Author: damazah@gmail.com

By embracing digitalisation, decentralisation and indigenous innovation, Nigeria is showing how Africa can leapfrog traditional energy models and build power systems designed for the future. For decades, Africa’s electricity story has been framed around a single deficit: not enough generation capacity to keep the lights on. A gathering of government officials, regulators, investors and engineers in the Nigerian capital last week argued that framing is out of date — and that the more urgent question now is not how much power the continent produces, but how intelligently it uses what it already has. That was the throughline at the Smart…

Wildfire season is fully upon us—and with it, the smoke. The most spectacular threat of a wildfire is of course the possibility it might directly threaten lives and homes, like the wildfires last year that devastated Los Angeles.But it is the smoke and the stinging haze—and especially the invisible particulate matter borne aloft for hundreds of miles—that is most likely to pose grave health risks to millions across the country, as wildfires rage in Canada and across the American West during summer months. Cardiac deaths spike after wildfires. So do visits to lung doctors. Smoke is bad for you.The more…

Andy Burnham will undertake a summer tour across the UK during the early weeks of his premiership.Described as a “listening tour of the UK”, Burnham will travel across the country in August while Parliament is in recess.Among the areas understood to be on his itinerary is Port Talbot in south Wales, a town which saw the closure of its last steel-making blast furnace in September 2024.The former Greater Manchester mayor will become prime minister on Monday but will not face MPs until September when the Commons returns from its six-week recess, unless he decides to recall Parliament.Several Welsh Labour MPs…

The diarrhoea-causing parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis reproduces through egg-like structures called oocysts (stained orange in this microscope image).Credit: CDC/DPDx – Melanie MoserA microscopic parasite found in contaminated food products is ruining summer meals across the United States in the largest outbreak of its kind in the country’s history. And health officials have yet to identify the source, although the state of Michigan, which has reported the highest number of infections, has signalled that lettuce or salad greens might be the culprit.There is no vaccine for deadly hantavirus: what that means for future outbreaksSince 1 May, 1,645 infections with the parasite Cyclospora…

Poland’s forward #09 Robert Lewandowski celebrates after the 2026 World Cup qualifiers Europe zone group G football match between Lithuania and Poland on October 12, 2025 in Kaunas, Lithuania. (Photo by Petras Malukas / AFP) Polish star Robert Lewandowski’s Major League Soccer debut was on hold Thursday after the match between the Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps was postponed due to air quality issues caused by wildfires. Smoke from the fires, which are ravaging the Canadian province of Ontario, spread Thursday through the United States with border states including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois particularly choked. Thursday’s scheduled clash at…

After four years of biannual viewership reports, Netflix is pulling back a bit on the transparency front. The streamer revealed Thursday that, beginning Q1 2027, it will only release one engagement report each year. In its earnings report, the company says this is part of its shift in focus to quality over quantity. In its memo to shareholders, Netflix leadership wrote that “engagement is not just the quantity of view hours, but also refers to the quality and variety of our offering. To make this clearer, we’re making a change to our view hours disclosure. After today’s What We Watched…

Father of methanol-poisoned backpacker ‘devastated’ as charges set to be laidThe father of an Australian woman who died from methanol poisoning while travelling in Laos has said the charges that will be laid against those allegedly responsible have left his family devastated.Melbourne travellers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, both 19, were backpacking through the south-east Asian nation in late 2024 when they were fatally poisoned with methanol while drinking at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng.Those allegedly responsible are set to be hit with charges, but the father of Morton-Bowles, Shaun Bowles, has told 2GB radio that they were not…

The President of the Isoko Development Union (IDU), Prof. Chris Akpotu, has described President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the bill establishing the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Oleh, Delta State, as a historic milestone that ends decades of perceived federal neglect of the Isoko people. Speaking on AIT’s Kaakaki programme on Thursday, Akpotu said the approval of the FMC had given the Isoko nation a renewed sense of belonging in the Nigerian federation after years of lacking meaningful federal presence. He expressed appreciation to President Tinubu for signing the bill into law, saying the gesture had restored hope among the…

Mature man standing by the window at home and using a mobile phone. WhatsApp is generally a secure platform, but there are a number of things you can do to keep your account safe.GettyWith nearly three billion users around the world, it’s hardly surprising that WhatsApp is a target for hackers. Owned by Meta, the app is known for having a high level of security. But like many social media apps, including Facebook, it’s still often possible for a criminal to get in, especially if a user has been careless. Once a hacker has successfully taken over a WhatsApp account,…

Two men who carried out a cyber-attack which crippled Transport For London (TfL) when they were teenagers have both been sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, and Thalha Jubair, 20, from east London, pleaded guilty in June to carrying out the hack in 2024.They were described as computer-obsessed loners who carried out the hack as part of the cyber crime collective known as Scattered Spider.The cyber-attack disrupted TfL’s online services for months, stole the personal data of millions of people and left all 27,000 TfL employees needing to reset their passwords in…