US vetoes UN Security Council demand for Gaza ceasefire

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that demanded an "immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza and unhindered aid access across the war-torn enclave.

The other 14 countries on the council voted in favor of the draft as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month.

"The United States has been clear: We would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza," Acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the council before the vote, arguing that it would also undermine U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.

Washington is Israel's biggest ally and arms supplier.

The Security Council vote came as Israel pushes ahead with an offensive in Gaza after ending a two-month truce in March. Gaza health authorities said Israeli strikes killed 45 people on Wednesday, while Israel said a soldier died in fighting.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward criticized the Israeli government's decisions to expand its military operations in Gaza and severely restrict humanitarian aid as "unjustifiable, disproportionate and counterproductive."

Israel has rejected calls for an unconditional or permanent ceasefire, saying Hamas cannot stay in Gaza. Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told the council members who voted in favor of the draft: "You chose appeasement and submission. You chose a road that does not lead to peace. Only to more terror."

Hamas condemned the U.S. veto, describing it as showing "the U.S. administration's blind bias" towards Israel. The draft Security Council resolution had also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and others.

RIVAL AID OPERATIONS

The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Many of those killed or captured were civilians.

Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.

Under global pressure, Israel allowed limited U.N.-led deliveries to resume on May 19. A week later a controversial new aid distribution system was launched by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the U.S. and Israel.

Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies. Israel and the U.S. are urging the U.N. to work through the GHF, which is using private U.S. security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.

"No one wants to see Palestinian civilians in Gaza go hungry or thirsty," Shea told the Security Council, adding that the draft resolution did not "acknowledge the disastrous shortcomings of the prior method of aid delivery."

The U.N. and international aid groups have refused to work with the GHF because they say it is not neutral, militarizes aid and forces the displacement of Palestinians.

No aid was distributed by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Wednesday as it pressed the Israeli military to boost civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its so-called secure distribution sites after a deadly incident on Tuesday.

The GHF said it has asked the Israeli military to "guide foot traffic in a way that minimizes confusion or escalation risks" near military positions, provide clearer civilian guidance and enhance training of soldiers on civilian safety.

'DELAYS AND DENIALS'

The GHF posted on Facebook that "ongoing maintenance work" would delay the opening of its distribution sites on Thursday. It said on Tuesday that it has so far distributed more than seven million meals since it started operations.

Despite U.S. and Israeli criticism of the U.N.-led Gaza aid operation, a U.S. ceasefire plan proposes the delivery of aid by the United Nations, the Red Crescent and other agreed channels. Israel has agreed to the ceasefire plan but Hamas is seeking changes that the U.S. has rejected as "totally unacceptable."

Ahead of the U.N. Security Council vote, U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher again appealed for the U.N. and aid groups to be allowed to assist people in Gaza, stressing that they have a plan, supplies and experience.

"Open the crossings – all of them. Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. Lift the restrictions on what and how much aid we can bring in. Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials," Fletcher said in a statement.

The U.N. has long-blamed Israel and lawlessness in the enclave for hindering the delivery of aid into Gaza and its distribution throughout the war zone.

"Enough of suffering of civilians. Enough of food being used as a weapon. Enough is enough is enough," Slovenia's U.N. Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told the Security Council.

A similar humanitarian-focused draft resolution is now expected to be put to a vote in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, where no countries have a veto power and it would likely pass, diplomats said.

Danon warned: "Don't waste more of your time, because no resolution, no vote, no moral failure, will stand in our way."

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev regime ‘not interested in peace,’ turning to terror, suffering ‘huge losses’ on battlefield: Key points from Putin’s speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine’s leadership of carrying out terrorist attacks on Russian territory in order to derail peace efforts, which he said threaten the Kiev regime’s grip on power.

Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, Putin said the recent sabotage of railway infrastructure in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions was a deliberate strike on civilians intended to disrupt the negotiations.
Kiev’s backers have become “accomplices to terrorists”

Putin said the attacks were the result of decisions made by Ukraine’s top political leadership, calling them “undoubtedly a terrorist act.”

“This only confirms our concern that the already illegitimate regime in Kiev, which once seized power, is gradually turning into a terrorist organization, and its sponsors are becoming accomplices to terrorists,” he said.

The two incidents occurred on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. In Bryansk Region, a bridge collapsed in front of a moving passenger train. In Kursk Region, a freight train derailed when a railway bridge gave way. In total, seven people died and over 120 were injured.

