WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin conscripts 160K men as Russia eyes Ukraine offensive

Russia has initiated its largest military draft in 14 years as reports indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing a spring assault on Ukraine despite ongoing peace negotiations to end the three-year war. 

Putin has called up 160,000 men as part of the country’s bi-annual conscription drive as Russia seeks to beef up its military ranks.

According to the legislation, citizens aged 18 to 30 will be called up for mandatory military service through June 15. The spring draft marks the largest conscription campaign since spring 2011, when 200,000 men were called up for service. Last year, 150,000 men were called, following 134,500 in 2022.

The Kremlin and Defense Ministry insist the latest conscripts are not being sent into combat and that the draft is unrelated to the war in Ukraine. Russian authorities say troops deployed to Ukraine only include volunteers who signed contracts with the military.

Some draftees, however, fought and were taken prisoners when the Ukrainian military launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August.

Putin said late last year that Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

It comes as a report suggests the Kremlin is preparing a six- to nine-month offensive across the Ukrainian front, potentially stretching over 1,000 kilometers, according to The New Voice of Ukraine. Potential targets include Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya oblasts, as well as the Kursk Oblast, where they’ve seen recent success.

The offensive is also aimed at maximizing pressure on Ukraine and strengthening the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts said.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led talks attempting to broker a ceasefire deal appear to have stalled. The U.S. has struggled in its efforts to secure an immediate 30-day ceasefire, despite Moscow saying it agreed with a truce "in principle." 

Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer who specializes in Russia’s war-fighting strategy and Putin’s thinking, told Fox News Digital that Putin’s goal with his conscription drive is to prolong the fighting.

"There’s no ceasefire and no peace plan between Russia and Ukraine to be had," said Koffler, the author of a best-selling book "Putin’s Playbook." "What President Trump seeks is regretfully, unachievable. Putin's goal is to keep fighting, in order to compel Ukraine to capitulate."

Trump is trying to secure a peace and rare earth minerals deal, while on Sunday the president said he did not think Putin was going to go back on his word for a partial ceasefire.

Koffler, meanwhile, said the latest conscription numbers are intended to ensure that the correlation of forces on the battlefield and in reserves, continues to favor Russia. 

"Now that Germany and France are considering to deploy reassurance forces into Ukraine, Putin is factoring in those numbers, so he is increasing his force's posture, to deter such a deployment or failing to prevent it by force."

"Putin has prepared Russia for a long, protracted conflict, in which he wants the Russian forces to be ready to fight till the last Ukrainian and the last missile in the NATO arsenal," Koffler said.

She said Putin is also considering the possibility of having a direct kinetic war with NATO, in the event that NATO decides to deploy forces into the theater in Ukraine. 

"So, he intends for these mobilization numbers as a deterrence value and battlefield utility, if it comes to that."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine continuing attacks on Russian energy facilities – MOD

The Ukrainian military has launched new attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, despite claiming it complies with a US-brokered truce on such strikes, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

Two incidents have been registered in Russia’s Kursk Region, where Ukrainian drones targeted a substation and damaged a power line in the area, the military said. The attacks inflicted material damage and cut some 1,500 customers off the grid, it added.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are systematically launching strikes with drones and artillery systems on Russian energy infrastructure against the backdrop of statements by various representatives of the Kiev regime, starting with [Vladimir] Zelensky, about compliance with restrictions on strikes on Russian energy facilities,” the ministry said.

Later in the day, Luganskgaz, an energy company operating in Russia’s Lugansk People's Republic, reported a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its facilities. The attack hit a gas distribution station, sparked a fire and disrupted supply to more than 11,000 customers, the company said in a statement. Gas supply has already been partially restored after the attack, it added.

Ukraine violates the US-brokered energy truce on a daily basis, the ministry claimed.

The partial ceasefire was proposed by US President Donald Trump during a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in March. The Russian leader accepted the proposal, immediately ordering the country’s troops to halt such attacks. At the time, the Russian military said it had to shoot down seven of its own kamikaze drones that were en route to Ukraine’s energy facilities when the order was issued.

Last week, Moscow revealed a comprehensive list of energy facilities subject to the 30-day truce. The agreement could be prolonged, Russia has noted, adding that if either party violates the deal, the other can consider itself free from any obligations.

Zelensky publicly backed the idea of the truce shortly after it was first announced, appearing to reiterate his commitment to the deal last week. However, the Ukrainian leader never publicly mentioned any specific orders to the country’s military despite hailing the truce as a purported “victory”for Kiev.

