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For more than 2,000 years, fishermen in Israel’s Sea of Galilee were famous for using nets to catch St. Peter’s Fish, a form of tilapia with a biblical backstory. Now these anglers have gained new notoriety, helping keep some Israeli troops safe from Hezbollah first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones. TWZ was among the first to highlight the danger these weapons have posed to Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and how the IDF was racing to install passive defenses, including nets, on its combat vehicles for protection.

The threat is so great and countermeasures so far limited, that some IDF troops are resorting to obtaining nets on their own from fishermen for protection, a senior IDF official confirmed to TWZ on Monday. The issue was first reported by Israel’s KAN public broadcasting network. This is in addition to netting the IDF itself is working to procure, which we will talk more about later in this story.

“Indeed, IDF soldiers are equipping themselves with fishing nets, most of which are being purchased in the city of Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee,” a senior IDF official told us. The troops are also buying nets from fishermen at Akko and Haifa on the Mediterranean, the official added.

“The drone threat has become a nightmare for the fighters on the ground,” the high-ranking official explained.

Fishing on the Sea of Galilee! Joshua Aaron / Rather Be in the Galilee

In our past reporting, we explained that the idea behind netting is that drones will get caught up in these barriers and become disabled, or, in some cases, the nets will help keep the drones far enough from the troops or equipment before exploding to keep personnel within the vehicles from being killed.

Israel, as we have previously noted, started using netting on vehicles and other equipment as the FPV threat grew.

You can see one example of this in the following video.

The use of nets as a defensive measure was first employed in Ukraine as FPV drones became the ubiquitous weapon of choice for both sides.

You can see an early example of Russians using netting in the video below.

In our initial stories about Hezbollah’s FPV arsenal, we noted that the Iranian-backed proxy group was adding a challenge to the IDF by increasing the percentage of FPV drones guided by fiber optic cables. These wires mitigate the effect of electronic warfare efforts to jam radio signals as well as some of the limitations imposed by geographical features that can impede the line-of-sight radio connection between drone and operator.

Videos of these attacks began to emerge online last month, which you can see below.

Now there’s a new problem for Israel to solve when it comes to FPV drones. Hezbollah has begun using thermal cameras on these munitions so they can be deployed in night attacks, the IDF official told us. Thermal cameras register heat signatures, turning them into thermal images using differences in temperature.

By adding thermal cameras to the FPV drone, Hezbollah “severely restricts [our] movement both during the day and at night,” he postulated.

Combined with fiber-optic guidance, the use of thermal cameras on FPV drones “creates an extraordinary level of deterrence against the forces operating inside Lebanon and along the border,” the senior IDF official bemoaned. “It is terrifying, dangerous, and frightening in equal measure.”

“The forces are essentially static,” the official added. “They cannot advance toward the drone-launch areas, nor can they effectively target the drone logistics and operational chain extending through the Beqaa Valley, Tyre, Sidon, and even Beirut.”

“Our operational doctrine must change,” he added. “We need to shift from completely exposed operations, where our soldiers become easy targets for Hezbollah, to covert and concealed activity.”

Making matters worse, “the political-security cabinet, and more specifically [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, is pushing for overt operations in order to demonstrate an Israeli presence in southern Lebanon,” the senior IDF official posited. “At the same time, due to commitments and demands made by [U.S. President Donald] Trump, the operational freedom of the forces is being heavily restricted. It is a classic Catch-22 situation.”

“The result is severe harm to our soldiers and a weakening of the IDF against an enemy that is bound by no rules or constraints,” our source continued. “This is a dangerous and absurd asymmetry – sheer recklessness.”

His comments came a day before Netanyahu officially ordered a much larger Israeli push into southern Lebanon, despite the ongoing ceasefire, which you can read more about in our story from earlier today here.

The IDF says about 158,000 square meters of protective nets have already been distributed to units in the field, Israel’s I24 News reported.

“The army says it is in the process of acquiring an additional roughly two million square feet of netting,” the outlet added. “Altogether, the total area ordered is equivalent to roughly 20 football fields, highlighting the scale of Israel’s efforts to adapt its defenses to a rapidly evolving battlefield threat along the northern front.”

Even that much netting does not appear to be enough, given the scope of Israel’s push into southern Lebanon. That may be way some soldiers are looking to fishing nets to fill in the gaps.

