China President, Xi rejects Trump’s inauguration invite
Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly rejected Donald Trump’s invitation for a history-making guest appearance at next month’s presidential inauguration. The snub, reported by CBS News, will come as a blow to the president-elect and his plans for a spectacular swearing-in event on January 20 to mark his return to the White House. A foreign head of state has never attended a U.S. inauguration, according to State Department records, but Trump has also invited Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentinean President Javier Milei, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to turn it into a global event. No explanation has been given for Xi’s decision not to travel to Washington. The invite was made just after Trump’s 2024 presidential election triumph. “This is an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just allies but our adversaries and our competitors, too,” his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Thursday. Despite Trump’s claims that he has a good relationship with the Chinese leader, his presidency begins with fears of a trade war with Beijing over punitive tariffs proposed during the presidential election campaign. China is reportedly considering imposing its own tariffs in a bid to beat Trump to it and force him to the negotiating table.
We’ve successfully sentenced 325 terrorists to death, life imprisonment – FG
The Nigerian government has achieved a significant milestone in its counter-terrorism efforts, securing over 325 convictions of terrorists through dedicated trials conducted at the Kainji Detention Facility in Niger State. A report from National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), operating within the Office of the National Security Adviser noted that this achievement demonstrates the government’s unwavering commitment to justice and national security. The convictions stem from the recently concluded Phase 5 and Phase 6 trials, overseen by Federal High Court judges and facilitated under the auspices of the NCTC. The report gave a comprehensive account of the activities of government in tackling insecurity below. Phase 5 and Phase 6 Trials: A Breakdown The Phase 5 trial, which took place in July 2024, addressed 143 cases, resulting in 125 convictions. These convictions were followed by the Phase 6 trial, conducted from December 9 to 13, 2024, where 237 cases were heard, leading to 200 convictions. Sentences varied based on the gravity of the crimes, with penalties including:·Death sentences for perpetrators of heinous acts such as mass killings and abductions.·Life imprisonment for individuals convicted of financing terrorism.·Prison terms ranging from 20 to 70 years for other offenses tied to terrorist activities. Justice for Victims of Atrocities The government highlighted that the trials were particularly focused on addressing egregious crimes, such as:·Attacks on women and children.·The destruction of places of worship and cultural heritage.·The slaughter of innocent civilians.·The abduction of women and children during an assault on the Gina Kara Kai community in Borno State. Those found guilty of these acts received the most severe sentences, reflecting the gravity of their offences. Dismantling Terrorism Financing Networks A crucial aspect of the trials involved tackling the financial networks that enable terrorism. Several individuals convicted of financing terrorist groups were sentenced to life imprisonment, showcasing the government’s determination to dismantle the funding channels that sustain such activities. Commitment to International Standards The trials were presided over by five Federal High Court judges and conducted with strict adherence to international standards of justice. Measures were put in place to ensure the safety of judicial officers, witnesses, and other stakeholders involved in the proceedings. “These trials are a reflection of Nigeria’s commitment to global best practices in prosecuting terrorism and upholding international human rights conventions,” the statement from the NCTC read. Building Peace and Stability The Nigerian government reiterated that these trials are part of its broader efforts to secure peace and stability in regions affected by terrorism. “This milestone underscores the Federal Government’s commitment to justice for victims of terrorism and the protection of lives and property across the country,” the statement concluded. By prosecuting and convicting terrorists, the government aims to restore trust in the judiciary and reinforce its commitment to safeguarding the nation from terror-related threats.
