WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia and Ukraine accuse one another of ceasefire violations

Ukrainian troops have made further attempts to breach the Russian border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin hosted world leaders at a major military parade in Moscow.

The Defence Ministry said the attacks occurred during a three-day ceasefire running from May 8-10 that Russia has unilaterally declared to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Ukraine has called the ceasefire a "farce" and on Friday documented scores of armed clashes.

It noted in particular, northeastern Sumy region, site of some of the heaviest Russian assaults in recent weeks, saying there had been no letup during the Kremlin-inspired ceasefire.

"There has been no 'ceasefire' in Sumy region on the 8th or 9th of May. Over the two days Russia has killed three civilians, the region's military administration said on Telegram.

Ukraine's military, in its account late on Friday of battlefield operations, said 162 armed clashes had been recorded over the past 24 hours, with the Kremlin ceasefire in effect, along with 22 air strikes and 956 drone attacks.

It noted heavy fighting near Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in eastern Ukraine targeted by Moscow's troops for months. Russian forces had attempted to break through Ukrainian lines 51 times.

The Russian Defence Ministry account said it had registered four attempts by Ukrainian forces to smash through the border into the Kursk and Belgorod regions in the past week.

In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's troops had attacked Russian forces 15 times during the ceasefire, the ministry said.

Ukraine has said Russia had repeatedly breached its own truce this week. The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that Russia hit eight Ukrainian frontline villages 220 times since the ceasefire went into effect.

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In Russia's Belgorod border region, the local governor said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a government building on Friday.

In Kursk, Ukrainian troops launched a major incursion last August and held onto a chunk of Russian territory for many months as Moscow's forces battled to eject them with help from North Korean soldiers. Some fighting has continued, even after Putin last month declared "victory" in Kursk.

Ukraine said its troops had repelled 19 attacks in the region.

Rybar, a pro-Russian war blogger, said there was "high-intensity fighting" between Russian and Ukrainian troops near Tetkino, a village in the region. Rybar and other bloggers said Ukrainian attacks on multiple villages in the neighbouring Belgorod region were continuing on Friday.

Reuters could not independently verify statements by war bloggers or battlefield reports from either side.

Ukraine and Russia both accused the other of repeatedly violating a previous 30-hour Easter ceasefire declared by Putin.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces attempted to breach border four times during Moscow’s Victory Day truce – MOD

Ukrainian forces have attempted four cross-border incursions into the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod since the start of Moscow’s 72-hour ceasefire, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian forces continued to conduct military operations despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a Victory Day ceasefire from midnight May 8 to midnight May 11, the ministry said on Friday.

Apart from the incursion attempts, Ukraine launched 15 smaller-scale attacks on a number of settlements in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, according to the statement.

The Ukrainian military also continued missile and artillery attacks against Russian frontline positions, the ministry said. The Russian military has recorded 5,026 attacks since the ceasefire came into force. The assaults involved around 1,500 instances of artillery shelling and 3,502 drone strikes, it added.

Russia responded with tit-for-tat actions, according to the ministry.

Putin announced the ceasefire last week, describing it as a humanitarian gesture to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, which he said could also serve as a catalyst for “the start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.”

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky dismissed the initiative, calling it a Russian ploy and an “attempt at manipulation.” Kiev has ramped up drone strikes on Russian territory, with the Defense Ministry reporting a record 524 UAVs being shot down on Wednesday alone.

Nevertheless, the Ukrainian leader said on Thursday that Kiev is ready for a “complete ceasefire” without any preconditions at any moment, but insisted that it should last at least 30 days.

Russia has said it is ready for direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions,” and has advocated for a permanent resolution to the conflict that addresses the root causes. It has also warned that Kiev could use a temporary truce to regroup its forces and replenish its military equipment and ammunition.

Reuters/RT

The 25,000 residents of Lice, a town in Turkey’s Diyarbakır province, involuntarily got high after police burned tens of tons of seized cannabis in the town center.

On April 18, Turkish authorities conducted an operation to burn over 20 tons of confiscated cannabis in Lice, which caused the air in the settlement to become thick with weed smoke. For at least five days, people couldn’t leave their windows open and avoided going out, for fear of becoming intoxicated and experiencing symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and hallucinations. The destroyed cannabis, valued at 10 billion Turkish Lira ($261,433,808), weighed 20 tons 766 kilos 679 grams and had been seized from all over Diyarbakır province during 2023 and 2024.

