Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, will begin charging businesses for certain messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform from October 1, 2026.

This was disclosed in a WhatsApp Business Platform pricing update in July 2026.

The new charges will be applied to companies using the official WhatsApp Business Platform, formerly known as the WhatsApp Business API, to manage customer conversations at scale.

However, the development will not affect ordinary WhatsApp users or most small businesses using the standard WhatsApp Business app on their phones.

Under the current system, when a customer sends a message to a business, a 24-hour customer service window opens. During that period, businesses can respond with free-form service messages and certain utility messages without paying Meta.

However, from October 1, Meta will begin charging businesses on a per-message basis for service messages sent during the customer service window.

Meta, in its developer documentation, said, “Effective October 1, 2026, Meta will charge on a per-message basis for all service messages, consistent with how Meta charges for template messages. These messages have not been charged since November 1, 2024.”

The company added, “Effective October 1, 2026, Meta will charge on a per-message basis for utility messages sent in response to users (within an open 24-hour customer service window). These messages have not been charged since July 1, 2025.”

Utility messages include communications such as payment confirmations, order updates and delivery notifications.

Meta also warned businesses and Solution Providers about the need to add a payment method ahead of the new charges.

It said, “For any Solution Provider or directly-integrated businesses that does not have a payment method on file by September 30, 2026, Meta will stop delivering service messages as of when they become charged on October 1, 2026.”

For Nigerian businesses, a chargeable utility or service message is expected to cost about $0.0101 per message, equivalent to roughly ₦14 based on an exchange rate of about ₦1,340 to the dollar.

Nigerian feminist Obidi has slammed critics over what she described as constant online attacks and attempts to assassinate her character.

Speaking in a video, Obidi said the backlash against her has gone beyond feminism, claiming that people deliberately edit and take her videos out of context to create false narratives about her.

“It’s not about feminism anymore. The internet just wants to h@te me right now because I’m not the only feminist,” she said.

She also denied claims that she encouraged people to terminate pregnancies because of a baby's gender, explaining that she was discussing gender-selective ab@rtion and the discrimination against female children in some societies.

Obidi accused her critics of being obsessed with attacking her and said the constant online harassment had taken a toll on her.

The Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, August 26, facilitated the extradition of the duo of Mudashiru Afeez Olawale and Adebola Festus Adekunle to the United States of America, U.S., to face prosecution for allegedly sexu@lly extorting two teenage boys in the U.S., resulting in their deaths.

A statement from the EFCC says Olawale and Adekunle had been identified in separate investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, in se#tortion schemes targeting male minors, particularly those between the ages of 13 and 17, leading to the deaths of two minors.

The schemes involved the use of Child Sexu@l Abuse Material, CSAM, to extort victims for money through various means, including money remitters, gift cards and cryptocurrency.

The FBI investigations linked the activities of the alleged perpetrators to two separate cases involving American minors, who died by suicide after being subjected to online sexual exploitation and extortion.

The EFCC says in one of the cases, a 13-year-old male victim received a direct message on Instagram from a subject who suggested an exchange of nude photographs.

‘’Investigations by the FBI revealed that the subject subsequently threatened to disseminate the minor’s photographs to his Instagram contacts and demanded money from him.

It was further revealed that communications reportedly continued despite the minor indicating that he intended to take his own life. The FBI subsequently developed actionable intelligence identifying individuals allegedly involved in the scheme and requested the assistance of the EFCC in identifying, investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators under applicable Nigerian laws.

Following investigations by the Commission, Adekunle was arrested and brought before the Commission.

Part 4 (Final): The Weatherwitch Who Fell for the Storm

The storm gradually softened around them as their kiss deepened, rain easing into a gentle, warm drizzle, thunder retreating into distant, peaceful rumbles rather than dramatic, threatening crashes.

"Look," Row said softly, pulling back to glance upward, wonder evident in his rain-soaked expression.

Ysolde followed his gaze to find a brilliant rainbow arcing gracefully across the clearing sky, colors more vivid than she'd ever witnessed in her entire life of careful weather control.

"I've never created anything like that before," she breathed, astonished by the beautiful result of finally, courageously embracing her own genuine emotion rather than suppressing it out of old fear.

"Perhaps," Row said gently, "that's precisely what happens when you finally trust love completely, rather than simply fearing its potential consequences."

They returned to the village soaked but genuinely happy, and Ysolde found herself, in the following weeks, gradually more comfortable allowing herself authentic emotional expression joy, excitement, even occasional frustration trusting that her powerful gift, guided now by genuine understanding rather than fearful suppression, would respond with appropriately balanced weather rather than uncontrolled catastrophe.

"You've changed considerably," Agatha observed one afternoon, watching Ysolde laugh freely at something Row had said, gentle sunshine warming the village around them. "For the better, I think, though I confess I worried initially when that storm first built so dramatically."

"I worried too," Ysolde admitted, smiling warmly. "But I think I needed exactly that experience, Agatha learning that genuine emotion, even powerful, overwhelming emotion, doesn't have to mean destructive consequence. Sometimes it simply means learning to trust the storm alongside embracing whatever beauty follows afterward."

Six months later, standing together on the same shore where they'd first properly fallen for each other, Row knelt carefully before her, a small ring cradled gently in his weathered hands.

"Ysolde," he said, genuine emotion evident in his voice, "I've watched you transform these past months from someone terrified of her own heart into someone genuinely, beautifully embracing every powerful emotion life offers. I want to build the rest of my life alongside exactly that courage. Will you marry me?"

Ysolde felt her heart swell with overwhelming joy, watching gentle clouds gather playfully overhead not threatening, simply reflecting the magnitude of genuine happiness she could no longer imagine suppressing.

"Yes," she said immediately, pulling him up into her arms. "Completely, joyfully, without a single moment of fearful hesitation."

As they embraced, warm rain began falling gently around them not the powerful, dramatic storm of their first admission of love, but something softer, celebratory, mixed with brilliant sunshine breaking simultaneously through scattered clouds.

"A sunshower," Row observed, laughing warmly. "Rather fitting, don't you think? Joy and rain, existing simultaneously, exactly like your emotions finally learning to balance so beautifully."

Ysolde laughed, resting against him with complete, genuine contentment, understanding finally and completely that her powerful gift, once feared as dangerous liability, had ultimately become exactly the beautiful, authentic expression of genuine love she'd always secretly longed to properly embrace.

THE END ⛈️🌈💍💛

Part 3: The Weatherwitch Who Fell for the Storm

Ysolde's breath caught as the sky darkened rapidly above them, wind picking up with alarming speed, the familiar signs of an approaching, powerful storm building faster than she'd ever witnessed before.

"Ysolde," Row said carefully, watching the sky with growing concern, though he didn't step away from her. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," Ysolde admitted, overwhelmed by the intensity of her own emotional response. "I've never felt anything this powerful before, Row. I'm frightened of what it might unleash."

Thunder rolled ominously in the distance, and Ysolde instinctively raised her hands, old habit urging her to suppress the building storm immediately, exactly as she'd been trained her entire life.

"Wait," Row said gently, reaching for her hands before she could complete the calming gesture. "Don't suppress it yet. What if, just this once, we let it happen naturally? Trust it, rather than immediately controlling it out of fear?"

"That's dangerous," Ysolde said, though something in his steady, trusting gaze made her hesitate.

"Perhaps," Row agreed. "But perhaps also necessary, if you're ever going to properly understand what your heart actually wants to express, rather than simply what fear has always taught you to suppress."

Ysolde considered his words carefully, old caution warring against genuine curiosity about what her own authentic emotion might actually reveal, unfiltered by years of careful suppression.

"Alright," she said finally, lowering her hands with trembling uncertainty. "Let's discover it together."

The storm built rapidly around them wind howling, rain beginning to fall in heavy, dramatic sheets, lightning flashing brilliantly across the darkened sky. Yet strangely, despite its obvious intensity, nothing about it felt destructive or threatening. If anything, standing together in the middle of it, soaked completely within moments, Ysolde felt something powerfully, unexpectedly joyful in its raw, unrestrained energy.

"It's beautiful," she breathed, astonished, watching lightning illuminate the churning sky above them. "I've spent my entire life fearing storms like this, assuming they only represented danger and destruction. I never considered they might also represent something this magnificent."

Row laughed, genuine delight evident despite being thoroughly soaked. "Perhaps that's precisely the lesson here, Ysolde. Love itself is exactly like this storm powerful, occasionally overwhelming, impossible to fully control. But not inherently destructive, simply because it's intense."