Reuters/RT

Years ago, I had an unforgettable experience of nearly witnessing a lynching at Iwo Road in Ibadan. It was a typical day, and while standing at a bus stop, a woman two paces away suddenly shouted that her purse had been snatched. She held the clothes of the man standing beside her. Before you knew it, the place had transformed. A crowd quickly gathered around, many of them young men who seemed to have magically sprouted from thin air. From ordinary guys going about their lives, they instantly transmuted into the judiciary and were ready to execute a self-designated mandate. They stripped the accused, kicked him, beat him, and demanded he return the purse.

Perhaps the most amazing transformation for me was a man who had stood beside me at the bus stop. While I was still puzzled at the events unfolding around me, this guy had found a huge stone and was yelling at the crowd to clear a path for him—he was going to smash the skull of the accused! Fortunately, the accused man managed to escape while those who had arrested him were still deciding on how to lynch him. I do not know if he was guilty of stealing the purse or not, but I am thankful that he did not die that day.

Every time I have told this story to friends, I have also wondered how and when that man transmuted from just another person at the bus stop to a potential killer. Was that even a real human man or a gnarled monster walking around at noonday like some mythological fables report? Imagine a man ready to commit murder, maybe just an hour after leaving his home in the morning. If he had managed to participate in killing that man, would he still have proceeded through the rest of his day like nothing had happened? Would he have gone back home to his family at night (if he had one) and continued life like he had not just killed a man?

Since the news emerged about how a vigilante group in Uromi, Edo State, lynched 16 hunters after tagging them kidnappers, I have returned to that incident to once again ask how men become the monsters who set up bonfires to burn their fellow humans. What (and when) is the moment of their transfiguration? It is when a situation like the Uromi incident occurs that we realise that there are many subhuman mongrels among us, some of them able to transfigure into monsters who can lynch a person in an instant. They lynched not one, not two, not three, not even four humans!

One must wonder about the kind of people who would keep throwing one person after the other into the fire (while some equally depraved people thought it was worth recording the pain and agony of the victims on their camera for later distribution). If there was no moment at which any internally controlling ethical code restrained them, then it is also probably not the first time they have lynched people. Those vigilantes must have played at being the law for so long that they started imagining themselves to be truly one. This unfortunate incident is one of the many fallouts of the state recession in the public sphere. When you have a country where security can no longer be guaranteed by the state, all sorts of maniacs will step in to fill the void.

This distressing incident has also thrown up the fault lines of ethnicity and religion between the northern and southern regions of the country. One only needs to read Nigerians from the two divided halves of the country as they bicker over the deaths to see how they are gauging their respective regional civilisation from the responses to the distressing event. It seems to me that northerners see the Uromi incident as an opportunity to take down the smug superiority of snobbish southerners who have typically imagined themselves to be socially superior. Now that the so-called civilised South has displayed a similar primitive behaviour that, if it had happened in the North, would have been filed as one more example of their cultural backwardness, they are practically celebrating their vindication along with mourning the demise of the victims.

For the southern commenters, the incident is not only distressing but also embarrassing as they must justify themselves before people who never apologise for the lynching that happened in their territory. And they are right because the Uromi incident is similar to that of Deborah Samuel, the Christian student who was lynched in 2023 by some religious fundamentalists who admitted their crime on video. Unlike this ongoing case, where the southerners are condemning the lynching and calling for justice, I do not remember the northerners doing the same. Many northerners, including their prominent clerics, justified the killing of Samuel. A presidential candidate who dared to condemn the murder had to withdraw his statement when they threatened his presidential ambition! The Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, is running all over the place and promising the family of the victims compensation, something that is unlikely to happen if the situation were reversed.

The court freed Samuel’s killers, and that woman did not get justice. Nobody in the government dared to touch them because of politics. In the wake of the Uromi incident, some of them are still doubling down on their justification for lynching that woman. If they cannot see her humanity, then on what moral grounds do they stand to demand justice for the Uromi victims? Yet, not wanting to be outdone, they bring up the case of Adamawa woman Harira Jubril, the pregnant woman who was killed along with her children in Anambra State by some unidentified gunmen. It is bad enough that she, too, never got justice; it is also horrible that her story is cheaply weaponised by those who merely want to score political points against a rival group.

Still convinced they are the bigger victims, the southerners start to reel out the many cases of Fulani herdsmen attacks on villages, farmlands, and their communities. They list the deaths and the destruction caused by Fulani herdsmen who have been rampaging through communities in Nigeria, mostly unchecked. This self-justification by matching northern stories of injustice with southern stories of injustice eventually spirals into an endless loop of barbarism, bloodletting, and unleashed monstrosity.

