Author: Alade Adisa

The UK’s International Development Minister, Anneliese Dodds, has quit her post over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the international aid budget by almost half to pay for an increase in defence spending. She warned that it could enable Russia and China to further their global influence. The senior Labour MP, who attended cabinet, predicted that the UK pulling back from development would bolster Moscow, which has already been aggressively increasing its presence worldwide, as well as encourage Beijing’s attempts to rewrite global rules. Her departure, just hours after Starmer returned from a widely lauded trip to Washington for…

Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has fined Real Madrid after some of their fans directed homophobic chants towards Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. The Spanish side have been ordered to pay 30,000 euros (£24,800) by European football’s governing body. Real have also been given a suspended partial stadium closure and must shut off at least 500 adjacent seats during their next European match at the Bernabeu. However, the partial closure has been suspended for two years. The chanting occurred in Real Madrid’s 3-1 win over Guardiola’s City in the second leg of their Champions League play-off at the Bernabeu…

Fenerbahce manager, Jose Mourinho has filed a lawsuit against Galatasaray after the club accused him of making racist statements. The Fenerbahce manager was accused by Galatasaray of making racist statements after Monday’s Istanbul derby and, on Tuesday, the Portuguese’s Turkish club released a statement saying his comments had been taken “completely taken out of context”. On Friday, Fenerbahce said Mourinho was filing a 1,907,000 Turkish Lira lawsuit, through the club’s lawyers, against Galatasaray “due to the attack on the personal rights” of the Portuguese coach. The amount – which is worth around £41,000 – is symbolic as 1907 is the…

President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order making English the official language of the United States, multiple White House sources tell CBS News. English is already the most commonly used language in the country, but the U.S. has never had an official language at the federal level. The Wall Street Journal first reported the president’s plan to sign the executive order. The English language executive order will rescind a federal mandate that requires agencies and other recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, a mandate issued by former President Bill Clinton. Agencies, however,…

A White House meeting intended to kick off negotiations over a deal over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals devolved Friday afternoon into a remarkable confrontation. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him he wasn’t grateful enough to the United States. After the meeting, Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social website that Zelenskyy “is not ready” for peace and that he “disrespected” the U.S. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” Trump said. “He can come back when he is ready for peace.” Minutes later,…

Finally reacting to the ongoing drama involving her husband, Godswill Akpabio and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Ekaette Akpabio, has dismissed allegations of sexual harassment leveled against her husband by the Kogi Central senator, describing them as false and unfounded. Mrs. Akpabio, who spoke to journalists on Friday, defended her husband’s character, stating that he is a disciplined and jovial man who respects women. Earlier, Akpoti-Uduaghan had alleged that her ordeal in the Senate began after she rejected Akpabio’s sexual advances, a claim the wife of the senate president now controvert. In a response to the…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday arraigned a former governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, his son, Chinedum Orji, and three others before Justice Lilian Abai of the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State on a 16-count charge bordering on conspiracy, official corruption, stealing and diversion of public funds to the tune of N60.85 billion. Arraigned alongside Governor Orji and his son, who was also a former Speaker of the Abia House of Assembly on Friday were Nto Onwumene, King Obioma and Romanus K. Madu. The anti-graft agency accused former governor Orji, and the other…

President Bola Tinubu has signed the N54.99 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill into law, marking the commencement of the 2025 fiscal year.. The president signed the budget in the presence of principal officers of the National Assembly and other top government officials in a small ceremony in his office at the State House, Abuja on Friday. The bill was passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly on Thursday, February 13, after Tinubu asked for an increase from the proposed N49.7 trillion. The National Assembly approved a ₦54.99 trillion ($36.6bn) budget for the fiscal year, surpassing President Bola Tinubu’s initial…

Fenerbahce manager, Jose Mourinho has been banned for four games and fined a total of £35,194 for comments made after Monday’s game with local rivals Galatasaray. Mourinho was accused by Galatasaray of making racist statements after the Istanbul derby and, on Tuesday, Fenerbahce released a statement saying his comments had been taken “completely taken out of context.” The 0-0 draw was refereed by Slovenian Slavko Vincic after both clubs requested a foreign official take charge of the fixture. The Portuguese coach, 62, said that he went to the referee’s dressing room after Monday’s game, telling the fourth official that “if…

The Trump administration has terminated its funding of the joint United Nations programme on HIV/Aids, known as UNAids, delivering another devastating blow to the global fight against the disease. The notice that US funding of UNAids is being cut off is the latest move by the administration to end American involvement in life-saving health and anti-poverty programs around the world. It was issued by Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist who is spearheading the evisceration of the US overseas aid programme through USAid. Marocco said in a letter to UNAids that its funding was being terminated “for the convenience of the…