Israel and Hamas have been at war in Gaza for 100 days since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group ran amok in southern Israel, prompting a fierce Israeli military campaign in which almost 24,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Following is a timeline of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.

Oct. 7, 2023: Hamas gunmen storm into southern Israel from Gaza and rampage through communities, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war and retaliatory airstrikes on densely populated Gaza begin, along with a total siege of the coastal enclave, which is squeezed between Israel and Egypt.

Oct. 8: Lebanon's Hezbollah, like Hamas an Iranian ally, begins cross-border shelling attacks against Israel that will continue throughout the war, drawing Israeli counter-strikes.

Oct. 13: Israel tells residents of Gaza City, where more than 1 million of the enclave's 2.3 million people live, to evacuate and move south. Over the course of the next weeks, Israel will push for the evacuation of the entire north. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans will flee their homes, beginning a process that will soon uproot nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip, with families often forced to flee several times as Israeli forces advance.

Oct. 17: An explosion at al-Ahli al-Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza City triggers outrage in the Arab world. Palestinians say hundreds died and blame the blast on an Israeli airstrike; Israel says it was caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket, an assertion later backed by Washington.

The blast overshadows a visit the following day to the region by U.S. President Joe Biden, whose planned summit with Arab leaders is called off. In Israel, Biden gives full support to its right to defend itself but also tells Israelis not to be blinded by their anger.

Oct. 19: A U.S. navy warship intercepts missiles and drones launched from Yemen over the Red Sea in the direction of Israel. Yemen's Houthi group, like Hamas an Iranian ally, will continue sporadic long-range attacks on Israel and against Red Sea shipping in what is describes as solidarity with Gaza.

Oct. 21: Aid trucks are allowed through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza after days of diplomatic wrangling. It is only a small fraction of what is required in Gaza, where food, water, medicines and fuel are running out. The issue of securing adequate supplies through Israel's blockade persists through coming months as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

Oct. 27: A week after mounting limited incursions, Israel launches a broad ground offensive in Gaza, beginning with an assault on the north, vowing to free all its hostages and eradicate Hamas.

Oct. 31: Fifteen Israeli soldiers are killed in Gaza fighting - the military's biggest single-day losses of the war.

Nov. 1: Evacuations begin from Gaza through the Rafah crossing for an estimated 7,000 foreign passport-holders, dual nationals and their dependents, and people needing urgent medical treatment. The overwhelming majority of Gaza residents still have no way out of the enclave.

Nov. 9: Israel says a drone launched from Syrian territory hit its southern city of Eilat. The next day, the Israeli military said it attacked the militia responsible. Israel will later say Syria is among new fronts in the expanding Gaza war.

Nov. 15: Israeli troops enter Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa in Gaza City, after a siege of several days during which medical staff say patients including newborn babies died from a lack of power and supplies. The Israelis say the hospital had been used to conceal an underground headquarters for Hamas fighters, which staff deny. The military later takes media on a tour of a tunnel there. Within a few more weeks, all hospitals serving the northern half of Gaza will have ceased functioning.

Nov. 21: Israel and Hamas announce the first truce of the war: an agreement to pause fighting for four days to exchange women and children hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian women and teenagers detained or jailed by Israel on security grounds, and allow in more aid.

The ceasefire would eventually be extended for a week in total, freeing 105 hostages and about 240 Palestinian detainees, before it collapses and war resumes on Dec. 1.

Around Dec. 4: Days after the truce expires, Israeli forces launch their first big ground assault in southern Gaza, on the outskirts of the main southern city, Khan Younis. International organisations say the next phase of the war, which extends the military campaign from the north to the entire length of the enclave including areas already sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people, will drastically worsen the humanitarian situation.

Dec. 12: Biden says Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza is costing it international support, a clear shift in rhetoric from Israel's closest ally, the United States. Over the coming weeks, several senior U.S. officials visit Israel, urging it to do more to protect civilians, scale down the war, and shift to a more targeted campaign against Hamas leaders.

Dec. 15: Israeli forces mistakenly kill three hostages in Gaza. The incident leads to some of the most pronounced criticism of the conduct of the war within Israel, although the campaign still has widespread domestic support.

Dec. 22: The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed militia, says it launched a long-range attack on Israel. Israel reports no impact. Israel's defence minister later says Iraq is among regional fronts to which the Gaza war has expanded.

Around Dec. 26: Israeli forces launch a major ground assault on areas in the central Gaza Strip, preceded by a campaign of airstrikes that again sends hundreds of thousands of people to flight, most of them already displaced.

From Jan. 1, 2024: Israel signals it will start withdrawing some troops from Gaza in a more targeted new phase of its campaign that it says will last for many months. Officials say this transition in tactics will begin in the north of Gaza, while intense fighting continues in southern areas.

Jan. 11: U.S. and British warplanes, ships and submarines launch dozens of airstrikes across Yemen in retaliation against Houthi forces for their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The United States carries out another strike in Yemen the following day. The Houthis say five of their fighters were killed in the initial strikes, and that they will retaliate and continue their attacks on shipping.

Also on Jan. 11, the International Court of Justice hears opening statements in a case in which South Africa accuses Israel of committing a state-led genocide campaign against the Palestinian population. Israel denies the accusation.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches hypersonic missiles at Ukrainian targets – MOD

Russian forces have launched a major strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. The attack involved long-range high-precision weapons, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and also drones.

