sink

The 300 metres separating Aisha Ali’s new house from the old farmhouse may seem short, but it represents the long journey of her life. The 45-year-old widow crosses fields of various crops that she tends. 

Aisha was not an active farmer; her late husband handled that. However, he was abducted in 2023 by Boko Haram terrorists while working on their farm in Malari Village, Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, and was later killed after they failed to pay a ransom. 

“My life changed tragically,” she recounted with a weary calm. 

Aisha’s husband’s death made her the breadwinner of a 10-person household, which included her six children and three of her husband’s siblings. She had no choice but to take up the hoe. 

A year later, her 10-year-old son was abducted by terrorists. He was later released when they learned that they had killed his father in the past.

It was under this constant shadow of fear, relying on subsistence farming and petty trade, that Aisha and her family found a fragile balance until the night the water came.

The midnight escape

In September 2024, a ruptured dam in nearby Alau, coupled with heavy rainfall, led to floods that submerged Maiduguri and surrounding communities, including Muna displacement camp, where Aisha lived with her family. 

They had gone to bed after an exhausting day, but around midnight, screams from the neighbours woke them up. “I woke up and saw water everywhere,” she recounted. 

Amid the terrifying mix of darkness and rising water, there was no time to save their belongings. She rallied her children, strapped the youngest to her back, and fled into the downpour. 

Together with other displaced persons, they walked for hours until they found dry land, where they stayed until dawn. When the water subsided, Aisha returned to find her entire life washed away. “We became homeless without our belongings,” she said.

A doorless shelter and hope

Staying at the displacement camp was not an option, as the government had already planned to shut it down. “Returning to Dubula, our ancestral home, was not an option either,” she said 

Aisha looked for shelter nearby and found one on credit—an uncompleted building. The structure had no doors, leaving her family vulnerable to constant theft. What few items they acquired were often stolen when they stepped out, turning their temporary shelter into a trap of insecurity. The widow, who had survived both Boko Haram and the flood, now faced the demoralising grind of daily survival in an exposed space.

Since there was no other alternative, they continued living in the building.

Aisha said it was overwhelming, but she held onto hope and did the best she could to care for her children. Weeks later, SOS Children’s Village, a global humanitarian organisation, visited the community for an assessment. “When they came around, I initially dismissed them for one of those numerous NGOs that normally come around to take our data but offer nothing much but some measures of grains,” Aisha told HumAngle. However, she registered with them as a widow and head of her household. 

SOS returned with support that Aisha describes as “an investment in dignity”. She underwent training in smart farming techniques, followed by a starter kit of essential tools: a pumping machine for irrigation, a spraying machine, insecticides, fertiliser, a wheelbarrow, and processed seeds.

“This support transformed our lives and brought relative comfort to us,” she added.

The first harvest 

With the implements, cash support, and farming inputs, Aisha got to work. She cultivated beans, pepper, tomato, okra, onion, and yams. 

She made her first harvest this farming season. “I was able to use the money from my first farm harvest to escape the unsafe shed,” she said, adding that she paid ₦30,000 for half a year’s rent on their current house. Her family now has enough food, and the surplus is sold to cover essential needs like medication.

“I am most excited that for the first time, my children are now in school—something we could not afford before,” she told HumAngle. 

Aisha explained that her income varies depending on what she takes to the market and how much she can harvest. “There is no fixed amount,” she said. “For beans, a full ‘mudu’ — that’s a standard measuring bowl — sells for between ₦1,200 and ₦1,300. Sometimes I sell up to half a bag, which is about 20 mudus. For tomatoes, a basket goes for about ₦25,000, and we usually get two or three baskets, depending on the yield.”

She hopes that the cycle of loss and disaster has finally been broken. 

“I thank the SOS people for coming to our aid because only God knows the fate that would have befallen me and my family if I had not received their support. They didn’t come to give us fish, but they came to teach us fishing,”  she said. 

Aisha said other women also received the support: “I saw them during the training, and I believe they are doing well with their families as well.”

According to Fredson Ogbeche, the Humanitarian Action Manager at SOS Children’s Village Nigeria, “One hundred families, many headed by women transforming grief into drive just like Aisha, benefitted from the intervention.”