In trading stories of injustice for injustice, these people also catalogue the injustice the nation has committed against our collective humanity. Notwithstanding their motivations, their exchanges are an indictment of a nation that cheaply discounts our lives, and—by failing to pursue the outstanding debts owed to our murdered compatriots—serially indicates that we are simply not worth the trouble of the pursuit of justice. In fact, one can say the reason the Federal Government swooped into action in the case of Uromi is the fear of reprisals by irate northerners, and not because they deemed the lives of those 16 hunters worthy enough to merit justice.

What is saddest about these fiery exchanges is that the compiled evidence is being misdirected and misused by people wanting to balance out tribal wrongs rather than indict the real culprit: Nigeria, a country that has failed to establish a standard of righteousness, of justice, of truth, of integrity, and the ascriptions of full value to our lives. Consequently, we have too many among us who have been driven over the edge, deeply traumatised by the harassments of our Nigerian lives, but have not yet found the mouth with which to tell the story. They think they are normal because they can still type coherent sentences on social media, but the truth is that they are bleeding internally from the wounds of our national existence.

Punch

Can anyone actually afford to live in the UK anymore? That’s the burning question posed by social media influencer Prudishfish in a now-viral video that has set off a storm of discussions about the country's economic future. Her blunt advice to young people—"If you're under 40, leave the UK"—has struck a chord with thousands, igniting debates on social media about rising costs, declining quality of life, and an exodus of the wealthy.

Millionaires Are Leaving—Should You?

In the video, Prudishfish highlights a troubling trend: a staggering 10,800 millionaires left the UK in 2024 alone, making it the second-highest wealth outflow in the world, just behind China. That’s more than double the previous year’s numbers—roughly one millionaire packing their bags every 45 minutes.

This isn’t just a niche issue affecting the ultra-rich. The exodus translates to a significant loss of taxpayers, with one millionaire’s tax contribution reportedly equal to that of 49 average taxpayers. The departure of the wealthy has sparked concerns about economic stability, public funding, and the government's ability to sustain social services.

According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024, Britain is on track to lose 17% of its millionaires by 2028, marking the largest decline among 36 countries analyzed. With real estate included in the equation, the UK could see more than half a million high-net-worth individuals relocating in just five years.

Social Media Backs the Bold Statement

While Prudishfish’s advice may sound extreme, social media users seem to agree. The video has racked up nearly a million views, with commenters sharing their own experiences of feeling financially squeezed in the UK.

"Blame this government and the previous one; they destroyed the UK," one frustrated user wrote.

"I left in 2016. Switzerland is awesome, and I'm on track to be a millionaire in a year or so," boasted another.

A third user, who had spent 17 years in the UK, explained why they were packing up for Australia: "Everything now costs more for nothing amazing. We stopped eating out because pub food is overpriced and terrible. Train travel? A joke—nearly £300 for a return ticket from Oxford to Cornwall. In Australia, you can travel four hours by train for around £5."

A Symptom of a Bigger Problem?

The UK’s economic challenges have been making headlines for years, from skyrocketing rent and home prices to rising taxes and stagnant wages. But the mass exodus of the wealthy, combined with a growing number of disillusioned young professionals considering a move abroad, signals a deeper crisis.

The government’s recent move to end the resident non-domicile taxsystem, which allowed foreign-born residents to avoid paying UK taxes on overseas income, has been cited as a major factor behind the millionaire migration. However, many argue that it's not just the ultra-rich who are feeling the squeeze—middle-class professionals and young workers are also struggling to see a viable future in Britain.

Prudishfish’s video may have started as a thought-provoking take on the numbers, but it has turned into something much bigger—a wake-up call for those who feel trapped in an economy that no longer works for them.

For some, leaving may be the best option. But for others, the real question remains: Is the UK doing enough to keep its talent and wealth from slipping away?

Economic Times

President Bola Tinubu has dissolved the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, removing Group CEO Mele Kyari and Chairman Pius Akinyelure alongside all other directors appointed in November 2023.

A new 11-member board was announced early Wednesday, with Bashir Bayo Ojulari taking over as Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as the new non-executive chairman. The changes, effective immediately, come as part of Tinubu’s push to “enhance efficiency, attract investment, and drive gas commercialisation”.

