Author: damazah@gmail.com

Michael Olugbode in Abuja The Federal Government has extended its condolences to the Government and people of China following the devastating landslide that struck Tanchang County in Gansu Province, killing at least 21 people and leaving several others affected, as Abuja reaffirmed the enduring strategic partnership between the two countries. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, described the disaster as a tragic incident and said Nigeria stood in solidarity with China as rescue teams continued efforts to reach victims and support affected communities. The landslide occurred on Tuesday in Tanchang…

Alex Enumah in Abuja The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday arraigned the former Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Mr Ahmed Dikko, before the Abuja division of the Federal High Court. Dikko was arraigned alongside a company, Masterpiece Projects & Investment Ltd, on a 12-count criminal charge bordering on money-laundering. According to the charge, Dikko was alleged to have used about N218.4 million to acquire a property in Katampe extension in Abuja, without passing the funds through a financial institution, contrary to the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022. He however, pleaded not…

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday that while Wall Street was focused on re-escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, he is more concerned about a flood of new stock and bond issuance that could threaten the bull market.”At least when it comes to the stock market, I’m a lot more worried about supply — specifically, the flood of new equity and bonds that have inundated this market, sopping up a lot of sidelined capital,” the “Mad Money” host said.Companies have issued staggering amounts of equity and debt in the last month, Cramer noted, including Alphabet’s big stock sale, SpaceX’s $85…

Stablecoins have become more mainstream as businesses explore faster and cheaper ways to move money across borders. The infrastructure exists, payment rails function, and integrating crypto into products is no longer as technically demanding as it once was. Yet many businesses remain hesitant. For businesses curious about accepting cryptocurrency payments, the challenge is often less about the technology and more about the financial commitment. Many are reluctant to pay recurring infrastructure fees before they know whether customers will actually pay with crypto. And rather than expecting businesses to shoulder that risk, ForgeLayer has decided to redesign its pricing model. The…

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s signature free meals programme is escalating into one of Indonesia’s biggest corruption scandals in years as officials struggle to rein in the $15bn initiative amid allegations of graft and mismanagement.Launched in 2025, the “Free Nutritious Meals” programme aims to address the chronic issue of stunting among children, improve their focus in school, and stimulate the local economy.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listIndonesia nearly halved the prevalence of stunting over the past decade to around 20 percent of children nationwide, according to the World Bank, but it remains stubbornly high in many of the archipelago’s…

Alden GonzalezJul 8, 2026, 01:21 PM ETCloseESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.Multiple AuthorsJustin Verlander, who has amassed three Cy Young Awards, two World Series championships and an MVP award in what undoubtedly is a Hall of Fame career, announced on Wednesday that he’ll retire at the end of the 2026 season.The 43-year-old Verlander, who will make his 10th All-Star Game appearance next week after being named a Legend Pick by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday, has 266 regular-season wins and 3,554 strikeouts…

My parents and grandparents migrated to the US from Afghanistan in 1979, just a few weeks before the Soviets invaded. I grew up in Los Angeles, but would visit my grandfather in Virginia once a year. He would always make photographs and film little interviews. It was his enthusiasm in capturing moments of our everyday lives that sparked my interest in documenting the world around me.I was six when 9/11 happened. From that point on, the domestic and global perception of my motherland was always driven by the negative connotations drawn from the headlines – terrorism, war, images of sandstorms,…

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The Zamfara State Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Agency (ZEPEA) said it will adopt a new strategic approach to the monthly environmental sanitation exercise following the significant improvement in public compliance. The chairman of the agency, Muhammad Zangina Abdullahi Yarin Gusau, disclosed this after the successful conduct of the July monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Gusau. He was represented by Permanent Member I, Alhaji Sani Muhammad Mayanci. He said the high level of compliance recorded during the exercise demonstrated that residents are now better informed about the importance of environmental sanitation. He stated that the agency was therefore considering a new…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ask an investor if you can buy their shares for substantially less than the market price, and they will usually say no. Yet Andrea Orcel, boss of Italian bank UniCredit, has snagged a large chunk of German rival Commerzbank at below-market rates through a lowball offer of his bank’s stock. How he did it is a mystery, but the fact is that he has got what he wants.The market is awash with ideas on how, exactly, Orcel secured nearly 18 per cent…