As death toll rises, Gazans make life-risking journeys to seek food

Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al-Nawajha takes a dangerous, miles-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive.

Accompanied by her sister, Mazouza, the mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby.

"You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry," said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

"This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can't do it anymore."

In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said.

On Thursday, medics said at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food.

The Israeli military said there were several attempts by "suspects" to approach forces in the area of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, in a manner that endangered them. It said forces fired warning shots to prevent suspects from approaching them, and it was currently unaware of injuries in the incident.

In an email, GHF criticized Gazan health officials, accusing them of regularly releasing inaccurate information. GHF said that Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. It did not address questions about whether GHF was aware that such an incident had occurred.

Thirty-nine people were killed, meanwhile, in separate Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said. One of those strikes killed at least 19 people, including women and children, in a tent in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, they added.

Another strike killed at least 14 people and damaged several houses in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave, medics said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on those attacks.

In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians.

SLEEPING BY THE ROAD

Israel has been channelling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

The Gaza health ministry said hundreds of Palestinians have been killedtrying to reach GHF sites since late May.

The United Nations rejects the GHF delivery system as inadequate, dangerous and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. Israel says it is needed to prevent Hamas fighters from diverting aid, which Hamas denies.

On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed 3 million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.

The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis.

The Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Thursday that more than 1 million people were without adequate shelter, saying equipment such as tents and tarpaulins had been blocked by Israel from entering since March 1.

Nawajha returned empty-handed on Wednesday from her journey to find food, flopping down exhausted on the dusty ground outside the tent in Gaza City, where she has been displaced and sheltering with her family.

She and her sister have been camping by the road for the past 20 days. They say they try to force their way into the distribution site where trucks carrying aid arrive, but are often outmuscled by men, who sometimes fight over sacks of flour coming off U.N. trucks.

"(When) there is no food, as you can see, children start crying and getting angry," said Nawajha. "When we are for three, four kilometres or more on our legs... Oh my... our feet are bruised and our shoes are torn off."

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin reveals pitfalls of potential meeting with Zelensky

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he could meet with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to conduct peace talks between the two countries, but expressed doubt regarding Zelensky’s authority to sign a treaty.

Zelensky has repeatedly called for a meeting with Putin, claiming that he alone can resolve key bilateral issues, including territorial disputes.

Speaking late Wednesday with international media at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Russian president reiterated Moscow’s concerns about Zelensky’s legitimacy.

”If the Ukrainian state entrusts someone to negotiate on its behalf, suit yourself, let it be Zelensky,” Putin said. “The question is, who will sign the document?”

Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year, and no successor has been elected due to martial law. Zelensky insists that he has the right to remain in office, even though the Ukrainian Constitution calls for the transfer of presidential powers to the speaker of the parliament.

”Propagandistically, one can say anything about the legitimacy of the current authorities, but we care about legal aspects and not propaganda when dealing with serious issues,” Putin said.

He added that since Ukrainian officials are appointed by the president, Zelensky’s questionable legitimacy calls into question the authority of those serving under him.

We don’t care who conducts negotiations, even if it is the head of the regime. I am even willing to meet with him for some final phase, where we won’t be spending endless amounts of time divvying things but would just put a stop to it all.

”But the signature must come from legitimate authorities,” Putin stressed. “Otherwise, whoever comes after him will toss it to the dumpster. That’s not a way to conduct serious business.”

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy appoints new commander of Ukraine's land forces

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed Hennadiy Shapovalov as commander of Ukraine's land forces, replacing a commander who resigned over a Russian strike on a training area.

Shapovalov, whose appointment was announced in a presidential decree, had previously acted as a liaison at a NATO coordination centre in Germany. Before that, he had served as commander of the forces of the Operational Command South.

Zelenskiy, speaking later in his nightly video address, said Shapovalov's experience in working with NATO would be put to good use in introducing changes in Ukraine's forces.

"All this useful experience of this coordination and all the real combat experience of our soldiers must be applied now within Ukraine's land forces," he said.

"Changes are needed and this is an imperative."

Shapovalov takes over as head of land forces from Mykhailo Drapatyi, who tendered his resignation this month after a deadly Russian strike on a training camp in southeastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy reassigned Drapatyi to the post of commander of the joint forces as part of a military shakeup.

