Author: damazah@gmail.com

Syria condemns attack in southwest as a ‘flagrant violation of sovereignty’ and a ‘blatant breach of international law’.Published On 22 Aug 202622 Aug 2026An Israeli drone strike in southwestern Syria has injured several people, the country’s foreign ministry says, in the latest of near-daily Israeli incursions and attacks in the area.Syria’s official Alikhbariya channel reported on Saturday that a man was wounded when an Israeli drone hit his truck near the town of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying in a statement that it had targeted…

A father has been reprimanded by police after leaving his son on Japan’s highest mountain for several hours with just a soft drink and snack, local media report.The seven-year-old was spotted sitting on a bench on Mount Fuji in foggy and rainy conditions, at a point situated at over 2,000m (6,500ft).His father, 48, reportedly told him to “wait here” after the boy complained he was tired – and continued the climb with his elder son.Staff at a mountain hut found the child near the sixth station of a hiking route towards the summit and alerted police. His father was tracked…

The Federal Government (FG) is set to introduce performance scorecards for operators across Nigeria’s electricity value chain, with underperforming distribution and generation companies (DisCos and GenCos) to face sanctions while high-performing operators will be rewarded. Meanwhile, Nigerians spent an estimated N16.5 trillion on self-generated electricity in 2023, compared with about N1 trillion in revenue generated by the national grid, underscoring the enormous economic cost of Nigeria’s unreliable power supply. The Minister of Power, Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, disclosed this in a policy brief presented by his Special Adviser, Martins Olajide, at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) Industrialisation and Competitiveness Forum…

More than 300 companies are showcasing the latest advances in robotics at the five-day event in Beijing, China, organisers say.

Pledges larger ‘rainbow coalition’ for Tinubu By Omeiza Ajayi ABUJA: Federal Capital Territory FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, has declared that his mission ahead of the 2027 general election is to make opposition figures, including opposition presidential candidates, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, uncomfortable by increasing their blood pressure. Wike, who spoke with journalists on Friday in Abuja during an inspection of ongoing projects in the territory, insisted that the current political landscape lacks a clearly defined leading opposition party and dismissed suggestions that Osun State Governor-elect Ademola Adeleke’s re-election victory represented a boost for the opposition. Reacting to…

Dr Daniel Awomukwu For many Nigerians, DNA is something they hear about only in crime movies or paternity disputes. Yet DNA is much more than that. It is a remarkable scientific tool that can help solve crimes, identify victims of disasters, reconnect missing families, and even tell the story of our shared ancestry. Over the past few years, I undertook an extensive forensic genetics study involving Nigeria’s three major ethnic groups—Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa-Fulani. The research was designed primarily to strengthen forensic science in Nigeria, but along the way it also answered several long-standing questions about our population, our ancestry,…

On 15 August 2026, China’s Ecological and Environmental Code entered into force, consolidating more than 30 environmental laws into a unified framework of more than 1240 articles (1). At the time of this publication, the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) is ongoing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2). This rare convergence offers an opportunity to extend China’s ecological governance beyond national borders through evidence-based dryland restoration cooperation.

Key eventsJust had a good friend with a sharp rugby mind suggest I publish this:34-28 ABs.Phew, now I’m nervous.If I have to make a prediction I’ll say Boks to win by six points with four tries to three.ShareSome reading while we wait courtesy of Gerard and yours truly:ShareA quick tale of the tape: All Blacks v Springboks: 110 Tests – New Zealand 63 wins, South Africa 43, four draws. At Ellis Park: 16 Tests – South Africa 10 wins, New Zealand six. This is the 13th Test series between the sides. The series ledger is 5-5, with two draws. Together…

The sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln deserve better than mockery from people sitting comfortably behind keyboards. The carrier has now been deployed for roughly nine months and has spent more than 240 consecutive days at sea without a port call — an extraordinary, record-setting stretch even by nuclear-powered aircraft carrier standards. Yet check in on military and veteran Facebook groups or scroll through X and you will find a never-ending chorus of MAGA critics — and maybe some Russian and Iranian bots, by the looks of some of the accounts — blaming the sailors themselves for struggling with the conditions…

I was that kid who put ketchup on everything, from fries to french toast, and if my parents wanted me to eat vegetables, they’d have to cover them in the stuff (the sugar cravings of my youth have subsided, but I still love ketchup mixed into peas). So I was pleasantly surprised by this test group, because even the most economical sauces performed well.Tomato content varied greatly (though not always in line with price), with the most tomato-heavy products containing almost twice as much fruit as the least. This information is presented in two ways: the first is the amount…