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The UK will provide an additional £1bn in military aid for Ukraine, a near-doubling in its support for the fight against the Russian invasion. The new funding takes the military aid given to Kyiv to £2.3bn - and the UK has also spent £1.5bn in humanitarian and economic support for Ukraine. Boris Johnson says British spending was transforming Ukraine's defences. The UK governmnet says the new £1bn is set to come from departmental underspends plus £95 million from the Welsh and Scottish governments' budgets.

US intelligence agencies believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to capture most of UkraineDirector of National Intelligence Avril Haines says It means the war could last for a long time. The US's top intelligence officer Ms Haines says Putin still has the same goals as the ones he held at the start of the conflict to take most of Ukraine. She says Russia is unlikely to achieve that goal any time soon.

The Ethiopian government-appointed human rights watchdog has called for the immediate release of thousands of Tigrayans who are being held in two detention camps in the north-eastern region of Afar. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission described their detention as illegal. It says around 9,000 Tigrayans have been held there since December last year. They were from areas bordering Tigray where there has been a civil war. The Addis Ababa government says the detainees were being held for their own safety and also to allow screening to find criminals including people linked to the fighting.

A Sudanese doctors' union says a protester was killed during anti-military demonstrations in Khartoum Bahri after security forces used excessive force. The Central Council of Sudanese Doctors says a martyr, who was not identified, has died after he was shot in the chest by the forces of darkness. The doctors say that the security forces used excessive force, thinking they could silence the growing revolution. The CCSD says this brings the death toll to 103 as a result of the crackdown against the pro-democracy demonstrations prompted by the last October's military coup.

The controversial National Water Resources Bill, 2020, re-emerged on the floor of the House of Representatives amidst suspicions from members. The leadership, however, assured the lawmakers that the new version of the legislation would capture all the interests of the states. Chairman of the House Committee on Water Resources, Sada Soli, says the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as well as commissioners for justice and attorneys-general of the 36 states of the federation, had been consulted and the opinions received would be attached to the bill and distributed to all members.

The Federal Government has signed a $2.78m exchange of note agreement with the Japanese government for an economic and social development programme. The Assistant Director, Public Relations of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Osagie Edward, explained that the agreement involved the acquisition of high-speed boats to reinforce services for coastal security in Nigeria, with NIMASA as the implementing partner. The Director-General of NIMASA Dr Bashir Jamoh assured the Japanese government that the agency, working with relevant stakeholders, would ensure the sustainability of the recent success in the war against piracy in Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea.

The House of Representatives has passed for second reading, a bill seeking to establish an Entrepreneurship Development Bank of Nigeria, with the aim of providing soft loans for small and medium-scale enterprises in the country. The consolidated bill was jointly sponsored by Mr Benjamin Kalu and Olalekan Afolabi Kalu says the proposed bank would be charged with the responsibility, among other things, of providing medium and long-term finance for indigenous small businesses. He added that the bill, which July 18, 2019, focuses on Nigerian youths and contemplated providing improved access to finance for youth entrepreneurs in innovation, manufacturing, agriculture and trade.

The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has reiterated the need for the government to partner with the private sector to ensure that residents have access to affordable accommodation. The governor says his administration, in partnership with the private sector, has delivered more than 3,526 housing units across the state since 2019. The Managing Director, LBIC, Oluwatobiloba Lawal, says the inauguration of the Greater Lagos LBIC apartments is a testament to the Governor’s commitment to the provision of affordable shelter that could stimulate the economic growth of the state hence, the THEMES agenda is working.

Revenue allocation to federal, state and local governments has declined from a peak of N970.57bn in July 2021 to N680.783bn in May 2022, representing a 30 per cent reduction over the period. The decrease in allocation to these levels of government reveals the fiscal challenges facing various levels of government in Africa’s biggest economy. The Federal Government has raised its budgetary allocation of N443 billion for gasoline subsidy to N4 trillion and has received approval from the National Assembly.

The Federal Government approved a new revenue boost scheme aiming to annually generate N3.8tn and N160bn from non-oil and oil ventures respectively. The Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, says the revenue mobilization reforms, will be accelerated and be derivative of the federal government’s strategic revenue growth initiative. She added that the significant progress that has been made in this initiative includes the raising of the VAT from 5 per cent to 7 per cent and other measures since 2019.

