For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host like the host of God ~ 1 Chronicles 12: 22.

Introduction

There are many subtle satanic conspiracies to keep you in a box from the day you were born till your sojourn here on earth is over. However, God has also mercifully put into the hands of some people all you will ever need to live happily here on earth.

In fact, God has positioned these people and some other elements of creation ahead of you to make your life’s assignments achievable. Just as He sent the wise men from the East to offer Jesus certain prophetic gifts, He has also sent these people to your life (Matthew 2:1-11). They are your “destiny helpers”, and all you need is to release them appropriately to work in your favour.

Your destiny helpers carry the responsibility to move you through your life’s stages of growth and development unto success and prominence, till your journey on earth is complete. This is the pattern God has set for all living beings, sinners and saints alike.

If you can undertake a discreet study of your life’s journey so far, you will discover that for every new level or open door you ever experienced, you met some people who played major and crucial roles to get you there.

No man was born to fail. God never intended for anyone to "settle down", as it were. He wants to take us from one dimension of glory to a higher one by the supernatural force of His blessings. We must leverage this to release destiny helpers today, and discover the "higher places" that God has prepared for us, in Christ Jesus.

The Importance of Helpers To Fulfilling Destiny

The notion of a manifest destiny has many components. Basically, God is our Very Present Helper (Hebrews 13:6). He can arrange situations and things to work for our greater good. But, He often uses men and women to accomplish this. He also sometimes uses non-human channels to bring us what we require.

It was the raven birds that brought bread and meat to Elijah. For Prophet Balaam, it was a speaking ass that saved him from the sword of death. However, commonly, God uses men to bring help our ways, even when they look apparently useless to us.

God used four lepers to deliver the whole of Samaria from famine. It was also men that God used to make David great. They came with different abilities to help him succeed in his life’s assignments.

Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18)! But, it is equally true that where there are no people, visions also perish. You cannot fulfill your life’s mission alone; you need the contributions and support of others. But, don’t forget to make room for them to freely operate to work in your favour.

Your destiny is the assignment God has created you to achieve as a part of His overall plan for the world (Jeremiah 1:5). Releasing your destiny helpers is very essential to the fulfillment of your destiny. You can have all the requisite qualifications, yet it takes helpers of destiny to connect you to the right quarters.

Releasing Your Destiny Helpers

Today, many people are stranded in the various “basements” of life, struggling and struggling without a terminal date in view. Why? They simply misused their ladders as firewood by failing to recognize and release their destiny helpers appropriately.

Some of our destiny helpers include our parents, pastors, mentors, friends, siblings, spouses, disciples, children, mentees, and so on. Invisible angelic helpers are also available to all of us. They come to our aid when we least expect it, and they may disappear as soon as their work is done.

Meanwhile, invariably, destiny helpers characteristically wait for enabling environments conducive for their operations before they act in our favour.

Joseph was sent to Egypt by God ahead of His people, to preserve them from the impending famine and hardship that was to come upon their land. But, he passed through the crucibles of hurts, slavery and imprisonment! Until he was released, Israel couldn’t benefit from his gracious assignment (Psalm 105:17-21).

When your destiny helpers are released to work, your destiny is catapulted overnight. Big and unforgettable things begin to happen to you, even in small places. Remember the poor cripple man in Mark 2:1-12. He remained perfectly disabled, until four earnest helpers brought him to the small house where Jesus was at that time!

Basically, a destiny in divine order attracts all divine blessings. When your destiny is on track with God, things work well because God makes adequate provisions for you before the needs arise.

There is no shortage of helpers when your destiny is on track with God. As one helper is leaving, another is coming with even greater resources. When your destiny is in divine order, you are virtually guaranteed the good life. Even if the enemies attempt to slow you down while God is still building you up for the tasks ahead, they cannot stop you (1 John 4:4).

Furthermore, in life, everything is interconnected. When you make good things to happen for others, God will make better things to happen for you as well (Matthew 5:7). Being merciful provokes the release of your helpers of destiny.

