My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth ~ Psalms 121:2.

Introduction:

Your exemption from limitations and from hopeless crises in life is a function of the light of God that is at work in you.

Since the fall of man, it has become completely impossible to live in this world or reign in life all alone without the help of God (Romans 5:17). Surviving wholesomely in our present estate certainly calls for help from a Source beyond ourselves.

The Apostle Paul posits in this regard that the entire creature is in pangs, with joint groans and travails as in birth-pains, to be delivered from the curse of the fall (Romans 8:18-23).

This is the manifest reality in which man finds himself on earth today, and every age has experienced the repetition of the same. However, the story changes for the individuals, families or nations that encounter the help of God (2 Chronicles 26:15).

Occasionally, supernatural help may be preceded by a general atmosphere of uncertainties and palpable fear. However, such conditions don’t last forever, and they cannot obliterate the possibility of divine help once the mercy of God is still in the equation.

For instance, the nation Nigeria is presently experiencing a time of political quagmire, economic instability and escalating security challenges, with attendant fear of danger, both perceived and imaginary. Albeit, it’s never too late for God to help the helpless! Hence, I boldly declare: help is on the way!

I do not know how or when, but help shall soon and surely become very manifest in our national life, in our walk with God, even through the valley of the shadow of death, in our health, finances as well as in our marriages and homes.

Meanwhile, the Lord God Himself shall be fully involved, and I believe He is saying to His people in the midst of these complicated perplexities: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God .... yea, I will help thee” (Isaiah 41:10).

Understanding the Subject of Supernatural Help

To ‘help’ means to contribute to fixing a need, or to aid the accomplishment of a proposed plan. Help connotes a sense of bringing ease, succor or relieve to someone in sad straits.

Put plainly, the world is too intricate for any human being to be without supernatural help. No man can survive here without the help of God, so attempting to live without divine assistance is like leaving the doors open for something tragic to happen.

God is the Real Initiator of true help, and whatever help any man can offer or has ever experienced is as near to nothing when compared with what God has in stock for His covenant children. He helps us with a view to preserving the dignity of His Word and getting us to the place of our appointed destiny (Deuteronomy 33:26-29).

The Gospel of Amazing Help!

Jesus Christ, in one of His missionary trips with His disciples, encountered ten lepers somewhere in the border between Galilee and Samaria (Luke 17:11-19).

At first, the lepers kept their distance to avoid, (in their own view), “rendering” Jesus and His disciples “unclean” (Leviticus 13:46). In other words, they saw themselves as being unworthy at Jesus’ presence. Nevertheless, in that pathetic estate, they stood up and cried out for divine help: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”.

Succinctly, this was like a cry from men who have no right to expect anything, yet are asking for everything. Hence, their cry was ill-fated from the onset, yet it produced one of Jesus’ most amazing miracles of supernatural assistance.

Note here that there were no pronouncements that the ten were cleansed, no loud voice like “Lazarus, come forth” – only Jesus’ simple command that they go and show themselves to the priests, and that was it. Yet, they discovered on their way that they had been completely healed!

Now, out of the ten lepers, one returned, giving thanks for this gift of mercy received, and it was unto this “thankful one” that Jesus said: “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole”.

Whole? Wonderful! It was indeed an amazing wonder that a leper would be restored wholly to his original state, without loss of fingers or skin color as the case may be.

The one who came to give thanks, and was made whole, was a Samaritan, which implies that the other nine were Jewish. What a wonder of supernatural election! The one person, who should not have gotten it, did; the other nine who should have it, didn’t.

The high point here is: you may feel undeserving of God’s mercy, and, indeed, our nation may be truly unworthy of God’s intervention, yet our story can still shock the world. When God helps you by mercy, your story can daze all those who have, hitherto, predicted that hope is lost!

The Amazing Christ, Our Stay Amidst the Storm!

As we think about Jesus’ life and work, we stand amazed in every way. We all stand amazed to know that He defeated the forces of evil everywhere He went in His earthly ministry. In Him, our present help in times of need is secured.

Jesus Christ is the “Actual Authority of the Universe”, ruling in our world today. This is why there is always that element of supernatural assistance that is inexplicable to the natural mind for those who embrace a supernatural walk with Him.

The myriads of accounts in the New Testament illustrate this with vividness. In Mark 6:47-51, we read an account of a fearful event. The wind was fierce, and the disciples of Jesus had long rowed against it with greatest anxiety and trepidation, but the Lord finally came to them, walking on the water, in the ‘fourth watch’ of the night!