Russia has rejected claims that it has defaulted on its external debt for the first time in more than a century, telling investors to go to Western financial agents for the cash that Moscow claims were sent but bondholders did not receive. The White House says that Russia had defaulted on its international bonds for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution, as sweeping sanctions amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine have effectively cut the country off from the global financial system. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says the fact that Euroclear withheld this money and did not bring it to the recipients is not their problem.

President Guillermo Lasso announced that Ecuador will cut fuel prices, which had sparked weeks of demonstrations, though not by as much as protesters have demanded. The country’s energy ministry warned that oil production had reached a critical level and could be halted entirely within 48 hours if the protests and roadblocks continued. The ministry says the seizure of oil wells and road closures have prevented the transport of equipment and diesel needed to keep operations going.

Japan’s government warned of a power crunch as extreme heat hits the country, with temperature records toppling and Tokyo’s rainy season declared over at the earliest date on record. The Japan Meteorological Agency says temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit were forecast in Tokyo throughout Monday, and the mercury is not expected to drop below 34 until Sunday. Yoshihiko Isozaki, deputy chief cabinet secretary, asked the public to reduce energy consumption during the early evening hours when the reserve ratio falls.

The Africa Development Bank has pledged that $3bn will be invested over the next 10 years to end vaccine dependency across the continent. The plan includes a new pharmaceutical centre for research, development and manufacturing based in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. AfDB says it will also help patent and license African-made medicines, and support governments to navigate the intellectual property rights to global vaccines and medicines. AfDB says Africa currently imports more than 70% of all its medicines, spending about $14bn every year.

The Ethiopian government says it has set up a seven-member committee to hold peace talks with Tigrayan forces in a bid to end the 19-month civil war. It is to be chaired by the country's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Demeke Mekonen. Ethiopia's Justice Minister Gediwon Timothios says the governing party would only agree to the African Union leading the peace process.

Ivory Coast says it would spend around $430 million in a three-year campaign to support young people in border regions at risk from Sahel jihadists. Youth Minister Mamadou Toure says as part of the fight against vulnerability in northern areas, particularly the six regions bordering Burkina Faso and Mali, the government has launched an ambitious programme of integration and infrastructure for education and health. Toure says along with the military response, they want to develop an ambitious social programme to give young people prospects to prevent them from becoming easy targets for jihadist movements.

The Federal Government is investigating the breach of the data privacy of David Nwamina, a young Nigerian at the centre of an allegation of organ harvest against a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. The Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, says it was investigating the breach of the data privacy of Sonia Ekweremadu, the daughter of the Ekweremadus. The National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, Dr Vincent Olatunji, has ordered an investigation into the use and public circulation of the personal data allegedly belonging to Nwamini David and Sonia Ekweremadu in the ongoing case of organ transplant pending before a British Court.

Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle has clarified that his directive urging people to acquire firearms is for them to complement the efforts of security forces in the ongoing war against insurgency. The governor explained that the committees were being inaugurated to ensure proper implementation of the security measures being taken to tackle the upsurge of banditry in the State. The governor reiterated that his administration will continue to explore strategies to crush the security challenges and the sufferings endured by the citizens at the hands of the terrorists.

Emefiele stressed that the central bank’s foreign exchange regime further seeks to ensure external balance without compromising the need for internal balance and the overall goal of macroeconomic stability. The CBN governor says the thrust of exchange rate management by the bank was to allow the market system to determine the exchange rate parity in an efficient manner devoid of the activities of speculators and rent-seekers. He pointed out that the bank’s choice of exchange rate regime had at all times been determined by the prevailing economic fundamentals, adding that it was not uncommon that the dynamics of the external and domestic economy lead to a change in regime.

The Ondo State government says the call for self-defence by the Zamfara State government has again emphasised the importance of establishing state police to adequately tackle the insecurity bedevilling various parts of the country. Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu says the call by the Zamfara State government for citizens to arm themselves has shown the loss of confidence in the current security arrangement in the country. He accused the Federal Government of denying exigent regional security outfits the right to bear firearms, saying the security agencies in the country were overwhelmed and distracted.