Very importantly, when helpers wouldn’t help destinies, we should set to interrogate the situations: Are there certain allowed personality defects in our lives? Do we have stingy attitudes to others? Could there be some satanic dimensions to the ugly scenario?

Men and brethren, whatever it is, let’s plead the mercy of God today for divine connection with people that matter to our destinies. Let’s follow the leadings of faith and patience, and we will certainly experience the outstretched arms of God in the circumstances of our lives, in Jesus name (Hebrews 6:12). Amen. 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

There are fundamental differences between what God does and what man does. God is not a man. His ways are different from those of men. His reward is different from that of men.

Jesus insists we must choose between the things of God and those of men. We cannot have both, not the least because the things of men are the things of Satan.

Ephemeral Rewards

Jesus identifies three instances where we must seek only God’s approval, not man’s: when we do charitable works, pray, and fast. He says if we do any of these secretly, God will reward us openly. But if we do them to be seen by men, the only approval we will get will be from men. (Matthew 6:1-3/6).

When we give to men, we must do so recognising that we are giving to God and not to men. Jesus says: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 24:40).

Therefore, we must not receive glory or praise from men. Jesus says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).

The rewards of men are ephemeral. Unlike God’s reward, they do not last. Job says of men: “Their prosperity will not endure.” (Job 20:21). Men will praise us today and abuse us tomorrow. They will end up discouraging our righteousness. We will soon become tired of doing good if we seek their approval.

God cursed the Earth. (Genesis 3:17). So, nothing fundamentally good or enduring can be dug out of the Earth. Therefore, Jesus teaches that it is more blessed to give than to receive from men. (Acts 20:35).

When we fast, we must do so because we hunger for God and not for the praise of men. When we pray, we must be careful to pray only to God and not to men. Prayer must not be designed to feed our spiritual ego. 

God’s Reward

Most Christians acknowledge that God rewards man, but we do not know how. Churches primarily recognise money and riches as God’s rewards. But these can be obtained without God. Since many unbelievers are wealthy, then wealth cannot be the reward of God.

God’s kingdom is not of this world. So, God’s reward cannot be of this world. John says:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.”(1 John 2:15-16).

The Bible says: “(God) is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”(Hebrews 11:6).

It is only logical that since God rewards those who seek Him, their reward must be what they seek, which is God Himself.

God primarily rewards those who love Him with Himself. He is by far the most precious thing in the universe. Therefore, there can be no greater reward than God Himself. David says to God: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”(Psalm 16:11).

Accordingly, God chose Abraham by giving Himself to Abraham. He said: “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1).

The reward of God is God Himself, and it is an exceedingly great reward. He revealed Himself to Israel, His chosen people, as Immanuel: “God with us,” leading Isaiah to declare: “Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!” (Isaiah 12:6).

When Israel came to the Promised Land, the land was divided by tribe. Some received the highlands, some the lowlands. Some well-watered lands that rivers divide, and some coastal lands.

But the Levites were not given any land whatsoever. God declared that He was their Promised Land.

“The Lord said to Aaron: ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.’” (Numbers 18:20).

Rather than complain about this seeming oversight, the Levites maintained that they received the best deal: “O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.” (Psalm 16:5-6).

Today, we have come full circle in Christ. We are not heirs of carnal things. We are not even heirs of what God has. We are heirs of God Himself: “Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”(Romans 8:17).

So, when a man came to Jesus to seek His assistance in getting his brother to give him his share of the inheritance from his father, Jesus rebuked him for striving for the inheritance of men and ignoring that of God: “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15).

God’s Open Reward 

As observed, most Christians are socialised in churches to believe that God rewards us with carnal things. We know that God rewards good works done in His Name. But we think He does this by giving us valuable things of this world. 

However, that cannot possibly be the case. Jesus says: “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15).Surely, God will not reward anyone with what is an abomination to Him.

Moreover, if what God gives is essentially Himself, how does He give Himself openly? Jesus says every secret devotion elicits God’s open reward. 

God does this by demonstrating openly that He approves of us. At Jesus’ water baptism, God approved of Him openly in the hearing of everybody: “Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:17).

On another occasion, there was an open conversation between God the Father and Jesus:

“‘Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’ Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’” (John 12:27-29).  

God rewarded Jesus openly by validating His word with signs and wonders. Thus, Peter testified to the people on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.” (Acts 2:22). 

Such open validation also belongs to followers of Christ. Jesus says: “These signs will follow those who believe: In My name, they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18).

God rewarded Joseph openly by making him the prime minister of Egypt and then bringing his devious brothers who sold him into slavery to Egypt to bow down to him. He rewarded Daniel openly by shutting the mouths of the lions when he was thrown into the lions’ den. He rewarded openly the three Hebrew children when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. They were unscathed.

God rewards us openly by doing something extraordinary for us that shows every bystander that the hand of God is upon us. They often come in wilderness situations. They come in ways that men cannot claim the glory, but God. They are not hidden. God deliberately broadcasts them supernaturally to the world.

When God rewarded David openly, he wrote in the Psalms: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.” (Psalm 23:5).

When our cup runs over, everyone sees it, especially our enemies.

It is not only God’s peace that surpasses all human understanding, so also do His open rewards. Everyone might be going through an economic crunch, but that is when our businesses prosper inexplicably.

Thus, Isaac sowed in famine and reaped a bountiful harvest. His harvest must have been confounding to his neighbour:

“Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.” (Genesis 26:12-14).

Every time Isaac dug for a well, he found running water and his neighbours contested with him for the well. He would move away and dig somewhere else and still find running water. He kept this up until they gave up and stopped harassing him.

“Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army. And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you.” (Genesis 26:26-28).

Everyone concluded that God must be the one favouring Isaac, so even his enemies came to reconcile with him. Solomon says: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7). CONTINUED.

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Negative self-talk, or the experience of your inner monologue being hyper-critical, can erode your confidence. And, usually, whatever you’re worried about doesn’t actually come to pass, says Judy Ho, a neuropsychologist and professor at Pepperdine University.

In 2019, researchers at Penn State Universityhad 29 people with generalized anxiety disorder write down what they were worried about for 10 days and tracked the outcomes for the next month. Most of their worries didn’t materialize. In fact, 91.4% of worry predictions did not come true.

In her recent TED Talk, Ho describes how negative self-talk can undermine your goals.

“Sometimes we think that negative self-talk helps us to be motivated,” Ho told CNBC Make It. “So, we beat ourselves up in our head thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to motivate me.’ But, actually, we just end up fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

To defeat the cycle of negative self-talk, you have to be mindful of what triggers your pessimism and how to distance yourself from anxiety-driven thoughts.

1. Identify what triggers you.

Pinpoint what experiences cause you to ruminate. Maybe it’s meetings at work or large parties where you don’t know anyone.

“Just notice where those patterns are, and what situations trigger you and you’re going to start finding a theme,” Ho says.

2. Question your thoughts.

Once you find out which scenarios inspire the most self-criticism you can start investigating if there is any merit to these thoughts.

“Know that thoughts are not the absolute truth,” Ho says. “There’s no way that you have tens of thousands of thoughts and that they’re all true.”

Ask yourself what evidence supports this thought, and what evidence contradicts it.

“Evidence isn’t just more thoughts,” Ho says. “Evidence is things that somebody else who was in the same room could actually observe.”

Write down your findings in two columns and compare them. Oftentimes, Ho says, there is more evidence that your anxiety won’t come to fruition than evidence that it will.

Know that thoughts are not the absolute truth.

3. ‘Yes ... but ... ’

Practice a more balanced thought process. Ho offers the following formula:

“Yes I [insert something that is not going well], but I [insert something that is going well.”

Maybe you’re worried about how much work you have to get done tomorrow and feel like you weren’t as productive as you should have been today. Instead of replaying criticism of your work ethic in your head, tell yourself: “Yes, I didn’t get as much done today as I’d like, but I did finish the top three items on my to-do list.”

4. Label your feeling as a ‘thought.’

“When we think something, our brains are naturally inclined to believe that it’s automatically true,” Ho says. “So whether we’re imagining a catastrophic future, or going back to the past to a terrible memory, or maybe a mistake that we made, self-talk, essentially, takes us right to that moment in time, as if it’s happening right in front of us.”

