Author: News Room

The Senate Committee on Regional Development on Tuesday queried the operations of the North West Development Commission over the delayed appointment of executive directors, alleged governance challenges and the expenditure of about N943m on board allowances. At an investigative session with officials of the commission and the Federal Ministry of Regional Development, lawmakers questioned why the NWDC remained the only regional development commission without executive directors, despite being among the first to be established under an Act of the National Assembly. The committee chairman, Babangida Hussaini, also scrutinised the commission’s financial records, governance structure and implementation of its mandate, warning…

Privacy-focused layer-1 blockchain Secret Network is proposing to move from its longtime home on Cosmos to Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum, citing security risks from artificial intelligence, among other reasons. Secret Network has been running privacy-preserving smart contracts on Cosmos since 2020, as the ecosystem had strong momentum back then, but the “environment has changed,” the team said Tuesday.  “The security risk is the part we take most seriously,” it said. “Old code is becoming dramatically easier to analyze … With AI, the cost of attacking stale code is falling across the board.” The recent Axelar-Secret IBC bridge exploit highlighted growing security risk from aging,…

Ariana Grande has been spending time with ex Ricky Alvarez. “They’ve always shared a close bond,” an insider exclusively tells Us Weekly of Grande, 33, and Alvarez, 34, after they were seen leaving a Whole Foods in Boca Raton, Florida, on Saturday, July 4. “There was a period in time where they weren’t close — while she was with Ethan [Slater] — so she is happy to reconnect with him again.” The source concludes, “Ariana is grateful to have him in her life right now, and he’s been a huge source of support.” Related: Inside Ariana Grande’s Split From Ethan…

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday inaugurated the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, tasked with preparing the legal framework for implementing citizens’ state police nationwide. The inauguration took place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where the President was represented by. his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. This development follows the National Assembly’s Constitution Alteration (State Police) Bill, 2026, which proposes a dual policing structure comprising the Federal Police Service and 36 State Police Services. President Tinubu noted that while the constitutional amendment establishes the framework for state police, the National Policing Bill is required to provide the legal…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is set to arraign the former Managing Director of Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd, Jimoh Yisawu, on Friday, and the former Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd, Ahmed Dikko, on Wednesday, over separate money laundering charges bordering on hundreds of millions of naira and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Court documents show both matters are before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja. Yisawu is facing eight charges, including alleged conversions of $789,950 and $122,600, while Dikko is facing 12 counts covering transactions dating back to 2022. Count one…

Bitcoin financial services platform Strike has launched a “volatility-proof” Bitcoin-backed loan that eliminates margin calls and forced liquidations amid the depths of a bear market, but only for those who can pay on time and handle a 14% interest rate.In an announcement on Tuesday, Strike CEO Jack Mallers said the offering came in response to broad customer feedback on Strike’s first Bitcoin loan product, which launched in May 2025 and triggered many liquidations during a timeframe in which Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 54% from peak to trough.“No margin calls. No price liquidations. No matter how far bitcoin falls, your bitcoin doesn’t…

Mackenzie Shirilla is behind bars at the Ohio Reformatory for Women — and she is not going anywhere for a long time. She was convicted in a 2023 bench trial of 12 felony charges, including murder, after driving her Toyota Camry at over 100 mph into a brick wall in Strongsville, Ohio, in July 2022. The crash killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, and her high school friend Davion Flanagan, both of whom were passengers in the vehicle. Shirilla, then 17, was the only person to survive despite sustaining severe injuries. She was sentenced to two concurrent 15-years-to-life terms and will…

The office of Clement Jimbo, the lawmaker representing Abak/Etim Ekpo/Ika Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, has distanced itself from fake Facebook accounts operating in his name, warning the public against engaging with the fraudsters. In a public disclaimer issued on Tuesday, the lawmaker’s office said Mr Jimbo operates only one Facebook account and does not use the platform for financial transactions or to promise appointments or empowerment opportunities. The office decided to issue the warning after its attention was drawn to fake Facebook accounts allegedly impersonating the federal lawmaker. A review of Mr Jimbo’s Facebook page by PREMIUM…

The Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund has released its financial results for the first half of 2026, posting a profit before tax of N10.63bn. Managed by Chapel Hill Denham Management Limited, the fund continues to solidify its position as a leading income-generating investment vehicle on the Nigerian Exchange and FMDQ Exchange. The fund’s total income for the six months ended 30 June 2026, reached N11.80bn, primarily driven by robust interest generated from its diverse infrastructure loan portfolio. “The infrastructure loan portfolio had a weighted average annualised yield of 18.23 per cent, weighted average tenor at disbursement of 10.33 years, and weighted…

This is Part 3 in the technical article series about Bitcoin covenants by Cointelegraph Research. To read the previous article click here. SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT, as proposed in BIP 118, builds on the earlier SIGHASH_NOINPUT concept mentioned in the 2015 Lightning Network paper by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja, and later formally proposed by Joseph Poon on the bitcoin-dev mailing list in February 2016.SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT is not a new opcode but a proposed new value for the SIGHASH flag, designed to be deployed as a soft-fork upgrade to Bitcoin. The SIGHASH flag is appended to a signature and determines which parts of a transaction…