RT/Reuters

On paper, it looked like a mismatch. Iran is not only one of the oldest and most established places in the Persian Gulf but also at least 75 times the size of Israel, with a population nine to ten times larger. Size for size, it’s a modern-day David and Goliath match-up, with ancient history squarely on Iran’s side.

At the height of its reign, especially under Cyrus the Great (545-525 BC), the Persian Empire, modern-day Iran, extended as far as Egypt, and its military might was unassailable. In more contemporary times, Iran defended itself against the aggression of Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

Sudden tide

Yet, since June 12, when Israel struck Iran’s nuclear site and killed at least 14 atomic scientists and 16 top military officers, Iran’s response has been something of a damp squib. A leaked intelligence report by the White House suggests that, but for President Donald Trump’s intervention, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, might have been killed in the recent Israeli strike.

In response, a barrage of Iranian missiles was fired on Tel Aviv and Haifa, with civilian casualties. This has been perhaps the most significant dent on Israel’s defence system in the last five decades. However, the response has been far below the notion of Iran as a nation of warriors and the potential nemesis of its precocious neighbour, especially after the fall of Syria’s Hafez al-Assad.

Things got so bad for Tehran that, at one point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even claimed that Israel was “in full control of the Iranian skies,” a claim that Tehran could not deny.

What happened?

How did mighty Iran lose its military footing so calamitously, so quickly? The weakening of Iran’s military strength is not as sudden as it appears.

It is the result of years of isolation and economic sanctions, driven mainly by three suspicions: One, that the Shia variety of Islam (and its allied franchises) subscribed to by Iran’s ruling elite is the mainstay of radical and extremist terror groups; two, that it is the main sponsor of at least two radical Islamic groups and arch-enemies of Israel – Hamas (in the Gaza) and Hezbollah (in Lebanon); and three, that its nuclear enrichment programme is not for peace, but for war.

All three points are interlinked, and by 2015, the lack of progress on the third one was the beginning of economic sanctions by the US, Britain and France, amongst others, targeting and undermining Iran’s receipts from oil sales and weakening its economy.

But Iran remained a major military force despite the sanctions. It cultivated closer ties with China and Russia, made desperate attempts to diversify its economy and used fronts to sell its oil.

Burden of history

All this time, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted to strike. He pressured the US to tighten the screw on Tehran and maybe back a pre-emptive Israeli strike, but his repeated claim that Iran was only “months, years, or even weeks” from the final stages of getting the bomb, fell on a sceptical, if not indifferent, Democratic White House.

After the debacle in Iraq, where the US lost over 900 troops and spent over $2 trillion based on faulty intelligence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, no Democratic president, whether Barack Obama or Joe Biden, had the appetite for another full-scale war in the Persian Gulf without a convincing reason.

Then, two things changed that changed the dynamics of power and politics in the Persian Gulf. Hamas, long regarded as Iran’s proxy, attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and abducting 250. This act of terror not only transformed moderate elements in Israeli politics, but it also further hardened extremists like Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas and Hezbollah and make Iran pay a heavy price.

Trump factor

When Donald Trump was elected president, one year after the Israeli-Hamas war broke out, the US president’s brand of tweet-and-deal-making diplomacy, not to mention his close ties with Netanyahu, meant that Iran was on very thin ice. The stalemate in negotiations between Iran and the nuclear inspectors, including the expulsion of the veteran IAEA officials, further raised suspicions about Iran’s claims that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes.

Yet some argued that Tehran’s reluctance to cooperate and its rigmarole were merely bargaining chips to ease sanctions and repair its moribund economy, that it was still a long way from the bomb.

Even though the Wall Street Journal reported recently that US intelligence still doubts Netanyahu’s claims of a smoking gun over Iran’s nuclear enrichment, Tehran appears to have exhausted its card, and the days of the old regime may be numbered.

Pre-emptive or not?

With President Trump mulling direct US involvement in the war, I asked a source in the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Monday if this was a pre-emptive strike, a move that the Nigerian government had condemned in a statement during the week.

“It is not a pre-emptive strike,” the source replied. “It is a targeted military operation to remove a concrete threat after the pre-established period of negotiations has elapsed. The objectives have been set: the nuclear programme and the ballistic capabilities.”