New Board Composition

The reshuffle introduces fresh faces, including:

- Adedapo Segun (Chief Financial Officer, retained from previous board)

- Bello Rabiu (North West),

• Yusuf Usman (North East),
• Babs Omotowa (North Central)

- Austin Avuru (South-South) -David Ige (South West)

-Henry Obih (South East)

- Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya (Federal Ministry of Finance)

- Aminu Said Ahmed (Ministry of Petroleum Resources)

Immediate Mandate: Strategic Review & Value Maximisation

Invoking his powers under the Petroleum Industry Act (2021), Tinubu directed the new board to conduct an urgent review of NNPC’s assets and joint ventures to ensure optimal performance and profitability.

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, who announced the changes via X, stated that the overhaul aims to restore investor confidence, boost local content, and accelerate Nigeria’s energy transition."

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally declared war on Ponzi schemes, with a new law empowering it to jail fraudsters for up to 10 years and slam them with a N40 million fine—a move that could have saved millions of Nigerians from infamous scams like MMM, MBA Forex, and Loom Money Nigeria if enacted earlier.

SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama announced the crackdown during an interview on Arise TV, revealing that the newly signed Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 now gives the Commission the legal teeth to pursue and punish Ponzi operators, something it previously struggled with.

"With the new law, they now face a 10-year jail term and beyond," Agama declared, adding that the N40 million penalty is just the starting point.

"We will ensure every illegal profit is disgorged—fraudsters will not only be jailed but also forced to return their victims' money."

A Lesson from Nigeria’s Ponzi Graveyard

The timing couldn’t be more critical. Nigeria has long been a hunting ground for Ponzi schemes, with infamous collapses like:

- MMM Nigeria (2016): The Russian-originated scam collapsed, wiping out billions from hopeful investors.    

- Loom Money Nigeria (2017): A pyramid scheme that lured Nigerians with a "pay-to-join" model before crashing.

- MBA Forex (2020): Promised unrealistic forex returns before vanishing with depositors’ funds.

Many of these fraudsters operated with impunity, exploiting weak regulations and desperate investors. Now, the SEC says the new law will ensure that future Ponzi kingpins face harsh penalties and asset seizures.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reported that Nigeria's net foreign exchange reserves (NFER) reached $23.11 billion in 2024, marking the highest level in three years. This represents a substantial increase from $3.99 billion recorded at the end of 2023, $8.19 billion in 2022, and $14.59 billion in 2021.

Net foreign exchange reserves, which adjust gross reserves to account for near-term liabilities such as FX swaps and forward contracts, are considered a more accurate indicator of the country's ability to meet immediate external obligations.

Additionally, Nigeria's gross external reserves rose to $40.19 billion at the end of 2024, up from $33.22 billion at the end of 2023.

CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso attributed this growth to deliberate policy choices aimed at stabilizing the economy. "This improvement in our net reserves is not accidental; it is the outcome of deliberate policy choices aimed at rebuilding confidence, reducing vulnerabilities, and laying the foundation for long-term stability," Cardoso stated.

The CBN identified several key factors driving this improvement:

- Strategic reduction in short-term FX liabilities, particularly swaps and forward obligations

- Policy reforms that restored confidence in the FX market

- Increased foreign exchange inflows, especially from non-oil sources

While the bank noted that reserves have continued to strengthen in 2025, the first quarter figures reflected some seasonal and transitional adjustments, including significant interest payments on foreign-denominated debt.

In a spectacular display of defiance, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan turned the Kogi State Government and the Nigerian Police into laughingstocks as she bypassed their roadblocks and curfews by dropping in—literally—via helicopter to a rapturous welcome from her supporters.

Despite desperate attempts to stop her homecoming rally—including a "security" ban on gatherings, a sudden Okehi LGA curfew, and police warnings—Natasha simply took to the skies, leaving the flustered state authorities scrambling. As government officials presumably stood guard at empty checkpoints, she descended in a white helicopter, sending her ecstatic constituents into a frenzy.

"Nobody and nothing can stop me from coming home. I’m an Ebira person; this is my land," she declared in Ebira, mocking the failed blockade. "I’m the daughter of the late Jimoh Abdul Akpoti. I know my roots; I’m not a bastard, and I’m not afraid of anybody."

The state government, led by Governor Usman Ododo and his predecessor Yahaya Bello, had thrown everything at stopping her—public rally bans, phantom "security concerns," even a shameless police advisory urging her to cancel her Sallah celebration.

But Natasha, ever the strategist, reframed the event as a simple festive gathering, leaving the government looking both tyrannical and incompetent.

