Buhari’s Demise A Major Loss To Nigeria, African Continent – Shettima

The Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday, said former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death is a major loss to the nation and the entire African continent.

Shettima stated this after a brief prayer for the repose of the soul of Buhari at the deceased’s residence in Daura, Katsina State.

According to him, people from far and wide have called to commiserate with President Tinubu over the sad demise of our elder statesman.

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“The President was personally pained by the loss. He sent me to London earlier on to go and visit the late President. I was there for two days, and when he answered the call of Allah, the President equally directed me and the Chief of Staff to go and accompany the family and the body of the late President back home,” Shettima said.

President Bola Tinubu bidding farewell to former President Muhammadu Buhari at the former leader’s funeral in Daura, Katsina State, on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.

“And in consultation with President Tinubu, the family of the late President Buhari and the Government of Katsina State, it was unanimously resolved that tomorrow (Thursday), by God’s grace, by noon, we shall all gather here to offer our prayers for the repose of the soul of the late President.”

He stated that every soul shall test the torment of death, adding that while death is an inevitable destiny that hangs over everyone’s neck, everyone should consider themselves as travellers with their bags and baggage waiting for the train.

Shettima prayed to Allah to grant the soul of the late former President Buhari eternal rest and reward him with Al-Jannah Firdaus and protect the family he left behind.

The Vice President noted that the late former president was not an ordinary person, just as he said, Nigerians from all walks of life are still free to come and offer their condolences to the Government and people of Katsina State.

Shettima said the Katsina state governor, Dikko Radda, will be in the state, and members of the family of the late President will be in Daura to accept condolences.

President Bola Tinubu receiving the body of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, at the Katsina airport on Tuesday, July 15, 2025

“But the formal ceremony will come to an end tomorrow based on consultation between His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR,  the family of the late President, and the governor of Katsina state,” he stated.

Earlier, the Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Radda, said the demise of Buhari was a great loss to the people of Katsina, the nation, and Africa in general.

He urged leaders at all levels to sustain the legacies of the late President Buhari by ensuring transparency, honesty, and accountability in governance, adding that “Buhari lived and died for the people.”

The governor appealed to all Nigerians to continue to pray for the repose of the soul of the late former President Buhari.

Radda thanked President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima for honouring the late former President and the people of Katsina with their presence during the burial.

Dignitaries at the Katsina airport ahead of the funeral of former President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Also, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, extolled the virtues of the late former Nigerian leader.

“We are here to pray for the repose of the soul of our former leader, President Muhammadu Buhari. May Allah accept his soul. Yesterday, as we all know, the former President was buried here in his compound, and it was witnessed by people from all walks of life, including the President of Nigeria, President Tinubu, GCFR.

Bellingham to miss start of season after surgery

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England and Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has undergone successful surgery for a long-standing shoulder issue.

The 22-year-old is expected to miss the whole of Real’s pre-season and at least the first six weeks of the campaign, which would include England’s World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia in September.

Bellingham has struggled with the problem since 2023, when he dislocated his shoulder in a game against Rayo Vallecano.

Real said he will now undergo a period of rehabilitation before returning to training.

The Spanish club, under new manager Xabi Alonso, start their La Liga season at home to Osasuna on 19 August.

Bellingham has worn strapping on his shoulder, but told reporters in June he was “tired of playing with the sling”.

Real scheduled his surgery for after the Club World Cup in the United States, where they were beaten in the semi-finals by Paris St-Germain last week.

Bellingham joined Real from Borussia Dortmund for £115m two years ago and won the La Liga title and Champions League in his first season, scoring 23 goals in 43 appearances.

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Bahrain to invest $17bn in US amid deals with Boeing, Oracle, Cisco

Bahrain’s crown prince is set to invest more than $17bn in the United States.

The White House outlined the new deal before a meeting between Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and US President Donald Trump.

Sitting with the crown prince of Bahrain, he described the Gulf nation as a “fantastic ally.” He said they would discuss trade and other topics.

The prince said they would announce investments in the United States, which “builds upon a legacy that we’re very proud of”.

As part of the investment, Bahrain will sign a deal between Gulf Air and Boeing/GE valued at about $7bn for 12 aircraft with an option for six more.

The deal also includes the sale of 40 GE engines, according to the White House.

The announcement from the crown prince comes on the heels of foreign investment deals Trump made during a trip to the Middle East in May. During a visit to Riyadh, Trump secured a $600bn commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States and agreed to sell the Saudis an arms package worth nearly $142bn.

The White House said the Bahrain deal will support 30,000 American jobs and was secured with help from Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The crown prince will also commit to deploying additional capital amounting to billions of dollars.

Bahrain is expected to be signing deals with Oracle and Cisco, with plans to replace Chinese servers with Cisco products, the White House said.

Bahrain also seeks to increase its investments in US energy, tech and manufacturing sectors.

The White House says the crown prince intends to deploy capital to increase US domestic aluminium production, invest in US LNG production to secure BAH energy supplies and buy cutting-edge AI chips, partnering with US hyper-scalers.

During the visit, the crown prince will also announce the kingdom’s intention to make these investments and sign various deals and memorandums of understanding (MOUs).

One of these MOUs creates a framework for Bahrain to begin discussions towards developing commercial nuclear capabilities.

Later this year, the king of Bahrain will visit Washington to finalise these agreements and solidify the progress made in building our two nations’s economic prosperity, the White House said.

US markets remained relatively flat on the announcement. As of 12:00pm ET (16:00 GMT) the S&P 500 was down 0.1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 0.09 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.04 percent. Boeing stock is down 0.3 percent from the market open, after an earlier upward surge this morning. GE trending upwards on the news, up 0.1.

The new investment agreement comes as the White House’s tariff strategy remains in the spotlight. In April, when the White House paused country-specific tariffs, the Trump administration said it would have 90 deals in 90 days. With that deadline having passed, the US has only solidified three, including Vietnam, UK and as of Tuesday, Indonesia.

Durham propose radical county cricket shake-up

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Durham have proposed a radical shake-up of English domestic cricket, including a rugby-style Grand Final to decide the County Championship.

The county has addressed members with a change to the domestic structure and schedule in a bid to reduce player fatigue.

The proposal, which Durham said has been developed along with other counties and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), suggests the current two-division championship should be scrapped.

It would be replaced by two upper divisions of six teams each, and a lower division of six teams.

The Grand Final format is already in use in Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa.

The lower conference sides would be competing for two promotion places, with one county from each upper conference being relegated to accommodate them.

‘More compelling cricket’

Durham chairman Phil Collins said in a statement on the club website: “We support the 18-county model but, believe the current 10/8 division structure lacks meaningful fixtures as the season progresses.

“The current structure produces a plethora of games in both divisions that do not have any meaning; teams involved in mid table games in the last third of the season onwards do not have any jeopardy… the teams involved cannot get into a title or promotion race and are safe from relegation.

“We don’t believe this produces the intensity of cricket that our great game needs and is something that both players and fans constantly comment on to us.”

The proposal also suggests the T20 Blast should be reduced in size and comprise three groups of six teams each, with the entire competition played before The Hundred begins.

The county said the plans have been drawn up following a Professional Cricketers’ Association survey, which found that 83% of players think the current schedule “harms physical wellbeing”, 72% saying it “hinders high performance”, and over two-thirds claiming mental health is affected by the intensity.

The statement added that other counties have proposed alternative structures, including an 8/10 and a 10/8 division split.

Collins said the idea will be discussed at a members forum on 30 July.

“These proposals aim to reduce workload, enhance performance, and offer more compelling cricket. We believe they represent the best way forward,” he added.

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Rivals wait for Pogacar after late crash as Abrahamsen wins stage

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Tadej Pogacar was allowed to recover from a late crash on stage 11 of the Tour de France as Jonas Abrahamsen held on for his first Tour win.

As Mathieu van der Poel chased down Abrahamsen and Mauro Schmid during the final 5km in Toulouse, Pogacar went down in the peloton, which was three minutes behind.

But the reigning champion swiftly got back on his bike – and his main rivals for the overall victory eased up to let him rejoin the group.

Meanwhile, Abrahamsen edged out Schmid in a two-up sprint to the line, with Van der Poel crossing seven seconds later having left his charge too late.

Abrahamsen is competing in his third Tour at 29 and spent the first 10 days of last year’s race in the polka dot jersey, worn by the mountain points leader.

But this was a first stage win on the Tour for Abrahamsen and his Uno-X Mobility team, and came just four weeks after the Norwegian rider broke his collarbone in the Tour of Belgium.

“I was crying in the hospital because I thought I wouldn’t ride in the Tour de France,” he said.

“Every day I did everything I could to come back and now I’m sat here with a Tour de France stage win. It’s amazing. It was my dream to win a Tour stage so it’s so nice.”

Pogacar was unharmed after his crash 4km from the finish of Wednesday’s flat 156km stage, which began and ended in Toulouse.

The Slovenian fell after hitting the back wheel of another rider and slid across several metres of road before struggling to put his chain back on.

It looked as though he would lose 30 to 40 seconds but his main GC rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel sportingly waited for him to catch up.

After this year’s first rest day, it was a dramatic resumption for the Tour, with Abrahamsen and Schmid attacking from the outset to establish themselves in a long-range breakaway.

The stage began at a rapid pace, averaging 52km over the first hour, and splits repeatedly formed in the peloton while a chase group tried to reel in a five-man breakaway, which included British rider Fred Wright.

Wednesday also featured five categorised climbs, with two in the final 14km, when Van der Poel attacked out of the five chasers to close the gap.

Although the Dutch rider wore the yellow jersey earlier in the race, he is now out of GC contention and ultimately fell just short of claiming his second stage win this year.

Stage 11 results

General classification after stage 11

Graphic showing route map for the 2025 Tour de France

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Trump lashes out at ‘PAST supporters’ over ‘Epstein Hoax’

United States President Donald Trump continues to feud with supporters disappointed by his handling of information about deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling them “weaklings” and labelling the controversy a “hoax” concocted by his political enemies.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump accused Democrats of attempting to capitalise on growing anger over his administration’s efforts to distance itself from conspiracies that many on the US right, including Trump and his allies, have fuelled for years.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘b*******,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” he added.

A protester holds a photo of US President Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier accused of sexually abusing young girls, and reading ‘child rapist’ during a ‘Make America Great Again’ rally at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina, on July 17, 2019 [Nicholas Kamm/AFP]

The post underscores growing schisms within the US right over the Trump administration’s insistence that there was nothing untoward about Epstein’s death by suicide in prison, and that the disgraced financier never had a “client list” of powerful figures tied to child sex abuse.

“I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” Trump said.

Speculation about Epstein’s connections to political and economic elites, and the possibility of an “Epstein List” of clients subject to blackmail, is not exclusive to the US right, and has become a symbol of wider popular belief that powerful people who commit abuses are unlikely to face consequences.

After Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex abuse charges, the circumstances around his death immediately drew scepticism and became a source of widespread conspiracies.

But those conspiracies have become a matter of particular obsession for the US right, who have used them to advance a dark vision of corrupt and venal elites who need to be rooted out and brought to justice, and were often fused with wider calls for extrajudicial actions against their perceived political enemies, especially prominent Democrats.

Trump administration officials such as FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, former proponents of such theories, teased action and new revelations when they first entered the administration.

Asked about the Epstein files during a TV interview in February, Bondi said they were “sitting on my desk right now to review”.

The administration made an about-face when the Department of Justice released a memo last week concluding that Epstein’s death was a suicide and he never had a “client list”. In the time since, Trump has expressed increasing annoyance towards those on the US right who have continued to question those details, including some who have said that Trump’s own relationship with Epstein may explain the reversal.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump snapped at a reporter last week. “This guy’s been talked about for years.”

But Trump’s insistence that his supporters stop talking about Epstein may in fact be pushing many to double down.