A war of words between Moscow and London escalated on Thursday as both sides accused one another of giving inaccurate accounts of an incident involving a British warship and Russian forces in the Black Sea.
Russia says it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of HMS Defender on Wednesday as it sailed off the coast of the Crimea peninsula, accusing the Royal Navy destroyer of breaching its territorial waters.
The United Kingdom disputed Russia’s account, saying no warning shots were fired and no bombs were dropped but suggested a Russian gunnery exercise had been taking place in the area.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that HMS Defender was acting legally in international waters and described the vessel’s route as wholly appropriate.

The World Food Programme says Communities in Madagascar are on the verge of starvation, with women and children walking for hours to reach food after the worst drought in four decades devastated the south of the island.
The WFP says acute malnutrition has almost doubled over the last four months with more than a quarter of people suffering in one area.
WFP executive director, David Beasley in a statement says there have been back-to-back droughts in Madagascar which have pushed communities right to the very edge of starvation.
He added that families are suffering and people are already dying from severe hunger.
WFP says $78.6 million was needed to fight the crisis.

The International Air Transport Association says the continent's aviation sector is unlikely to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels for another two years.
IATA says that vaccination should not become a mandatory requirement for air travel, owing to Africa’s slow vaccine rollout.
IATA’s vice-president for Africa and the Middle East, Kamil Al-Awadhi, says passenger numbers are unlikely to pick up any time soon.
IATA is now asking African governments to adopt a single digital platform for verifying coronavirus tests and vaccine certifications, as part of efforts to standardise ways to keep track of the health of passengers.

President Muhammadu Buhari has tasked the National Space Research and Development Agency to effectively utilise the satellite facilities at its disposal towards resolving the critical issues confronting Nigeria, particularly in the areas of security, improved communication, and digital penetration, as well as agriculture.
The President expressed a renewed commitment to the space sector, describing it as the foundation of cybersecurity and a vibrant digital economy.
President Buhari directed the Minister of Science and Technology to prepare and submit a revised 25-year roadmap for the implementation of the National Space Policy to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and approval.
He noted that there was a need to put in place the necessary infrastructure required for the actualisation of the goals and objectives of the nation’s space policy and programme.

President Muhammadu Buhari has allocated a three-bedroom flat each to members of the 1994 African Cup of Nations winning squad, 27 years after the federal government made the promise.
The President approved the allocations in their states of preference, noting that six players and three technical crews received their houses already.
Former Nigerian captain and coach Stephen Keshi, Uche Okafor, Wilfred Agbonavbare, and Thompson Oriha – all squad members who won the competition in Tunisia – have died.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has explained why it is important for the Nigerian government to continue to borrow responsibly to fund critical projects in the country.
He believes it is not feasible for the government to tax the people further in the face of the present economic situation and the nation’s infrastructure must be developed.
The Senate President says the options are really very limited for the country with no necessary revenue.

The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to London, the United Kingdom on Friday.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, explained that the President’s trip to London was for a scheduled medical follow-up, adding that he would be back in the country during the second week of July.
President Buhari’s scheduled trip to London comes almost three months since he last visited the United Kingdom for the same purpose.
He also stated that there was no need for the Nigerian leader to transmit power to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, since he would not be away for so long to contravene the law.

The administration of President Joe Biden conceded it won’t meet its goal of administering one or more doses of a Covid vaccine to 70 per cent of US adults by July 4.
Head of the White House Covid response team, Jeffrey Zients thinks it’ll take a few extra weeks to get to 70 per cent of all adults with at least one shot.
The vaccination rate has been declining since April when it hit a peak average of 3.4 million daily shots. The latest average is around 850,000 daily shots.
The bottom of the table is dominated by states in the South, with Mississippi covering just 45 per cent of adults with one shot and 37 per cent with two.
The nationally representative surveys carried out by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that unvaccinated adults are significantly younger, less educated, more likely to be Republicans, people of colour and uninsured.

A coalition of opposition parties in the Central African Republic has called on Russian private security forces to leave the country.
The group says it is organising protests against the Russians, who it accuses of abusing civilians whilst fighting rebels.
The contractors are said to have killed 10 villagers and burned homes in the north-eastern Haute-Kotto region.
The Russians have been training and fighting alongside the security forces in the Central African Republic.
The United Nations Working Group on Mercenaries recently said it had received reports of the contractors committing grave human rights abuses.

Tanzania has announced that school-age mothers can be enrolled back into education from next year.
Tanzania's education ministry has now agreed, after consultations with the World Bank, to allow teenage mothers to attend classes at what is called Folk Development Colleges, which teach basic numeracy and literacy, across the country.
But the ban from school has not been reversed.