The Taraba State Government has extended its heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Niger State following the recent devastating flood in the Mokwa Local Government Area of the state.
The delegation led by the Senator representing Taraba Central, Manu Haruna, visited the Niger State Government House in Minna on Tuesday to commiserate with Governor Umaru Bago over the tragedy, which has been described as both a monumental loss and a national disaster.
During the visit, Senator Haruna conveyed the deep sympathies of the Taraba State Government, stating that the government shared in the grief of the people of Niger State, particularly those directly affected by the flood.
“As a sister state, we are deeply saddened by the unfortunate incident in Mokwa. It is not just a loss to Niger State, but to the entire nation,” the Senator said.
Flooding in Mokwa, Niger State
He announced a donation of ₦50 million on behalf of the Taraba State Government as support for victims of the disaster.
READ ALSO: Zulum Donates ₦300m To Mokwa Flood Victims
In his response, Governor Bago expressed profound gratitude to the government and people of Taraba State for their solidarity and generous contribution during what he described as a challenging time for the state.
Palestine’s historic Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was ended by a late Oman penalty in a 1-1 draw in their final group game.
Needing a win to reach the fourth round of the AFC qualifiers, Palestine led deep into five minutes of injury time through Oday Kharoub’s goal early in the second half.
The scoreline would have been enough to propel Palestine past Oman into the fourth and final qualifying spot in Group B of the third round of the AFC qualifiers – a stage they had also reached for the first time.
However, a tug of the shirt on a runner chasing a free kick from the deep was spotted by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and Palestine’s dream of a first appearance at a football World Cup ended with Essam Al-Subhi’s spot kick in the 97th minute of the match.
Oman’s Essam Al-Subhi celebrates scoring their equalising goal as Palestine players respond with disbelief [Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters]
Kharoub’s headed goal came after a fine first half for Palestine, in which Michel Termanini struck the bar with a header.
Wessam Ali had a second for Palestine ruled out for a marginal offside, only moments after Oman’s Harib Al-Saadi saw red for a second yellow following a foul on Hamed Hamdan in the 73rd minute.
The decisive moment came, though, when Muhsen Al-Ghassani ran clear in the box in an attempt to reach a looped ball in the area. Ahmed Taha’s grab at the runner was deemed illegal and the eliminating kick was awarded against Palestine.
Palestine’s AFC Asian Cup nearly the spark for World Cup dream
The run to the third round of the AFC World Cup qualifiers for the first time followed Palestine’s remarkable feat of reaching the knockout stages of the last AFC Asian Cup for the first time.
A first appearance at football’s global showpiece was only one more round away until the late drama at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan, where Palestine were forced to stage their home matches due to Israel’s war on Gaza.
The full-time whistle, and with it, anticipated scenes of wild celebration was cruelly only seconds away for Palestine.
Instead, the tension that was palpably building ahead of the referee calling an end to the match turned to scenes of despair as tears rolled down the cheeks of the Palestine players, many of whom collapsed to the floor in disbelief.
Palestine’s Wessam Ali, right, thought he had scored his side’s second goal with a slotted finish only for the goal to be disallowed for offside [Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters]
Oman now join Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Iraq and Indonesia, who lost 6-0 to Japan earlier in the day, in the fourth round of qualifiers, from which two teams will join the already six qualified nations from the third round of qualifiers.
One final chance will be available for the third-placed team from the fourth round of qualifiers, as that nation will progress to the FIFA Intercontinental Playoffs in a last-chance saloon to line up at next year’s finals.
Australia became the final team to confirm their automatic qualification from the third round of qualifiers when they saw off Saudi Arabia’s challenge for second spot in Group C with a 2-1 win in Jeddah.
Alongside Australia – Japan, Iran, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Jordan, finished as the top two finishers in their group to book their places at the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The latter two qualified for a World Cup for the first time.
Palestine’s Oday Kharoub celebrates scoring the first goal of the game, which for so long appeared to be sending his team to the next round of qualifiers for the World Cup [Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters]
Israeli forces have killed more than 70 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since dawn, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, including hungry aid seekers, as Israel continues to relentlessly bombard the besieged enclave where the United Nations says a famine threatens the entire population.