What a refreshing source of faith and encouragement to know that His delay is not tantamount to a denial. When trials go on for a long time, we should not assume that God does not hear our prayers, or that He does not care. Perhaps we have not yet reached the ‘fourth watch’.

Jesus Christ operated solely in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14, 18-21; Acts 10:38). We too can tap into His marvelous help in the midst of trials, by giving quality attention to pleasing the Father always, and dwelling in the presence of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:1-13).

Friends and brethren, cheer up, help is on the way! The same God that helped David out of his troubles, and made him great will not forget you (1 Chronicles 12:22). Only keep in mind that nothing can truly replace God in this needy world.

In conclusion, be strong in faith, hopeful and highly expectant. Expect springs of astonishing moments in your life. Even in the midst of insurmountable security challenges and backdrops of fear, you can still experience the wonders of His matchless help.

Keep holding on to God’s promises, even in the midst of a barrage of scary news, and help will surely come, in Jesus Name. Welcome to your marvelous hour of supernatural help. Happy Sunday!

____________________

Bishop Taiwo Akinola,

Rhema Christian Church,

Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Connect with Bishop Akinola via these channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bishopakinola

SMS/WhatsApp: +234 802 318 4987

The managing director had a liking for Fred, to the great annoyance of Joe, his main rival for promotion. Joe was convinced that Fred was no better at the job than him. He tried his level best to impress the boss but to no avail. So, he opted for a new strategy. 

He would set a trap for Fred, confident that he would slip up sooner than later. He did not have to wait for long. Fred fell into the trap hook, line, and sinker. Joe quickly and gleefully brought the matter to the attention of the boss. The dye was cast. He knew that Fred would be given the sack.

Kingdom Dynamics

But he was in for a surprise. The boss tried Fred under the perfect law of liberty, found him guilty, and convicted him. But then he also tried Joe for tripping up Fred. He tried him under the Law of Moses, also found him guilty and convicted him. But why try them under different laws? 

The Law of Moses is a law of judgment. Because Joe showed no mercy to Fred in tripping him up and reporting him, he could receive no mercy. Therefore, Joe is given the sack. Jesus says: “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7).

But the law of liberty is a law of mercy. It does not lead to condemnation but to exoneration. Accordingly, Fred was sentenced to mercy, whereby he was not only absolved from the offense but was also enrolled for training that would ensure that he would not be able to commit another offense in the future. Since he was thereby now deemed to be a model worker, he was promoted. In Fred’s case, mercy triumphed over judgment.

These are not the ways of man; these are the ways of God. These are kingdom dynamics.

Caught Red-handed

Once, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They wanted to know whether he would contradict the Law of Moses, which states that the adulterous should be stoned to death.

There was no question that the woman was guilty. She was caught red-handed, in the very act. Neither did she argue or attempt to defend herself. She pleaded “guilty as charged.” And yet, Jesus did not allow her to be condemned. Instead, he challenged her accusers: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And the Bible records a dramatic turnaround:

“Those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” (John 8:9-11).

The case of the woman caught in adultery deserves scrutiny, not least because it was a major threat to Jesus’ ministry. It was an attack launched from the pit of hell. Had Jesus condemned the woman, his earthly ministry would have ended. Had he condemned the woman, he would have had to, by the same token, condemn all men: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). 

That would have short-circuited the whole plan of salvation. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17). Instead of being the Saviour of the world, Jesus would have become another accuser of the brethren.

Grace of God

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22). Because of the plan of salvation, God is not only just; he is also the justifier of all those who believe in Jesus Christ. This makes God paradoxically a God of the sinner, as opposed to a God of the righteous. 

Jesus was at pains to explain this to the self-righteous Pharisees: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17).

Indeed, according to the dynamics of the kingdom of God, the competition is not between sin and judgment, but between sin and grace. So, Paul says: “The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” (Romans 5:20).

The more the sin, the more the grace of God. Moreover, the redemptive power of grace has given us much more than sin ever took away. Thank God Adam sinned; for while sin robbed us of silver, grace gave us gold.  While sin killed the body of the flesh: grace gave us the body of the Spirit. While sin consigned us to dust, grace lifted us up in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

No Condemnation

Be careful, therefore, not to forfeit the grace of God. Jesus told the story of the contrite publican whom the self-righteous Pharisee despised at the hour of prayer in the temple: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14).

Once you judge a man, you have arrogated yourself to be God. Once you judge a man, you cease to be justified. Once you judge, you will be judged. Man often justifies the righteous but God will only justify sinners. 