What has changed

Here is how Israel systematically weakened and significantly degraded Iran’s military capacity, especially in the last two years, forcing the mullahs in Tehran to shelter behind the veil in what may prove to be a decisive new phase in the war in one of the world’s most troubled regions.

One, Iran’s regional allies – Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Bashar Hafez al-Assad in Syria – have either been neutralised, rooted out or forced to flee. The pager attack by Israel on Hezbollah members and affiliates in Lebanon and Syria last September was particularly devastating. At least 13 members of the group were killed, while Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was injured, revealing a major breach in Hezbollah’s security, causing panic in high places in Iran.

Although the Houthis have occasionally threatened security in the region, they have also been significantly contained or dispersed, making Iran even more isolated and vulnerable.

Two, apart from the losses in the ranks of its proxies, Israel has also carried out precise strikes on Iran’s military leadership, assassinating ranking members of Iran’s military, including the Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, who is only a heartbeat from the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The country’s air defence system has been degraded, and even though it has managed to fire hundreds of missiles toward Israel, their potency and impact have been largely limited.

Three, the economic sanctions have limited Tehran’s ability to modernise its military, while support from its main ally, Russia, has been curtailed by Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine, leaving Tehran largely on its own.

Unlikely mediators

It’s an irony that, in its moment of travail, Iran is now looking to Qatar and Egypt, two countries that it has long despised, for mediation with Israel and the US. Netanyahu still has to answer for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and hopefully, that should keep him on a tight leash in his next conquest.

After centuries of military, cultural and geopolitical conquests, is the sun finally about to set on the “Gunpowder Empire?” Or is there still one magic spell left under the mullahs’ turban?

** Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.

Few things make your heart race quite like spotting a snake slithering nearby. Whether you live near the woods, in a quiet suburb, or even on a farm, snakes don’t really care about your ZIP code.

If they find shelter, food, or water in or around your home, they’ll move right in. The worst part? You might not even realize they’re there—until it’s too late. But don’t panic just yet. Snakes usually give off subtle signs before they make a full-blown appearance. If you pay attention, you might just spot the red flags early. So here are a few warning signs that could mean a snake is lurking near your house.

Shed snake skin

Let’s start with the most obvious clue: shed skin.

Snakes regularly shed their skin as they grow. If you spot a papery, translucent snake skin in your garden, attic, garage, or near water pipes, it means one thing—a snake has been there recently. The skin often looks like a crumpled plastic sleeve and is usually found near rocks, woodpiles, or in dark corners where they hide. It’s nature’s version of a calling card.

Slither tracks in dust or mud

If you’ve got a dusty garage floor, muddy garden beds, or sandy pathways around the house, look closely.

Slither marks or wave-like trails can indicate that a snake has recently passed through. These tracks usually look like a side-to-side "S" pattern. Not all animals leave prints—some leave glides.

Strange pet behavior

Your pets often know before you do. Dogs might start barking or growling at a particular spot in the yard or home, while cats may appear overly curious or hissy around certain areas. If your pet is fixated on a dark corner, bush, or under the porch and won't leave it alone, take the hint.

They could be detecting movement or scent that’s invisible to you.

Sudden decline in rodents or frogs

If your backyard used to have lots of mice, rats, frogs, or lizards—and suddenly you’re seeing none—that might not be good news. Snakes are natural predators. They’ll hang around as long as the food supply is strong. And if the prey has mysteriously disappeared, there’s a good chance the predator is still nearby, full and hiding.

Unusual droppings

Snake droppings are rare to spot, but they’re very distinct. They’re dark and mushy with a white tip (that’s the uric acid snakes excrete). You might find these in garages, sheds, or corners of your yard. Unlike dog or cat poop, they don’t usually have a regular shape. If you're seeing strange droppings and it’s clearly not from your pet, keep your eyes peeled.

Hissing or rustling sounds

Snakes are quiet—until they’re not. Some species hiss or make a low growling sound when threatened. More commonly, you might hear rustling in dry leaves, bushes, or ceilings, especially at dawn or dusk when snakes tend to be more active.

If you hear something that sounds like dry leaves shifting but there’s no wind—investigate, carefully.

Snake holes or burrows

Snakes don’t always dig their own holes, but they’ll gladly move into abandoned rodent tunnels, termite holes, or compost piles. These snake “doorways” are usually found near foundations, under sheds, or in overgrown parts of your yard. If you spot a small, round, smooth-edged hole in the soil, don’t go poking around with your fingers.

