Seventy-six people were arrested for attending a birthday party for gay people in northern Nigeria, the country's paramilitary agency said on Monday, adding that the organiser had also planned to hold a same sex wedding, which is illegal.

There are the latest arrests targeting LGBTQ Nigerians after police in August raided a gay wedding in the southern city of Warri in Delta state, and arrested dozens of people. The accused are out on bail.

In Nigeria, like in most parts of Africa, homosexuality is generally viewed as unacceptable, and a 2014 anti-gay law took effect.

Buhari Saad, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) spokesperson for the largely Muslim Gombe state, said after receiving a tip off, the agency raided a party on Saturday night that was being attended by "homosexuals and pimps".

He said 59 men had been arrested, including 21 who confessed to being homosexual, and 17 women.

The Gombe NSCDC said in a statement that the organiser of the birthday party had also planned to wed another man, who was still at large, before police raided the event.

The anti-gay law in Africa's most populous nation includes a prison term of up to 14 years for those convicted, and bans gay marriage, same-sex relationships, and membership of gay rights groups.

The case is expected to be heard in the Gombe state High Court on Tuesday (today), Saad said.

Reuters

Hamas frees two Israeli women as US advises delaying ground war to allow talks on captives

Hamas on Monday released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza as the United States expressed increasing concern that the escalating Israel-Hamas war will spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.

The death toll in Gaza rose rapidly as Israel ramped up airstrikes that flattened buildings in what it said was preparation for an eventual ground assault. The United States advised Israel to delay the expected invasion to allow time to negotiate the release of more hostages taken by Hamas during its brutal incursion two weeks ago.

A third small aid convoy from Egypt entered Gaza, where the population of 2.3 million has been running out of food, water and medicine under Israel’s sealed border. With Israel still barring entry of fuel, the U.N. said its distribution of aid would grind to a halt within days when it can no longer fuel its trucks. Gaza hospitals flooded by a constant stream of wounded are struggling to keep generators running to power lifesaving medical equipment and incubators for premature babies.

The two freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances, according to footage shown on Egyptian TV. The two women, along with their husbands, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border during Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. Their husbands, ages 83 and 84, were not released.

“While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those — some 200 innocent people — who remain hostages in Gaza,” Lifshitz’ daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, said in a statement.

Lifschitz, an artist and academic in London who uses a different spelling for her name, told reporters last week that her parents were peace activists, and her father would drive to the Gaza border to take Palestinians to east Jerusalem for medical treatment.

Kindness, she said last week, could somehow save them.

“I grew up, you know, with all these Holocaust stories about how all my uncles’ lives were saved because” of acts of kindness, she said.

“Do I want that to be the story here?” she asked. “Yeah.”

Hamas apparently received nothing in exchange for the release of the two hostages, who were freed days after an American woman and her teenage daughter. Hamas and other militants in Gaza are believed to have taken roughly 220 people, including an unconfirmed number of foreigners and dual citizens.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation, including the targeting of U.S. forces deployed in the Mideast, if a ground offensive is launched in Gaza.

The U.S. has told Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon in recent days.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there has been an uptick in rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, and the U.S. was “deeply concerned about the possibility for any significant escalation” in the coming days.

He said U.S. officials were having “active conversations” with Israeli counterparts about the potential ramifications of escalated military action.

The U.S. advised Israeli officials that delaying a ground offensive would give Washington more time to work with regional mediators on the release of more hostages, according to a U.S. official.

Israeli tanks and ground forces have been massed at the Gaza border, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops there Monday to keep preparing for an offensive “because it will come.” He said it will be a combined offensive from air, land and sea, but he did not give a time frame.

A ground offensive is likely to dramatically increase casualties in what is already the deadliest by far of five wars fought between Israel and Hamas since the militant group took power in Gaza in 2007.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. At least 222 people were captured and dragged back to Gaza, including foreigners, the military said Monday, updating a previous figure.

More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday. That includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The toll has climbed rapidly in recent days, with the ministry reporting 436 additional deaths in just the last 24 hours.