Since the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death, Paul says: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1-2). Then, it naturally follows that those who are in Christ should not condemn others. It makes no difference if you are right; know it would be wrong. 

Once you judge a man, you are casting stones, which automatically qualifies you for condemnation in the court of God: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.” (James 2:13).

Let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus contradicted every prescription of common sense. He knew that Peter would betray him and yet continued to walk closely with him. He knew that Judas was a thief, and yet he kept him as his treasurer. He knew that we were sinners, and yet he died for us. And now the Bible says to us: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5).

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8).

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; www.femiaribisala.com 

On a warm Thursday afternoon in May, the ululation, drumming and singing of a choir of two-dozen women can be heard across Gan Gora, a village so small it barely appears on the Nigerian map.

“We are happy you arrived safely,” they sing in Hausa welcoming the visitors to the community branch of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), hidden in the hilly Zangon Kataf, an area of half a million residents in the state of Kaduna.

A congregation of about 100 women dance and sway alongside the choir, including Rifkatu Dauda Kigbu, 53, their spiritual adviser, hobbling on a fractured knee, a crutch in her left hand.

This is a weekly meeting of zumunta mata(Hausa for “fellowship of married women”), a clan that has banded together for almost a century, sisters in times of surplus and of scarcity. Their visitors are zumunta mata members of an ECWA, one of Nigeria’s largest churches, in Gonin Gora, a suburb of Kaduna city.

The first zumunta mata was formed in 1930 after a woman almost died during childbirth in Miango, a town more than 50 miles away in what is now the neighbouring Plateau state. Women in the ECWA Christian church contributed to buy a bicycle so future patients could be ferried to the nearest medical facility. It began a fellowship that now has millions of members in northern Nigeria, across a multitude of denominations both Christian and Muslim.

For years, outsiders have primarily known the zumunta mata for their colourful abayas, singing, which has garnered millions of YouTube views, and provision of spiritual guidance to young women and mothers.

Godwin Ogli, head of theatre arts at the Federal University, Lokoja, has been researching the group in Plateau state and says the original motive was to “provide a space for women to learn more about the word of God” and to be “an outreach arm of the church” to bring more women in.

That role expanded as Nigeria’s economy has stuttered and pastoralist violence has intensified across Kaduna and Plateau, and throughout the Sahel.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates that at least 2,600 people were killed by conflict in Nigeria in 2021. Villagers and local researchers say the casualty count is higher, as some incidents in Zangon Kataf, one of the hotspots, were undocumented.

Tensions over land have led to conflict between nomadic herdsmen and Indigenous farming communities. The herdsmen, mostly Fulani Muslims, have said they are acting in self-defence, stemming from rustling and killing of their cows and kinsmen. The farmers, who are mostly Christian, say they are protecting themselves from ethnic cleansing and land grabbing rooted in British colonial excesses.

Analysts say the climate crisis and overpopulation have exacerbated religious and ethnic differences between neighbours who coexisted peacefully for decades. “The relationship is [now] sour,” says Stella Amako, a local politician and elected chapter head of the visitors from Kaduna.

Conversely the bond within zumunta mata has strengthened. The fellowship is the first responder during crises. They have sleepovers, cook, offer small cash gifts and when necessary, bathe new babies or bodies of the dearly departed. When gifts come from NGOs, distribution is managed by the mama zumunta, who is elected every three years for a maximum of two tenures.

“We are even currently handling two cases of women on the brink of divorce,” says Amako.

While WhatsApp groups have become an important self-help tool in some parts of the global south, in Gan Gora even £5 (10,000 naira) smartphones are a luxury. So women attend meetings in person to listen to gospel lessons and give testimonies.

After the dancing, Kigbu advises the women in a brief lesson. “Any woman with dignity is respected. Her husband is blessed because of her and always boasts about her. Her good habits are contagious,” she says, her crutch resting next to her bible on the table.

Outside, her husband, Rev Luka Kasai Kigbu, shakes hands with local pastors who have come to thank the women for helping them out on a recent farming day. The couple are still recovering from a car jacking by the region’s marauding herdsman that led to Kigbu’s knee injury. They had been returning from a visit to family in a neighbouring state when they were attacked. The reverend managed to escape but the bandits dragged Kigbu out of the car and fractured her right knee. Eventually she was released, and is grateful, despite her injuries.

“I have to give thanks for every situation,” she says.

The women are proud of their support system. Mary Bawa, 68, joined as a new bride in 1976. “What gives me peace of mind and joy is knowing Christ and [having] these people around me,” she says.