One of the women, Aisha Bukar, is also a widow. The 55-year-old lives in the Elmiskin 2 area of Jere LGA, Borno State. Life has been a relentless succession of personal loss as she has buried seven of her 12 children over the years due to the conflict and lost her husband to a prolonged illness. This overwhelming hardship was compounded last year when destructive floodwaters swept through her home. Having lost everything in the flood, she had to start all over again. 

“What the government offered as a palliative for the flood survivors did not go around to many of us. We were almost stranded until SOS came to assist us,” she said. 

SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria is one of the humanitarian organisations that provided post-flooding recovery support for survivors. Aside from the farm implements and inputs, the organisation gave ₦395,000 to each beneficiary. 

Bukar did not go to the farm. She used the funding to meet domestic needs and also started a tailoring business where they mass-produce and sell children’s clothes.

She said that the steady income has given her daughter a second chance at education. 

Tottenham beat North London rivals Arsenal 1-0 in a friendly in Hong Kong ahead of new Premier League season.

Pape Matar Sarr scored from the halfway line as Tottenham punished a shaky performance by Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya to win the first North London derby staged outside the United Kingdom 1-0.

Raya, who had already been caught in no-man’s land twice as in-swinging corners hit the post, was at fault again in the 45th minute on Thursday when Sarr robbed Myles Lewis-Skelly just inside the Arsenal half.

The Spurs midfielder looked up, saw Raya stranded way outside his penalty area and let fly to score in outrageous fashion from 50 yards out.

Nominally a preseason “friendly”, there was no love lost on the pitch between the bitter rivals.

Tackles flew in and tempers frayed in a fiercely contested clash in front of a 49,975 sellout crowd under the roof in Hong Kong’s air-conditioned Kai Tak Stadium.

Arsenal started the stronger but it was Tottenham who hit the woodwork three times in a frantic first half and deserved their lead at the break.

Arsenal laid siege to the Tottenham goal at the start of the second half, but new manager Thomas Frank had his defence well-drilled and the Gunners found it hard to break through.

Gabriel Martinelli did manage to find an opening on 58 minutes but shot wastefully over the bar from 14 yards.

Arsenal brought on Leandro Trossard and new signing Martin Zubimendi, who almost scored with his first touch when his shot was deflected over the bar.

A huge cheer went up when Son Heung-min was introduced by Tottenham in the 75th minute.

It was followed by an even bigger ovation when new striker Viktor Gyokeres also came off the bench for his Arsenal debut with 13 minutes to go.

The Swedish striker, sporting the number 14 shirt made famous by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, was signed for $67m six days ago.

He made some darting runs as Arsenal pressed for a late equaliser, but will need time to get up to speed with his new club.

Tottenham now fly on to South Korea to face Newcastle United on Sunday, while Arsenal head home after three matches in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Gunners finished second in the Premier League last season, for a third consecutive year, as Liverpool topped the table by 10 points.

Outrageous from Pape Sarr 😮‍💨

Don’t miss the action – watch the second half live on SPURSPLAY 📺

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 31, 2025

Critics, including US officials, are calling for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s new mission to fail, with twelve volunteers, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on board. The flotilla is trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

After seeing a series of bullet-point slides and hearing a slew of buzzwords about UCLA’s athletic department finances, Bob Myers put the crisis facing his alma mater in much simpler terms.

“It’s like water’s coming in the boat and you’re trying to get it out, but how does this thing not sink?” asked Myers, who sandwiched a hugely successful run as the Golden State Warriors’ general manager between his time as a reserve forward on the Bruins’ 1995 national championship basketball team and his appointment as the newest member of the UC board of regents, Tuesday afternoon at the UC regents meeting. “Or how can we help, I suppose?”

Myers was inquiring about an athletic department deficit that has ballooned to $219.5 million after running in the red for six consecutive fiscal years, including a $51.8-million shortfall in the 2024 fiscal year.