“The smell of drugs has been enveloping the district for days,” a local man complained. We cannot open our windows. Our children got sick, we are constantly going to the hospital.”

The Chairman of the Yeşil Yıldız Association, Yahya Öğer said that, although the success achieved by authorities in the fight against drugs is important, the manner in which the cannabis was destroyed was incorrect. He emphasized that arranging the bags of weed to form the name of the town, LICE, in burning letters only added insult to injury.

“This was perhaps done as a preventive measure to deter, but the fact that it was destroyed in the city center could cause serious discomfort to people due to the smoke of burned hemp,” Öğer told reporters, adding that his association recommends that police dispose of the cannabis in factories with filtered chimnies, to prevent the smoke from affecting the local population.

“As you know, the destruction or burning of such herbs can also cause serious intoxication,” Öğer explained. “Just as tobacco harms passive smokers when used in a closed area, the smoke released by such narcotic substances when disposed of can cause serious discomfort to people on the other side. It can make people drunk, dizzy, nauseated, and cause hallucinations.”

Oddity Central

Developing healthy, lifelong connections is something that Mark Groves knows all about: He equips individuals with the skills they need to strengthen their relationships through his online membership community, Create the Love. Companies also hire him to help their teams work better together and maintain healthy work ties.

"I was 27 and I started studying relationships. I thought, 'Why is no one teaching us this?' Everything I would learn, I would just think to myself, 'Why wasn't there a class?'" Groves says.

He began writing about the complexities of relationships — including his personal ones. He studied positive psychology and eventually began training others to establish their own healthy connections.

"The most amazing thing I learned over all this time is that anyone can have exceptional relationships, that they're something you create. They're not done by luck," Groves says.

"We are an active participant in every relationship in our lives, which means that we could take 100% responsibility for our side of things.”

In an article he wrote for his Substack in 2023, Groves shared recommendations for how you can form healthy relationships. Here’s what he suggests:

• Take stock of what you do, or tolerate from others, that hurts you or other people
• Process the feelings that arise from facing how you've shown up in relationships
• Alchemize the emotions like fear or hurt and use them for growth

"Great relationships are created,” Groves says. “And everyone can learn the skill set to create exceptional relationships.”

CNBC

Former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of the United States was selected Thursday by the papal conclave to succeed Pope Francis and lead the Roman Catholic Church. The new pontiff, who has taken the name Leo XIV, is the first American pope. But what else do we know about him?

Prevost, 69, was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, a school administrator and World War II naval veteran, was of French and Italian descent; his mother, Mildred Martinez, descended from Creole people of color in New Orleans. In addition to English, the new pope speaks Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese; he can read Latin and German.

Prevost is an Augustinian, meaning he belongs to a Catholic order known for its commitment to community and sharing. He is the first Augustinian pope, according to the Vatican.

Pope Leo's rise through the Catholic Church

Prevost attended secondary school at an Augustinian seminary and officially joined the order in 1977, when he was 22. In between, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Villanova University. Five years later, Prevost was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and he traveled to the Augustinian College of Saint Monica in Rome to be ordained. Prevost later received a doctorate in canon law from Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Prevost went on to spend much of his adult life abroad. While preparing his doctoral thesis, he was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru. He returned to Peru in 1988 and spent the next 10 years leading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo; he also taught canon law, served as an ecclesiastical judge, and led his own congregation. He eventually became a naturalized citizen there.

From 1999 to 2014, Prevost worked in Chicago, where he first led the city’s Augustinian Province and then served two six-year terms as head of the Augustinians. Like other cardinals, he has been criticized for his dealings there with priests accused of sexual abuse.

Prevost returned to Peru in 2014; Pope Francis soon named him bishop. Until Francis’s death, Prevost “held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally,” according to the New York Times.

What kind of pope will Leo be?

In his first remarks after being chosen as the new pontiff Thursday, Pope Leo outlined his vision for the Catholic Church.

"We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue," he said, according to an English translation of his remarks, which were mostly in Italian. He also called on people to "show our charity" to others "and be in dialogue with love."

Leo paid tribute to the late Pope Francis as well, saying, "Let us keep in our ears the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. The Pope who blessed Rome, gave his blessing to the entire world that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail."

