Author: damazah@gmail.com

US President Donald Trump described rapper Nicki Minaj as “respected” and “so hot” while introducing her during a White House Rose Garden luncheon on Monday. Mr Trump singled out the Trinidadian-born rapper during his speech, praising both her talent and her support before inviting her to stand before the audience. “We also have a woman who is so respected and so hot and such a great friend of… I don’t say conservative, I say of common sense.” He continued: “She’s a fantastic person, and she’s a woman that everybody respects. She’s got real talent. Nicki Minaj. Nicki, stand up, please.”…

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has summoned the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, to appear before it on Monday, 13 July. The summons follows the committee’s expression of dissatisfaction with what it described as the Accountant-General’s persistent failure to respond to invitations and requests for official documents. The committee also directed the heads of six Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to appear on the same day, warning that it would invoke its constitutional powers to compel attendance should they fail to comply. The committee issued the directive during its sitting on Tuesday, with its Chairperson, Bamidele Salam,…

Allegations of financial irregularities in the collection of donations and offerings at Maa Baglamukhi Temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Agar Malwa district have triggered a row, prompting the district administration to constitute a three-member inquiry committee.The panel will investigate claims that a non-governmental committee collected cash and gold and silver offerings from devotees through private bank accounts, separate from the government-appointed temple management committee, and submit its probe report within seven days.According to an order issued by Agar Malwa Collector Preeti Yadav on July 7, the inquiry committee will be headed by District Panchayat Chief Executive Officer B S Solanki, while…

…Insists 10,430 cases are diagnoses, not fresh infectionsBy Chioma Obinna The Lagos State Government on Thursday dismissed widespread reports that the state recorded 10,430 new HIV infections in 2025, clarifying that the figure represents newly diagnosed cases and not fresh infections, even as it announced a historic move to directly procure antiretroviral drugs, becoming the first sub-national government in Nigeria to do so. Addressing journalists at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, Dr. Folakemi Animashaun, said the reports had been widely misinterpreted and risked creating unnecessary panic among residents.…

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday inaugurated the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, tasked with preparing the legal framework for implementing citizens’ state police nationwide. The inauguration took place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where the President was represented by. his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. This development follows the National Assembly’s Constitution Alteration (State Police) Bill, 2026, which proposes a dual policing structure comprising the Federal Police Service and 36 State Police Services. President Tinubu noted that while the constitutional amendment establishes the framework for state police, the National Policing Bill is required to provide the legal…

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja The Federal Government (FG) incurred an electricity tariff subsidy obligation of N358.32 billion in the first quarter of 2026 as it continued to bridge the gap between cost-reflective electricity tariffs and the rates paid by consumers, according to the latest report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). The Commission, in its First Quarter 2026 report released on Monday, said the subsidy represented a N60.46 billion, or 14.44 per cent, decline from the N418.79 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, largely due to lower electricity offtake by distribution companies (DisCos) rather than improvements in tariff…

Reform UK Deputy leader Richard Tice has written to the boss of the National Crime Agency (NCA) asking if he will investigate whether the body is responsible for leaking his private financial information to the media.Payments made to his organisations were flagged to the NCA as part of its Suspicious Activity Reports programme, something Tice says he only became aware of when he was contacted by the Guardian newspaper.Reform UK believe the paper’s information is likely to have come from the NCA.A spokesperson for the agency said “The NCA does not confirm or deny the receipt of suspicious activity reports…

A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda.Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria – nepetalactone – also has insect-repelling properties but this has not previously been commercialised.New tools are vital in the fight against malaria, the disease spread by mosquitoes that infects about 282 million people a year and killed 610,000 in 2024 – the majority of them young children in African countries. There are concerns about rising resistance to insecticides, as…

ATLANTA — Lionel Messi is once again the star for Argentina.With Egypt leading 2-0 with just over 10 minutes to go, the Albiceleste captain assisted on Argentina’s first goal, scored their second in the 84th minute to tie the game, and then played his part to prompt Enzo Fernández’s game-winner in the second minute of stoppage time to send his country into the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Cup with a thrilling 3-2 win.His equalizer on Tuesday sent the Argentina-heavy crowd into a frenzy inside the pressure cooker of Atlanta Stadium. The bowing began in the stands before transforming into…

Blessed with impressive multi-year access to the Burning Man Festival, its participants and bureaucracy, but undone by indecisiveness in its structure, themes and purpose, Jehane Noujaim and Vikram Gandhi’s The Man Will Burn is an engaging puzzlement.  Over its rushed and disjointed four-hour running time, the HBO docuseries offers some sense of the community that Burning Man offers and cultivates, as well as its evolving infrastructure and internal political conflicts; some awareness of the inherent and overwhelming whiteness and privilege underlying the event; some insight into several tumultuous years in Burning Man’s history; and some interest in the challenges facing…