A widowed mother of seven, Bawa passes on to young widows what she knows about farming soya beans to make tofu to trade.

One is Magdalene Israel, 32. Halfway into recanting how her husband and mother-in-law were killed on the same day, caught up in a firefight between herdsmen and farmers in September 2022, she stops to bend her head and weep.

She escaped from their farm that day by running non-stop to the next village, bullets whizzing past her ear. “I was just screaming holy ghost fire,” says the mother of three.

“Life has not been easy but zumunta mata and God Almighty have been behind me,” says Israel, who is praying for the ability to let go of her abiding anger and forgive the killers.

For now, conflict has paused and Gan Gora is a picture of serenity. In front of the church, the long tarred road connecting the community to others is flanked on either side by mango, neem and baobab trees and small fields of maize.

Multiple checkpoints dotting the road are held by young soldiers in khaki sitting on sandbags. It is a departure from the scarce government presence for years in an area where people remember other violent episodes, including a 1992 communal clash and a 2011 election crisis that both left hundreds dead.

The checkpoints were introduced after an army general from the region, Christopher Musa, was appointed a service chief last year. A barracks is being built to reinforce security around the hills. At state level, the new governor, Uba Sani, is seen as less divisive than his predecessor, Nasir El-Rufai, who proscribed a community association in Zangon Kataf for being an “unlawful group”.

Still, some are afraid to return to fields and villages.

In the relatively safer Gonin Gora suburb of Kaduna, the women enjoy regular sessions like learning how to make homemade liquid detergents to help cushion their households from the effects of Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis. The choir rehearses songs about subjects such as forgiveness and heaven.

“They look out for one another, supporting one another, sometimes financially or emotionally, psychologically … this goes beyond the church,” says Ogli.

One such session helped Grace Friday, 33, with the art of food presentation that her husband now loves. Afterwards, he overheard her chatting with a friend about a forthcoming wedding as he ate and later told Israel he would buy her an outfit to the ceremony, to show his appreciation for the benefits the fellowship had brought to his family. She was overjoyed.

Eunice Shola, a 47-year-old civil servant who runs the cooperative union’s low-interest loan system, says the fellowship has helped her to try public speaking.

“When I started this, I couldn’t even stand and pray in the presence of two or three people … but this fellowship has really built my self-confidence,” she says.

Those in the city remember their sisters in the countryside. For the past 13 years Lucy Stephen, 48, has led Gonin Gora’s 57-woman choir, whose music helps members to show solidarity with their Zangon Kataf sisters and “build their faith”.

One song references the cry of a prophet in the Bible’s book of Habakkuk. “Oh Lord, how long must I call for help?” the first verse goes. “There is pathos everywhere.”

The Guardian, UK

A 3,300-year-old ancient sunken ship dating back to the Bronze Age has been discovered in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth where time has "frozen," the Israel Antiquities Authorityannounced Thursday. 

The agency, which describes the find as the "first and oldest wrecked shipdiscovered to date in the deep sea in the eastern Mediterranean," says it was first spotted last year about 56 miles off Israel’s coastline by Energean, a natural gas company that was conducting a survey in the area. 

"The ship appears to have been eroded as a result of a distress it got into in a sea storm, or perhaps in the event of an encounter with pirates -- a phenomenon known from the Late Bronze Age," Yaakov Sharavit, the director of the IAA’s Unit of Marine Archaeology, said in a statement. 

"This is a world-class, historical-altering discovery," Sharavit was also quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying. "This find reveals to us as never before the ancient mariners’ navigational skills – capable of traversing the Mediterranean Sea without a line of sight of any coast." 

The ship’s remnants were found more than a mile below the surface at a depth "where time was frozen in the moment of disaster" and has been untouched by humans or currents that affect shipwrecks found in shallower waters, according to Sharavit. The IAA says it sank sometime between 1400 and 1300 B.C. 

Sharavit says only two other Bronze Age shipwrecks have been discovered throughout history, both near Turkey. 

Energean Environmental Team Leader Karnit Bachartan said the ship was found during the survey by an "advanced underwater robot." 

"We identified an unusual sight of what seemed to be a large cluster of jugs resting on the ground," she said.  

"Upon reviewing the site and mapping using the robot, it was clear that this was a shipwreck about 12 to 14 meters long, carrying hundreds of jugs that only some of them could be seen on the surface," she added. 

The rest of the ship appears to be buried deep in mud on the seafloor, researchers say. 

The IAA says two of the jugs were later pulled from the depths to be examined for research purposes. 

It added that the jugs are believed to have held oil, wine and other agricultural products. 

