US slams UN conference on Israel-Palestinian issue, warns of consequences

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is discouraging governments around the world from attending a U.N. conference next week on a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a U.S. cable seen by Reuters.

The diplomatic demarche, sent on Tuesday, says countries that take "anti-Israel actions" following the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to U.S. foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences from Washington.

The demarche, which was not previously reported, runs squarely against the diplomacy of two close allies France and Saudi Arabia, who are co-hosting the gathering next week in New York that aims to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security.

"We are urging governments not to participate in the conference, which we view as counterproductive to ongoing, life-saving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages," read the cable.

President Emmanuel Macron has suggested France could recognise a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories at the conference. French officials say they have been working to avoid a clash with the U.S., Israel's staunchest major ally.

"The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognise a conjectural Palestinian state, which adds significant legal and political obstacles to the eventual resolution of the conflict and could coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies," the cable read.

The United States for decades backed a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians that would create a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel.

Trump, in his first term, was relatively tepid in his approach to a two-state solution, a longtime pillar of U.S. Middle East policy. The Republican president has given little sign of where he stands on the issue in his second term.

But on Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a long-time vocal supporter of Israel, said he did not think an independent Palestinian state remained a U.S. foreign policy goal.

GAZA WAR

"Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state would effectively render Oct. 7 Palestinian Independence Day," the cable read, referring to when Palestinian Hamas militants carried out a cross-border attack from Gaza on Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

Hamas' attack triggered Israel's air and ground war in Gaza in which almost 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of the 2.3 million population displaced and the enclave widely reduced to rubble.

If Macron went ahead, France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, would become the first Western heavyweight to recognise a Palestinian state.

This could lend greater momentum to a movement hitherto dominated by smaller nations generally more critical of Israel.

Macron's stance has shifted amid Israel's intensified Gaza offensive and escalating violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and there is a growing sense of urgency in Paris to act now before the idea of a two-state solution vanishes forever.

The U.S. cable said Washington had worked tirelessly with Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, free the hostages and end the conflict.

"This conference undermines these delicate negotiations and emboldens Hamas at a time when the terrorist group has rejected proposals by the negotiators that Israel has accepted."

This week Britain and Canada, also G7 allies of the United States, were joined by other countries in placing sanctions on two Israeli far-right government ministers to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the Gaza war to an end.

"The United States opposes the implied support of the conference for potential actions including boycotts and sanctions on Israel as well as other punitive measures," the cable read.

Israel has repeatedly criticised the conference, saying it rewards Hamas for the attack on Israel, and it has lobbied France against recognising a Palestinian state.

The U.S. State Department and the French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev’s unwillingness to compromise to lead to more territorial losses — Russian negotiator

Ukraine’s unwillingness to compromise in talks with Russia will only lead to more territorial losses for Kiev, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, who heads Moscow’s delegation to negotiations with Ukraine.

"We want peace," he pointed. "But if Ukraine keeps being driven by the national interests of others, then we will be simply forced to respond," Medinsky added.

He also "warned that a lack of compromise from Kiev would only lead to more territorial losses," the newspaper notes.

"With Russia, it’s impossible to fight a long war," Medinsky noted, referring to a 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's military says it struck Russia's Tambov gunpowder plant

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it had struck a major Russian gunpowder plant in the western Tambov region overnight, causing a fire at the site.

The Ukrainian military characterised the plant as one of the main facilities in Russia's military industrial complex. "It produces gunpowder for various types of small arms, artillery and rocket systems," it said in a statement on Telegram.

Tambov regional Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said early on Wednesday that Russian defences had repelled a "massive attack" by Ukrainian drones on the town of Kotovsk, which independent Russian media identified as the site of a gunpowder plant.

He said one downed drone had caused a fire but no casualties, and the situation was under control.

Pervyshov also told people not to film and publish images of air defence operations and attempted attacks, as this would provide "direct assistance to the enemy."