Israeli troops on Tuesday again opened fire on crowds seeking meagre food parcels for their families near the Netzarim Corridor, killing at least 20 people, including a 12-year-old child, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The child has been identified as Mohammed Khalil al-Athamneh. More than 200 others were wounded.
The distribution points are operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed drive in Israeli-controlled zones.
The aid sites have been branded “human slaughterhouses” as more than 150 people have been killed since GHF started operating on May 27. Nearly 1,500 have so far been wounded, according to the Government Media Office.
In a statement on Tuesday, the media office accused the GHF of playing a complicit role in what it described as “lethal ambushes” disguised as humanitarian relief.
“GHF has become a deadly tool in the hands of the Israeli military, luring starving civilians into death traps under the pretence of aid,” the statement said, denouncing the body’s continued operation despite documented attacks on unarmed crowds at its sites.
‘Theatre for repeated bloodshed’
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the GHF aid distribution centres have become “a theatre for repeated bloodshed and deliberate attacks on civilians”.
Witnesses confirmed that the Israeli military attacked them from “multiple directions”, Abu Azzoum said, adding that Israeli drones, tanks, and snipers have been deployed to the isolated aid sites.
“What’s taking place … is the systematic eradication of the humanitarian response system,” he said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has again sounded an alarm over the deteriorating humanitarian situation, saying on Tuesday the crisis has reached “unprecedented levels of despair”.
More than 2,700 children under the age of five were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in late May, the agency said, calling for the urgent restoration of humanitarian assistance.
Israel has maintained a crippling aid blockade since March 2, allowing only a limited trickle of assistance through the GHF. At the same time, it has barred established humanitarian organisations from operating in the territory – excluding those who have decades of experience in providing aid from hundreds of distribution points to the entire population of Gaza.
Elsewhere in Gaza, an air strike in al-Mawasi – an Israeli-proclaimed “safe zone” that has come under repeated attack, east of Khan Younis – killed three people sheltering in displacement tents. Three more Palestinians were killed after an Israeli drone strike targeted a group of people in the Ma’an area, east of Khan Younis.
The attacks come as one of the southern city’s last remaining functioning hospitals has ceased operations due to “increasing hostilities” in its vicinity, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
In a post on X, Tedros warned that with the closure of al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital is now the only remaining hospital with an intensive care unit in Khan Younis.
Hospitals are overwhelmed and on the brink of collapse, the Health Ministry has repeatedly warned.
In Gaza’s north, medical sources reported that four paramedics were killed by Israeli gunfire while carrying out their humanitarian duties in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. Another three were killed in an air strike on Jabalia.
An Israeli soldier takes part in an Israeli raid in Nablus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 10, 2025 [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]
Nablus residents ‘under lockdown’
Israeli forces have also stepped up incursions into towns and villages across the occupied West Bank in recent days as part of a months-long assault on the territory.
On Tuesday, during an hours-long raid in Nablus, Israeli troops fired tear gas and live bullets towards residents that killed two brothers, identified as Nidal and Khaled Mahdi Ahmad Umairah, aged 40 and 35, respectively.
Israeli troops had opened live fire on the Umairah brothers in the Old City of Nablus during the ongoing military raid, preventing ambulance crews from reaching them, the Wafa news agency reported.
More than 85 people were injured in the assault, while many others have been detained.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said residents of Nablus’s Old City are “under lockdown”.
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Timothy Abraham
BBC Sport journalist at Southampton
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Third T20, Utilita Bowl, Southampton
England 248-3 (20 overs): Duckett 84 (46), Smith 60 (26); Rutherford 1-20
West Indies 211-8 (20 overs): Powell 79 (45); Wood 3-31
England won by 37 runs; win series 3-0
Ben Duckett’s inventive 84 helped big-hitting England blast their way to a record score on home soil as they wrapped up a series clean sweep with a 37-run victory over West Indies in the third T20.
