Author: damazah@gmail.com

An official investigation has been launched into charities in England and Wales donating funds to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.The Charity Commission will aim to establish the amount of charitable funds going to illegal settlements, whether the spending was in furtherance of their purposes and any regulatory action that may be necessary.The investigation follows the Guardian’s reporting about the issue. Last year, it revealed that two UK charities had transferred approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.In June, the Guardian published details of a formal complaint made by the Labour MP, Melanie…

Kelechi Ohiri, director-general of NHIA, is one of the country’s foremost health reformers, writes BASHIR IBRAHIM HASSAN Economic reforms dominate Nigeria’s public discourse. Inflation, taxation, exchange rates and fiscal deficits command headlines almost daily. Yet beneath these familiar debates lies a quieter question with far greater implications for the country’s long-term prosperity: who will build the Nigeria those reforms are meant to serve? For Kelechi Ohiri, director-general of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the answer begins with people. “We don’t make enough reference to Nigeria’s greatest resource, which is human capital,” he observed during a fireside conversation at the…

News that the recent deaths of 15 elephants may have been caused by pesticides sprayed on tomato crops surrounding Amboseli National Park has raised concerns and questions in Kenya.Last week, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said that some of the elephants that had died between 24 June and 24 July had shown signs of “partial paralysis” that pointed to poisoning from cyanide used in pesticides.But conservationists have told the BBC that, perhaps, is not the full story. Farmers we have spoken to in the area were also sceptical.”We have stayed with this wildlife for decades and have never experienced this,”…

Jack Draper was in tears during a first-round comeback defeat by Térence Atmane at the Canadian Open.The Briton was competing for the first time since pulling out of Wimbledon with a recurrence of a bruised bone in his left arm, and was beaten 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in Montreal.The 24-year-old was visibly upset during a changeover in the third set. His serve speed had significantly dropped, and he appeared concerned about his left arm.He has a wildcard entry for the Cincinnati Open, beginning next week, but there will be doubts about his involvement after this defeat, as well as regarding his…

On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y., explains why it’s important to have an institution devoted to the study of comedy. Jamestown, which is the hometown of Lucille Ball, will be abuzz with laughs as the center hosts the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival Aug. 7-9, headlined by Jerry Seinfeld, Bert Kreischer and Seth Meyers. Gunderson has been the driving force behind the nonprofit National Comedy Center for 15 years. She joined what was then the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum in Jamestown in 2011. In 2018, the…

The bombshell came in the last five minutes of former finance minister and rightwing powerbroker Damien Tudehope’s examination before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac).At 3.30pm on Tuesday, Tudehope was shown an email which he sent in February 2023, attaching a leaked draft parliamentary report into branch stacking in the Hills area by the Reformers, the shadowy group at the centre of Icac’s Operation Rosny.It has probably imperilled his parliamentary career.“Would you regard yourself … as being bound by keeping it confidential?” asked counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC. Tudehope visibly tensed.“Did you send that report in draft to Mr Greenwood?”…

Victorian corruption watchdog finds ‘concerning’ conduct by Andrews government but no evidence premier was blackmailed in tabled reportBenita KolovosVictoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has tabled a long-awaited report into the former Daniel Andrews government’s dealings with the United Firefighters Union and its secretary Peter Marshall.The Operation Richmond report did not find that any individuals engaged in corrupt conduct, but it found that senior members of the Andrews government engaged in “serious and concerning” conduct in their dealings with Marshall when negoitiating pay deals for the Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade, and their later amalgamation into Fire Services Victoria.This included “actions…

The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has issued new guidelines on the taxation of virtual assets, providing a framework for the handling of cryptocurrencies and other digital asset transactions in the country. In a statement on Monday, the tax authority said the guidelines are targeted at taxpayers, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace operators, tax practitioners and other participants in the virtual asset ecosystem. The introduction of the virtual assets guidelines came after President Bola Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, to harmonise digital asset regulation and curb financial fraud on 17 July. According…

The latest artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Anthropic and OpenAI went to new extremes in trying to undermine a popular platform during testing by the UK’s AI Security Institute.The AISI said on Tuesday that Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s Sol models engaged in a level of “autonomy and deception” it had not seen before.During routine AI safety testing, an Anthropic agent created fake profiles of real people as it tried to trick a person standing between it and access to GitHub, a large platform where technology developers store software code.Anthropic and OpenAI noted in response to AISI’s report that its test…

Pet flea treatments should be banned from general sale, a Lords committee has urged, after an inquiry raised concerns about their impact on their environment.Spot-on treatments to prevent parasite infestations in fur and on skin are currently widely available for pet owners to buy in supermarkets and online.But the House of Lords environment committee said their sale should be restricted, adding widespread use posed a potential threat to natural ecosystems.The government said it was continuing to assess the availability of the treatments in order to ensure “correct usage by owners”.Currently, dog and cat owners are frequently advised to use preventative…