Fox News

Nigeria loses about $182,200  (N270.567 million) on each shipment of cargo into the country to maritime crime. This is according to data obtained from the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN).

The data shows that the impact of corruption in the sector adds about 15 percent to the cost of importing items such as food and bulk products into Nigeria.

The report detailed the results of a study developed by socio-economic impact assessment firm, Quantifying Business Impact on Society (QBIS) which applies a dollar value to direct and indirect costs of maritime corruption across the private sector, government, and society in Nigeria.

The report shows that government officials extract bribes from owners of consignments to carry out routine tasks, or ‘coercive’ corruption.

The study revealed that corruption adds $147,000 per import shipment of grain and more than $187,000 per shipment of petrol. And that Food and petrol account for around a third of Nigeria’s imports.

“With 63 percent of Nigerians or 133 million people classified as multidimensionally poor, most Nigerian families do not have a budget surplus. Increased import costs due to corruption are therefore likely to reduce their household demand and make essential goods less affordable to the average Nigerian family,” the report said.

The business-as-usual scenario adds 1-2 percent to retail prices for grain and petrol.

“Maritime corruption results in an annual reduction in GDP of $204m, an annual reduction in revenue collected by Customs of $42m, and 235,000 fewer Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs due to less sales and economic activity,” the report said.

The report also indicates a zero-tolerance approach to bribery during vessel clearance and that it cuts the damages caused by corruption by around 62 percent.

It showed that by slashing around $114,000 per shipment in corruption costs, the bill for marine corruption falls by around $100m per year, and its economic impact drops by $230m.

“By ‘Saying No’ to maritime corruption, GDP increases by about $130m annually, customs revenue from tariffs increases by $28m annually, and more than 147,000 FTE jobs are created due to more sales and economic activity across the supply chain in Nigeria,” said the report.

Daily Trust

The founder of Stanbic-IBTC Bank, Atedo Peterside has announced his retirement as a banker.

Peterside made this announcement in a post via his verified social media page.

The banking icon wrote, “This has been an incredible 35-year journey that ends today, June 10, 2024. 

“Every single day since Feb 2, 1989, I have been either the CEO, Chairman or Bank Director. All good things must come to an end. I give God the glory at age 68,” he added.

His exit comes after over three decades and a half of dedicating his wealth of experience to the Nigerian banking sector.

According to sources, Peterside is investing his time more in advocacy, charity, philanthropy and human capital development through his foundation.

Recall that Peteside founded Investment Bank and Trust Company (IBTC), which later metamorphosed into Stanbic-IBTC Bank after a series of mergers over the years.

The Rivers State-born founded the bank in 1989, at 33, when many of his peers were busy lavishing their parents’ wealth.

After running the affairs of the bank for years leading it to the path of profitability and also ensuring the bank lived up to his expectations, he resigned in 2017.

He later channelled his strength to Anap Jets Ltd he founded in 2015. He also sits on the boards of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Standard Bank Group Limited.

Those close to the former member of the National Economic Management Team and member of the National Council on Privatisation disclosed that when it comes to finance, economics and business success, he is a walking encyclopaedia.

His family background as the son of Pa. Clement Atowari Peterside, an ophthalmologist and a retired controller of Medical Services in the Old Rivers State ensured he had a sound education. 

He graduated from The City University, London with a B.Sc. in Economics and an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Vanguard

Israel pounds Gaza, killing dozens, as fighting rages

Israeli forces pounded Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, as well as other areas across the enclave, killing at least 45 Palestinians as troops engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas militants, residents and Israel's military said.

Residents said the Israelis appeared to be trying to complete their capture of Rafah, which borders Egypt and has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.

Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and centre.

Firing from planes, tanks and ships off the coast caused more people to flee the city, which a few months ago was sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have now relocated again.

The Gaza health ministry said at least 25 Palestinians had been killed in Mawasi in western Rafah and 50 wounded. Palestinians said a tank shell hit a tent housing displaced families.

"Two tanks climbed a hilltop overseeing Mawasi and they sent balls of fire that hit the tents of the poor people displaced in the area," one resident told Reuters over a chat app.

The Israeli military said that the incident was under review. "An initial inquiry conducted suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi," it said.

Earlier, the military said its forces were conducting "precise, intelligence-based" actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants.

Over the past week, the military said, troops targeted a university that served as a Hamas headquarters from which militants fired on soldiers and found weapons and barrel bombs. It did not name the university.

In the central Gaza area of Nusseirat, the military said soldiers killed dozens of militants over the past week and found a weapons depot containing mortar bombs and military equipment belonging to Hamas.

