NewsReports

WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on what it identified as ten key Hamas terrorist group members, operatives, and financial facilitators in Gaza and elsewhere including Sudan, Türkiye, Algeria, and Qatar. This action targets members managing assets in a secret Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close …

•Says Tinubu’s foreign policy drive boosting investors’ confidence Vice President Kashim Shettima has stressed the need to scale up Nigeria’s strategic partnership with China, which he said was key to Africa’s development. Shettima, pointed out that  since assuming office, President Bola Tinubu has strategically tinkered with the country’s foreign policy to drive and boost investors’ confidence. To augment this, the …

Africa’s stability is inextricably linked to international peace and security. For that reason, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet annually as part of their partnership agreement. But considering current threats to global security and heightened risks of coups and terrorism in Africa, the 6 October gathering produced little of substance. …

• 1,209 out of 1,280 elective offices to be decided by court verdict• Free, fair, credible elections held in only 71 polls, representing 5.55%• 24 out of 28 guber cases for court validation• Umpire earmarked N3 billion to defend decisions in court• Electorates blame INEC, politicians, lawyers for flawed democracy• We had 600 pre-election cases in several courts, Yakubu says Outcomes …

…Ndume kicks against Akpabio’s alleged procedural errors, storms out of session The brewing crisis in the Senate came to a head, yesterday, as the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, stormed out during plenary to protest the refusal of the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, to address alleged procedural errors. To prevent the situation from degenerating, Akpabio requested that his colleagues meet …

President Joe Biden arrived in Israel Wednesday for one of the most complicated diplomatic trips of his presidency, an extraordinary high-stakes trip to a region gripped by violence, including an explosion at a Gaza City hospital that he said appeared to be done by “the other team.” “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. And …

An early version of an Army Tactical Missile System is tested December 14, 2021, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.CNN —  The US secretly provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles, according to two US officials, providing Ukraine with a significant new capability that could allow its forces to hit new Russian targets that were previously out of reach. The confirmation …

President Joe Biden will make a landmark trip to Israel Wednesday, a show of “ironclad” support as Washington tries to prevent the escalating war in Gaza from spilling over into regional conflict. The trip comes just days after Gaza-based Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s heavily fortified border, shooting, stabbing and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the civilian death toll in Gaza could see a “catastrophic increase” and warned of the risk of a regional war, after talking to Iranian and Arab leaders on Monday. The Kremlin said Putin had spoken to his Syrian, Egyptian and Iranian counterparts as well as Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov …

The Federal Executive Council, FEC, yesterday proposed the sum of N26.01 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year to be submitted to the National Assembly. The government said it was working towards ensuring that the January to December budget circle was maintained and that the 2024 budget was passed and signed before December 31, 2023. The Minister of Budget and Planning, …