Create some distance between you and your self-talk by labeling your thoughts as what they are: just thoughts.

“It changes the relation to the thought because you’re basically saying, ‘I’m just having the thought and it doesn’t have to be true,’” Ho says. “It distances yourself from that thought instead of it automatically becoming part of your reality.”

Being critical of the stories you tell yourself can help you end a cycle of negativity and focus on accomplishing your goals.

 

CNBC

Nigeria’s economy grew at a slower than expected rate in the first quarter as a sharp currency slump and adverse weather impacted the non-oil sector.

Gross domestic product expanded an annual 2.98% in the three months through March, compared with growth of 3.46% in the previous quarter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday. The median estimate of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey was 3.5%.

Key contributors to the slower-than-expected growth were agriculture, due to bad weather and insecurity, and manufacturing where profits have been knocked by an almost 70% slump in the naira against the dollar since last year.

Weaker growth in those sectors contributed to the non-oil part of the economy expanding 2.8% - its slowest pace in two quarters.

One bright spot was the oil sector which grew for a successive quarter because of higher oil production. Output rose to 1.57 million barrels per day in the period, up from 1.51 million barrels a year earlier, helped by better security in the Niger Delta region.

Improved oil output is expected to continue. Minister of State for Petroleum Heineken Lokpobiri said Thursday that production - which includes crude and other hydro-carbons - is now at 1.7 million barrels per day from a low of 1.1 million barrels when Tinubu took office. Nigeria hopes to further lift production by opening bids for a dozen oil blocks and concluding several divestment deals with international oil companies in coming months.

The government is targeting an economic growth rate of about 3.8% in 2024 and a return to 6% or more in the coming years, which it last achieved in 2014. The International Monetary Fund projects 3.3% economic growth for 2024, which will lower Nigeria’s ranking to fourth largest in Africa.

 

Bloomberg

No fewer than 200 officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria were on Friday relieved of their duties, adding to the long list of ongoing disengagements in the apex bank.

This adds to the list of 117 staff sacked by the bank between March 15th and April 11, 2024.

The termination of appointments affects directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, principal managers, senior managers and lower-ranking staff.

Impeccable sources who are staff of the bank confirmed the sacking to our correspondent on Friday, adding that the sacked personnel were more than 200.

They revealed that the latest purge included older directors who were not affected by the last round of retrenchment.

One of the sources in a 20-second call with our correspondent simply stated, “It is true and confirmed.”

The staff who could not disclose further details for fear of being tapped added that the purge had caused palpable apprehension amongst staff of every cadre as the management had not specified any known criteria for the decisions.

Another authoritative source confirmed the information, indicating that additional dismissals are expected in the months ahead, spread out in phases.

The official said, “It is real and is even more than 200 officials but the actual number is unconfirmed yet. The sacking is coming in staggered phases and that is why we can’t confirm the number yet.

“But it is not less than 200. The sacked persons include directors and other cadres but the ones that are easily known are the directors. Some of the old directors that were not affected during the last round of sacks are now affected.”

The sack letter obtained by our correspondent and issued by the Human Resources Department on May 24, 2024, indicated that the policy was to reorganise the organisation for effective operations.

The letter, lacking a signature, read, “The new strategic direction of the bank has been widely publicised. In line with our new mission and vision, the bank is currently undergoing a significant organisational and human capital restructuring process.

“As a result of this review, I have been directed to notify you that your services will not be required with effect from Friday, 24th May 2024. Your final entitlements will be calculated and paid to you in due course. Thank you”

In February, at least 1,500 members of staff of the apex bank of Nigeria were redeployed from the headquarters located at Central Area to its Lagos office.

At the time, the CBN said the action was necessitated by several factors, including the need to align the bank’s structure with its functions and objectives and redistribute skills to ensure a more even geographical spread of talent.

