TECHNOLOGY

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the Moon on Wednesday, in a spectacular blaze of light and sound that marked the start of the space agency’s new flagship programme, Artemis. The 32-storey tall Space Launch System blasted off …

Tesla tycoon Elon Musk will take the stand on Wednesday as part of a trial over his $50 billion pay package as Chief Executive Officer of the electric car giant. The $44 billion purchase of Twitter has put Musk under a deluge of scrutiny after he conducted massive layoffs, scared …

A missile that killed two people in Poland was probably not fired from Russia, President Joe Biden has said, after holding talks with leaders of Western allies amid concerns the Ukraine conflict could escalate into a much bigger war involving transatlantic military alliance, NATO and Russia. The missile explosion on …

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Nurudeen Rafindadi, has said most roads in the country are expired.  Rafindadi spoke at the 10th public lecture and presentation of awards organized by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Kaduna branch over the weekend, revealed that some of the highways …

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth fell by $11 billion on Thursday to $36billion as the company’s shares plummeted a day after it reported dismal quarterly earnings. The Facebook CEO was the third richest person in the world at certain point in time, but with the drop in his net …

Elon Musk the new owner of Twitter is either a dangerous lunatic or some sort of visionary genius, she said. If you’re one of the thousands of Twitter staff whose jobs are at risk, it’s likely you subscribe to the former school of thought, and understandably so. For the rest …

A gang of hackers, OPERA1ER, stole at least $11m from companies in Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, 11 other African countries, and Argentina. This is according to a new report from Group-IB, a cyber-security firm, entitled, “OPERA1ER: Playing God without permission,” in collaboration with the researchers from Orange CERT Coordination Center. The …

Nigerians have been warned by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) against use of some Toyota Lexus vehicles over “faulty programming”.  An alert was issued in a statement released on Friday, November 4, by Bisi Kazeem, FRSC’s public education officer.  The agency said the warning became necessary after Toyota’s recalled 14,799 “defective” Lexus vehicles. It …

Jack Dorsey, the founder and former CEO of the microblogging website Twitter, has launched a new social media platform called “Bluesky.” This happened just a week after business tycoon and owner of Tesla cars, Elon Musk, bought and took over ownership of Twitter. Dorsey’s new app, which is in its …

The Independent National Electoral Commission has not released the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS), an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters to any of the states in the South-East region. The five affected states are; Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Abia and Imo. Speaking during an …

North Korea fired at least 17 missiles into the sea on Wednesday, including one that landed less than 60 km (40 miles) off South Korea’s coast, which the South’s President Yoon Suk-yeol described as “territorial encroachment” by Pyongyang. It was the first time a ballistic missile had landed near the …

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to release a quarter of Twitter’s workforce in his first round of layoffs after his $44billion takeover.  It comes as the new Twitter CEO allegedly issued an ultimatum to the social media platform’s engineers, telling them to revamp Twitter’s verification system in less than a …

Twitter plans to start charging nearly $20 a month for users to stay verified. This is part of a premium service that will be rolled out under Elon Musk’s leadership, according to a report. “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk, who took over as the CEO …

Tesla Inc is under criminal investigation in the United States over claims that the company’s electric vehicles can drive themselves, three people familiar with the matter said. The U.S. Department of Justice launched the previously undisclosed probe last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving …

The community of, Umuawulu, in Awka South Local Government Area has given the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) two weeks ultimatum to restore their power or the company’s office in Awka would be shut down. The community made this known in a letter sent to EEDC by the Umuawulu Electricity …

The Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned his French, UK, US, and Turkish counterparts that Kiev may be preparing a false flag dirty bomb attack on its own territory to accuse Moscow of using weapons of mass destruction. Western officials and officials in Kiev have dismissed the warning. The threat …

Firefly Aerospace, a launch, spacecraft, and in-space services company, has announced the addition of Chris Emerson, a seasoned industry leader with decades of aerospace expertise, to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Emerson will bring over 25 years of aerospace experience in space, commercial aviation, U.S. defense, and …