“Under all international norms, such actions are called terrorism,”Putin said.
Ukraine’s battlefield losses 

The Russian president accused Kiev and its Western backers of previously aiming to inflict a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield. Now, he said, the country’s leadership is shifting tactics amid mounting losses and as Ukrainian forces retreat along the front line.

“Today, amid heavy losses and retreating along the entire line of contact, the Kiev leadership has turned to organizing terrorist acts in an attempt to intimidate Russia,” Putin said.

He questioned the competence of Ukraine’s leadership, under whose orders the Ukrainian armed forces have suffered “senseless and enormous losses” – including during their now-repulsed incursion in Kursk Region – and continue to face defeat on the battlefield.

“What kind of authority can the leaders of a thoroughly rotten and completely corrupt regime possess?” Putin added.

Deliberate strikes to disrupt talks

Putin called Kiev’s railway sabotage an “intentional strike on the [Russian] civilian population.” 

He said the “crimes” committed against Russian civilians – including women and children – were timed to disrupt the peace process.

Both attacks came shortly before the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul and amid a surge in Kiev’s drone raids into Russia, which Moscow says are aimed at derailing attempts to reach a settlement in the conflict.

Speaking about Kiev’s apparent attempts to undermine the peace efforts, Putin noted that Ukrainian officials simultaneously requested a ceasefire lasting 30 to 60 days, along with a top-level meeting.

“But how can such meetings be held under these conditions?” he said. “What is there to talk about? Who conducts negotiations with those who rely on terror – with terrorists?” 

He warned that any pause would only allow the Ukrainian forces to regroup, receive more Western arms, and prepare for renewed hostilities.
Kiev regime not interested in peace 

Ukraine has repeatedly rejected Russia’s proposals for a short-term ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, Putin said.

“It does not surprise us and only convinces us further that today’s Kiev regime does not want peace at all,” he stated. “For them, peace most likely means a loss of power.” 

Putin emphasized that “power, for the [Kiev] regime, is apparently more important than peace, more important than human lives.” 
Kiev’s lack of political culture 

Putin also accused the Ukrainian leadership of lacking basic political culture, pointing to recent public remarks. This week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky referred to Russia’s negotiators as “idiots” after Moscow proposed a brief truce to recover fallen soldiers’ bodies.

“Apparently, we are dealing with people who not only have no real competence in anything but also lack even a basic political culture if they allow themselves to make certain statements – including direct insults – against those they claim to want to negotiate with,”Putin said.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine hit fewer Russian planes than it estimated, US officials say

The United States assesses that Ukraine's drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Still, the U.S. officials described the attack as highly significant, with one of them cautioning that it could drive Moscow to a far more severe negotiating position in the U.S.-brokered talks to end more than three years of war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to attack, Trump said in a social media post.

Trump added it "was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace."

Ukraine says it targeted four air bases across Russia using 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from containers close to the targets, in an operation codenamed "Spider's Web."

It released footage on Wednesday showing its drones striking Russian strategic bombers and landing on the dome antennas of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia's fleet.

The two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, estimated the Ukrainian strikes destroyed around 10 and hit up to 20 warplanes in total.

That estimate is far lower than the one Zelenskiy offered to reporters in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday. He said half of the 41 Russian aircraft struck were too damaged to be repaired.

Reuters could not independently verify the numbers from Kyiv or the United States.

Russia, which prioritizes its nuclear forces as a deterrent to the United States and NATO, urged the United States and Britain on Wednesday to restrain Kyiv after the attacks. Russia and the United States together hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons.

The United States says it was not given any notice by Kyiv ahead of the attack.

The war in Ukraine is intensifying despite nearly four months of efforts by Trump, who says he wants peace after the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Russian and Ukrainian embassies also did not immediately reply.

ESCALATION RISK

Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, said the damage to Russia caused by the operation amounted to $7 billion, and 34% of the strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia's main airfields were hit.

Commercial satellite imagery taken after the Ukrainian drone attack shows what experts told Reuters appear to be damaged Russian Tu-95 heavy bombers and Tu-22 Backfires, long-range, supersonic strategic bombers that Russia has used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine.

Russia's Defence Ministry has acknowledged that Ukraine targeted airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions and were repelled in the last three locations. It has also said several aircraft caught fire in the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions.

The attack has bolstered Ukrainian morale after months of unrelenting Russian battlefield pressure and numerous powerful missile and drone strikes by Moscow's forces.

It also demonstrated that Kyiv, even as it struggles to halt invading Russian forces, can surprise Moscow deep inside its own territory with attacks up to 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the front lines.