Ysolde looked at him properly, rain streaming down both their faces, lightning flashing brilliantly around them, and felt something settle deeply, permanently into place genuine acceptance of her own powerful emotion, finally free from years of careful, fearful suppression.

"I love you too," she said, voice steady despite the storm raging magnificently around them. "Completely, without reservation, regardless of whatever weather that admission continues to unleash."

As if responding directly to her words, the storm's intensity shifted subtly still powerful, still magnificent, but gentler somehow, rain softening into something almost tender despite its continued strength.

Row pulled her close, kissing her deeply amid the storm they'd both finally, courageously chosen to embrace rather than fear.

to be continued... ⛈️💛

Part 2: The Weatherwitch Who Fell for the Storm

The sunlight lingered longer than Ysolde expected, warm and unmistakable despite the gray clouds still gathered nervously at the horizon. She stared upward, startled by her own body's unguarded response to something as simple as genuine laughter.

"Interesting," Row said, watching her carefully. "It seems your emotions might respond to more than just danger and fear."

"That's never happened before," Ysolde admitted, still processing the strange, warm sensation lingering in her chest. "Not once, in all my years of careful control."

"Perhaps," Row suggested gently, "you've simply never allowed yourself genuine joy before, at least not around anyone paying close enough attention to properly witness it."

Ysolde considered his words seriously, recognizing an uncomfortable truth in them. She'd spent years so focused on preventing catastrophic storms triggered by fear or grief, she'd never once considered that positive emotion might manifest just as powerfully, simply in gentler, more welcome forms.

"I should be more careful," she said, though something in her voice lacked its usual conviction.

"Or," Row offered carefully, "you could try being less careful, at least occasionally, and discover what other pleasant surprises your emotions might reveal."

Over the following weeks, Row remained in the village, ostensibly recovering fully from his ordeal at sea, though both of them understood the growing, deliberate excuse behind his continued presence. Ysolde found herself, gradually and with increasing wonder, allowing herself small moments of genuine joy she'd spent years carefully suppressing laughing freely at his jokes, enjoying quiet conversations by the shore, permitting herself simple happiness without immediately fearing catastrophic consequence.

Each time, gentle sunlight or soft, warm breezes responded instead of dangerous storms.

"You're glowing," her elderly mentor Agatha observed one afternoon, watching Ysolde's unusually bright expression as she returned from another walk along the shore with Row. "Careful, dear. That particular glow tends to precede rather significant weather events."

"I know," Ysolde admitted, unable to fully suppress her smile despite the old warning. "I've been testing something, Agatha. Discovering that perhaps genuine joy manifests rather differently than fear or grief."

Agatha studied her carefully, old wisdom evident in her weathered expression. "Love, dear, tends to be the most powerful weather trigger of all for better or worse. Are you certain you're prepared for whatever storm, or sunshine, that particular feeling might eventually unleash?"

Ysolde considered the question honestly, recognizing the depth of what she was truly risking by allowing herself to fall for Row so completely. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I find myself willing to discover it anyway, regardless of the risk."

That evening, walking along the shore together as sunset painted brilliant colors across the water, Row turned to her with visible, careful intention.

"Ysolde," he said gently, "I need to ask you something, and I understand if the timing feels premature given everything at stake for you specifically. But I find myself unable to properly continue pretending otherwise. I've fallen in love with you. Genuinely, completely, regardless of whatever storms that admission might risk unleashing."

Ysolde felt her breath catch, overwhelming emotion building rapidly in her chest joy, fear, hope, and something deeper, more certain than she'd ever properly allowed herself to feel before.

Above them, the sky began to shift dramatically, clouds gathering with startling speed.

to be continued... ⛈️💛

The Weatherwitch Who Fell for the Storm

Every village along the eastern coast knew Ysolde could summon rain with a whispered word, calm a hurricane with a raised hand gifts passed down through generations of women who'd learned, painfully, never to let the weather reflect their own hearts too closely.

She'd kept her emotions carefully controlled her entire life, terrified of what unchecked feeling might unleash upon her small coastal village. Then Row arrived a shipwrecked sailor, pulled half-drowned from the very storm she'd failed to fully calm and every careful boundary she'd built around her own heart began, inconveniently, to crack.

