Iran has called for justice and lasting peace for Palestinians as the world marks Quds Day, observed annually on the last Friday of Ramadan.

Iran’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mahdavi Raja, made the call on Friday in Abuja during an event organised by Iran’s embassy with the Al-Huda Foundation.

Raja expressed condolences over the loss of Iranian citizens, including military personnel and civilians, in what he described as recent acts of aggression against Iran.

He said the victims sacrificed their lives in defence of the nation’s independence, dignity and security.

Speaking on Quds Day’s significance, the envoy said the event reminded the world of the need for justice and solidarity with Palestinians.

According to him, the Palestinian question has remained unresolved for decades due to occupation, violence and persistent humanitarian challenges.

He noted that developments in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem reflected the wider humanitarian consequences of the conflict.

Raja described Quds Day as an opportunity for the international community to renew commitment to justice, human rights and peaceful conflict resolution.

“The Palestinian people should determine their future and live in their land with freedom, dignity and security,” he said.

The ambassador also stressed that Iran supported regional security based on cooperation, mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs.

He, however, added that every nation had the right under international law to defend its sovereignty and protect its citizens from aggression.

Also speaking, a public policy analyst, Ebenezer Oyetakin, urged nations and individuals to continue speaking out against injustice and supporting humanitarian causes.

Oyetakin cited the example of Nelson Mandela, noting the late leader was once labelled a terrorist before gaining global recognition for ending apartheid.

He urged people of conscience worldwide to continue raising their voices in defence of justice and human dignity.

Chairman of the Al-Huda Foundation, Mohammad Zubair, said Quds Day highlighted the importance of solidarity with Palestinians.

Zubair called for unity among people of different faiths and backgrounds in advocating peace, justice and respect for human rights.

He added that sustained global engagement and dialogue remained essential to achieving a just and lasting resolution to the conflict.

The Vice Mayor of China’s Yiwu city, Gao Jin, said the municipality is committed to helping foreign companies to benefit from the rapid and steady growth of China’s economy.

Gao, also a Member of the Standing Committee of Yiwu Municipal Party, said this while addressing foreign journalists on the margins of their field visit to Yiwu Municipality in Zhejiang Province.

The visiting journalists witnessed the 4th Session of the 14th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the 4th Session of the National Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC).

The conferences focused on China’s five-year development plan.

Gao said, “We are committed to making our market a gateway for foreign products to enter the Chinese market, to help foreign companies benefit from the rapid and steady growth of the Chinese economy.

“The just-concluded two sessions in Beijing approved China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, outlining the country’s development blueprint and policy directions for the next five years.

“Guided by those plans, Yiwu will continue to promote high-quality development, strengthen economic and trade ties with foreign partners, and try our best to contribute to the friendship between China and other countries.”

According to him, 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the Yiwu Development Experience proposed by the then-Zhejiang Provincial Party-Secretary Xi Jinping in 2006.

He described Yiwu as a city that has grown and prospered with China’s reform and opening-up process, and also benefited from the trend of economic globalisation.

Gao explained that this was due to the importance that Chinese President Xi Jinping attached to such development.

He said it contributed to Yiwu’s market becoming the world’s largest wholesale market for daily necessities and business area of eight million square meters, 80,000 booths, and two million individual products.

The Vice-Mayor added that the market also enhanced the two-way flows of Chinese and foreign products.

He further said that high quality Chinese products, which are sold to foreign destinations, served millions of households and businesses worldwide.

“I encourage you to make the most of your stay in the city, to take time to look around, visit our market operators, and chat with them.

“I believe you will be inspired by the open, inclusive, warm, and enterprising spirit of the Yiwu people.

We hope through you, more exchanges and cooperation between Yiwu, and your country will be enhanced.

“We can learn from each other, do something together to promote sustainable development for each of our cities, deal with the difficulties we all face, and realise prosperity for all our citizens,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the journalists, Fortune Abang said their field visit was to enable them to know about the municipality.

“Our duty as journalists is to ensure that information about anything is factual and credible before reporting.

 “By doing so, we promote correctness in reporting, contribute our quota professionally toward deepening trade relations between our countries of origin and various countries of the world, like China.

 “This can enable various business investors to partner with not just Yiwu Municipality, but China at large, in terms of economic and trade cooperation through information dissemination,” he said.

Jürgen Habermas, one of the most influential philosophers and public intellectuals in post-war Germany, has died aged 96.

Habermas, who began teaching philosophy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt in the 1960s, vocally supported the student revolt at West German universities at the time.

He was a leading member of the “Frankfurt School”, a body of thought critical of capitalism from a “new left” perspective distinct from traditional Marxism.

He grew up in Nazi Germany and in the 1980s took part in a fierce debate with conservative historians who had questioned whether the Holocaust was a singularly German phenomenon.

Habermas’s death was announced on Saturday by his publisher, Suhrkamp.

He was born in Düsseldorf in June 1929. His father, who headed the local chamber of commerce, joined the Nazi Party in 1933.

The young Jürgen was enrolled in the Hitler Youth but was too young to fight in World War Two.

After the war, Habermas studied philosophy and earned a doctorate from Marburg University before joining the University of Frankfurt’s Institute of Social Research.

Along with Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, he became a leading exponent of the Frankfurt School.

The school is best known for critical theory – which contends that capitalist society, rather than fostering human emancipation, turns active citizens into passive consumers.

Habermas critiqued what he saw as the commodification of mass media and entertainment, arguing that a mass-produced culture destroys critical public debate.

In 1989-90, he criticised the rapid absorption of East Germany into the West, fearing a revival of nationalism and expressing support for a more gradual process.

In the 1990s, Habermas championed a united Europe, which he regarded as the best defence against the resurgence of nationalist rivalries.

His most influential work, The Theory of Communicative Action, published in 1981, argued that human societies were sustained not by political or economic power but by the capacity for rational dialogue.

Habermas was born with a cleft palate that required repeated operations as a child, an experience he later said helped shape his thinking about language and communication.