Since the war in Ukraine began, troops have done whatever they could, often out of desperation, to develop improvised workarounds to protect against drones, from stacking logs on their vehicles to welding on layers of steel to create so-called “turtle tanks.” These and many other ad-hoc improvements have led to major innovations and a long list of dead-ends. Often times, even simple solutions can be hard to realize due to bureaucracy. Israel’s troops are no different, and their work to find their own solutions is yet another example of even the world’s most capable militaries underestimating and being unprepared for the realities of drones on the modern battlefield.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Baltimore, United States – Muslim Americans are grieving after two gunmen last week opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three people.

But at the annual conference for the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) in Baltimore, community leaders stressed the urgency of turning the sorrow into action.

Nearly 25,000 people turned out for the annual event, held on Saturday and Sunday. Speakers addressed the recent shooting, pointing to the courage of the three victims as examples for the broader community in a time of heightened Islamophobia.

“We owe them more than condolences. We owe them resolve,” said Lena Masri, a lawyer at the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

She explained how the victims — a security officer, a caretaker and a neighbour — sacrificed their lives to save others. The security officer, Amin Abdullah, exchanged fire with the shooters, while the other two victims, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad, rushed to help and called for emergency services.

“They protected the physical space of our community: the masjid [mosque], the school, the children, the teachers, the worshippers,” Masri explained.

“Our responsibility is to protect the civic space of our community: the right to worship, the right to speak, the right to organise, the right to defend Palestine, the right to build institutions.”

That was the recurring theme of the conference: that the Muslim American community cannot afford to be passive and must draw on its strength to push back against bigotry and hate.

Speakers emphasised voting, organising and donating to community institutions and candidates who align with Muslim Americans. They also underscored the need to hold officials accountable and push for an end to Israel’s atrocities in Palestine.

“We owe Gaza more than grief. We owe Gaza advocacy that cannot be intimidated into silence,” Masri said.

Islamophobia and Palestinians’ dehumanisation

Symbols of Palestine could be seen everywhere at the conference, from bags emblazoned with watermelons and flags to keffiyeh-patterned scarves, shirts and water bottles.

At a bazaar featuring dozens of vendors, conference-goers left messages of solidarity on a tent that will be sent to Gaza by the charity Life for Relief and Development (LIFE).

In speeches and on panels, advocates drew a link between anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States and Israel’s abuses in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Some of the loudest promoters of Islamophobia in the US are also staunch Israel supporters, among them right-wing commentator Laura Loomer and Congressman Randy Fine.

Both Loomer and Fine are allies of US President Donald Trump, whose administration has unleashed a crackdown to deport critics of Israel who live in the US but are not citizens.

Altaf Husain, a professor at the Howard University School of Social Work, said anti-Palestinian voices are trying to “scare” Muslims as a means of silencing criticism of Israel.

“They want to shut this down, so it’s a direct connection,” Husain told Al Jazeera.

He said the large turnout at the ICNA conference shows that the community is not intimidated and will not back down.

In the response to the shooting in San Diego, Husain pointed out that the community raised more than $3.5m for the victims’ families and moved to bolster security around Muslim institutions.

Layers of security

Saad Kazmi, the president of ICNA, said the organisation relied on three layers of protection to secure this weekend’s event: its own security guards, an outside firm and local law enforcement agencies in Baltimore.

While there is anxiety in the community over the rise of Islamophobia and Trump’s immigration crackdown, he said Muslim Americans must take matters into their own hands and work with “sensible” people across the political spectrum to defeat hate.

“We are very thankful that we live in a country that is ruled by the Constitution and law,” Kazmi told Al Jazeera.

Kazmi added that the shooting in San Diego only added to the community’s determination to assert and protect its rights. The Islamic centre in the city, he noted, did not shut down after the attack.

“If anything came out of this, it is that there are more attendees to the masjid, more people who believe that the way forward is to strengthen ourselves, strengthen our community and march on,” Kazmi said.

After the shooting, Loomer doubled down on her anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling on immigration authorities to target the Islamic Center of San Diego.

She also called for the deportation of all Muslims from the US, describing them as an “invasive species”. But few Republicans disavowed Loomer, who maintains close ties to the White House.

Rather, more than 60 Congress members have joined the Sharia-Free America Caucus since it was established in December. CAIR has designated the caucus a hate group.

At the state level, governors and local legislators have disparaged Islam while also pushing to penalise Palestinian rights activism.

