Author: chicagoinquirer

by Tim Reynolds LAS VEGAS  — The final numbers for Victor Wembanyama in his Summer League debut: nine points on 2-for-13 shooting, eight rebounds, five blocked shots, three assists. Not on the stat sheet: countless pictures and videos captured on phones, the couple dozen times he applauded teammates, and all the autographs that a very friendly San Antonio Spurs coach named Gregg Popovich signed at halftime for kids and other fans. The Wemby Show is underway. The outcome on Friday night doesn’t matter much and will be forgotten in the next couple days — for the record, the Spurs beat…

YAOUNDE  – Paris St Germain forward Kylian Mbappe is touring his father’s native Cameroon for the first time this week as doubts swirl over his future at the French club. Excited fans gathered at the airport in the capital Yaounde, where the 24-year-old star touched down on Thursday for a three-day tour of the central African nation. “It is an honour for me to be here, to be in the country of my origin, to be with my family and to see the people out there. They have shown me some love,” Mbappe said on Friday after meeting Cameroon’s Prime…

ABUJA  –     Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has ordered the suspension of a newly introduced 10% tax on single-use plastics and excise duty on some locally manufactured products to reduce business costs in Africa’s biggest economy, his spokesman said on Thursday. Nigeria is one of the biggest plastic polluters on the continent, contributing some 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, some of which ends up in the sea, official data shows. Dele Alake said Tinubu signed executive orders suspending a green tax on single-use plastics, including plastic containers and bottles, that was introduced in March.…

by Ed White PONTIAC, Mich.  — Five years after her death, the final wishes of music superstar Aretha Franklin are still unsettled. An unusual trial begins next Monday to determine which of two handwritten wills, including one found in couch cushions, will guide how her estate is handled. The Queen of Soul, who had four sons, did not have a formal, typewritten will in place, despite years of health problems and efforts to get one done. But under Michigan law, it’s still possible to treat other documents — with scribbles, scratch-outs and hard-to-read passages — as her commands. The dispute is…

ABUJA  –     Nigeria’s average daily petrol consumption has fallen by 28% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a popular but costly subsidy on the fuel at the end of May, data from the industry regulator shows. Average daily petrol consumption fell to 48.43 million litres in June, down from the previous average of 66.9 million, according to figures released to Reuters by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). A subsidy had kept prices cheap for decades in Africa’s biggest economy but it became increasingly expensive for the country – the government spent $10…

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois State Museum have returned nearly 40 sacred artifacts to Kenya so they can go back to their rightful owners. Museum officials said in a statement Wednesday that they have completed transferring 37 wooden statues known as vigango to the National Museums of Kenya so they can be returned to Mijikenda communities. The statues are considered sacred and are believed to carry the spirits of deceased male Mijikenda elders. The Illinois State Museum said the statues were removed from Mijikenda villages and sacred sites in the 1980s, acquired by art collectors and later transferred to the…

by Lori Ewing MANCHESTER, England  –     Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba says soccer players in Africa too often fall prey to fake agents peddling promises of fame and fortune. Through his foundation, Drogba has teamed up with global soccer players union FIFPRO and the International Labour Organisation to raise awareness about the risks. “Please, I need you to hear this,” former Ivory Coast international Drogba says in an animated campaign video to players. “Be very careful who you trust. Never trust the person who wants your money.” FIFPRO recently surveyed 263 players from seven African countries and…

by Mark Sherman WASHINGTON  — Overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating affirmative action in higher education had been leading goals of the conservative legal movement for decades. In a span of 370 days, a Supreme Court reshaped by three justices nominated by President Donald Trump made both a reality. Last June, the court ended nationwide protections for abortion rights. This past week, the court’s conservative majority decided that race-conscious admissions programs at the oldest private and public colleges in the country, Harvard and the University of North Carolina, were unlawful. Precedents that had stood since the 1970s were overturned, explicitly in the case of abortion…

by Emeka ObasiThere must be something about Labour Party anchorman, Peter Obi, that continues to confound those who stand in his way. What they pretend not see is just what makes him a celebrity within and without. Sierra Leone is trending.While Obi was busy at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, his name was all Sierra Leoneans heard as they prepared for their own elections. Chairman of that country’s Political Parties Regulation Committee ( PPRC ) Abdulahi Bangura implored presidential candidates to adopt the Obi Formula.It is a peaceful approach that applies legal means, instead of jungle method, to…

by Meg Kinnard PICKENS, S.C.  — Former President Donald Trump marked a return to the large-scale rallies of his previous presidential campaigns, speaking to a massive crowd gathered in the streets of a small South Carolina city on a blazing summer weekend. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than right here on Main Street, with thousands of hardworking South Carolina patriots who believe in God, family and country,” Trump said Saturday to a roaring crowd in downtown Pickens as temperatures climbed into the 90s. Randal J. Beach, the police chief in the conservative Upstate…