Influential Russian military bloggers have accused Russian authorities, especially the aerospace command, of negligence and complacency for allowing the nuclear-capable bombers to be targeted.

Trump's Ukraine envoy said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was "going way up," particularly since Kyiv had struck one leg of Russia's "nuclear triad," or weapons on land, in the air and at sea.

"In the national security space, when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their triad, the nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do," Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on Tuesday.

RT/Reuters

If an alien is captured in a Hollywood film, the state imprisons it to weaponise its capabilities. Nollywood does not make alien films, but our cinematic representations of contact with non-human forces regularly reflect an individual seeking money. That was how I concluded that if we ever capture an alien in this part of the world, our immediate course of action will be to make it vomit cash. Nothing detains our imagination, absorbs our attention, and conditions our relationship with our humans and non-human beings like money. We fantasise about wealth so much that our popular culture is chock-full of stories of men with magical powers conjuring cash into existence through mystical rituals. The trouble with a society like ours is that the fiction does not merely play out on the magical tube of the television; it also erupts in reality.

The latest sensational case of money ritual homicide is that of an Enugu-based “native doctor”, Obi Obieze, caught with a 13-year-old he would have sacrificed for his schemes.  What I find rather frustrating about the conversations that attended the man’s arrest were the claims that ritual murder is a violation of the tenets by which “native doctors” are expected to abide, rather than a wholesale debunking of the idea that anyone has the power to make money through such means. It did not help that Obieze’s status as a “native doctor” also fits into the existing belief that practitioners of what we call “traditional religions” have the spiritual expertise to carry out magic such as money rituals (which is why even the practitioners of our Abrahamic religions secretly consult them).

The belief is so powerful that it sustains institutional bias against indigenous religions. Every informed person in Nigeria is aware that those who have been arrested for various atrocities include Christians and Muslims, but it is those of the indigenous religious traditions who bear most of the brunt. For instance, Anambra Governor Charles Soludo has been waging a war against the native doctors suspected of empowering dissident elements in the state by destroying their shrines. Time and space will not permit me to elaborate to Soludo that in the 20th century, the British colonial government also embarked on similar demolitions in Igboland, only to find that their clampdown on shrines counterproductively invigorated the people’s beliefs in their power.

The more we have antagonised our indigenous religions, the stronger the belief in them as repositories of mystical power has grown. There is a generation of people—including charismatic religious movements, charlatans, and a whole lot of other superstitious folks—hell-bent on sustaining beliefs in the magical power wielded by priests of indigenous religions. Their motives are not entirely driven by historical nostalgia nor by the idea that these practices offer ethical guidance for living, but simply because they cannot live without the notion that no god exists anywhere to make money appear from nowhere. That, for me, is where the problem with our cultural attitudes toward our indigenous religions lies. People are more invested in the magical possibilities that these belief systems can purportedly make happen than in the ethical values their meanings carry.

Some years ago, I was at a religious conference in Nigeria where a group of academics presented their research on why people are leaving Christianity and Islam and opting for indigenous religions. It turns out that almost everyone had converted because they were looking for a God that answers by fire, not because they wanted a religion that nudges them to higher values or morals. It is almost as if a magical transformation is the only reason our people seek God. Even our cultural industry does not help the issues. Hardly does Nollywood reflect indigenous belief systems as a source of values and meanings that can reform our social ethics. No, our Gods in our cinema are almost always a caricature.

To restate what I have repeatedly said in this column, there is no money ritual anywhere that works. No magical (or miracle) expertise anywhere in the world can make cash come out of nothing. What is called a money ritual is mostly a manipulation of credulity. After reading virtually every interview of those arrested for money rituals and the confession statement of the ritualists in documented police reports, I reasonably arrived at the conclusion that those arrested are split into two groups: people who knowingly deceive others, and the sincerely stupid people with a flimsy understanding of the modern monetary system. Those of the former category do not expect anything to happen and merely deceive with gimmickry. The latter, on the other hand, genuinely believes the magic is possible and therefore experiments with human lives. These are the ones who admit to trying out the rituals after learning about them. While no cash appears, they still make some money through sales of human body parts and that increases their motivation to keep trying. None of them has any record of testimonies of prior success, and they are usually men whose poverty is indelibly etched onto their appearance.  They all look like their hearts would stop beating if they were ever handed a cash sum of one million in any currency. As stupid as they are, they are also the foot soldiers of a surreptitious economy of organ harvesting who hide their dealings in human body parts under the amorphous umbrella of “money rituals”.

