Author: damazah@gmail.com

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…

As the 2027 presidential election is fast approaching many Nigerians are wondering what members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will showcase as their achievements in the last three and a half years when Nigerians still do not enjoy electricity, good roads, and security. Just last week, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) increased the pump price of petrol to N1,345 per litre at its retail outlets in Abuja, thereby making life more difficult for Nigerians. This is why the assurance by the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, that the ruling party will fulfill the…

When I wrote an unadoring review of Stephen Hawking’s final book, a collection of essays published posthumously in 2018, New Scientist suppressed some of my criticisms on the grounds that it was “too early” to voice anything other than praise for the physicist who died, aged 76, that March. It was apparently still too early in 2021, when no British publisher would touch Charles Seife’s exposé of Hawking’s bullying and self-aggrandising behaviour, Hawking Hawking.In this new biography, veteran science writer Graham Farmelo takes a different approach. It is a comprehensive and accessible portrait of a brilliant scientist and an extraordinarily…

Thomas Carty was ‘blatantly’ fouled by David Allen, who should have been disqualified after the bizarre ending to their fight, says the Irishman’s manager Mike Ofo.Carty dramatically toppled through the ropes after being hit on the back of the head in the opening round of his clash with Allen on the undercard of Katie Taylor’s farewell fight at Croke Park on Saturday. The bout was declared a ‘no contest’ after Carty was unable to continue, but Ofo believes Allen should have been penalised for an illegal blow. Ofo told Sky Sports: “I am very disappointed about what happened on Saturday…

Linda Cardellini, who has been acting for longer than three decades, finally won her first Emmy on Sunday for her performance in DTF St. Louis, calling it a “real dream come true.” The actress, overcome with tears, thanked her family, friends, her co-stars, creator Steve Conrad, the producers and her team following her win in the best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie category. “I’m sorry, it’s a little embarrassing, but this has just been an unbelievable journey,” she said through tears. “And thank you to the Academy and thank you to everyone along this way,…

I wasn’t sure what to expect from an autumn trip to Finland, my first ever to the country, but spending an afternoon sprawled on a deck chair beneath blazing blue skies certainly wasn’t part of it. After a morning walking beneath the leafy canopy at the Mustila Arboretum – the oldest, most extensive botanical garden in the country – and a lunchtime wine-tasting (more of which later), my friend Sara and I pitched up at the Sahanlahti resort, deep in the Finnish Lakeland, only to find sun-drenched scenery that felt far more Mediterranean than Nordic.Sahanlahti was the second stop on…

The 2027 general and presidential election campaign season kicked off in earnest last week, not with great elocution, thoughtful programs, mouth-watering campaign promises or slam-dunk observations, but with eight notable gaffes spewed by important political actors. Senator Francis Fadahunsi of Osun East had kicked off the gaffes season days before last month’s off-season Osun State governorship polls. The senator, an APC chieftain, led his supporters in a protest march to the palace of the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland to, he said, protest the incessant killing of his party members ahead of the election. Fadahunsi led the march a day after…

It is tempting to say that the debate over fuel subsidy is back to the fore of public conversation, again. Much thanks is owed for this to former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar’s pledge to return the subsidy if voted into office in next year’s general election. A while before this, though, the presentation by the Federal Ministry of Finance, in which the minister sought to account for the effect of the fuel subsidy savings on the federation accounts, lit a fire beneath the subsidy debate. Laudable for its attempt at improving…

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has joined the moving train canvassing for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu and making a case for his economic reforms. Akpabio spoke at the weekend when he received a high-level delegation of the Northern Ethnic Groups Assembly in Abuja. He urged the Assembly to support Tinubu’s economic reforms and policy continuity. He explained that the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration, including fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange reforms, were painful but necessary measures to reposition the economy. According to him, the policies have now crossed a critical threshold and are beginning…

Back in 2009, Ars wrote about what was being reported as a leaked trailer for the then-upcoming Left 4 Dead 2, saying the footage “looks like it’s straight from a high-gloss action movie.” Today, we need to offer an important update to this crucial, 17-year-old story: The trailer “leak” was orchestrated by Valve itself. That news comes courtesy of former Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who said in a newly posted video about cut lines in the game that “for Left 4 Dead 2 with the ESRB… we leaked our trailer ahead of time because they wouldn’t let us release the…