Duckett’s knock came off 46 balls as he shared a 120-run stand with fellow opener Jamie Smith, who made a 26-ball 60, as the pair provided the backbone of England’s total of 248-3.
Skipper Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell continued the momentum as they peppered the boundary to finish unbeaten on 35 and 36 respectively, as a dispirited West Indies bowling attack ran out of ideas.
England’s total was their highest in T20s on their own turf, eclipsing the 234-6 they made against South Africa at Bristol in July 2022, and was their second highest anywhere.
West Indies gamely approached the chase as Rovman Powell cracked an unbeaten 79 while captain Shai Hope smeared three sixes in his 45 as the tourists finished on 211-8.
It helped ensure the margin of defeat for the tourists was more modest than might have been anticipated as left-arm quick Luke Wood finished the pick of England’s bowlers with 3-31.
England batters run riot – the stats
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Deft Duckett stars amid batting bonanza
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A quick pitch and an England team rediscovering their white-ball swagger, up against a demoralised West Indies bowling attack, proved to be an heady cocktail for the Southampton crowd as they lapped up an evening of audacious run-scoring.
England’s openers bristled with intent from the get-go, as the right-left hand combination of Smith and Duckett wreaked havoc.
Duckett liberally sprinkled runs to all angles, with his innings full of nifty reverse sweeps, deft cuts and clever scoops.
Alzarri Joseph stuck a paw out to a brutal Duckett drive on the up when he was on 37, but such was the ferocity of the strike it still flew to the boundary leaving the West Indies quick with a bruise but nothing more.
Six overs in, England were 83-0 and it already felt the like the match was over as a contest as the shoulders of those wearing maroon started to droop.
The diminutive Duckett dovetailed well with the taller Smith, as West Indies’ attack struggled to find the right length against England’s innovative strokeplay.
Thrust up the order by Brendon McCullum to open in place of Phil Salt, who is absent on paternity leave, Smith has taken to the role like the manor born as he used his levers to good effect.
Three consecutive sixes spanked off the bowling of Gudakesh Motie will have had the England coach purring before Smith dropped one inside the ropes to the biggest boundary and into the hands of Shimron Hetmyer.
A century beckoned for Duckett, and the opportunity to join Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan as one of only three English players with hundreds in all three formats.
However, the 30-year-old misjudged a sweep and was bowled behind his legs by left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein with the milestone tantalisingly within his grasp. Duckett thumped his pad with his bat in frustration.
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End-of-term feel for Windies
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If England were ruthless West Indies were rudderless as this match marked the end of a pretty chastening tour.
A 3-0 drubbing in the one-day international series was followed up by the same scoreline in the three T20s which have followed.
Indeed, this is the first time West Indies have been ‘double’ clean swept by England in both a ODI and T20 series since 2012.
Here they were again cumbersome in the field and struggled to know how to contain England with the ball. Romario Shepherd’s economy rate was 19 across two overs and Hosein, their most economical bowler, still went for 10.50 an over.
Evin Lewis pumped Luke Wood’s for six off the first ball of West Indies’ innings, but there was an end-of-term feel to the early part of the chase.
Certainly the callous disregard for anything tossed up by spinners Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid and Bethell early in the innings suggested some of their top order were already in the departure lounge.
West Indies skipper Hope, and the man he succeeded in the form of Powell, at least showed some fight during what always looked to be a forlorn effort.
It does not help their cause that one of their best players – and one of the best T20 batters in the world – has seemingly turned his back on them.
Nicholas Pooran, who was not part of this tour, announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday at the age of 29 and has prioritised franchise paydays.
‘A clear blueprint of Brook’s team’ – what they said
England captain Harry Brook: “I’m very pleased. The lads have put a really good shift in. To top off the series like we have tonight is really pleasing.
“I like the depth in the batting, it gives the lads at the top permission to go out there and get us off to a flier like they did today.”
West Indies captain Shai Hope: “We haven’t really put a complete game together in this series. We just need to find ways to do it. We need to keep chipping away and try to get as good as we can.”