Here is where their shoddy understanding of the modern monetary system betrays them: the cash they want to conjure is an invention of modernity and therefore relatively recent. The spirits that will materialise have supposedly existed before the existence of the legal tender and should be too timeless to be involved in producing something as vulgar as money. In any case, now that the concept of money in the contemporary economy is evolving into more abstract forms due to digital technology, are those spirits also transitioning to a cashless economy, or are they still stuck on paper money?

 Our fore-parents, who originated the idioms of “money rituals”, were not speaking in the same literal language as the present-day “native doctors” who seek to replicate the magic. Their understanding of money rituals by our ancestors was borne of their observation of an emerging colonial modern economy (the slave trade, in particular), where—unlike the agrarian ones they knew intimately—offered the possibility of wealth without obvious work. Some of the contemporary “native doctors” who sacrifice a living human in their money rituals are either confused pretenders or psychopaths whose sickness has not yet been named.

Obieze, who was busted after a search team for a 13-year-old found her entombed in a sewage pit within an unfinished building used as a shrine, was obviously manipulating his clients’ psyche ink about it, knowing that a charm was produced for you from the blood of an innocent soul will do two things to any human: either drive them crazy or sear the conscience. If the latter happens, one is emboldened to the point of the daredevilry that separates great men from their ordinary counterparts. The effect of such magic is not so much supernatural as it is psychological. If you can live with yourself after taking a life, it also means you can engage in any unconscionable action for money. Your chances of making it increase, even if only marginally. And that is what the ruse of human sacrifice in money rituals is all about, not physical cash materialising out of thin air.

Punch

Frans Van Loef

What does it mean to be a manager? In today’s world, managers need to wear many hats. They have to be a mentor, mediator, communicator, coach, and numerous other roles simultaneously. But at its core, management is about matchmaking. You need to map the talents of your team to the needs of your business. That means making the most of your team’s combined talents and unlocking the diversity in your team.

Unfortunately, as managers struggle with limited time and resources, they overlook this critical component. All too often, managers end up assigning tasks on autopilot, matching business challenges to job titles rather than thinking creatively about how to leverage people’s hidden talents or offer growth opportunities.

The shift to hybrid and remote work has also reduced opportunities for the spontaneous discovery of people’s hidden talents. This can end up shrouding people’s true strengths. Collaboration and engagement can also suffer.

Fortunately, unlocking your team’s strengths doesn’t need to be time-consuming. Over the past three years, I’ve helped dozens of teams unlock talents they didn’t even know they had—and match those talents to the most pressing challenges they faced—through this simple, three-step exercise:

STEP 1: SELF-REFLECTION

Gather your team together—ideally in person—and ask everyone to write down their talents and strengths on a flip chart. Emphasize that this isn’t a competition to see who can list the most strengths, but rather about identifying the talents that people might take for granted or struggle to recognize in themselves.

Sometimes, we’re so used to our strengths that we don’t even notice them. Encourage them to think about what they find easy to do, or what people come to them for. This short 15-minute period of self-reflection lays the foundation for using the hidden talents for the benefit of the team.

STEP 2: TEAM INPUT

Next, go around the room and ask each person to read their strengths aloud. Resist the urge to discuss or critique the strengths each team member identifies. Simply ask the rest of the team, “What talent or strength do you see in this person that they didn’t mention themselves?”, and have the person write each additional talent on their list. And before moving over to your next team member, ask the team, what’s the number-one strength of this colleague that at this moment we should use much more as a team?

As you go around the room, each person will be surprised by the strengths their team sees in them. As their manager, you’re likely to be surprised as well at the number of hidden, untapped talents that may surface.

This step is often particularly powerful for more introverted or less confident employees, who might generally be more hesitant to talk about their strengths. I’ve found that while teams always have something to add for everyone, it’s often the quieter members who receive the most additions from their colleagues. The step uncovers underutilized talents and lays the groundwork for deeper appreciation and trust within the team.

STEP 3: MATCH STRENGTHS TO CHALLENGES

The final step is to connect the strengths they’ve revealed to the challenges your team currently faces. For example, I worked with a biotech company that struggled to collaborate with another department. The team had identified that Georgina was highly collaborative, and so she became the natural choice to lead cross-functional projects. Paul’s talent, on the other hand, was structuring information that could be used to address the challenge of distilling insights from complex data. And Tim’s talent for visual storytelling could help address challenges in communicating with investors and other stakeholders.

In this way, teams can collaboratively move beyond asking, “Whose job is this?” Instead, they can ask, “What talent could help us address this challenge?” It dynamically redefines roles, making full use of often overlooked talents such as:

• Spotting talent: The ability to recognize potential in oneself and others.
• Offloading: Knowing which initiatives or activities they need to stop (or simplify).
• Finishing: The drive to see projects through to completion.

These are not always the talents you see on a résumé. But when you face a challenge, knowing the specific strengths that each team member possesses can be extremely helpful.

MAKE YOUR MATCHES STICK

By design, this 90–120 minute exercise is short and simple. However, to drive lasting impact, it’s important to ensure that your team members continue to have opportunities to flex their talents.  

For example, Michael often clashed with senior leader Frank over project approaches, stalling progress. The team recognized that Anna, who excelled in stakeholder management, could bridge the gap. Anna began mentoring Michael, helping him engage Frank’s input early in the process instead of letting conflicts fester. Michael’s projects then moved faster. Both Michael and Frank came to appreciate Anna’s mentorship, and she continued to assist the team with similar stakeholder challenges.

Embedding this practice into your management style can be as simple as revisiting the exercise during weekly stand-ups, monthly team meetings, or even as part of onboarding new employees. The key is to commit to ongoing self-reflection and feedback. Regularly measure progress, share successful matches, and be willing to adjust the approach as your team evolves.

Being an effective manager today means stepping back from the daily firefight to invest in your people. When you act as a talent matchmaker, connecting individual strengths and organizational challenges, you unlock a powerful resource that drives both team performance and engagement.

Fast Company

Nigeria's defence chief on Tuesday called for the country's borders with its four neighbours to be completely fenced to curb the entrance of armed groups amid escalating insecurity.

Nigeria's military has been strained by widespread security issues, particularly a 16-year insurgency in the northeast led by Islamist militant group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province. Security forces and civilians have been attacked and killed and tens of thousands of people have been displaced.

Defence Chief of Staff, General Christopher Musa, who spoke at a security conference in the capital Abuja, said "border management is very critical," citing Pakistan's 1,350 km (839 miles) fence with Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia's 1,400 km barrier with Iraq as successful precedents.

This is the first time a top Nigerian official has publicly suggested such a measure.

"Other countries, because of the level of insecurity they have, had to fence their borders," he said.

Nigeria borders Niger Republic, Cameroon, Benin, and Chad, which are all grappling with escalating militant campaigns across the Sahel.

Nigerian authorities often attribute its prolonged insurgency, including recent attacks on military stations, to foreign fighter infiltration.

Nigeria's longest border (1,975 km) is with Cameroon in the northeast, a Boko Haram hotspot. It also shares 1,500 km with Niger and 85 km with Chad, nations that have lost territory to armed groups.

Musa warned Nigeria's perceived wealth makes it a target.

"It is Nigeria that everybody is interested in. That is why we need to secure fully and take control of our borders," he said. "It is critical for our survival and sovereignty."

Reuters

Members of the New terrorist group “Mahmuda” reportedly took advantage of the loopholes created by the absence of local hunters who are currently in Ilorin on training for the National Forest Guard, recently approved by the presidency to provide security for communities.

Members of the unrepentant new terrorist group, in a fresh attack on Duruma village in Baruten Local Government Area, Kwara State, on Tuesday morning, slaughtered three villagers.

Vanguard reliably gathered that the three villagers who were killed by members of the terrorist group were immediately buried by the community.

It was further gathered that the terrorist group carried out the heinous act despite the presence of soldiers who are currently in the flashpoint areas of the affected communities

Recall that in April, the Chief of Army Staff visited the areas, following which soldiers were deployed to the thick forests to flush out the terrorists, during which twelve of them were arrested.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who also visited the troubled communities, reportedly provided twenty-five motorcycles to the local hunters as logistics to complement the efforts of the soldiers.

Vanguard, however, gathered from the locals that members of the terrorist group never left the areas, but have been incapacitated by the presence of the soldiers and local hunters who have been providing support for the military.

According to a local who resides in Baruten but preferred that his name shouldn’t be in print,”Our local hunters are currently in ilorin for the training of the National Forest Guard on how they can also be effectively using weapons to fight the terrorists.

“Eventually, Mahmuda people felt their absence because they are no longer in the areas they used to be, so It was in those areas that the terrorists killed the three villagers.

“Though the soldiers eventually came to the areas firing gun shots in the air, but they had fled.

”A week before now, they also set fire to a farm settlement,” he recounted .

Other affected areas where the terrorists are troubling our people include Kemaanji, Tenebo, Baabete, Nuku, and Nanu in Kaiama Local Government Area, as well as villages in Yashikira District, Baruten Local Government Area—both in Kwara State.

Vanguard also gathered from the locals that the group has seized control of communities in Babana and Wawa Districts in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.

“As I am talking to you, our community, Kemanji, is under the control of these people. They have not entered the main Kaiama town, and that was how it started in Sokoto, Kebbi and other states. Our community is about 10 kilometres from Kaiama,” another source said.

Multiple sources also revealed that the group has seized control of communities in Babana and Wawa Districts in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.

It was recently reported that Mahmuda is a new terror group emerging in Nigeria’s North Central region, terrorizing residents of rural communities near Kainji Lake National Park (KLNP).

Meanwhile, attempts to get reaction from the state police command for were unsuccessful, as spokesperson Toun Ejire-Adeyemi did not respond to calls on her mobile phone.

Vanguard

Nigerian banks have officially commenced deducting charges for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) banking transactions directly from customers’ mobile airtime, following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The new billing system, which took effect on June 3, 2025, marks a significant shift from the previous model where USSD charges were deducted from customers’ bank accounts. Under the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model, each USSD session now attracts a charge of ₦6.98 per 120 seconds, billed by mobile network operators.

Several major banks, including United Bank for Africa (UBA) and First City Monument Bank (FCMB), have notified their customers about the change through email communications. The banks explained that customers will receive a consent prompt at the start of each USSD session, and airtime will only be deducted upon confirmation and availability of sufficient airtime balance.

“Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing model,” UBA stated in its message to customers. “You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation.”

The directive represents the latest move by the NCC to resolve the long-standing USSD payment conflict between mobile network operators (MNOs) and deposit money banks (DMBs). This dispute had reached critical levels, with telcos threatening to withdraw services over accumulated debts from banks.

The crisis escalated significantly in recent months when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and NCC jointly directed mobile network operators and banks in December 2024 to resolve the substantial N250 billion USSD debt. The NCC subsequently threatened to suspend USSD services and publish a list of defaulting banks in January.

By January 15, the regulator took decisive action, directing telcos to disconnect USSD codes assigned to nine banks by January 27 due to unpaid debts. The pressure yielded results when MTN Nigeria announced in February that it had received N32 billion out of N72 billion owed by banks as part payment for the USSD debt.

Banks have assured customers that alternative digital banking channels remain available for those who prefer not to use the new USSD billing model. Customers can continue using ATMs, mobile banking apps, and internet banking platforms for their transactions.

The implementation of the end-user billing system effectively shifts the financial responsibility for USSD services from banks to individual users, potentially resolving the payment disputes that have plagued the relationship between financial institutions and telecommunications companies.

Israeli military unleashes strikes on Syria after projectile launches

The Israeli military said in a statement it struck weapons belonging to the Syrian regime in southern Syria, in a second attack that Israel launched after reporting two projectiles were fired from Syria on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the two projectiles.

Syrian state news agency and security sources reported a series of Israeli strikes, the first major ones in nearly a month, targeting several sites in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra and Daraa.

The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had said earlier that he held Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the two projectile launches.

"We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel, and a full response will come soon," Katz said.

The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that reports of the launches towards Israel had not been verified yet and reiterated that Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region, the state news agency SANA reported.

"We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilize the region to achieve their own interests," the Syrian foreign ministry added.

Syria and Israel have recently engaged in direct talks to ease tensions, a significant development in relations between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades.

The Israeli military earlier said that two projectiles crossed from Syria towards Israel and fell in open areas.

Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named "Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades," an apparent reference to Hamas' military leader who was killedin an Israeli strike in 2024.

Reuters could not independently verify the statement.

Syrian state media earlier reported an Israeli strike in the southern Daraa province, an attack the Syrian foreign ministry later said resulted in "significant human and material losses."

Local residents said Israeli mortars were striking the Wadi Yarmouk area, west of Daraa province, near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The area has witnessed increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli military incursions into nearby villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops.

Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of Syria's military infrastructure.

It also has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and taken more territory in the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December, citing lingering concerns over the extremist past of the country's new rulers.

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel's Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group says it has been launching attacks against Israel in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian retaliation ‘inevitable’ – Medvedev

Russia will “inevitably” respond to recent Ukrainian attacks on its territory despite continuing diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated on Tuesday.

His comments follow suspected acts of Ukrainian sabotage on railways in Russia and drone strikes on multiple Russian airfields at the weekend. Despite this, Russian officials traveled to Istanbul on Monday for another round of direct negotiations with Ukrainian representatives.

In a social media post, Medvedev addressed domestic calls for a more forceful military response, declaring that Russian retaliation was “inevitable.”

“Our army is on an active offensive and will continue its push forward. Everything that needs to be blown up will be, and those who need to be eliminated will be,” he wrote.

Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said the Istanbul negotiations were necessary “for our victory to be most swift and the full elimination of the neo-Nazi authorities”in Kiev.

During the talks, Moscow proposed two possible routes toward a ceasefire and suggested a brief halt in the fighting to allow military units to retrieve bodies from the battlefield.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky called Russian negotiators “idiots” for proposing the idea, asserting that a ceasefire should solely serve to prevent further loss of life.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called Zelensky’s remarks “awkward” and “unfortunate,” saying they undermined efforts to move the talks forward.

Moscow also offered to return the remains of over 6,000 deceased Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who is leading Kiev’s delegation, said Kiev would reciprocate by returning the same number of Russian military casualties. Vladimir Medinsky, a presidential aide heading Russia’s team, said Moscow agreed to accept all remains offered in return.

Kiev consented to direct negotiations with Moscow last month under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has expressed exasperation with both parties and warned that Washington could “walk away” from mediation efforts if progress stalls.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Power restored to 700,000 residents in Russian-held Ukraine after Ukrainian strikes

Emergency crews restored power on Tuesday to at least 700,000 residents across a swathe of southern Ukraine controlled by Russian forces, officials said, a day after Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks knocked out electricity substations.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but the attacks, which targeted the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, appeared to be the largest of their kind on Russian-held territory since the war began in February 2022.

"Thanks to the coordinated work of power engineers, the power supply to all customers has now been fully restored," Russia's Energy Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Crews from other regions helped complete repairs.

Russia lays claim to Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and already controls most of both regions. It is trying to capture the rest as part of what it casts as its push to ensure its own security and secure the future of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers.

Ukraine rejects Russia's portrayal of the conflict, calling it a colonial-style land grab by Moscow and vowing to retake the lost territory through a mixture of force and diplomacy.

The drone attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv cedes big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

Russian-backed officials said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - Europe's largest nuclear facility seized by Russia in 2022 - was under control but difficult.

Russian officials running the plant said radiation levels were normal at the facility, which operates in shutdown mode and produces no power at the moment.

WIDESPREAD OUTAGE

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, said on Monday that more than 600,000 people in nearly 500 settlements across the region lost electricity after Ukrainian shelling damaged high-voltage infrastructure.

In the Kherson region further west, Russia-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said debris from fallen drones had damaged two electricity substations, knocking out power to more than 100,000 residents of 150 towns and villages.

Separately, emergency services officials in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy said on Tuesday that a Russian attack had killed three people and injured 28, including three children.

"The Russians launched a savage strike on Sumy – directly targeting the city and its ordinary streets with rocket artillery," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on social media.

The attack damaged an apartment building, three private residences, a warehouse and a hospital building, according to a statement from the emergency services.

There was no immediate comment from Russia on these Ukrainian reports.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in their attacks. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

For many long months during the winter, Ukrainian towns and villages endured repeated electricity cuts as Russian forces focused strikes on generating capacity.

Each side has accused the other of launching attacks on the Zaporizhzhia plant and running the risk of a nuclear accident.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last week in response to a Ukrainian complaint that it saw no sign of Russia preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia plant and connect it to the Russian grid.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters on Tuesday that conditions for restarting the plant were not present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply.

The IAEA has stationed monitors permanently at Zaporizhzhia and Ukraine's other nuclear power stations.

RT/Reuters

Tracy Brower

It can be tough out there for leaders. It’s challenging to drive results, ensure you’re supporting employees’ well-being, and maintain your own motivation as well.  

So how can you be a good leader, and what are the strategies that really work? A helpful concept is spacious leadership—a management approach in which you create space for others to participate, make choices, and be their best. With spacious leadership, you also ensure space for yourself to enhance your own effectiveness and satisfaction on the job. 

THE NEED FOR IMPROVED LEADERSHIP

In spite of leaders who work hard to do their best, a new survey by consulting firm DDI finds that only about 40% of workers believe that leaders are high quality. In comparison, leaders tend to rate themselves better than others rate them. There’s a perception gap—along with an opportunity for leaders to get better. 

There’s also evidence that leaders are feeling the pressure. In fact, 71% of leaders say their stress levels have increased, 54% report they are worried about burnout, and 40% have given thought to leaving a leadership role because they struggle with their own well-being, according to the DDI data. 

A spacious leadership approach addresses how leaders support others, and also how they manage their own workplace experience.

CREATE SPACE FOR INVOLVEMENT 

One of the first ways to demonstrate spacious leadership is to invite people to participate, get involved, and have a voice. At the root of this kind of leadership is humility. 

It doesn’t mean giving up your voice. Spacious leaders have a strong point of view, and they’re secure with their own expertise, but they don’t assume they have all the answers or the best answers.

Comfort with admitting mistakes is also related to spacious leadership. Leaders don’t have to know it all—and people appreciate it when their managers ask for ideas and value input in finding solutions.

Spacious leaders empower people to be part of the process by communicating effectively. When leaders offer clear direction, goals, or challenges, people are able to be proactive and suggest ways to get things done. And when people have the opportunity to get involved, they are also more likely to feel a sense of ownership and dedication to their work. Demonstrate spacious leadership by inviting people in and sharing context so they can be effective participants in the process.

CREATE SPACE FOR LEARNING AND GROWTH 

People of all generations crave development. In spacious leadership, you create space for people to expand their skills and competencies. 

Investing in employees’ growth sends a message that you value them and their contributions. You can support people by creating succession plans or recommending formal learning sessions, offering regular coaching and feedback, or introducing them to mentors outside your department.

The outcomes of these approaches are striking. According to the DDI study, when leaders provided coaching and feedback to employees, those employees were nine times more likely to trust their leader. And when leaders actively supported development, employees were 11 times more likely to trust their leader. Demonstrate spacious leadership by coaching and developing people.

CREATE SPACE FOR PERFORMANCE 

We all have an instinct to matter, and people will be happier and provide more discretionary effort when they are supported in performing at their best. When you’re creating space for performance, you’re giving people plenty of choice, control, and autonomy. 

Control and decision-making have been proven to matter for health and longevity. According to two Indiana University studies (one conducted in 2016 and the other in 2020), people who experienced high job stress and had limited control over their work process were less healthy and had higher mortality rates. On the other hand, when they were in high-stress jobs but had greater choice and more decision-making power, they were healthier and lived longer. 

People also perform best when they have enough time to get things done. Sometimes things are hectic, urgent, or last minute, but spacious leaders do their best to give people adequate time to deliver results. This allows people the space to reflect, plan, and invest in the quality of their outcomes. Demonstrate spacious leadership by giving people the necessary support to perform their best. 

CREATE SPACE FOR WELL-BEING

Another way to create space for people is by attending to their well-being. Give people the opportunity to set and maintain appropriate boundaries in their work and life. In addition, tune into how people are doing and ask questions. You don’t need to be a professional social worker, but when you can demonstrate empathy and point people to resources, it sends a strong message about how much you care. Create space for them to share, and then listen and offer support. 

Paying attention to well-being is good for people—and it pays off for organizations. In a global study by the Workforce Institute at UKG, a workplace software provider, 80% of people said they were energized at work when they had better mental health, and 63% said they were committed to their work.

Some 69% of workers reported that their leader has a bigger impact on their mental health than their therapist or their doctor—and about the same impact as their partner. When organizations prioritize well-being, the DDI data finds, people are 12 times more likely to rate leadership quality as high. Demonstrate spacious leadership by ensuring people have the space to nurture their wellbeing.

CREATE SPACE FOR SELF-CARE

As a leader, your own strength is critical to how you can support others. Just as you create space for your team’s excellence, do the same for yourself. Be consistent, present, and accessible, but also ensure you have time to get away and turn off.

Also consider the self-care that works best for you. The popular narrative about self-care suggests that you should spend time alone, but you may choose to spend time with others who energize you. Many people think self-care must always involve saying no, but it can also include saying yes to activities that you feel passionate about. Most important is to make choices that are nourishing for you.

Another way to ensure self-care is to create a small group of trusted colleagues. Leadership requires a balance of authenticity and transparency with appropriate professionalism. You’ll want to establish trusting relationships with other leaders (or people outside your organization) with whom you can relax, share worries and concerns, or get advice. Demonstrate spacious leadership by giving yourself space to regroup, rejuvenate, and bring your best.

THE LANGUAGE WE USE

The way we think about things and how we talk to ourselves have a significant impact on the choices we make and how we behave. With spacious leadership, you’ll focus on all the ways you can create space for others and for yourself, resulting in terrific success.

Fast Company