The targets included facilities producing 155mm, 152mm and 125mm shells for Ukrainian tanks and artillery as well as drone workshops and gunpowder factories, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram. All the targets were successfully hit and the goal of the strike was achieved, it added.

The Defense Ministry did not disclose the exact number of targets, their locations, or the number of projectiles used.

Ukrainian media have claimed that Russian forces launched around 40 missiles. They reported damage in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnepr in Ukraine) and the northern Sumsky region, while claiming that half of the projectiles failed to reach their targets.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed it shot down eight missiles out of 40. Kiev’s military also stated that around 20 projectiles that were not technically downed still supposedly failed to reach their targets due to “active electronic warfare operations.” The Ukrainian media reported that the Russian strikes hit targets in seven different regions. An air defense alert was issued in all provinces of Ukraine, the reports added.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that its forces only attack military targets or linked infrastructure.

The bombardment came just days after Ukrainian forces struck the Russian city of Belgorod, leaving three people injured.

Belgorod Region borders Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, and has been under sporadic shelling by Kiev’s artillery for months. Ukraine has carried out almost continual long-range rocket attacks since December 30, when missiles with cluster warheads struck a holiday market in the center of Belgorod, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The December 30 strikes claimed the lives of at least 25 civilians, including five children, while more than 100 were injured, according to local authorities. Moscow condemned what it called a terrorist attack on civilians celebrating New Year.

Russia has responded to the Belgorod massacre by repeatedly striking Ukrainian military-industrial complex sites, missile and ammunition warehouses, and depots of equipment sent to Kiev by the US and its allies.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine attacked overnight by 40 Russian missiles, drones, air force says

Ukraine suffered a large Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, while its air defences were able to down a far lower proportion of them than usual.

According to Ukraine's air force, Russia launched 37 missiles and three drones. Eight missiles were downed, it said in a statement on social media.

The air force's spokesperson said earlier this week that Ukraine was now suffering from a deficit of air defence missiles. It was not immediately clear whether this or any other factor was the reason for the low hit rate.

Most of the types of missile used overnight were extremely fast-moving ballistic types, the air force said. These are far harder to shoot down.

"It should be noted that more than 20 of all the listed (weapons) which were not included in the number of the downed, did not reach their targets as a result of active countermeasures by electronic warfare," the statement said.

There were no details on the targets of the strike.

Air defences shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces.

The large south-eastern city of Dnipro was struck, the local governor said, also without providing detail as to what was hit.

Police in the northern region of Chernihiv posted a picture of a large crater made by a downed missile.

"As a result of being hit by the debris of an enemy missile, several private homes and non-residential buildings were damaged, one building was practically destroyed," the police wrote. No people were hurt but a dog was killed, police said.

RT/Reuters

The “Edan” is a Yoruba Ogboni cult insignia, an emblem of membership in the Ogboni society. It is a cylindrical duality of male and female brass figures with iron stems attached to it. Mostly joined at the top by an iron chain, the edan is said to signify old age, experience, knowledge, and wisdom. The female edan also has a beard motif. It recreates the image of the goddess, Edan, a manlike woman, an “Obinrin bi okunrin” who possesses the wisdom of a Babalawo – diviner – and the epicenter of human morality. This image is intermixed with the supernatural powers of a witch, an aje, reputed to have powers for the defence and protection of Ogboni cult initiates.

Ulli Beier, the German-Jew catalyst for modern African culture, stood in awe of the edan when he saw it. In his In a Colonial University (Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, 1993) Beier narrated his first encounter with the edan in 1950 and his overview of the Nigerian ritual art at the University of Ibadan, thus: "After dinner, liqueurs were served in the sitting room and ...Professor Christopherson passed round his latest acquisition – a magnificent Ogboni (a secret association of Yoruba priests and chiefs invested with major judicial and political functions and devoted to the worship of the Earth) brass figure some 30 cm long. I had never seen anything like it, had no idea what it meant or where it came from but was overwhelmed by a feeling of awe as I held in my hand the heavy object, emanating so much power and ancient wisdom."

In Nigeria, corruption and religious trickery are like the edan, conjoined by an iron chain of culture, history and a sustained system of elite greed. Today in Nigeria, this Ogboni emblem is signposted by suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Beta Edu and late Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as T.B. Joshua. If Nigerians didn’t know anything else about Nigeria, they know that these two evils, corruption and religion, are twin viruses that have eaten deep into the marrows and red cell corpuscles of their country. They are also aware that the two evils have centuries-old existence. So when the BBC, last week, assumed it had hit an exclusive story-mine by airing a documentary on the sordid life of charismatic pastor, unorthodox televangelist and founder of Synagogue of All Nations (SCOAN), T.B. Joshua, the British broadcasting outfit, it will seem, was merely playing to the gallery, no pun intended. BBC had alleged in the documentary, through interviews with alleged eyewitnesses, that Joshua’s pastoral life had been a potpourri of rape, shambolic miracles, torture and forced abortions. Whether in pre, colonial or post-colonial Nigeria, Nigerians are/were genetically wired to believe in the supreme potency of achieving material success and healing from harnessing mystical powers.

