Author: News Room
Ariana Grande continued to tease fans about her relationship status with ex-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez during her Eternal Sunshine Tour. Viral video footage shot during opening night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday, July 13, once again showed Grande, 33, make an intriguing lyrical change to her 2018 single “Thank U, Next.” On the original track, Grande referenced her year-long romance with Alvarez, 34, while name-checking numerous exes, reminiscing, “Wrote some songs about Ricky / Now I listen and laugh.” However, Grande changed the lyrics live on stage on Monday, with the live crowd erupting with cheers as she…
For Nigeria, the US Department of State’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia’s first official trip to Africa is worth watching closely. His planned visits to Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali say a great deal about how the Trump administration wants to work with West Africa. It signals working less by preaching, more by bargaining; less by broad aid language, more by security, trade and sovereign partnership. The selection of these three countries is not random. Nigeria is the anchor. Côte d’Ivoire is the rising stable partner. Mali is the hardest test of whether the United States…
The Bayelsa State Police Command has commenced a preliminary investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a commercial tricycle rider in a road accident allegedly linked to a traffic enforcement operation by officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps at Okaka Junction in Yenagoa. The incident, which occurred on Monday morning along the Okaka Expressway near Okaka Primary School, claimed the life of the tricycle operator after his vehicle reportedly collided with a Dangote truck. Eyewitnesses alleged that the crash occurred during an enforcement operation close to an FRSC checkpoint. Some residents claimed the actions of the officials contributed…
Demis Hassabis thinks the world needs an AI watchdog with the power to hit the brakes if frontier models become too dangerous.Writing in a blog post, the Google DeepMind CEO and cofounder said the US should lead the initiative, arguing that the country is the best place to set global standards “given its economic and technical standing.” The organization, which could resemble existing regulators like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would be made up of leading independent experts and representatives from open-source communities and would have the authority to evaluate frontier models before they are released and coordinate an industry-wide…
A wide swath of the US banking industry is urging Senate leaders to amend the stablecoin yield provisions of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) now under consideration. The American Bankers Association (ABA), the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and 76 other state banking associations sent a joint letter to Senate leaders that claimed that the current language on stablecoin interest, yield and rewards is too ambiguous and argued that new amendments need to prevent payment stablecoins from acting as deposit substitutes rather than pure transaction tools.The joint letter, which showed support for the broader bill, said the ABA…
Justin Baldoni’s lawyers fired back at Blake Lively‘s request for the It Ends With Us director to pay approximately $8 million in legal fees after their recent settlement. “Lively fails to meet her burden to present credible evidence showing that the fees and costs she seeks to recover are reasonable and, accordingly, her fee motion should be denied in its entirety,” Baldoni’s lawyers Ellyn S. Garofalo and Bryan Freedman argued in a court filing obtained by Us Weekly on Monday, July 13. Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ legal team issued a fiery response to Lively’s June 29 request that the filmmaker…
Four research teams from Kwara State University (KWASU) have secured competitive research grants from two renowned funding organisations, reaffirming the university’s growing reputation for research excellence. At the international level, a research team led by Bolatito Olanipekun, principal investigator, was awarded a $43,913 research grant by TWAS-UNESCO. At the national level, three KWASU research teams emerged successful under the 2025 National Research Fund (NRF) grant scheme. The team led by Abdulwaheed Musa received N37,590,000, while Kehinde Alabi’s team secured N25,000,000. Another team led by Khafayat Olatinwo was awarded N20,435,900. While presenting the award letters to the successful researchers, the Vice-Chancellor,…
Troops of Operation Enduring Peace have rescued seven travellers abducted by suspected kidnappers in Plateau State. It was gathered that the victims were rescued along the Riyom-Abuja highway during a night-time operation on Monday. Security sources from Operation Enduring Peace, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed the rescue operation to PUNCH Online in Jos on Tuesday. According to them, the rescue followed a swift response to a distress call at about 9:30 p.m. near Sopp village in Riyom Local Government Area. According to the sources, troops deployed under Sector…
An increasing number of people seem to agree the internet is terrible for children — allegedly addictive, destructive to self-esteem, possibly a portal to predators. Over the past year, several countries have started requiring stringent age verification or outright bans for minors. At the end of June in the US, the House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, the latest in a string of attempted online child safety regulations. A couple of days later, a Pew Research Center survey found over half of US respondents favored a ban on social media for anyone under 16.…
Fears that artificial intelligence would trigger a wave of catastrophic decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks in what was coined as a “hackpocalypse” have not materialized, according to Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi.While the incident count grew to a record high, the median size of hacks has dipped below $500,000 this year, down from over $2 million in 2025. Qureshi argued that this shows malicious actors using AI are targeting “small protocols and abandonware” while larger DeFi protocols have fortified themselves against AI’s threat.Excluding outlier months with large incidents, such as the Bybit hack in February 2025 along with the Drift Protocol…
