Author: damazah@gmail.com

A voluntary litter-picking group has uncovered what it believes is one of the largest hauls of discarded nitrous oxide canisters it has ever found in a single day, collecting 82.Members of Peterborough Litter Wombles discovered the canisters around Norman Road Car Park, highlighting ongoing concerns about the misuse of the class C drug and the litter it leaves behind.Harry Machin, from the group, said the location was one of several hotspots where volunteers regularly encounter nitrous oxide paraphernalia.”Some of them [canisters] are historic, but an awful lot of them we find are current,” he said.Machin said the scale of the…

English Premier League football club Chelsea’s team Manager Xabi Alonso speaks during a press conference in Sydney on July 27, 2026. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP) / — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE — New Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso on Monday said Morgan Rogers was “a great signing” who would make the club more competitive and expected the England midfielder to “link really well” with Cole Palmer. The versatile Rogers was signed from Aston Villa last week for £117 million ($157 million), a record for a British player. Alonso said he was “delighted” to…

Science-fiction thriller “Hope” maintained its powerful grip on the top spot at the South Korean box office during the weekend of Jul. 24–26. According to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the big-budget film generated $5.5 million from 767,366 admissions over the three-day window, securing a commanding 66.8% share […]

More than 580 operations, 91 suspects arrested, 58 illegal refining sites destroyed, 48 illegal storage facilities dismantled, 239 dugout pits deactivated, 4.7 million litres of stolen petroleum products recovered, three motor tankers intercepted carrying over 1,000 metric tonnes of suspected stolen crude, and 84 kilometres of critical oil pipelines protected tell the story of the Nigerian Navy’s intensified offensive against crude oil theft under Operation Delta Sentinel between April and June 2026. Driven by intelligence-led operations and sustained military pressure across the Niger Delta and beyond, it has become one of the country’s most aggressive efforts to dismantle illegal refining…

Imagine a world where you could ask a book a question as you read it. That’s the pitch from a wave of new AI tools letting readers do exactly that. “You are dealing with a book as if it is a living object — it’s totally different,” says Ahmed Kamel, CEO of Sinai.ai, a platform now in testing. With these tools, users get access to an e-book or audiobook alongside an AI chatbot. Confused about a character’s motives or the historical setting? Just ask. Readers can dig into a character’s psychology, historical context, or a philosophical concept — no separate…

Nigeria’s decision to undertake its biggest military expansion in decades signals a strategic shift aimed at strengthening national security, enhancing operational readiness and positioning the Army to confront an increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape, writes Linus Aleke. The decision by President Bola Tinubu to approve the expansion of the Nigerian Army’s order of battle from eight to 12 divisions, alongside the recruitment of an additional 28,000 personnel, marks one of the most significant military reforms in Nigeria’s recent history. More than a routine increase in troop numbers, the initiative reflects an acknowledgement that the country’s evolving security environment demands…

…Disburses over N600bn through BoI to support business By Yinka Kolawole The Federal Government has captured more than 500,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in a national database as part of efforts to strengthen industrial development, improve policy planning and enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness in regional and global trade. This is even as over N600 billion has been disbursed through the Bank of Industry (BoI) to support businessesMinister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, disclosed this at the 17th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment held in Enugu, where she reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to driving industrialisation, attracting…

A blaring emergency warning alert Australians had been warned about was anti-climactic for some – and totally missed by others.Almost every phone in the country, alongside some smartwatches and tablets, was supposed to let off a loud noise at about 2pm AEST and receive a pop-up notification with the text “TEST MESSAGE” and “NO ACTION IS REQUIRED”.The event was the first nationwide test of a new warning system called AusAlert, which will be deployed in October to prepare Australians for fires, floods, terrorist incidents or health emergencies.The federal government has spent the past week telling the public about this test…

Andy Burnham has been in politics long enough to know that the largely friendly media coverage he’s received so far would turn hostile once he was inside Downing Street. And, within hours of becoming prime minister, some familiar predators were circling as they tried to decide whether to attack him for being too leftwing, too insubstantial or simply offering more of the same.The Mail accused him of embarking on an unfunded “spending spree”, the Sun highlighted a series of “embarrassing” and “humiliating” moments that marred his first days in office, while the Telegraph declared he stood for nothing except “gimmicks”…

Credit: David Goddard/GettyCan commercial funding fill a hole of £42 million (US$56 million) a year in the finances of some of the United Kingdom’s flagship science laboratories and facilities? That is the challenge facing sites run by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the Diamond Light Source — the national synchrotron facility in Harwell — as well as other scientific instruments and labs.The UK government has said that all STFC-funded sites must raise money to cover more of their own running costs, or risk closure.The remodelling comes amid an overhaul to UK public research funding in…