Author: damazah@gmail.com

Good morning. Hostilities have resumed between the US and Iran. Tehran accused the US of violating the agreement intended to end the war, after the US military launched strikes around the strait of Hormuz and revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil exports. The attacks were the latest in a string of ceasefire violations by the two sides, despite a truce that came into effect in April, and have led to an immediate 3% rise in oil prices.Speaking at the Nato summit in Ankara, Donald Trump said the memorandum of understanding with Iran was over and called the country’s…

Conditional pardon for Ruth Ellis ‘matters profoundly’, says her granddaughterRuth Ellis’s grandchildren Laura Enston and Stephen Beard were in the gallery during PMQs to hear David Lammy announce that Ellis is getting a conditional pardon.Afterwards Enston said in a statement: double quotation markToday, justice has finally been done for our grandmother, Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955. This pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago. It does not restore the lives that were broken – the children left behind, the years lost. But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The BBC and Channel 4 are in talks about combining their streaming services, according to the corporation’s new director-general Matt Brittin, who called for a British “sovereign platform” to compete with US tech giants such as Netflix. In his first grilling by MPs on parliament’s culture committee, Brittin said on Wednesday that the BBC had “an approach and a conversation” with Channel 4 over the plan, which could see the smaller public service broadcaster join forces with the BBC’s iPlayer.The UK’s public service…

Edward Kenway isn’t your dad’s Assassin’s Creed protagonist. Neither sworn to ancient oaths nor given a noble destiny, he’s just a guy who likes coin, dislikes rules, and whose gold-chasing, rule-dodging lifestyle sees him embroiled in an ancient war between Templars and assassins quite by accident. After he’s shipwrecked with a man named Walpole who turns out to be a Templar, Edward assumes Walpole’s identity in the hopes of securing the bounty he mentioned.Edward wears life lightly. The world around him is violent and chaotic, and those in his vicinity are more obsessed with double-crossings than a Mission:Impossible movie writers’…

Jack Okude writes that the Tinubu administration has done exceedingly well for the North The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, recently made a statement that was profound in all contexts. Matawalle, an unflinching supporter of President Bola Tinubu said any political pitch to the effect that the north will not vote for Tinubu is both untrue and defective. Such, he says, only dwells in the imagination of opposition politicians and their recruits. To him, the north is for Tinubu and Tinubu is for the north. Matawalle, a former governor of Zamfara State, was unequivocal when he said that…

Among the programmes funded by Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) include research on telecommunication technologies.Credit: Puneet Vikram Singh, Nature and Concept photographer/GettyThe UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is three years into the ten year tenure it has guaranteed by law and it already has a new chief executive.The agency is designed to support high-risk, high-reward civilian research and is loosely modelled on the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has helped to pioneer technologies such as the Internet and personal computers. ARIA’s goal to fund revolutionary scientific breakthroughs started in 2023 with a four-year budget…

Key events153km to go There’s one brave sole off the front at the moment, Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto–Intermarché. The Frenchman looks lonely after heading out on his own.ShareKilometre zeroChristian Prudhomme waves the flag and stage five is now properly underway.ShareHere is the official visual guide to today’s stage:Allow Instagram content?This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.ShareAnd we’re off (neutrally), the peloton rollout from Lannemezan is underway. Next stop kilometre zero.ShareWe’re a rider down from…

Tony Rayns, the British writer, festival programmer and screenwriter who spent decades introducing Western audiences to East Asian cinema, has died at 78. He was found deceased at his home on July 7 following an accidental fall down his stairs, according to his sister, Stephanie Gowman, in an email to Variety. Gowman said Rayns’ death was unexpected, coming after a short period of no contact that had raised concerns among friends and family for his welfare. “We are all shocked and deeply saddened by his sudden death and the loss of a dedicated, lifelong cinephile and a passionate promoter of…

The House of Representatives on Wednesday formally welcomed a new member, Shuaibu Rabiu, who was sworn in as the lawmaker representing Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Federal Constituency of Kano State following his victory in a recent by-election. Speaker Abbas Tajudeen administered the oath of office to Mr Rabiu, officially admitting him into the 10th House. His swearing-in comes weeks after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted a by-election to fill the vacant seat in the constituency. The vacancy arose following the death of the constituency’s former representative, Muhammad Danjuma-Hassan of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). Under Section 76(2) of the…

A man who was declared missing after violence linked to the protracted boundary dispute between Oyo and Osun states has finally been found buried in a shallow grave, nearly two years after he was allegedly killed. The discovery came after operatives of the Oyo State Police Command arrested a suspected gunman, Rabiu Yusuf, over a fresh shooting incident in the same troubled border community, reportedly leading to a confession that solved the long-standing disappearance of the deceased. Police said the victim, identified simply as Segun, was shot dead in 2024 during renewed violence between communities around Iyana-Offa, Iyanagbo, and Oke-Oba…