Israel said it struck 320 militant targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours. The military says it does not target civilians, and that Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war.

Inside Gaza, the civilian death toll continued to mount.

Fifteen members of the same family were among at least 33 Palestinians buried Monday in a shallow, sandy mass grave at a Gaza hospital after being killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The bodies were laid to rest side by side in the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Men discussed where to fit the shrouded corpse of a small child. “Bring them all,” a gravedigger called out.

Israel carried out limited ground forays into Gaza. On Sunday, Hamas said it destroyed an Israeli tank and two armored bulldozers inside Gaza. The Israeli military said a soldier was killed and three others were wounded by an anti-tank missile during a raid inside Gaza.

On Monday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said 20 trucks entered Gaza carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only way into Gaza not controlled by Israel. It was the third delivery in as many days, each around the same size.

The aid coming in so far is “a drop in the ocean” compared with the needs of the population, said Thomas White, the Gaza director of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. The U.N. has said 20 trucks amounts to 4% of an average day’s imports before the war and that hundreds of trucks a day are needed.

White said the agency had only three days of fuel left for its trucks. The supplies coming through Rafah are reloaded onto UNRWA vehicles and the Red Crescent trucks to take to hospitals and U.N. schools in the south of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are taking shelter, running low on food and largely drinking contaminated water.

At least 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza have fled their homes, and nearly 580,000 of them are sheltering in U.N.-run schools and shelters, the U.N. said Monday.

No aid will be distributed in Gaza City and other parts of the north, where hundreds of thousands of people remain. Gaza City’s main al-Shifa Hospital, with a normal capacity of 700 patients, is currently overwhelmed with 5,000 patients, and around 45,000 displaced people are gathered in and around its grounds for shelter, the U.N. said.

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces apply pressure on Ukraine's Avdiivka, Kupiansk

Russian forces on Monday pressed their attacks on two frontline areas of eastern Ukraine, seeking to sever the sole supply route into the devastated city of Avdiivka and advance on the key town of Kupiansk farther north.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said its troops had repelled about 10 Russian attacks on Avdiivka. Vitaly Barabash, head of Avdiivka's military administration, said there were round-the-clocks strikes on Avdiivka's town centre and on the sole road used to bring in supplies.

"A very difficult situation with supplies, with 22 km (15 miles) of road constantly under fire, day and night," Barabash told U.S-funded Radio Liberty.

"This complicates evacuation and delivery of aid. The enemy is trying to cut it off. Any movement is a signal to open fire."

Barabash said roughly 1,600 residents remained in the town, down from a pre-war population of about 30,000. Most of those remaining had no wish to leave, he said.

Avdiivka has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance after months of attacks. It was briefly captured in 2014 by Russian-backed separatists who overran large stretches of territory in the east, and Ukrainian forces have erected solid fortifications in the intervening nine years.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid tribute to those defending the town in his nightly video message, saying: "Their resilience is the strength for all Ukraine now."

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, described conditions along the entire 1,000-km (600-mile) front as "challenging". He singled out Bakhmut, seized by Russia in May after months of battles, and Kupiansk, both northeast of Avdiivka, for facing the greatest difficulties.

"The enemy is sustaining significant losses, primarily in terms of personnel, but is constantly replenishing its forces by bringing in reserves, including from Russia," Syrskyi told the UNIAN news agency.

Local officials also said Russian forces had again shelled areas in the southern Kherson region that are under Kyiv's control. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for more than 800 children, they said.

Russia has focused on gaining control of the eastern Donbas region, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk cities and surrounding areas, since failing to move on Kyiv in the early days of its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow calls the war in Ukraine a "special military operation".

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June this year in both the east and south, making much slower progress however than a lightning advance through the northeast a year ago.

Russian accounts of the fighting on Monday made no mention of Avdiivka for the third straight day. It said Russian forces had repelled three attacks outside Kupiansk and a further 10 near Bakhmut.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battle reports from either side.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky orders Ukrainian army to advance ‘500 meters a day’

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has given his military a tall order, demanding that they take at least 500 meters of territory every day after suffering tens of thousands of casualties in their floundering counteroffensive against Russian forces.

