Author: damazah@gmail.com

A rare catch-and-kill order has been issued for a great white shark off the coast of Western Australia, after a man was killed while on a morning swim at a popular beach on Friday. His body has still not been found.Authorities have said that beaches along the state’s coast, including in the capital Perth, will remain closed until at least Sunday as the search for the shark continues.It is the second shark attack in Western Australia (WA) this week, and the third fatal attack in the state this year.The incident, at Sorrento Beach in Perth’s north, has reignited debate about…

Access Holdings Plc has announced the appointment of Ifedayo Orimoloye as Executive Director, Risk Management of its flagship subsidiary, Access Bank Plc. The company disclosed this in a regulatory filing signed by Sunday Ekwochi, Group Company Secretary, on Friday, saying the appointment followed the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and would take effect from 21 September. Commenting on the appointment, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Group Chairman, Access Holdings Plc, said the appointment will further strengthen the Bank’s risk governance and support its scale to value focus. “Mr. Orimoloye brings strong global risk management experience and strategic leadership to the…

In that sense, the disease is defined by movement, so studying it requires observing those cilia in motion with video, not just still imagery. That’s a challenge, given their small size and rapid movement, plus they must be imaged while still living. That rules out many advanced microscopy techniques, particularly those that rely on intense light or fluorescent dyes. Xu is an optical engineer whose work involves developing advanced imaging systems for observing cellular structure in motion. He captured the cilia movement using diffractive super-resolution microscopy, which employs multiple light waves and a digital micromirror to precisely shape light. This…

This year, AGRA, the donor-funded agricultural development initiative formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.AGRA’s slogan is “sustainably growing Africa’s food systems”, but for years, researchers and farmers have warned that the policies it promotes are having a negative impact on African agriculture.Our new research provides more evidence to that effect. We have documented how AGRA’s Green Revolution, with its well-funded promotion of commercial seeds, fertilisers and other inputs, has failed to spur the “productivity revolution” promised by its founders.Worse still, its promotion of monocultures, such as maize, has led to…

As parts of the West Midlands baked in warmer temperatures this summer, species once considered unusual in the region, such as hummingbird hawk moths, ivy bees and the wasp spider have been spotted in growing numbers.The hummingbird hawk moth, known for its furry grey body, orange hindwings and long proboscis, migrates to the UK from southern Europe and north Africa in the summer months. James Benwell, from the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust, said 2026 was a “record year” for sightings of the species, which was often mistaken for a small bird.The moth, which can be seen hovering over…

In hindsight, Sheri Ingram, 35, can see the red flags. Lee Slocombe, a builder hired to renovate her ex-boyfriend’s home in the south Wales valleys, offered to do the work cheaply because he had materials left over from another job, then asked for money upfront to buy additional supplies.“At the time, we believed him,” says Sheri, who was in her early 20s when it happened, and had just left university. The couple budgeted about £8,000 for work that included removing a supporting wall and building an extension with a balcony.Within weeks, the house had been ripped apart. “He pulled up…

Omolabake Fasogbon Rent inflation in Nigeria has continued to bite harder amid weakening household income. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that rent inflation rose from 14.79 per cent in June to roughly 39 per cent in July 2026. For the past two years, meeting rent demands has become more herculean, with investment banking firm, GTI Investment Group estimating that rents surged by 80 to 120 per cent between 2024 and 2026. Within this period, low- and middle-income households, along with young professionals have borne much of the brunt of skyrocketing costs.  Crucially, proximity to the workplace…

Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated “actress,” is having a rough time on its first press tour. The production company that created it, Particle6 Group, has made it available for 75 simultaneous interviews with journalists, and it seems to be making mistakes in all of them. (I was not invited to speak with it, and frankly, I cannot imagine why Particle6 didn’t want to schedule that meeting.) In one particularly odd interview with Piers Morgan and actor Tom Conti, which was recorded and posted online, Norwood seems to malfunction and abruptly begin speaking Chinese. When discussing the movie that Norwood is promoting,…

This “crisis of disbelief”, as Michta put it, is not evenly spread. The further east you go, the closer you get to the Russian border, the more alert a nation’s people are to the threat, and the more psychologically prepared.Sweden hasn’t had a war in 200 years. It has pursued a policy of neutrality for centuries. But after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it abandoned that and has made itself, in a very short space of time, one of the most psychologically prepared countries in Europe.”Russia is self-evidently dangerous”, Sweden’s outgoing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told The Economist…

Climate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing over a thousand people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found.Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3.885bn cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This triggered flash floods on an almost unprecedented scale, hitting communities downstream without warning.“Communities in Nepal are paying with their lives for a crisis driven by fossil fuel emissions thousands of miles away,” said Dr Friederike Otto, a climate science professor…