As at 1922, the British colonial office was already worried by the traffic of patent medicine ordered by Nigerians from India, a country renowned to be a centre for mystical powers. By that time, literate Nigerians were already ordering, by postal service, literature on mysticism and homeopathic medicine from India. J. K. Magregor, British Nigerian resident and headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute in Calabar, was so disturbed by this trend among his pupils that he documented what he saw to the colonial office in England. He caught the pupils in possession of letters they sent abroad demanding from quack doctors methods of treating diseases and attaining success through spiritual powers. The pupils also received catalogues of magical works and letters “from various societies that professed to give esoteric teaching that was sure to bring success and happiness.” In one mail delivery, Magregor found hundreds of such requests. One example the Briton found, which he documented to the colonial office, was a 12-year old boy who had ordered by post a “Mystic Charm” from India, “a piece of valueless metal containing some wax, enclosed in the heart of a newspaper.” Included with the metal was a message to the boy from India to send money back so that he could “receive blessings from the Hindu deity Siddheswari” and he would find the blessings by “watching the flow of his nasal mucus.”

The spate of charlatans promising to provide magical powers for a fee later transmuted into the fraud ring called 419, for which Nigeria has harvested unflattering renown throughout the world. This combines to form the benumbing orgy of corruption in high and low places for which Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, was suspended from office last week. None of the two evils began today. On December 18, 1920, Nigeria’s first 419 kingpin was arrested. He was Mr. Crentil, self-styled professor, an ex-employee of the Marine Department of the colonial office in Lagos. He had written to a victim in Gold Coast, now Ghana, describing the magical powers he possessed and could offer for a fee. He was charged in 1921 by the police on 3-count charge under Section 419. He was however lucky as the charges were struck off, prompting “Prof Crentil” boasting that he got off through same magical powers.

At this period in the life of Nigeria, there were itinerant native doctors who professed to connect people to their shrines that produced wealth. This, they claimed would be provided by the gods of wealth through spiritual forces. In virtually everywhere in Nigeria, there were itinerant medicine sellers and magical spellers called Ajasco Boys, Money Doublers and the like who offered a repertoire of techniques. With this, they claimed they could connect unsuspecting victims with the invisible world and engender fortunes for their victims. Over a century after, this spiritual vermin hasn’t died but its proboscis has gone more lethal. It has changed, no doubt. Now clothed in modernity, it has gone visceral, sucking the blood of innocent Nigerians who seek remedy to existential crises.

The BBC documentary of last week merely fitted into what Nigerians already knew about themselves. As it has been notoriously recalled, T. B. Joshua’s tendency for sorcery rather than Christianity, was first busted by Ibadan-based famous eerie-world-revealer broadcaster, Kola Olawuyi. His Saturday morning programme on Radio Nigeria and OGBC was a crowd puller. On one of such, Olawuyi showed, with empirical evidence and interview sessions, that Joshua had a spiritual liaison with an albino from his Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State native home. A few weeks after, another man appeared on Olawuyi’s programme claiming spiritual powers while flaunting a black egg as his talisman. He claimed to be Jemijaiye Okuku. As I listened to the programme, something told me the Jemijaiye voice was familiar. As Olawuyi was lifting the veil off the face of this so-called powerful spiritualist, the police, who had been invited, emerged to arrest the charlatan. Immediately, I connected the dots. The fellow, a man with dreadlocks, was my close friend, a decade earlier.  I knew his mother and siblings. We both lived in the same Ayeso area of Ilesa, Osun State.

A coterie of mystical scammers, many wearing the garb of pastors and Imams, has succeeded in fleecing Nigerians based on the people’s longstanding abiding romance with fatalism and mysticism. Scholars have attributed this to the sustained link between the people and their traditional African heritage. Africans, Nigerians grew up to know that there is a causal link between the physical and the spiritual and that nothing is or can be if it does not emanate from the spiritual. This has necessitated the rat race to penetrate the veneers of the spiritual. In the process, the people are susceptible to the charlatanism of fakists and sorcerers who, wearing the visor of pastors/Imams, sweep them off their feet with fabulous claims. They also claim to be able to make penetrative gazes into the unseen world and are able to manipulate the corridors of the spirits to help their victims achieve unheard-of successes in the material world.

Why it becomes hard to distinguish sorcerers from miracle hawkers is that even the two prophets of Christianity and Islam – Jesus and Mohammed – equally got accused of sorcery while they were on earth. The truth is that, the divide between sorcery and miracles is very thin. Both are united by their provinces as strange and uncanny. This is what Guru Maharaj Ji in Ibadan and Jesus of Oyingbo use/used as their fortes. At one time, a lively debate erupted as magicians and sorcerers too contended that the marveling miracles wrought by of the prophets Moses and Jesus were themselves magical. In Christian teachings, we were told that Jesus was accused of performing miracles through Baʿal Zebub or Beelzebub. This god, in Joseph Conrad’s Lord of the Flies, was the devil. It was derived from a Philistine god that was hitherto worshipped in Ekron, and which was thereafter adopted by some Abrahamic religions. Beelzebub was a major demon linked to the Canaanite god Baal and which, in theological sources and predominantly Christian literature, is another name for Satan.

As a reporter who frequented his Lagos-Ibadan expressway shrine and who had, by so doing, gathered first-hand insights into his operations, I once compared Maharaj Ji with Russian mystic Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, who hypnotized his devotees. The Ibadan bearded spiritualist also claimed to be the world’s own version of Jesus Christ. In late 1906, Rasputin put self forward as a faith healer, healing Nicholas II and his empress consort, Alexandra Feodorovna’s son, Alexei Nikolaevich who had been suffering from haemophilia. Rasputin was known to be a charlatan and was eventually assassinated in 1916. Having been friends with Maharaj Ji for years and observed the vacuous faces and absent faces of the men and women in trance-like looks in his shrine, it was easy to place the Ibadan self-styled god. That piece evoked attacks from his devotees spread across his ashrams who attacked me from all fronts.