Brazilian President’s brain surgery successful
Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was discharged from the hospital on Sunday following a successful surgery to stop a bleeding in his brain. The 79-year-old leader underwent a second medical procedure to address bleeding on the surface of his brain, earlier this week, following a fall at home. The procedure, called a middle meningeal artery embolisation, allowed medical professionals to insert a small blockage in his blood vessel using small tubes, in order to prevent bleeding from the artery, located on the outside of the brain. Doctors confirmed on Sunday that the surgery was successful and stated that Lula could walk and hold meetings while resting at his home in São Paulo until Thursday but advised against international trips. Speaking at a press conference alongside his medical team, the president assured the public of his recovery. “I’m here alive, well, with the urge to work. And I’ll tell you something I used to say during the campaign,” he said. “I’m 79 years old, I have the energy of 30 and the enthusiasm of 20 to build this country,” Lula added. During the press conference, Lula also addressed the recent arrest of General Walter Braga Netto, a former member of Jair Bolsonaro’s government and his 2022 vice-presidential running mate. Netto is under investigation for alleged involvement in a coup plot to keep Bolsonaro in power after his 2022 electoral defeat. “It is not possible for us to accept disrespect for democracy, disrespect for the constitution, and it is not possible for us to accept that in a generous country like Brazil we have people of high military rank plotting the death of a president, his vice president, and a presiding judge of the supreme electoral court,” Lula stated. Netto was indicted in November alongside Bolsonaro and 35 others for allegedly plotting the coup. According to a federal police statement, his recent arrest is linked to accusations of obstructing evidence collection.
I pay attention to everything, I decide, Amorim speaks on Rashford, Garnacho omission
Manchester United manager, Ruben Amorim has fired a warning to any Manchester United player who does not meet his standards. Amorim also claimed he “pays attention to everything” after Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were omitted from his squad for the Manchester derby. There had been rumours on Saturday night about Manchester United’s starting line-up against Manchester City being leaked well before the official publication. The team that did the rounds on social media turned out to be spot on, with Garnacho and Rashford not in the starting XI. Amorim is likely to be far from happy to learn his starting line-up was in the public domain a day before the game – but there is no suggestion that either Rashford or Garnacho were responsible for the leakage. Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the game, Amorim said: “We try to evaluate everything, training performance, game performances, engagement with team-mates, push their team-mates up. “Everything is on the line when we analyse and try to choose the players. It is my selection. Simple. “I don’t want to send a message it is simply an evaluation and they know it. The players are really, really smart. Everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It is simple selection. “Of course the context is difficult because we have to win games and we have a difficult situation now. I pay attention to everything, the way you eat, the way you put your clothes to go to a game. Everything. I make my evaluation and then I decide. “There is a communication after the last training. They are alright. They had training this morning (Sunday) and I was there. They trained really well.”
Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge, $54m embezzler
Victims of major public corruption cases in Pennsylvania and Illinois are angry that President Joe Biden granted clemency last week to two convicted officials. The commutations were announced Thursday as part of a historic clemency package for 1,500 convicted criminals who, the White House said, “deserve a second chance.” The two convicted officials whose cases sparked outrage – a crooked Pennsylvania judge and a notorious Illinois fraudster – both had already been released from prison early and put on house arrest during the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden’s actions now end that punishment. The president has already faced bipartisan criticism over his highly controversial pardon of his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted earlier this year of 12 tax and gun crimes. A Biden administration official told CNN the latest commutations were not individual decisions and instead it was a uniform decision granted to people who met certain criteria, like having a track record of good behavior while on house arrest. ‘Got it absolutely wrong’ Former Pennsylvania Judge, Michael Conahan was convicted in 2011 in what was infamously called the “kids-for-cash” scandal, where he took kickbacks from for-profit detention centers in exchange for wrongly sending juveniles to their facilities. The case was widely considered to be one of the worst judicial scandals in Pennsylvania history. Like all of the other nearly 1,500 people who got commutations from Biden this week, Conahan was freed from prison due to Covid. His house arrest was set to end in 2026. The misconduct of Conahan and another Luzerne County judge led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out 4,000 juvenile convictions, and the discredited state judges were ordered to pay $200 million to the victims, according to the Associated Press. Sandy Fonzo – the mother of Edward Kenzakoski, who died by suicide after spending time behind bars as part of the kickback scheme, said she was “shocked… and hurt” after learning of Biden’s decision to commute the rest of Conahan’s punishment. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Fonzo told the Citizens’ Voice, a local outlet. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.” Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also said Friday at an unrelated news conference in Biden’s hometown of Scranton that, “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania.” ‘Justice wasn’t served’ There was similar fallout in Illinois, after Biden gave clemency to Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, a city of roughly 15,000 in the northern part of the state. She pleaded guilty in 2012 to a $54 million embezzlement scheme, which was believed to be the largest municipal fraud in US history. She was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison, nearly the maximum, though she moved to house arrest during the pandemic. She was supposed to be on house arrest until 2028, according to the Bureau of Prisons. “When I heard the news, I was completely shocked in disbelief, I was outraged and felt a complete sense of betrayal from the federal justice system, the White House and the president,” Dixon city manager, Danny Langloss told CNN in an interview on Friday. Langloss, who said he doesn’t affiliate with a political party, was the police chief when Crundwell’s fraud was uncovered. He said he believes “justice wasn’t served here.” “I don’t like the idea … that with several more years of her sentence to complete, she gets to walk free in the community that she betrayed and stole from,” Langloss said. Fallout from the pandemic Margaret Love, who served in the Justice Department as the US pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, said the fallout from Biden’s latest commutations was a consequence of how the prison population was reduced during Covid – under the Trump administration. Congress passed the bipartisan CARES Act in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, which, among other things, paved the way for the federal government to move about 12,000 inmates from federal prisons into home confinement. Many of these people have since completed their sentences, though plenty remain on house arrest. “Many people who were sent home were convicted of white-collar or nonviolent offenses and were considered safe bets to behave in the community,” Love said, adding that she believed the decision-making was tainted by racial discrimination. With grumblings among some Republicans about sending these convicts back to prison, Love said Biden “simply cleaned out this population” and took that option off the table. And to those upset that Biden let these criminals out of house arrest early, “you should have complained four years ago when they were released from prison,” Love said.
Activists, NGOs rally against GMO foods in Nigeria
A coalition of activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), under the umbrella of ‘GMO-Free Nigeria,’ has taken to the streets to protest the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) foods in Nigeria. The nationwide rallies, which held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, aimed to oppose the Federal Government’s efforts to promote GMO products in the country. The activists, who marched to the Rivers State Government House, presented a six-point demand in a petition, calling for a ban on GMOs, including seeds and processed foods containing GMO ingredients. They also demanded the revocation of all permits granted to GMOs, investment in agro-ecology, rural infrastructure, and the deployment of extension services. According to Joyce Brown, Director of Programmes at Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), GMOs pose serious threats to human health, the environment, food systems, and the agricultural sector. She noted that scientists extract genes from bacteria, which produce toxins, and insert them into crops, such as beans, to act as pesticides. The group disputed the government’s claim that GMOs are necessary to improve food security and increase productivity. They cited the example of cotton farmers in Nigeria, who have not seen significant increases in yields despite using GMO seeds for over six years. The rally, which was part of a nationwide campaign, aimed to raise awareness about the dangers of GMOs and to call on the government to ban them. Similar rallies were held in other states, including Edo, Katsina, Plateau, Oyo, Lagos, Cross Rivers, Enugu, Jigawa, and the Federal Capital Territory.
Israel shuts down Embassy in Ireland
Israeli Foreign Ministry has announced the immediate closure of Israel’s embassy in Ireland, accusing the country of propagating anti-Israel policies. In a statement on Sunday, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, accused Ireland of “double standards” in its dealings with Israel. Saar said the decision was reached “in light of the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government.” According to him, “the actions and anti-Semitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel are rooted in the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state, along with double standards. “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel,” he added. Ireland has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in the ongoing Gaza conflict with Hamas which has reportedly resulted in nearly 45,000 fatalities. Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin in a recent statement described Israel’s military actions in Gaza, as “collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza.” Earlier this year, Ireland joined Spain, Slovenia, and Norway in recognising Palestine as an independent state. Ireland is also preparing to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, advocating for an expanded definition of genocide. Responding to Israel’s latest decision, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris described it as “deeply regrettable.” In a post on X, Harris said, “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”
Elon Musk amasses $400bn fortune, sets new record
CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk has become the first person in history to amass a fortune of more than $400 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth currently stands at around $440 billion (£345 billion), more than that of Microsoft founder, Bill Gates and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos combined. Elon’s fortune has boomed in the weeks following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, and a recent share sale at SpaceX played a key role in this milestone, contributing roughly $50 billion to Musk’s wealth and boosting SpaceX’s valuation to $350 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private company. This increase, combined with a surge in Tesla’s stock price, pushed Musk’s net worth to $447 billion. THE MAN ELON Elon Musk, FRS is a business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. Also that year, he was ranked 25th on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. A centi-billionaire, Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021. Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa. His mother is Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa. His father is Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer.