[Social media] Facebook and Instagram users in some countries will be allowed to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, said Meta and the company’s internal emails, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy. “As a result of the …

Boomplay, the #1 music streaming service in Africa, has partnered with MTN Nigeria to launch the Boomplay x MTN Data bundle as part of its efforts to continue making music easily available to its users. This partnership will offer MTN subscribers tailored data to stream unlimited music and access premium …

Russia’s communications regulator demands that Google restore access to its state-sponsored media channels on YouTube in Ukraine, after accusing Facebook and tech companies of ‘censorship’ for limiting its programs.  After YouTube, which is owned by Google, said it was blocking Russian state media channels, including RT, from selling ads on YouTube globally or being …

Taiwan thanked the United States for selling up to $100 million worth of equipment and services to support its air and missile defense systems, as China ramps up incursions of warplanes into the island air defense zone. Self-ruled democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, view …

Meta-owned social media apps, including Facebook and Instagram, could be banned in the UK and in Europe as a whole. Mark Zuckerberg has threatened to pull “core services” from the region following a dispute over data protection laws with Europe. Meta has quietly issued a warning saying that it could shut down the services if …

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics officially opened on Friday, Feb. 4, in Beijing, China. The Olympic flame was lit by Chinese president, Xi Jinping as other world leaders including Vladimir Putin were present for the opening ceremony at the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, in Beijing, 

Media personality, Ebuka and actor Frank Donga have joined other Nigerians in reacting to federal government lifting suspension of Twitter operations over the period of six (6) months.  The federal government said it lifted suspension of the social media giant’s operations in the country after reaching an agreement which include legal …

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has debunked claim of the country’s identity database being breached by hackers. Director-General of NIMC, Engr. Aliyu Aziz in a statement released on Tuesday January 11, said its servers were not breached but are fully optimised at the highest international security levels as the custodian of …

Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of Information and Culture says the recommendations to lift the ban on Twitter in Nigeria will apply to all social media platforms in the country. The minister said this on Monday, October 18, when he featured on ‘This Morning’, a programme by Television Continental (TVC). The …

The Federal Government has denied claims that it has stopped Nigerians from using the microblogging site, Twitter. Punch reports that the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Federal Government made the denial in a counter-affidavit they deposed to in response to an originating motion filed by human rights …

Twitter on Wednesday July 14, announced it will discontinue its Fleets feature on August 3 over lack of an encouraging response from users.  Ilya Brown, head of product, brand and video ads at Twitter said in a blog post that the company built Fleets as a ‘lower-pressure’, ‘ephemeral’ way for people to …

China’s military said it “drove away” a U.S. warship that illegally entered Chinese waters near the Paracel Islands on Monday, the anniversary of an international court ruling that held Beijing had no claim over the South China Sea.  The Chinese comments resembled the usual reaction from Beijing following freedom of …

Twitter Inc’s, India unit has appointed an interim chief compliance officer and will soon designate other executives to meet the country’s new IT rules, the social media giant said in court on Thursday, amid tensions with the government. The IT rules, which became effective end-May, are aimed at regulating content …

Short-video sharing app TikTok said on Friday it will use more automation to remove videos from its platform that violate its community guidelines. At present, videos uploaded to the platform go through technology tools that work to recognize and flag any potential violations which are then reviewed by a safety …

A prenatal test used worldwide sends gene data of pregnant women to the company that developed it with China’s military. The U.S. sees a security risk A Chinese gene company selling prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country’s military and is using them to collect …

The Federal Government has approved the extension of the deadline for NIN-SIM data verification to July 26, 2021.   The Director, Public Affairs Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde; and the Head, Corporate Communications, Nigeria Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke, disclosed this in a joint statement on Monday titled ‘FG approves …