Nesting materials in strange places

This one’s especially important if you have firewood stacks, hay bales, or piles of unused building materials. Snakes love hiding in warm, undisturbed places. If you start to notice nesting material—shredded paper, dry leaves, or straw—in tight spaces you haven’t touched in a while, be cautious. Even though snakes don’t build nests like birds, they’ll hide in places where other animals have nested before.

Water sources around the house

Do you have bird baths, koi ponds, leaky hoses, or rainwater collectors? These are not just hydration stations for birds and bugs—they’re snake magnets.

Especially in hot climates or during dry seasons, snakes will travel in search of water. If your backyard is their version of an oasis, you might be welcoming more than just butterflies.

You've seen one—there might be more

This seems obvious, but people often underestimate it. If you’ve seen even one snake, especially a juvenile, there might be more. Some snake species lay dozens of eggs at once. Others give birth to live young. A single snake sighting could mean you’re near a nesting site, and that’s not something to ignore.

So, what should you do if you notice these signs?

First, don’t panic. Not all snakes are dangerous, and many are actually helpful—keeping rats, pests, and insects in check. But if you suspect a venomous snake or just don’t want any uninvited reptiles around, here’s what you can do:

• Seal up cracks and holes around your home’s foundation.
• Trim bushes, grass, and shrubs regularly. Tall vegetation is a snake’s playground.
• Keep firewood and building materials off the ground and away from walls.
• Avoid leaving pet food outside, which could attract rodents and, in turn, snakes.
• If you spot a snake, don’t try to handle it yourself—call animal control or a licensed snake removal expert.

Stay alert, not afraid

Snakes aren’t out to get you. They’re usually just looking for food, water, or shelter—and your cozy backyard might be checking all their boxes. The good news? They often leave behind signs that they’ve moved in. So a little precaution goes a long way. remember not to panic if you find signs, instead call an animal control centre or an expert.

By learning to spot the clues early, you can prevent a close encounter and keep your home and family safe—without freaking out or reaching for a shovel.

Stay alert, stay calm, and when in doubt, call in the pros.

Times of India

In a significant move to stem the tide of Nigeria’s massive crude oil theft and opacity in the petroleum sector, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has unveiled new guidelines aimed at tightening control over the country’s crude oil and petroleum product exports.

Announced on Wednesday, the new regime—formally known as the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Advance Cargo Declaration Regulation 2024—seeks to establish a comprehensive framework for real-time declaration, verification, and tracking of every shipment of crude oil and related products leaving Nigerian shores.

The NUPRC said the measure is designed to ensure that only certified, accurately measured, and government-sanctioned cargoes are exported—an attempt to seal the leakages that have cost Nigeria billions of dollars in stolen and undeclared oil over the years.

Under the new system, exporters must now secure an export permit, vessel clearance, and a Unique Identification Number (UIN) through a dedicated online portal operated by the Commission. All export documents, including the Bill of Lading, Certificate of Origin, and cargo manifest, must reference this UIN to ensure traceability throughout the export chain.

“The guidelines will help monitor and account for crude oil movement, prevent under-declaration at terminals, and strengthen revenue collection,” said NUPRC Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe. He added that the reforms are in line with the Commission’s mandate under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 to curb revenue loss, maximise government income, and enforce full regulatory oversight.

The declaration portal will integrate with other government export systems, allowing for real-time tracking, documentation within 24 hours of cargo loading, and end-to-end transparency. The Commission also retains the right to reject any export applications with incomplete or falsified information and impose fines or sanctions on violators.

This regulatory overhaul comes against the backdrop of persistent reports of industrial-scale oil theft, often involving a network of colluding insiders, security operatives, and international actors. Nigeria has, for decades, suffered from crude oil losses estimated at hundreds of thousands of barrels per day, undermining national revenue, weakening the naira, and deepening public distrust in the management of its most vital resource.

By introducing these digital verification and control measures, the NUPRC appears to be acknowledging that the old manual, loosely monitored export system enabled widespread looting and under-reporting. Whether these reforms can overcome entrenched interests and bring about true accountability remains to be seen, but the Commission insists this is a “significant step toward a more transparent, efficient and integrity-driven oil export regime in Nigeria.”

