Author: damazah@gmail.com

The Conservatives have called for the greater use of facial recognition technology to investigate crimes. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp wants to make it a requirement for officers to run images of suspects through facial recognition software, where they have been captured on CCTV, mobile phones or camera doorbells.He also wants officers to follow up when geo-tagged items – including phones, laptops, tablets, bikes and cars – are pinging their location at a suspect’s address, as well as tackling stolen goods being sold in plain sight.A Home Office spokesperson said the government was investing heavily in facial recognition technology.”This government…

Former Purdue All-American Braden Smith is not considering a return to college basketball in the fallout of Friday’s injunction that cleared a path for a fifth year of collegiate eligibility for the Class of 2022, his representatives at Priority Sports told CBS Sports.Smith was the No. 38 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, who traded his draft rights to the Indiana Pacers. He is one of five second-round picks who have not signed a rookie contract yet, joining BYU’s Richie Saunders (No. 32 to the Memphis Grizzlies), Vanderbilt’s Tyler Nickel (No. 47 to the New York…

Fans were inexplicably refunded and the Salt Lake City music festival’s online presence was erased Yours Always, a two-day music festival scheduled for Oct. 2 and 3 at Salt Lake City’s Utah State Fairpark, has been cancelled without notice. The inaugural festival was set to feature Benson Boone and Sombr as headlining acts. According to fans on Reddit, ticket holders received refunds last week via email but weren’t given an explanation. The organizers subsequently deactivated the festival’s website and social media accounts. One fan noted that their “support email” came back as “invalid” when they tried to contact Yours Always. Per…

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has announced the successful completion of the twelve-month insurance sector recapitalisation exercise involving 43 insurance and reinsurance companies. The completion of the exercise was disclosed on Monday in a statement by NAICOM, which said it was conducted pursuant to Section 15 and other relevant provisions of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, signed into law on 31 July 2025 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. NAICOM said 43 insurance and reinsurance companies successfully met the new capital requirements before the deadline, while eight insurance companies that submitted evidence of compliance shortly before the statutory…

The United States has recorded its highest number of measles infections in 35 years, prompting the country’s Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy, to publicly urge parents to vaccinate their children against the highly contagious disease. Mr Kennedy made the appeal during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, saying parents should ensure their children receive the measles vaccine as infections continue to rise across the country. “Parents should get their children vaccinated for measles. A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97 per cent of the cases. People should get vaccinated,” he said. His remarks…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Apple has launched a new legal challenge against the UK’s latest attempt to create a “backdoor” to access encrypted customer data, a year after the Home Office agreed to drop a previous order after a row with Washington.The iPhone maker last month launched a new legal complaint at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal over the UK government’s controversial demand that Apple allow it access to encrypted cloud backups of data belonging to British users, according to an order issued by the court. The…

The public body in charge of the UK’s state investments has been pushed to improve its internal security after a data breach left “high-level management information” publicly accessible for nearly two days.UK Government Investments (UKGI), the agency that manages the taxpayers’ interest in a swathe of companies including Channel 4 and the Post Office, said the security failure also left more than 50 government officials’ personal details exposed for nearly 40 hours.The state body, best known for managing government holdings in bailed-out lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds after the 2008 financial crisis, blamed the breach on an unnamed…

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice is being investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog over an allegation he failed to declare an interest. The investigation was opened on Tuesday 28 July and was published on the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner website on Monday.Tice, the MP for Boston and Skegness, said the complaint related to a Commons debate about Israeli influence and whether he should have referenced his register of interests. Reform said Tice did not mention in his 22 June speech that he had been on a trip to Israel last September, funded by a pro-Israel lobbying group.The trip has been…

Chucky pig. Slater. Monkey pea. Roly-poly. Boat-builder. Butchy boy. Cheeselog. Hobbling Andrew. Wood pig. If there were a prize for the range and joyfulness of a creature’s English-language names, the humble woodlouse would undoubtedly triumph over its million-plus invertebrate rivals.Over centuries of easy cohabitation with humans, it has acquired more than 300 regional names in Britain alone, and many more in other languages (such as Gwrach y Coed, “witch of the wood”, in Welsh).There are lovely words for woodlouse actions too: an animal rolling its body into a neat ball is known as conglobation, or volvation in zoology.Their nicknames reflect…

Ben BabyAug 3, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseBen Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports. He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs. A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American…