People have asked what motive that BBC documentary stands to serve. To tell Nigerians what many already knew about T.B. Joshua? Why didn’t it come at a time when Joshua himself was alive and could rebut some of the claims? Lies were put to many strands of the BBC interviewees’ accounts of what went on in the Synagogue. Same goes for claims against Joshua by persons purporting to be what they were not. In totality, these cast a pall of doubt on the documentary. While alive, presidents of some African countries trooped to Joshua’s SCOAN for healing. One of such was then Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. In 2008, Ghanaian president, JohnAtta Mills, was also at the Synagogue, “to seek the face of God during the election in his country.” So also was former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, as well as the late leader of Gabon, Omar Bongo. Could Joshua be attracting all these through sorceries? When it is realized that many of the white devotees of Joshua’s church who allegedly wanted to take over the church at the pastor’s death were rebuffed, the BBC documentary may thus be viewed from the usual racial lens.

Having said this, many of the pastors/Imams who claimed to live lives of piety have been revealed to be opposites of who they are, at their deaths. An example is Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias, an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian evangelical minister. He was the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and for forty years, was involved in Christian apologetics. At his death however, some women came forward to claim that he sexually abused them. This prompted the hiring of the Miller & Martin law firm by the RZIM to investigate these allegations. At the end of the day, their veracity got confirmed. RZIM eventually underwent a name change and public apology, subsequently excising every material pertaining to Zacharias. In Nigeria, there are famous pastors who are known to be sexual predators, occultists and greedily thirsty for material acquisitions. So what did Joshua do differently?

While religious mesmerism results in the inability of a people to think straight, corruption stagnates a nation. In their amity like the cylindrical edan, they have wrecked incalculable havoc on Nigeria since its founding. Part of this havoc can be attributed to our history and culture which make us easy prey to spiritual enchantment and corruptibility. Smart political charlatans invoke religion to sustain their hold on the political. A whiff of it got manifest last Thursday at the meeting of the Forum of Governors on the platform of APC. Asked what the fate of Betta Edu, suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs was, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, urged Nigerians not to pass a verdict of guilt on her yet as “the only perfect being we have observed and noticed is the Almighty God.” Anyone who knows the dalliance between corruption and theology and how politicians often invoke God to entrap the people will understand what effect Uzodinma was struggling to achieve.

By the way, let us give kudos to President Bola Tinubu for suspending Edu and his decision to cut the long-winding chain of convoy in his and other government officials’ entourage. I am sure what did the magic of the convoy reduction was the persistent and unrelenting singeing of the president’s flesh over the disgusting optics of his recent visit to Lagos Island. Muhammadu Buhari ran a government that was dead to such nudges for eight years, retaining such governmental recidivists, in spite of their visibly known crimes. Tinubu should go a step further by throwing every corrupt government official under the bus. The next person to sack is Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo because what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Edu, many government officials before him and several in this government have luxuriated for too long inside the sewers of over a century-old system of distribution of patrimonial wealth among selves and cronies. The time to break that chain is now.

The Critical Environments for Bountiful Harvests

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully ….. for God loveth a cheerful giver ~ 2 Corinthians 9:6-7.

Introduction

One of the amazing characteristics of normal human beings is their ever so insatiable desire for a better life. Excitingly, the Lord Jesus declared that all things are possible to whosoever believes (Mark 9:23). Thus, you can harvest whatsoever you desire in prayer, if you can believe God for it (Mark 11:24).

Now, one might like the idea of a bountiful harvest, but until a good environment for its viability is created, it may remain just a nice idea (Leviticus 26:10). Stop fighting the symptoms, tackle the root of the problem: improper environment!

If you refuse to create an environment conducive to the future you want, you must be ready to endure the future you’ll get. A truly wise man perceives the future and takes necessary actions to define it gloriously (Genesis 13:14-17).

New Year And New Beautiful Opportunities

Our God is a God of new beginnings! Hence, all those who choose Him can engage new opportunities for fresh starts this new year, and can actually become brighter than the best of the day for God (Isaiah 43:18-21).

With a new beginning under God, we can push behind us the failures of yesteryears, and induce constructive changes that should lead to better results in all areas of our lives: spiritual, family, financial, business or career concerns.

God is ever ready to move us from sad pasts to brilliant futures, and from emptiness into experiences of productivity and relevance. However, there must be a strong determination to cooperate with Him fully.

The Conditions Precedent To Bountiful Harvests

Life in Christ can be so thrilling and so wonderful, but there is always a price attached to living. If you desire to be blessed beyond measure, and become satisfied with bountiful harvests in all ramifications this season, you must practically rejuvenate the following requisite critical environments.

The foremost critical condition required in making your life amenable to bountiful harvests is to keep God first in all your ways (Matthew 6:33). Life has no meaning without God (Genesis 1:1). And, all the labour of man is futility without His input (Psalm 127:1).

You can never generate lasting impacts in your world until God has imparted you, neither can you become anything significant until He has “made you” (Mark 1:17). It is He that gives the increase you are aspiring to enjoy (1Corinthians 3:6-11).

God is not “a” factor for your harvests, He is “the” real factor (John 15:5). Involving the Holy Spirit in your harvest-plan through faith and prayers, and inclining yourself to pastoral instructions are basics to guaranteeing your bountiful harvests (Matthew 9:37-38; Luke 5:5; 2Chronicle 20:20).

