Category News

Customs Extend Fast Track Migration Deadline To January 2026

By in News, Nigeria News

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has extended the deadline for the migration of all beneficiaries under the Fast Track Scheme to the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Programme, from December 31, 2025, to January 31, 2026.

Disclosing this in a statement, NCS spokesman Abdullahi Maiwada, said the move was in line with the service’s commitment to deepening trade facilitation, securing supply chains, and strengthening compliance with global standards.

“The extended timeline provides operators with ample opportunity to meet programme requirements and secure AEO certification without disruption to their business operations,” the statement read.

He described the extension as a reinforcement of the service’s commitment to ensuring a seamless and inclusive transition process for all stakeholders.

According to Maiwada, the decision to fully migrate from the fast-track scheme to AEO aligned with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) SAFE Framework of Standards and supported by Sections 108 to 111 of the NCS Act, 2023.

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The NIS spokesperson asked all existing Fast Track beneficiaries who had yet to complete their migration to initiate and conclude their AEO applications through the official platform:aeo.nigeriatradehub.gov.ng.

“For enquiries, technical support, or guidance, stakeholders may reach the dedicated helpdesk via [email protected].

“Only companies duly certified under the AEO Programme will continue to access the facilitation privileges previously available under the Fast Track Scheme,” he said.

The AEO programme, he stated, is a globally recognised compliance-based initiative that grants trusted operators enhanced benefits such as expedited cargo release, reduced documentation, lower inspection levels, pre-arrival processing, and greater predictability in cross-border trade.

Maiwada said that NCS would convene another comprehensive stakeholders` engagement forum on December 18 in Lagos, aimed at providing practical guidance on the AEO`s migration process, demonstrating application procedures, and addressing compliance-related concerns.

He said participants would have the opportunity to interact with AEO implementation teams and get access to comprehensive information on programme requirements, benefits, and operational modalities.

“The NCS urges all fast-track beneficiaries to take advantage of the extension period, participate actively in the engagement forum, and complete their transition to the AEO Programme.

“This proactive involvement not only ensures compliance with applicable regulations but also enhances the supply chain’s effectiveness and sustainability, fostering a collaborative environment that benefits all parties.

Davina McCall’s husband returns to social media after secret wedding and blasts ugly hotel

By in Entertainment News, News

Newly-married Michael Douglas has hit out at a ‘terrible’ hotel room he was staying in on Thursday night – following his secret wedding to TV presenter Davina McCall.

Davina McCall’s new husband Michael Douglas was back to work as a celebrity stylist after their low-key wedding with family and friends, and took to social media to slate a hotel room he was staying in during an Instagram live.

It emerged on Wednesday that the 58-year-old presenter had married Yorkshireman Michael, 49, on Friday in an intimate ceremony, attended by ‘everyone who is special in their lives’, following the couple’s shock engagement less than three months ago in Ibiza.

But it was straight back to the day job for Michael, as he was working on comedian Miranda Hart’s hair before she appeared on The One Show, before giong to Cambridge for another job where he had to stay overnight.

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In the live, he said, “’Hello, this is the 11th advent live on the 11th of December. How are you all? It’s just a quick one tonight, I’m in a hotel room tonight in Cambridge.”

But he admitted, laughing, that he was less than impressed with the accommodation, adding, ‘It’s horrible! I don’t know who designs these hotels these days.”

He explained to fans,”’I am doing hair up here, I have a big job here tomorrow, and I was on The One Show tonight.. I did Miranda Hart’s hair, she was a lovely woman.”

On the live he then began to acknowledge the many messages of congratulations he was getting as he said: ‘Thank you. I forgot yeah! Yes it is all true!’

On her big day, Davina went for a unique white fur-look as she married Michael, dapper in a bright blue suit, in a London ceremony, with pictures showing the sweet moment the pair left Marylebone Town Hall after being declared husband and wife.

On Thursday, Davina praise her ‘lovely’ new husband Michael in a social media post, sharing a video of a poem by Harry Baker, calling it ‘extraordinary’.

It read: ‘It’s not the flowers, it’s the weeding in the mud with you. It’s not the champagne, it’s that cuppa in that favourite mug you use.

‘It’s not the chocolate. OK it is, but not just one or two, it is becoming Bruce Bogtrotter and Augustus Gloop. It’s voting frozen pizza over fancy grub with you. Because some nights, nothing can beat a slice of comfort food.’

The Masked Singer star also reposted Michael’s latest hairdressing video, writing ‘@mdlondon Christmas tips. (Michael u r lovely)’.