"Yesterday, we heard rallies were banned, roads would be blocked, convoys stopped," she taunted. "But this isn’t politics—it’s Sallah! Since when did celebrating with my people become a crime?"

Her triumphant return comes amid a broader political witch hunt, including a dubious six-month Senate suspension (orchestrated by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, whom she has accused of sexual harassment) and a manufactured "recall" effort.

Yet, as the state’s heavy-handed tactics backfired spectacularly, one thing became clear: Natasha doesn’t just play the game—she rewrites the rules.

While Kogi’s rulers and the Police fumed on the ground, Natasha soared above them—both literally and politically!

Israel says plenty of food in Gaza, UN says that's ridiculous

The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries in the enclave supported by the World Food Programme.

No aid has been delivered to the Palestinian enclave since March 2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said it would not allow the entry of all goods and supplies into Gaza until Hamas releases all remaining hostages.

Then later in March Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the enclave.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid deliveries, said on Tuesday that during the truce some 25,200 trucks entered Gaza, carrying almost 450,000 tons of aid.

"That's nearly a third of the total trucks that entered Gaza during the entire war, in just over a month," COGAT said in a post on X. "There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it."

When asked about the statement, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: "As far as the UN is concerned, that's ridiculous ... we are at the tail end of our supplies."

"You know, WFP doesn't close its bakeries for fun. If there's no flour, if there's no cooking gas, the bakeries cannot open," Dujarric added.

AID DIVERTED?

Before the two month ceasefire, global food security experts warned in November that there was a "strong likelihood that famine is imminentin areas" of northern Gaza.

Throughout the war, the U.N. has described its humanitarian operation in Gaza as opportunistic - facing problems with Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza and looting by armed gangs.

"The UN aid was less than 30% of the total amount of aid that entered. Meaning, when the UN say they have 2 weeks worth of aid left in Gaza, there are plenty of other aid organizations and other actors with food aid," COGAT said.

COGAT said it continues to monitor and assess the humanitarian situation in Gaza in coordination with the international community. It also said much of the aid delivered to Gaza during the ceasefire had been diverted.

"The U.N. has kept a chain of custody and a very good chain of custody on all the aid it's delivered," Dujarric said.

Hamas said Gaza has reached a "famine phase," describing it as "one of the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history." It said it held Israel full responsibility for the "catastrophic human consequences increasing by the hour."

The war in Gaza was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says it cannot accept U.S. proposals on Ukraine 'in current form'

Russia cannot accept U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine in their current form because they do not address problems Moscow regards as having caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting U.S.-Russia talks on the subject had stalled.

The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest Moscow and Washington have so far been unable to bridge differences which President Vladimir Putin raised more than two weeks ago when he said U.S. proposals needed reworking.

They come as U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with what he has suggested might be foot-dragging over a wider deal by Moscow.

Trump in recent days has said he is "pissed off" with Putin and has spoken of imposing sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking a deal.

Ryabkov, a specialist in U.S.-Russia relations, said Moscow was not yet able to move forward with a deal however.

"We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can't accept it all in its current form," Ryabkov was quoted by state media as telling the Russian magazine "International Affairs" in an interview released on Tuesday.

"As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome."

Putin has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited. Kyiv says those demands are tantamount to demanding its capitulation.

'VERY COMPLEX'

Asked about Trump's latest remarks about wanting Putin to do a deal on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Tuesday that Moscow was "continuing our contacts with the American side".

"The subject is very complex. The substance that we are discussing, related to the Ukrainian settlement, is very complex. This requires a lot of extra effort."

Russia also said on Tuesday it was fully complying with a U.S.-brokered moratorium on attacking Ukraine's energy facilities.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state TV that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had briefed Putin on alleged Ukrainian violations during a meeting of Russia's Security Council on Tuesday. Russia passed a list of the violations to U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lavrov said.

Before the weekend, Trump had taken a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that has unnerved the United States' European allies as he tries to broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

But in recent days, and amid lobbying by Europeans such as Finland's president urging him to hold Russia to account, he has adopted a tougher tone.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘Progress’ emerging in US talks – Lavrov

Moscow and Washington are making progress in removing obstacles in diplomatic relations and plan to meet for the next round of talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Speaking to journalists, Lavrov noted that both presidents had approved the continuation of negotiations.

“There was a meeting in Istanbul, and a second round is being prepared,” Lavrov said, noting that the sides are “in contact by phone and video conference.”

