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Explore Nigeria's 2026 connectivity report covering broadband market dynamics, 5G migration, rapid fiber growth, and key infrastructure initiatives. Over the past three years, Nigeria saw regulatory reforms, infrastructure investment, and the rollout of next‑generation technologies. These developments led to the clean-up of inactive mobile SIMs, expansion of the fiber market, and improved network performance. This article examines these market changes, evaluates their impact on overall network performance, and outlines government plans to develop the telecom infrastructure further.
"This giveaway to fossil fuel executives is foolish and short-sighted, and reveals who the Trump administration really works for—its political donors," said one campaigner. The US Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced plans to further weaken federal protections against methane pollution from oil and gas operations, prompting environmental advocates to accuse the Trump administration of once again putting fossil fuel interests ahead of public health and the climate. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made the announcement during the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting in Santa Fe. The EPA said it will propose changes to the Biden administration’s 2024 oil and gas rules in the coming days, claiming the proposed rollback will save $45 billion in regulatory costs.
“The fossil fuel industry’s conduct has become some of the most harmful and culpable in human history," said one campaigner. "Eventually, it will be held to account.” The US Supreme Court on Monday appeared skeptical of efforts by ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to prevent a Colorado climate liability lawsuit from going to trial, with justices across the ideological spectrum questioning the fossil fuel companies’ arguments for shutting down the case before evidence of their alleged deception can be heard. The case—Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County—could determine the fate of nearly 60 similar lawsuits filed by states, counties, cities, and Indigenous tribes seeking to hold fossil fuel companies financially accountable for climate-related harms.
Justice Samuel Alito decided Monday to sit out one of the most consequential climate change cases to reach the Supreme Court, but legal experts expected continuing ramifications due to his ownership of individual corporate stocks, including in the fossil fuel industry. After months of resisting calls for his recusal, Alito reversed himself one week before the Supreme Court is set to open its term by hearing the oil industry’s bid to block Boulder, Colorado’s lawsuit to recover costs related to climate change. The clerk of the court sent a brief letter to the lawyers in the case saying, without explanation, that Alito would no longer participate. Alito does not own stock in the two companies involved in the Boulder case—ExxonMobil and the Canadian oil giant Suncor—and through a court spokesperson earlier this year conveyed that the court’s legal counsel said his recusal was not required. But Alito does own stock in companies that face lawsuits that will hinge directly on the Supreme Court’s decision. State court judges, in fact, have stayed 11 such cases in recent months pending the outcome of Suncor v. Boulder. Those include cases from which Alito has recused himself in the past.
Sea-level rise is one of the most visible signs of climate change, one that is threatening low-lying coastal communities around the world. Today, about 1 billion people live in coastal areas; about 100 million live within 1 meter (3.3 feet) of sea level, highly exposed to coastal flooding. Over the long term, when it comes to future sea-level rise, one place matters more than any other: Antarctica. The Antarctic ice sheet’s future depends how a chain of events plays out. A new study finds the evidence points in one direction.
It’s a chaotic time in an industry that’s reshaping our lives – Guardian reporters and experts recommend the books that help explain how we got here, and where we’re heading. Have you been feeling trapped in an endless cycle of artificial intelligence hype and panic? You’re not alone. It’s a chaotic time to make sense of the industry that’s reshaping our lives, whether or not we like it. Last week, another AI company employee publicly resigned, warning the technology “could kill us all by the end of the decade”. Despite these dire warnings, AI companies have seen “otherworldly” surges in revenue and driven the US stock markets to new highs as they continue to push AI tools into everything from public school classrooms to law enforcement agencies, as well as rushing to put up new datacenters across the country. Thankfully, the Guardian’s tech reporters – and a few other tech experts we respect – are here to help. We’ve compiled an essential reading list of smart books that explain and critique the AI industry; books that, while flawed, illustrate key viewpoints in the AI debates; and a few books that provide deeper political and social context, including some works of speculative fiction.
The European Commission Decision In a world first, the European Commission will require cell phone radiation to be measured the way we actually use phones today, in a pocket, tucked into clothing, or held directly against the body. As detailed by Phonegate Alert, the European Commission adopted the decision to require 0 mm radiation testing for cell phones and other portable devices on September 4, 2026, and it was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on September 7. Companies will be able to use the older standard that allows 5 mm separation distance during a transition period ending March 7, 2028 “to allow manufacturers sufficient time” to adapt their equipment. RF radiation is a form of invisible, non-ionizing electromagnetic (EMF) radiation emitted by cell phones. It penetrates into our bodies. Governments set limits for how much RF radiation people may be exposed to. Before phones can be sold, they must therefore pass pre-market tests to ensure they do not exceed a country’s allowable RF exposure limits.
he Trump administration is moving to deploy custom artificial intelligence products to speed up approvals for new applications of toxic chemicals and pesticides. But it has failed to share details of these AI tools with the public as required by both federal law and the administration’s own regulations, a Monitor review has found. The new AI products for chemicals and pesticides are part of a larger push by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who has declared “Make America the AI Capital of the World” to be a core pillar of the agency’s mission. However, they are not listed in the EPA’s most recent public registry of “current and planned uses” of AI.
