Ireland will not participate in the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, with national broadcaster RTÉ confirming that it will also refuse to broadcast the competition because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s continued participation in the contest. RTÉ announced the decision on Thursday, September 17, saying its position on Eurovision participation “remains unchanged”…
Nigeria’s gross external reserves have climbed above $54 billion, reaching their highest level since December 2008 and giving the country a substantially larger foreign-exchange buffer. Latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that gross external reserves stood at $54.61 billion as of September 14, 2026, compared with $45.57 billion at the beginning…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to attend a White House state dinner hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump for Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. OpenAI confirmed Altman’s attendance on Wednesday, September 16, ahead of Xi’s planned visit to Washington on September 24. The dinner is expected to bring together prominent American business leaders…
Operations around Nigeria’s Lekki Deep Seaport are facing growing pressure as worsening traffic congestion along the Lekki-Epe corridor continues to disrupt the movement of trucks and other vehicles serving the port. Stakeholders operating around the Lekki port axis say the persistent gridlock is beginning to affect cargo evacuation and could further undermine port operations if…
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published final guidance explaining which cryptocurrency activities will require regulatory authorisation under the country’s incoming cryptoasset regime. The guidance was released on September 16, just two weeks before the FCA’s new authorisation gateway opens on September 30, 2026. The new regulatory framework is scheduled to come fully into…
Yemen’s Houthi movement has claimed it shot down a Saudi Arabian F-15 fighter jet over Marib province, releasing footage that it says captures the operation and the aircraft’s wreckage. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Wednesday that the fighter was hit by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile while carrying out operations over Marib in…
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is expanding deeper into institutional finance with plans to launch a dedicated real-world asset (RWA) lending market on Avalanche, allowing institutions to use eligible tokenized assets as collateral to borrow stablecoins. The planned Aave V4 RWA Hub would give institutional investors a way to unlock on-chain liquidity from tokenized financial assets…
Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun has taken legal action against actress Jing Tian and her parents in a dispute over a 30 million yuan payment — approximately $4.5 million — that he says was made as a traditional marriage gift. Sun, the founder of blockchain platform Tron, reportedly transferred the money to Jing Tian’s family…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing back against calls for the artificial intelligence industry to slow down, arguing that AI companies should continue developing the technology while taking responsibility for making their systems safe. Zuckerberg’s position comes as a growing divide emerges among major technology leaders over how quickly advanced AI should progress. In a…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that humanity could eventually lose control of its future to artificial intelligence if the technology’s capabilities advance faster than the safety systems designed to keep powerful AI models under human control. In a post on X on September 14, Altman identified what he described as two ways AI development…