The Tambov gunpowder plant produces propellant powders used in charges for ammunition for 122 mm and 152 mm howitzers, according to a report from the Royal United Services Institute and the Open Source Centre.

The Ukrainian military also said that it recorded explosions at an ammunition depot in Russia's Kursk region and an airfield depot in Russia's Voronezh region.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the incidents.

Sometime in March this year, I gave a young woman a ride in my car. The radio was beaming out King Sunny Ade’s track where he elegantly eulogised the late Moshood Abiola. The young woman’s eyes opened in recognition as she listened to the song. “MKO Abiola! I heard so much about the man that I went to read about him on Wikipedia. I read they killed him and all that.” I was taken aback. This young woman was probably in her late 20s or early 30s, but she had only learned about MKO through Wikipedia? That much time had passed that an entire generation of children born around June 12, 1993, has grown into adults who now read the history that some of us lived through. She glistened with the innocence of a generation untainted by the messiness of history. Reading about the events of history from behind the sanitised screen of electronic devices affords the luxury of detachment.

It is another June 12, and even those who witnessed those years have been remembering differently for reasons ranging from sheer nostalgia to disillusionment with the present. Some of the editorials marking the death of Sani Abacha, the brutal dictator whose death paved the way for the return of civil rule, try too hard to posture objectivity by speaking of his “good” sides. To supposedly balance their report, they first come up with a list of what he achieved before highlighting the abuses he inflicted on the country. They end up painting a picture of a benevolent dictator, a man who broke some eggs because he needed to make an omelette of national development. Painting such a sympathetic image tempts me to question if they, too, read up on the history informing their perspectives on Wikipedia. Whatever is wrong with the present cannot justify the past. This was a man who unleashed darkness upon the nation. Nothing redeems Abacha’s history.

It is fine to talk about the increased foreign exchange reserves under his watch and how he reduced the external debt, but how about sparing a thought for the Nigerians whose lives remained impoverished throughout the Abacha years? We tend to look wistfully at the past and convince ourselves that the world was better, but those were never part of “the good old days”. The post-June 12 years during which Abacha ruled the nation with an iron fist were really hard times, and it was not for nothing that we burst into the streets when nature took care of his nuisance. He was not a man who cared about the collective welfare that he governed to alleviate poverty and suffering. Whatever economic progress was recorded under his watch was, at best, merely incidental. Nigerians suffered, and we have probably never fully recovered from those years of economic crunch.

The economic deprivation was one, and the atmosphere of fear he created was another. Under Sani Abacha’s watch, the Nigerian press faced a severe crackdown. Some of the journalists who drew his ire are still alive to tell their stories. Those were also the days of political assassination. We still have no closure on the deaths of Kudirat Abiola, Suliat Adedeji, Alfred Rewane, Toyin Onagoruwa, Sola Omatsola, Tunde Oladepo, Admiral Olu Omotehinwa, Rear Admiral Babatunde Elegbede, and many others whose assassinations were attributed to the infamous “strike force” run by Major Hamza Al-Mustapha. Then, there was Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine, who were brutally killed by the Abacha regime. These are outstanding moral debts. Knowing Nigeria for what it is, all these will likely fade away when the generation that witnessed this history dies out entirely.

Then, there are hundreds or possibly thousands of unnamed Nigerians killed by the trigger-happy soldiers. Yet, our media archivists go on and on about how Abacha established PTF as if that cancels out the evil he did. Watching a TVC journalist’s recent interview with Abacha’s widow, Maryam, I was put off by the overly deferential attitude he maintained towards her. This was a woman who could not have been entirely oblivious to the sins her husband committed; she must have averted her eyes while her husband trampled on the soul of the nation. Yet the journalist kept asking her solicitous questions. Why does this woman’s opinion on anything even matter?  Other than asking for forgiveness for the sins of her late husband, why does she deserve any attention?

