Author: damazah@gmail.com

Ebola hasn’t gone away. In fact, the ongoing outbreak in Africa is among the most concerning epidemics the organization trying to tame it has ever seen.“Other than Covid, which affected the whole world, this is the thing that has frightened me the most,” says Nicole Lurie, who has worked for Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations since 2017 and now serves as executive director for preparedness and response and the US director.More than 7,000 people have contracted the Bundibugyo Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo since May, around half of whom have died, according to government data compiled by…

Super Eagles head coach Éric Chelle has charged his players to start Nigeria’s 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign strongly, insisting that they must collect points early to avoid another difficult qualification race. Chelle wants Nigeria to set the tone from their opening Group L fixture against Madagascar at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, on Friday before travelling to Guinea-Bissau for their second match four days later. The coach is particularly keen to avoid a repeat of the uncertainty that characterised Nigeria’s FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, when a late surge failed to secure a place at the…

Maria Grazia Chiuri has been having more fun with clothes since she decamped from Paris back to her native Rome to work at Fendi. “I have less of a uniform these days. I think it is because being back here makes me feel young again. I’m not sure my daughter appreciates [this attitude]! But I don’t care,” she said at a preview before her Milan fashion week show.Not that Chiuri doesn’t approach her work as a designer seriously. She described her second ready-to-wear season at Fendi not as a show, or a collection, but as “the second part of the…

Enveda, a biotech startup that uses AI to discover new drugs in the natural world, has raised a $311 million Series E at a $2 billion valuation. The fresh funding, which was led by Catalio Capital Management, with participation from Iconiq and others, doubles the valuation Enveda achieved 12 months ago. The idea behind Enveda is that powerful medicines could be harnessed from plants and microbes, rather than synthesized from scratch in a lab. Viswa Colluru, an early employee of Recursion Pharmaceuticals, founded Enveda in 2019 to speed up the process of discovering these new drugs using AI and other…

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has registered gifts worth £8,177 covering travel and accommodation for a meeting with media mogul Rupert Murdoch in Greece.Badenoch, along with her husband Hamish and shadow minister Alex Burghart, were flown to Athens on 24 August – with the costs paid for by the Murdoch family’s News Corp UK organisation.Badenoch’s spokesperson said: “Kemi was pleased to meet Rupert Murdoch and senior News Corp and News UK executives.”The visit has been declared in full in the usual way.”The spokesperson added: “Kemi values serious engagement with Britain’s major media organisations and the people who run them (including at…

Hurricane Polo, a large storm off the coast of Mexico, has been downgraded to a category 4 hurricane but remains “very powerful”, according to the US National Hurricane Center.The Pacific hurricane, one of the strongest of the season, was projected to head towards the coast of south-western Mexico bringing intense wind and rain, but was not expected to make landfall.The slow-moving storm is being fuelled by extremely warm waters caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon.The BBC’s Courtney Sargent explains how El Niño caused one of the most powerful storms of the season in the Pacific Ocean.Read more about how…

Yusuf Musa, a promoter of the Tinubu Continuity Project, says some aggrieved governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have started discussions on a possible alliance with Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), ahead of the 2027 elections. Mr Musa, an APC member and chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), said the proposed alliance was solely to counter the Rainbow Coalition being promoted by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, as a campaign structure for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election. He disclosed this in a statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES on…

Streaming is getting more expensive again. Disney is the latest media giant to raise prices for its streaming services, adding to a growing pattern across the industry. The increases come roughly a year after Disney’s last major streaming price hike. Disney is raising the price of its ad-free Disney+ and Hulu bundle to $21.99 a month, up from $19.99, whereas the ad-free stand-alone plans are each rising to $21.49 per month, up from $18.99. The company is also increasing the price of its stand-alone ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu plans to $12.49 a month.  The new prices are reflected on Disney+’s…

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has warned that opposition parties are repeating the mistake that cost them the presidency in the 2023 election by failing to unite ahead of the 2027 poll. Duke said the inability of the opposition to consolidate its forces remained a major concern, arguing that the votes secured by Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso in 2023 could have altered the outcome had they contested as a united bloc. He spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm while explaining his decision to leave the African Democratic Congress…

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for stronger use of research, evidence and learning in shaping policies and programmes aimed at improving the lives of children in Nigeria. Wafaa Saeed, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at the Knowledge Management Summit 2026, organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Government of Nigeria through the Child Rights Information Bureau. The summit brought together government officials, development partners, UN agencies, academia, civil society, researchers, young people, media professionals and other stakeholders to discuss how knowledge and evidence can be translated into action for children. Ms…