Author: Alade Adisa

The recent 50 percent increase in call and data tariffs has continued to generate tension as telecom subscribers and advocacy groups are contemplating challenging the contentious action in court after failing to get the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to have a rethink. In light of this, the subscribers’ umbrella group, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) on Wednesday, declared its intention to initiate legal proceedings against the telecom regulator, citing the NCC’s failure to address its demand for a reduction of the tariff hike to a more acceptable 10 percent. The NCC announced the tariff hike last week Monday,…

Out of the nearly two million persons classified as illegal immigrants by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation from the country, 3,690 have been identified to be Nigerians. The deportations come as President Donald Trump enforces his crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country. According to a document from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), titled “Noncitizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,” Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the most deportation, with 252,044 and 203,822, respectively. The document revealed that as of November…

U.S. President Donald Trump still plans to make good on his promise to issue tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Saturday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday. Leavitt told reporters in her first White House press briefing that Trump also is still “very much” considering fresh tariffs on China for Saturday. Shortly after taking office last week, Trump set a Feb. 1 deadline for imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada unless the countries move to halt flows of illegal immigrants and the deadly opioid fentanyl into the U.S. He also said he would slap a…

Chinese tech company Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max’s release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition. “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official…

Global investors who have historically bet on China’s economic development are ditching grand narratives of long-term prosperity and instead adopting more modest views that see the market as an opportunity for smaller bets with quicker payoffs. Frustration over Beijing’s efforts to shore up faltering growth and fading investor conviction over where the economy is headed have kept stocks moving sideways, despite some initial excitement over promises of stimulus last year. The lack of investor consensus and increasing policy uncertainty have fundamentally changed the way analysts and money managers see China’s domestic markets and have tightened their investment horizons. “People basically…

Most of us are increasingly aware of the importance of gut health, with its link to every aspect of our overall wellbeing – from our immune systems to our moods. We know that to enhance the quality of friendly bacteria in our microbiome, the community of microorganisms within our intestines, we should be eating kefir for breakfast, ordering kimchi with our sushi and drinking kombucha with our evening meal. Fewer of us realise, however, that the key to optimal gut health lies not just in the food we consume, but the way we combine those foods. “Pairing certain foods with one…

Police have recorded 504 cases of child sexual abuse in UK high street hotel chains in 2023, according to data shared exclusively with BBC News. Of these, 92% (464 cases) involved physical contact with a child, and 40% (203 cases) were classified as rape. The data, provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), reveals that most incidents occurred in budget hotel chains, often located near transport hubs like train stations and motorways. These areas make it easier for perpetrators to meet victims. While offences in hotels accounted for less than 1% of all recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation…

President Bola Tinubu has returned to Abuja from Tanzania where he participated in the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital city. Tinubu left Nigeria for the East African country on Sunday for the two-day summit. He arrived Nigeria aboard the presidential aircraft, which touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at approximately 7:40 PM. The president was received by top government officials including the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle; National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila among others. The two-day summit is being hosted…

The African Development Bank (AfDB), in partnership with the World Bank Group, pledged $40 billion on Tuesday to achieve the “Mission 300” initiative. The Mission 300 initiative, projected for 2030, is a collaborative effort between the AfDB and the World Bank to address the global energy accessibility gap, where nearly 600 million people lack electricity. The World Bank emphasized that the mission’s success depends solely on private sector investment. Speaking at the 2025 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina noted that 45.2 per cent of the financial commitment, totaling $18.2bn, would come from AfDB.…

Immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has denied rumours suggesting that he is planning to decamp from the All Progressives Congress (APC). The former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister spoke at the recently concluded National Conference in Abuja on Tuesday. Dismissing the speculation, El-Rufai emphasized his commitment to the party, explaining that his criticisms of the APC were aimed at pushing for accountability and ensuring the party remains on the right path.“I am not leaving the APC. I don’t have such plans,” he said. Asked further why he was hard on the party, he said: “No, no, no,…