But it is not only ordinary citizens who have been demonstrating poor memory where the history of June 12 is concerned. Even our leaders have twisted history, all in the bid to deodorise the maniac. In 2014, it was Goodluck Jonathan who first used one hand to swipe off history when he conferred Abacha with an award for “Outstanding Promoter of Unity, Patriotism and National Development”. Jonathan, ever-apologetic for even his own existence, must have thought he could appease the all-powerful North by erasing a fraction of Nigeria’s odious history. If Jonathan’s pandering could be understood as a shameless solicitation of Abacha’s followers because he was desperate to win an election, how does one explain the reverential attitude the present administration maintains towards the Abacha family?

A mere few months after they got into office, Oluremi Tinubu, the first lady, renamed the main auditorium of the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development after Maryam Abacha. For her to have been in such a hurry to endow an Abacha with honour, there must have been a favour somewhere she could not wait to repay. Then, just last December, Mrs Tinubu also called for the renaming of the radiotherapy centre at the National Hospital, Abuja, in honour of Maryam Abacha. It makes you wonder what exactly Mrs Tinubu (and her husband) owes either this woman (or her late husband) that makes her eschew optics just to celebrate her? It gets even funnier when you recall that President Tinubu earned his activist clout for his supposed role in confronting the Abacha regime. As soon as they got into power, they could not wait to confer honorary awards on the same set of people whose high-handedness supposedly pursued them into exile. Looking back on June 12, some 32 years later, I wonder if the whole NADECO story deserves a re-examination to separate the genuine fighters from the double agents who merely played both sides of history.

But then, it is also unsurprising that Tinubu does not maintain a principled stand against Abacha. Doing that would require the husband and wife to stand on the sure ground of social righteousness, and we all know why that is impossible for them. Much of the abuse of power and corruption that we witnessed under Abacha’s draconian rule has become a staple of their own government. Tinubu’s administration feels a lot like the Abacha leadership, except that we now have social media. And of course, there are far fewer political assassinations. It is no longer necessary to assassinate dissidents these days. Just invite them to Aso Rock or Bourdillon Road for “quality time” with the President, stage a photo-op with them, and you will effectively turn them into lickspittles. Some days, I wonder what the MKO Abiola family thinks about all these.

Punch

Nigeria and Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco are struggling to reach an agreement on a record $5 billion oil-backed loan after a recent decline in crude prices sparked concern among banks that were expected to back the deal, four sources told Reuters.

The facility would be Nigeria's largest oil-backed loan to date and Saudi Arabia's first participation of this scale in the country, although the decline in oil price could shrink the size of the deal, the sources said.

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, two of the sources said, first broached the loan in November when he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh at the Saudi-African Summit. Details and progress on the loan talks have not been previously reported.

The slow progress in discussions reflects the strain of the recent oil price drop, caused largely by a shift in OPEC+ policy to regain market share rather than curtail supply.

Brent has fallen about 20% to around $65 per barrel from above $82 in January. A lower oil price means Nigeria could need more barrels to back the loan, but years of under-investment are complicating its ability to meet production goals.

Tinubu sought approval for $21.5 billion in foreign borrowing last month to bolster the budget, and the $5 billion oil-backed facility under discussion with Aramco would be part of that, sources said.

The banks involved in the talks that are expected to co-fund part of the loan with creditor Aramco have expressed concerns about oil delivery, which has slowed discussions, sources said.

Gulf banks and at least one African lender are involved, they added. Reuters could not establish the banks' identities.

"It's hard to find anyone to underwrite it," one source said, citing concerns over the availability of the cargoes.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment. Nigeria's state-owned oil company NNPC did not comment, and neither did the finance or petroleum ministries.

SCARCE OIL

Nigeria has years of experience taking out - and repaying - oil-backed loans - which the government uses for budget support, shoring up foreign reserves or to revamp state-owned refineries.

At $5 billion, the Aramco loan would be backed by at least 100,000 barrels per day of oil, the sources said.

However, it would almost double the roughly $7 billion of oil-backed loans taken in the last five years.