As Nigeria grapples with alarming hunger and poverty levels highlighted by the World Bank and other international institutions, a new report has exposed the staggering rise in food prices since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May 2023 — underscoring the worsening plight of millions of Nigerians.

The report, released on Wednesday by Connected Development (CODE), revealed that the prices of key staples such as beans, rice, yam, maize, and garri have more than doubled in the past two years. Sourced from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, the 2024 Annual Report titled “The Year of Active Citizen” paints a bleak picture of soaring inflation, vanishing food affordability, and mounting hardship.

According to the report, the price of white beans — a vital protein source for poor households — has skyrocketed by 272.84%, rising from ₦622 to ₦2,319 per derica between May 2023 and May 2025. Local rice, another dietary staple, rose by 139.94%, from ₦1,387 to ₦3,328 per derica. Yam prices have jumped by 204.5%, now selling at ₦1,151 per tuber, up from ₦378. White maize grain increased by 192.7%, from ₦318 to ₦930.79, while garri climbed by 130.54%, from ₦2,129 to ₦4,908.

These hikes come amid a broader economic crisis marked by currency freefall, fuel subsidy removal, and the ripple effects of global supply shocks — all of which have pushed more Nigerians below the poverty line. Recent World Bank assessments warned that more than 104 million Nigerians are at risk of food insecurity, with child malnutrition on the rise and household consumption collapsing under the weight of inflation.

What was once a daily meal for the average family is fast becoming unaffordable, even for the working class. Beans and garri, once considered “foods of the poor,” are now luxury items in many homes. In some regions, families have been forced to cut meals to one per day, or resort to nutritionally inferior substitutes.

CODE’s report highlights not just the collapse of purchasing power, but also the erosion of dignity in daily survival. “We tracked market prices to provide evidence-based data on the cost of living. The numbers speak for themselves — Nigerians are facing a full-blown food crisis,” the report noted.

While government officials tout reforms and long-term economic strategies, the statistics reveal a population sinking deeper into poverty with little immediate relief. For many Nigerians, the problem is no longer about economic growth projections — it’s about eating today.

As hunger tightens its grip across the country, the report underscores a critical warning: unless urgent and targeted interventions are made — including food security policies, price stabilization efforts, and direct support to vulnerable households — the human cost of Nigeria’s economic transition may prove catastrophic.

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) distributed N1.65 trillion among Nigeria’s federal, state, and local governments for May 2025, marking a N30 billion decrease from April’s N1.68 trillion allocation.

The allocation figures were announced following FAAC’s June 2025 meeting, chaired by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun. Mohammed Manga, Director of Information and Public Relations at the Ministry of Finance, confirmed the details in a statement released Wednesday.

Revenue Sources and Distribution

The N1.65 trillion distribution came from a total gross revenue of N2.94 trillion collected during May. The distributable revenue consisted of:

- Statutory Revenue: N863.89 billion

- Value-Added Tax (VAT): N691.71 billion

- Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL): N27.66 billion

- Exchange Difference: N76.61 billion

The three tiers of government received their allocations as follows:

- Federal Government: N538 billion

- State Governments: N577.84 billion

- Local Governments: N419.96 billion

- Oil-Producing States (derivation fund): N124.07 billion

Additional allocations included N111.90 billion for collection costs and N1.17 trillion for transfers, interventions, and refunds.

VAT Revenue Shows Strong Growth

VAT collections demonstrated robust performance in May, generating N742.82 billion compared to N642.26 billion in April—an increase of N100.56 billion. After deducting N29.71 billion for collection costs and N21.39 billion for transfers and refunds, the remaining N691.71 billion was shared among the government tiers.

From the VAT revenue, the federal government received N103.75 billion, states got N345.85 billion, and local governments were allocated N242.10 billion.

Statutory Revenue Breakdown

Gross statutory revenue of N2.09 trillion for May exceeded April’s N2.08 trillion by N10.02 billion. After setting aside N81.042 billion for collection costs and N1.149 trillion for transfers and refunds, N863.89 billion remained for distribution:

- Federal government: N393.51 billion

- State governments: N199.59 billion

- Local governments: N153.88 billion

- Derivation revenue for mineral-producing states: N116.89 billion

Other Revenue Streams

The EMTL generated N28.82 billion, distributed as follows: federal government (N4.15 billion), states (N13.83 billion), and local governments (N9.68 billion), with N1.15 billion allocated for collection costs.

