Author: damazah@gmail.com

For too long, “youth empowerment” in Abia State meant one thing: share keke tricycles, hand out a few political appointments, pay peanuts, and call it a day. The result was predictable. Young people became mobile, but not productive. They were visible during elections, and redundant after. Society got traffic, not transformation. That era is over. Under Governor Alex Otti, Abia has made a decisive shift — from handouts to human capital. At the centre of this shift is the Abia State Leadership Academy (ASLA), a programme that treats young people not as political errand boys, but as the engine room…

Islamabad, Pakistan – Three folders – two in green and one in crimson red – changed hands beneath a portrait of Saudi King Salman at al-Safa Palace in Mecca on Friday.Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkiye’s president, and Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, held them up for the cameras, the ink still fresh on the pages inside.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe signatures of the three leaders had just bound Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan to the “Makkah Joint Defence Agreement”, which treats an attack on any one of the countries as an…

The chief executive of Ukraine’s leading arms company says Kyiv has “learned the hard way” that military strength is an essential precursor to diplomacy, describing deep strikes into Russian territory as a core tenet of the country’s pressure campaign.Missile and drone maker Fire Point, which says it currently facilitates more than 60% of Ukraine’s so-called “long-range sanctions,” has scaled exponentially since being founded in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.The defense-tech startup produced around 200 drones that year, a feat CEO Iryna Terekh described as a “huge achievement.”Since then, the Kyiv-headquartered startup has swelled from three founding members to…

And that’s good, because there is a lot of work to do. In Jezero Crater, the rover is studying some of the most ancient rocks in the Solar System, older than any on Earth, dating as far back as about 4 billion years ago. At the time, the planet was in the later stages of the “heavy bombardment” era when rocks were still whizzing around the inner planets in great numbers. But things were starting to settle down. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to investigate this terrain in situ, and that’s been very exciting,” Sun said. During this…

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ordered an “urgent” review to identify any grooming gang members who may be eligible to be freed from jail under the government’s early release scheme.The announcement comes after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch raised concerns that child sex offenders could leave jail well before the end of their sentences.She pointed out that indecent assault was not included in the list of offences that the government said would be excluded, external from the early release scheme.Five men convicted of indecent assault as part of a historical grooming-gang case in Bradford are among the prisoners whose offences were…

Nature, Published online: 06 August 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02360-4Measuring the deformation of a surface hit by a falling droplet offers insights into water’s erosive power.

Second-year manager Will Venable has the upstart Chicago White Sox atop the AL Central, but he made a bad rookie mistake during an important game against the second-place Cleveland Guardians on Friday night (CLE 8, CWS 2). Venable had to remove starter Noah Schultz with one out in the first inning because he accidentally made a second mound visit when he went out to argue that the runner missed third base on an RBI single. Venable crossed the foul line, which counts as a mound visit. Pitching coach Zach Bove visited Schultz earlier in the inning, so, by rule, Venable…

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” showed no signs of slowing down as it entered its second weekend in cinemas. “Brand New Day” added $43 million at the North American box office on Friday from 4,487 theaters. By Sunday, the Marvel-Sony tentpole should swing to $143 million, which represents about a 60% decline from its record-breaking $360 million debut. Those earnings would push “Brand New Day’s” domestic haul to $653 million through weekend two. On Wednesday, “Brand New Day” overtook “Toy Story 5” as the highest-grossing movie of 2026. While it took “Toy Story 5” since June to collect its $1.067 billion,…

Postpartum recovery is often overshadowed by labour and childbirth, yet the period immediately after delivery is critical to the health and survival of both mother and baby. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the first six weeks after childbirth are a critical period for the survival and wellbeing of both mothers and newborns, as well as for supporting the baby’s healthy development and the mother’s physical and mental recovery. The WHO also recommends that women and newborns receive information, reassurance and support from health workers throughout the postnatal period. Speaking with PT Health Watch, a retired midwife, Mary Augustine,…

Former US president Joe Biden ’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview.In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch.“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” he said. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”Biden, 83, was the oldest man to serve as US president and his age was…