Secondly, bountiful harvests are generally excited by great dreams (Isaiah 60:5). You don't enjoy the breakthrough you refuse to perceive by faith (John 4:35). Remember the ringed poplar tree of Jacob and his dizzying harvest (Genesis 30:37)!

Without God, we are nothing; without dreams, we reach nothing. Sparsity and stagnation don’t come from the absence of things, but the absence of direction (Proverbs 29:18).

Your vision is the seed-plot of your better version! Anytime vision is divided, attention is lost, energy is dissipated and divorce becomes inevitable. Staying focused is the secret of conserving strength for the essentials of life and destiny. Friends, guard against every form of distraction this year.

What kind of harvest are you envisioning right now? A bumper harvest in kingdom relevance and impacts, in your health, finances or family life? Your vision can never overwhelm God, no matter what it is (Joel 2:23). Just ensure it’s from heaven and inspired by the Word!

Thirdly, be ready to accept responsibility for the harvests you’re believing God for. Your vision for bountiful harvests places on you the responsibility of freeing yourself from the past, and taking the necessary steps towards a “better you”.

At a point, the prodigal son became less fortunate than the pigs (Luke 15:11-32). Nevertheless, he accepted the responsibility to change his estate of miseries and woes. He arose and went to his father with a penitent heart, and that was sufficient to excite his required change.

Don’t break the mirrors just because they show you your true picture. Don’t leave your future to chance; accept responsibility for your life, and act fast enough to deliver your destiny from the lions of past failings.

Take responsibility for your fields of harvest, now (1Corinthians 4:2). When your life-space produces, you mustn’t leave the fruits to rot away, you must engage the sickles, with serious devotion and commitment.

No farmer invests time and energy planting precious seeds, and then, at harvest time, simply sits idle and watches them rot in the field. That would be crazy! Unfortunately, that’s what many people who are too lazy to work on their harvest fields do (Proverbs 10:5).

Harvests never smile on the sluggards (Proverbs 20:4)! They don’t just jump from the fields to the barn (Joel 3:13-14). Someone must launch out into the deep for a great draught (Luke 5:4).

In particular, accept responsibility to embrace the demands of God’s covenant for your harvests. Being obedient to the divine demands is the secure guarantee for munificent harvests.

Until you accept responsibility for your life, you keep making excuses and looking for scapegoats to blame for everything that happens to you. Nevertheless, those who constantly look for who to blame remain lame.

God’s love is unconditional, but His promises are not. If you want to experience better things in your life and reap bountiful harvests, you must fulfill the conditions pre-set for them.

Many people deliberately breach the benchmarks of the covenant and expose themselves to the diabolical dangers of unforced presumptions, yet they join others to cry when they don’t see their signs (Psalm 74:9).

Prophecies don’t fulfill themselves; they’re fulfilled when the conditions specified for them are fitted (2Corinthians 10:4-6). The basic conditions for bountiful harvests are faithfulness to God and obedience to His commands, walking in the positions of servanthood, discipline, diligence, holiness, respect, love and honour (Leviticus 26:3).

Meanwhile, the following will further tend you to bountiful harvests: kingdom mindedness (Matthew 6:33); violent offerings (Luke 6:38); intense praise (Psalms 67:5-7); and strong prophetic encounters (Hosea 12:13).

Friends, it’s your turn to surprise your world! Don’t be deceived any longer, embrace a higher order of prayer, with your mind renewed by God’s Word, to receive your portion (Galatians 6:7; 1Chronicle 4:9-10).

Very importantly, in these last days, as we make Jesus the center of His Church, there shall also be a great supernatural harvest of souls by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:14-16).

The Church will begin to experience unprecedented revivals, unusual miracles, signs and wonders as it did in the days of old, and she shall continue to grow from strength to strength.

Great Christian souls, go out now under the banner of God’s grace and in the power of the Holy Ghost to reap your harvests, always remembering that every anticipated harvest is inside the seed (2Corinthians 9:10).

Your seeds include your words, money, time, talents, treasure, kindness, influence, etcetera, sown in kingdom principles (Genesis 1:11-12; 8:22). The more you sow, the more you harvest!

No matter how dry or barren the fields may be around you, God will still honour your faith, your obedience and your expectancy. Only stay focused as you launch out at His Word.

Dream, sow, conquer, harvest and possess bountifully! Above all remain spotless and focused on the Lord Jesus (Proverbs 22:4). This year, His favour will deliver you from every form of reproach, and the old barriers will give way.

Every demonic altar raised to waste your harvest is hereby summarily destroyed. You will celebrate and be celebrated, soon. You won’t miss it, in Jesus Name. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

Recently, a post by since-removed Reddit user u/Fearless_Studio_7676 (or Fearless Studio, for short) got a lot of attention on the popular "Am I The Asshole?" subreddit. Fearless Studio shared his story and asked, "Am I the asshole for making my stepdaughter leave the restaurant for disrespecting the waiter?"

Here's what happened, in Fearless Studios' own words. "I was dining with my wife and kids yesterday," he begins. "[Our party] included Hailey, 16, who's my stepdaughter. We had picked a relatively expensive restaurant as we thought it'd be better to do things properly as we were going out together for the first time in a while."

