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Virgin Galactic Completes First Fully-Crewed Spaceflight With Richard Branson on Board
Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first fully-crewed spaceflight on Sunday, with billionaire founder Richard Branson on board. Virgin Space Ship Unity 22 successfully reached space in the company’s fourth rocket-powered flight, this time fully-manned. The event was live-streamed for audiences around the world and included an on-ground performance by Khalid. [embedded content] Two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, and three mission specialists, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, accompanied Branson on the journey. The crew sought to evaluate the cabin and customer experience, views of Earth from space, the conditions for conducting research and the effectiveness of a five day pre-flight training program offered at Spaceport America. The VSS Unity achieved a ...
Manchester United, Chelsea jostle for £25 million Euro 2020 star
Manchester United and Chelsea have expressed interest in signing Denmark defender Joachim Andersen following his impressive performances at Euro 2020. Lyon centre-back Andersen, 25, featured in all three of Denmark’s knockout matches at the Euros, as Kasper Hjulmand’s side beat Wales and the Czech Republic before suffering a semi-final defeat to England. Having spent the 2019-20 season on loan at Fulham – and impressing for Scott Parker’s side despite the Cottagers’ relegation – Andersen is known to Premier League clubs. Despite returning to Lyon this summer, Andersen is expected to sign a permanent deal at an English club before next season, with a number of sides interested in securing his signature. The Sun say both Manchester United and Chelsea have identified the £25m star as a cheape...
Pentagon: US team going to Haiti to assess needs
A team of U.S. security and law enforcement experts is traveling to Haiti to determine what assistance Washington can provide following the assassination of the Haitian president last week, the Pentagon said on Sunday. “Today, an inter-agency team largely from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are heading down to Haiti right now to see what we can to do help in the investigative process,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s really where our energies are best applied right now – in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable … and how best to hold them accountable,” Kirby said in the interview. President Joe Biden will be briefed by the team when it returns and “then make decisions about the way forwa...
Leaked testimony from Haiti suspects says plan was to arrest, not kill president
A group of Colombians and Haitian Americans suspected of assassinating Haitian President Jovenel Moise told investigators they were there to arrest him, not kill him, the Miami Herald and a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday. Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities say was a unit of assassins made up of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, plunging the troubled Caribbean nation into deeper turmoil. The murder and uncertainty about who hatched the plot is the latest in a succession of blows to hit the struggling country, which has appealed for international help. Washington has so far rebuffed Haiti’s request for troops, though a senior U.S. official said on Sunday that Washington was sending a technical team to assess th...
South Africa extends tight coronavirus restrictions for another 14 days
South Africa extended tight COVID-19 rules on Sunday for another 14 days, maintaining restrictions that include a ban on gatherings, a curfew from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. and a prohibition on the sale of alcohol. The country, the worst-hit on the African continent in terms of recorded cases and deaths, is in the grip of a third wave of infections driven by the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant. “Our health system countrywide remains under pressure,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address to the nation. Early this month South Africa recorded a new record of over 26,000 daily cases, stretching hospitals to breaking point. Ramaphosa moved the country to the fourth level of a five-tier restriction scale in late June as infections climbed, promising to review the restrictions af...
Gary Lineker urges Three Lions to ‘treasure’ Euro 2020 final
Gary Lineker has urged the England players to “treasure and enjoy” Sunday’s Euro 2020 final against Italy – but believes it is just the beginning and success will soon come even if they are beaten at Wembley. Gareth Southgate’s side are preparing for their first major tournament final in 55 years, something not even Lineker achieved during his time as a Three Lions player. The former Tottenham, Everton and Barcelona forward also praised the players for the showing a “shining social conscience” off the field which represents the “very best” of England. In an open letter to the England team in the Players’ Tribune, Lineker said: “I wish I was playing with you. This is the sort of occasion you dream about as a player. And honestly, it’s much less nerve-racking out on the pitch than in the sta...
Obudu contract debt: Appeal court reserves judgment against Cross River
The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by a private firm, Zedici Capital Ltd, against the Cross River State Government over a N3.8 billion contract debt. The appellant, Zedici Capital Ltd, is the firm that remodelled the Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State, now a subject of litigation. The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, headed by Justice Peter Ige, reserved the date after counsel to the parties had adopted their legal submissions for and against the appeal, that is challenging the judgment of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had in 2019, refused to affirm the arbitral award to Zedici Ltd over its investment of N3.8 billion in the resort. Justice Ige announced that a date for the judgment would be comm...
Nigerian airlines list conditions for full refund to passengers after two-hour flight delay
Following the pronouncement of the Federal Government that airline operators must refund the full cost of travel tickets to passengers after a two-hour delay, commercial airlines have listed the conditions for such reimbursement. The airline operators made this known in separate interviews with newsmen. The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had, on Thursday at the weekly State House briefing in Aso Villa, Abuja, read out some of the rights of air passengers as enshrined in Part 19 of the Consumer Protection Regulations of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (2015) and charged them to demand their rights whenever they were being trampled upon by airlines. “On domestic flights, for delay beyond one hour, carrier should provide refreshment, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-ma...
Bayelsa government resolves crisis at Niger Delta University
The mediatory meeting covered Wednesday at the instance of the Bayelsa State Government between the Governing Council of the Niger Delta University, NDU, students’ representatives and other stakeholders has restored normalcy to the state-owned university. Students of the university had been protesting against the closure of the institution’s portal for payment of school fees and alleged enforcement of compulsory wearing of school uniform by the university authorities. But rising from the last round of meetings directed by Governor Douye Diri which were presided over by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, at the Government House, Yenagoa, it was agreed that the portal for the payment of school fees be reopened. A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara At...
Two arrested in Gombe over fertiliser adulteration
The Gombe State Police Command has arrested two suspects for buying and selling adulterated fertiliser in Gombe, the state capital. According to a statement issued by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Mary Malum, in Gombe on Friday, the arrest was made on July 4. Malum said the arrest was made by Police detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department that acted on credible intelligence. She said the suspects were “one Ibrahim Salisu, 26 years from Marke village, Kankara LGA, Katsina State and one Maina Bukar, 46 years from Biu LGA, Borno State, who is the buyer here in Gombe State”. According to the PRO, the suspects had confessed to have been in “this dirty and unlawful business where the said Ibrahim Salisu who is the supplier brings the unbranded and misbrand...
President Buhari orders military to crush bandits in ‘language they understand’
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday ordered the military to crush bandits operating in Zamfara and Kaduna in the language they understand. The president condemned repeated bandit killings in Zamfara and Kaduna States, urging the nation’s military to respond to the worrying situation in a language that the bandits understood. Buhari, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu noted that the military and other security agencies were now working on new methods and policies that are yielding good results in many of the troubled parts of the country. He called for a crushing response to the killing of innocent citizens in the rural communities. Buhari also averred that the nation, its military and the entire population needed to summon the courage required to defeat the bandits and ...
Manchester City legend Kun Aguero to play backup role at Barcelona
Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero will play a backup role at Barcelona next term. The striker spent 11 trophy-laden years in Manchester, winning the Premier League five times and the FA Cup once. He is fourth in the all-time Premier League goalscoring charts with 184 strikes in 275 appearances. The ‘perfect’ combined England and Italy Euro 2020 XI Despite his incredible record, Barca have warned Aguero that he could spend a significant amount of time on the bench next season. That’s according to Spanish outlet AS (via Daily Mail), who claim that the Argentinian has already accepted the role. Barca are worried about Aguero’s fitness after he was limited to 12 top flight appearances in 2020/21. He suffered with a knee injury at the start of the campaign, a hamstring problem in November an...