Some residents said the Israeli onslaught on Rafah had intensified in the previous two days and that the sounds of explosions and gunfire had hardly stopped.

"Last night was one of the worst nights in western Rafah: Drones, planes, tanks, and naval boats bombarded the area. We feel the occupation is trying to complete the control of the city," said Hatem, 45, reached by text message.

"They are taking heavy strikes from the resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down."

STRIKES ON KHAN YOUNIS AND GAZA CITY

More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to seize: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.

"The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations," Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.

"The city is living through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment."

Sofi said no medical facility was functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum daily needs of food and water.

Palestinian and U.N. figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.

In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.

In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new push back into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants.

On Friday, an Israeli air strike on a Gaza City municipal facility killed five people, including four municipal workers, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said. Rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims.

In the nearby Beach camp, an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least seven people, medics said.

Palestinian health officials said at least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Friday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its Gaza office was damaged when heavy-calibre projectiles landed nearby, in an area where hundreds of displaced Palestinians are living in tents.

"This grave security incident is one of several in recent days; previously stray bullets have reached ICRC structures," the organization said in a post on X on Friday. "We decry these incidents that put the lives of humanitarians and civilians at risk."

Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.

The United Nations said on Friday it is Israel's responsibility - as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip - to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so humanitarian aid can be delivered, amid warnings of imminent famine.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US permits Ukrainian strikes anywhere beyond conflict front line – Politico

The US has permitted Ukraine to strike targets on Russian territory using American-made weapons anywhere across the front line – not just in the Kharkov Region, Politico has reported.

This doesn’t represent a change to Washington’s policy on the use of US-supplied weapons by Kiev, anonymous sources told the outlet in an article published on Thursday.

In late May, media reported that the administration of President Joe Biden had quietly greenlighted Ukrainian attacks using American weapons inside Russian territory for “counterfire purposes in the Kharkov region.” The ban on long-range strikes deep inside Russia remained unchanged, according to the reports.

In an interview with ABC News earlier this month, Biden clarified that Ukraine could use US-made arms “only in proximity to the border [with Russia] when [Russian weapons] are being used on the other side of the border to attack specific targets in Ukraine.” Washington is “not authorizing strikes 200 miles into Russia and we’re not authorizing strikes on Moscow, on the Kremlin,” he clarified.

Officials who talked to Politico confirmed the statement made by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan earlier this week, in which he said Kiev’s ability to fire US-supplied weapons wasn’t limited to Kharkov Region.

“It extends to anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try to take additional Ukrainian territory,” Sullivan said in an interview with PBS on Tuesday.

Russian forces are now advancing in Kharkov Region, but if they move across the border in some other area, “it would apply there as well,”Sullivan explained. “This is not about geography. It’s about common sense. If Russia is attacking or about to attack from its territory into Ukraine, it only makes sense to allow Ukraine to hit back against the forces that are hitting it from across the border.”

Russia has repeatedly warned against the use of weapons supplied to Kiev by the US and their allies to strike deep inside its territory, arguing that such attacks would amount to direct Western participation in the conflict, as the Ukrainian military is unable to fire foreign long-range systems without assistance from NATO states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would not rule out supplying weapons to other countries, including North Korea, in response to the West providing long-range systems to Ukraine.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian drones knock out two substations, Russia-installed officials say

Russian-installed officials said on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks had put out of action two electricity substations in Enerhodar, the town serving the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and cut power to most of its residents.

But an official at the occupied Zaporizhzhia station, Europe's largest nuclear plant with six reactors, said it was unaffected by the military action.

Russian troops seized the plant in the early days of the February 2022 invasion and Moscow and Kyiv have since routinely accused each other of endangering safety around it. It produces no electricity at the moment.

Eduard Senovoz, the top official in Enerhodar, wrote on Telegram that the latest attack had damaged the second of two substations supplying the town. The other substation was destroyed on Wednesday, he wrote.

Ukrainian officials have made no comment on the incidents and Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Russian news agencies quoted Yevgeny Yashin, director of communications at the Zaporizhzhia station, as saying the latest attack had no effect on the nuclear plant. And he said the substation could be repaired.

"Specialists have gone out to the site to assess the damage," Yashin told RIA news agency. "There is a chance to restore the damaged transformer but it will take time."

Russia launched mass attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the first winter of the conflict and resumed a long series of attacks in March.

Kyiv says the renewed attacks have knocked out half of Ukraine's energy generating capacity and forced blackouts.