Texas and Florida, for example, have labelled CAIR a “terrorist” group, while implementing measures against “Sharia law” that critics consider anti-Muslim dog whistles.

Rights under attack

In March, after CAIR sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over its “terrorist” designation, a federal court blocked the label from being imposed.

In his ruling, Judge Mark Walker wrote that DeSantis’s executive order (EO) targets the Muslim community as a whole.

“It should be lost on no one that Defendant’s EO targets one of America’s largest Muslim civil rights organizations for indirect suppression of speech. But, as we all know, it is easy for those in power to target minority groups with little pushback,” Walker wrote.

“Sadly, history teaches that it is often minority religious groups who find themselves in the crosshairs.”

On Saturday, several panels praised the US legal system and the laws that protect freedom of religion and speech. But the panellists argued that human rights do not defend themselves; people must step up to protect them.

“You’ve got to imagine rights are a territory, and you have to occupy that territory. If you do not actively occupy that territory, that territory will be taken from you. And that is exactly what has been happening,” Tom Facchine, an imam from New Jersey, said.

Last year, Palestinian immigrant Leqaa Kordia found her rights in jeopardy when immigration agents knocked on her door and detained her over her activism against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

Kordia spent more than a year in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention before an immigration judge ordered her to be released in March.

But Kordia — who is still fighting deportation — told ICNA conference attendees on Saturday that she has no regrets, encouraging them to remain politically active and engaged.

“Speaking up, it comes with a cost … It cost me my health, my life, literally my freedom, and I’m living in uncertainty that tomorrow I’m going to be here, or I’m going to be deported,” she said.

“It comes with a cost, but it’s worth it. It’s worth it because silence, it costs even way more than speaking.”

MILWAUKEE — Left-hander Eric Lauer strode up the bullpen mound at Petco Park as the Dodgers-Padres series finale Wednesday transitioned into the late innings.

He had been available to provide length as a reliever, but the plan had been for him to throw either way, he said.

The Dodgers didn’t end up needing him to cover innings, so he tossed a side session. And now Lauer has the weekend to address the mechanical issues that plagued his bumpy first six weeks of the season with the Toronto Blue Jays before making his Dodgers debut Tuesday as a starter against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s nice having a little change of scenery, because it gives me a nice full-blown reset,” Lauer said. “I can get my feet back under me, I can get out of my head a little bit more, understand what makes me good and what’s got me to this point, and run with that.”

Lauer, who landed on waivers at a convenient time for the Dodgers, is their immediate answer to a sudden rotation depth problem.

They don’t expect him to save the day in the absence of Blake Snell (elbow surgery to remove loose bodies) and Tyler Glasnow (back spasms). But the Dodgers saw an opportunity to fill a hole in their roster and ideally help him reverse his early-season regression.

“We’ve had our guys take a look and we’ll sit down and talk through some stuff, see how much we can do on the fly, how much of it is not just subconscious,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “But we know the makeup is really good, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on him and helping him be as successful as he’s been in the past.”

As long as Lauer gradually improves, his presence allows the Dodgers to keep their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, without taxing their relievers with regular bullpen days, at least while they wait for other pitchers to return to health and/or build up their workloads.

Lauer’s only months removed from success. He owned a career-best 3.18 ERA last season and was even better in the postseason, authoring 5 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Dodgers in the World Series.

Dodgers reliever Will Klein, who threw opposite Lauer in the 18-inning Game 3 of the World Series, was one of the first people he met when he joined the team in San Diego.

“He introduced himself, and I was like, ‘All right, I know you, I remember you,’” Lauer said.

Coming off of winning the pennant, Lauer’s ERA ballooned this year to 6.96 ERA. In mid-April, the Blue Jays tried using an opener in front of Lauer when he faced the Diamondbacks. And his reaction made headlines.

“To be real blunt, I hate it,” he told reporters then. “I can’t stand it. But you work with what you got.”

This week, surrounded by different set of reporters in the visitors dugout at Petco Park earlier this week after joining the Dodgers, Lauer gave a knowing smile when the topic of usage with Toronto came up.

“There was no ill will there, there was no hurt feelings,” he said of his comments on openers. “It was a very simple question, I thought, how do you feel about an opener? I think if you ask most starters in the league, they would probably have the same response, that they don’t like it. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to do it. It doesn’t mean that I’m not a team player.”

He said he cleared it up with Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker and manager John Schneider right away.

