New News And Politics Communications And Entertainment Sports And Fitness Health And Lifestyle Others General Worldnews Create

Top Recent

You are not following any account(s)

FG Deploys 10,000 Agro-rangers To 19 States, FCT To Combat Insecurity In Farms Across Nigeria

The Federal Government Through The Nigeria Security And Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Has Announced The Deployment Of 10,000 Agro Ra...

Instablog9ja 11

The Federal government through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has announced the deployment of 10,000 agro rangers across the country, Nairametrics is reporting.

This is in a move to curtail insecurity across the food producing belt of the country which has negatively impact food production across the country in recent times.

The Special Assistant to President Tinubu on New Media, Olusegun Dada disclosed this in a post on his official X handle. According to the statement, the agro-rangers initiative is a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) noting that agro rangers will help protect farmers against malicious destruction of farmlands as well as farmer herder conflict.

The post reads, “As part of ongoing efforts to enhance food security in the Northern region and other parts of the country, the FG through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps(NSCDC) has deployed over 10,000 Agro Rangers across 19 states and the FCT.” “The Agro Rangers will, among other things; safeguard farmlands and protect farmers from escalating attacks, mediate conflicts between farmers and herders, and prevent malicious destruction of farmlands. While the food inflation crisis in the country is a function of many factors, insecurity has been a long term challenge and this collaboration between the NSCDC and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is expected to solve a major challenge faced by farmers across the country.”

The deployment of agro-rangers stems from earlier plans by the federal government through the National Economic Council (NEC) in February this year to establish agro-rangers as a short-term solution to the insecurity in the country pending when the long-term solution of state police is achieved.

Widespread insecurity, particularly in the northern region, has forced many farmers to abandon their lands, resulting in a significant decrease in food production and contributing to the rising food prices nationwide. Just last week, atta3ks on farming communities in Benue State, known as the nation’s food basket, led to the tragic de3ths of over 20 people.

As of July 2024, food inflation has surged to 40.87%. In response, the federal government has floated the idea of establishing state police forces. However, this proposal cannot be implemented through executive orders or solely by an act of parliament from the National Assembly, even though the bill to create state police has already passed its second reading in the legislature.

Continue reading on Instablog

A Gen Z Take On Life In A Metro: Messy, Moving, And Maddeningly Outdated

Rewatching Life In A… Metro In 2025 Feels Like Texting Your Ex “wyd” At 2 AM. You Know It’s Messy, You Know It Might Leave You A B...

P7as2 1.7k

Rewatching Life in a… Metro in 2025 feels like texting your ex “wyd” at 2 AM. You know it’s messy, you know it might leave you a bit hollow, but still, there’s something human about returning to it. Released in 2007 before red flags were labelled and therapy-speak became everyday language, Life In A… Metro stood out. It didn’t glamorize heartbreak or paint perfect arcs. It sat with urban loneliness, strained relationships, and quiet betrayals in a way Hindi cinema rarely did. Now, with Anurag Basu’s spiritual sequel Metro… In Dino, releasing this week, Gen Z audiences are revisiting the original through a fresh lens. One that’s been shaped by emotional boundaries, green flags, and a deep unwillingness to romanticize wreckage. So, how does it hold up? Well, like life, it’s complicated. Set in Mumbai, Metro threads together the lives of nine characters trying to navigate love, loss, ambition, and loneliness. The city moves fast, but these people are emotionally stuck, quietly breaking beneath their daily routines. The storytelling is tight, the editing is smooth, and the use of a literal in-film band by Pritam, though unusual, adds emotional depth. But the film’s real triumph is in its casting. Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan as Shruti and Monty are a pure delight. She’s guarded, he’s eccentric, and their chemistry is awkwardly authentic. It’s not a grand love story; it’s two people slowly letting each other in, and that’s what makes it work. Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali, as aging lovers Amol and Shivani, offer something still rare in Indian cinema: older characters with agency, longing, and dignity. Their story is quiet but moving. Even Kangana Ranaut, long before her tabloid headlines, gives one of her most restrained performances as Neha, a woman used by power and left to pick up her own pieces. Despite its emotional maturity, Metro slips when it comes to the treatment of its women. Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) and Neha bear the brunt of it. Shikha is stuck in a cold, emotionally distant marriage to Ranjit (Kay Kay Menon), who is openly cheating on her with Neha. Yet when Shikha develops a gentle emotional connection with another man, she’s the one swallowed by guilt. In the film’s climax, Shikha chooses to return to her husband not because he’s changed, but because he says, “Bacchi toh meri hai na?” That’s it. No apology. No redemption. Just entitlement dressed as emotional logic. Neha, on the other hand, is manipulated by Ranjit, who tells her she’s lucky to be used in exchange for perks like business-class flights. The emotional toll on her is enormous, but the film offers her no justice, just silence, shame, and heartbreak. From a 2025 lens, these outcomes feel not just outdated but deeply frustrating. The message? That women’s greatest strength is their ability to forgive, endure, and return. Not walk away. Not healed. Just stay. The film also highlights a stark double standard around desire. Men like Ranjit and Akash move through moral failings with ease. Women like Shikha and Neha are consumed by shame, even when they ask for less, do less, and hurt no one. Shikha is guilt-ridden over a kiss. Neha is slut-shamed and discarded. Shruti is ridiculed for being a virgin. Meanwhile, the men show no remorse, and the narrative lets them off the hook. For Gen Z, a generation actively unlearning generational shame, this is exhausting. We’ve grown up hearing that boundaries are healthy, that forgiveness must be earned, and that emotional accountability matters. All its shortcomings notwithstanding, Life In A… Metro still strikes a chord. Love, solitude, and repression of feelings—it’s all untidy, unresolved, and quintessentially human. It’s old-fashioned, sure. And it could use some serious re-examining of its gender roles. But there’s a brutally honest truth in its narrative. Life isn’t always tidied up. Sometimes people remain in unhappy relationships. Sometimes they forgive too readily. And sometimes, there’s no tidy conclusion. For Generation Z, the movie is both a reflection and a warning. A look at what older generations endured quietly. And a guide for what we should never settle for. So will we be watching Metro… In Dino this week? Of course. But we’ll be hoping for better: women with agency. Men with self-awareness. And endings that reward healing over endurance. Because love shouldn’t have to feel like survival.