To address the increasingly complex issue, new UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk and athletic director Martin Jarmond brought Stephen Agostini, who recently started his second year as the school’s vice chancellor and chief financial officer, to speak to the regents’ special committee on athletics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Agostini outlined many of the UCLA athletic department’s financial challenges, including an anticipated House settlement with the NCAA that will prompt UCLA to make an annual payout of roughly $22 million to its athletes, Olympic sports running about $34 million in the red during the most recent fiscal year, the lack of suite and premium-seat revenue at the Rose Bowl as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the stadium, and licensing and sponsorship agreements with Associated Students UCLA that provides the lion’s share of revenue to the student organization.

“As many of you know, we have a fairly substantial financial challenge ahead of us,” Agostini said. “We are folding in the athletics deficits within that and will endeavor to address that. We are looking at other revenue streams … but it won’t be easy and given the volatility of the space, we’re hoping to stay abreast in an environment that changes almost monthly.”

In addressing Myers’ question, Agostini said the football and men’s basketball teams — with the women’s basketball team likely following suit — were moving toward a professional sports model in which media revenue is shared equally within conferences. USA Today recently estimated that every Big Ten Conference school besides Oregon and Washington, which agreed to take reduced shares for seven years, would receive a $75-million distribution from the conference for the 2025 fiscal year.

Since that figure is the same for almost every Big Ten school, additional income streams are essential.

“That means that what you generate out of your facilities and your other revenue opportunities becomes really critical to your bottom line,” Agostini said. “And as Martin [Jarmond] just mentioned, if we can’t generate additional revenue from tickets or premium seating or the arrangement we have with ASUCLA, it really makes that challenging for us.”

Myers then asked about tangible ways in which the athletic department could mitigate those issues.

Jarmond said the Rose Bowl had agreed to construct a premium seating section in the south end zone that could generate revenue for the school after the 2026 season. The lack of suite or club-level revenue as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the Rose Bowl because it doesn’t own the stadium is depriving the school of roughly $15 million to $25 million a year, according to Jarmond. UCLA is also examining the possibility of Pauley Pavilion renovations that could include premium seating, Jarmond said.

Earlier, Jarmond had discussed ways that his department was doing its best to cut costs. He noted that UCLA was in the bottom quartile of coaching salaries after all nine head coaching hires he had made in his nearly five years on the job were from candidates who were assistant coaches.

“That’s been a strategy that I’ve utilized,” Jarmond said, “to give opportunities to assistant coaches but also to help us competitively with personnel and cost containment.”

The school has also regionalized nonconference schedules as much as possible, with the men’s basketball team pulling out of the CBS Sports Classic to reduce travel and increase scheduling flexibility. Jarmond said UCLA was on track to come in below the $5-million increase it had budgeted for travel expenses during its first year in the Big Ten.

“We’re working our way up toward building more revenue and being able to compete in the Big Ten [and] we’ve got to do more, I will tell you that,” Jarmond said. “We can’t do it on a shoestring budget and be competitive and win at the level that we have won and want to win. It’s something that we’ve been ramping up.”

There was no mention of UCLA’s $30 million in direct campus support to the athletic department during the most recent fiscal year, an unprecedented move to help offset the massive deficit. But in his first public comments about UCLA’s athletic department, Frenk both recognized the school’s rich athletic history and acknowledged the many challenges facing a university that will host the athlete village for the 2028 Olympics.

“There continues to be a lot of uncertainty, the landscape continues to shift, the outcome of recent litigations, which have been adverse to universities, the NIL changes, new models of athlete compensation — all have huge financial implications for us,” Frenk said. “But by joining the Big Ten, we have put UCLA in the strongest possible position to navigate the current volatility and to continue supporting our students in every dimension of their lives.

“So this is a key moment in the history of intercollegiate athletics; I think it’s going to continue to be transformed rapidly in the years to come and we are trying to face this with a strategic vision, a commitment to the fact that these are students first and foremost — our commitment to their education, a commitment to competition with integrity, fair competition and those values will continue to be upheld during this time of transition.”

After UCLA’s nearly hourlong session was finished, officials from UC Santa Cruz offered a presentation on their athletic department, an NCAA Division III outfit with a tiny budget but also a corresponding $2.2-million deficit for the most recent fiscal year that might more closely align with the ideals of college athletics.

“It will be interesting, I think,” UC Santa Cruz chancellor Cynthia Larive said, “for you to see the juxtaposition of UCLA and UC Santa Cruz.”