Author: damazah@gmail.com

The South African parliament has yet to debate the proposed natural-sciences bill. Credit: Franz Aberham/GettyNatural scientists in South Africa could be imprisoned for up to a year for failing to register with a government-backed regulatory body, according to proposed legislation that is to go before South Africa’s parliament.Under the terms of the proposed law, it will be mandatory for some scientists to register with an existing body called the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP). SACNSP was set up in 2003 and all natural scientists in the country were meant to have registered with it, but many never…

Key events38th over: Pakistan 120-5 (Salman 0, Rizwan 2) Not since Ian Botham have England had a bowler able to produce such magic off a run-up modelled on a man trundling a wheelbarrow through the garden. Anyway, Rizwan isn’t hanging around, slog sweeps his second ball high into the air, chased down by the slips.ShareUpdated at 17.08 CESTWICKET! Shafique b Robinson 61 Pakistan (118-5)Neck. And. Crop. A ball that screams back and detonates.Share37th over: Pakistan 118-4 (Shafique 61, Salman 0) Just a single off Atkinson’s over, with the stand-in captain yet to get off the mark.Share36th over: Pakistan 117-4 (Shafique 60,…

EXCLUSIVE: The Zurich Summit has scored a coup with a strong lineup this year headlined by Backrooms director Kane Parsons. The lineup of speakers at the annual industry conference, dubbed the “Davos of the film industry”, also includes Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer, Candle Media Co-Founder and Co-CEO Kevin Mayer, Mediawan Pictures CEO and Group Chief Content Officer Elisabeth d’Arvieu, MUBI founder and CEO Efe Cakarel, and Particle 6 Founder and CEO Eline van der Velden, who will be in conversation with her much-discussed AI actor creation Tilly Norwood. As the official media partner for…

I like to think of myself as a fairly laid-back person. Other people’s behavior is not my business. There is one notable exception: my gym nemesis.He brings his computer to the gym and takes work conference calls at full volume. He has four to six pairs of dumbbells around him at all times – then doesn’t put them away. Intellectually I understand he is a fragile, flawed human like the rest of us, but in my gut I sometimes wonder if he arrived here from another galaxy.Life is full of unspoken rules, and the gym is no different. The heavy…

Asked whether Taiwan and the South China Sea threaten US national security, republican fill-in senator Darline Graham hesitated. “I’m just going to be honest here,” she told Tuesday night’s debate audience. “I’m – not that informed on national security, so – but I do support the military.”Gasps, and boos, rolled through the opera house hosting the only debate before next week’s Republican runoff – a race to succeed her brother, Lindsey Graham, who was one of the Senate’s most committed rightwing foreign policy hawks before his sudden passing in July. She did not retreat.“I’m not a polished politician up here,”…

South Korea’s annual joint military drills with the US will be cut short by six days at the request of Washington, its defence ministry has announced.Seoul said that the “period and scale” of the 2026 Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise had been adjusted due to a “proposal of the US side”. The drill will now conclude on 21 August, rather than 27 August as planned.It comes after Donald Trump announced plans to curtail exercises with South Korea, citing his “very good” relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He also accused Seoul of refusing to take part in action against Iran.South…

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is facing renewed pressure after the Football Association of Wales (FAW) withdrew its support for his bid to remain in office and called on him to resign. FAW chief executive Noel Mooney, who previously worked with Infantino at UEFA, said the FIFA president should step down over the damage caused by his controversial proposal to create a new commercial entity to manage the governing body’s World Cup interests. Read Also: FIFA defends Infantino’s leadership amid UEFA backlash Infantino’s plan, which sought to sell a minority stake in FIFA’s commercial operations to private investors, was abandoned following…

“I’ve had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy,” a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity. He’s based in Los Angeles, and while we speak, he eats what appears to be tuna directly out of the can. “He said: ‘I go to strip clubs, and I want to record the strippers … Normally I put my phone in my chest pocket, but the glasses are more convenient.’”The man I’m talking to runs a business called Ghost Metas. He’s one of hundreds of vendors, easily discoverable online, who specialise in disabling the flashing…

Donors to Andy Burnham gave almost £350,000 over the months before he became Labour leader and prime minister, with major contributors including his former adviser Sacha Lord as well as billionaires David Sainsbury and Gary Lubner.The new MPs’ register of interests also shows Burnham declaring hospitality and trips worth more than £12,000 – many of them relating to Greater Manchester in his former role as mayor but also including £1,500 of Glastonbury tickets in 2025, where he was speaking, and £500 of tickets to Ladies Day at Aintree this year.The register is the first in which Burnham has recorded his…

A cleaning drone was hovering outside the office window when I sat down, its soft bristles tracing the glass in patient rows. I leaned sideways to see past it and pulled up the morning docket.The court order was unambiguous: freeze all fiat assets tied to Yanxi Logistics Technology. It was a routine debt recovery: 120 million yuan in default, across three commercial banks. At 09.14 a.m., I executed the block command through the central regulatory clearing gateway.The terminal returned a green checkmark. Status: Frozen.Three seconds later, the balance dropped to zero. It wasn’t a wire transfer. The account didn’t empty;…