“I’m not going to have a problem if there is somebody in front of me,” he said. “It’s part of the game, it’s become part of the game. And we’re all here to win ballgames. It’s not about any individual player. So that was a lot more than I expected that to turn into.”

So far, Lauer has praised the Dodgers’ communication. And he’s been reunited with pitching coach Mark Prior, who was the Padres’ minor-league pitching coordinator when Lauer began his professional career in San Diego’s system.

When Lauer diagnoses his season, he sees two sets of issues working in concert.

“A couple things had compounded for me, and it was just kind of eating at me a little bit too much,” Lauer told The Times. “And I work with a mental skills coach and stuff, to where that shouldn’t happen. But I wasn’t mentally my best, which was making me not my best physically, which made me start to want to tinker.”

Lauer feels like he has a hold on the mental side. Now it’s working from the ground up to get his delivery back in sync. The goal, as Lauer explains it, is to find positions that create tension in his delivery, and pattern them until they feel like second nature.

Making mechanical adjustments during the season, however, tends to be two steps forward, one step back.

Lauer isn’t expected to have it all figured out for his start Tuesday. The Dodgers just want to see him compete with whatever he has that day.

“We compete, and then we go back to the process,” Lauer said. “…Then hopefully the process over time becomes more patterned, more grooved. And then it becomes less process, more just fine-tuning to compete.”

The Rich House, Poor House mum had to turn down a job that would change her life

A single mum living on £98 a week was forced to turn down a life-changing opportunity.

Steph recently appeared on Rich House, Poor House and was offered a job but she had no choice but to refuse the offer due to a family issue and unable to take on the long commute.

Alongside her mother Gail and her daughters – 12-year-old Amelia and seven-year-old Darcey, they swapped lives with wealthy Mr Whippy owner Joe Sealey on the Channel 5 series and their worlds couldn’t be more different.

At the time, Joe traded his six-bedroom estate – complete with cinema room, gym and indoor pool – for seven days in Steph’s three bedroom council house with a damaged ground floor and mould spreading through Amelia’s room.

Despite working six days a week from home in telesales, Steph struggles to cover essential costs. Once fundamental household expenses are paid, they’re left with just £98 per week for all other needs.

At the end of the swap, she was given a life-changing opportunity as Joe offered her a position on his sales team with a starting salary of £60,000 a year.

However Steph has revealed that she’s had to make the heartbreaking decision and turn down the job offer after the office moved to a different location.

Giving viewers an update, she took to her TikTok and explained that the relocation means she would have had to do a four hour round commute, which she says wouldn’t work due to being a single mum and her mum’s health deteriorating.

She said: “In relation to the job, I agree with all of you that it’s an amazing opportunity. Sadly due to the main office relocation it would mean a four hour round trip commuting for me, to be able to go there and take that job offer up.”

During the swap, Steph had no choice but to send her mum home after she became too unwell to continue with the programme and it seems her health is still a concern for Steph.

Steph explained: “As you all know I’m a single mum, I’ve got two beautiful girls. My amazing mum, whose health is not great, it’s not massively improved since the show, so it’s not viable for me to be able to travel a four hour round trip.

“I need to be closer to my girls and my mum but again it was an amazing opportunity that was put forward. Sadly the location did change in between and it’s just not viable for me to do that

“But I just again wanted to say a huge thank you to Joe, my production team, Channel 5 and most importantly every single one of you. It’s not easy to put yourself out there.”

Following a successful business meeting on the show, Steth was promised £20,000 from the initial sales proceeds but unfortunately the sale still hasn’t gone thorough.

Steph added: “Since filming last year, Joe has been tirelessly working with Kaspas trying to get the deal across the line, that obviously you would have seen me go and do the sales pitch for. At the moment, that hasn’t been completed but I know Joe is still working in the background trying to get that over the line for us.”

You can stream Rich House, Poor Holiday on Channel 5

A BRAND new lido could be coming to one of the UK’s most beautiful cities under new plans.

A formal bid has been made to transform an old leisure centre into a prime swim spot in the city of Winchester.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

Winchester’s River Park Leisure Centre, which closed in 2021, would instead have an outdoor swimming pool, as well as lido a splash pad and food and drink stands.

The lido designs have been created by Design Engine Architects, with previous projects including university campuses and private homes across the UK.

The bid has been put to Winchester City Council by Sea Lanes which runs the lido in nearby Brighton and Hilsea Lido in Portsmouth.