Lavrov said he did not want to make predictions, but cited “some progress and a willingness on the part of our American partners to lift these completely unacceptable obstacles to the normal work of diplomats in both capitals.”

Russia and the US have imposed various restrictions on each other in recent years, including limiting the number of diplomatic personnel, constraining banking access, and seizing diplomatic properties.

A major flashpoint came in late 2016, when the administration of then-President Barack Obama restricted Russian diplomats’ access to residences in New York and Maryland and later seized additional Russian properties.

Relations deteriorated further under former President Joe Biden, with heightened tensions over the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, prompting further diplomatic and economic restrictions. These included the suspension of flights and closure of US airspace to Russian carriers in coordination with Washington’s Western allies.

Lavrov insisted that Moscow was not the one that initiated such measures, saying Russia responded “according to the principle of reciprocity, which no one has abolished” in diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump has moved away from many Biden-era policies, calling for a swift resolution to the Ukraine conflict and a reset in bilateral ties.

The two countries have held several rounds of high-level talks since Trump took office in January. A meeting in Riyadh on February 18 focused on restoring embassy operations and easing restrictions. The follow-up round in Istanbul on February 27, addressed diplomatic funding and Russia’s proposal to reinstate direct flights between the two countries.

Last week, expert delegations from both sides met again in Saudi Arabia, where, after 12 hours of negotiations, they agreed to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Following the talks, Trump signaled Washington could consider lifting certain sanctions to advance the deal, which is seen as a step toward resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Reuters/RT

Smokers are being urged to kick the habit for 2025 after a fresh assessment of the harms of cigarettes found they shorten life expectancy even more than doctors thought.

Researchers at University College London found that on average a single cigarette takes about 20 minutes off a person’s life, meaning that a typical pack of 20 cigarettes can shorten a person’s life by nearly seven hours.

According to the analysis, if a smoker on 10 cigarettes a day quits on 1 January, they could prevent the loss of a full day of life by 8 January. They could boost their life expectancy by a week if they quit until 5 February and a whole month if they stop until 5 August. By the end of the year, they could have avoided losing 50 days of life, the assessment found.

“People generally know that smoking is harmful but tend to underestimate just how much,” said Dr Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow at UCL’s alcohol and tobacco research group. “On average, smokers who don’t quit lose around a decade of life. That’s 10 years of precious time, life moments, and milestones with loved ones.”

Smoking is one of the world’s leading preventable causes of disease and death, killing up to two-thirds of long-term users. It causes about 80,000 deaths a year in the UK and a quarter of all cancer deaths in England.

The study, commissioned by the Department of Health, draws on the latest data from the British Doctors Study, which began in 1951 as one of the world’s first large studies into the effects of smoking, and the Million Women Study, which has tracked women’s health since 1996.

While an earlier assessment in the BMJ in 2000 found that on average a single cigarette reduced life expectancy by about 11 minutes, the latest analysis published in the Journal of Addictionnearly doubles the figure to 20 minutes – 17 minutes for men and 22 minutes for women.

“Some people might think they don’t mind missing out on a few years of life, given that old age is often marked by chronic illness or disability. But smoking doesn’t cut short the unhealthy period at the end of life,” Jackson told the Guardian. “It primarily eats into the relatively healthy years in midlife, bringing forward the onset of ill-health. This means a 60-year-old smoker will typically have the health profile of a 70-year-old non-smoker.”

Although some smokers live long lives, others develop smoking-related diseases and even die from them in their 40s. The variation is driven by differences in smoking habits such as the type of cigarette used, the number of puffs taken and how deeply smokers inhale. People also differ in how susceptible they are to the toxic substances in cigarette smoke.

The authors stress that smokers must quit completely to get the full benefits to health and life expectancy. Previous work has shown there is no safe level of smoking: the risk of heart disease and stroke is only about 50% lower for people who smoke one cigarette a day compared with those who smoke 20 a day. “Stopping smoking at every age is beneficial, but the sooner smokers get off this escalator of death the longer and healthier they can expect their lives to be,” they write.

The Department of Health said smokers could find advice, support and resources on the NHS Quit Smoking app and the online Personal Quit Plan, which tailors its advice to individual’s preferences.

Prof Sanjay Agrawal, a special adviser on tobacco at the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Every cigarette smoked costs precious minutes of life, and the cumulative impact is devastating, not only for individuals but also for our healthcare system and economy. This research is a powerful reminder of the urgent need to address cigarette smoking as the leading preventable cause of death and disease in the UK.”

The Guardian, UK