Read this and Other similar stories at MissMalini.com

Salmonella Is Sneaky: Watch Out

Here's What To Know And Do To Evade Bacteria That Sickens Millions Every Year. Pop Quiz: What Is Salmo...

Healthwatch 32

Here's what to know and do to evade bacteria that sickens millions every year.

An illustration of pink, oval-shaped salmonella bacteria with long pink threads against a dark blue background with white highlighting

Pop quiz: what is Salmonella? If you've ever had a run-in with this bacteria, you know it can cause a food-borne illness called salmonellosis, a form of food poisoning. But you may not know that Salmonella bacteria sicken an estimated 1.35 million people every year in the United States. What's more, it's the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths due to food poisoning.

And Salmonella bacteria can be sneaky — not only by triggering unusual complications, but infecting people in startling ways, says Dr. Elizabeth Hohmann, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. One patient she treated showed up with an abdominal aortic aneurysm — a dangerous bulge in the lower section of the body's largest artery — that looked infected. Testing revealed a culprit some would find surprising: Salmonella.

"It's just an interesting organism and it can be kind of scary," she says.

How do people get infected by Salmonella?

Many of the foods Salmonella bacteria lurk in are raw or undercooked. Breaded raw chicken products like nuggets and chicken Kiev are one way it may reach your table. But a variety of foods have been implicated — including organic basil, cantaloupes, ground beef, nut butters, raw cookie dough, eggs, raw or unpasteurized milk, and flour.

Backyard poultry are another source of Salmonella outbreaks. Even small pets such as turtles and frogs, along with dog food, have contributed to multistate outbreaks in recent years.

You can also become infected by handling contaminated food and spreading the bacteria from your hands to your mouth. Additionally, you can spread it to others on your hands or even on your clothes without becoming sick yourself.

"It's a bug that's carried in stool and animal feces and is also present in the environment," Dr. Hohmann says. "So it can set up shop in lots of different inanimate objects, soils, and machinery, especially in moist environments."

What symptoms can Salmonella cause?

Most of the time Salmonella infection leads to gastroenteritis, usually causing just an upset stomach, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. These symptoms can start as soon as six hours after ingesting the bacteria. Typically, symptoms resolve on their own within two to three days.

Some people have such mild symptoms they're barely noticeable. "The classic case might be a college student who eats a burrito from a sketchy place, gets sick for a couple of days, gets better, and doesn't think anything of it," says Dr. Hohmann.

Sometimes symptoms are more serious, such as severe abdominal cramping and bloody diarrhea, or unexplained high fever and marked fatigue. These symptoms require a call to your doctor.

How is salmonellosis treated?

Most people will get better on their own without any medicines. Replacing lost fluids by sipping water or electrolyte drinks to avoid dehydration will help.

Call a doctor if you have

diarrhea and a fever higher than 102° F

diarrhea that doesn't improve after three days

bloody stools

vomiting so severe it prevents you from keeping liquids down.