The fact that Leo, like Francis, hails from the Americas — and spent decades in Francis’s native South America — suggests a degree of continuity. The conventional wisdom ahead of this week’s conclave was that an American would not be chosen as pontiff. Does this mean Leo will champion greater inclusion and openness to change, like his predecessor?

The earliest clues suggest he might.

What are Leo's political views?

While “often described as reserved and discreet,” according to the Times — a stylistic departure from the more gregarious Francis — Leo named himself after Pope Leo XIII, a turn-of-the-20th-century modernizer. Leo XIII was known as the “Social Pope” and the "Pope of the Workers” for his writings on social justice, fair wages, safe labor conditions and trade unions.

Along similar lines, Prevost resurfaced on X in February of this year — after a long absence — to repost an opinion column from the National Catholic Reporter about how Vice President “JD Vance is wrong” because “Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.”

The column criticized Vance for interpreting a medieval concept known as ordo amoris to mean that “you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.”

“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that,” Vance complained in January.

Yet the column insists that “Jesus never speaks of love as something to be rationed. He speaks of love as abundance — a table where there is enough for everyone.”

This is “what the gospel asks of all of us on immigration,” Prevost wrote on X when he later reposted another story critical of the Trump administration's treatment of migrants.

Most recently, in April, Prevost shared an X postthat questioned the Trump administration's deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

"Do you not see the suffering?" the post read, quoting the story it linked to. "Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”

Prevost joined X (then Twitter) in 2011. Throughout Trump's first term, he shared tweets

On the other hand, it’s unclear whether Prevost (now Leo) will be as accepting of LGBTQ Catholics as Francis was. In a 2012 address to bishops, he lamented that Western media and culture had fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel,” citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

Since then, he has been quiet on the subject.

Yahoo News

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the $3.4 billion emergency loan it received in 2020 to cushion the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp decline in global oil prices. The financing, provided under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), was disbursed in April 2020 to help Africa’s largest oil producer address severe balance of payments needs during the global crisis.

In a statement released on Thursday, IMF resident representative to Nigeria, Christian Ebeke, said that as of April 30, 2025, the country had completed repayment of the facility. The IMF’s data shows the loan was repaid in tranches of SDR 613.62 million in 2023, SDR 1.22 billion in 2024, and SDR 613.62 million in 2025.

However, Nigeria will continue to make annual payments of approximately $30 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) charges. These charges, which represent the cost of borrowing from the IMF, are calculated based on the difference between Nigeria’s current SDR holdings and its cumulative SDR allocation.

The IMF explained that the charges are levied at the SDR interest rate, which is updated weekly, and will continue until Nigeria’s SDR holdings (currently SDR 3.164 billion or $4.3 billion) match its total allocation (SDR 4.027 billion or $5.5 billion).

Despite the full repayment of the principal loan, Nigeria’s foreign debt servicing costs remain high. According to the Debt Management Office, the country spent $4.66 billion on external debt servicing in 2024, including $1.63 billion paid to the IMF.

Nigeria is facing a deepening public health crisis as both the federal government and a new report by civil society group Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) raise alarm over the devastating impact of food-related illnesses and the unchecked spread of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods across the country.

Speaking at the launch of a new national food safety operational manual in Abuja, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Geoffrey Nnaji, disclosed that an estimated 200,000 Nigerians—many of them children—die each year from foodborne diseases. He pointed to dangerous practices such as using paracetamol to tenderize meat, fermenting cassava with detergents, and adding industrial dyes like Sudan IV to palm oil and pepper, calling them “criminal acts” punishable under Nigeria’s Criminal Code.

“These are not cultural missteps—they are attacks on public health,” the minister said, adding that poor hygiene and contaminated food were behind recent outbreaks of cholera and Lassa fever, which claimed hundreds of lives in early 2025 alone. The new manual, he noted, offers a science-based guide for food safety enforcement at the local level, targeting markets, street vendors, and informal food outlets where millions of Nigerians source their meals daily.

Supporting the initiative, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, cited findings from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) showing that 20% of hospital admissions in urban areas stem from foodborne illnesses. He emphasized the urgent need for robust food safety frameworks, developed in collaboration with state governments, to address local realities.

The head of the Nigerian Council for Food Science and Technology (NiCFoST), Nkechi Veronica Ezeh, described the manual as a “missing piece” in the country’s food safety infrastructure, aligning with constitutional mandates for local governments to regulate food environments.

However, the challenge is not only about contamination and food safety—it also concerns the rising threat of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked to unhealthy diets. According to a new report by CAPPA titled “Junk on Our Plates”, weak regulation is enabling food and beverage companies to flood Nigerian communities with ultra-processed, sugar-laden products, using deceptive marketing tactics and cultural targeting to reach schools, religious centers, and low-income areas.

CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the shift from traditional diets to processed snacks and sugary drinks is fuelling a wave of NCDs—obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease—which now account for over 30% of all annual deaths in Nigeria. “We’re talking about 684,000 preventable deaths every year—equivalent to wiping out the population of Luxembourg annually,” he warned.

The report highlighted misleading labeling practices and aggressive promotions by multinational brands, including bundling sugary drinks with fast food during Ramadan in Lagos and Abuja, and embedding products into local food cultures in the North. “These companies operate like the tobacco industry once did—covertly targeting children, distorting health information, and bypassing regulation,” Oluwafemi added.

Despite policy steps such as the N10-per-litre Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Tax introduced in 2021, and new sodium reduction and trans fat guidelines, CAPPA says enforcement remains weak. Public health advocates have also questioned the lack of transparency in how over N100 billion collected from SSB taxes since 2022 has been used.

The group is calling for stronger action: raising the SSB tax to N130 per litre, banning unhealthy food marketing near schools, enforcing front-of-pack nutrition labels, and protecting policymaking from corporate influence. “Food is a right, not a luxury,” Oluwafemi said. “Whether in Maitama or Makoko, every Nigerian deserves safe and nutritious food.”

Israel says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility

Israel's military said on Saturday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen and Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the attack, the third of its kind by the Iran-aligned group in 24 hours.

The Israeli military said sirens were activated in a number of areas in Israel after the missile was launched. No casualties or serious damage have been reported from the missile salvoes.

The claim of responsibility, announced by the Houthis' military spokesperson, came amid an intensification of U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

In March, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The deadly strikes on the group have been the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January.

The Houthis say their attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping are in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Hamas militants and Israel in Gaza.

The group pledged to expand its range of targets in Israel in retaliation for a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza launched in mid-March, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire after the mediated talks on terms for extending it broke down.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russia violating its own 3-day ceasefire, calls it a 'farce'

Ukraine's foreign minister said on Thursday Russia had repeatedly violated its own 3-day ceasefire hours after it began and called the initiative a "farce", while Moscow said Kyiv had continued fighting.

There was, though, a drop-off in combat activity after the ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin came into force in the early hours of Thursday, with a respite in the drone and missile attacks that had rattled Ukrainian cities earlier this week.

"Predictably, Putin's 'Parade ceasefire' proves to be a farce," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, referring to the truce which coincides with a May 9 parade on Moscow's Red Square to commemorate the end of World War Two.

"Russian forces continue to attack across the entire frontline," Sybiha wrote. "From midnight to midday, Russia committed 734 ceasefire violations and 63 assault operations, 23 of which are still ongoing."

He said Kyiv was notifying the United States and European states about Russia's actions.

The Russian defence ministry, cited by Interfax news agency, said that Ukraine, in turn, had carried out 488 attacks on Russian targets and twice tried to break through the border in the Kursk region.

The two sides did not immediately comment on each other's battlefield reports, which Reuters could not independently confirm.

A late night report issued by the General Staff of Ukraine's military nearly 24 hours in the proclaimed ceasefire said 154 clashes had been recorded. Russian forces, it said, had launched one missile attack and 15 air strikes.

The governor of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said a Russian drone had struck a car in the south of the region, killing a passenger.

In central Poltava region, the head of the regional military administration said air defence units had downed a missile deployed by Russian forces. The missile damaged private homes, but caused no casualties.

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UKRAINE DERIDES KREMLIN CEASEFIRE

Ukraine has not committed to abide by the ceasefire, calling it a ruse by Putin to create the impression he wants to end the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Putin says he is committed to achieving peace.

Reuters journalists with a Ukrainian drone unit near the front in eastern Ukraine said a small Russian infantry raiding party had tried to advance on Thursday, but had been stopped by drones piloted by members of the unit.

Ukrainian soldiers observed the clash on a live feed streamed onto monitors in their bunker.

"The infantry are still coming," said one of the soldiers in the unit, a 33-year-old who identified himself by his callsign, "Mikha."

A second person in the same unit, who identified himself as Nazar, said in the six hours since the Russian ceasefire started, there had been three Russian strikes on his section of the front. Asked if the ceasefire was holding, he said: "The facts speak for themselves."

A Ukrainian military spokesman earlier said Russia had continued assaults in areas on the eastern front and prosecutors said two people had been wounded along with the 55-year-old woman killed by bombs fired at the northern Sumy region.

The Russian ceasefire falls on the 80th anniversary of the World War Two defeat of Nazi Germany, for which Putin is hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders ahead of a military parade on Red Square on May 9.

Ukraine, like the West, marks the anniversary on May 8.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked the day by taking a rare walk in central Kyiv to pay his respects to fallen Ukrainian soldiers at a vast mound of Ukrainian flags planted on a grassy verge on the central square.

There was no sign of his security detail in the selfie video he filmed as he passed pedestrians on the city's main drag, at one point pausing to say "hi" as cars tooted their horns and deriding Friday's planned pomp-filled ceremony in Moscow.

"There will be a parade of cynicism. You simply cannot call it anything else. A parade of bile and lies. As if not dozens of allied states, but Putin personally defeated Nazism," he said.

Ukraine launched successive drone attacks on Moscow this week, which had forced the closure of airports in the Russian capital and the grounding of airliners.

Russia's aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said on Thursday evening that airline schedules, heavily disrupted earlier in the week, were now operating normally.

Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he had told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call that a 30-day ceasefire was a "real indicator" of moving towards peace with Russia and Kyiv was ready to implement it immediately.

Zelenskiy said he had also spoken to Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who assured him that his government could be relied upon for continued support. The Ukrainian president also spoke to European Union Executive Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev attempts new incursion into Russia’s Kursk

The Ukrainian military launched a new attempt to invade Russia’s Kursk Region on Monday, launching multiple cross-border attacks. While the fighting in the border area continued into Wednesday, Kiev’s forces have failed to achieve any tangible gains, sustaining considerable materiel and personnel losses during the raid.

The attacks targeted several locations, including the villages of Tetkino and Novy Put, just to the east of the area invaded by Ukrainian forces last August and fully liberated by the Russian military earlier this year.

“In the Tetkino area and closer to Novy Put, the enemy has been conducting reconnaissance in force for the second day in a row and is trying to clear our mine and engineering barriers in order to try to send troops into the breach,” Igor Kimakovsky, a senior official in the administration of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, told reporters. 

The village of Tetkino was the target of an unsuccessful Ukrainian incursion attempt in March 2024. The hamlet of Novy Put saw the most intensive combat in November last year, when Kiev’s troops attempted to flank the Russian forces advancing in Kursk Region.

Multiple videos circulating online, said to be taken south of Tetkino, show Ukrainian troops deploying several breacher vehicles in an attempt to break through the reinforced border, clearing mines, ‘dragon’s teeth’ concrete pyramids, and other obstacles.

The vehicles, including a Soviet-made IMR-2, German-supplied Wisent 1 engineering vehicles, and the Soviet-designed UR-77 Meteorit mine-clearing vehicle, were hit by multiple FPV drones and abandoned by their crews.

Ukrainian forces attempted to evacuate the crews of the vehicles on quad bikes. Some of the evacuation teams, however, fell victim to FPV drones as well. 

Multiple Ukrainian armored vehicles that attempted to advance on Russian positions near Tetkino through the openings made by the breachers ended up destroyed as well. One of the videos from the area show a heavily uparmored US-supplied M1117 armored car getting hit by a drone carrying two PRG-7 warheads.

Despite initial setbacks, Ukrainian forces managed to reach the westernmost tip of Tetkino, located a mere 100 meters from the border, on Tuesday. An unspecified number of Ukrainian servicemen reportedly infiltrated several residential homes on the outskirts of the village. The forces were subjected to artillery and aerial strikes, footage available online indicates, and reportedly were pushed back across the border by the end of the day.

A similar situation unfolded near Novy Put, where Kiev’s troops also sent in breacher vehicles only to lose them in the open field. Drone footage purportedly taken near the hamlet shows an IMR-2 hitting a landmine when the vehicle attempted to cross an anti-tank ditch and rampart at the border. Immediately after the blast, an uparmored vehicle carrying Ukrainian infantry that followed the breacher was hit by at least one FPV drone, the video suggests. 

The ongoing incursion attempt has been marked by the active use of quad bikes by Ukrainian forces, who are using them for rapid infantry deployment instead of relying purely on armored vehicles that follow breachers. A convoy of ten quad bikes was reportedly destroyed en route to Novy Put.

Thermal footage circulating online purports to show the bikes speeding along a road towards the hamlet. The group stopped at some point, and the tightly packed vehicles were subsequently hit by multiple artillery shells, the footage shows.

Reuters/RT

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, ruffled presidential feathers on Monday when he said in a speech during the 20thAnniversary dinner of the financial services company, Chapel Hill Denham, that Nigerians were better off in 1960 than they are today.

The Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Bayo Onanuga, immediately disagreed, saying that Adesina used a narrow, perhaps one of the most contested metrics, to measure the country’s progress. Both Adesina and Onanuga were right and wrong.

What’s in a measure?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the most common measure of the size of an economy, measures the size of goods and services produced by that economy in a given period, usually annually.

For nearly 10 years after Nigeria rebased its economy in 2014 by including swathes of the economy previously excluded from the calculation, mainly IT, telecoms, and music, the country ranked as Africa’s largest economy.

We walked with a swagger and a spring in our steps. Until recently, when the tide turned and Nigeria slipped to number four, behind South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, any argument about the adequacy of GDP as an accurate measure of economic well-being would have been dismissed, especially in official circles.

One-handed economists

Yet, the GDP is accurate in what it measures, irrespective of Onanuga’s discomfort. Of course, economists, never one-handed as Harry Truman famously said, may disagree on the best model. Still, they have yet to find a more precise measure of a country's total goods and services, a rough guide to economic status, than the GDP.

What Adesina did in his lecture, “Reimagining Nigeria by 2050,” was not only to compare Nigeria’s GDP in 1960 with what it currently is, but also to put that side by side with the performance of South Korea, which was at roughly the same position as Nigeria 65 years ago.

What he didn’t do, by the way, was to re-imagine what Nigeria’s GDP might have been today if he kept his promise as Nigeria’s Agriculture minister between 2011 and 2015, to popularise “cassava bread!”

GDP vs GDP per capita

The GDP per capita of all seven countries Adesina citedin his lecture were African, from Ghana ($2,260) to Botswana ($7,820), compared with Nigeria’s ($1,596). It’s not unusual that whereas Nigeria’s economy is thefourth largest on the continent, its GDP per capita is lower than Ghana’s, for example.

While the GDP measures the total volume of goods and services produced, GDP per capita divides the volume by the population. Regarding manufacturing, a key GDP component, Adesina mentioned Malaysia and Vietnam, which started in the same place as Nigeria, but have left us far behind. These examples are uncomfortable, but true.

The GDP is measured in the currency of the country in question, but converted to US dollars when comparing the value of the goods and services produced between or among nations. That means after the naira devaluation by 250 percent, for example, Nigeria’s GDP ranking was bound to fall.

Low or high?

Are there countries with relatively high GDP per capita and yet a low standard of living? Yes. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, for example, have relatively high GDPs due to oil wealth and small populations, but score low on most quality of life indicators because of poor governance and weak institutions.

And vice versa, low-GDP countries like Costa Rica and Portugal have a higher standard of living because of strong social programmes, good education and safety measures. Yet of the 20 countries with the highest GDP by the IMF 2025 projections, there is none with rampant poverty.  

Beyond measure

Onanuga was right to contest the use of the GDP, because, to modify Albert Einstein, some things count that cannot be counted by the GDP – things like health, education, equality, governance, trust, and the quality of life. Onanuga listed a few things in his rejoinder, such as road infrastructure, which he said Adesina’s paper had omitted.

It did not. It emphasised GDP as a measure of performance, and we may disagree with the adequacy of this metric. However, the paper also strongly argued that aggressive and well-thought-out investment in infrastructure such as power, health, agriculture, seaports, and airports with a clear and transparent governance structure can guarantee Nigeria a secure future.

Are you better off?

With two years to the next general elections, I understand Onanuga’s concern that a portrayal of Nigeria’s long-gone past as better than its present is politically fraught. Elections have been lost and won on the fundamental question: Are you better off than you were four years ago?

However, Adesina’s views about Nigeria in 1960 will not matter to voters in two years because they will not hold the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accountable for the time when Nigeria’s population was around 45 million and each of its three main regions enjoyed relative autonomy. Nor will they hold Tinubu responsible for 2050 because he would not be in office then.

In two years, Nigerians will ask themselves if their lives have improved in the last four years of the Tinubu government. It’s a question that strips economics of its jargon, whether GDP or HDI, and goes straight to bread-and-butter issues.

In the long run…

If President Joe Biden’s claim of a better life for Americans, even though essentially statistically correct, was insufficient to save him, then the Tinubu administration must roll up its sleeves.

GDP or not, Onanuga’s rejoinder will not avert the question of whether Nigerians feel better off. This government's difficult decisions in the last two years should have been taken decades ago. The consequences of these decisions, however, especially the removal of the petrol subsidy and floating the exchange rate, not to mention the insecurity, have made many worse off.

Of course, Abuja can argue that the hardship is global andthat the temporary difficulties will produce a better future. But as economists say, in the long run, we’re all dead.

Living it!

For the government to be rewarded for the courage of its tough decisions, the public, especially voters, does not need to be reminded that they now have more phone lines or road networks as a measure of progress. Many more must be able to live above the current misery of begging to recharge their phones, to pay fare for unsafe roads, or ransom for loved ones.

Nigerians are poorer today, not because comparative GDP figures from 1960 tell them, or because a more robust indicator could have made any difference. They live it.

The currency has been devalued by 250 percent in two years, the value of savings has depleted, the cost of essential services has risen by 113 percent, and the cost of borrowing has increased from 18.5 percent in 2023 to 27.5 percent because of the crowding-out effect.

White cat, black cat

Whatever the indicators, this is the reality Nigerians are living, the story Tinubu was voted to change. Governors are getting more money and should account for it. Still,with more of them defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the party will have much more to answer for what it is doing to lessen the collective misery. Also, the significant issues in the macroeconomy(primarily inflation) and security are squarely on the Federal Government’s plate.

There’s still some time to fix things, but like DengXiaoping said about dealing with an emergency, it’s not the colour or description of the economic indicator that matters, as long as the cat of our current misery catches mice.

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

Ultra-processed foods are getting a lot of attention. Research links them to cancer, heart disease, inflammation, cognitive decline, and diabetes. Meanwhile U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his cohort warn against the dangers of foods with more than five ingredients—Kennedy himself has claimed “highly chemically processed foods” are the chief culprit behind an epidemic of chronic disease in the U.S.

But new research suggests that in addition to chronic disease, ultra-processed foods may be driving premature deaths. A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is significantly linked to increased premature deaths (between ages 30 and 69).

Analyzing data from eight countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, U.K., and U.S.), researchers found that each 10% rise in UPFs’ proportion of total caloric intake raised all-cause mortality risk by 3%. In countries with the highest UPF consumption—like the U.S.—up to 14% of premature deaths are attributable to UPFs, according to the study. For instance, researchers found that in 2018, 124,000 premature deaths in the U.S. were due to the consumption of UPFs.

“UPFs affect health beyond the individual impact of high content of…sodium, trans fats, and sugar because of the changes in the foods during industrial processing and the use of artificial ingredients, including colorants, artificial flavors and sweeteners, emulsifiers, and many other additives and processing aids,” said lead investigator of the study Eduardo Augusto Fernandes Nilson. “So assessing deaths from all-causes associated with UPF consumption allows an overall estimate of the effect of industrial food processing on health.”

4 ultra-processed foods to avoid

Ultra-processed foods are commonly defined under a classification known as NOVA, defining them as containing additives and undergoing significant alterations from their natural state. They tend to be calorie-dense, low in nutrients, and often have long shelf lives.

While this study didn’t look at individual foods’ impact on premature death and mortality risk, another study from last year did. Those researchers found that the following foods were linked with the highest all-cause mortality risk:

• Processed meat
• Sugary and artificially sweetened beverages
• Dairy-based desserts
• Ultra-processed breakfast foods like sugary cereal

In that study, researchers found that participants whose diets contained the highest proportion of UPFs had a 4% higher risk of all-cause mortality, as well as an 8% higher risk of mortality from neurodegenerative diseases, compared to those who ate the least ultra-processed food.

Fortune