Exchange difference revenue of N76.61 billion was shared among the federal government (N36.57 billion), states (N18.55 billion), local governments (N14.30 billion), and oil-producing states (N7.17 billion).

Revenue Performance Mixed

The committee reported significant increases in company income tax, VAT, and import duty collections. However, petroleum profit tax, CET levies, oil and gas royalties, and EMTL showed decreases, while excise duty recorded only marginal growth.

Consumer goods multinational PZ Cussons Plc is making a full retreat from Nigeria’s palm oil sector, selling its 50% stake in PZ Wilmar Limited to joint venture partner Wilmar International for $70 million in cash. The move brings an end to a 15-year partnership that launched one of Nigeria’s biggest players in the edible oil market.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the company confirmed that the transaction—which remains subject to regulatory approvals—is expected to be completed by the final quarter of 2025. Once concluded, Singapore-based Wilmar International will assume full ownership of PZ Wilmar and rebrand the company under a new name to be announced later.

PZ Wilmar is the producer of leading Nigerian cooking oil brands Mamador and Devon King’s, and also owns minority stakes in two palm plantations majority-controlled by Wilmar. The joint venture was established in 2010 as part of an ambitious plan to rebuild Nigeria’s once-thriving palm oil industry.

Commenting on the exit, PZ Cussons CEO Jonathan Myers said, “Our joint venture with Wilmar in Nigeria has been a long-term and rewarding partnership. I want to thank Wilmar’s leadership and our PZ Wilmar employees for their immense contributions. This transition allows PZ Cussons to sharpen focus on its core strengths in hygiene, baby, and beauty products.”

Wilmar’s Chairman and CEO, Kuok Khoon Hong, reiterated the group’s long-term commitment to Nigeria. “We remain bullish on Nigeria’s palm oil sector. With a population of over 200 million, a growing middle class, and strong agricultural potential, Nigeria is a strategic market for us,” he said.

Despite gaining full control of PZ Wilmar, Wilmar disclosed it is open to partnering with strong local players to support its Nigerian operations going forward. The company is expected to continue developing both upstream (palm plantations) and downstream (consumer goods) aspects of its business in Nigeria.

This exit underscores a broader shift by PZ Cussons to concentrate on its global core business segments amid a challenging operating environment in Nigeria. While PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc was never a shareholder in PZ Wilmar and remains unaffected by the sale, the decision signals the end of an era for the British company’s ambitions in Nigeria’s palm oil revival.

The development also reflects a growing trend of foreign companies reassessing their exposure to Nigeria’s volatile business climate—characterised by currency depreciation, regulatory uncertainties, and high operating costs—while leaving the door open for more risk-tolerant or regionally integrated players like Wilmar to deepen their footprint.

Fear stalks Tehran as Israel bombards, shelters fill up and communicating grows harder

The streets of Tehran are empty, businesses closed, communications patchy at best. With no bona fide bomb shelters open to the public, panicked masses spend restless nights on the floors of metro stations as strikes boom overhead.

This is Iran’s capital city, just under a week into a fierce Israeli blitz to destroy the country’s nuclear program and its military capabilities. After knocking out much of Iran’s air defense system, Israel says its warplanes have free rein over the city’s skies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told Tehran’s roughly 10 million residents to evacuate “immediately.”

Thousands have fled, spending hours in gridlock as they head toward the suburbs, the Caspian Sea, or even Armenia or Turkey. But others — those elderly and infirm — are stuck in high-rise apartment buildings. Their relatives fret: what to do?

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded over 1,300, a human rights group says. State media, also a target of bombardment, have stopped reporting on the attacks, leaving Iranians in the dark. There are few visible signs of state authority: Police appear largely undercover, air raid sirens are unreliable, and there’s scant information on what to do in case of attack.

Shirin, 49, who lives in the southern part of Tehran, said every call or text to friends and family in recent days has felt like it could be the last.

“We don’t know if tomorrow we will be alive,” she said.

