A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from withholding funds from 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, in a ruling that widens an earlier order. The decision, issued on Friday by Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, extends protections to major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque. Orrick, an appointee of Barack Obama, had previously ruled it unconstitutional for…

US immigration authorities have said they intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda, after the Salvadorian national declined an offer to be sent to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges and remaining in jail. The proposal was made late on Thursday, shortly before Ábrego’s release from a Tennessee jail the following day. He refused the deal and was freed on Friday to await trial…

Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe  was admitted to hospital on Saturday, a day after he was charged with misusing public funds to pay for private international travel. The 76-year-old, who was remanded in custody on Friday, is accused of using state money to cover expenses for a two-day trip to the United Kingdom in September 2023. The visit was to attend a ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton, where…

Wildfires sweep CaliforniaMultiple wildfires have erupted across California as the state endures its most intense heatwave of the year, with conditions expected to persist through the weekend. The largest blaze, the Pickett fire, surged in size on Thursday in a remote part of Napa County and had scorched more than 3,200 acres (850 hectares) by Friday afternoon. Authorities issued evacuation orders and warnings for hundreds of residents around Calistoga, a…

Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel, announced his departure on Friday evening following a tense cabinet meeting which ended in deadlock.

By: Ẹniọlá Amadu  India’s Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, has reaffirmed that trade talks with Washington remain ongoing. He stressed that New Delhi will not compromise on its core economic interests. His remarks came just days before a new round of U.S. tariffs on Indian goods is due to take effect. “Right now, there are issues; it’s pretty open. But it’s not like we haven’t had issues before. However, other parts…

Kilmar Ábrego García was freed from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday to await trial at home in Maryland on human smuggling charges, following a court order for his release. Magistrate judge Barbara Holmes authorised the 30-year-old’s release, allowing him to rejoin his family for the first time since his return to the United States in June after a wrongful deportation to El Salvador earlier this year. Ábrego’s lawyer, Sean…

Menendez brothersLyle Menendez has been denied parole for his role in the 1989 killings of his parents, a day after his younger brother Erik’s bid for release was also rejected. The California parole board ruled against releasing the 57-year-old on Friday, with Governor Gavin Newsom holding the final decision on his case. Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for the murders of their parents,…

French law punishes discrimination based on religion with up to three years in prison.

By: Eniola Amadu INTERPOL has arrested 1,209 cybercrime suspects across 18 African countries in a coordinated operation that ran from June to August 2025, recovering USD 97.4 million and dismantling more than 11,000 malicious infrastructures in a major crackdown on online scams, ransomware, and business email compromise (BEC). Codenamed Operation Serengeti 2.0, the exercise brought together law enforcement agencies from Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the…

Ukraine has struck a key pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline, cutting Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, the only EU states still dependent on the route. The Unecha pumping station, located in Russia’s Bryansk region, was hit in a combined attack involving Himars rockets and drones, according to Bryansk’s governor, Alexander Bogomaz. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces commander, Robert Brovdi, confirmed responsibility for the strike. Hungary and Slovakia…

The FBI has raided the home of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and vocal critic, John Bolton, as part of an investigation into the handling of classified documents. Federal agents carried out the search at Bolton’s residence in the Washington DC area at around 7am on Friday, according to the Associated Press, which cited a person familiar with the matter. A government source confirmed the raid to the Guardian…