Treating the infection with medicine comes with an annoying paradox, Dr. Hohmann says. If doctors decide to prescribe antibiotics, the person taking the medicine may shed the organism for longer than if they were never treated. "Then that person may have the opportunity — either through poor personal hygiene, sex, or working as a food worker — to spread it to others," she explains. "It's challenging."

What complications can Salmonella lead to?

Some people get sicker with salmonellosis than others, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. But certain folks are especially vulnerable to serious infection, including:

adults 65 and older

pregnant women

children under 5

people whose immune systems are weakened by diseases (such as cancer) or treatments (such as immunosuppressing drugs).

A small percentage of those infected can have Salmonella in their blood, which can spread the infection to other parts of the body such as the urinary tract, bones, joints, or central nervous system (brain and spinal fluid).

And, like Dr. Hohmann's patient with the abdominal aortic aneurysm, on rare occasions Salmonella can lead to unusual blood vessel complications in people who already have atherosclerosis, blockage of the arteries caused by plaque buildup.

What steps can you take to avoid Salmonella?

We all can take steps to avoid the food poisoning, illness, and hospitalizations that Salmonella exposure can cause.

Dr. Hohmann and the CDC suggest these strategies:

Using hot water and soap, wash cutting boards or plates on which you cut into raw foods — including vegetables and fruit — before using those surfaces for other purposes. If possible, use separate cutting boards for produce, meat, and fish.

Refrigerate or freeze foods that are perishable, prepared, or left over within two hours to thwart salmonella growth.

Always wash hands well with soap and water before preparing food and after contact with animals, using the toilet, or changing diapers.

If you have a sick pet, take extra care handling its feces and wash your hands thoroughly afterward.

Take additional steps to help more vulnerable people stay healthy:

Don't let young children touch high-risk animals, such as turtles, frogs, chickens, or ducks. "And if you're taking young children to a petting zoo, they should not be petting animals unless you can disinfect their hands immediately afterward," she says.

Older adults and those with compromised immune systems should take extra care to wash and cook foods thoroughly.

People who have had a transplant (such as a kidney transplant) should not keep reptiles or amphibians as pets.

"You hate to make people paranoid, so that we're washing our lettuce leaves with soap, but it's worth thinking about these things, particularly if you have people in your household who are susceptible — which is an increasing number of people," Dr. Hohmann says.

Harvard Health Publishing

What We Learned From The Global Tech Outage Caused By CrowdStrike

After A CrowdStrike (CRWD) Update Caused An Outage Affecting Businesses And Governments Across The World Friday, Analysts Said Th...

Investopedia 15

After a CrowdStrike (CRWD) update caused an outage affecting businesses and governments across the world Friday, analysts said there could be lasting implications for the company and the big tech industry.

A defective update by the cybersecurity company disrupted Microsoft (MSFT) platforms, impacting organizations ranging from airlines to the London Stock Exchange. The news sent CrowdStrike shares tumbling Friday, while Microsoft shares were little changed.

The outage could negatively affect CrowdStrike through expenses associated with remedying the situation and damage to its reputation.

Jefferies analysts said that while it's too early to know the exact implications of the outage on the company's financials, the timing is not working in CrowdStrike's favor. The outage happened in the last two weeks of the quarter when the analysts said "a large portion of business is done," raising the likelihood it could weigh down results.

The analysts said that there could be an "expense burden" for the cybersecurity company as it works to appease impacted customers, which will likely mean "credits, discounting or additional free products" affecting margins.

While the analysts highlighted that it's important that the outage was not related to a security issue and that CrowdStrike was transparent with its immediate response, they did say the incident could cause reputational damage that might deter customers and lead CrowdStrike to miss out on potential deals.

While Microsoft was tied to the outage through disruptions to its systems, Jefferies analysts said the impact of the tech giant will likely be "minimal."

Microsoft is "working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online," CEO Satya Nadella said in an X post Friday.

The scale of the outage also underlined the danger of consolidation within the tech industry where a few big players have a massive influence on the market, analysts said, and suggested it could draw attention from regulators to examine vulnerabilities in the ecosystem.

"Given the scope of the outage and scale of economic disruption, we expect fresh, louder debates on the limits of vendor consolidation (systemic risk) both across the IT stack and especially cybersecurity," Citi analysts said.

The analysts noted the "outage will garner more political/regulatory attention" as "software vendors have clearly become so large and so interconnected where events like these are plainly showcasing their influence on the greater economic system."

Do you have a news tip for Investopedia reporters? Please email us at [email protected]

Stay Connected!