It added that it was also in compliance with building regulations, as indicated by repeated warnings from the facility manager, and the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Decongestion of the CBN Head Office.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Director of Corporate Communication, Hakama Sidi Ali, was not successful as she did not respond to several calls sent across to her or reply the text messages to her line.

 

Punch

After World Court ruling, Palestinians want action not words

Forced from her home by Israel's seven-month-long Gaza offensive, Salwa al-Masri has little hope her plight will be alleviated by a ruling from the U.N.'s top court ordering Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.

"The massacres are only increasing," she said, as she cooked a meal on an open fire outside a tent in Deir al-Balah.

"They shouldn’t say one thing, while the action is something different," said Masri, who fled her home in northern Gaza earlier in the war. "We want these decisions to be implemented on the ground."

Judges at the World Court, also known the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordered Israel on Friday to halt its offensive in Rafah governorate. It marked a landmark emergency ruling on a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in its assault on the Gaza Strip.

But the World Court has no means to enforce its orders, and Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue its "just and necessary" war against the Hamas militant group to return its hostages and ensure its security.

Hamas fighters killed some 1,200 people in Israel in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted around 250 more, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza health authorities say more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive which has laid waste to much of the enclave.

Israel has rejected South Africa's accusation that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war, arguing that it is acting to defend itself and fighting Hamas.

"Israel doesn’t care about the world, it acts as if it was above the law because the U.S. administration is shielding it against punishment,” said Shaban Abdel-Raouf, a Palestinian displaced four times by the Israeli offensive.

"The world isn’t yet prepared to stop our slaughter at Israeli hands,” said Abdel-Raouf, who was reached by phone.

Israel began pushing into Rafah earlier this month, saying it aims to wipe out remaining Hamas fighters holed up there.

Simultaneous Israeli assaults on the northern and southern edges of Gaza this month have caused a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes, and have cut off the main access routes for aid, raising the risk of famine.

South Africa's lawyers asked the ICJ last week to impose emergency measures, saying Israel's attacks on Rafah must be stopped to ensure the survival of the Palestinian people.

Hamas said it welcomed the World Court ruling but said it was not enough "since the occupation aggression across the Gaza Strip and especially in northern Gaza is just as brutal and dangerous".

Palestinians needed an immediate halt to the war and they wanted to see action to achieve that, displaced Palestinian man Nabil Diab said. "We don’t need a declaration," he said.

 

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky’s legitimacy has expired – Putin

Russia must be absolutely sure it’s dealing with the legitimate Ukrainian authorities before it can engage in meaningful and legally binding talks to conclude the conflict between the two nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. He noted that Vladimir Zelensky’s term in office has expired.

The president made the remarks in Minsk on Friday during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Putin was asked for comment on Zelensky’s presidential term running out earlier this month and the impact of this development on potential talks.

Putin reiterated Russia’s readiness to engage in talks with Ukraine to end the hostilities, stating that negotiations must be based on “common sense” and acknowledge “realties on the ground,” while using the preliminary agreement reached in the early days of the conflict as the foundation.

“But with whom to negotiate? That’s a peculiar question, I agree. We realize that the legitimacy of the incumbent head of the [Ukrainian] state has expired,” the Russian leader stated.

The upcoming “peace summit,” scheduled to take place in Switzerland next month and actively promoted by Kiev is designed, among other things, to prop up Zelensky in his role, Putin said.

“I think one of the goals of this conference for the Western community, the sponsors of today’s Kiev regime is to confirm the legitimacy of the current – albeit no longer valid – head of state,” he suggested, adding that “such PR moves are meaningless for legal documents.”

It’s up to Ukraine’s legal system, its “parliament, constitutional court and some other governing bodies” to determine whether Zelensky is now a legitimate leader or not, according to Putin. As for Russia, in order to engage in any meaningful talks with Kiev, it must be absolutely sure it’s dealing with the country’s legitimate authorities, the president stressed.