It has been a lovely end to a difficult year for the couple, as Davina has battled through surgery for a benign brain tumour, then breast cancer. Indeed, friends of the pair have claimed it was her recent health battles that prompted the couple to put a ring on it.

Davina and Michael had known each other for decades, since Davina’s time as the host of Big Brother. It was only in recent years that a long-standing friendship blossomed into love.

It followed the end of Davina’s 17-year marriage to TV producer Matthew Robertson, the father of her three children Holly, 24, Tilly, 22, and Chester, 19.

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‘Entertaining’ or ‘irresponsible’? The rise of bare-knuckle boxing

By in News, Sports News
Lee Cooper/BKFC
Andrew AloiaBBC Sport, East MidlandsMitchell BarwellBBC Radio Derby and Angela RaffertyBBC East Midlands Today

Bare-knuckle boxing is a raw, bloody relic of a sport known as ‘the noble art’.

The controversial relative of boxing in its traditional gloved guise is both the oldest form of the fight game, but also a newly recognised sanctioned sport in the United Kingdom.

On Saturday, Derby’s Vaillant Live arena will host a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) event – the first of its type to be held in the region.

Headway, a charity that supports people with brain injuries, has renewed its calls for the sport to be banned and condemned the show as “irresponsible”.

Promoters, fighters, and some medical professionals, however, say dangers faced in the ring need to be put into context.

Bare-knuckle bouts have provided gritty movie moments – be it Brad Pitt in ‘Snatch’ and ‘Fight Club’, or Disney+ series ‘A Thousand Blows’ starring Stephen Graham.

But BKFC UK president Andrew Bakewell says the sport is much more than the unregulated fights that have been brutally portrayed or the underground scraps which have spawned such stories.

“I think it’s lack of knowledge,” Bakewell told BBC Radio Derby, when asked about the safety concerns around bare-knuckle boxing.

“People hear about it and the stigma it’s got.”

‘There is only so much a fighter can take’

The safety and dangers of bare-knuckle boxing – a sport where gory, claret stained injuries are not only accepted but treasured for its primal appeal – is something that is debated fiercely by its detractors and supporters.

A 2021 study published in ‘The Physician and Sportsmedicine’ journal, whose lead author was BKFC’s chief medical officer Dr Don Muzzi, stated that 2.8% of the 282 bare-knuckle fighters studied experienced concussions with symptoms after a bout.

That number is up to 12.3% for gloved boxers, according to an investigation into “21st-century boxing specific injury rates” published in 2023 and covered in the Guardian last year.

The study headed by Dr Muzzi did find that cuts, be it facial lacerations and ‘superficial hand’ injuries, were significantly more frequent in bare-knuckle boxing.

Dr Louis Durkin, an emergency medical expert who is president of the association of ringside physicians, says “as far as safety goes it’s significantly different” when bare-knuckle boxing is compared to its gloved relative.

The impacts of being hit with a bare fist are more forceful and painful to take, but the time fighters are exposed to those blows in the ring is significantly less, with bouts typically made-up of five two-minute rounds.

By comparison, when Jeamie ‘TKV’ Tshikeva beat Frazer Clarke in Derby two weeks ago to win the British heavyweight title, it was a 12-round fight that lasted 36 minutes.

“The other part of bare-knuckle boxing is that only a minority of fights actually go the distance, so not only is the whole thing timed for a shorter amount, the average bout only lasts 2.7 rounds of those five rounds,” said Dr Durkin, who has worked in ringside medicine for more than two decades and been involved in around 30 bare-knuckle events in recent years.

“Mostly that is because there is only so much the fighter can take.

‘No corners cut on safety’, but is it ‘irresponsible’?

Bare-knuckle boxing bills itself as the “fastest-growing combat sport” having emerged from the shadows to host regulated and legal events in parts of the United States and many places across the world, with the first BKFC event in Britain at London’s Wembley Arena in 2022.

It was only in 2018 that the first sanctioned fight for 130 years took place in the US state of Wyoming.

BKFC events in Britain, such as the one in Derby on Saturday, come under the remit of International Sport Karate and Kickboxing Association (ISKA) – a global body that regulates much of the mixed martial arts (MMA) events in Europe.

The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), which oversees the gloved form of the sport, is not involved.

Luke Griggs, chief executive of Headway, says the brain injury association he represents calls for all forms of boxing to be outlawed, but added that legitimising and promoting bare-knuckle fights is “irresponsible” and of “particular concern”.

“Headway has always been clear on its position on all forms of boxing – we think the risks are too great. It’s too obvious and all forms of boxing should be banned,” Griggs told BBC East Midlands Today.

