Washington, Oct. 13, 2025 – U.S. President Donald Trump revived the trade war against Beijing on Friday, ending an uneasy truce between the two largest economies with promises to sharply hike tariffs in a reprisal against China curbing its critical mineral exports. The president unveiled additional levies of 100% on China’s U.S.-bound exports, along with new export controls on “any and all critical software” by November 1, nine days before existing tariff relief is set to expire. Trump also called into question the prospects for a previously announced meeting set …
Tinubu seeks Senate’s approval for new $2.3bn loan
Abuja, Oct. 8, 2025 – President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate for the approval of new $2.3 billion loan. The letter was read on Wednesday during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The president said the loan was required to implement the 2025 Appropriation Act, refinance maturing Eurobonds and expand the country’s debt instruments to include Islamic finance products. He said a key element of the plan is the refinancing of Nigeria’s $1.118 billion Eurobond issued in 2018 at a coupon rate of 7.625% and due in …
Netanyahu to meet Trump as US intensifies Gaza truce push
Washington, Sept. 29, 2025 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold a crucial White House meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday amid assertions from Washington that an ambitious plan to end the war in Gaza is nearly complete. The meeting — the fourth between the two allies since Trump took office in January — comes after the US leader shared a 21-point proposal aimed at concluding the Israel-Hamas conflict with other regional heads in New York last week. “We have a real chance for …
Will BRICS boom under Trump’s watch?
By – Nik Martin Washington, Sept. 5, 2025 – BRICS nations will meet virtually next week to coordinate trade retaliation against the US. Has Donald Trump’s tariff blitz on top emerging economies sparked a stronger alliance among his biggest rivals? Donald Trump has been accused of inadvertently drawing BRICS nations — a loose grouping of some of the world’s fastest-growing emerging economies — closer together by imposing higher tariffs on them than on other countries. China, the largest BRICS member, still faces the prospect of a 145% tariff if it …
GEJ2027: Will most likely suffer a Judicial Abortion
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu Lagos, Aug. 31, 2025 – Seven years ago, in 2018, my good friend and former Dean of Law at the University of Ghana at Legon, Professor Raymond Atuguba, undertook a path-breaking study which sought “to move away from the perception that Justices of the Supreme Court dispense justice impartially under a constitutional democracy and reflect on the influences on the Justices as they are taking decisions.” The focus of the study was the influence of politics on judicial decision-making in the Supreme Court of Ghana. For this …
Passport fees hike constitutes additional burden on poor masses – Peter Obi
Lagos, Aug. 29, 2025 – Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Elections, says the new hike in passport fees will constitute additional burden on the poor masses. Peter Obi expressed his reaction to the hike in the passport fees on Thursday in a post on his X account. He described the decision as insensitive as it will add to the current economic hardship in the country. Obi wrote: “The obsession of this administration with putting a burden on the populace is becoming legendary and …
Trump’s latest Fed jab breeds more dismay than drama
Singapore, Aug. 26, 2025 – Global investors were shell-shocked on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump struck another blow at the Federal Reserve’s independence, caught between the concerns over politicisation of policy and the payoffs for markets. Trump’s announcement he was firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook surprised markets, even though he had made clear last week that Cook was a target and has for months attacked Chair Jerome Powell as part of his campaign to get the Fed to cut rates. “It’s another crack in the edifice of the United States …
Presidency refutes claims of over 33 million Nigerians at risk of hunger
Abuja, Aug. 8, 2025 – The Presidency has denied a recent claim by a Nigerian newspaper that over 33 million Nigerians are at the risk of hunger. Sunday Dare, a Special Adviser to President on Media and Public Communications, rebutted the claims in a statement on Friday. A Nigerian Newspaper recently published an editorial titled “Nigeria is Collapsing under Tinubu’s Watch”, which painted a gory picture of the state of Nigerian economy. Dare described the claims in the publication as exaggerated and not grounded on facts. He accused the media …
Fuel Subsidy Withdrawal: Atiku still confused, repetitive like a broken record – TDF
Abuja, July 19, 2025 – The Democratic Front (TDF) has condemned the insistence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar that the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu was ‘hasty and thoughtless’. The group said it was embarrassed by such insistence and wondered why the former Vice President has not come up with a better alternative to what President Tinubu did. The TDF expressed its position in a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo. It said: “It is even more worrisome that …
Is BRICS sliding towards irrelevance?
By Amalendu Misra Nepal, July 17, 2025 – The BRICS group of nations has concluded its 17th annual summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. But, despite member states adopting a long list of commitments covering global governance, finance, health, AI and climate change, the summit was a lacklustre affair. The two most prominent leaders from the group’s founding members-Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa-were conspicuously absent. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, only attended virtually due to an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over his …