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PZ Cussons Nigeria attributed its robust profit growth for the year ended 31 May 2026 to proceeds from asset disposal rather than to its regular sources of income that had shaped its financial performance in the past, according to its latest earnings report. Net profit for the consumer goods company advanced nearly fourfold to N49.1 billion, thanks to profit on the disposal of fixed assets, which delivered N38.7 billion, compared with N6.5 million a year earlier. The maker of home and personal care products, which also distributes consumer electronics, highlighted the sale of three properties and the facilities previously used…

The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but recent solar storms have pushed its orbit lower, and it’s in danger of burning up in Earth’s atmosphere as soon as this year. To try and stave off its demise, NASA has enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies. The company’s Link spacecraft launched Friday with the goal of intercepting Swift, which has no propulsion system, and boosting its orbit back to its original position. Right now, Swift is circling at an altitude of 224 miles, and Link is aiming to raise that by about 150 miles.Using a three-armed spacecraft to lift a satellite 150…

Labour’s general secretary has announced she will resign this autumn after almost two years in the role.Hollie Ridley, a close ally of Sir Keir Starmer and his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, told party staff on Friday it was right for Labour’s ruling national executive (NEC) to appoint a new general secretary “to work alongside our new leader”.She said she would step aside after the party’s annual conference in September.Sir Keir, who announced he was standing down as prime minister in June, described Ridley as “one of the most formidable campaigners the Labour Party has ever produced”.He also credited…

Flies seek out darkness to restart their biological clocks

Eala played tennis as a youngster with her brother and grandfather, telling BBC TV she “still can’t keep up” with her older brother, even now.She first rose to prominence in 2022, when she was on the cover of Vogue in her home country after becoming the first Filipina to win a junior Grand Slam title with her US Open triumph.She rose to wider notice after her 2025 Miami Open breakthrough – which ironically began with another victory over Swiatek.Aged 19 and ranked outside the top 100, Eala took out Grand Slam champions Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys to reach…

Rob Reiner used what would be his final on-screen role to bash Donald Trump as the late actor-director posthumously appeared on the latest episode of Larry David’s new HBO show. Reiner, who was killed along with his wife Michele in December 2025, portrayed George Washington on the July 3rd episode of Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, a role that was kept secret until the episode aired Friday night to kick off the Fourth of July weekend. In the sketch, Reiner’s Washington delivers a speech specifying why he wouldn’t seek a third term as president, which serves as a…

In a congratulatory message on US Independence Day, Aoun says he hopes Lebanon can ‘open a new page of hope, peace and stability’.Published On 4 Jul 20264 Jul 2026Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has called on the United States to stand by Beirut following a landmark agreement between Lebanon and Israel, mediated by Washington.In a congratulatory message to President Donald Trump marking the US 250th Independence Day, Aoun urged Washington to “keep always standing beside Lebanon’s right and just causes, its institutions, army and people”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listHe added that he hopes that Lebanon could “turn the…

BBC International correspondent Nawal Al Maghafi reports from Tehran, where authorities say they expect millions to take part in funeral commemorations for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The former supreme leader of Iran was killed more than four months ago in US and Israeli strikes at the start of the war.Huge crowds of black-clad mourners have already gathered at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque, where his body is lying in state ahead of his burial in his hometown of Mashhad, next Thursday.The BBC’s Senior international correspondent Nawal Al Maghafi is reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Heatwaves and volatile input costs are forcing farmers to cut pesticide use, switch their crops and plant trees to shade livestock as the sector tries to build resilience to hotter weather. Another summer of record-high temperatures in England is accelerating the take-up of regenerative farming, a method that helps restore soil quality by cutting out chemicals and intensive ploughing, making it better at retaining water during hot spells. Research by Barclays, published this week, found that more than half of the farmers…

NASA’s Perseverance rover has spent five years traversing Jezero Crater looking for the chemical leftovers of whatever processes were at work on Mars billions of years ago. The rover has found organic carbon, but it has mostly been inside rocks that had to be drilled or abraded to expose it. But now, at an outcrop on the edge of an ancient river channel named Neretva Vallis, Perseverance detected complex macromolecular carbon sitting right on the rock’s surface. “To our knowledge, that’s the shallowest detection of organic matter on Martian surface to date,” said Ashley E. Murphy, a researcher at the…