Nigeria is using at least 300,000 bpd to repay NNPC's other oil-backed loans, though one facility is expected to be paid off this month.

The amount of oil going towards repaying existing oil-backed loans is fixed, but when the crude price falls, it takes longer to repay them.

Additionally, lower prices mean the NNPC has to funnel more crude oil to joint-venture partners, from international majors like Shell to local producers like Oando or Seplat, for its portion of operation costs.

"You have to either find more oil, or find a way to renegotiate those deals," another source said.

Nigerian trading firm Oando is expected to manage the offtake of the physical cargoes, the sources said.

Oanda did not comment.

NNPC is trying to boost output, while Tinubu issued an executive order aimed at cutting production costs, which would free more money from each barrel.

Africa's largest oil exporter assumed a price of $75 per barrel in its budget, with production of 2 million bpd. But in April, it pumped just under 1.5 million bpd, according to the May OPEC market report.

Reuters

A UK appeal court dismissed an application by a director of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) seeking permission to appeal a high court decision that overturned an award of $6.6 billion in damages against Nigeria in 2017 in favour of the British Virgin Islands-based company

Seamus Andrew, counsel to P&ID during the arbitration, became a director of the company in October 2017 after obtaining a stake in the firm through his company, Lismore Capital Limited, according to a copy of the Tuesday judgement.

Andrew is an additional appellant in the suit, with the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the claimant/respondent and P&ID as the defendant.

Justice Robin Knowles of High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Commercial Court had on 21 December 2023 handed down his ruling, setting aside the award and refusing P&ID leave to appeal.

His order, however, contained a general liberty to apply to the judge.

Jia Wei Lee, a counsel to Andrew, sent an email to the judge’s clerk a day after, stating that Mr Andrew would not be making an application for permission to appeal to the judge.

He noted that, rather, Andrew would file an appellant notice seeking permission to appeal directly from the Court of Appeal.

“No disrespect is intended by seeking permission directly from the Court of Appeal. The reason for this choice is that, given that Andrew’s application was not considered and determined at the consequential hearing, and no extension of time was granted, the lower court is now functus officio and no longer has jurisdiction to determine an application for permission to appeal,” the court document stated.

In their verdict on Tuesday, Sir Julian Flaux, Lord Justice Phillips and Lord Justice Jeremy Baker remarked that “this court then analysed the relevant provisions of CPR 52.3 and the Practice Direction, concluding that the proper practice was to apply for permission to appeal to the first instance judge at the hand down of the judgment.”

The court document noted that Andrew’s appellant’s notice in the court had been issued on 21 December 2023, more than five weeks after the date for filing any appellant’s notice with the Court of Appeal which, under relevant law, was 21 days after the hand-down of the judgement, that is 13 November 2023.

According to Justice Knowles’ decision of 23 October 2023, P&ID paid bribes to Grace Taiga, director of legal at Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, in connection with a gas contract signed in 2010 and failed to mention it when P&ID initiated the legal action over the botched deal. The judge also observed that P&ID had improperly retained and used internal documents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that it had received during the arbitration.

Many of the documents were clearly subject to legal professional privilege and were confidential documents which P&ID was not eligible to see.

“The documents were transmitted to P&ID deliberately by the individuals in Nigeria who procured them. FRN did not authorise their release to and retention by P&ID. Among those acting for P&ID who received the FRN internal legal documents were Mr Cahill, Mr Andrew and Mr Trevor Burke,” the court paper said.

“P&ID has offered no sensible explanation for why these documents were leaked by [Nigeria’s] lawyers and has presented this Court with a conspiracy of silence. The obvious and correct inference is that they were obtained through corruption of [Nigeria’s] legal advisers carried out by P&ID and Mr Adebayo. … Mr Murray all but admitted in his oral evidence that [they] were procured by corruption, and no P&ID witness proffered an otherwise honest explanation”.