England head coach Brendon McCullum talking to Sky Sports: “It’s been a really good two weeks. We have seen a clear blueprint of how Harry Brook wants this cricket team to run.
“I have let Harry find his way [with captaincy]. He doesn’t like to make things complicated. He likes to keep it simple. His calmness and ability to keep it simple rubs on other guys. He has captained a lot of sides growing up. He’s got great friendships.
Love Island fans have hit out at some of the islanders following scenes on tonight’s episode of the ITV2 show, in which Shakira Khan had to save herself from being dumped
Love Island fans weren’t impressed(Image: ITV)
Viewers have criticised some of the islanders on this year’s Love Island following scenes that aired in tonight’s episode. They have complained over one islander being the subject of “snarky” comments and being excluded.
Shakira Khan had been left single in last night’s launch episode after Ben Holbrough, who she had been coupled up with, was ‘stolen’ by bombshell Toni Laites. Host Maya Jama announced that she had 24 hours to get a different boy to couple up with her or Shakira would be dumped from the villa herself.
Shakira Khan had to get a boy to recouple with her to avoid being dumped on Love Island tonight(Image: ITV)
During tonight’s episode, Shakira was seen getting to know some of the other islanders before the potential recoupling. Fans however criticised some of the other girls, complaining that they were excluding her and making digs.
One fan commented on X: “What are these snarky remarks about Shakira? it’s giving insecure.” Another viewer said: “The girls excluding Shakira like it’s somehow her fault that Maya says she has graft or she goes home.” A third said: “Ok it’s giving mean girls.”
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Someone wrote: “This energy from the girls towards Shakira is giving insecure.” Another questioned: “Why they being mean to Shakira tho.” Defending her, one fan said: “Um why are they so shady towards shakira?? how is any of this her fault.” Another said: “They are mean girls…Shakira is not doing anything wrong.”
Not everyone felt the same though. One fan said: “Am I the only one who feels like the girls weren’t even being mean or anything but yall love a mean girls clique storyline.”
At the end of the episode, several boys stood up when asked by Maya if they felt that they had a “stronger connection” with Shakira than their current partner. She ended up choosing to couple up with Harry Cooksley, which meant that Sophie Lee, who he had been with, was dumped from the villa.
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Love Island continues tomorrow night on ITV2 and ITVX from 9pm.
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Wales winger Sorba Thomas says Belgium will not relish a visit to Cardiff for the return World Cup qualifier after Monday’s dramatic and pulsating game in Brussels.
Belgium were leading 3-0 inside 27 minutes at the King Baudouin Stadium but Craig Bellamy’s side staged a tremendous comeback to level the game.
Kevin De Bruyne’s late winner broke Welsh hearts to secure a 4-3 victory for Belgium and inflict a first defeat under Bellamy, who was “beyond proud” of his players for their efforts.
“That’s a team that’s top 10 in the rankings and people were saying ‘little old Wales’ – we took the game to them,” Thomas said.
“They are going to be shaking in their boots when they come to Cardiff to play us, because we’re not the same Wales they played all them many years.
“We’re hungry, we’re a young group and I thought when it went to 3-3 it was in our hands.
Belgium, who have played two games less than Wales, will travel to Cardiff for the return on 13 October.
Thomas said Belgium did not show Wales “that much respect” after going 3-0 in front and the home side thought “that the game was done”.
But Thomas added: “To be honest, when they went 3-0 up we still had belief.
“If you look at the game, every time they scored we literally went down the other end and almost got a chance.
“I think going in at half-time 3-1 they probably thought the game was done. I think they relaxed and they underestimated us.
“The second half showed there was only one team in the game and that was us.
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The result leaves Wales second in Group J, a point behind North Macedonia who won 1-0 in Kazakhstan – Belgium are third, three points further back but with those two games in hand.
Thomas’ first senior goal for Wales came only a few days after he completed a move from Huddersfield Town to Stoke City.
“For me personally it’s been one heck of a week, secured my future and got my first Wales goal,” said Thomas, Wales’ player of the game in Brussels.
“I’m pleased but I wish the result would have gone our way.
