Author: damazah@gmail.com

In a youth centre opposite Preston bus station, the UK government is trying to address two of the greatest challenges facing the national economy: AI and youth unemployment.The hope is that one will solve – rather than cause – the other. In a room at the recently opened Vault, a community hub in the Lancashire city, an “AI bootcamp” is under way – part of a trial in the north-west to give 16- to 24-year-olds AI training.The bootcamp tutor is standing in front of a video screen and guiding the five attenders sitting around a long table on laptops through…

Robert Jenrick has said Reform UK believes £72m of donations it has received from two cryptocurrency billionaires are “entirely in line with the law”.The party’s economic spokesman told the BBC that he does not expect that it will have to return any of the money from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne, who are both British and have spent time living overseas.The government is seeking to change the law on donations to UK political parties from British expats, including a £100,000 cap backdated to 25 March.”These two donations are entirely in line with the law as it is and, as far…

Venus looks pale yellow in ordinary visible light, but the view changes dramatically in ultraviolet wavelengths. There, dark and bright features sweep across the planet’s upper sulfuric acid clouds. Scientists have observed these patterns for about a century, yet the substance producing them, known as the “unknown absorber,” has never been identified. Now, an international team of researchers has placed new numerical limits on what this mysterious material must be like. Using observations of Venus together with radiative-transfer modeling, the scientists estimated how strongly the liquid inside the planet’s cloud droplets would need to absorb ultraviolet and blue light to…

Ukrainian basketball player Kate Koval has joined a new college team after leaving Louisiana State University because they had signed a Russian player.Koval, 20, was granted a transfer waiver by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the request of LSU.The waiver allowed Koval to join a new team despite the transfer window closing in April, and she has signed with Baylor University in Texas. Koval played in all 35 of LSU’s matches last season, averaging 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.But following the arrival of 17-year-old Anna Minaeva, it was announced that Koval had departed for “personal reasons”…

I have to confess I am a sucker for down-on-your-luck Hollywood stories, especially movies about actresses who once had success and are now scraping the bottom. Of course there is the classic of classics, Sunset Boulevard, but there are many more. A personal favorite is The Star, which got Bette Davis an Academy Award nomination as a has-been who walks around Hollywood carrying her Oscar saying things like “Come on Oscar. Let’s go get drunk.” Jane Fonda got nominated as well playing a down-and-outer in Hollywood in The Morning After. For sleazy fun, there’s Connie Stevens in The Sex Symbol,…

‘It’s a magical place, and not just because of the hotel.” Standing outside the greenhouses at Högbo Brukshotell, two hours north of Stockholm, Stefan Johansson is talking about far more than hospitality. The former head chef, now responsible for sustainability at Högbo, has spent much of the past decade helping reshape the way this corner of Sweden grows, cooks and thinks about food.The catalyst was disarmingly simple. Years ago, a journalist asked Johansson why he was cooking the food he was cooking. Like many ambitious Swedish chefs, Stefan trained in Stockholm’s top restaurants, where ingredients from around the world were…

A former President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Olatunde Amolegbe, has advised Nigerians seeking to participate in the N2.15tn Dangote Petroleum Refinery initial public offering to consider investing through licensed stockbrokers, citing access to professional advice, portfolio management and support in resolving share-related challenges. Speaking with PUNCH Online on Sunday, Amolegbe, who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Arthur Stevens Asset Management Limited, said stockbrokers could help prospective investors open Central Securities Clearing System accounts, purchase shares and manage their investments after allotment. His comments come as the Nigerian capital market prepares for the Dangote refinery…

The Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) and China Tourism Academy have agreed to deepen cooperation to attract more Chinese tourists to Nigerian destinations. The agreement was reached at a recent meeting between NTDA officials and officials of the China Tourism Academy in Beijing, the NTDA said in a statement issued on Saturday. NTDA Director-General, Ola Awakan, during the meeting, called for a structured China-Nigeria Tourism Market Development Programme to provide deeper insights into Chinese traveller trends and preferences. Mr Awakan said the programme would help Nigeria develop tourism products and destination-marketing strategies tailored to the Chinese market and strengthen its…

Kayode Akinyemi highlights how Globacom is deploying superior service, revolutionary products, innovation in the telecoms industry Recently, Nigeria’s telecomm- unications giant, Globacom, underscored and renewed its enduring bond with its subscribers, reaffirming its commitment to delivering superior data services, a more efficient network, and a continuous suite of innovative solutions designed to enhance customer experience. Globacom’s renewed commitment to its customer-centric philosophy and deepening of bond with the subscribers came on the back of a recent National Communications Commission’s (NCC) report which revealed that Globacom emerged as the country’s fastest-growing Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the month of May 2026, recording the…

Jenrick says donations ‘breakthrough moment’ for partySky’s just broadcast an interview with Jenrick who describes the bonanza donations as a “breakthrough moment” for Reform “from two patriotic businessmen”.(A reminder that Harbourne has lived outside of the UK for years and is based in Thailand, and Delo until recently, was living in Hong Kong and was convicted of violating the US Bank Secrecy Act before being pardoned by Trump last year).Jenrick says the 2 x £36m donations “enables us to be battle ready for the election and to prepare for government.”He denies that the huge cheques mean that Reform is “in…