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• Says it’s vulnerable without constitutionally guaranteed funding  •Warns business interests, cabals, criminals could hijack it if poorly funded  •Funding must be clearly spelt out before kick off, declares Speaker Abbas Adedayo Akinwale and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday, said funding of the proposed state police services should be established as a first-line charge in the 1999 Constitution, stressing that it is the only way to protect it from possible interference by state governors. Bamidele insisted that financial autonomy was key to prevention of political interference and protection of the integrity of the…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine’s popular defence minister, despite pleas from foreign partners and civil society for him to keep his job, as part of wide-ranging government reshuffle.In a post on Telegram Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he was leaving his position, saying it had been a “great honour” to serve the Ukrainian people. He was widely credited with transforming the defence ministry and reducing corruption.His six months in office coincided with a dramatic improvement in Ukraine’s position on the battlefield. Kyiv has repeatedly hit Russian oil refineries with long-range drones, embarrassing Vladimir Putin and creating nationwide fuel shortages.In his farewell…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.As the US and Iran continue to trade blows, the oil market has finally woken up to the risk that energy flows might not resume as hoped. European gas prices, meanwhile, are at their highest level since March having risen by almost 30 per cent in the last month. Every day that the strait remains part-closed raises the chance that Europe will face giant heating bills this winter. To understand why, take a step back and look at how the market survived the…

Jurassic Park, while beloved as a film, has been the subject of snarky memes for the infamous line in which one of the characters declares, “This is a Unix system, I know this!” while using a computer with an unusual 3D file manager interface. Despite the memes, the film’s production team was meticulous in accurately sourcing the right PCs (and adjacent details) for the sets—not too much of a surprise, given writer Michael Crichton’s background with computing and his obsessive attention to detail in the book the film is based on. This was made clear by a little hobbyist investigation…

For many British voters, politicians and journalists, public spending has had a bad name since the late 1970s, when Margaret Thatcher’s government began its long campaign to tame the supposedly bloated state. From this perspective, the public sector wastes money, commissions unnecessary or out-of-date projects and generates endless jargon and reasons for its own existence, while delivering strikingly fewer social or economic benefits.Constant public and private lobbying for more funds from every minister, this argument continues, has helped make the job of prime minister impossible, and raised taxes and government debt to intolerable levels. Therefore the state requires a fundamental…

MaterialsPE (Mn = 1,700 Da, Mw = 4,700 Da by GPC) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. PP (Mn = 5,000 Da), UHMWPE (Mn = 6,000,000 Da) and 3,3′,5,5′-TMB were purchased from Macklin. (Trimethylsilyl)diazomethane (TMS-CHN2), PBD and all of the standard diacids were purchased from Aladdin. 4-Carboxyphenylboronic acid (4-CPB) was purchased from Shanghai Meryer Scientific. CH3OH (as received), ether (as received) and 30% H2O2 (as received) were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Reagent. PS (as received) was purchased from Shanghai Titan Scientific. H218O (97% 18O) was purchased from Shanghai Xinbo Industrial. Deionized water with the specific resistance of 18.2 MΩ cm was used in all experiments.CharacterizationThe molecular weight of the polymers was recorded using an Agilent PL-GPC 220…

England and France will meet in the 2026 FIFA World Cup third-place playoff after both sides fell short in the semi-finals. Pre-tournament favourites France saw their hopes of lifting a third World Cup title dashed after a 2-0 defeat to Spain, while England’s dream of reaching the final ended with a 2-1 loss to defending champions Argentina. Despite missing out on the final, both European heavyweights will have one last opportunity to finish the tournament on a high by claiming third place. England struggled to assert themselves against Argentina, with Thomas Tuchel’s side losing control of midfield for large parts…

Nigerian talent manager and music executive Ubi Franklin has described having children with different women as one of the biggest mistakes of his life, urging young people to learn from his experience. Franklin made the remarks in a recent episode of his podcast, Talks with Ubi Franklin. A clip from the episode was shared on his Instagram page on Wednesday. Reflecting on his personal life, the father of four said he loves his children deeply but wishes he had made different choices. “One of the worst decisions you could ever make is to have kids with different women,” he said.…

Airtel Africa secured a key legal authorisation from a UK court for a capital reduction aimed at beefing up its distributable reserves for future shareholder returns, the London-based company announced Wednesday. The approval sets Africa’s second-biggest mobile operator on the last rung of the process, having cleared the hurdle of winning shareholders’ support for the move at its annual general meeting last week. The capital reduction entails cancelling Airtel Africa’s capital redemption reserve to boost distributable reserves, which are vital to the corporation’s prospects of delivering future rewards to shareholders. That can be anything from dividends to distributions and buybacks…

NewsFeedNightly strikes between the US and Iran have been the heaviest since the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement was signed a month ago. A former US ambassador tells Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’ that Tehran has miscalculated in thinking that Trump would back down.Published On 16 Jul 202616 Jul 2026Click here to share on social mediashare-nodesSharegoogleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo