Nigeria has approved a $652-million China Exim Bank funding package for construction of a road to move goods from a sea port and petroleum refinery on the edge of its main city Lagos to its southern states, the public works minister said.

The financing was approved by the federal executive council chaired by President Bola Tinubu on Monday, David Umahi said in a statement.

The road will be an evacuation corridor from the Lekki Deep Sea Port, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery - Africa's biggest with refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day - and its adjoining fertiliser plant to at least a dozen southern states.

China has been providing billions of dollars in funding for power, rail and road projects in Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation and Africa's biggest oil producer.

Nigeria's debt to China - its largest bilateral creditor - stands at over $5 billion, the most recent data from the country's Debt Management Office showed.

Reuters

No fewer than six persons were killed in renewed attacks in Marit and Gashish communities of Barkin Ladi Local Government Council of Plateau State on Monday by gunmen.

The gunmen stormed the communities and started shooting sporadically, leaving several persons injured.

The Chairman of Barkin Ladi Local Government Council, Stephen Pwajok Gyang, in a statement signed by Mercy Yop Chuwang, his Press Secretary, confirmed the news to journalists.

According to the statement, the Council boss condemned the attacks that resulted in the loss of six innocent lives in Marit village and Gashish district.

During a visit to those injured in the attack at the Barkin Ladi General Hospital, Pwajok expressed profound sadness and disappointment over the resurgence of violence in the area, especially when the local government administration is working tirelessly to promote peace and stability.

Pwajok acknowledged the efforts of vigilantes and security agencies in maintaining law and order, while urging them to be more proactive and vigilant in preventing further attacks.

He emphasized that the cycle of violence must be brought to an end and called on all relevant stakeholders, including security agencies, community leaders, and residents, to join hands in promoting peace and security in Barkin Ladi.

The Guardian

Israel hits Yemen's main airport in airstrike against Houthis

The Israeli military carried out an airstrike on Yemen's main airport in Sanaa on Tuesday, its second attack in two days on Iran-aligned Houthi rebels after a surge in tensions between the group and Israel.

Three people were killed in the strike, according to Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV.

Israel warned people to leave the area around Sanaa International Airport before Tuesday's attack, which it said targeted Houthi infrastructure and "fully disabled the airport". Witnesses later reported four strikes in the capital.

Tensions have been high since the Gaza warbegan, but have risen further since a Houthi missile landed near Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port on Monday.

"A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fighter jets struck and dismantled Houthi terrorist infrastructure at the main airport in Sanaa, fully disabling the airport," the Israeli military said.

"The strike was carried out in response to the attack launched by the Houthi terrorist regime against Ben Gurion Airport. Flight runways, aircraft, and infrastructure at the airport were struck."

Three airport sources told Reuters that the strikes targeted three civilian airplanes, the departures hall, the airport runway and a military air base under Houthi control.

The Israeli military said the airport had been "a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives."

In a statement carried by al-Masirah, the Houthis said:

"The operations of our armed forces will continue and the support by Yemen to Palestine will only end with the end of the aggression and siege against Gaza."

The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg said on X that the latest hostilities "mark a grave escalation in an already fragile and volatile regional context".

An official at Yemen's flag carrier Yemenia Airways told Reuters that three of its aircraft were destroyed according to an initial assessment.

'AXIS OF RESISTANCE'

The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Houthis say they are doing so in solidarity with the Palestinians and have pressed on with attacks in response to Israel expanding its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis said on Sunday they would impose a "comprehensive" aerial blockade on Israel by repeatedly targeting its airports.

Sixty percent of Yemenis live under the control of the Houthis, a resilient group that withstood years of Saudi-led bombing during the country's devastating civil war.

The Houthis are part of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and U.S. interests in the Middle East, which also includes Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

While Israel has weakened those groups by assassinating top leaders and destroying military infrastructure since the Gaza war began, the Houthis are still a force to be reckoned with.

The Israeli strikes around Hodeidah on Monday killed four people and wounded 39, the Houthi-run health ministry said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to retaliate after the missile launched by the Houthis landed near Ben Gurion Airport and led to European and U.S. airlines cancelling flights.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches missile attack on Kyiv, mayor says

Ukraine's air defence units were trying repel a missile attack on Kyiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said early on Wednesday after a series of explosions shook the city.

Reuters' witnesses said they heard a series of loud blasts soon after 1 a.m. local time.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia has returned 205 servicemen from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime, in return handing over 205 Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Defense Ministry reported.

"On May 6, 2025, as a result of negotiations, 205 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. In return, 205 Ukrainian prisoners of war were handed over," the statement said.

According to the ministry, the UAE provided mediation efforts to ensure the return of the Russian servicemen.

Reuters/Tass

Maybe the greatest problem in Nigeria today is the way in which the nation has lost its moral compass, and with it, civic culture. When our youth look at our leaders, they see clearly that there is no good example to copy. Yes, they see what is today called success. The bad guys are very successful. Success is here reduced to its most crass elements, they have stolen massive amounts of money from the treasury and can drink the most expansive whiskies and champagnes, travel round the world and move in convoys of dozens of cars although sadly for that successful Nigerian, he or she can only travel in one car at a time. I read the society pages in the press and this week, there are stories of how a “big boy” has spent hundreds of millions of naira on a party for his latest girlfriend. And as my readers know, Nigeria is indeed the most “religious” country in the world in competition with number two, Afghanistan. It is religion without God, values, love for the other and morality. They know not God because they are too deep into the worship of mammon. They have lacked the philosophical depth to understand the philosopher of our time: “Some people are so poor that all they have is money” Bob Marley.

Governance therefore has been turned in a mad rush to empty the treasury for private use. This means the core business of governance has disappeared for decades and the outcome has been a State that does not do its work. As I have repeated so many times in this column, the Nigerian state is undergoing a three-dimensional crisis. The first one affects the political economy and it is generated mainly by public corruption over the past four decades that has created a run on the treasury at the national and state levels, threatening to consume the goose that lays the golden egg. The second one is the crisis of citizenship symbolised by ethno-regional and ethno-religious crisis generating violent conflicts including the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder killings, widespread bandit-terrorism, agitations for Biafra, militancy in the Niger Delta and indigene/settler conflicts. The third element relates to the frustration of the country’s democratic aspirations in a context in which the citizenry believes in “true democracy” but is confronted with a reckless political class that is corrupt, self-serving and manipulative to ensure electoral outcomes often do not reflect the choice of the people.

These challenges have largely broken the social pact between citizens and the state. That is why today, Nigerians find themselves in a moment of doubt about their nationhood. It is similar to the two earlier moments of doubt we have experienced, 1962-1970 when we went through a terrible civil war and the early 1990s when prolonged military rule created another round of challenges to the National Project. We survived those two moments but there is no guarantee that we shall survive the third. Nonetheless, there is a possibility that the current crisis as an opportunity to surge forward in fixing Nigeria.

Our national duty is to get our leaders to listen to Bob Marley: “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” This is one of the deepest insights on the purpose of leadership and governance. Will they listen, no, so engage plan b.

Every day, we discuss in homes, offices, bars, religious gatherings, the mass media, social media, professional associations and all other fora in Nigeria today that there is a real and imminent threat to the corporate existence of Nigeria. In addition, there is an on-going rapid slide into anarchy, precipitated by the most serious collapse in security provisioning in our country, which is confronted by an almost complete lack of leadership or governance response to a multipronged crisis. Maybe our leaders are too far gone to be saved as suggested by our leading poet, Niyi Osundare, while describing the judiciary which was once a pillar of justice and integrity. Some excerpts below:

“My Lord, Tell me Where to Keep your Bribe?”

Do I drop it in your venerable chambers

Or carry the heavy booty to your immaculate mansion

Shall I bury it in the capacious water tank

In your well laundered backyard

Or will it breathe better in the septic tank

Since money can deodorise the smelliest crime

My Lord
Tell me where to keep your bribe?
The “last hope of the common man”
Has become the last bastion of the criminally rich
A terrible plague bestrides the land
Besieged by rapacious judges and venal lawyers”

Increasingly, scholars are describing the Nigerian State as a failed one. My position is that it is teleological to describe the state as having failed because it is never about the end game, it is always about on-going processes of construction and deconstruction and above all, the direction of movement. The same Ghana that was once described as the clearest example of a failed state in Africa is today being described as the opposite. I fall into the category of believers in the Nigeria project and I track the evolution of the Nigerian state to see how we can pull back from the brink. If you seek evidence of failure you find it and if you seek evidence about the resilient Nigerian state you will find it. The Bible says, “seek and you shall find”. Our evil ruling class remain in power and destroy our country because they have found ways to rig elections, increasingly through the judiciary and stay on. We can stop them if we plan and organise well. My message to Nigerians is that it is not too late to save the country. Concerted citizen action can create the basis for offering Nigeria a new lease of life, provided proactive measures are taken to redress the crisis. Democracies persist and grow because they have citizens who have agency and use it to exercise their power.

Our greatest fear today should therefore be that of a self-fulfilling prophesy. The major outcome of the crisis facing the country has been the erosion of public trust. A toxic atmosphere has developed in which different actors are suspected of developing plots to destroy others. Actions of whatever type, as well as non-action or late action by governments and institutions are no longer taken at face value but are re-interpreted within narratives of coordinated plots by some groups to destroy or eliminate others or to take their land. There is no effective counter-narrative to create hope. The other challenge is negative agency. With over half the country living in extreme poverty, a generation of young Nigerians has emerged with nothing to lose but their poverty. They are procuring arms and engaging in violence, banditry and insurrectional acts to mimic the rich ruling class, thereby precipitating the march towards anarchy.

Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.

On Thursday, autonomous trucking firm Aurora announced it launched commercial service in Texas under its first customers, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies conducted test runs with Aurora, including safety drivers to monitor the self-driving technology dubbed “Aurora Driver.” Aurora’s new commercial service will no longer have safety drivers.

“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, in a release on Thursday. “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads.”

The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of over four football fields. In four years of practice hauls the trucks’ technology has delivered over 10,000 customer loads. As of Thursday, the company’s self-driving tech has completed over 1,200 miles without a human in the truck.

Aurora is starting with a single self-driving truck and plans to add more by the end of 2025.

Self-driving technology continued to garner attention after over a decade of hype, especially from auto companies like Tesla, GM and others that have poured billions into the tech. Companies in the market of autonomous trucking or driving, tend to use states like Texas and California as their testing grounds for the technology.

California-based Gatik does short-haul deliveries for Fortune 500 retailers like Walmart. Another California tech firm, Kodiak Robotics, delivers freight daily for customers across the South but with safety drivers. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, had an autonomous trucking arm but dismantled it in 2023 to focus on its self-driving ride-hailing services.

However, consumers and transportation officials have raised alarms on the safety record of autonomous vehicles. Aurora released its own safety reportthis year detailing how its technology works.

Unions that represent truck drivers are usually opposed to the driverless technology because of the threat of job loss and concerns over safety.

Earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rejected a petition from autonomous driving companies Waymo and Aurora seeking to replace traditional warning devices used when a truck broke down with cab-mounted beacons. The Transport Workers Union argued the petition would hinder safety.

CNN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed a disturbing surge in personnel costs, with expenses ballooning by a staggering 104% compared to 2023, according to the bank's recently released audited financial report.

In a concerning development for Nigerian taxpayers, the bank burned through an astronomical N595.9 billion on personnel expenses—more than double the N291 billion spent the previous year. At the group level, this personnel cost explosion was even more pronounced, jumping from N295.4 billion to a massive N608.5 billion.

The financial report exposes an equally troubling increase in total operating costs, which soared by 78% to reach N1.2 trillion, up from N673.4 trillion in 2023. Personnel costs alone devoured nearly half (49.7%) of the bank's entire operating budget, raising serious questions about fiscal responsibility and management priorities.

Despite claims of a "bullish performance," the CBN's deepening relationship with the International Monetary Fund raises red flags about Nigeria's growing financial dependence on external institutions. The bank's debt to the IMF has doubled to a concerning N5.07 trillion, while IMF's allocation of special drawing rights ballooned to N8.07 trillion.

More worrying still is the 37% increase in deposits, climbing from N38.23 trillion to N52.4 trillion—a jump that financial experts warn could severely crowd out private sector activity and stifle economic growth.

The CBN's attempts to paint a rosy picture by highlighting "improvements" in external reserves and cost efficiency ring hollow against the backdrop of these runaway expenses. While the bank touts its "strategic financial management," the numbers tell a different story—one of unchecked spending and questionable priorities during a period of economic hardship for ordinary Nigerians.

Even as the bank celebrates its exit from last year's N1.27 trillion loss to a surplus of N165.7 trillion, taxpayers are left wondering: at what cost? With personnel expenses more than doubling and operating costs spiraling upward, the CBN's financial management appears anything but "strategic" or "efficient."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that Nigeria currently has the highest number of malnourished children in Africa and ranks second globally.

Nemat Hajeebhoy, Chief of Nutrition at UNICEF, shared this information on Monday during a media briefing on the 2025 lean season multisectoral response plan targeting Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states. The briefing was organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to Hajeebhoy, an estimated 600,000 children in Nigeria are suffering from acute malnutrition, with about half at risk of progressing to severe acute malnutrition—a condition that makes children nine to eleven times more likely to die.

Also speaking at the event, Serigne Loum, Head of Programme at the World Food Programme (WFP), stated that Nigeria has the highest number of food-insecure people on the African continent.

Their remarks came as OCHA launched an appeal for $300 million in humanitarian funding to respond to the growing food and nutrition crisis in Nigeria’s northeast.

Trond Jensen, Head of OCHA’s Office in Nigeria, said that of the total amount required, $160 million is urgently needed to address issues including food insecurity, nutrition, water and sanitation, health, protection, and logistics during the lean season.

“This is the absolute bare minimum that we need,” Jensen said. “It’s a paradox that while cases of severe acute malnutrition have doubled this year, our ability to respond has been halved due to the freeze in U.S. funding and cuts from other donors.”

As a result of the funding shortfall, OCHA has scaled back its humanitarian target to two million people—half the number supported last year. Jensen called on state governments and international partners to step in and help fill the funding gap.

This appeal comes just weeks after OCHA announced it would begin gradually reducing its presence in Nigeria due to financial constraints.

At least 19 people were killed in a suspected bandit ambush and livestock rustling operation in Bauchi state, northeast Nigeria, the police and residents said on Monday.

Bauchi police command said in a statement that the attack took place early on Sunday morning when a local security patrol in Gwana district was ambushed.

The police said civilians from a nearby village were also killed while attempting to flee the attack.

"A team of operational tactical teams was dispatched to the scene, where they recovered bodies of casualties," Bauchi police commissioner Sani-Omolori Aliyu said in the statement.

Gangs of heavily armed men, known locally as bandits, have wreaked havoc across northwest Nigeria in recent years, kidnapping thousands, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road or farm in some areas.

Ibrahim Hussaini, an eyewitness, said a gun battle ensued between the security team and the bandits which caused multiple fatalities among the vigilante team and some residents.

The attackers rustled a large number of cattle and sheep from the district after overpowering the local security team, Mohammed Umar, a vigilante from the Alkaleri local government area that includes Gwana, told Reuters by phone.

Reuters

Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation, officials say

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas would be "intensive" after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the Gaza Strip and controlling aid.

However an Israeli defence official said the operation would not be launched before U.S. President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East.

The decision, after weeks of faltering efforts to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, underlines the threat that a war heaping international pressure on Israel amid dwindling public support at home could continue with no end in sight.

A report by Israel's public broadcaster Kan, citing officials with knowledge of the details, said the new plan was gradual and would take months, with forces focusing first on one area of the battered enclave.

Netanyahu said in a video message the operation would be "intensive" and would see more Palestinians in Gaza moved "for their own safety".

He said Israeli troops would not follow previous tactics based on short raids by forces based outside Gaza. "The intention is the opposite," he said, echoing comments from other Israeli officials who have said Israel would hold on to the ground it has seized.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Israel is a sovereign state that makes its own decisions, according to Axios, which also reported that he hopes for progress on a hostage and ceasefire deal before or during Trump's visit. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones, but the new plan would go further.

One Israeli official said the newly approved offensive would seize the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, move its civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas' hands.

The defence official said aid distribution, which has been handled by international aid groups and U.N. organizations, would be transferred to private companies and handed out in the southern area of Rafah once the offensive begins.

The Israeli military, which throughout the war has shown little appetite for occupying Gaza, declined to comment on the remarks by government officials and politicians.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the UN that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.

The defence official said Israel would hold on to security zones seized along the Gaza perimeter because they were vital for protecting Israeli communities around the enclave.

But he said there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit.

"If there is no hostage deal, Operation "Gideon Chariots" will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved," he said.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi rejected what he called "pressure and blackmail".

"No deal except a comprehensive one, which includes a complete ceasefire, full withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and the release of all prisoners from both sides," he said.

'OCCUPATION'

Israel has yet to present a clear vision for post-war Gaza after a campaign that has displaced most of Gaza's population and left it depending on aid supplies that have been dwindling rapidly since the blockade.

Ministers have said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for civilians.

Instead, officials have looked at plans for private contractors to handle distribution, through what the United Nations has described as Israeli hubs.

On Monday, Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X that Israel was demanding that the U.N. and non-governmental organisations shut down their aid distribution system in Gaza.

The decision to expand the operation was immediately hailed by Israeli government hardliners who have long pressed for a full takeover of the Gaza Strip by Israel and a permanent displacement of the population, along the lines of the "Riviera" plans outlined by Trump in February.

"We are finally going to conquer Gaza. We are no longer afraid of the word 'occupation'," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a pro-settler conference in an online discussion.

However, opinion polls show the Israeli public increasingly wants a deal to bring back the remaining 59 hostages still held in Gaza and there were angry scenes outside parliament with dozens of protesters scuffling with police.

"All the families are tired," said Ruby Chen, whose son Itay was killed in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. "All the families have been scared about this new manoeuvring because there is no guarantee that it will get us to where the families want."

With Israel facing threats from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who on Sunday fired a missile that hit close to Ben Gurion Airport, an unstable Syria next door and a volatile situation in the occupied West Bank, the capacity for prolonged military operations also faces growing constraints.

Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the military has already begun issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders for reservists.

A government spokesman said reserve soldiers were being called up to expand operations in Gaza, not to occupy it.

Zamir, who took office in March, has pushed back against calls by government hardliners who want to choke off aid entirely and has told ministers aid must be let in soon, according to Kan.

The war was triggered by the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza.

Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to local health authorities, and left much of Gaza in ruins.

Reuters