Author: damazah@gmail.com

Eight national officers of Nigeria’s Scripture Union abducted by gunmen in Imo State are still being held captive. The victims were abducted while returning from a Scripture Union national conference held at the Camp of Faith in Okigwe Area of Imo. Scripture Union is a global interdenominational Christian movement committed to nurturing children and youth. The incident, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, happened on 14 June along Orlu-Mgbidi Road while the victims were travelling from Okigwe to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. What the police said When contacted on Thursday, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed the abduction of…

Football is cyclical. Trends come and go. After the rise of inverted wingers, who tend to cut in and shoot, are we seeing the return of traditional wingers – those wide players who hug the touchline and send in crosses on their stronger foot?We are seeing a lot of goals scored from deliveries into the box from out wide. In the first two rounds of games, 29 of the 48 teams at the tournament scored at least one goal within five seconds of a cross into the box.In isolation, those figures won’t mean much, but 29 teams scoring within five…

Project Healthy Minds, the tech-focused mental health nonprofit, is adding a prominent media executive to its board of directors. Rich Kleiman, the CEO and co-founder of Boardroom and 35V, will join the organization’s board and help it expand its reach. Kleiman joins a board that already includes NBC Today co-host Carson Daly, Universal Music publishing CEO Jody Gerson, media adviser Michael Kassan, and Indianapolis Colts co-owner Kalen Jackson. As it happens, Kleiman’s own career has spanned music, media, tech and sports, having helped launch Roc Nation Sports after working as a music manager, and co-founding Boardroom and 25V with longtime…

“I remember being stunned,” she said. “I was like, ‘But you do have sex, right?’”Brock Akil has consistently defended the need to tell the stories of Black women who reject the demands of respectability politics that tell them how they should behave, especially in romantic relationships.“I’m very proud of carving out space for Black women’s sexuality,” she said. Thinking ahead to how she would be like to be remembered, she said she hoped to be recognized for liberating Black women “from the asexual trope or the ho trope.”“We are somewhere in between — we are at the spectrum,” she said.…

GEMS Education India unveils USD 30 million expansion plan with 30 new schools BENGALURU: GEMS Education (India), part of the Dubai-based Varkey Group which operates K-12 private school operators GEMS Education, unveiled its India expansion strategy, with an initial investment of up to USD 30 million over the next three to five years. The plan included the development of more than 30 GEMS-operated schools, 1,000 GEMS Partner Schools, and the establishment of a dedicated School of Education focused on teacher training, leadership development and educational research.“As part of its immediate growth roadmap, GEMS India has confirmed a pipeline of 21…

Chinedu Eze The federal government has brought another batch of Nigerians from South Africa. The returnees who were 66 in number arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at about 8:50 pm Wednesday.Foreign Affairs Ministry said the evacuation exercise was approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as part of government’s commitment to the safety and welfare of Nigerian citizens abroad.The first batch of 262 returnees arrived on Thursday, June 11, 2026, via a chartered Air Peace flight.The second batch, comprising 66 returnees, was facilitated by the Chairman/CEO of Value Jet, Otunba Kunle Soname.The returnees were accompanied by officials from…

Monsanto Co’s Roundup is shown for sale in Encinitas, California.Mike Blake | ReutersThe Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision on Thursday said Bayer cannot be sued over state-level claims that the company failed to warn of cancer risks from its weedkiller Roundup and its chemical glyphosate. The decision is a major win for Bayer and the Trump administration, which argued that failure-to-warn claims were preempted by a federal law that governs pesticides. It’s also a major blow to the Make America Healthy Again movement, which helped return Trump to the White House in the 2024 election but has felt betrayed…

The electric car brand Polestar’s days in the US are seriously numbered. Today, the company revealed that the US Commerce Department has declined to authorize imports of new Polestars from model year 2027 onward as part of a rule banning connected cars from automakers with Chinese links. Polestar says it will continue to sell its existing stock of Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 SUVs and “will continue to support customers, including providing access to its service network.” But we can forget about the Polestar 5 sedan, the Polestar 6 roadster, or any future models making it to these shores. The…

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the manufacturer of the weedkiller Roundup, overturning a jury award for a Missouri man who claimed the widely used herbicide caused cancer in a decision that could have sweeping impacts on thousands of other Americans who similarly claim the product sickened them.In the 7-to-2 decision, written by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the majority found that a federal law that regulates pesticides barred the Missouri man’s lawsuit.Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the Missouri case would “require a cancer warning on Roundup’s label,” which would directly conflict with the label required by the federal Environmental Protection…

The UK experienced its hottest June day on record on Thursday as temperatures hit 36.4C in Somerset.It marked the second time this week the record was broken after temperatures reached 36.1C in Hampshire on Wednesday.As extreme temperatures continue to grip the country, hundreds of schools have been forced to close early, while transport has faced significant disruption, with train passengers advised to avoid all non-essential travel.With a rare red weather warning in place until Friday for the south of England, people across the UK are trying to cope with the heat in different ways.