Author: damazah@gmail.com

Elena Hernández moved to the coca-growing region of Guaviare during the boom of the 1990s, lured by better pay.”There was more money back then – you could see it everywhere,” she says. “I managed to save and buy a small house.”But the coca industry also brought violence and insecurity. Armed groups fought for control, while the government tried to curb production through manual eradication, aerial fumigation and arrests.These efforts cut off families’ incomes but failed to stem cultivation.So when a nationwide substitution programme was introduced by the then government in 2017, Hernández was eager to sign up, joining around 100,000…

US singer Madonna (C) performs with Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho (L) and Brazilian former footballer Ronaldo during the halftime show of the 2026 World Cup football tournament final match between Spain and Argentina at the New York/New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford on July 19, 2026. (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesFIFA World Cup’s historic Halftime Show, curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, produced by Global Citizen, and performed by BTS, Shakira, Madonna, Justin Bieber and more, showed a bit more than just the global artists. There was something for the football/soccer fans as well as…

ʅ͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡(̸̢̛̼̞̭͋ͅ)̸͚̰͛̔̾̀̿͒͂:̴͓̞̑̌̂̆̊͋̀:̸͎̟̯̂̓̌　҉　　　　　͡　͞　͞　͞　҉● ࿀ ●  ࿀  ●　　　҉⃝ 　　　⃝͢ ͞　　　͘　͞⃝̕ ͢　　　　̛　⃝ 　　　̸　̡　　͢⃝̧ 　͡　͡　　̀　̧　̢⃝͜ 　 　҉　　͞　͞　⃝͞ 　͞　͡⃝  ⃝҉҈҉҈҉҈҉҈҉҈҉ :̶̢͙͙͕̠̩͆(̷̮͍͚̫͚͂̍)̵̳̗̊(　̟̞̝̜̙̘̗̖҉̵̴̨̧̢̡̼̻̺̹̳̲̱̰̯̮̭̬̫̪̩̦̥What am I supposed to do with this?It’s un-Googleable. Unpronounceable.It doesn’t even render the same way on various platforms. It looks one way on YouTube Music. Another on Apple Music. And yet another on Bandcamp. Even the artist name ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ is an unpronounceable series of glyphs that would make Prince shake his head.So, from here on out, I’m just going to refer to ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ by his more well-known alias, Four Tet, and the album as Wingdings. My apologies to Kieran Hebden for disregarding his…

By lunchtime today, the UK will have its fifth prime minister in four years.No other sentence can so pithily summarise the nature of British politics right now than that one.In the summer of 2022 Boris Johnson was on his way out, but still in office. Since then there has been Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.Little wonder Andy Burnham will say later, we are told, that he is “acutely conscious” of this churn at the top. His critics, within the Labour Party and beyond it, may allow themselves a wry smile at that, given they would argue he…

Researchers at the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) have developed an artificial intelligence tool that may help predict serious cardiovascular problems many years before symptoms appear. The system, known as CardiOmicScore, uses information from a single blood test to estimate a person’s future risk of six major cardiovascular diseases (CVDs): coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral artery disease and venous thromboembolism. In people at elevated risk, the model was able to detect warning signals as far as 15 years before clinical onset. The findings were published in Nature Communications. A Blood…

Ferran Torres scores the only goal of the game as Spain dominate Argentina 1-0, to win their second FIFA World Cup at the New York New Jersey Stadium.

ITV political editor Robert Peston described how he found it “too difficult” to return to a home in Wales he shared with his late wife.Writer Sian Busby, who had Welsh heritage, died of lung cancer in September 2012, aged 51. Peston said Busby decided in the last 10 years of her life that Wales was her “proper home”, leading the couple to spend time at a property in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, for “many years”.After Busby died, Peston kept the property for “a while” before deciding to sell because being there reinforced the “terrible sadness and grief” he felt.”Being in a place…

Peter Achi For generations, Kwoi has occupied a unique place in the historical and cultural geography of Kaduna State. Nestled in Jaba Local Government Area, the town is far more than an administrative headquarters. It is the ancestral heartland of the Ham people, custodians of one of Nigeria’s oldest indigenous cultures, and the traditional seat of the Kpop Ham, whose institution remains a powerful symbol of identity, continuity and communal cohesion. A short distance from Kwoi lies Nok, the archaeological site that introduced the world to the celebrated Nok terracotta sculptures; among the earliest known examples of figurative art in…

Spain were crowned champions of the 2026 FIFA World Cup after substitute Ferran Torres scored the decisive goal in extra time to secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Argentina in the final at New York New Jersey Stadium. The closely contested final ended goalless after 90 minutes despite Spain dominating possession and creating the better scoring opportunities.Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez produced a string of outstanding saves to keep his side in the match, while Spain also had a goal disallowed during regulation time. Argentina’s hopes suffered a major setback in stoppage time when midfielder Enzo Fernández was sent off after…

The bosses of Britain’s largest listed companies received record pay last year, fuelling the widest earnings gap with workers in eight years.Median pay for FTSE 100 chief executives hit £5.06m in the last financial year, according to data released by the High Pay Centre, an 8.6% increase on £4.66m the previous year and the highest level on record.Executive remuneration has been rising steadily since the pandemic, when CEOs took pay and bonus cuts as the lockdowns affected business performance.Analysis found that listed company bosses are now paid 130 times the salary of the average full-time UK worker, up from 124…