The Bureau of Land Management is pushing to expand solar farms into the Mojave Desert. Advocates say it would decimate vast biodiversity. When asked recently if he used artificial intelligence, President Donald Trump — whose Truth Social account is rife with AI slop — offered an unconvincing “yeah” while refusing to provide specifics. Trump, who falls asleep at Cabinet meetings, press events, and even at a 25th anniversary 9/11 memorial service, followed it up by stating that the government doesn’t need to regulate AI since he’s monitoring it. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” he boasted, adding: “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!” The White House didn’t reply when TomDispatch asked what the U.S. will actually win if it “wins AI.” AI proponents say we will need $110 billion to build 45 gigawatts of new power generation through 2030. And you might be shocked to learn that Trump’s Energy Department is actually touting “clean energy resources to meet data center electricity demand.” But if you think that sounds like welcome news, think again.
Atrazine, which is banned in more than 60 countries, is contaminating many waterways used for drinking water. A cancer-linked pesticide banned in more than 60 countries around the world contaminates an estimated 25% of river and stream miles in the lower 48 US states, including many waterways used for drinking water, according to a new analysis. The analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity builds on evidence that atrazine — which is commonly used to grow corn, soybeans, sorghum and sugarcane and is linked to dangerous health problems for people and wildlife — remains ubiquitous in US waterways, especially in farming states. “It’s just an astounding level of contamination from just one pesticide,” said Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The findings come as the Trump administration re-evaluates atrazine’s registration and signals its support for continued use, including by dismissing research by international cancer experts on links between cancer and atrazine late last year.
Starlink Direct-to-Cell has launched in Africa. An engineer's look at what it really delivers, which phones work, and why it sends texts but not video. The idea sounds almost too convenient - You leave the city, driving way beyond the last reliable tower, and the same phone in your pocket still finds a network. That is the promise of Direct-to-Cell or D2C. And with the commercial launch of Starlink’s satellite-to-mobile service in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that promise has moved from demonstration to reality in Africa. Since then, almost every question everyone is asking is a version of the same one: is this the end of "no service"? Let’s put things in the right perspective, and I’ll do that by leading with the following numbers:
. With United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres set to leave his post at the end of this year, he used his final address to the UN General Assembly on Monday to share a familiar call: “Polluters must pay” for fueling the global climate emergency. Since the Portuguese politician began his first five-year term leading the world body nearly a decade ago, he has repeatedly called for international action to rapidly phase out the coal, gas, and oil that are heating up the planet. In late 2023, he emphasized that “the science is clear. The 1.5°C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate.”
The permitting process plays a central role in projects ranging from clean energy to data centers. No longer just a regulatory hurdle, it is often the main forum in which broader disputes over growth, resources, fairness, and community acceptance play out.
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The Trump administration continues to prioritize fossil fuel interests over environmental protection, announcing a new Big Oil-friendly policy for the Arctic. Just over a week after a leading US Senate Democrat described President Donald Trump’s relationship with fossil fuel giants as “old-fashioned corruption, by a thuggish government and a desperate industry,” his administration on Thursday announced yet another giveaway to climate polluters who want to exploit the Arctic. The US Department of the Interior is moving forward with a plan to allow oil and gas companies to conduct certain wintertime activities at the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska without reviews generally required by the National Environmental Policy Act—a landmark law long targeted by Trump’s Republican Party.
Between roughly 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago, the Mediterranean Sea was cut off from the Atlantic and lost most of its water to evaporation. The event is called the Messinian Salinity Crisis, and it left behind something hard to argue with: a layer of salt on the Mediterranean floor, in places up to three kilometres thick, amounting to close to a million cubic kilometres of evaporite. That salt is the physical record of a sea that was cut off, concentrated, and in places drawn down on a staggering scale. The end of the crisis is the part that draws the attention. When Atlantic water found its way back through the Strait of Gibraltar around 5.33 million years ago, one widely cited model suggests the basin refilled fast enough that sea level inside it rose by more than ten metres a day at the peak. That figure is a model result, not a measurement, and it is worth being clear about which parts of this story are solid and which are inference.