Background

In January 2010, Nigeria and P&ID entered into a gas supply and processing agreement, requiring the company to build and operate an accelerated gas development project at Adiabo in the Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State. The Nigerian Government was to source natural gas from oil mining leases (OMLs) 123 and 67 operated by Addax Petroleum and supply it to P&ID for processing into fuel suitable for power generation.

P&ID alleged that Nigeria breached the contract after negotiations were opened with the Cross River State government to allocate land for the project.

It claimed that efforts to settle the matter out of court with the Nigerian government failed, prompting the company to institute legal action.

An arbitral tribunal awarded $6.6 billion in damages against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID in January 2017. The sum later ballooned to more than $11 billion due to an accumulation of interest.

Nigeria challenged the award in December 2019, claiming that P&ID obtained the contract by bribing officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and corrupting the country’s lawyers to gain access to confidential documents while the arbitration was on.

In October 2023, Nigeria won the bid to set aside the arbitration award after its lawyers argued that the company intended to use litigation to make money out of the situation.

P&ID, founded by Irishmen Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, had been pursuing the claim since 2012.

In his ruling, Justice Knowles noted that P&ID and its lawyers were “driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm for others.”

In July 2024, an English Court of Appeal rejected the bid by P&ID to set aside a previous judgement reversing the company’s $11 billion damages claim against Nigeria. The court noted that the decision of a London high court on 21 December 2023, throwing out the $11 billion award, stands.

PT

Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that shareholders may now recover unclaimed dividends dating back 12 years, marking a significant extension from previous limitations.

The financial regulator issued the directive on Tuesday, instructing publicly listed companies and share registrars to cease treating dividend payments older than 12 years as legally expired or unrecoverable.

According to SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama, the new policy reinforces existing provisions in Section 60 of the Finance Act, which requires companies to transfer unclaimed dividends exceeding six years to the government’s Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund. These funds remain available for shareholder claims despite the transfer.

The clarification addresses widespread confusion among market participants, with Agama noting that numerous companies and registrars had incorrectly classified older dividends as statute-barred, despite legal protections established in the Finance Act 2020.

“The Commission is responding to persistent questions regarding the proper handling of these unclaimed funds,” Agama explained in the statement.

Under the updated guidance, companies and registrars must honor legitimate dividend claims stretching back to December 31, 2020, while the trust fund system undergoes final implementation phases.

The SEC has mandated immediate compliance with the new directive and requires regular reporting from affected entities in accordance with existing commission regulations.

Israel's Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that there had been "significant progress" in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was "too soon" to raise hopes that a deal would be reached.

Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.

Netanyahu, who has come under pressure from within his right-wing coalition to continue the war and block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, said in a video statement shared by his office that there had been progress, without providing details.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that Washington had been giving Hamas more assurances, in the form of steps that would lead to an end to the war, but said it was U.S. officials who were optimistic, not Israeli ones. The source said there was pressure from Washington to have a deal done as soon as possible.

"There is a deal on the table. Hamas must stop acting recklessly and accept it," a State Department official said when asked whether the U.S. agreed with Netanyahu's statement on the progress in talks.

"President Trump has made clear the consequences Hamas will face if it continues to hold the hostages, including the bodies of two Americans," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Two Hamas sources told Reuters they had no knowledge of any new ceasefire offers.

Israel's leadership has said that it would wage war until the remaining 55 hostages held in Gaza are freed and when Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war, has been dismantled.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, has said it would no longer govern after the war if a Palestinian, non-partisan technocratic committee took over, but it has refused to disarm.

The U.S. has proposed a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would abide by the terms but Hamas has sought amendments. The militants have said that they would release all hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war.

The war in Gaza has raged since Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in the October 2023 attack and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Intense Russian drone attack on Kharkiv kills 2, injures 54, Ukraine says

A nine-minute-long Russian drone attack on Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv in the middle of the night killed at least two people and injured 54, including five children, regional officials said on Wednesday.

