Three people die in an attack on a church in southern Nigeria

 

At least three people died in an attack carried out on Christmas Eve by unidentified armed people against participants in a mass in a church in the Nigerian town of Nkweagu, in the state of Ebonyi (south), as confirmed by the bishop of the diocese of Abakaliki, Peter Nworie.

Nworie has indicated that the assault was carried out in the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception round 11:30 p.m (local time), before denouncing that the attackers broke into the premises and killed three worshipers, in addition to injuring an undetermined number of people.

“This is the first time that such an incident has taken place in a church in Ebonyi state”, he lamented, while asking the population to pray for unity and progress in the state and in the entire African country as reported by the Nigerian state news agency, NAN.

The Nigerian authorities have not commented for now on who would have been behind the attack, amid an expansion of insecurity from the northeastern part of the country, where Boko Haram and its splinter, Islamic State in Central Africa (ISWA), operate to other parts of Nigeria.

In fact, more than 110 people have died and around 300 have been injured in a series attack carried out over the weekend in the state of Plateau, although local authorities have warned that the death toll could increase in the next few hours.

This is how not sleeping affects your emotional stability

 

Sleep loss not only produces fatigue but can undermine emotional functioning, decrease positive moods and put us at greater risk for anxiety symptoms, according to a study published in the Psychological Buttin by the American Psychological Association that summarizes over 50 years of research on sleep deprivation and mood.

“In our largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotions is critical to promoting psychological health”, said study lead author Cara Palmer of Montana State University (USA).

“This study represents the most comprehensive synthesis of experimental research on sleep and emotion to date, and provides strong evidence that prolonged periods of wakefulness, shortened sleep duration, and nocturnal awakenings negatively influence human emotional function”, add.

Palmer and her colleagues, including co-lead author Joanne Bower, a PhD at the University of East Anglia, analyzed data from 154 studies conducted over five decades, involving a total of 5,715 participants.

In all of those studies, researchers interrupted participants’ sleep for one or more nights. In some experiments, participants were kept awake or an extended period. In others, they were allowed to sleep fewer hours than usual, and in others they awakened periodically throughout the night.

Each study also measured at least on emotion-related variable after the sleep manipulation, such as participants’ self-reported mood, their response to emotional stimuli, and measures of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Overall, the researchers found that all three types of sleep loss caused participants to experience fewer positive emotions, such as joy, happiness and satisfaction, as well as increased anxiety symptoms, such as increased heart rate and increased worry.

“This occurred even after short periods of sleep loss, such as staying up an hour or two later than usual or after losing only a few hours of sleep”, Palmer explains. “We also found that sleep loss increased anxiety symptoms and reduced arousal in response to emotional stimuli.

The results for depression symptoms were lower and less consistent, as were those for negative emotions such as sadness, worry and stress.

One limitation of the study is that most of the participants were young adults (mean age was 23 years), so according to the researchers, future research should include a more diverse sample of ages to better understand how sleep deprivation affects to people of different ages.

Other lines of research might include examining the effects of multiple nights of sleep loss, studying individual differences to find out why some people may be more vulnerable than others to the effects of sleep loss, and examining the effects of sleep loss across different cultures, as most of the research in the current study was conducted in the United States and Europe, according to researchers.

“Research has revealed that more than 30% of adults and up to 90% of adolescents do not get enough sleep”, says Palmer. “The implications of this research for individual and public health are considerable in a society at large measure of sleep deprivation”.

It adds that “industries and sectors prone to sleep loss, such as first responder, pilots and truck drivers should develop and adopt policies that prioritize sleep to mitigate risks to daytime function and well-being”.

 

UEFA trusts that its new rules “fulfil all relevant European laws and regulations”

 

UEFA said on Thursday that the judgment issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) “does not mean support or validation” of the Superliga and that it trusts that the new rules it imposed “fulfil with all relevant European laws and regulations”:

“UEFA takes note of the judgment handed down Thursday by the ECJ in the case of the European Super League. This failure does not mean support or validation for so-called ‘Superliga’, rather it underlines a pre-existing deficit within the UEFA’s prior authorisation framework, a technical aspect that was already recognized and addressed in June 2022”, UEFA said in a statement.

The continental body made it clear that it “trusts the strength of its new rules and, specifically, that they comply with all relevant European laws and regulations”. “UEFA remains determined in its commitment to defending the pyramid of European football, ensuring that it continues to serve the wider interests of society. We will continue to shape the European sport model collectively with national federations, leagues, clubs, fans, players, coaches, EU institutions, governments and partners alike”, he added.