2027: We didn’t give Jonathan presidential ticket – PDP
Contrary to the news making the rounds, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has debunked reports that it invited former President Goodluck Jonathan to join the 2027 presidential race on its platform. Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, debunked the reports in an interview with BBC Hausa, explaining that the party did not issue its presidential ticket to Jonathan. He said reports that PDP has ceded its presidential ticket to the former President, or invited him to contest the 2027 presidential election, were not true. Abdullahi said, “What happened is this: I had an interview with a journalist where we discussed some issues.“But in the course of the interview, he mentioned President Jonathan, asking about our opinion of him, because there are reports that he is being urged to run for the presidency.” He further explained that he responded by saying that he (Jonathan) is eligible to contest the election because he is a Nigerian and has the right to do so by the provisions of the law, and he still has one more term left. Abdullahi stated that there is nothing wrong with Jonathan contesting the presidential election because he is eligible in the face of the law. He added that PDP had done enough for Jonathan and as a member of the party, there was no way the party would woo him. The PDP deputy spokesman further explained that the party leadership is yet to discuss the issue with Jonathan, noting that there are 12 governors and many other prominent politicians who are eligible and competent to contest the presidential election on the party’s platform. He observed that it wasn’t long ago that Dame Patience, Jonathan’s wife said nothing would make her husband run for the presidency, stressing that he didn’t leave behind or forget anything in the Presidential Villa for people to think that he would come back to contest the position again.
Supreme Court decides Tinubu’s fate in new disqualification suit Monday
The Supreme Court will on Monday, December 16, determine the fate of President Bola Tinubu in a fresh suit seeking his removal from office as Nigeria’s leader. The new suit marked SC/CV/667/2023 is praying the apex court to sack Tinubu on two major grounds of alleged non-qualification to hold office as Nigeria’s president and usurpation of the same office against the law of the country. A candidate in the 2019 presidential election on the platform of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, filed the fresh suit directly at the Supreme Court. Defendants in the suit are former President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and Tinubu as 1st to 4th defendants, respectively. Owuru, a British-trained lawyer, who was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1982, is insisting that he won the 2019 presidential poll but that his tenure was allegedly usurped by Buhari for eight years. He claimed that his suit at the Supreme Court which would have kicked Buhari out of office was technically jettisoned by the apex court due to mix-up in the hearing dates. On the other hand, he prayed the apex court to disqualify Tinubu on account of forfeiture of $460,000 to the United States of America over alleged involvement in drug trafficking related offence. Besides the alleged forfeiture of the sum in relation to drug trafficking, the former presidential candidate also accused Tinubu of being an active agent of CIA, a position he said, prohibits Tinubu from holding the office of the President of Nigeria. Upon his declaration as winner of the 2019 presidential poll and disqualification of Tinubu for not being qualified to hold the office of Nigeria’s president, Owuru is asking the Supreme Court to pronounce him as Nigeria’s president and as well order his immediate inauguration to reclaim his ‘usurped mandate’ Meanwhile the apex court has fixed Monday, December 16, for definite hearing into the suit. The hearing notice in respect of the new suit reads: “Please kindly take note that SC/CV/667/2023 Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru & Anor VS President Muhammadu Buhari & 3 Ors at the Supreme Court of Nigeria sitting at Abuja is slated for the hearing of Motions on Monday 16/12/2024.” Reports stated that Tinubu has been served with the hearing notice through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minster of Justice. It was gathered that Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, may defend Tinubu in the suit on Monday. It could be recalled that the Court of Appeal had at one time imposed a fine of N40 million on Owuru, to be paid to Tinubu, INEC and others, for filing a frivolous suit against them though NEW DAILY PRIME could not ascertain if the fine had been settled before Owuru filed the new suit.