Many Iranians feel conflicted. Some support Israel’s targeting of Iranian political and military officials they see as repressive. Others staunchly defend the Islamic Republic and retaliatory strikes on Israel. Then, there are those who oppose Iran’s rulers — but still don’t want to see their country bombed.

To stay, or to go?

The Associated Press interviewed five people in Iran and one Iranian American in the U.S. over the phone. All spoke either on the condition of anonymity or only allowed their first names to be used, for fear of retribution from the state against them or their families.

Most of the calls ended abruptly and within minutes, cutting off conversations as people grew nervous — or because the connection dropped. Iran’s government has acknowledged disrupting internet access. It says it’s to protect the country, though that has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world.

Iranians in the diaspora wait anxiously for news from relatives. One, an Iranian American human rights researcher in the U.S., said he last heard from relatives when some were trying to flee Tehran earlier in the week. He believes that lack of gas and traffic prevented them from leaving.

The most heartbreaking interaction, he said, was when his older cousins — with whom he grew up in Iran — told him “we don’t know where to go. If we die, we die.”

“Their sense was just despair,” he said.

Some families have made the decision to split up.

A 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has lived in Iran for four years said he stayed behind in Tehran but sent his wife and newborn son out of the city after a strike Monday hit a nearby pharmacy.

“It was a very bad shock for them,” he said.

Some, like Shirin, said fleeing was not an option. The apartment buildings in Tehran are towering and dense. Her father has Alzheimer’s and needs an ambulance to move. Her mother’s severe arthritis would make even a short trip extremely painful.

Still, hoping escape might be possible, she spent the last several days trying to gather their medications. Her brother waited at a gas station until 3 a.m., only to be turned away when the fuel ran out. As of Monday, gas was being rationed to under 20 liters (5 gallons) per driver at stations across Iran after an Israeli strike set fire to the world’s largest gas field.

Some people, like Arshia, said they are just tired.

“I don’t want to go in traffic for 40 hours, 30 hours, 20 hours, just to get to somewhere that might get bombed eventually,” he said.

The 22-year-old has been staying in the house with his parents since the initial Israeli strike. He said his once-lively neighborhood of Saadat Abad in northwestern Tehran is now a ghost town. Schools are closed. Very few people even step outside to walk their dogs. Most local stores have run out of drinking water and cooking oil. Others closed.

Still, Arshia said the prospect of finding a new place is too daunting.

“We don’t have the resources to leave at the moment,” he said.

Residents are on their own

No air raid sirens went off as Israeli strikes began pounding Tehran before dawn Friday. For many, it was an early sign civilians would have to go it alone.

During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Tehran was a low-slung city, many homes had basements to shelter in, and there were air raid drills and sirens. Now the capital is packed with close-built high-rise apartments without shelters.

“It’s a kind of failing of the past that they didn’t build shelters,” said a 29-year-old Tehran resident who left the city Monday. “Even though we’ve been under the shadow of a war, as long as I can remember.”

Her friend’s boyfriend was killed while going to the store.

“You don’t really expect your boyfriend — or your anyone, really — to leave the house and never return when they just went out for a routine normal shopping trip,” she said.

Those who choose to relocate do so without help from the government. The state has said it is opening mosques, schools and metro stations for use as shelters. Some are closed, others overcrowded.

Hundreds crammed into one Tehran metro station Friday night. Small family groups lay on the floor. One student, a refugee from another country, said she spent 12 hours in the station with her relatives.

“Everyone there was panicking because of the situation,” she said. “Everyone doesn’t know what will happen next, if there is war in the future and what they should do. People think nowhere is safe for them.”

Soon after leaving the station, she saw that Israel had warned a swath of Tehran to evacuate.

“For immigrant communities, this is so hard to live in this kind of situation,” she said, explaining she feels like she has nowhere to escape to — especially not her home country, which she asked not be identified.

Fear of Iran mingles with fear of Israel

For Shirin, the hostilities are bittersweet. Despite being against the theocracy and its treatment of women, the idea that Israel may determine the future does not sit well with her.

“As much as we want the end of this regime, we didn’t want it to come at the hands of a foreign government,” she said. “We would have preferred that if there were to be a change, it would be the result of a people’s movement in Iran.”

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old who left Tehran had an even more basic message for those outside Iran:

“I just want people to remember that whatever is happening here, it’s not routine business for us. People’s lives here — people’s livelihoods — feel as important to them as they feel to anyone in any other place. How would you feel if your city or your country was under bombardment by another country, and people were dying left and right?”

