NEWS

A kidney transplanted from a pig has worked inside a patient for 271 days, the longest on record, say US doctors. Doctors said the animal organ was used as a temporary “bridge” while the man waited for a transplant from a human donor. Tim Andrews, who had end-stage kidney disease, was 66 when he received the pig kidney in the US in January 2025. He lived successfully with the genetically edited organ for 271 days before moving to short-term dialysis and receiving a donor human kidney. It is the longest dialysis-free survival after a pig-kidney transplant in a living human and the first transition from pig-to-human kidney transplantation, doctors have said. The team from Mass General Brigham in the US published their findings in the Lancet medical journal. Lead auth...

The Presidency has clarified that the ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving records relating to President Bola Tinubu before a United States federal court is a civil records-disclosure dispute and not a criminal case.The clarification was contained in a statement issued on Thursday night by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.According to Onanuga, the case, filed before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, concerns requests for the disclosure of government records under the US FOIA.  He said the matter originated from FOIA requests submitted in 2022 by Aaron Greenspan to several US government agencies seeking records relating to Tinubu.  “The Presidency has noted recent speculative reports ...

Former Rivers State governor and Vice-Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi, has criticised the electricity tariff regime introduced by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, alleging that the removal of electricity subsidy had drastically increased electricity bills for consumers.Amaechi made the declaration on Thursday, September 3, during ward visits across Omuma Local Government Area of Rivers State, where he delivered Atiku’s campaign message to residents.Using his personal electricity bill to illustrate the impact of the policy, Amaechi said his monthly bill had increased from N500,000 to N4 million.  “My house electricity bill was N500,000; now I pay N4 million. Atiku said if he comes, I will go back to N500,000. No more Band...

Federal authorities have arrested podcaster Azariah Southworth in Los Angeles over allegations that he threatened to kill US President Donald Trump and stalked the president's personal lawyer and his family. Southworth, who is 40, was reportedly arrested at his home in Westlake after FBI agents surrounded the residence and ordered him to surrender. According to court documents, prosecutors accused Southworth of repeatedly making threats against Trump through social media posts and private messages. He allegedly posted videos calling for violence against the president and also shared content depicting fictional acts of violence against Trump. Southworth is also accused of cyberstalking Trump's personal lawyer after allegedly sharing the lawyer's home address and photograph of hi...

The Federal Government has said Nigeria will never support a military coup or any unconstitutional change of government, following claims that the country backed a failed coup attempt in the Niger Republic. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye, made this known in a statement issued on Thursday. According to the statement, the claims circulating on social media are baseless and misleading. Enikanolaiye said Nigeria remained committed to democracy, constitutional rule and political stability in West Africa and would not support any attempt to remove a government through unconstitutional means .“Nigeria will never support illegality or unconstitutional change of government anywhere, no matter who is involved or which country is concerned,” he said. ...

No fewer than 37 persons suspected oil thieves have been confirmed de@d after they inhaled a petroleum product believed to be crude oil in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State in the early hours of Thursday,  September 3. According to reports, more than 100 persons, mostly youths, from Okrika and neighboring communities had stormed Okari jetty to tap petroleum products from a pipeline that transports petroleum products from Indorama Eleme Petrochemical facility to the Port Harcourt Refinery to vessels that regularly came to load products for exports. Eyewitnesses say while they were busy loading the products into the boats they came with, a strong smell enveloped the area, causing several of the youths to collapse.It is said that while some of the victims collapsed into ...

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that a "supersized" El Niño climate phenomenon is pushing the planet into an extreme weather "danger zone," with scientists expecting the event to reach very strong intensity in the coming months. According to a statement released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is a near 100 percent probability that El Niño conditions will persist through February, with climate impacts extending well into 2027. "El Niño is being supersized before our eyes. The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up," Guterres said. "Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather." While El Niño is a...

The Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, has called for stricter enforcement of Nigeria’s laws, including stiffer punishment for terrorists, saying intelligence alone cannot eliminate terrorism and other forms of violent crime. According to him, the Service is now focused on securing convictions rather than merely arraigning suspects. Ajayi, who spoke during a chat with senior editors to mark his second anniversary in office, also called for an end to the ethnicisation and politicisation of criminality, insisting that criminals should be treated according to the law, irrespective of their ethnic or religious backgrounds. Ajayi was appointed DSS director-general by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in August 2024. He said the DSS had recorded s...

A Celestial Church of Christ evangelist, Abidemi Odukoya, and his wife, Adenike, have reportedly died in separate circumstances following an alleged domestic altercation at their residence in the Akinode/Ibogun community, Ogun State. PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident occurred in the early hours of Monday, August 25, after the couple allegedly engaged in a domestic dispute that escalated into a physical confrontation. The altercation reportedly left Adenike unconscious and injured, while her husband allegedly fled the residence. A former Chairman of the Community Development Association, Adejimi Olawumi, said in a video shared by Arole TV on Wednesday that he was alerted by residents’ cries for help and subsequently found the woman lying in a pool of blood. Olawumi s...

The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned that artificial intelligence-driven disinformation poses a serious threat to the credibility of the 2027 general elections, calling for electoral technology and communication to be treated as a single discipline. The INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), also disclosed that the commission was conducting a comprehensive audit of its electoral technology systems and considering a mock presidential election to test its readiness ahead of the polls. This was contained in a statement signed by INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi. Amupitan spoke on Wednesday in Abuja in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by a National Commissioner, Sani Adam (SAN), at the 13th Annual International Confer...