Author: damazah@gmail.com

Key eventsMexico are having a lovely time: three games, three wins, six goals scored, none conceded. Oh, and Guillermo Ochoa – part of their 2006 World Cup squad – got to play, too.Ochoa’s still having fun at the top. Photograph: Molly Darlington/Getty ImagesShareWhat an intro. ShareAndy Robertson: “If you ask me now, I don’t think it’s enough, I don’t think we’ve done enough.”Steve Clarke: “I think we’re going home.”It’s not looking great.SharePreambleHello, hello, wonderful people. Remember this: it ain’t about how you start. Spain lost their first game in 2010, Argentina were stunned by Saudi Arabia in 2022 … and…

The star officially opened Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop on Wednesday Dolly Parton has officially opened the doors of Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop, a flashy new travel center inspired by her time on the open road as she toured the country over her decades-long career. The star made a surprise appearance for the ribbon cutting at Cornersville on Wednesday, kicking off a week-long celebration of special events, entertainment, and giveaways. “Well, the doors are open and I could not be prouder. Whether you are hauling loads, hauling the family, or just passing through, we built this place for you,” Parton said.…

George Okoh in Makurdi The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with support from the Government of Japan, has donated Inter-Agency Reproductive Health (IARH) kits and other humanitarian supplies to the Benue State Government to strengthen maternal and newborn healthcare, sexual and reproductive health services, and response to gender-based violence across the state. The intervention, implemented through the Royal Heritage Health Foundation, is expected to benefit more than 100,000 vulnerable persons, particularly internally displaced persons (IDPs), women and girls affected by the humanitarian crisis in Benue. Speaking during the official handover ceremony  at the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (BENSEMA) headquarters in Makurdi,…

US artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic has accused Chinese e-commerce and technology firm Alibaba of “brazenly” and “illicitly” extracting its Claude AI model’s capabilities.In a letter sent to two members of the US Congress, the San Francisco-based company said operators linked to Alibaba carried out almost 29 million exchanges with Claude using thousands of fraudulent accounts in what it called the largest extraction campaign of its kind.Anthropic urged Congress to penalise the companies behind attacks like this and to ramp up measures to prevent US tech from being stolen.The BBC has contacted Alibaba for comment and requested more details from…

• Haruna Musa says liquidity injection will boost lending to businesses, support local, global expansion ambition, others James Emejo in Abuja Shareholders of Jaiz Bank Plc, yesterday, approved the bank’s request to raise an additional N150 billion capital to fund its expansion drive as well as boost lending to businesses. Speaking at the company’s 14th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, the company’s Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dr. Haruna Musa, said the proposed capital injection will be undertaken through various financial instruments. Musa said the 2025 financial year was characterised by remarkable growth and strategic progress for the bank. He stated…

Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma visited Washington this week to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of Congress to oppose the MATCH Act, a bill that would bar Chinese chipmakers from accessing Western semiconductor equipment, and one that would hit ASML especially hard. ASML, based in the Netherlands, is Europe’s most valuable company and the only maker in the world of the sophisticated lithography machines that are used to make cutting-edge AI chips. “It’s exceptional that I’m coming here to broadly outline our concerns to Congress,” Sjoerdsma told Bloomberg after the meetings. “The stakes for the Netherlands may…

Reeves emphasised the importance of the next leader sticking to her fiscal rules, which include ensuring day-to-day spending is funded through tax revenue by the end of the Parliament and reducing debt as a proportion of GDP. Burnham has previously committed to keeping the current government borrowing and spending rules in place.”The last government lost control of the public finances,” Reeves said. “It sent inflation through the roof and interest rates through the roof. So control of the public finances has a real impact on families today.”While Reeves said she had improved the flexibility in the government’s budget by increasing…

How much do our genes determine about our lives, and could they influence traits like risk-taking, antisocial behaviour or even violence? Ian Sample talks to Kathryn Paige Harden, a behavioural geneticist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who studies how genetic factors shape human behaviour. In her book Original Sin she explores how nature and nurture combine to influence our likelihood of committing crimes, and asks whether the ‘cause’ of our actions matters for how we think about culpability

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has invited 29 athletes to the National Sports Commission (NSC) Commonwealth Games camp. The move is part of preparations for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in July. The AFN disclosed this in a statement issued by its Media Coordinator, Kola Oredipe, on Wednesday. Mr Oredipe said the invited athletes were selected after the successful completion of the national trials held in Lagos. “The athletes, made up of 14 male and 15 female competitors, were drawn from the results of the just concluded national trials. “The trials were held…

Hamburg Days started production in Germany and Liverpool in May.The Beatles performed more than 250 gigs in the German port city between 1960 and 1962.The series has been inspired by the memoirs of Klaus Voormann, who met the band in Hamburg as a young artist and went on to design the cover of their Revolver album in 1966 before later appearing on John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison’s solo albums.Producers said the series would show the band – which at the time included bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best – meeting Voorman and photographer Astrid Kirchherr.The drama has…