Author: damazah@gmail.com

The 2026 MLB Draft will wrap up Sunday in Philadelphia as part of All-Star Weekend. The first 135 picks were made Saturday, as the the Chicago White Sox went with UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky at No. 1. From there, the Tampa Bay Rays grabbed high school shortstop Grady Emerson at No. 2, the Minnesota Twins picked Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey at No. 3, the San Francisco Giants chose college righty Jackson Flora fourth and the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted LSU outfielder Derek Curiel to round out the top five. The draft concludes Sunday with Rounds 5-20.Every team is hoping to find a franchise…

Jarvis and Peller, popular Nigerian TikTok content creators, have announced that they will tie the knot on Aug. 1. The announcement was made through a cinematic video shared on their social media platforms, ending with the inscription “Jarvis & Peller 01-08-2026.” The video has since gone viral, generating widespread reactions from fans and followers, many of whom congratulated the couple and commended the creativity of the announcement. Jarvis and Peller are among Nigeria’s leading digital content creators, known for their comedy skits, livestreams and relationship-themed content, which have attracted millions of followers across social media platforms. As of the time…

A faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has uploaded the names of its presidential candidate, Sandy Onor, and his running mate, Babangida Umaru, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) candidate nomination portal. The faction also successfully uploaded the names of its National Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections. The faction’s National Chairman, Abdulrahman Mohammed, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday. “I am pleased to inform all PDP members and Nigerians that our great party, under my leadership, has successfully uploaded the names of our…

The South African government says more than 53,000 foreign nationals have been deported or repatriated since launching a “migration management” campaign five weeks ago.Most were from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, officials say, and the number is likely to rise as repatriations and deportations continue.South Africa is carrying out one of its biggest crackdowns on undocumented migrants in years, following weeks of anti-immigration protests that have seen violence, intimidation and looting. Protesters have been demanding tighter border controls and mass deportations, accusing migrants of contributing to high unemployment, rising crime rates and collapse of public services.The UN has warned against using…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe writer is a professor at MIT and Politecnico di Milano, and founder of Carlo Ratti AssociatiFor once, I should thank the Trump administration. It has forced academia to confront a problem that has long needed attention: the shortcomings of peer review. The proposed cure, however, is far worse than the disease.The modern American research system grew out of the vision of a single engineer from my own university, MIT. In 1945, Vannevar Bush proposed a grand three-way bargain: government…

Meta has axed a controversial feature that allowed users to modify photos from public Instagram accounts using AI. The feature, which was rolled out earlier this week along with a batch of other AI tools, “missed the mark” and is no longer available, according to the company. Earlier this week, Meta announced Muse Image, a new AI image generator built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, its dedicated AI unit. Meta promoted one feature that allowed individuals to generate images by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they wanted to reference. The feature, which wasn’t designed to alert a user if their photos…

Reform UK would have held just 15% of the donations it received last year if a proposed £100,000 cap on political donations had been in force, according to analysis shared with the Guardian.The analysis by Friends of the Earth using Electoral Commission data highlights the party’s reliance on a handful of wealthy backers in advance of a showdown over political funding.It registered donations between April 2025 and March 2026 and assumed union affiliation payments would be exempt from the cap, in line with recommendations made by the Phillips review into party funding.The findings suggest Reform UK would have raised just…

Key eventsSinner (7)6-7 7-6(2) 6-3 2-3 Zverev* At 30-0, Sinner finds a flat, hard, deep return straight down the middle, denying Zverev angle … so he responds with an ace down the T, but a backhand down the line is wide by almost nothing; 40-30. No matter: a service winner, muscled out wide, secures the hold, and we’re almost back to the attritional tennis of the first two sets.Share*Sinner (7)6-7 7-6(2) 6-3 2-2 Zverev Zverev guides a return close to the baseline and Sinner’s half-volley riposte is wide, then two forehands towards opposite corners are backed up with an overhead…

A moment that started out as a disagreement between Tracestin Shepherd and his girlfriend has been at the center of a swirl of questions about the tragic death of 18-year-old Mississippi football player Nolan Wells. The video posted to social media of a group of young people seemingly in a heated altercation has been believed to be the last time Wells was pictured or heard on video before his disappearance and death, which has made national news. But Shepherd, a close friend of Wells, says what really happened in the video isn’t how it’s been portrayed.   At around 3:30 p.m.…

Civil society organisations from Africa have called on governments to move beyond anti-corruption commitments and focus on enforcing existing laws, warning that weak accountability continues to fuel grand corruption and deprive the continent of billions of dollars needed for development. The groups made the call in a joint statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday to mark the 2026 African Anti-Corruption Day observed under the African Union (AU) theme, “Scaling Up the Promotion of Integrity and Anti-Corruption Actions Across Africa.” Observed annually on 11 July, African Anti-Corruption Day commemorates the adoption of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating…