Author: damazah@gmail.com

Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching a Tuesday-evening agreement with Trump administration officials hours before a hike that would have affected $20bn worth of goods was set to take effect.Donald Trump posted late on Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”The duties would have affected a range of Canadian exports including wine and hockey sticks.In the same social media post, Trump said the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project “may be awoken from…

Bright Iyamu, chairman of the five-person ad hoc committee set up by the Edo State House of Assembly to investigate its immediate past speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, says the probe will be transparent, fair, and free of vendetta. Speaking after the committee’s inauguration on Tuesday in Benin, Iyamu, who represents Orhionmwon South State Constituency, said the investigation is a normal democratic process and not targeted at any individual. “I want to let you know that it is not a witch-hunt. What you are seeing today, I would say, is the beauty of democracy. “In democracy, the people choose you, when they…

By Rosemary Iwunze President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, CIIN, Mr. Akinjide Orimolade has said that the future of the insurance profession depends on the quality of leadership, innovation and professionalism that is cultivated today. Orimolade made the assertion while giving his welcome address at the year 2026 Youth Mentorship Programme (Bootcamp 7.0) held at College of Insurance and Financial Management in Ogun State. Orimolade said that the CIIN Youth Mentorship Programme has become one of the most impactful capacity-building initiatives of the Institute. He said: “I am delighted to see such an impressive gathering of young professionals…

OpenAI is announcing security updates following the July news that its AI broke out of a sandboxed environment and accidentally hacked Hugging Face, including improvements to its research environments, monitoring, and alignment techniques. The company had already put the brakes on a new model, Astra, that it thinks could have “critical” cybersecurity capabilities, and the company says it instituted a two-week pause in reinforcement learning (RL) training on its “latest models intended for deployment” while it tightened up security. The company’s “largest planned frontier RL run remains on hold.”For its frontier model research, OpenAI now requires stronger sandboxes for workloads…

More than 40 of the UK’s leading charities have warned ministers against imposing tougher benefit sanctions or cuts on disabled young people, as the government considers how to encourage more young people into work.The charities raised concerns that an imminent review of young people and work by Alan Milburn could bring in stricter eligibility rules for keeping disability benefits – or remove them altogether – as part of a wider plan to boost flagging youth job rates.Nearly 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK are classed as Neet (not in employment, education or training). Milburn has warned this is…

Harvard University has agreed to pay a $53m settlement to resolve civil lawsuits stemming from the illegal theft and sale of human remains that had been donated to its medical school for scientific research.A former Harvard medical school morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced in December last year to eight years in prison after he had pleaded guilty in May to stealing and selling human body parts in a nationwide scheme. Prosecutors said this had involved the theft and sale of organs, skin, brains and dissected heads from cadavers donated to Harvard from 2018 through at least March 2020.His…

Bayern Munich midfielder Jamal Musiala said he is suffering from a neurological disorder after a second on-field collapse in three days on Tuesday. The 23-year-old Germany international fell to the turf just minutes after coming on late in a pre-season friendly at Heidenheim. A similar incident took place on Saturday in Bayern’s home win over RB Leipzig. On Tuesday in Heidenheim, Musiala appeared dazed as he received medical treatment and was helped off the pitch. Musiala later revealed on social media that he had a disorder which could lead to “temporary but treatable seizures”. “I have been diagnosed with brief,…

Hayden Panettiere’s daughter will be raised to remember her mother’s “immense talent” and “incredible career”, according to a tribute posted on social media on Tuesday by Wladimir Klitschko, the ex-lineal world heavyweight boxing champion and the late Hollywood actor’s former partner.Their daughter, Kaya, has been raised by the Ukrainian retired boxer since 2018, when Panettiere ceded full custody to concentrate on her battles with alcoholism, depression and substance abuse.Her death in Greenville, South Carolina, was reported on Sunday, with no cause given.“Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief,” Klitschko wrote in the Instagram post, which…

 Ismeal Emeka Udenka  At 40, Engr. Francis Udochukwu Nwaogwugwu Mune, stands as a remarkable example of what vision, determination, hard work and an enduring commitment to excellence can achieve.  His journey over the past four decades is not merely a story of personal success; it is a narrative of enterprise, creativity, service and an unwavering desire to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. Born and raised in Onitsha, Anambra State, Mune has, over the years, distinguished himself as an entrepreneur whose interests and investments cut across real estate, interior and exterior design, property development and other business…

South Korea’s military has confirmed that joint military drills with the US will be cut short, days after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercises.In a statement on Wednesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said at the request of the US side, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise – which began on Monday would end on Friday, six days earlier than originally planned.Separately, joint field training exercises, live outdoor drills held alongside the simulated command exercise, would also be “partially reduced”, though the two militaries were still working out the details, the statement said.A Pentagon official…