Three settlements in one week provide cold comfort for the future of food prices. And a verdict from on high: “Algorithms lack the spark of humanity.” The Seeds of Inflation One of the things we hear a lot about is high food prices to consumers. So one would think that farmers, who ostensibly receive these high prices as income, would be doing well. But they are not. Take Arkansas, where soybean farmers are shutting down under financial distress. Some is due to Chinese trade tensions, but there are other factors at work. Diesel, fertilizer, seed, and pesticide costs are all up. Soybean seed prices alone have nearly tripled in the past 20 years. In 2025, Arkansas soybean production generated a negative $85.02 return per acre. In 2025 alone, Arkansas saw 33 Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings, more than twice the number in 2024 and the highest of any state, although the crisis is also sweeping across the Mid-South and Midwest. Commodity prices aren’t keeping up with rising input costs, and while rice farmers are being hit even worse, for Arkansas farmers across the spectrum, it’s the last straw. What is bringing these rising prices to consumers, and yet lower prices paid to farmers? Monopoly power. Seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, tractors, and so forth are all locked down through a dense network of monopolistic contracts, market power, and intellectual property. The private jets and high corporate profits in gilded cities where agribusinesses typically locate provide stark contrast with escalating farm bankruptcies.
The government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires, it has been revealed. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them. This summer has been a potent reminder of the scale of the threat posed by the climate crisis, with the UK experiencing record-breaking wildfires after punishingly hot and dry weather turned large parts of the countryside into a tinderbox. In the third national climate adaptation programme, published in July 2023, the Conservative government, then headed by Rishi Sunak, said it would run a wildfire risk programme in England from 2023 to 2027 so land management would be adapted for the risk. However, it has now emerged the programme was never implemented, with the current government stating the commitment “was made by the previous government but was not brought into effect”.
Developing common AI safety standards does not, by itself, undermine competition. Policymakers should not force companies to choose between competing vigorously and working together to prevent serious safety risks. Antitrust law should allow both.
September 2026 - CAPE COD, MA - Based on a new poll taken this August, it seems that the biggest predictor of interest in the technology of electric vehicles might be the same factor behind most other technology shifts: generational cohort. What did the EV attitudes study find? That’s right. This study found that the biggest differential within the 1300 potential EV buyers it surveyed wasn’t geopolitical viewpoints or political party, but basic old-fashioned age and generation. Indeed, it found that millennials and Gen Z were far far more likely to make the leap, but Boomers … not so much. In fact, it recorded a 52% difference between the oldest and youngest cohorts. Even for technology that’s a lot!
EU's push for a safer internet for children must not come at the expense of the democratic scrutiny needed to get digital regulation right, writes Asha Allen.
This year’s State of the European Union address by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen drew a bated breath for many in the digital rights community, as we awaited the announcement of the EU Kids Act, new legislation aimed at creating a safer online environment for minors. The online space offers young people the chance for connection and exploration, but it also exposes them to significant risks of online harassment and discrimination, among other recognized harms. The proposal is a response to wide-reaching calls from Member States and the general public for more action to address these well-documented online harms, but the devil will be in the details. As a new addition to the EU's digital rulebook, the proposal also arrives amidst growing institutional pushback against, and in some cases dismantling of, fundamental rights protections in some of the EU’s defining digital rules.
A broadband firm has won a national award for its work connecting rural communities across Cumbria to high-speed internet. Viberoptix was named Infrastructure Builder of the Year at the Connected Britain Awards in London. The company has connected more than 146,000 homes and businesses to its full fibre network since expanding into the county in 2021. The award recognised the firm’s role in delivering the Government’s £150m Project Gigabit programme.
Tesla's Semi truck, with a 500-mile range, is about to hit the road in big numbers, with the company saying it plans to make 50,000 units a year. Tesla is finally handing over the first of its all-electric Semi trucks to customers after nearly a decade of delays and refinements to the vehicle, which it first revealed in 2017. Company executives — except CEO Elon Musk, who was at President Trump’s state dinner with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping — walked an audience of customers, employees, and influencers through many of the details at an event in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday night.
Europe’s AI construction capacity is becoming the bottleneck behind faster data-centre expansion across the continent today. Europe’s AI infrastructure debate increasingly centers on power, land, permitting and financing, but another constraint sits much closer to the ground: construction capacity. The continent can identify potential sites, secure capital and forecast rising compute demand, yet none of those steps creates the specialist workforce required to turn a site into operational capacity. Current market research indicates that European data-center construction already faces pressure from specialist labour shortages, particularly across highly serviced projects where mechanical, electrical and engineering capabilities matter most. The pressure becomes harder to absorb when several large facilities move from planning into construction during the same period.
This year's El Niño event is like no other, with temperatures rising at an alarming rate and experts predicting unprecedented heat extremes and extreme weather. Are we prepared for the catastrophic impacts of this "super El Niño"?
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