Author: damazah@gmail.com

George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney have been forced to evacuate their home in the small town of Brignoles in southern France due to nearby wildfires. The Clooneys, who left with their children, in a letter to Brignoles mayor Didier Brémond said they didn’t know whether their hilltop home could be saved by firefighters but would help rebuild the small community after a fast-moving fire had been put out. “Dear Didier, At this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment and as we evacuate Brignoles we want to emphasize 2 things. First…

In my last two articles, I argue that Nigeria’s developmental challenge is less about the absence of ideas than the organisation of incentives. The first article contends that many of our governance failures are symptoms of a deeper organisational misalignment between authority, incentives and capability. The second traces the evolution of Nigeria’s fiscal federalism, showing how the gradual shift from rewarding production towards prioritising distribution weakened the incentive for governments to expand their productive base. The third in the series has been divided into two parts: the first (the present one) continues on the incentive argument and lays the ingredients…

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said an object that crashed into a field in eastern Poland in the early hours of Thursday was probably a Russian missile.The unidentified object caused a 10m-wide (33ft) crater a short distance from the village of Tarnawa Kolonia, 92km (57 miles) from the border with Ukraine during a large-scale Russian attack on the cities of Lviv, Kyiv and near Kryvyhi Rih.Tusk said initially that “all the indications” were that the missile that violated Polish airspace was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, during a specially convened meeting in the eastern city of Lublin.He then went…

Microsoft shares jumped 14% on Thursday while Meta tanked 9% as investors gave differing verdicts on the two tech giants’ earnings.On Wednesday, Microsoft posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue that beat analyst estimates and reported 43% growth at its key Azure cloud business, which was also ahead of market expectations.The company said that it now has over 30 million paid seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot, its AI work assistant, up from more than 20 million as of April, in further signs that parts of its AI investments are paying off.”Microsoft’s strong revenue performance, combined with accelerating Copilot adoption, signals that its $190 billion…

The Federal Trade Commission is suing healthcare giant Hims & Hers for allegedly sharing its customers’ medical and healthcare information with advertisers and tech giants, like Meta and Snap, as well as for misleading consumers about its privacy practices. The lawsuit is the federal consumer watchdog’s latest crackdown in recent years on healthcare companies that share sensitive information with outside companies without their customers’ knowledge. Hims & Hers, now a publicly traded company, provides prescription medication for sexual wellness, mental health conditions, weight loss, and other issues, and as such handles a large amount of sensitive patient data. Companies typically…

Two Polish citizens who have lived in the UK for nearly 80 years after their parents fled the second world war have spoken of their terrifying experience after being told they did not have post-Brexit rights to return to the UK.In May, while visiting Poland, they learned that although they had been welcomed as refugees after the war, they now needed special post-Brexit paperwork to return to their home in Bury.Maria Krupa, 85, and her husband, Czeslaw, 92, who met in the UK and went on to marry and settle in Bury in Greater Manchester, were issued with “Aliens’ registration…

Does the brain create consciousness, or is consciousness a more basic feature of reality? Christof Koch, one of the world’s most prominent neuroscientists, explored this question during the 15th “Behind and Beyond the Brain” Symposium. The mystery reaches far beyond understanding how neurons process information. Scientists can observe which parts of the brain become active when a person sees an object, feels pain, recalls a memory, or makes a decision. Yet they still cannot explain why those physical processes are accompanied by an inner experience. In other words, researchers can study what the brain is doing, but they do not…

FIFA has clarified that it is not selling the FIFA World Cup, following the unveiling of a proposal to create a new commercial subsidiary aimed at strengthening the financial future of global football. The governing body said the proposed entity, known as FIFA Football Enterprises (FFE), would remain fully owned and controlled by FIFA, while allowing external investors to provide commercial expertise and long-term capital to maximise the value of its commercial rights and events. Here are five key things to know about the proposal: 1. The FIFA World Cup is not for sale FIFA stressed that neither the FIFA…

The fact that Love’s Labour’s Lost is relatively unloved by Shakespeare producers and scholars is due to this mid-16th-century comedy being an early example of his dramatic craft – an RSC online timeline lists it ninth in the 38 main attributed plays – and an unusually inconclusive ending: the typical act five marry-go-round is suddenly deferred for a year.These problems mean that even purists object less than usual to a solving directorial concept. Tom Littler, in alfresco stagings playing this summer in Guildford and Richmond, pairs the seemingly incomplete piece with Much Ado Nothing (which some believe to be an…

Femi Otedola, chairman of First HoldCo Plc, has increased his stake in the financial services group to 25.86 per cent after acquiring 1.78 billion additional shares worth about ₦222.20 billion. In a regulatory filing on Thursday, First HoldCo disclosed that Mr Otedola, through Calvados Global Services Limited, purchased 1,779,094,976 ordinary shares at ₦124.90 per share. The new share purchase represents 3.91 per cent of the company’s outstanding shares. Following the transaction, Mr Otedola’s total holding in the banking group rose to about 11.8 billion shares, which is equivalent to 25.86 per cent of the company’s issued share capital. Based on…