"During dinner, while the waiter was serving one of the dishes, he accidentally tripped or something. I think he might have lost his grip, I am not sure. But some of [the dish] fell onto Hailey's clothes, ruining them. He apologized immediately, but she got livid at him."

"She proceeded to call him a 'bastard,' saying 'Why are you a goddamn waiter if you can't even watch where you are going? You are already paid low, so I'd have thought you'd be more careful.' She was shouting, and almost everyone was looking at us now. I was shocked and asked her to apologize."

"She refused, saying she does not have to [apologize] as he had ruined her dress. I asked her to apologize repeatedly, but she did not listen."

"In the end I told her that I might not be able to force her to apologize, but that I can definitely refuse to pay for her. I asked her to get out of the restaurant. She began screaming and protested. I did not relent, and the end result is that she had to leave."

Here's the kicker: "My wife lashed out at me, saying that I overreacted and that although what Hailey said might have been wrong, it did not warrant asking her to leave. Am I the asshole?"

The overwhelming consensus is that Fearless Studio is not the asshole, and people had a lot to say about his family.

"If she can’t behave well in a nice restaurant, then she shouldn’t be there. It’s no different than keeping poorly-behaved or loud kids away. If she’s going to act like a child, then she’s going to be treated like a child."

"Have her work a part time job in a restaurant and I guarantee her behavior towards food service staff will change for the better. [You're] not the asshole."

—u/jasperjamboree

"You can always tell the quality of someone's character by how they treat waiters or other service industry personnel. Your wife is enabling your stepdaughter's horribly rude behavior."

"Screaming at the waiter and putting them down like that was totally out of line even if the waiter did make a mistake. If it were my child, I would make them write a hand written note apologizing to the waiter and force them to go back and deliver it in person!"

—u/feelingjustpeachy

"Your stepdaughter was incredibly rude and disrespectful. That girl needs to get a job in the service industry and see how hard they work and how much crap they put up with. She has no right to speak to someone that way."

—u/Handknitmittens

"You're not the asshole. The waiter made a mistake, and apologized. Your daughter has a right to be upset and we all say extreme things in the heat of the moment sometimes. She should, however, have calmed down and apologized herself. There is no need to make somebody feel small after a mistake. If you have a grievance there are ways to deal with it in a constructive way."

—u/MostAncient7552

"There’s no question in my mind that it would be messed up for her to stay and for that waiter or one of his colleagues to have to serve her during the rest of dinner."

"At most, your wife could have said that all of you should have left, but even that I only would tolerate because the stepdaughter is a minor rather than an adult and dinner would be pretty awkward after that incident anyway."

—u/SnooPets8873

"Thank you for standing up for a server. You made that waiter's day."

—u/AdOne8433

I am mortified. Please let me know your thoughts — I wish we knew more about the dynamic of this family. I guess the moral of the story is: teach your kids basic manners, and not to yell at people in public!

Buzzfeed

“Bayo” Ogunlesi had already racked up enough accolades to rival any of his elite friends.

There’s the undergraduate degree with first-class honors from Oxford University, the law degree and MBA from Harvard and a clerkship on the Supreme Court under Thurgood Marshall. He was head of Credit Suisse’s investment-banking division and lead independent director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

He even got a shout-out from Nigerian superstar Burna Boy, who sang he hustles “like Adebayo Ogunlesi” in his hit “Wonderful.”

Now a deal to buy the $100 billion asset-management firm he co-founded and heads, Global Infrastructure Partners, is set to make him something else: a billionaire.

Ogunlesi, 70, assumes that title after BlackRock Inc. announced Friday it was buying GIP for $12.5 billion. A GIP spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Ogunlesi has managed to radiate an aw-shucks sense that he somehow fell into his job, even as the ambition and connections it took to get there were clear.

Major Player

The Nigerian-born son of a medical professor, he eventually did a short stint at white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore before joining First Boston around his 30th birthday. His timing was perfect: The firm was a major player in the mergers business of Wall Street’s roaring ‘80s.

His rise continued once Credit Suisse took over the firm. He was put in charge of the entire investment banking division in 2002, helping boss John Mack slash thousands of jobs. But while Mack’s reputation for ruthlessness won him the nickname “Mack the Knife,” Ogunlesi’s was simply “Bayo.”

After reaching the heights of banking, he decided he needed a change when his wife remarked that he sounded miserable talking about work. A meal with colleague Matt Harris, who was co-head of the energy group, led them to the idea of a manager of infrastructure investments.

The two recruited Bill Woodburn, former head of General Electric Co.’s infrastructure business, over dinner at Harris’ favorite Midtown Manhattan restaurant, according to a 2017 profile of the firm. Other Credit Suisse alum joined as well, including Jonathan Bram, who was a co-head of the firm’s industrial and services group; Michael McGhee, who ran global transportation and logistics; and Raj Rao, from the global energy group.

The founding partners launched GIP in 2006, raising more than $5 billion. Within a few years they owned London’s Gatwick and City airports, as well as Edinburgh’s, and have since invested in gas pipelines, offshore wind farms, power plants and port operators.

Ogunlesi, who is chief executive officer, is calculated to have a 17.5% stake by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and a total fortune of about $2.3 billion. An equal split of GIP’s $12.5 billion acquisition price would give the firm’s 27 other partners stakes worth more than $380 million each.

Hamptons Parties

Ogunlesi doesn’t need a windfall to gain entry into the top levels of New York society. In the Hamptons, where bankers have long competed over opulent real estate and exclusive golf course memberships, Ogunlesi and his wife, Amelia, are known for throwing one of the ritziest parties of the late summer.

