Author: Opalim Lifted

England’s Football Association is unlikely to light up the Wembley Stadium arch in support of social and political causes in the future, Reuters reported on Thursday. A new Football Association policy restricts the lighting of the arch at Wembley to football and entertainment events. The move follows last month’s decision by the FA not to light the arch in blue and white in solidarity with Israel following the attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7. The British government rebuked the FA for the decision. The decision follows criticism when the arch was not lit in the colours of…

Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire has accepted an apology from a Ghanaian MP who mocked him. “See you at Old Trafford soon,” the defender wrote on X. MP Isaac Adongo had been debating the budget last year when he compared Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia’s economic management to Maguire’s performances on the pitch. On Tuesday, Mr. Adongo said he wanted to correct the record and hailed Maguire as a “transformational footballer”. He was a “key player” for Manchester United, Mr. Adongo said during a budget debate. Ten Hag says Maguire keeping Varane out of Man United team But he did not let…

President Bola Tinubu has condoled with the families of 25 people who died in a road crash at Takalafia, a village along the Yawuri Motorway, in the Magama Local Government Area of Niger. A DAF-articulated vehicle was speeding and lost control around 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Public Education Officer, Mr. Bisi Kazeem, confirmed the accident in a statement yesterday. The Chief Press Secretary to the Niger State governor, Bologi Ibrahim, said the governor was saddened by the magnitude of the crash and cautioned drivers to always obey traffic regulations. The trailer was said to…

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday officially requested that China provide detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children. Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov. 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory diseases in the country, the WHO said in a statement. The global health agency said Chinese authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae (a common bacterial infection which typically affects younger children), respiratory syncytial virus, and the…

A messy dispute broke out on Wednesday over whether Pope Francis used the word “genocide” to describe events in Gaza, with Palestinians who met with him insisting that he did and the Vatican saying he did not. The opposing versions emerged at an afternoon press conference with 10 Palestinians who met the pope on Wednesday morning at his Vatican residence. That meeting followed a separate one with Israeli relatives of hostages in Gaza. “When we shared the stories of the families that have been killed (in Gaza), he mentioned, ‘I see the genocide’,” said Shireen Awwad Hilal, who teaches at…

The Gaza Strip is the “most dangerous place in the world to be a child,” the head of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Wednesday. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that more than 5,300 Palestinian children had reportedly been killed since October 7, when Palestinian militants of Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking hostages, most of them civilians. Israel has focused its retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, a territory of 2.3 million people. “The true cost of this latest war in Palestine and Israel will be measured in children’s lives—those lost…

Mali’s military government said it has signed an agreement with Russia to build a gold refinery in the capital, Bamako, one of a slew of deals between the two countries as Russia seeks to extend its regional influence. The accord, a non-binding memorandum of understanding, involves building a 200-tonne per-year refinery, minister Alousséni Sanou said in an interview on state television broadcast late on Tuesday. The memorandum is valid for four years, he said, without giving a timeline for construction. If built, it would be the West African country’s largest gold refinery. “This will allow us not only to control…

Investors pulled about $956 million from crypto exchange Binance over the past 24 hours, data firm Nansen reported on Wednesday, a day after its chief, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down and pleaded guilty to breaking US anti-money laundering laws. The deal, which will see Binance pay $4.3 billion to US authorities to settle the years-long illicit finance probe, has raised questions over the future of the world’s largest crypto exchange and marks another blow for an industry beset by scandals. Zhao has been replaced by Richard Teng, a senior Binance executive who joined in 2021, the company said. The Nansen data…

The Federal Government has announced the launch of Nigeria Startup Portal (NSP). The portal, which is a crucial element of the NSP implementation, is intended to drive the identification and aggregation of NSP in the country. Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, announced this on X on Tuesday night. He tweeted, “We are pleased to announce the launch of NSP, https://startup.gov.ng/, a key requirement for the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act. He, however, invited all Nigerian startups, venture capital companies, hubs and innovation centres to register. The National Information Technology Development Agency also urged all…

South Korea on Wednesday moved to suspend part of a military agreement it signed with Pyongyang in 2018 after the isolated North defied warnings from Washington and its allies and launched a spy satellite, calling it a success. The suspension of a clause in the agreement will see South Korea step up military surveillance along the border. North Korea said it placed its first spy satellite in orbit on Tuesday. Photographs published by North Korean state news agency KCNA showed what appeared to be leader Kim Jong Un watching the fiery launch of a rocket from a base. Kim was…