The Federal Government has declared its plan to establish emerging technology centres across Nigeria. The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, discloses this on Tuesday during his keynote address as the special guest of honor at the Digital Africa Annual Conference, which held virtually. This was contained in …

Dino Melaye has been called out by an automobile sales company over alleged unpaid debt after he flaunted his new Rolls Royce Cullinan.  The former senator took to Instagram to show off his new car with the caption: “As usual, talk your rubbish while I cruise The RR.” The automobile company …

Britain on Thursday said it had agreed on a truce with the United States over a 17-year long tariffs dispute involving European plane maker Airbus and US rival Boeing. The dispute, the longest-running in the history of the World Trade Organization, has seen damaging retaliatory tariffs levied on products on …

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that among other things, Twitter must obtain a licence from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), be guided by the rules of the licensing and pay taxes.  He said these were a few of the conditions that needed to be …

The Community Court of the Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has set June 22 as the date for hearing in the lawsuit opposing the Federal Government’s ban on the microblogging service, Twitter, in Nigeria. The lawsuit was filed before the court by the Socio-Economic Rights …

Britain’s competition watchdog said it would investigate whether Apple (AAPL.O) and Google’s (GOOGL.O) dominance of mobile phone operating systems, app stores and web browsers hurt consumers, launching its latest probe into the tech giants. Reuters reports that the Competition and Markets Authority said it would undertake a “market study” into …

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday, confirmed that Twitter has formally written to the Nigerian government to seek dialogue to resolve the suspension of the microblogging platform.  Mohammed said this during a “Politics Nationwide” call-in programme monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NANS) in Abuja.  …

Nigeria has lost over N24.72bn ($60.14m) as a result of the Federal Government’s Twitter ban since June 5. NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool (COST), which estimates the economic impact of an internet disruption, said Nigeria loses N102.9m every hour due to the ban. A week after the ban took effect, …

Adamu Garba’s Crowwe social media app has been deleted from Google play store. The app, which imitates Twitter, had received horrible reviews from Nigerians after Adamu Garba supported the ban of Twitter and encouraged Nigerians to support Indigenous apps by downloading his Crowwe app. Not only did the app receive …

Billionaire Businessman and husband of actress Regina Daniels, Ned Nwoko has disclosed that he is in support of the Federal Government ban on Twitter. Speaking at a June 12 lecture organized by the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Abuja Council, Mr. Nwoko stated that social media needs …

The Nigerian government has joined Indian-owned microblogging platform, Koo, barely a week after suspending the operations of American-owned microblogging site, Twitter in the country.  The Nigerian Government’s verified account on Koo with the name ‘Government of Nigeria’ @nigeriagov, has 6,000 followers at the moment.  Koo co-founder and CEO, Aprameya Radhakrishna in a post …

Niger, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso are collaborating to buy the unutilized power produced in Nigeria, the Chairman of the Executive Board of the West African Power Pool, Sule Abdulaziz, said on Wednesday. Abdulaziz, who is also the acting Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, said the four …

Financial Times, New York Times, Bloomberg News, and Guardian websites all crashed on Tuesday. Government, news and social media websites across the globe were coming back online on Tuesday after being hit by a widespread outage linked to US-based Cloud Company Fastly. High traffic sites including Reddit, Amazon, CNN, Paypal, …

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, June 7, announced that Facebook will wait until at least 2023 before taking a cut of revenue from creators who use the site to distribute their work or promote events. He explained via his Facebook account that the social media company will not take a cut …

Apple has paid a “multimillion-dollar” settlement to a female student of the University of Oregon after two iPhone repair technicians posted her explicit photos and video online. According to Engadget, the technicians, who worked at a Pegatron facility in Sacramento, California, shared the woman’s pictures and videos through her Facebook …

Power sector experts on Monday expressed worry over the decline in power generation despite interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Figures released by the System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, showed that the country’s power generation stood at 3,689.2 megawatts on Monday. Although it moved …

Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos said on Monday he and his brother Mark will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin next month. “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey …