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

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

The Senate has passed two out of four major tax reform bills proposed by President Bola Tinubu.

However, the upper chamber rejected a proposal to increase the value-added tax (VAT) to 10 percent, opting to retain the current rate at 7.5 percent.

The bill allows VAT input claims on fixed assets, overhead costs and administrative services.

The two bills passed are the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment bill, which repeals the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment bill, which seeks to harmonise tax collection.

Two bills which the senate has scheduled for consideration and passage on Thursday are the Nigeria Tax Administration bill and the Nigeria Tax bill.

The passage of two bills on Wednesday followed a clause-by-clause consideration of the bills in the committee of the whole and a third reading on the floor of the senate.

President Tinubu transmitted the bills to the senate as part of efforts to modernise and overhaul the country’s tax framework.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio commended the progress and said the reforms would strengthen governance and improve revenue collection.

“These bills will add immense value to governance and transform how taxes are collected and shared in Nigeria,” Akpabio said.

He also said the senate is ready to extend its sitting to conclude work on the remaining bills.

“We are committed to concluding the outstanding bills tomorrow, even if we have to stay here until 10 pm,” he added.

Apart from the rejection of a proposal to increase VAT from 7.5 to 10 percent, Akpabio, who read the resolutions, said the senate also rejected the proposed phasing out of funding for some agencies.

The agencies include the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).

Instead, Akpabio said the red chamber introduced a 4 percent development levy to sustain funding for the agencies.

“These agencies of government are essential for human capital and overall economic development of the country,” he said.

“Phasing out their funding can lead to stagnation in education and the country losing out on technological evolutions and advancements.”

According to the bill, the development levy will be distributed as follows: TETFUND (50%), Nigerian Education Loan Fund (15%), NITDA (10%), NASENI (10%), National Cybersecurity Fund (5%) and Defence Security Fund (10%).

The company income tax rate is pegged at 30 percent.

Speaking during the plenary, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin praised the maturity displayed by lawmakers in resolving earlier disagreements.

“It is time to congratulate the entire senate and in particular, the committee on finance and the elders committee for the wisdom and leadership that have been shown in these bills,” he said.

“Initially, there were disagreements and there were rancours here and there. But the senate, standing on its position as the highest assembly in the land, decided to establish this committee, a committee of elders, to look at all those areas of contention and hear the views of religious leaders, regional organisations and other stakeholders.

“Now, thank God, the committee also in its wisdom sat with all, had a very robust public hearing and got to where we are now. And thank God, all these areas have been resolved.”

The four bills have already been passed by the house of representatives.

The Cable

The Federal Government of Nigeria, in partnership with the United Nations, has unveiled a comprehensive $159 million plan aimed at tackling severe food insecurity affecting millions of people in the conflict-affected states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, announced that the government will spearhead a coordinated multisectoral response to address the food crisis in these northeastern states. The announcement came during Tuesday's launch of the 2025 Lean Season Food Security and Nutrition Crisis Multisector Plan at the UN House in Abuja.

According to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), approximately 4.6 million people across the three states face the risk of severe hunger, while 630,000 children under five years are threatened by acute malnutrition during the upcoming lean season.

The six-month operational response targets two million vulnerable people and brings together key UN agencies including UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and the Food and Agriculture Organization, alongside international and local NGOs and state governments.

However, Mohamed Fall, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, expressed concern about dwindling resources for humanitarian operations. "A lot of capacity has disappeared, and we are now only focusing on lifesaving activities. The gains we have made in preventing malnutrition and increasing our joint capacity to treat malnourished children are being wiped out," Fall stated.

Yilwatda acknowledged that the crisis poses a significant challenge to President Bola Tinubu's "Renewed Hope Agenda" and tests the government's capacity for timely intervention. He praised OCHA's multisector approach that integrates food assistance, nutrition, health, water and sanitation, protection, agriculture, and early recovery initiatives.

"The federal government will lead from the front—not just in coordinating this response but in ensuring alignment with national policy, clarity of roles, and accountability of outcomes," Yilwatda affirmed. "We are leveraging the national social register with geotag capabilities for real-time vulnerability mapping and integrating digital targeting to reach displaced persons and host communities more efficiently."

The minister emphasized the importance of local leadership and ownership at state and local government levels while urging international and local partners to align their responses with national systems and state authorities.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Economist and political activist, Pat Utomi has assumed a formal opposition role with the formation of a “shadow government” to serve as critique of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The move is coming weeks after the opposition coalition announced by former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

The top economist-turned politician described the new coalition as a “national emergency response” launched virtually under the banner of the Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government.

Peopled by individuals across opposition parties, the don said the new movement would serve as a credible opposition to the APC-led administration.

According to him, the decision became inevitable to save Nigeria’s democracy following the gale of defections that has hit opposition drifting the country into a one-party state.

He said the new group will leverage on their experiences, expertise and learnings to regularly scrutinise government actions, identify policy failures, and propose alternative solutions in key areas.

The initiative, he noted, would focus on the country’s economy, education, healthcare, infrastructure, law and order, and constitutional reforms of the present government.

According to Utomi, human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi, will lead the Ombudsman and Good Governance portfolio while the Policy Delivery Unit, will have Oghene Momoh, Cheta Nwanze, Daniel Ikuonobe, Halima Ahmed, David Okonkwo, and Obi Ajuga.

Other experts and professionals that will form the shadow cabinet include Mani Ahmad, Peter Oyewole, Omano Edigheji, Adefolusade Adebayo, Peter Agadah and Sadiq Gombe,

The list also has Chibuzor Nwachukwu, Salvation Alibor, Bilkisu Magoro, Victor Tubo, Charles Odibo, Otive Igbuzor, Eunice Atuejide, Gbenga Ajayi, Mani Ahmad, Peter Oyewole, and Omano Edigheji.

Sidi Ali, Ibrahim Abdukarim, Adenike Oriola, Promise Adewusi, Ukachukwu Awuzie, Ambrose Obimma, Rwang Pam, Kingsley Anedo, Auwal Aliyu, Ghazali Ado, Nana Kazaure, Aisha Yesufu, Charles Gilbert, and Olujimi Akiboh also made the list.

The group is expected to meet weekly to analyse public policy and recommend reforms with emphasis on integrity and transparency, which he said are lacking under the current administration.

He said, “The recent spate of defections to the APC provides further evidence that all is not well with democracy in Nigeria.

“The imperative is that if a genuine opposition does not courageously identify the performance failures of incumbents, offer options, and influence culture in a counter direction, it will be complicit in subverting the will of the people.”

“This shadow team must also address issues of ethics, transparency, and integrity, which continue to challenge this government at every turn.

“Nothing is more urgent than tackling the rising poverty across the country. Multinationals are shutting down, and millions are unemployed. The exit of two companies recently illustrate how poorly thought-out policies have tanked the economy.”

He further accused the government of using broad consensus among politicians as a cover for poor planning.

“Making propaganda of most leaders being in agreement on removing the petroleum subsidy was to cover up policy errors of how to remove it without further structural damage to the economy”, he stated.

On the issue of security reform, Utomi advocated for decentralised policing and argued that communities should be empowered to maintain their own security infrastructure through a layered approach involving local forces, state police, and a Federal National Guard.

“Policing for me is a local function. We will travel further if we get the communities to have their own armed and well-trained police forces, which will be layered with state police and the Federal National Guard,” he said, adding that corruption and centralisation have contributed to the resistance against such reforms.

Speaking on its membership, Utomi noted that it includes a range of professionals and public figures drawn from across the opposition. He said the team would operate not only as a think tank but also as a policy watchdog, offering credible alternatives to government decisions.

Daily Trust

US, Israel discuss possible US-led administration for Gaza, sources say

The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter.

The "high-level" consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a U.S. official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources said.

According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a U.S.-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force and it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after failing to contain a growing insurgency.

Other countries would be invited to take part in the U.S.-led authority in Gaza, the sources said, without identifying which ones. They said the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Islamist group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the occupied West Bank.

Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, sparked the current war when its militants stormed into southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing another 251.

The sources said it remained unclear whether any agreement could be reached. Discussions had not progressed to the point of considering who might take on core roles, they said.

The sources did not specify which side had put forward the proposal nor provide further details of the talks.

In response to Reuters questions, a State Department spokesperson did not comment directly on whether there had been discussions with Israel about a U.S.-led provisional authority in Gaza, saying they could not speak to ongoing negotiations.

"We want peace, and the immediate release of the hostages," the spokesperson said, adding that: "The pillars of our approach remain resolute: stand with Israel, stand for peace."

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

In an April interview with Emirati-owned Sky News Arabia, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he believed there would be a "transitional period" after the conflict in which an international board of trustees, including "moderate Arab countries", would oversee Gaza with Palestinians operating under their guidance.

"We're not looking to control the civil life of the people in Gaza. Our sole interest in the Gaza Strip is security," he said, without naming which countries he believed would be involved. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for further comment.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, rejected the idea of an administration led by the United States or any foreign government, saying the Palestinian people of Gaza should choose their own rulers.

The Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment.

RISKS

A U.S.-led provisional authority in Gaza would draw Washington deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mark its biggest Middle East intervention since the Iraq invasion.

Such a move would carry significant risks of a backlash from both allies and adversaries in the Middle East, if Washington were perceived as an occupying power in Gaza, two of the sources said.

The United Arab Emirates - which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 - has proposed to the United States and Israel that an international coalition oversee Gaza's post-war governance. Abu Dhabi conditioned its involvement on the inclusion of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and a credible path toward Palestinian statehood.

The UAE foreign ministry did not respond to questions about whether it would support a U.S.-led administration that did not include the PA.

Israel's leadership, including Netanyahu, firmly rejects any role in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority, which it accuses of being anti-Israeli. Netanyahu also opposes Palestinian sovereignty.

Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would expand its attacks in Gaza and that more Gazans would be moved "for their own safety". Israel is still seeking to recover 59 hostages being held in the enclave. Its offensive has so far killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry data.

Some members of Netanyahu's right-coalition have called publicly for what they describe as the "voluntary" mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza and for the reconstruction of Jewish settlements inside the coastal enclave.

But behind closed doors, some Israeli officials have also been weighing proposals over the future of Gaza that sources say assumes that there won't be a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, such as the U.S.-led provisional administration.

Among those include restricting reconstruction to designated security zones, dividing the territory and establishing permanent military bases, said four sources, who include foreign diplomats and former Israeli officials briefed on the proposals.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia’s 72-hour ‘Victory Day’ truce begins

A 72-hour ceasefire proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially come into effect, with Russian forces halting offensive operations from midnight on Thursday, despite a surge in Ukrainian drone attacks in the hours before the truce.

The pause in fighting, set to last until midnight on May 10–11, is described as a humanitarian gesture marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Kremlin says the ceasefire also aims to create space for direct peace talks with Ukraine, without preconditions.

”Yes, this is an initiative by the Russian side, by President Putin. It remains in force,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday, stressing that Moscow is committed to honoring the truce despite Ukraine’s record-breaking drone assault ahead of its start.

Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky has refused to back the ceasefire, denouncing it as an “attempt at manipulation” and accusing Russia of using humanitarian overtures for tactical advantage.

Instead of pausing hostilities, Kiev intensified its drone campaign, with high-ranking Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik stating that Ukrainian UAV strikes over the past week caused a record number of civilian casualties — 15 killed and 142 injured.

Earlier in the week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Zelensky of engaging in “classic terrorist behavior” by threatening civilians in Russia while soliciting additional funding from Western donors.

Peskov condemned the continued attacks, accusing the “Kiev regime” of revealing “its essence and inclination toward terrorist actions.” He noted that Russian special services and the military are taking all necessary measures to ensure Victory Day events proceed safely across the country.

Despite calls from some lawmakers for an “asymmetrical” response to the drone strikes, the Kremlin has reiterated its position: “All instructions have been given, there are no new elements here,” Peskov said when asked about potential retaliation during the ceasefire window.

Victory Day, celebrated on May 9, commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and remains one of the most significant public holidays in Russia.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

China's Xi arrives in Moscow in show of support for Putin after Ukrainian drones target capital

Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Moscow on Wednesday for talks with President Vladimir Putin and a pomp-filled visit that Kyiv has made clear it opposes after Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow shortly before he touched down.

Xi, whose country buys more Russian oil and gas than any other, and which has thrown Moscow an economic lifeline that has helped it navigate Western sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine, landed at Moscow's Vnukovo-2 airport soon after Russian authorities said they had brought down another Ukrainian drone outside the capital.

It was the third day Ukraine has targeted Moscow with drones and one of Moscow's main airports was forced to temporarily suspend its activities less than three hours before Xi's arrival.

When asked during a news briefing about air attacks by both sides on each others' capitals, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry did not comment on Xi's trip, saying only that the "top priority" was to avoid an escalation in tensions.

The Kremlin said the attempted Ukrainian attacks on Moscow showed Kyiv's tendency to commit "acts of terrorism" and that Russia's intelligence services and military were doing everything necessary to ensure the security of upcoming World War Two commemorations which Xi is due to attend.

Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Russia had launched its own air attack on Kyiv overnight, killing a mother and her son. Russia says it only targets military objects.

Xi is the most powerful world leader expected at a military parade on Moscow's Red Square on Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over Nazi Germany.

His visit hands President Vladimir Putin an important diplomatic boost at a time when the Russian leader is keen to show his country is not isolated on the world stage. The Kremlin has touted Xi's presence, along with that of 28 other world leaders, as a sign of Russia's growing global authority.

But Ukraine's Foreign Ministry - in comments that seemed directed at China whose troops are due to march on Red Square - on Tuesday urged countries not to send their militaries to participate in the May 9 parade, saying such participation would go against some countries' declared neutrality in the war.

DRONES TARGETED MOSCOW

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defence units had destroyed at least 14 Ukrainian drones headed for the Russian capital overnight. He later said at least two more had been brought down during the day.

Xi has called for talks to end the war in Ukraine and has accused the U.S. of stoking the war with weapons supplies to Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has in the past urged him to try to persuade Putin to end the war.

Xi is due to hold talks with the Russian leader on Thursday and to join other world leaders for the parade on Friday.

His visit comes as U.S. President Donald Trumpis trying to push Moscow and Kyiv to find a way to end the war in Ukraine, with both sides blaming each other for a lack of progress.

Locked in a tariff war with the United States, Xi is expected to sign numerous agreements to deepen an already tight strategic partnership with Moscow, which has consistently seen China crowned Russia's biggest trading partner.

Despite recent efforts under Trump to reset U.S.-Russia ties, Putin is expected to present a united front with Xi against Washington, whose dominance and "exceptionalism" both countries have questioned, arguing for a more multipolar world.

POST-WAR INTERNATIONAL ORDER

In a signed article published by Russian media on Wednesday, Xi wrote that China and Russia must "firmly maintain the post-war international order."

"The two sides should jointly resist any attempt to disrupt and undermine China-Russia friendship and mutual trust," read the text of the article, Chinese state media reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the visit "one of the central events in Russian-Chinese relations this year."

"The World War Two focus is about the post-war international order and now the U.S. is dismantling or undermining it. So China and Russia will frame themselves as the defenders of the international order and the UN system, and oppose U.S. unilateralism and hegemony," said Yun Sun, a China politics analyst at the Stimson Center in Washington.

In their talks, Putin and Xi will discuss the "most sensitive" issues, including energy cooperation and the proposed but yet to be built Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China, Yuri Ushakov, a top Kremlin aide, said.

RT/Reuters

Since the Nigerian presidency has devoted itself to responding to every criticism of the government and its administrative failings, it is unsurprising that media aide Bayo Onanuga faulted the recent claim by the outgoing President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, that Nigerians lived a better life in the 1960s going by the GDP per capita. Onanuga argued that Adesina should know that GDP per capita is not the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives now than in the past. Indeed, it is a poor tool for assessing living standards. Its primary usefulness is in giving us the metrics to compare economic output in a country or between countries. Then he adds that today, as we await the NBS’s recalibration of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.

What Onanuga has done here is to spill a lot of needless ink to arrive at the same spot where he started. If the GDP is not a reliable marker of economic growth and development, why still wait for a favourable NBS figure to contradict Adesina?

 In any case, the two truths that might be operating here might not be mutually contradictory. Statistics can show growth since 1960, while Nigerians qualitatively live far less than they did 60 years ago. On that score, Onanuga is right that numbers are not the only means of scaling a society’s achievements. Figures objectively calculate how an average person lives (or lived) but do not paint the full picture of the internal substance of such a life. If we want to get to the truth, we must also probe social experience. In this case, we can ask the people who lived in the 1960s what their lives were like and how their experience compares to the present.

Now this is where it gets tricky. If you line up one thousand Nigerians who have lived through the various seasons of the nation’s history and ask them if the country was better in the 1960s, I can bet that there will be far more who would agree that the country used to be better. Why is that so? First, because human memory is prone to recall the past with nostalgia, and that makes for pessimism about the conditions of the present. The human brain is wired to scan the arc of personal history and promote the positive recollections of the past over those of the immediate present. It is sometimes called the declinism bias, and it is not peculiar to Nigerians. You find the echoes of the “good old days” in the “Make America Great Again” politics where a section of United States citizens thinks the old times were better than now when by every parameter, they are a richer and stronger country.

But in the case of Nigeria, people know what they are saying when they look back wistfully at the past and declare that life used to be better. I have older friends in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. Their recollection of how life used to be in Nigeria sometimes feels like the vision of the Nigeria I would love to see. If they are of the formally educated class, these folks would fondly recall the Nigeria where they received a sound education at all levels. Public schools were not as dilapidated; nobody ever recalls where students sat on the floor in their roofless classrooms. Public education was so good that the children of the elites attended the same schools as everyone else. You could be a poor village boy from rural Igbomina and attend Government College with the children of the powerful. Education was not as cheapened through private schools.

Those who made it to the university among them would recall receiving an education in the true sense of the word. Nobody needed to go to school abroad; Nigerian universities offered world-class education. They would recall a university system where the hostels were not crammed with students; the facilities worked, and undergraduates lived like actual human beings, unlike the appalling situation that subsists on most campuses. That was, of course, the generation that also had a quarter chicken for lunch on Sundays. People would also recall that fresh university graduates had jobs waiting for them after school, and you could buy a car with your salary. Whether they are educated or not, everyone can recall a time when the country was safe and secure, and one could travel through its length and breadth without fearing abduction by Fulani herdsmen. While the past might not be as picture-perfect as generally painted, there is enough substance in people’s recollections to demonstrate how much we have declined. The Nigeria some of us dream of living in has already been lived out by our forebears, imagine!

So yes, while the rebased GDP figures will expectedly look better, there is a lot of decline in the quality of our Nigerian life. Why do we even need to go as far as the 1960s to apprehend what has happened to our Nigerian lives? There are closer examples of a lack of progress. We are a country that once produced as much as 7,000MW of electricity in 2014. In 2025 and with multiple grid collapses, we struggle with 5,500MW. The Nigerian population has increased, and with it the demand for electricity, but the supply has only declined. Does anyone really need the GDP per capita to divine how a country that cannot sustain its modest gains would suffer socially and economically? An older relative once told me that the Energy Corporation of Nigeria—the company that supplied power in their youth—used to give an advance notification if there would be a power outage. Tell that to the generation of young Nigerians who have never lived in a world without the crazy hum of a generator bursting through their brains, and they would think you are lying.

Electricity is one aspect; the general state of public infrastructure is another. A generation has never witnessed a Nigeria where public utilities worked. Ask the young person living in Nigeria, where the GDP is supposedly 50 to 100 times better—a la Onanuga—if they know that we used to get water supply from a public water corporation, and they would perhaps be genuinely surprised. Look at places like our hospitals, especially the public ones, where people complement the paltry services they receive there with prayers and tell us how much better we have it. Even our leaders cannot entrust their lives to the public hospitals they fund. The slightest malady, and they are already on their way to France or the UK to receive proper healthcare.

In 2023, I visited the University College Hospital, Ibadan and what I saw there is a story best not told. Yes, the GDP must have multiplied about a hundred times since UCH was first founded in 1952, but nothing in that hospital currently reflects it. You can say the same for every aspect of our Nigerian lives. We have added many more zeroes to our national statistics, but our lives remain internally empty. Whereas countries like China and the UAE that lifted a huge percentage of their population out of poverty do not rely on media aides like Onanuga to sàlàyé progress on social media with spurious figures. Unlike our own situation, their results speak for themselves.

Punch