Zelensky’s term expired on Monday, while no elections were held under the pretext of the martial law introduced by Kiev early in the conflict with Russia. The Ukrainian Constitution explicitly prohibits holding parliamentary elections under such circumstances, yet does not mention presidential elections. However, while setting the length of the presidential term, it also specifies that power is transferred the moment a new president is sworn in.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Western fighters in Ukraine are getting killed because they assumed the war would be easy, says a US veteran who fought there

• A US veteran who fought in Ukraine said many Western fighters assumed it would be an easy fight.
• He said some "treat it almost like it's a vacation, and they're not really expecting to die."
• Many foreign veterans are not willing to accept that their training has not readied them for this war, he said. 

The veteran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a lot of foreign veterans who came to Ukraine to fight against Russia's invasion had been used to fighting at an advantage and struggled to adapt to the conditions there, where they were often outmanned and outgunned.

"A lot of Westerners that come to Ukraine, they want to be heroes," he said. "I just kept seeing dudes that would go out to Ukraine, and they treat it almost like it's a vacation, and they're not really expecting to die."

He said he had the same mentality when he first started fighting there. But that changed, and he better understood how risky it was, as the war progressed. "I was expecting to die because that's just the type of mentality that I fucking had, and I was okay with it."

The veteran started fighting when Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022 and left Ukraine last December. He fought in some of the deadliest areas, like Kharkiv and Bakhmut, and also served as a combat medic for his unit, helping injured comrades.

He said he previouslyfought in Iraq as a contractor after he left the US military. He said "the tempo is a lot higher in Ukraine."

A different type of war

He explained that it was harder to find places to stay safe in Ukraine, where more drones are being used than in any conflict in history, and artillery and long-range weapons are in constant use.

He said that "even if you're fucking miles and miles behind the fucking front lines, you can still get hit by a fucking rocket out there." He said it's not like conflicts in Middle East, where if you're on a base you're "relatively safe."

That same comparison has been made by other US veterans in Ukraine, who described the fight in Ukraine as more intense.

One, who uses the call sign Jackie and who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, previously told BI that the fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut offered no place to stop and rest, unlike the other conflicts.

Both men also compared the war in Ukraine to World War I, with trenches and unrelenting artillery standing out as defining elements of the conflict.

The veteran said that Western fighters in Ukraine need to try and adapt to those conditions if they hope to survive.

"You have to be willing to relearn everything that you've been taught, which is, I think, one of the reasons why some of the Ukrainian soldiers are doing so well out there, because they don't have any base where they've been taught."

"Meanwhile, a lot of the Westerners, they already have a set idea about how things should be and everything, and it's just not that way out in Ukraine."

He said foreign fighters need "a willingness to learn and a willingness to give up everything. You have to be willing to fucking give up everything in order to fight this fucking war."

Western tactics have been questioned in this war, with Ukrainian soldiers and some experts saying that the NATO-style training given to Ukrainian soldiers has not been right for this war. And Western militaries training Ukrainians say they are now also adapting training as they learn from them, the soldiers who have real-world experience against Russia's military.

The veteran said of foreign fighters in Ukraine: "A lot of these people, they're just not willing to give up and to do what actually needs to be done for that country."

Foreign fighters coming to Ukraine

He was one of many foreign fighters who fought for Ukraine. Many of those who have signed up have had previous combat experience, such as with the US military, though some had none. Others have said they had experience but were lying.

There are no proven figures for how many foreign fighters have come to Ukraine or have been killed there. Ukraine founded its International Legion in 2022, allowing foreign fighters to come to Ukraine and help it fight back against Russia. While many foreigners fight through the legion, others are separate from it.

There are some units fighting in Ukraine that are made up entirely of foreign veterans. Many who have come havecited what they said was a need to fight back against global injustice and defend democracy in Ukraine.

But some of those fighters say that some of their comrades came just to seek adventure or escape from problems at home.

Reasons aside, many foreign fighters have been killed, as Business Insider's Cameron Manley previously reported, with some international survivors saying they were used as a "sacrificial unit."

 

RT/Business Insider

A Chinese man wanted for murder managed to avoid police detection for over 20 years by pretending to be a deaf and dumb scavenger in the mountains of Hubei Province.