"You saved my life," Row said, recovering slowly by her hearth, studying her with open, grateful curiosity. "I owe you more than I know how to properly repay."

"You owe me nothing," Ysolde said, though warmth spread unexpectedly through her chest at his sincere gratitude. "The storm was my responsibility to control. I simply failed to calm it quickly enough to prevent your ship from wrecking in the first place."

"Failed?" Row studied her, genuine confusion in his weathered expression. "You pulled me from the sea yourself, in the middle of that chaos. That hardly sounds like failure to me."

Ysolde felt heat rising in her cheeks, unused to genuine compliments after years of careful, guarded solitude. "I should go check the skies," she said abruptly, needing distance from feelings she didn't fully trust herself to process safely.

Outside, gray clouds gathered ominously overhead gathering, she realized with alarm, in direct response to the confusing swirl of emotion she'd just experienced inside.

"That's not good," she muttered, hurrying to calm the building storm before it could properly form.

Row appeared beside her moments later, watching with fascinated concern as she worked to steady the weather. "Does that happen often? The sky responding to your feelings?"

"More than I'd like," Ysolde admitted, embarrassed. "It's precisely why I've spent years carefully avoiding anything that might provoke strong emotion. Village elders always warned me love especially tends to trigger the most unpredictable, dangerous storms."

"Have you ever actually tested that warning?" Row asked curiously, watching her with newfound interest. "Or simply accepted it without proper investigation?"

Ysolde paused, considering his question seriously for the first time. "I've never dared test it, honestly. The risk always seemed too significant."

Row studied her thoughtfully, something warm and genuinely curious in his careful gaze. "Perhaps, then, we should discover together whether that particular warning holds true. Carefully, of course. I'd rather not accidentally destroy your entire village in the process."

Despite herself, Ysolde felt a small, unfamiliar laugh escape her and watched, startled, as a single ray of warm sunlight broke unexpectedly through the gray clouds above them.

to be continued... ⛈️☀️

15 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members have reportedly been abducted by gunmen in the Ofu/Itobe–Onicha-Igo axis of Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State

A relative of one of the victims, who spoke with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), said the corps members were abducted on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 while travelling from the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State to Abuja.

The victims were members of the 2026 Batch ‘B’ Stream II and had reportedly concluded their orientation camp activities before beginning their journey.

According to the relative, identified as a family member of one of the abducted corps members, the youths were travelling in two buses when they were attacked.

He told FIJ that his brother, Ayodele David, was among the abducted corps members.

A police officer, Adeji Joshua, who contacted some of the families, reportedly said the incident occurred along the Ofu/Itobe–Onicha-Igo axis.

A relative said the victims included passengers travelling in a Peace Mass Transit bus and another bus marked 564.

According to a police officer who contacted us later that night, the incident occurred around Ofu Local Government Area, Kogi State, along the Ofu/Itobe–Onicha-Igo axis,” he told FIJ.

The source said the driver of the Peace Mass Transit bus was left behind after sustaining injuries during the attack.

He said the abductors reportedly spoke Fulfulde, Hausa and English, although the victims’ relatives could not independently establish their identities.

According to him, 16 people were listed on one of the manifests, but one corps member was transferred to another vehicle after the driver said the bus was full.

From the explanation of the driver, who was badly injured, 15 passengers were kidnapped even though 16 people were listed on the manifest,” he said.

The driver was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment, the source said.

The Nigeria Police Force has paraded four suspects, including two nephrologists, over an alleged organ-harvesting syndicate in Nasarawa State.

According to the police briefing reported by Channels Television, the suspects allegedly targeted vulnerable young men, luring them into kidney donations and paying them far less than the alleged value of the organs.

Police said one victim was allegedly paid about $1,250, while another reportedly received N7 million after his kidney was removed.

Investigators also alleged that forged documents, including birth certificates, affidavits, consent letters and identification documents, were used to facilitate the procedures and conceal the identities of some victims.

One alleged victim recounted during the briefing how he was deceived into donating his kidney.

A representative of Wellington Clinic, where some of the procedures allegedly took place, also addressed the media, claiming that the hospital only provided the platform for the surgeries and was unaware of the alleged illegal activities involving changes to donors’ identities.

The police said investigations are ongoing as they work to identify and apprehend other members of the alleged syndicate.