Ukraine has stepped up its use of drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities. Ukrainian drones struck four Russian oil refineries as well as radar stations and other military targets in Russia in the early hours of Friday, Kyiv's military said.

RT/Reuters

The airplane flight between the Scottish islands of Westray and Papa Westray holds the world record for the shortest commercial flight, as the plane is usually in the air for just under 2 minutes.

Most of us can just hop into a car, bus, or train for short trips, but things are different in the islands of northern Scotland. The few people who call the Orkney Islands their home have only two options, a ferry ride over rough waters, or an incredibly short flight in a small plane. The second option is the most popular – because the ferry can often face disruption due to rough waters – and the most famous because of how short the flights can be.

In fact, the flight between the islands of Westray and Papa Westray is officially recognized as the world’s shortest commercial flight. It usually lasts about 90 seconds, but with favorable winds, it can be over in less than a minute.

The world’s shortest commercial flight was first established in 1967 and has been operated by Loganair ever since. It covers a distance of just 1.7 miles, which is shorter than the runways of most major airports and is more similar to a bus ride than an actual airplane flight. Passengers are flown in a Britten-Norman Islander, a small plane that requires only one pilot and has just eight seats. As you can imagine there is no in-flight service available.

In normal conditions, the world’s shortest commercial flight lasts between 90 and 120 seconds, but as one pilot has demonstrated, in favorable weather conditions, it can be completed in just 53 seconds. However, in unfavorable circumstances, the plane will be in the air for almost 3 minutes.

The flight between Westray and Papa Westray has been criticized as unnecessarily bad for the environment because of the short distance it covers, but for the inhabitants of Westray (600) and Papa Westray (90), it is a vital link to other more populated islands. For Orkney Islands residents, the flights are subsidized by the Scottish Government, while tourists can expect to pay between £17 to £45.

Despite the small populations of the two islands, the world’s shortest flight can be quite busy during the summer months, as there are plenty of tourists willing to experience it for themselves.

Oddity Central

We wanted to hear some wild stories from former "rich kids," so we recently searched Reddit and asked adults in the BuzzFeed Community who grew up rich to share the moment they realized their lives were far from normal.

Here are their most surprising responses (some of these made my jaw drop)!

1. "I thought every family had staff. We had a chef, gardener, chauffeur, two nannies, a handyman/errand guy, and two maids. These were full-time, and several of us lived with them. We had a host of part-time staff as well. When I went to college, I was shocked by how everyone took care of themselves so well when I barely knew how to tie my own shoelaces."

—richdudethrow

2. "I remember my parents having a sit-down talk with me after a parent-teacher meeting and letting me know that there was one student in our class who was feeling insecure because his family was the only one that didn't have a lake cottage or mountain home."

—talkaboutitlater

3. "The moment I realized my parents were filthy rich was when I realized not every kid has their own house. Yes literally. My parents gave me my own personal house when I was 16. It was right next to their mansion. It wasn't too big, but when I realized that wasn't normal, that was the first time I figured out my parents were really wealthy."

—Vampyr
4. "So, I grew up rich and had no idea that it was not normal for people to rent out the whole Disney Land park for a child's 7th birthday."

—Anonymous 
5. "When I learned that no other kids got allowances of $5,000 a week to spend, I realized that my life might not be normal."

—Anonymous 
6. "Growing up, all of our dishes were made of fine china, Waterford glassware, etc. And I just thought that's what plates and stuff were made of because we didn't have anything else. Then, one time, I went to a friend's house for dinner, and we ate on colored plastic plates and non-matching plastic cups; I just thought that was the weirdest thing ever and asked why we were eating with 'camping dishes.'"

—halycon

7. "At 7 years old, I looked out the living room front windows over the blue Pacific Ocean, a clear view of Catalina Island off in the distance. On TV, Sally Struthers greeted me from Africa, surrounded by starving, desperate children. Until that moment, I thought all people lived along a coastline in beach houses."

—Anonymous 
8. "My father was a successful chemical engineer/manufacturer and private pilot. I spent my childhood in a gated fly-in community with a fully functioning airport. Not only did we have a garage full of your 'everyday' vehicles, but we also had an airplane hangar full of classic cars that my dad enjoyed restoring, World War II era 'warbirds,' as well as the modern twin-engine planes he used to fly to business meetings. We owned property in Nantucket and St. Maarten and were constantly taking extemporaneous vacations. John Travolta would walk over from time to time and shoot the shit with my dad in our hangar up until he made Pulp Fiction and was sling-shotted back into relevancy."