“Ukraine needs results every day,” Zelensky said in his evening video address on Sunday. “We need to resist the Russian assaults, kill the occupiers and move forward. We must advance by at least a kilometer, at least 500 meters, every day. We must keep moving forward in order to improve the Ukrainian positions and put pressure on the occupiers.”

Such progress is needed to strengthen Ukraine and motivate foreign allies to provide more military support, Zelensky said, adding that next week “will bring more opportunities for Ukraine.”

Zelensky made his comments at a time when Russian forces are advancing around the town of Avdeevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Kupyansk, in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that Ukrainian forces had suffered more than 90,000 casualties in their counteroffensive, which began in early June, describing it as “failed.” Meanwhile, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted in an interview that the operation isn’t so much “behind schedule”as off the schedule entirely.

Kiev also faces a potential competition for Western support and attention after surprise attacks by Hamas ignited a new war in Israel earlier this month. Even before the latest Israel-Hamas conflict began, President Joe Biden’s administration was struggling to win approval from US lawmakers for additional military and economic aid to Ukraine.

Reuters/RT

Members of Gen Z — or those born between 1997 and 2012 — are eager to climb the corporate ladder. A majority, 70% say they’re looking to reach the C-suite, according to a September 2023 Adobe survey of 1,011 members of the generation.

Whether you’re part of Gen Z or not, there are all sorts of ways to reach the heights of leadership. If you ask Ryan Simonetti, CEO of hospitality company Convene, which has raised more than $280 million in funding, it’s about taking on projects beyond the scope of your role — especially when your company is in a bind.

When an opportunity to take on new and pressing work arises, “put your hand up,” he says.

‘There’s never enough people to do the jobs’

When it comes to organizations that are constantly growing, like startups, “there’s never enough people to do the jobs,” says Simonetti, who spoke to CNBC Make It at the Fast Company Innovation Festival. But “if you put your hand up and take an initiative, take a stretch project,” he says, you’re helping the organization solve problems in real time. That’s exactly what it needs from its workforce.

Not only does volunteering in such a way offer critical help, it gives you an opportunity to learn and accrue more skills. The people who’ve raised their hands at Convene have consistently continued learning, says Simonetti, “and that’s created opportunities for them professionally.”

It’s that “I want to learn, I’m curious, and I’m willing to do the work attitude” that “has paid real dividends” for people at his company, says Simonetti. Especially for young people.

‘There’s two parts of being a leader’

There’s another component to taking on more responsibility that helps you climb that corporate ladder: It proves you’re a dedicated teammate.

“There’s two parts of being a leader,” says Djenaba Parker, general counsel and chief people officer at Goop. “It’s being a good leader and being a good teammate.” Good teammates look at their organization’s needs and just “do more,” she says. They see where critical gaps need to be filled and help fill them. This takes work off of their colleagues’ plates and helps everyone move forward together.

When you raise your hand “with collaboration and with intention, you really garner the respect of people around you,” she says. Including by the higher ups making hiring and promotion decisions.

CNBC

Nigeria on Monday won its bid to overturn an $11 billion damages bill for a collapsed gas processing project it said was procured by a concerted campaign of bribery.

The West African country was on the hook for the sum – representing around a third of its foreign exchange reserves – after a little-known British Virgin Islands-based company took Nigeria to arbitration over the deal.

Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) was awarded a 20-year contract in 2010, to construct and operate a gas processing plant in southern Nigeria, as part of a wider plan to exploit Nigeria's abundant reserves of gas.

After the deal collapsed, P&ID took Nigeria to arbitration in London and in 2017 was awarded $6.6 billion for lost profits – a sum which has swelled with interest to over $11 billion, representing ten times the country's 2019 health budget.

However, Nigeria's lawyers say the country was the victim of "a campaign of bribery and deception" by P&ID, which they say paid bribes to senior officials to obtain the contract and then corrupted the country's lawyers to obtain confidential documents during the arbitration.

