Author: damazah@gmail.com

1Bird once on Mauritius (4) 1 down. Bird once on Mauritius. 4 letters.2Wine or water jug? (7) 2 down. Wine or water jug? 7 letters.3Tiny tracks and rolling stock (5,7) 3 down. Tiny tracks and rolling stock. 5 letters and 7 letters.4Sticking hooter in (where unwanted?) (6) 4 down. Sticking hooter in (where unwanted?). 6 letters.6Programme transmitter (5) 6 down. Programme transmitter. 5 letters.7Bugaboo bloke? (8) 7 down. Bugaboo bloke? 8 letters.8Traditional things in the newspaper once? (4,3,5) 8 down. Traditional things in the newspaper once? 4 letters, 3 letters and 5 letters.12Dim piece (anag) (8) 12 down. Dim piece…

Government policies rarely fail because their intentions are bad. They fail because good intentions are often mistaken for good implementation. Nigeria has become something of a laboratory for ambitious education reforms. Every new administration arrives promising transformation. New curricula are introduced. New assessment methods emerge. New technologies are announced. Fresh slogans replace old ones. Yet, our classrooms remain burdened by many of the same problems: poorly prepared teachers, inadequate learning materials, weak supervision and inconsistent implementation. The lesson is obvious. In education, how a policy is implemented is often more important than what the policy seeks to achieve. That is…

Trump claims US intelligence agents ‘worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling’Donald Trump’s speech is packed with what he claims are new revelations from suppressed intelligence documents just posted on the White House website which, he claims, show “that members of the deep state – very, very famous group of people, in many cases in our intelligence agency – worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling”.“Covering it up from both the president and the American people like nobody thought was possible, US spy agencies…

A century-old water pipe buried below a bustling boulevard in a Los Angeles county city burst early Thursday, sending a shock of water spewing into the streets and snarling traffic as several major roads shut down.The 36in riveted steel pipe’s rupture left a protruding sinkhole and cracked pavement in West Hollywood. Images of the aftermath showed local metro buses partially submerged in murky brown water.No injuries had been reported, according to John Heilman, the city’s mayor. “All of our residents to our knowledge are safe,” he said during a Thursday press conference, adding that there was no immediate need for…

Chinedu Eze In Nigeria, there have been tragic accidents involving helicopter operation providing shuttle service for the oil and gas industry and some of them ended with fatalities. It is in order to stem such accidents and incidents that a firm, Kasi Aviation established medical and emergency system in Nigeria’s aviation industry. So, recently Airbus Helicopters and Kasi Healthcare signed an agreement for the procurement of up to two Airbus H135 helicopters for emergency medical services. The agreement, which was announced at the 3rd Nigeria Airlift 2026 Forum, marked a significant milestone in the development of advanced emergency medical aviation…

SpaceX called off a test flight of its powerful Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster as the countdown clock reached zero Thursday at the company’s spaceport in South Texas. The launch team at Starbase, Texas, just north of the US-Mexico border, aimed to launch the more than 400-foot-tall rocket at 5:45 pm local time (6:45 pm EDT; 22:45 UTC). The countdown proceeded smoothly throughout the day, culminating in the loading of more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen into the two-stage rocket. But the computers controlling the countdown called an abort during the Super Heavy booster’s engine…

Hard-right figures from around the world have gathered in London for the inaugural British spin-off from America’s influential CPAC gathering, which powered the rise of Donald Trump.The first CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) GB has been spearheaded by Liz Truss, the former Conservative leader who was the UK’s prime minister for six weeks, as she seeks to rebuild her legacy and influence on the British right.Keynote speakers included the US rightwing influencer Jack Posobiec, who previously promoted the fabricated “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory smearing prominent Democrats as paedophiles.“The British people must rise up and take back their country,” he said to…

This year is already shaping up to be an extraordinary one for weather records in the UK, having broken those for monthly temperature in both May and June by more than two degrees.This is the third heatwave of 2026. At the same point last year, we had also just seen the third heatwave of 2025. However, last July, some places in the south saw four consecutive days above 30C. So far this July we have now reached 12 days above 30C and 13 days in heatwave criteria across parts of England and Wales.Heatwave conditions have also gripped parts of Scotland…

A jersey worn by soccer giant Pele in the first World Cup final ever won by Brazil sold for $4.9 million at a US auction on Thursday. The Brazilian attacker nicknamed “The King” was 17 when he scored two goals in his country’s 5-2 victory over host country Sweden in 1958. The blue shirt became the second most expensive jersey sold at auction after an anonymous buyer beat out four other bidders at Sotheby’s in New York. The record of $9.3 million is for a jersey worn by Argentinian star Maradona during a legendary quarter-final clash with England in the…

Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Thursday revived the controversy surrounding a viral video showing Senator Adams Oshiomhole massaging the feet of South African lifestyle influencer and adult content creator Leshaan Dagama during Senate plenary. Mr Akpabio jokingly referenced the video while responding to Mr Oshiomhole’s opposition to the confirmation of former Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) Vice-Chancellor Abayomi Fasina as a non-career ambassador. During the exchange, the Senate President said lawmakers initially ignored the video because they believed it had been generated using artificial intelligence (AI), but suggested the chamber could still examine it if presented with evidence. The remarks revived…