"When I was about 4 years old, I made a new friend at school and was invited to spend the afternoon over at his house. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the very least, and when I returned home, still very confused, I remember saying something along the lines of, 'Mommy, they live in a really small house, and they don't have an airplane hangar.'My mother was slightly horrified at the realization that this was my reality and had to explain to me that 'not everyone has the same things that we have.'"
—benadrylcumberbatch

9. "Playing around as a 9-year-old in my friend's dad's Ferrari F40 like it was a playhouse."

—Uppgreyyed
10. "As kids, we didn't realize that everyone didn't live how we did. I literally was in my 20s and living in a different part of the country when I learned that Coach bags and products were not products designed for children. I saw an adult client of mine carrying a Coach purse and thought, 'Huh, what an odd choice for an adult.' I thought adults carried bags from 'real designers' and that Coach was a training pants designer or something."

"This sounds wild, but where I grew up, Coach bags were what parents got their elementary-age girls as purses. Getting a Coach bag for a present as a kid was normal. Luckily, I didn't embarrass myself by saying anything to my client, but I still catch myself doing a double-take when I see an adult with a Coach purse."
—Anonymous 

11. "Everything is embroidered to a certain point. From zebras to toasters, everything appears to be embroidered when you don't know any better. I can't think of any reason why, but the patterns in the air just really mess with your perception. See, when you're rich and have all this extra money, there isn't any reason to not get personalized everything. So everything else seems like it was embroidered by someone or something."

—amazing_mouse
12. "My siblings and I have practiced equestrian show jumping since we were very young, and our parents initially never told us how expensive the horses (or anything for that matter) were. As we got older, we would overhear my parents talking about how much they paid for the horses and didn't really understand just how high these figures were until one day; I heard a family friend sharing that she had bought herself an apartment after saving for many years and that it cost her x much. I remember feeling paralyzed because I realized my horse was more expensive than her home."

—Anonymous 
13. "I was 23 the first time I had to figure out how to use a washing machine. To this day, I can remember how helpless I felt, staring at it like a dead fish. Had to call the family maid."

—bontem
14. "My roommate in college would order a catered meal for every dinner. He'd have a restaurant bring so much takeout that they'd bring it in those aluminum trays and heaters underneath, and a server would stick around to dish out the food and clean up afterward. It took us a couple of months to realize that he thought this was totally normal behavior and was confused as to why we made such a big deal about it."

—joeb1kenobi

15. When I started working full time, I realized the yearly tuition at my private middle and high school was more than my whole salary. Then I did the math, and my entire education cost over $1 million with no loans. I am very grateful."

—Anonymous 
16. "In high school, I moved from private to public school (by choice). I realized that it's not normal to have multiple vacation homes in and out of the country, to own more cars than people to drive them, or to have an elevator, golf simulator, and walk-in wine cellar in our main house."

—Anonymous 
17. "Honestly, it was the little things. I knew we had nicer cars than average, a bigger house, went on more trips, etc. But I thought everyone's refrigerators had wood-paneled cabinet doors, for example. The first time I saw a metal fridge, I thought it was weird, and I thought it was even weirder that the fridge and freezer were combined."

"I also thought everyone had a central vacuum system where you can sweep dirt into a little hole under the cabinets by the floor, and it sucks it up. We had these little holes all over, in every room."
—Thighmaster220

18. "There was a windstorm by our summer house that resulted in fallen trees between our house and our neighbors. It was nice because we could see more of the lake, but my parents weren't pleased that we now had to see our neighbors' house. It was a small chartreuse square from the '60s, neatly kept and didn't obstruct our view, but it was not the most picturesque."

"Well, my parents ended up buying the house and tearing it down so that we wouldn't have to look at it. At the time, I didn't think this was odd (I was actually kind of peeved because my sister and I wanted to play in the house), but looking back on it, it's a pretty wild level of privilege to be able to buy a house and tear it down just to improve your view." 
—Anonymous 
And finally...

19. "One day I was visiting family friends on the way to Lake Tahoe, and they asked what I’d been up to lately. I replied that I had just been doing the usual, waterskiing on my friend's boat and riding their yacht, which they even let me drive, sailing, and hanging out at the yacht club, and told them we’d also recently arrived home from a trip to Japan and another to Fiji."

"I then informed them that we were soon leaving for the French Riviera and Monaco, which I was excited about. The look they gave me completely shocked me, and all I could think was, 'It’s not like I’ve done anything crazy lately!' That’s when it hit me that most of the country wouldn’t just talk about those activities as casual everyday ones."
—Anonymous 

Buzzfeed