“And it’s particularly concerning that bare-knuckle boxing is coming to the fore and increasing in popularity. It’s hugely dangerous and we do not believe this sort of event should be sanctioned.

“Irresponsible is a very good word. There are lots of questions that need to be asked about these fights being sanctioned, these fights being allowed to go on, to be promoted.”

Bakewell is BKFC’s figurehead in Britain and says his aim as a promoter – and the desire of those involved in the sanctioned strand of bare-knuckle fighting – want the sport to be seen at the “top end of pro combat sports”.

And he adds that events are “run accordingly” with the safety of its athletes paramount – with each fighter undergoing pre and post-fight health checks, while three doctors, two paramedics, two crewed ambulances are on-site for fight nights.

“We don’t cut any corners in terms of production or the medical care,” Bakewell said.

‘It can look brutal, but it’s entertaining’

Luke Brassfield at his training gym in Long Eaton

Luke Brassfield, a 38-year-old middleweight fighter from Long Eaton in Derbyshire, will be making his BKFC debut on Saturday but already has previous experience as a bare-knuckle fighter.

He took up boxing 18 years ago when in the British Army, establishing himself as an amateur before going professional.

It was his struggles with mental health that prompted him to take his first bare-knuckle bout as he sought a quick way to get back into the ring.

That fight was over in one punch.

Brassfield says he does not see himself as “a violent person”, insisting bare-knuckle fights – as well as the professional gloved boxing bouts he had juggled along the way – have been a physical release that have helped through hard times.

“I want to get onto a big platform to spread the word about mental health and positivity, to let people know that they could be at rock bottom, but there is a way out and the rise is beautiful,” he said.

“I never really got going in boxing, but now in bare-knuckle I’m at the right age where I have the strength, maturity and boxing IQ and skills where I believe I can go far.

“I’ve boxed with gloves on for all these years and now they’ve taken them off. It’s opened up a new market for me now.

“I’ve not taken a punch yet in bare-knuckle, but I have taken a lot of punches in boxing and you can feel the knuckles through the gloves.

Related topics

  • Mixed Martial Arts

Meghan Markle makes sudden Harry announcement hours before King’s cancer update

By in Entertainment News, News

The Duchess of Sussex has made a surprise announcement about her upcoming plans with Prince Harry, after a tumultous couple of weeks dealing with her estranged father’s health woes

Ellie Fry Assistant Head of Features (Audience)

The Duchess of Sussex has made a surprise announcement about her upcoming plans with Prince Harry, just hours before her father-in-law is due to deliver his own personal message on TV.

Meghan has had a tumultous couple of weeks, as her latest Netflix Christmas special was aired just before her estranged father Thomas Markle made headlines across the world due to his sudden decline in health. After her dad was sent into emergency surgery to have his leg amputated, it soon emerged that Meghan has reached out to her father by writing him a personal letter.

And now, after issuing a blistering statement about the undoubtedly painful ordeal, Meghan is back on Instagram with some news about her latest work project. She revealed that she and her husband Harry are executive producing a new documentary about Girls Scouts selling cookies. The programme is set to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

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The documentary, directed by Alysa Nahmias, follows “four tenacious girls (who) strive to be a top-selling ‘Cookie Queen’, navigating an 800 million dollar business in which childhood and ambition collide”, the festival programme states.

Announcing the project on social media, Meghan said she has a “personal affinity” for the film, having been a Girl Scout herself, adding that the opportunity was “irresistable”. She said: “As a former girl scout myself, with my mom as my troop leader, I have a personal affinity for this film and am proud that all our conversations and collaboration have led to Archewell Productions partnering with this award-winning team to executive produce this incredibly captivating documentary.

“When we first viewed the early footage of this documentary, it was immediately something we wanted to be involved in. The creative point of view, the edgy yet humanising tone and tenor of the directing, and the glimpse behind-the-scenes into such a nostalgic and also modern tradition of girl scout cookie season are absolutely irresistible.”

She accompanied the message with a never-before-seen photo of her as a child with her mother, Doria. A young Meghan is seen with one arm wrapped around her friend and holding her mum’s arm with the other, as they posed with other Girl Scouts in LA.

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The social media post came just as it was announced that Charles has filmed a ‘personal message’ about his cancer diagnosis and recovery, which will be shown in an unprecedented broadcast today. The pre-recorded video has been filmed as part of Stand Up To Cancer 2025 campaign, in a joint project between Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.

Launched on 5th December, the week-long campaign aims to drive awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and raises funding for cancer research and supports all those affected by the illness. The King’s message will form part of Channel 4’s flagship night of programmes and will be aired at 8pm, shortly before a unique live broadcast from a cancer clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, presented by Davina McCall.