Scientists discover the link between ocean weather and global climate

 

An international team of scientists led by Hussein Aluie, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester, United Kingdom, and a scientist at the University’s Lase Energy Laboratory, has found the first direct test liking seemingly random weather system in the ocean to the global climate, according to the journal ‘Science Advances’.

According to Benjamin Storer, lead author of the study and associate researcher of the Aluie Turbulence and Complex Flux Group, there are weather patterns similar to terrestrial ones in the ocean, but at different time scales and length.

A weather pattern on land can last a few days and be about 500 kilometres wide, while ocean patterns, such as swirls, last between three and four weeks, but are one fifth of their size.

“Scientist have long speculated on the possibility that these ubiquitous and seemingly random ocean movements will communicate with the climate scales, but it has always been vague because it was not clear how to unravel this complex system to measure its interactions”, says Aluie. “We’ve developed a framework that can do exactly that. What we found was not what people expected because it requires the mediation of the atmosphere”.

The group’s goal was to understand how energy passed through the different ocean channels across the planet. They used a mathematical method developed by Aluie in 2019, which was later implemented in an advanced code by Storer and Aluie, which allowed them to study the transfer of energy through different patterns ranging from the circumference of the globe to 10 kilometers. There techniques were then applied to ocean data sets from an advanced climate model and satellite observations.

LA Knight will receive the key to your hometown

 

LA Knight has enjoyed one of the best years of his career in 2023. SmackDown’s fighter has changed his position in the company, becoming one of the most acclaimed talents. Thanks to his work, he will receive recognition from his hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland.

The city’s official website has released the following statement: “The city of Hagerstown will deliver on of its own, and currently one of the most popular Superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment, the key to the city on Saturday, December 23 at noon at University Plaza”.

LA Knight experienced a continuous rise from the middle of the year. That trend allowed him to reach Roam Reigns, whom he faced las November in Cown Jewel. Knight fell defeated and missed the chance to become the undisputed new Universal champion. In the latest episode of Friday Night SmackDown, he was attacked by AJ Styles at the show’s star event, which seems an indication of who his next rival will be.

Dimitry Bivol fights Lyndon Arthur with the sight set on Artur Beterbiev

 

Dimitry Bivol insists he is as motivated for Saturday’s title fight against Lyndon Arthur as he was before his previous two fights: brilliant victories over Canelo Alvarez and Gilberto Ramirez.

Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) defends his AMB title for the eleventh time against Arthur as part of the marathon billboard at the Kingdom Arena in Riyah, Saudi Arabia.

Arthur (23-1, 16 Kos), 32, of Manchester, will be on his first world title opportunity and has only lost once. That said, it doesn’t bring the same level of threat as Alvarez, the current super-middleweight undisputed champion, and former super-middleweight world champion Ramirez. Bivol beat Canelo and Ramirez by unanimous decision in May and December 2022, respectively.

However, Bivol does not trust Arthur and says he is still focused on not interrupting his progression towards a clash with his Russian compatriot Arthur Beterviev (19-0, 19 KO), who owns the belt of the CMB, the FIB and the OMB. Beterbiev will defend his titles against Callum Smith in Canada on January 13.

Bivol is a clean, classic boxer who dismantles and outstrips his opponents with his jab, while Beterbiev relies on his power to eliminate all the professional opponents he has known. Bivol vs Beterbiew to decide an undisputed semi-heavyweight champion is one of the best fights that can be held in boxing today, and Bivol believes it can be achieved by 2024.

 

Burkina Faso authorities arrest four French officials accused of espionage

 

The Burkina Faso authorities have arrested four French officials accused of espionage and carrying valid diplomatic passports, diplomatic sources have told Radio France International (RFI).

These officers, who were on a computer maintenance mission at the French Embassy in Ougadaougou, the country’s capital, were arrested in the same city on 1December.

However, it was two weeks before they were charged with espionage and imprisoned at the Maco remand centre in the capital. According to sources in the magazine Jeune Afrique, these officials would belong to the General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE).

The Burnkinese military junta, headed by Ibrahim Traoré since September 2022, has taken a very critical stance with Western partners, especially with France. In fact, the French military operation officially ended in February following the termination of an agreement signed between the two countries for the fight against jihadism in the Sahel, while Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem of Tambela called French President Emmanuel Macro “war lord”.

Burkina Faso has generally experienced a significant increase in security since 2015, with attacks by both the Al Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State affiliate, causing a wave of internally displaced person and refugees to other countries in the region.