other similar activities, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N5 million or imprisonment for a term of 10 years or both”.

“A person who professes loyalty, pledges or agrees to belong to an organisation that disregards the sovereignty of Nigeria, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N3 million or imprisonment for a term of four years or both,” it also added among others.

In May, President Bola Tinubu signed into law the bill to revert to Nigeria’s old national anthem which was dropped by a military government in 1978. The newly re-adopted anthem, which begins “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” was written by Lillian Jean Williams in 1959 and composed by Frances Berda.

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Amidst Psquare’s split up brouhaha, singer Paul Okoye has shared video of Peter Obi’s visit to him and his elder brother, Jude.

From the video and pictures shared, Peter Obi was seen sitting in their house and discussing with the duo.

Click to watch

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Alphabet's Google (GOOGL) unveiled its Pixel 9 lineup, showcased how it's integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its devices with Gemini, and more at its Made By Google launch event Tuesday.

At the event, Google demoed Gemini Live, its AI assistant that the company introduced at its developers' conference to equip users with generative AI.

Gemini Live is rolling out Tuesday in English to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android phones and is expected to expand to Apple's (AAPL) iOS and other languages.

The new Google AI assistant could help the company better compete with Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI's ChatGPT voice features and the upcoming iPhone 16 with AI-supercharged Siri.

Google highlighted the improved capabilities of the Pixel 9 phone lineup, including its camera bar, display capabilities, and the integration of AI capabilities.

The company said the Pixel devices, which are powered by the new Google Tensor G4, a custom silicon chip, are "twice as durable" as the earlier generation and bring "the best of Google AI."

The Pixel 9 comes in four different variations, the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google said the foldable Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers the same features as the other Pixel 9 Pro models on Google's "biggest ever display on a phone," and that the device is thinner than previous models.

The Pixel 9 devices are available for pre-order as of Tuesday, with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL set to be in stores on Aug. 22, and the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold coming on Sept. 4.

The company also announced the Google Pixel Watch 3, which integrates features from Google, Pixel, and Fitbit, and comes in two size options.

The next-generation Pixel watch has a "first-of-its-kind loss of pulse detection that could potentially save lives," Google said. The feature can automatically place a call to emergency services with location information if it detects pulse loss.

The watch, which competes with Apple's watch line, is available for pre-order Tuesday and for purchase on Sept. 10.

Google announced the Pixel Buds Pro 2 as well, which are equipped with new custom Tensor A1 chips.

The new Bluetooth earbuds are lighter and smaller than the Pixel Buds Pro and are made to connect with Google devices and integrate AI capabilities, Google said.

The earbuds are available for preorder on Tuesday and will be in stores on Sept. 26.

Alphabet shares finished 1.2% higher at $164.16 Tuesday and have gained over 17% since the start of the year.

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Nike's (NKE) stock was among the S&P 500's best performers after an analyst at Bernstein Research reiterated a "buy" rating for the stock along with a $112 price target.

Shares of the company traded about 5% higher late Tuesday, changing hands around $78. That gain, however, still leaves the stock down more than 16% from its June 27 close just before it reported disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter results — and it's down nearly 30% this year.

Bernstein’s Aneesha Sherman is bullish on Nike: Her $112 target is higher than any of the 20 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha. (That list doesn't include Bernstein.) Of those 20, half have "buy" ratings for the sports apparel giant. 

“There is a big lag in when you start working on things like innovation or regaining distribution and when the numbers actually start to show up,” Sherman said of Nike in an interview with CNBC last month.

Nike has "been hiring and investing in R&D and putting more marketing dollars behind some of their launches and rebuilding partnerships with retailers and we are in the trough where we haven’t seen any of that impacting sales yet," Sherman said. "As soon as we start to see some of that brand momentum working and their efforts paying off, the stock is poised to rebound."

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Ordering snacks to munch on while watching "House of the Dragon" just got easier.

DoorDash (DASH) has partnered with struggling entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to make the Max streaming service available to its premium DashPass customers.

Max (with ads) is now included with a DashPass annual plan, which costs $96 per year. That's cheaper than ad-free Max normally costs by itself. Customers can upgrade to ad-free Max for $10.99 per month. 

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery climbed nearly 5% to $7.02 as of 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday but the stock is down about 40% this year and hit its lowest level since 2009 on Monday. DoorDash stock rose almost 3% to $127.47. 

Last week, WBD reported an almost $10 billion second-quarter loss, hit by a write-down in the value of its cable networks. A $9.1 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge from its cable networks segment made clear that flagship networks like CNN and TNT continue to be disrupted by streaming services.

The company was also rebuffed by the NBA when it matched Amazon's (AMZN) reported bid of $1.8 billion a year for the right to broadcast a package of games as part of a new 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal. The NBA instead chose Amazon's Prime Video, which boasts about 200 million monthly viewers, roughly double the number of WBD streaming customers.

On Tuesday, Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon dropped his rating for WBD to "market-perform" from "neutral," and slashed his price target to $8 from $10.

The partnership marks the latest collaboration between food-delivery services and streamers.

Instacart (CART) last year started providing Peacock, a unit of Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal for free to its paying Instacart+ subscribers in the U.S. In May, Amazon announced that it was offering its Prime members a free Grubhub+ membership worth $120 a year to win over consumers to its loyalty program.

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Shares of Baxter International (BAX) fell Tuesday after the company said it would sell its kidney treatment division to The Carlyle Group (CG) for $3.8 billion in cash.

The deal is expected to generate roughly $3 billion in after-tax proceeds and close by early 2025. Baxter said it plans to use the proceeds to reduce its debt. 

Baxter shares were recently down more than 7%, making them one of the S&P 500's top decliners and extending the shares' year-to-date retreat to aroune 12%. Carlyle shares rose less than 1%.Carlyle’s investment in the kidney care company is done in partnership with Atmas Health. The unit will be named Vantive following the transaction.  

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