“We are kind of like, this can’t be happening. This can’t be my life.”

** Iran’s leader warns of ‘irreparable damage’ if Trump attacks

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected U.S. calls for surrender in the face of blistering Israeli strikes and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage” to them.

“Wise individuals who know Iran, its people, and its history never speak to this nation with the language of threats, because the Iranian nation is not one to surrender,” he said in the low-resolution video, his voice echoing. An Iranian diplomat had earlier warned that U.S. intervention would risk “all-out war.”

What to know:

• Senior European diplomats to hold nuclear talks with Iran Friday:The high-ranking diplomats from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union’s top diplomat will gather for the meeting in Switzerland, according to a European official familiar with the plans. The meeting comes as U.S. President Donald Trump weighs whether to directly involve the nation’s military in the conflict.
• Iran says it will keep enriching uranium: Israel says it launched the strikes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, after talks between the United States and Iran over a diplomatic resolution had made little visible progress over two months but were still ongoing. Trump has said Israel’s campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.
• Casualties mount in Iran: Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel. The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, cross-checks local reports against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

** US starts evacuating some diplomats from its embassy in Israel as Iran conflict intensifies

The State Department has begun evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the U.S. embassy in Israel as hostilities between Israel and Iran intensify and President Donald Trump warns of the possibility of getting directly involved in the conflict.

A government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave the country Wednesday, two U.S. officials said. That came shortly before U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuation flights and ships for private American citizens.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic movements.

“Given the ongoing situation and as part of the embassy’s authorized departure status, mission personnel have begun departing Israel through a variety of means,” the State Department said.

“Authorized departure” means that nonessential staff and the families of all personnel are eligible to leave at government expense.

There was no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight or how many may have left by land routes to Jordan or Egypt.

The evacuations, comments from the White House and shifting of American military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East have heightened the possibility of deepening U.S. involvement in a conflict that threatens to spill into a wider regional war.

Trump has issued increasingly pointed warnings about the U.S. joining Israel in striking at Iran’s nuclear program, saying Wednesday that he doesn’t want to carry out a U.S. strike on the Islamic Republic but suggesting he is ready to act if it’s necessary.

The State Department also has steadily ramped up its warnings to American citizens in Israel and throughout the region, including in Iraq.

Last week, ahead of Israel’s first strikes on Iran, the department and the Pentagon put out notices announcing that the U.S. embassy in Baghdad had ordered all nonessential personnel to leave and that the Defense Department had “authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East.

Those warnings have increased as the conflict has intensified, with the embassy in Jerusalem authorizing the departure of nonessential staff and families over the weekend and ordering remaining personnel to shelter in place until further notice.

The embassy has been closed since Monday and will remain shut through Friday.

AP

Israeli attacks kill 140 in Gaza in 24 hours, medics say, as focus shifts to Iran

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 140 people across Gaza in the past 24 hours, local health officials said, as some Palestinians in the Strip said their plight was being forgotten as attention has shifted to the air warbetween Israel and Iran.

At least 40 of those killed over the past day died as a result of Israeli gunfire and airstrikes on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on the territory.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp, the Zeitoun neighbourhood and Gaza City killed at least 21 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on an encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Fourteen more people were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

Asked about the Salahuddin road incident, the Israel Defense Forces said that despite repeated warnings that the area was an active combat zone, individuals approached troops operating in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip in a manner that posed a threat to forces.

Troops fired warning shots, it said, adding that it was unaware of injuries. Regarding other strikes, the IDF said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" while taking "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked due to the new Israel-Iran conflict.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel is now channelling much of the aid into Gaza through a new U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private U.S. security and logistics firms and operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

Israel has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring it doesn't get to Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid "a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness", in a post on X on Wednesday.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

Israel's subsequent military assault has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The World Food Programme called on Wednesday for a big increase in food distribution in Gaza, saying that the 9,000 metric tons it had dispatched over the last four weeks inside Gaza represented a "tiny fraction" of what was needed.

"The fear of starvation and desperate need for food is causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit," the WFP said in a statement.

"Any violence resulting in starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable," it added.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten."

Reuters