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Harry Smith, director of Sea Lanes, said: “We submitted our bid as part of the consultation for the site. We worked with the (Winchester Lido) community group, which really supported the bid.

“We’re really excited to bring a lido to Winchester. I think the decision will be soon, if it’s still on track, and then we will be working with the city if we get the opportunity to pursue the project.

“There’s huge community support for the lido. We have worked with the community group, which contacted us about the site. It is something that has been bubbling around for a while.”

The plan has been met with positivity from locals.

On a Facebook post announcing the news, one said: “Absolutely stunning! Can’t wait to hear more about it!”

Another wrote: “Hard to imagine how this would not be good for everyone in Winchester. Wonderful first visual.”

A third added: “I swam in Hilsea Lido the other day – fantastic. This would be great.”

There was previously an open-air swimming lido in Winchester on Worthy Lane, which opened in the 1930s and closed in the late 1970s – since then, Winchester hasn’t had a lido.

Nearby Hilsea Lido had been closed since 2022 but reopened on May 2 after a £7.6million revamp.

New showers and toilets, including a Changing Places toilet, and a sauna were added as part of the upgrades.

Formerly a saltwater pool, the 220-foot lido now uses unheated chlorinated fresh water.

The lido served as a training centre for the Team GB diving team ahead of the 1936 and 1952 Olympics, and it also featured as a filming location for The Who’s 1975 film Tommy.

A parade of celebrities, including Naomi Osaka, Angela Bassett, Madonna, and Sabrina Carpenter posed for the cameras. Some famous faces – Bad Bunny, Heidi Klum, and Katy Perry – were nearly unrecognisable thanks to their commitment to the “costume” theme.

September 2024 came with water. It moved through Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s North East, in fast, stubborn currents, destroying homes and property, and displacing thousands.

In many affected areas, like London Ciki, where Khadija Usman lives, it washed away firewood and charcoal, a critical source of cooking fuel for many homes. She was home alone one afternoon when that absence settled into something practical. Khadija wanted to cook, but there was nothing to burn. 

“The water destroyed almost everything,” she said. “It became difficult to find firewood and charcoal.” Moving out to search for fuel was not easy, as she uses a wheelchair. And like for most people here, the expectation did not shift with the flood. Meals still had to be prepared. 

So, Khadija turned her attention to what was left behind: charcoal residue, bits of waste, and a technique she had once seen. “I decided to come up with a solution,” she stated. She gathered what she could, shaping it into compact pieces that might hold a flame. When it finally caught, it was small, steady, and enough. 

Not yet a long-term solution, but a way through that day.

In the weeks that followed, that small flame evolved into something more substantial. The turning point came when she visited a friend, Zara Tijjani, who also has a disability and was cooking over firewood. The smoke stung Zara’s eyes as she struggled to keep the fire alive. Inspired, Khadija went home, made briquettes, and then returned to show her friend how to make them as well.

From there, the knowledge began to spread among women, particularly those for whom gathering firewood posed significant risks or challenges. What Khadija started in the aftermath of the flood has since contributed to a broader shift in Borno, where biochar is gradually being adopted. However, her focus remains shaped by those around her: women navigating limited mobility, daily cooking demands, the risks of gathering firewood in terror-controlled territories, and a changing climate.

When cooking depends on the forest

Across Maiduguri and much of northeastern Nigeria, cooking still depends heavily on firewood and charcoal. For many households, especially in low-income and displaced communities, these remain the most accessible and affordable sources of energy.

National data reflects this dependence. The 2024 Nigeria Residential Energy Demand-Side Survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that about 67 per cent of households rely on firewood, 22 per cent on charcoal, and only 19.4 per cent on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In the North East, the pattern is even more pronounced. 

The report shows that wood use rises to 93.4 per cent in the region, the highest in the country, while LPG remains limited, particularly outside urban centres. Electricity and kerosene play only marginal roles in cooking.

In Borno State, reliance is near-total. A 2019 joint assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP) found that 98.7 per cent of households rely on firewood and charcoal, with only a small fraction using cleaner fuels. Even access to these traditional sources is constrained. Many households purchase firewood rather than gather it, reflecting both scarcity and restrictions on movement in conflict-affected areas. This aligns with humanitarian reporting that “firewood is the primary source of cooking energy” in Borno.