The intense strikes with 17 drones sparked fires in 15 units of a five-storey apartment building and caused other damage in the city close to the Russian border, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

"There are direct hits on multi-storey buildings, private homes, playgrounds, enterprises and public transport," Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Apartments are burning, roofs are destroyed, cars are burnt, windows are broken."

A Reuters witness saw emergency rescuers helping to carry people out of damaged buildings, administering care and firefighters battling blazes in the dark.

Nine of the injured, including a 2-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, have been hospitalised, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the broader Kharkiv region, said on Telegram.

He added that the strikes hit also a city trolley bus depot and several residential buildings.

There was no immediate comment from Russia. Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, withstood Russian full-scale advance in the early days of the warand has since been a frequent target of drone, missile, and guided aerial bomb assaults.

The attack followed Russia's two biggest assaults of the war on Ukraine this week, a part of intensified bombardments that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent attacks in Russia.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on its smaller neighbour in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

"We are holding on. We are helping each other. And we will definitely survive," Terekhov said. "Kharkiv is Ukraine. And it cannot be broken."

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US to cut Ukraine aid – defense secretary

The White House will be slashing military funding for Ukraine as the administration of US President Donald Trump seeks a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said.

The Pentagon chief made the statement before the House Appropriations Committee in Congress on Tuesday.

“It is a reduction in this budget,” Hegseth said when asked about upcoming military aid funding for Ukraine.

“This administration takes a very different view of that conflict,” he added.

Trump has worked towards negotiating an end to the Ukraine conflict and has diplomatically re-engaged with Russia. Since he took office in January, Moscow and Kiev have restarted direct talks for the first time since 2022, when Ukraine unilaterally left the first Istanbul negotiations.

“A negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation's interests especially with all the competing interests around the globe,” Hegseth said.

The Trump administration has also touted an “America First” pivot and significantly cut foreign assistance, including aid to Ukraine, promising to channel funds towards domestic issues.

Last week, US Vice President J.D. Vance echoed Trump’s criticism of his predecessor Joe Biden, accusing his administration of spending “crazy”amounts of money on supporting Kiev. “They sent $300 billion to Ukraine,” without “trying to force a diplomatic settlement,” he said.

In April, Trump signed a major deal with Kiev allowing the US priority access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth, in what he described would be a way for Washington to “get back” the hundreds of billions it spent on Ukraine under Biden.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has often complained of a constant shortage of US-supplied air defenses, and waning assistance from Washington in recent months. Additionally, the Trump administration rerouted some 20,000 anti-drone missiles – initially earmarked for Kiev under Biden – to the Middle East, the Ukrainian leader claimed on Sunday.

Reuters/RT

As a health and wellness reporter, I'm constantly learning about practices experts swear by for a long and healthy life — and trying to incorporate them into my own habits. But some, like walking 10,000 steps a day and cutting back on sugar, are harder to implement. That’s why it was such a relief when Avinish Reddy told me that some highly effective habits can be really simple.

Reddy has been studying longevity and teaching his patients how to structure their lives to improve their health outcomes since 2022. He worked with world-renowned physician and researcher Dr. Peter Attia for over a year, and now has his own medical practice, Elevated Medical.

“Longevity doesn’t have to be that complicated,” he says.  

Here’s how Reddy incorporates the habits he suggests to his patients in his own life.

• Exercises six days a week, with a 50/50 split of cardio and strength training
• Talks to his parents nearly every day and stays in touch with his college friends
• Adds more vegetables to his meals
• Prioritizes making memories to avoid regrets in old age

“I try not to be too obsessive about any one thing,” Reddy says.

"If you’re trying to live perfectly, you’re not going to be able to have all the experiences that you want. So I think the goal is to balance both and just be very consistent with sleep, exercise, diet and stuff when you’re at home.”

Hearing that creating lifelong memories can be as important as making healthy choices reminds me that a life well lived is all about balance. To practice that duality, I’ll eat a nutritious meal — and go to the fun concert.

CNBC