P&ID denied that it procured the contract through bribery or that it corrupted Nigeria's legal team during the arbitration, blaming the failure of the gas deal and the country's arbitration defeat on institutional incompetence.

Judge Robin Knowles allowed Nigeria's challenge in a written ruling on Monday.

"I have not accepted all of Nigeria's allegations," the judge said in his ruling.

But he added that the arbitration awards "were obtained by fraud and the awards were, and the way in which they were procured was, contrary to public policy".

Reuters

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has urged the Supreme Court to admit fresh documents against President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking at the court on Monday, his lead counsel, Chris Uche, described the matter as a grave and constitutional matter.

He urged the court to adopt the application and grant their request.

Presenting his argument, he said, “The issue involving Tinubu’s certificate is a weighty, grave, and constitutional one, which the Supreme Court should admit. I urge the court to admit the fresh evidence of President Tinubu’s academic records from CSU presented by Atiku.

The Supreme Court must take a look at Tinubu’s records and reach a decision devoid of technicality.

INEC lawyer, Abubakar Mahmoud, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s application seeking to present Tinubu’s academic records.

Tinubu’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun, argued that INEC should have been a party at the deposition proceedings in the US, noting that the CSU depositions are dormant until the deponent comes to court and testify.

He told the court that Atiku cannot seek fresh evidence at the Supreme Court.

In a related development, the Supreme Court reserved judgment on Peter Obi’s appeal seeking to invalidate Tinubu’s  election.

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court headed by John Okoro made the announcement after taking arguments from lawyers to the parties on Monday.

“This appeal is reserved for judgment until a date to be communicated to parties,” Okoro said.

During the hearing, Obi’s lead lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, urged the court to allow his client’s appeal.

He prayed the court to set aside the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja which affirmed Tinubu’s election on 6 September.

However, Tinubu’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, argued that Obi’s suit lacked merit.

Olanipekun urged the court to dismiss the appeal.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) through its lawyer, Akin Olujinmi, asked the court to uphold the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court affirming Tinubu’s election.

Inyang Okoro is the leader of the panel of seven justices, which include Helen Ogunwumiju, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Tijani Abubakar, Emmanuel Agim and Lawal Garba.

Punch/Vanguard/PT

The Supreme Court, on Monday, dismissed the appeal filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) challenging the Presidential Election Petition Court’s judgement affirming President Bola Tinubu’s victory.

“This appeal having been withdrawn without objection (from the respondents) is hereby dismissed,” Okoro said.

The APM appeal challenged the eligibility of President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. The contention was based on an allegation of Shettima’s double nomination as a vice presidential candidate and senatorial candidate in the same election cycle.

But the Supreme Court had in May decided a similar case filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against Tinubu and Shettima.

Okoro had led the court’s panel that dismissed the appeal filed by the PDP, holding that the PDP had no right to challenge the internal qualification of candidates of another political party.

The Supreme Court further held that Shettima properly relinquished his nomination for Borno South Senatorial District ticket before becoming Tinubu’s running mate at the 25 February presidential election.

The Supreme Court panel on Monday drew the APM’s lawyer’s attention to the earlier judgement, and discouraged him from continuing to pursue the appeal on that basis.

After a period of conversation between the lawyer and the bench, the lawyer decided to withdraw the case.

PT

The number of Nigeria’s Supreme Court justices is about to drop to 10, widely coming short of the court’s statutory full complement of 21 justices.

The number, currently 11, will drop to 10 as another justice of the court retires on 27 October.

Within the space of three years, the number of judges on the court’s bench plummeted from 20 to 14 in June 2022, when then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, abruptly resigned.

Since then, the number has further spiralled down to 10, as Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who joined the bench of the Supreme Court over a decade ago, retires on 27 October.

He is the second most senior judge on the court’s bench.

The jurist’s retirement will bring the number of justices of the court to an all-time low of 10 in the Supreme Court’s recent history.

A statement by the Supreme Court’s Director of Press and Information, Festus Akande, on Sunday, said Muhammad clocks the mandatory retirement age of 70 on 27 October.

It also said a valedictory court session to mark Muhammad’s exit from the bench would be held on Friday, 27 October.