This dependence carries layered costs. Trees are cut steadily to meet demand, placing pressure on already fragile ecosystems. For women in these communities, who are primarily responsible for cooking, the burden extends beyond the home. Finding fuel often means travelling to the outskirts of town or into nearby bush areas, where risks of harassment and violence persist.

The September 2024 flooding deepened these pressures. Supply chains were disrupted, stored firewood was washed away, and charcoal became scarce and more expensive. In homes already navigating scarcity, cooking became uncertain.

Beyond immediate access, the environmental toll is significant. The NBS 2024 General Household Survey shows that Nigeria consumes an estimated 30 billion kilogrammes of fuelwood annually, driving deforestation. In regions like Borno, where vegetation is already sparse, this accelerates land degradation and desertification, reinforcing a cycle of environmental stress and energy poverty.

Health and safety risks are also closely tied to this dependence. Smoke from firewood and charcoal contributes to indoor air pollution, which is linked to respiratory illnesses, particularly among women and children. In the North East, these risks extend further. Women who gather firewood often face threats of harassment, violence, and abduction, making the simple act of cooking fuel collection a dangerous task.

Within this system, energy, environment, and security are tightly bound. It is this reality that shapes both the problem Khadija is responding to and the limits of the solutions emerging around it.

Improvising in the aftermath of the flood

Khadija’s first attempts were small, almost tentative, as though she was testing not just the materials in her hands but the possibility that something useful could still be made from what the flood had left behind.

Without equipment or formal training, she worked with what was available: charcoal residue, scraps of household waste, fragments others might have discarded without a second thought. She burned them, pressed them, broke them apart again when they failed — testing what held, what crumbled, and what caught fire and stayed lit. The process was slow.

There was no machine then. No structured method. Only a need that could not be postponed.

The knowledge has since gone from one woman to another: Women with limited mobility. Women navigating spaces where stepping out to collect fuel is not always safe.

Within the disability community, the effort did not go unnoticed. 

“We rallied behind her,” said Hassana Mohammed Bunu, women’s leader of the Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities in Borno State. 

“I have stopped using charcoal and firewood ever since I began using her briquettes,” Zara said. Although Zara has been taught how to make them, she prefers to buy them from Khadija. “She uses a machine to make them. And they are more compressed than handmade,” she added. “It is smokeless, and they burn longer.”

Climate shocks uniquely affect persons with disabilities in Nigeria and other parts of the world. These disasters deepen already existing barriers. Mobility becomes more difficult. Access to resources narrows. In conflict-affected settings like Borno and much of the North East, those constraints are often sharper, less visible, and rarely addressed directly.

In energy access, the gaps are even more pronounced. Clean cooking programmes, where they exist, are not always designed with accessibility in mind. Physical barriers, cost, and social exclusion often limit participation. Nigeria’s legal framework, including the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, exists, but its translation into everyday interventions, particularly in climate and energy responses, remains uneven.

Scaling a local idea

To sustain what she had started, Khadija began to think bigger.

She raised her first capital in small, deliberate ways, selling caps and setting aside the earnings. With that, she bought sawdust, Arabic gum, and starch, enough to stabilise her production and move from improvisation to something more consistent. What began at home remained modest but steady, supported by family, friends, and members of the disability community who saw the value in what she was building.

In 2025, her work drew the attention of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). After three months of training at the Abdul Samad Rabiu Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maiduguri, she received a grant that marked a turning point. With it, she purchased a briquette-making machine.

With the machine, she could produce up to 100 bags of briquettes per day, each sold at ₦6,500.

To deepen her technical knowledge, she partnered with Faaby Global Services, a Maiduguri-based environmental organisation, where she now works closely with a production team. There, she contributes not only as a learner but as a practitioner. 

“She shares her ideas in production and on tackling some challenges,” said Heriju Samuel John, an assistant manager at the organisation. “She is also a native of this town, so she helps us in sourcing raw materials.”

Her machine is now one of three in the facility, a small but significant marker of how far the work has moved from its starting point.

Yet, the broader briquette ecosystem in the region remains uneven. Programmes led by organisations such as FAO have introduced briquettes and fuel-efficient stoves to thousands of households across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, often linking energy access to protection concerns.

But outside these interventions, the market is still thin. Production is limited. Adoption is inconsistent. Many initiatives remain tied to donor funding rather than sustained commercial demand.

In that landscape, Khadija’s work sits somewhere in between, not fully independent of institutional support, but not entirely defined by it either.

