Author: damazah@gmail.com

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope

Nigeria’s four representatives in the 2026/27 CAF inter-club competitions have discovered the opponents they must overcome in their quest to reach the group stages following the Confederation of African Football (CAF) preliminary-round draws. Rangers International and Rivers United begin their CAF Champions League campaigns from the first preliminary round, while Shooting Stars and El-Kanemi Warriors will compete in the opening round of the CAF Confederation Cup. In the Champions League, Rangers have been drawn against Benin Republic’s AS Sobemap in the first preliminary round. Should the Flying Antelopes progress, they will face either Niger Republic’s ASN Nigelec or Algerian giants…

This dramatised trial takes Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play about a man’s campaign to expose the secret scandal of contaminated water in his town and turns it into a modern day interrogation: of speaking out versus remaining silent, of a family at war and of fiction and reality itself.In fact, is this a drama at all? It starts off as such but minutes later, the celebrated Brazilian screen actor Wagner Moura, playing Ibsen’s Thomas Stockmann, seemingly breaks character to talk to us directly. Stockmann still sits invisibly on stage and we as an audience are here to judge him, he says,…

The means of communication chosen to hatch a plot or stage a surprise is critical to the success of the plan. For some whose names surfaced in the alleged coup investigation, communication was not limited to ordinary telephone calls. Messages were exchanged through WhatsApp, while some conversations were taken to Zangi, a lesser-known messaging application built to guarantee privacy and secure communication. The distinction is important. WhatsApp is one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms, familiar to virtually everyone with a smartphone. Zangi is, however, different. Its appeal is centred more explicitly on private communication. The application has…

The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) rescued 363 victims and arrested scores of terrorists, informants, logistics suppliers and other criminal suspects in one week during operations nationwide. The Director of Defence Media Operations, Michael Onoja, a major general, made this known on Friday in Abuja, while providing weekly updates on ongoing military operations. Mr Onoja said the operations also resulted in the neutralisation of terrorists, recovery of arms and ammunition, disruption of logistics networks and dismantling of illegal oil refining facilities. In the North-east, he said the troops of Operation HADIN KAI rescued 35 victims, including women and children, while…

A lion that escaped the war in Ukraine after being found as a four-month-old cub inside a duffel bag at Odesa railway station is facing an even greater battle for survival in his new home in Minnesota from a rare and often fatal fungal disease.Taras, his two sisters Lesya and Stefania, and an unrelated, slightly older cub from Kyiv named Prada, were brought to the US in November 2022 by the Wildcat Sanctuary, a secluded private reserve near Sandstone, Minnesota, that arranged their rescue with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).An American veterinarian working in Ukraine’s capital, which was…

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja Electricity consumers across Nigeria paid a total of N208.15 billion for power supplied in May 2026, as electricity distribution companies (DisCos) improved their revenue collection efficiency despite a decline in billing efficiency. This is contained in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Commercial Performance Factsheet for May 2026 which also showed that the DisCos received electricity worth N328.95 billion during the month, representing an 8.58 per cent increase from April.  Of this, electricity valued at N252.87 billion was billed to customers, translating to a billing efficiency of 76.87 per cent, down 6.45 percentage points from the…

Since the advent of the internet, there has been a dedicated digital art community that’s all about creating through computing. Wacom, a Japanese company founded in 1983, is considered one of the longstanding leaders in this sector. One of the oldest producers of graphics tablets in the world, Wacom has spent the last few years iterating on its MovinkPad series — a specialized Android tablet that creators can use to spin up digital art at the click of a button or the swipe of a stylus. I’m not a professional artist, or even a hobbyist. But I am a tech…

Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.Writing in the Guardian, the mayor of London said that Andy Burnham’s administration must reaffirm its commitment to net zero and make clear it will continue to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas “to get Britain back on track.”There is growing concern among Labour MPs and climate experts that the new prime minister may support renewed drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea;…

Little stirs in the mountains above Somosierra beyond the wind that lashes the flat peaks, the cows that graze on parched grass and the sun that beats down on the abandoned aerodrome where generations of glider pilots learned to ride air currents alongside squadrons of vultures and red kites.But all this stillness will disappear, albeit temporarily, on the evening of 12 August, when swathes of northern and eastern Spain and the Balearic islands experience a total solar eclipse, the likes of which has not been seen here for more than 120 years.Irma López Muñoz, Somosierra’s tourism manager, tests a pair…