Author: damazah@gmail.com

“Operation Bluebird, Inc. picked up the name X Corp. walked away from and is rebuilding it on trust, in your browser at twitter.now,” it states prominently on its website. “We are not X, and we are not affiliated with X Corp.” Neither the X Corporation, nor Elon Musk, nor Andrew Mayo, one of X’s attorneys, immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment. Twitter.now, still in its nascent stage, only has hundreds of users for the time being. The social media network looks and feels much like the Twitter of old and many of its offshoots—it has replies and retweets. Fact-checking…

Europe’s oldest reigning monarch has been in hospital in Oslo since August 17, suffering from a blood disease.Published On 27 Aug 202627 Aug 2026The health of Norway’s 89-year-old King Harald, hospitalised with a blood disease, has deteriorated and he is in an “extremely serious” condition, the palace said.Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon, who is acting as regent during his father’s illness, have cancelled all royal engagements, the palace said in a statement on Thursday.“His Majesty the King’s health condition is extremely serious,” it said, providing no other details.Members of the king’s family were at his bedside, Norwegian media reported,…

African countries need better systems for tracking public debt and stronger parliamentary scrutiny of government borrowing, said some development experts said on Wednesday. They spoke at the sixth African Conference on Debt and Development (AfCoDD VI), organised by the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) in Nairobi, Kenya. Douglas Bitonda Kigabo, an economic affairs officer with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, stated that governments should publish information covering not only central government debt but also borrowing by sub-national governments and state-owned enterprises. Government guarantees and other liabilities that could eventually become public obligations should also…

EXCLUSIVE: Tara Reid (American Pie) and Johnny Pemberton (Fallout) are attached to star in the independent horror feature Scissor Mouth. Produced by 1905 Films and written and directed by Deborah Richards, Scissor Mouth is described as “a contemporary Southern Gothic horror inspired by an ancient Japanese folktale, using horror to explore society’s obsession with beauty”. Set in the early 1980s, Scissor Mouth follows a teenage girl who escapes years of captivity at the hands of her beauty-obsessed mother, leaving a bloody trail of delay “makeovers’ across rural West Texas. The project is slated to shoot in New Mexico in 2027 with Patrick Wirtz producing. The screenplay placed second in the horror category at the…

Key eventsThe ⁠Trump administration is considering a new round of sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, ⁠Politico reported on ⁠Thursday, ​citing eight people familiar with discussions.A new tariff proposal could tax a ⁠wider range of tech goods. Instead of just targeting microchips, the duties would ⁠also apply to products that use them, such ​as laptops, gaming consoles and data ‌center servers, the report said.The commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, ‌favors a structure that will tie foreign companies’ relief from the tariffs to investment in US chip manufacturing to boost local production, the report said.Washington is also mulling a phase-in ‌period for the new…

Dick’s Sporting Goods posted strong core results but Foot Locker weighed it down. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)Getty ImagesDick’s Sporting Goods shares suffered their worst one-day decline on record Tuesday, plunging 30.7% to $124.31 after the retailer cut its full-year outlook and warned a promotional athletic footwear market was hitting sales and margins.And a minor recovery since has failed to disguise the scale of the sell off reflected more than a quarterly earnings miss.Investors had been expecting Dick’s to demonstrate that its $2.4 billion acquisition of Foot Locker was beginning to deliver but instead, the results showed that the turnaround…

Lonely jobs have provided excellent material for independent video games over the years. From Papers, Please to Firewatch to The Stanley Parable, players have been happy to spend hours dwelling in depressing cubicles or rural hideaways, usually because there is an intriguingly hidden point to it all.In Trainwatch, a character named Troy has taken a seemingly godforsaken job as a railway worker in an unnamed desolate backwater. His main task over the course of a single month is to manage a level crossing, closing the gate whenever a train comes, while also carrying out daily chores such as cooking and…

Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, and a leading voice in Nigerian civil society advocacy, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, in this interview  raises critical issues regarding preparations for the 2027 general elections,  creation of state police, and  Special Seats Bill before the 10th National Assembly. Onyebuchi Ezigbo brings excerpts. What is your assessment of the progress being made by the 10th National Assembly in addressing issues of concern to Nigerians through constitutional amendments? I am hoping that the 10th National Assembly understands the importance of delivering on its promise to amend portions of the Constitution that citizens have…

After 17 years of inactivity, Okin Biscuits has resumed production on one of the rehabilitated production lines at its factory in Ijagbo, near Offa in Kwara State, a development that could pave the way for the popular indigenous biscuit brand’s return to the Nigerian market. The company announced the development on its official Facebook page on Wednesday, saying biscuits rolled off one of the factory’s rehabilitated production lines on 25 August for the first time in nearly two decades. The company said the production line had to be rebuilt after critical components, including cables, frequency drives, contactors, motors and other…

Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has rejected reports suggesting he is leaving the UFC as he continues to work his way back from a serious eye injury.Aspinall has not fought since October when the first defence of his title ended in a no-contest after repeated eye pokes from Ciryl Gane left the Briton unable to continue.The 33-year-old was subsequently diagnosed with a rare eye condition and had persistent double vision before having surgery.In June, Aspinall said he had returned to full training for a rematch with France’s Gane and suggested they could fight in September.But reports emerged on social media on…