Can briquettes change the equation?

The briquettes Khadija produces are made largely from what others leave behind. Charcoal residue. Sawdust. Rice husks. Groundnut stalks. Agricultural waste is sourced from farmers and traders who would otherwise discard it. Coconut shells, when available, add density, though they are harder to find in places like Maiduguri and are more expensive.

The materials are burned in a low-oxygen environment, then converted into biochar, and finally ground into fine particles and bound together using eco-friendly binders such as gum arabic or starch. What emerges is a compact fuel that holds its shape and, according to Khadija, burns longer and with less smoke.

“We are recycling,” she said, describing a system that pulls from multiple points in the local economy.

Farmers sell their waste. They also source leftover charcoal and firewood particles from traders. Additionally, waste management actors like the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA) deliver degradable materials. 

To manage fluctuations, especially during the rainy season when materials become scarce, Khadija stores raw inputs in bulk in a rented facility in the Abbaganaram area of Maiduguri. 

Her briquettes now move through different layers of the market; restaurants, bakeries, and roadside food vendors buy in bulk. Households purchase for daily use. Some consignments travel beyond Maiduguri, to nearby towns like Bama, and even across borders into Cameroon, with up to two trucks dispatched weekly.

For women, particularly those with disabilities, the impact is measured less in scale than in use. Khadija sells at discounted rates within the community and has trained more than 20 women to produce their own briquettes. “She taught some of our members,” Hassana said.

In some households, Khadija told HumAngle, the shift is already complete. Firewood has been replaced. “This gives me joy,” she said, adding that the transition could extend further. “If people fully understand the benefits, they would stop using charcoal and firewood.”

But the shift is not without constraints.

Raw materials fluctuate. Storage remains limited. Transport is still a challenge. And beyond logistics, there are social barriers that do not disappear with production. “People say I am doing what able-bodied people should be doing,” she said. “Being a woman makes it even worse.”

Still, she continues to plan, looking toward a larger production facility that could employ more women and stabilise supply.

If you’re looking for something binge-worthy to watch right now, look no further than this “brilliant” series that is “excellent from start to finish”.

After nearly four years of anticipation, The Capture has made a return to screens last month, bringing back the highly praised BBC conspiracy thriller drama for its third season. The show, created by Ben Chanan, features Holliday Grainger as Rachel Carey, an inspector who has climbed the ranks.

As the third season begins, Rachel has taken on the role of acting commander of Counter Terrorism Command.

The latest storyline depicts her efforts to restore public confidence through a new surveillance system, but it quickly faces scrutiny when Rachel becomes involved in a terrorist act in London.

The description for the third series reads: “How do you protect the truth in a world where lies are daily currency? And with the proliferation of deepfakes, how can we trust what we see?”

The series has been praised with an impressive approval rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and eight out of 10 on IMDb. Many viewers too

Many viewers took to IMDb to share their love for the “mind-blowing” drama. One user said: “Six parts of complex, intriguing and baffling drama.

“This isn’t your average six-part mystery series, this will have you scratching your head, questioning everything you see, and doubting the things you’ve seen with your own eyes. It’s excellent from start to finish.”

Another wrote, “A strong and solid storyline and sequence of scenes and events form the basis of edge-of-seat thriller. Oh my, how a simple camera footage can be the root of gripping thriller!

“No fancy gimmicks, dialogues, shoot-out scenes, computer coding thingies, CGI scenes and whatnot. It’s all about how the storyline is delivered. It’s delivered to perfection!”

A third commented: “Wow, the whole series keeps you on your toes; big twist, truly amazing. A very cleverly written piece of drama, the best thing on current TV.”

A fourth said: “One of the best BBC shows ever! Great script, loving the twists and turns! Haven’t watched something this gripping in a long time; it’s really pushing the boundaries.”

All three series that consist of 18 episodes are available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

It’s unclear yet whether there will be a fourth season of The Capture, but Ben told Radio Times: “I’d think to myself, as I was writing it, ‘this is going to be the last series’, Now, is that true? I don’t know.

“Never say never, right? But I think it’s really healthy to just write each series as if it’s going to be the last, that you’re not just hanging on to people for the sake of it.”

DENVER — Nobody’s perfect, not even the Dodgers.

Their steamroll hit a speed bump as they squandered opportunities in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Even the hottest of Dodgers’ hitters cooled off as the night did. Collectively, they went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base, including two in the ninth inning.

