Author: News Room

A major push to position Nigeria as a key player in the global critical minerals market gained momentum on Thursday as the Africans for Africa Initiative and Steron International Resources Limited signed a strategic agreement aimed at accelerating the development of lithium and rare earth element deposits in the country. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed on the sidelines of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja, officially designates Steron’s lithium and rare earth project in Wasa as a potential pipeline project under the AFA Mining Fund I, a private equity vehicle established to support African-owned mining ventures.…

Three African nations have secured places in the Round of 32 at the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup, marking a strong showing for the continent at the expanded tournament. Out of the 10 teams representing the continent, Morocco, South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire have so far confirmed their places in the knockout stage. Egypt, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Algeria, Senegal and Congo DR remain in contention ahead of their final group matches as of Friday, June 26. Morocco finished runners-up in Group C after a 4-2 victory over Haiti, setting up a Round of 32 clash against Group F winners the Netherlands…

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has said the Federal Government has eliminated the leakage of examination questions in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and the National Examinations Council examinations through recent reforms in the education sector. Alausa said the government had also significantly reduced examination malpractice through the adoption of computer-based testing and a hybrid examination system. The minister stated this in his remarks at the maiden convocation ceremony of Miva Open University held at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, Lagos. According to him, the reforms were introduced to restore the credibility…

Base, the blockchain backed by crypto exchange Coinbase, has returned online after the network suffered nearly a two-hour outage due to a consensus issue that halted block production.Base posted to X on Thursday after the outage that the network’s blocks “are being produced normally, and we have verified widespread recovery in the ecosystem.”Base’s status page said it was investigating “unhealthy” block production at 4:03 pm UTC on Thursday. At 5:21 pm UTC the team said it “isolated a consensus problem that caused an invalid block to be sequenced. This prevented new blocks from being created.”Base said in an update just…

Brad Pitt scored a win in his ongoing lawsuit against Angelina Jolie over the exes’ ongoing winery drama. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the California Court of Appeal sided with Pitt, 62, on Wednesday June 24, overruling a lower court’s decision that allowed Russian businessman Yuri Shefler to walk away from the lawsuit. In the docs, Pitt claimed that after Jolie, 51, sold her shares of the winery to Tenute del Mondo, which is a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, in 2021, he became an “unwilling partner” of Shefler. Shefler previously argued in his motion to quash…

Lai Olurode, a retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), has described President Bola Tinubu’s proposal to create state police as a timely and revolutionary step towards addressing Nigeria’s persistent security challenges. Mr Olurode, in a statement on Thursday, said the president deserved commendation for proposing constitutional amendments that would allow the establishment of state police across the 36 states of the federation. The proposal is contained in the Constitution Alteration Bill currently undergoing legislative consideration as part of broader efforts to reform Nigeria’s governance and security architecture. According to Mr Olurode, successive administrations since the return…

Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu hopes his side’s World Cup exploits will inspire other Asian countries after AFP footage showed Chinese football fans celebrating the success of their traditional rivals. Japan and China have often had fraught political ties, but some Chinese supporters in Shanghai put that aside to cheer Japan’s 4-0 win over Tunisia. Japan sealed their place in the last 32 on Thursday following a 1-1 draw with Sweden in Texas and face Brazil next. Asked afterwards by AFP if his team felt their success was not only for Japan, but for Asia as a whole, Moriyasu said: “We…

The Kebbi State Police Command says it will arraign the four suspects arrested in connection with the killing of eight people during a farmers-herders clash in Gulma town, Argungu Local Government Area of the state. The command’s Public Relations Officer, Bashir Usman, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday. PUNCH Metro had reported on Monday that no fewer than eight people were killed in the violent clash. The incident was reportedly triggered by the alleged killing of a farmer, who was said to have been stabbed to death by a Fulani herder while working on his farmland. The killing sparked…

In public health, progress is often measured not just by ambition, but by outcomes. Few countries today illustrate this more clearly than Sweden – a Nation that is quietly redefining what success in tobacco control can look like. With adult smoking rates now at approximately 5.6 per cent, Sweden stands on the threshold of becoming Europe’s first smoke-free society. This is not simply a statistical milestone; it represents a profound shift in how nicotine consumption is understood and managed at a population level. While much of the world continues to frame tobacco control in binary terms (use versus abstinence), Sweden’s…

The Netherlands beat hapless Tunisia 3-1 on Thursday to top World Cup Group F and avoid a last-32 clash with Brazil, setting up a meeting with Morocco instead. Ronald Koeman’s men flew into a two-goal lead in soggy Kansas City thanks to some shoddy defending from the North African side. Ellyes Skhiri sliced Denzel Dumfries’ cross into his own net and minutes later Sunderland forward Brian Brobbey lashed home from close range. That apparently sealed the deal for the Netherlands, whose orange-clad fans were entertaining themselves with Mexican waves midway through the first half at Arrowhead Stadium. Tunisia pulled a goal…