“With the retirement of Muhammad, the Supreme Court of Nigeria is now left with 10 Justices,” the statement read.

PT

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a customs house in Geidam town, Geidam LGA, Yobe State, killing one officer, identified as Usman Gombe.

The insurgents stormed the customs house along Maine Soroa road in a Volkswagen Golf and a Land Rover around 10pm on Saturday and started shooting.

“They struck when they were sure the customs officers had retired home. Panicked by the rain of bullets, the officers scampered for safety, some escaped through the gate, while others scaled the fence.

“Unfortunately, one of the officers, Usman Gombe, was shot dead while attempting to climb the fence,” a security source told our correspondent.

He said the assailants also burnt down the customs patrol van, a generator, and part of the customs house building.

“This is the second time Boko Haram insurgents killed customs officers. Last month, an officer Babalola, and his junior officer, were abducted and later killed by the insurgents,” he said.

Residents of the town told our correspondent that the activities of Boko Haram insurgents on the outskirts of Geidam had increased in recent days.

“They collect taxes from farmers and herdsmen a few kilometers from the town and nobody is doing anything.

“Instead, the security operatives have relocated over 17 checkpoints into the town where they also taxed traders that brought goods through the same route. We are in difficult condition in this town,” one of the traders alleged.

Daily Trust

Israel strikes Gaza, Lebanon overnight; Netanyahu convenes meeting of generals

Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early on Monday and its aircraft struck southern Lebanon overnight, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his top generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.

Israel's attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip's centre and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.

Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel's two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.

Palestinian Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed in a call late on Sunday the means of stopping Israel's "brutal crimes" in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.

Israel has amassed tanks and troops near the fenced border around Gaza for a planned ground invasion aiming to annihilate Hamas.

Fears that the Israel-Hamas war could mushroom into a wider Middle East conflict rose over the weekend with Washington warning of a significant risk to U.S. interests in the region and announcing a new deployment of advanced air defenses.

The Pentagon has already dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 Marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.

"What we're seeing ... is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday.

China's Middle East special envoy Zhai Jun, who is visiting the region, warned that the risk of a large-scale ground conflict was rising and that spillover conflicts in the region were "worrisome", Chinese state media said on Monday.

Iranian security officials told Reuters Iran's strategy was for Middle East proxies like Hezbollah to pursue limited strikes on Israeli and U.S. targets but to avoid a major escalation that would draw in Tehran, a high-wire act for the Islamic Republic.

In neighbouring Syria, where Hamas' main regional backer Iran has a military presence, Israeli missiles hit Damascus and Aleppo international airports early on Sunday, putting both out of service and killing two workers, Syrian state media said.

Along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has clashed with Israeli forces in support of Hamas in the deadliest escalation of frontier violence since an Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Early on Monday, Israeli aircraft struck two Hezbollah cells in Lebanon that were planning to launch anti-tank missiles and rockets toward Israel, its military said. Israel's military also said it struck other Hezbollah targets, including a compound and an observation post.

Hezbollah said on Monday that one of its fighters was killed, without providing details.

With violence around its heavily guarded borders increasing, Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close to Lebanon and Syria to its evacuation contingency plan in the north of the country.

MORE AID ARRIVES IN GAZA

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the international community to create "a united front" to stop Israel's attacks in Gaza and allow desperately needed aid which has only begun to trickle in.

A second convoy of 14 aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday night, and U.S. President Joe Biden and Netanyahu affirmed in a call "there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza," the White House said.

The U.N. humanitarian office said the volume of aid entering so far was just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities and a fraction of what was needed with food, water, medicines and fuel stocks running out.

Biden also ramped up his diplomacy, convening calls on Sunday with Netanyahu and Pope Francis and speaking with the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Britain about getting aid into Gaza and preventing the conflict from spreading.

In a joint statement, the leaders voiced support for Israel's right to defend itself. They also called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.

Netanyahu also held a phone call with the leaders of France, Spain and the Netherlands late on Sunday, the Israeli leader's office said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit Israel on Monday and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Tuesday.

Reuters