On the evening of May 22, 2004, a young and quick-tempered man named Xiao got into a heated argument with a neighbor in his home village of Oumio Daying, in Xianyang’s Xiangcheng District.

At one point, Xiao allegedly picked up a shovel and hit his neighbor over the head with it, killing him on the spot. That night, knowing that he risked spending the rest of his life behind bars or worse, getting the death penalty, Xiao decided to abandon his wife and 11-year-old child to go on the run. He ran into the mountains of Anxi County, in Fujian Province, where he became a scavenger selling scraps to survive. To make sure he never gave anything away about his past life, Xiao pretended to be deaf and mute for the next 20 years, only smiling at people and communicating through gestures.

Time passed, but police never gave up on finding Xiao and bringing him to justice for his crime, and even though the runaway man was very composed, never once contacting his family over the last couple of decades, they still managed to track him down. Last month, police in Anxi took a seemingly deaf and mute scavenger into custody for getting into a fight with some locals, and even though he was released shortly after, he was still processed and his photos ended up in a nationwide database.

Earlier this month, while running Xiao’s old photos against those in the national database, police got a surprising match. A deaf and mute man in Fujian Province showed an uncanny resemblance to the wanted man, so a police force was sent to investigate. Upon finding the suspect, they asked him point blank, “Are you from Xiangcheng District in Xianyang, to which he instantly replied “Yes”.

“I have been holding back my words for 20 years, and I felt that I was going crazy,” a relieved Xiao told the police. “When I left, my son was 11, and now 20 years have passed, I wonder how my family is doing?

Xiao has since been taken back to his home village, and despite being gone for so long, he showed them exactly where he had the altercation with his neighbors on that fateful evening. He will now have to serve the prison time he had been running from for so long.

The people who knew him as a deaf and mute scavengers told police that they had never suspected him of being a criminal on the run. He kept to himself and never talked to anyone, so no one really knew anything about him.

This story reminded us of another runaway criminal we wrote about last year, a man who spent the last 14 years of his life hiding in a mountain cave after robbing a gas station for $23.

 

Oddity Central

Earlier this month, we wrote up things that used be awesome back in the day. You know, back in our youth.

And there were so many more listed in the comments that we just had to share those, too! So here are 15 more things that used to be good but suck now:

1. "Politics. Seriously. Not that long ago, you could disagree with someone politically, have a civil discussion about it, and remain friends. Now, it seems like we are all entrenched in an us vs. them mentality."

–emailjar

2. "Kids cartoons used to be way better when I was a kid than they are now: Jem and the Holograms, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, DuckTales, My Little Pony... "

–Rande K

3. "Concerts. I remember being able to go to shows for $15–$30 to see 3–5 bands in a scummy, poorly lit bar. Everyone had so much fun, just enjoying the music. Now, you’ll never find a show under $50 unless it’s a local unknown band, and everyone’s so aggressive about trying to get to the front and get a photo op for social media that they ruin it for the people who want go and enjoy the music."

–m40f1522fc

4. "Magazines. As a '90s teenager, I was a prolific buyer of each magazine for my interests: Sugar/Just Seventeen, Kerrang!, Q, F1 Racing, and so on. I kept them all for a long time and reread them over and over. Nothing was more exciting than a new feature on one of my favorite bands. Now, there are only a few left and not many for teenage girls, who were once the biggest consumers. Those that are still going are basically all advertisements."

–annak4f45e0f65

5. "Movies in general. I feel like they used to have substance, but now everything feels like a cash-grab."

–binadanae

6. "Makeup. In the '90s/early 2000s, you needed concealer, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, and some lip stuff to get the standard 'attractive' look. Now, social media makes it seem like you need 100 different primers, fixers, gels, mattifiers, creams, eyebrow tools, and contouring equipment, which makes it feel like these fashions (basically the huge eyebrow/eyelash/contoured/glowing looks) are directly a result of companies trying to create new products that nobody actually needed or wanted before."

–ophelialavey2

7. "Country music. Once it was good — Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings — but now, it's guys with hardcore Southern accents talking about losing their wife, tractor, truck, or some other shit."