The website New York Social Diary in 2019 sized up the lavish decor by noting even “green whale pants” would “look sexy.” Under geometric lighting fixtures hanging from a tented glass ceiling, a smiling Ogunlesi could be seen near Blackstone Inc. co-founder Steve Schwarzman, former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and US Senator Chuck Schumer.

A look at his schedule shows how those connections get built. He sat in April for a fireside chat with billionaire Henry Kravis at a conference about inclusion in the alternative-investing space, and in June helped run a three-hour meeting with White House officials, agendas show.

Ogunlesi, who was appointed lead independent director at Goldman Sachs in 2014, plans to resign that position after GIP’s sale. A golfer who once sported an 8 handicap, he also sits on the board of Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.

When Donald Trump won in 2016, he named Ogunlesi to the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum alongside several billionaires. The investor got an even more plum position from Joe Biden, whose National Infrastructure Advisory Council he now chairs.

Ogunlesi was one of a small number of international students in his class at Harvard’s law school, which at the time didn’t typically enroll them, he told the New York Times in 2002.

“There only was a guy from Saudi Arabia, a guy from Iran and me,” he said. “I assume Harvard thought that all of us would go back to our countries, become rich, and endow chairs. I hope the Iranian and Saudi did, because I never endowed a chair.”

Bloomberg

President Bola Tinubu has suspended all administered programmes by the national social investment programme agency (NSIPA).

On January 2, Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu as the chief executive officer (CEO) of NSIPA, over alleged financial malfeasance.

Also on January 8, the president suspended Betta Edu as minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

Edu’s ministry supervises NSIPA and has come under scrutiny after a memo surfaced wherein she asked Oluwatoyin Madein, accountant-general of the federation, to transfer N585 million to a private account.

According to a statement on Friday by Segun Imohiosen, director of information at the office of the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), the suspension is part of the ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.

“All four (4) Programmes administered by NSIPA, viz; N- Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme have been suspended for a period of six (6) weeks in the first instance,” the statement reads.

“Tinubu has also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the Programs’ beneficiaries.

“He has therefore constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the Agency’s operations with a view to recommending necessary reforms of the NSIPA.

“During the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations and registrations are now frozen.

“The President wishes to assure the stakeholders and all Nigerians that his administration remains committed to a swift and unbiased process that will ensure that, going forward social intervention programmes will work exactly as intended, to the benefit of the most vulnerable Nigerians.”

The Cable

Federal government has transferred control of its 40 percent shareholding in electricity distribution companies (DisCos) from the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to the Ministry of Finance incorporated (MOFI).

Following the privatisation of DisCos in 2013, the federal government retained a 40 percent shareholding in the companies.

The development comes a month after the BPE announced its intention to sell the 40 percent shares on the capital market this year.

In a letter dated January 10, 2024, sent to MOFI’s board of directors by Wale Edun, minister of finance, MOFI was directed to assume ownership and control of interests in entities where the federal government has equity holdings.

“Pursuant to a Power of Attorney granted in 2012, the MOFI, the Donor “as the legal and beneficial holder of FGN interest” appointed the Attorney to be its lawful attorney to transfer its shares in the successor companies to undertake the various actions expressly stated in the said Power of Attorney and do all acts and things in that behalf in order to effectively implement the said decision of the NCP,” the letter reads.

“On 1st day of November, 2013 the powers thereby donated to the Attorney were duly executed and the privatisation by sale of shares in the said successor companies was duly completed by the Attorney.”

Therefore, Edun directed MOFI to revoke and terminate all instruments, agreements, and documents, including a 2012 power of attorney granted to BPE regarding the federal government’s shareholding in successor companies to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

He also directed MOFI to assume ownership, control, and management of all equity holdings of the federal government, and to issue necessary notices, instruments, and documents, which are required to give effect to the directive.

‘MOFI WITHDRAWS BPE NOMINEE DIRECTOR FROM DISCOS’ BOARD’

In a letter subsequently sent to DisCos, Armstrong Takang, chief executive officer (CEO)of MOFI, notified the companies that the BPE nominee director on their board of directors were withdrawn with immediate effect.

“Share certificates of the Company issued in the name of the BPE are to be immediately withdrawn and cancelled,” the letter reads.

“A new share certificate for all outstanding shares of the FGN in the Company is to be issued in the name of “MINISTRY OF FINANCE INCORPORATED.”

Arnstrong also instructed DisCos to promptly deliver all board meeting minutes, operational reports, strategic plans, management accounts, and audited financial statements from 2021 to 2023 to MOFI at a stipulated address.

The Cable

The series of assaults by bandits on some communities in the nation’s capital, Abuja, continued on Thursday as they stormed Kawu village in Bwari Area Council, abducting 23 persons.

Kawu, an FCT village which shares boundaries with Niger and Kaduna states had not been in the radar of the bandits in recent times since they began a regular assault on villages in Bwari and in Garam, a village in Niger State.

The gunmen numbering about 40 were said to have divided themselves into groups in order to launch the multi-prong assault.

Deputy Leader of the Bwari Area Council Legislative arm, Abdulmumini Zakari, who represents the area, said the gunmen arrived around the community the previous day from the Kuyeri Forest in Kaduna State.

