Author: Reputation Poll Staff

Nigerians have been hit by a double whammy of chronic fuel shortages and a hike in prices by the state-owned oil company. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which imports the country’s fuel and distributes it to private sellers, blamed its debts and rising global prices for its difficulty in getting fuel. Many people have been left stranded with long queues at petrol stations nationwide. Commuters in Lagos have been lining up at bus stations, but there very few buses operating. Others told the BBC they have been forced to trek long distances as public transport prices have doubled along…

With pomp and splendour, China has welcomed more than 50 Africans leaders to Beijing this week for a summit to strengthen ties at a time of increasing political and economic turmoil around the world. “It appeals to their vanities,” Macharia Munene, a Kenya-based professor of international relations tells the BBC, referring to the red carpet welcome – spiced up with entertainment by dancers in colourful costumes – that the leaders received. The optics were carefully choreographed to make the leaders feel that it is a meeting of equals. Many of them – including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Kenya’s…

Decades after she was picked to be America’s first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe is still a pioneer — this time as the first woman to be memorialized on the grounds of New Hampshire’s Statehouse, in the city where she taught high school. McAuliffe was 37 when she was killed, one of the seven crew members aboard the Challenger when the space shuttle broke apart on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986. She didn’t have the chance to give the lessons she had planned to teach from space. But people are still learning from her. “Beyond the tragedy, her legacy is a very positive…

The Hubble Space Telescope has a lot to show in this spectacular image. Its view here is studded with stars, many of which appear particularly large and bright thanks to their nearby locations in our own galaxy, and which feature the characteristic diffraction patterns caused by Hubble’s optics. Much further away — around 240 million light-years distant, in fact, in the southern constellation Telescopium — is the spiral galaxy IC 4709. Its swirling disc filled with stars and dust bands is beautifully captured, as is the faint halo surrounding it. The compact, glowing region at its core might be the most remarkable sight, however:…

Residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs have been scrambling to make contingency plans since an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a busy neighborhood killed a top Hezbollah commander and touched off fears of a full-scale war. For most, that means moving in with relatives or renting homes in Christian, Druze or Sunni-majority areas of Lebanon that are generally considered safer than the Shiite-majority areas where the Hezbollah militant group has its main operations and base of support. But for a small number, plan B is a move to neighboring Syria. Although Syria is in its 14th year of civil war, active fighting…

The Alternative for Germany party’s success in two state elections piled new pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious government and left the country’s main opposition party facing political contortions on Monday to find a way to govern a pair of eastern regions without involving the far-right party. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, became the first far-right party to win a state election in post-World War II Germany in Thuringia on Sunday under one of its hardest-right figures, Björn Höcke. In neighboring Saxony, it finished only just behind the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union, which leads the national opposition. Voters punished the three parties…

Poland on Monday held a state burial of the remains of over 700 victims of Nazi Germany’s World War II executions that were recently uncovered in the so-called Valley of Death in the country’s north. The observances in the town of Chojnice included a funeral Mass at the basilica and interment with military honors at the local cemetery. The remains of Polish civilians, including patients of an asylum, were exhumed in 2021-2024 from two separate sites near Chojnice. Historians have established that the Nazis, shortly after invading Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, executed some of the civilians. Other remains are from an…

Hundreds of people line the main street of Mirboo North in regional Victoria at dusk armed with their phones to film the lantern parade. After an Acknowledgement of Country and smoking ceremony, a giant powerful owl lantern puppet heads down the main street to lead the Mirboo North Winterfest parade. It is followed by a bespoke mardi gras of colourful handmade lantern creations from local school children, scouts and community groups. Set to the beat of African drumming, the occasion is part of a growing revival of re-imagined winter solstice events around Gippsland, designed to bring isolated locals out of hibernation…

Visually impaired athlete Jaryd Clifford has been disqualified over a violation of guide rules, denying the Australian a bronze medal in the men’s 5,000m T13 at the Paris Paralympics. Clifford led for most of the race but was overtaken by gold medallist Spain’s Yassine Ouhdadi on the final lap. It appeared he had secured third place but any ecstasy he felt quickly turned to agony as he was informed by officials that he and sighted guide Matt Clarke had breached race rules. Clifford was the only athlete in the race competing with a guide. The 25-year-old had hoped to appeal…

Eighty years ago on Aug. 27th, 1944, the great American bandleader Glenn Miller performed at a base some 60 miles north of London, RAF Twinwood, the hub and airfield he frequently flew in and out of during World War II. But just a few months later, he would disappear on a flight out of the base — a mystery that still endures to this day. While those questions may never be answered, in the English countryside at the very site of the former base, his legend is still remembered and his music lives on at the annual Twinwood Festival in…