–monster

8. "Driving. I just don't understand how it can be so hard for people to handle the simplest maneuvers such as braking, driving straight forward, and looking through a few windows. Today's drivers suck ass."

–introvert

9. "American fast food. I grew up in the '70s, and while fast food was never considered healthy, back then it was more real and whole food than the frankenfood it has become."

–kingdietrich

10. "Streaming. Back when Netflix moved away from sending DVDs in the mail, they turned to streaming. You had everything you wanted in one place, for one small price! Now, there are about 15 different streaming platforms. Might as well pay for cable at this point."

–sweetpeaprincess

11. "The news. It is so overly sensationalized, and a lot of reporters speak with these odd, frantic voices, like they want you to believe that everything is an end-of-the-world crisis. (A blizzard is not Armageddon, guys! I promise!)."

–christig2

12. "Theme parks. Rising crowds, rising ticket prices, rising costs for everything. Last time I went to Disney World, there were like, seven vloggers all in everyone's way and acting crazed to get on attractions. I wish they would all go away."

–lilpeas35

13. "Common courtesy. 'Please' and 'thank you' have gone out the window. Sad times."

–ravenwest

14. "Disney Channel really sucks now. I miss old Disney, when they actually had good quality shows/movies and talented actors."

–bhnguyen20

15. And finally, "Social media. When it started or even as far back as 2012–2017, it was fun. Just a platform to post silly, goofy pictures and stay in touch with people...until the rise of the influencers, content creators, and whatnot! Now, it's just a filtered, carefully curated, negative, toxic wasteland."

–dishanath1

 

BuzzFeed

Amid increasing poverty and hunger, Nigerians are grappling with skyrocketing prices of essential food items such as beef, rice, beans, white garri, and yam. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed these alarming trends in its latest report titled ‘Selected Food Prices Watch (April 2024).’

The report highlights significant month-on-month and year-on-year price increases. In April, the average price of 1 kilogram (kg) of local rice reached N1,399.34, reflecting a 3.47 percent increase from March and a staggering 155.93 percent rise from April 2023, when the price was N546.76.

Similarly, the average price of 1kg of white garri soared by 134.98 percent year-on-year, from N362.50 in April 2023 to N851.81 in April 2024. On a month-on-month basis, its price increased by 13.59 percent from N749.89 in March 2024.

Tomato prices also surged, with 1kg costing N1,123.41 in April 2024, a 131.58 percent increase from N485.10 in April 2023. From March to April 2024, the price jumped by 17.06 percent from N959.68.

The price of 1kg of brown beans saw a year-on-year increase of 125.43 percent, climbing from N615.67 in April 2023 to N1,387.90 in April 2024. Month-on-month, the price rose by 12.44 percent.

Yam prices did not escape the trend, with the average price of 1kg rising by 5.76 percent in April to N1,130.37, compared to N1,068.78 in March. Year-on-year, yam prices surged by 154.19 percent from N444.69 in April 2023 to N1,130.37 in April 2024.

The NBS report also detailed the variation in food prices across different states and geopolitical zones. Niger recorded the highest average price for 1kg of local rice at N1,785.47, while Benue had the lowest at N993.72. Bayelsa had the highest price for 1kg of white garri at N1,095.26, while Benue again had the lowest at N494.47. Delta state reported the highest price for 1kg of tomatoes at N1,851.19, with Zamfara recording the lowest at N547.22. The highest price for 1kg of brown beans was in Abuja at N2,288.36, and the lowest was in Yobe at N818.03.

Geopolitically, the south-west and south-south regions bore the brunt of high food prices. The south-west had the highest average price for 1kg of local rice at N1,615.21, followed by the south-south at N1,564.85. The north-west recorded the lowest prices for rice, garri, and tomatoes. For beans, the north-central and south-south regions had the highest prices.

The NBS’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April indicated that food inflation soared to 40.53 percent, a significant increase from the 24.61 percent reported in April 2023.

These rising food costs are exacerbating the struggle for many Nigerians already facing severe economic hardships, leading to increasing poverty and hunger across the nation.