“They divided themselves into groups and some went into the palace of the district head, Abdurrahman Danjuma Ali, where they abducted his son, Lukman, and his wife, who he married two weeks ago. Others attacked the compound of Alhassan Sidi Kawu, the Marafa of Kawu and a former PDP Chairman of Kawu Ward. They abducted him along with his four children”, he explained.

According to him, the bandits also went into the compound of Sarkin Pawan Kawu, Gambo Pawa, and abducted him alongside his two wives and some children.

Since December last year, while the activities of bandits had reduced in Kuje, Kwali, and Abaji, it has heightened in Bwari.

Vanguard

Israel defends itself at the UN's top court against allegations of genocide in Gaza

Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel insisted at the United Nations’ highest court Friday that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide.

Israel described the allegations leveled by South Africa as hypocritical and said one of the biggest cases ever to come before an international court reflected a world turned upside down. Israeli leaders defend their air and ground offensive in Gaza as a legitimate response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed through Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage.

Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker told a packed auditorium at the ornate Palace of Peace in The Hague that the country is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.”

“In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide,” he added, noting that the horrible suffering of civilians in war was not enough to level that charge.

On Friday afternoon, Germany said it wants to intervene in the proceedings on Israel’s behalf, saying there was “no basis whatsoever” for an accusation of genocide against Israel.

“Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement. “Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas.”

Under the court’s rules, if Germany files a declaration of intervention in the case, it will be able to make legal arguments on behalf of Israel.

Germany would be allowed to intervene at the merits phase of the case to address how the genocide convention, drawn up in 1948 following World War II, should be interpreted, according to international lawyer Balkees Jarrah, associate director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.

“That would come after the court issues its decision on South Africa’s request for urgent measures to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Jarrah told The Associated Press from The Hague, where she attended the ICJ hearings.

Germany’s support for Israel carries some symbolic significance given its Nazi history.

Hebestreit said Germany “sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide.” He added: “We firmly oppose political instrumentalization.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, saying the gesture “touches all of Israel’s citizens.”

South African lawyers asked the court Thursday to order an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in the besieged coastal territory that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians. A decision on that request will probably take weeks, and the full case is likely to last years — and it’s unclear if Israel would follow any court orders.

On Friday, Israel focused on the brutality of the Oct. 7 attacks, presenting chilling video and audio to a hushed audience.

“They tortured children in front of parents and parents in front of children, burned people, including infants alive, and systematically raped and mutilated scores of women, men and children,” Becker said.

South Africa’s request for an immediate halt to the Gaza fighting, he said, amounts to an attempt to prevent Israel from defending itself against that assault.

Even when acting in self-defense, countries are required by international law to follow the rules of war, and judges must decide if Israel has.

As two days of hearings ended Friday, ICJ President Joan E. Donoghue said the court would rule on the request for urgent measures “as soon as possible.”

Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But this time, Israeli leaders took the rare step of sending a high-level legal team — a sign of how seriously they regard the case and likely their fear that any court order to halt operations would be a major blow to the country’s international standing.

Still, Becker dismissed the accusations as crude and attention-seeking.

“We live at a time when words are cheap in an age of social media and identity politics. The temptation to reach for the most outrageous term to vilify and demonize has become, for many, irresistible,” he said.

In a statement from New York, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the case a “new moral low” and said that by taking it on, “the U.N. and its institutions have become weapons in service of terrorist organizations.”

Becker said the charges Israel is facing should be leveled at Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction and which the U.S. and Western allies consider a terrorist group.

“If there have been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel,” Becker said.

More than 23,000 people in Gaza have been killed during Israel’s military campaign, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. That toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Nearly 85% of Gaza’s people have been driven their homes, a quarter of the enclave’s residents face starvation, and much of northern Gaza has been reduced to rubble.

South Africa says this amounts to genocide and is part of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children, all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,” said lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, adding that several leading politicians had made dehumanizing comments about people in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry welcomed the case, saying in a written statement that South Africa “delivered unequivocal evidence that Israel is deliberately and systematically violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”

Malcolm Shaw, an international law expert on Israel’s legal team, rejected the accusation of genocidal intent and called the remarks Ngcukaitobi referenced “random quotes not in conformity with government policy.”

Israel also says that it takes measures to protect civilians, such as issuing evacuation orders ahead of strikes. It blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, saying the group uses residential areas to stage attacks and for other military purposes.

Israel’s critics say that such measures have done little to prevent the high toll and that its bombings are so powerful that they often amount to indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.

If the court issues an order to halt the fighting and Israel doesn’t comply, it could face U.N. sanctions, although those may be blocked by a veto from the United States, Israel’s staunch ally. In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby called the allegations “unfounded.” The White House declined to comment on how it might respond if the ICJ determines Israel has committed genocide.

The extraordinary case goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts — and for the second day protesters rallied outside the court.

Pro-Israeli demonstrators set up a table near the court grounds for a Sabbath meal with empty seats, commemorating the hostages still being held by Hamas. “We want to symbolize the empty chairs, because we are missing them,” said Nathan Bouscher from Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.

Nearby, over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters waved flags and shouted protests.

The case also strikes at the heart of both Israel’s and South Africa’s national identities.

Israel was founded as a Jewish state in the wake of the Nazis’ slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II. South Africa’s governing party, meanwhile, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to “homelands.”

The world court, which rules on disputes between nations, has never judged a country to be responsible for genocide. The closest it came was in 2007, when it ruled that Serbia “violated the obligation to prevent genocide” in the July 1995 massacre by Bosnian Serb forces of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica.

AP