Entertainment
‘Morale Boost’, NASA Carries Out Moon Mission During Tough Year For Science
As the four Artemis astronauts approached a high point of their lunar mission — getting slung around the far side of the Moon — NASA staffers crowded into Houston’s famed mission control room Monday for a team photo.
They were all smiles as countdown clocks ticked and the Orion spacecraft flew ever closer to Earth’s cratered neighbor, a mission years in the making come to fruition at last.
By most metrics it’s been a rough year for science in the United States — the Trump administration has slashed funding, halted projects and devastated workforces.
But then, NASA sent astronauts around the Moon for the first time in half-a-century, deeper into space than ever before.
The moonshot has served as a “massive positive moment,” said exploration scientist Jacob Bleacher.
“People have been working on this for months, years — over a decade in some cases,” he told AFP.
The majority of Americans, including NASA scientists, weren’t yet born when the Apollo era first sent astronauts to the Moon in the late 1960s.
The myth loomed large, but it was past tense — until now.
“It’s just surreal,” said Bleacher, speaking from NASA’s Science Mission Operations Room in Houston’s famed Johnson Space Center.
“This is my generation’s first chance to step up and really do this,” he said.
“I like to think about it as walking through a doorway into how humankind explores the solar system going forward.”
US President Donald Trump has pressured NASA to get boots on the lunar surface before his second term ends in 2029.
But just last week the White House simultaneously proposed slashing the space agency’s overall budget by 23 percent and significantly curtailing its science program funding.
And like many US government agencies, NASA has faced “significant cuts to their workforce,” said Clayton Swope, a space policy expert at of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
With Artemis 2, “I think they have delivered,” he told AFP. “It’s been under very challenging circumstances.”
For Amanda Nahm, a program scientist for NASA Headquarters, the successful Artemis II launch and unfolding mission offer “a good morale boost.”
“We all work at NASA because of this — and I think it’s helping remind us” that “our base mission is this hard, exciting exploration — seeing new things, trying out new things we’ve never done before,” she told AFP.
“I think it will hopefully reinvigorate us all.”
As they carry out their mission, the team of four astronauts have been routinely asked to reflect on the weight of the torch they carry.
They regularly bring the focus back to their role in a project they see as much bigger than themselves.
And frequently, they also cite the work of the team “we’re lifted up by,” as mission commander Reid Wiseman put it.
“We just feel like we’re lifted up by the team that supports us, and you just sort of execute the plan,” Wiseman said as the crew soared away from their home planet.
“A lot of people telling us how to work this and manage this vehicle, and a lot of great training, and you just kind of go step by step, which I think is pretty remarkable, what this team can do,” he added.
“It really highlights their excellence.”
AFP
Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold has revealed that he is a descendant of King Kosoko of Lagos, a 19th-century monarch who resisted British colonial forces when they first arrived in Nigeria.
Gold made the disclosure in an interview on Great Day Houston, a morning show on KHOU 11 television in Houston, Texas, which was published on YouTube on Thursday.
On his royal lineage, he said his ancestor fought the British when they first entered Nigeria through Lagos, was driven into exile, and eventually returned victorious.
“My progenitor used to be king of Lagos. His name is King Kosoko. He fought the British when they first came to Nigeria through Lagos to try to take our things, then he fought, went to exile, and came back, and then still won,” he said.
Gold, who is from the Yoruba tribe, was born in Lagos.
The singer also revealed that his stage name was given to him by God through a church sermon.
He said he had been searching for one and had taken the matter to God in prayer when the answer came during a church sermon.
“I told God, I need a name,” he said.
He said a preacher repeated the same phrase three times during the sermon, and he took it as a divine signal.
“Something just told me it must have been God. God told me at that point that that’s your name,” he said.
Gold said he settled on the name immediately after.
“I said, okay, you know what, just make it Adekunle Gold, and it’s very befitting of me,” he said.
Entertainment
“My DM is filled with rent bills and family problems” – Sarah Martins cries out as she issues stern warning to online beggars
Nollywood actress Sarah Martins has decried the alarming rate of beggars flooding her DM.
On her Instagram page, she vented about the number of rent bills and family problems messages she has been receiving, questioning whether she grows money in her house and isn’t a citizen of the country.
Sarah pointed out the irony at which people wouldn’t engage with her business’s advert content or repost it, but would dare flood her DMs with bills.
Issuing them a warning, Martins told online beggars to stop flooding her DMs.
“Some of you even bully me for making content to make sales for my brands as if you know what it takes to create content that converts.
Pls stop already!
Shebi make I hustle finish, then pack the money, give u, make u pay your 4.5m rent, as I no get my own bills to pay, abi???
I’m even scared to open my dm because it’s filled with bills… ogini????
I can’t even remember the last time someone donated money to my NGO account, yet I cook weekly for homeless kids, and you all still do not encourage me enough because you think it’s easy to feed 150 people weekly
The last time I checked, I only cook for homeless street kids with my little monthly profits from my business as my own way of giving back to society; there was never a time I told anyone I’m a messiah that offsets bills.
Make Una leave me oooooo
Patronise me mba, engage on my advert posts mba, share my advert posts mba, repost mba, but when e reach to write essay on how u haven’t eaten in years u run enter my dm…
Wickeeeedd souls!!!!”.
Similarly, comedian I Go Save had decried the growing pandemic of beggars in Lagos. He pointed out how beggars in the Northern parts of Nigeria hold plates, while their colleagues in Lagos hold stones. The comedian called on the government to curb the growing number of beggars in Lagos.
He had decried the alarming rate of begging in public spaces in Nigeria. He noted that the country is hard; however, he believes people should calm down with the rate of begging, as everyone is facing challenges in the country.
The comedian had made similar observation last year during the festive season. I Go Save had cried out over the level of hunger in the country. He revealed that the number of people asking him for help was a record-breaker, as he admonished the public to lend a helping hand.
Entertainment
“Nothing can happen to me” – Singer Portable brags after surviving accident following brake failure
Nigerian controversial singer and new dad, Portable, has survived a car accident.
The street singer, in a video posted to his Instagram story on Thursday night, said his car had a brake failure but that he was lucky to swerve to the side. According to him, no one was killed, and his car wasn’t badly damaged.
The singer expressed gratitude to his Maker for saving his life, bragging that no accident can befall him.
“God saved me, nothing do me. I noticed that the brake stopped working and swerved the car to one side. Nothing happened to me. I can’t have an accident, even if I do, nothing will happen to me”.
Portable just survived an accident near his house. pic.twitter.com/DCUetlOsbW
— AYANFE (@CHULLY1010) May 7, 2026
portable experienced a brake failure while driving tonight but God saved him from an accident, no casualties, just a dent on his car. pic.twitter.com/AylpD1YdUm
— FunNation_tv (@FunNation_tv) May 7, 2026
This isn’t the first time the singer has been involved in an accident.
Two years ago, Portable crashed his brand-new G-Wagon Brabus at Osapa London. Photos that went viral showed the car, badly damaged beyond recognition. Narrating the incident, he expressed confidence that his music would earn him enough money to buy 10 times the car and even a private jet.
His wife, reacting to the news, expressed gratitude to God for keeping him alive and rained prayers against death on him
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