Now 15-5, it was their first loss in five games and their first all season to a National League opponent.

Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ pricey new right fielder, had three hits, including his third home run this season. And backup catcher Dalton Rushing hit his fifth home run.

But that was all the damage the Dodgers did in support of starter Emmet Sheehan, who left with a one-run lead that reliever Will Klein relinquished in a matter of three batters in the sixth inning.

Shohei Ohtani also saw his career-best on-base streak reach 50 when he singled in the ninth inning to tie Willie Keeler’s 50-game mark established in 1901.

The two-time reining World Series champs threw the proverbial first punch when Tucker launched a 435-foot two-run home run into the second deck, making it 2-0 two batters into the game.

Tucker’s third home run as a Dodger drove home Ohtani, who chopped the first pitch he saw to Troy Johnston and would have been out at first if not for the errant throw by the first baseman.

In the bottom of the first, the Rockies responded when Mickey Moniak doubled and TJ Rumfield drove him in with a single to cut the lead in half, 2-1.

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing follows the flight of his solo home run off Colorado pitcher Ryan Feltner Saturday in Denver.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

The Dodgers came right back in the second inning, when Rushing — in his one expected start behind the plate this series — kept crushing, launching a 1-1 pitch 371 feet over the right field wall to make it 3-1. It was his fifth home run in 18 at-bats until that point.

The Dodgers’ two home runs in the first two innings gave them multiple homers in 10 of their first 20 games this season — and ran their MLB-leading season total to 37 as a team.

But the Rockies returned serve in the bottom of the second, when Johnston scored on a Kyle Karros sacrifice fly to stay within a run, 3-2.

That’s how it stayed for the next three innings, as Sheehan got out of the third and fourth unscathed, despite the Rockies putting runners in scoring position in both the third and fourth. His only 1-2-3 inning was the nine-pitch fifth.

His control wasn’t as sharp as in his prior outing, but he left after five innings with the lead, having thrown 77 pitches, allowed four hits, two runs, struck out four and walked two.

The Dodgers got something going again in the sixth inning when Freddie Freeman hit a one-out triple into the gap in the expansive Colorado outfield, just beyond the grasp of diving center fielder Brenton Doyle.

A batter later, the Rockies’ diving third baseman Karros made a nifty play to throw out Teoscar Hernández after he drilled a ball up the line — holding Freeman at third in the process.

Then left-hander Brennan Bernardino came on in relief and tied up a clearly frustrated Max Muncy with a curveball, striking him out and ending a scoreless inning with Freeman stranded on third.

Klein took the loss after taking over for the Dodgers in the sixth and immediately gave up a double to Hunter Goodman before Ezequiel Tovar’s grounder ricocheted off Klein’s left foot and right knee. Tovar reached before Freeman could corral the ball and get it to Klein at first.

Both runners scored on a no-out double by Johnston and Colorado had a 4-3 lead that would stand.

In the eighth, “Let’s go Dodgers” chants picked up with Andy Pages at bat and Ohtani and Tucker on first and second base. But Pages struck out on a strike that was determined to find the bottom of the zone by baseball’s new ABS system.

Hernández then walked to load the bases but Muncy grounded out to second base, leaving more runners stranded.

Some 8,000 years ago, behind the retreating glaciers, a remarkable environment was born on the western fringes of Scotland’s Outer Hebridean islands, forged by the wind and waves. It began with rising sea levels and sweeping Atlantic gales depositing crushed shell-sand inland; this settled over glacial sediment to form a coastal belt of lime-rich soil. Buffered from the sea by mounting sand dunes, this winter-wet and summer-sunned substrate produced one of Europe’s rarest habitats: the “machair”, Gaelic for “fertile grassy plain”. Abounding in diverse, colourful wildflowers and an array of associated wildlife, coastal machair is a precious, globally important outpost of biodiversity, supporting everything from purple orchids and nodding blue campanulas to endangered birdlife, otters and rare bumblebees.

As a wildflower fanatic, visiting the Outer Hebrides in peak machair bloom has long been an aspiration. Over the years, I’d read accounts of its arresting, vibrant seasonality – its shifting blankets of red and white clover, yellow trefoil and creamy eyebright, bold against the sky. Although remnant machair is also found in north-west Ireland, its greatest extent lies on this Scottish archipelago, notably the islands of Barra, Uist and Harris.