Author: damazah@gmail.com

‘War has changed,” claims Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Back in 2008, the team at Kojima Productions waxed poetic about people recruited to fight in proxy wars they have no political or ideological stake in. As these mercenaries follow their orders, traders get rich out of the so-called war economy. The more disastrous the conflict in a specific area, the higher the bidding price.I expected my time with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 to be nostalgic and, in good old MGS fashion, abundant with fictional events that sound eerily familiar to our…

By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin Following irreconcilable crisis within the party, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Saliu Mustapha, has formally resigned his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Mustapha, in his resignation notice, obtained by Vanguard, said: “This is not a decision I have taken lightly. It follows weeks of extensive consultations and engagements with relevant stakeholders, my supporters, constituents across Kwara Central Senatorial District, and well-meaning Kwarans. “As a politician, I have always believed that politics must be about people, principles…

Groundwater reserves beneath High Mountain Asia (HMA), often called the “Asian Water Tower,” are shrinking at an alarming pace, according to a new satellite-based study. The region provides water that supports farming, cities, and ecosystems across more than a dozen downstream countries, making it a critical resource for hundreds of millions of people. Researchers estimate that groundwater storage is declining by about 24.2 billion tonnes each year. The research was led by Prof. Shudong Wang of the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS). The team sought to overcome two major obstacles to understanding groundwater in…

Tottenham have agreed a deal to sign Manchester City winger Savinho for an initial fee of around £75 million ($102 million), according to reports on Friday. Savinho has been a long-term target for Tottenham, who failed in their attempt to sign the Brazil international during the 2025-26 campaign. The 22-year-old Brazilian appears set to finally move to the north London club, who will pay an extra £10 million in potential add-ons. Tottenham are also interested in signing Savinho’s City team-mate Omar Marmoush after the Egypt forward’s underwhelming spell in Manchester. Savinho’s arrival will take Tottenham’s close-season spending beyond £300 million…

Be still, my beating heart, this week’s Insider is here. Jesse Whittock back with you on the international film and TV news train, as the industry exits its quiet summer period and heads for festival season. Sign up for the full Insider newsletter experience here. Sarah Wilson/Paramount+ Strewth!: So it turns out Australians love watching Australian TV… they just struggle with where to find it. Not only that, they’re looking overseas for content to take its place. A major study led by Screen Australia, the first of its kind, this week revealed that while three-quarters of Aussies want more Aussie…

Three days after Alexandra Elizabeth Hensler, who goes by Lexi, and Justice Daniel Shepard met at a party in Los Angeles, they went on a lunch date that turned into a four-day adventure across two states and multiple cities.They met on July 28, 2022, when Shepard attended the party as a plus-one of Hensler’s former manager. They exchanged social media handles and, after the party, Shepard sent Hensler a message asking her to lunch.Three days later, they met for their lunch date at Alcove in Los Angeles. They were having a great time, and when Hensler learned that Shepard’s birthday…

A member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Rivers State, Isaiah Thomas, has accused members of the Rainbow Coalition, a political group led by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, of burning his family residence in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state. Mr Thomas made the allegation in a video posted on Facebook after the incident at his family compound in Omuoko village, Aluu, where he said his mother, grandmother and tenants were also attacked. Isaiah Thomas in Ankara “This is showing us that Nyesom Wike and his group, the Rainbow Coalition, do not mean well for Rivers State,” Mr…

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has received an initial allocation of 70,000 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine to support the response to the ongoing Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) disclosed this in a joint statement on Thursday. The allocation followed a request by the DRC government last week for vaccines from the global Ebola virus disease vaccine stockpile managed by the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision (ICG). Of the 70,000 doses, 20,000 will be used in a Phase III clinical trial…

Conceptual Portrait of Smartphone Addiction and Endless Scrolling.Marco_piunti | E+ | Getty ImagesThis report is from this week’s The Tech Download newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.Meta says it faces a trillion-dollar penalty and damage to its advertising model. But the trial could go well beyond one company. It could make social media unrecognizable. The states want the court to force Meta to remove “certain addictive design features” from its platforms, Instagram and Facebook. These include infinite scrolling, autoplaying videos, disappearing content such as Instagram Stories, beauty filters, and algorithm-dominated feeds.During her opening statements on Tuesday, California’s deputy attorney…

The near-bottomless demand for unique AI training data from top labs and corporations is driving a massive boom for a cohort of data-labeling startups. One of these fast-growing businesses is Micro1, a four-year-old startup that expanded its gross annual run rate from $100 million to $500 million over the past eight months, according to a person familiar with the company. Like its peers that hire domain experts such as doctors, lawyers, and scientists on a contract basis, Micro1 retains roughly 60% to 70% of that figure, putting its net annual run rate between $150 million and $200 million. While Micro1…