Author: damazah@gmail.com

When a far-right party won a landslide victory on Sunday in a small state in eastern Germany, its reverberations could be felt from Downing Street in London to the Élysée Palace in Paris. Rarely has the result of a regional election been viewed with such portent for the fate of democracy in Europe.This wasn’t just any European country; it was Germany, a country that has relentlessly isolated far-right political parties since the calamity of Nazism. And it wasn’t just a strange outlier, but rather the latest step in a steady, decade-long march that has brought the far right ever closer…

YICHANG, CHINA – AUGUST 03: A netizen displays Japanese yen and US dollars on August 3, 2026 in Yichang, Hubei Province of China. Japan and the US have confirmed that they jointly intervened last week to halt a slide in the yen after it weakened to a fresh 40-year low. (Photo by Liu Junfeng/VCG via Getty Images)Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesJapan’s foreign reserves have fallen at their fastest pace since ministry records started in 2000, slumping 6.18% in August.Finance ministry data showed that foreign reserves stood at $1.207 trillion, down from July’s figure of $1.287 trillion. This…

Some authors hoping to receive their share of Anthropic’s $1.5 billion copyright settlement said they received surprising emails this week — emails informing them that someone else was making a claim on their payments. Anthropic settled a copyright class action suit last year, after a judge ruled that training AI models on copyrighted material is legal under fair use doctrine, but pirating that material was not. The deal received final approval in July, allowing the payments to move forward. Under the terms of the settlement, the authors of nearly 500,000 titles will be paid $3,000 for each pirated work. If…

By Bayo Wahab The senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Victor Umeh, has defended Peter Obi’s warning that Nigerians would resist attempts to manipulate their votes in the 2027 general election, describing the statement as a “call to duty” rather than a threat of anarchy. Obi had recently warned that Nigerians would no longer tolerate attempts to undermine their votes in the 2027 general election, insisting that their votes must be counted and their choices respected. “Our votes this time must count, and whoever doesn’t count it, we will count the person,” the Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress…

AFC Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott is the No. 1 option to replace Enzo Fernández in Chelsea’s midfield, while USMNT and AS Monaco striker Folarin Balogun is attracting interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.Transfers home page | Men’s summer grades | Women’s gradesTrending rumorsBournemouth midfielder Alex Scott has been linked with a move for some time. Adrian DENNIS / AFP via Getty Images- Chelsea are at the front of the queue to sign AFC Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, TEAMtalk reports. The Blues see the 23-year-old as their No. 1…

Stagg isn’t a traditional war hero, something Scott clearly relished sinking his acting teeth into. “I really enjoyed the way that Stagg was not interested in ingratiating himself with anybody,” he told BBC Culture correspondent David Sillito, calling him “a real fish out of water in this situation”.The actor’s other starring roles couldn’t be more different, including romantic fantasy film All of Us Strangers, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe, plus his memorable “hot priest” in TV’s Fleabag and the menacing Jim Moriarty in Sherlock, for which he won a Bafta. His award-winning stage roles include Vanya…

I love this gossamer-thin pastry for its lightness and crunch, not least because it can be used for both sweets and savouries. Once, on a trip to Athens, I learned how to make filo from scratch: it needs to be rolled very, very thin, so, unless you are skilled with a rolling pin, it’s hard and time-consuming. Luckily there are good ready-made varieties out there (if you’re using the frozen variety, make sure it’s fully defrosted). And always keep the pastry you are not working with under a damp cloth, because it dries out very quickly and will probably crack.Cheese…

Former Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has returned to his country after spending more than two years in Nigeria, following the withdrawal of criminal proceedings against him. Mr Koroma, who was exiled for two and a half years, departed Nigeria for Freetown on Sunday. Former President Goodluck Jonathan announced his departure in a post shared on X. Mr Jonathan said, “This morning, I had the pleasure of seeing off my dear friend and brother, His Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma, as he begins his journey home to Sierra Leone. “Nigeria was his home away from home for over two…

GUANGZHOU, CHINA – JULY 14: The exterior of an Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) branch building is seen on July 14, 2026, in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesChina’s finance ministry is leading a smaller-than-expected $54 billion capital injection into state-owned banks and insurers, as Beijing seeks to foster growth with restrained stimulus.Three state lenders and five insurers will get a combined 360 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) from state institutions, led by the Ministry of Finance and the country’s tobacco giant. It’s the first time that Beijing has extended recapitalization to insurers, as…

Google’s Pixel 11 continues to set the standard for what you should expect from the base model of a flagship phone with class-leading cameras, long software support and almost all the bells and whistles of its most expensive phones.The regular Pixel 11 costs £879 (€999/$899/A$1,499) making it £80 or equivalent more expensive than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite. It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes with 256GB of storage and is £200 less than the Pixel 11 Pro, matching rival Samsung’s Galaxy S26.At a glance the Pixel 11 looks…