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Category: Internatiomal

  • ‘Blatantly unconstitutional’ – Judge blocks Trump’s order on birthright citizenship

    ‘Blatantly unconstitutional’ – Judge blocks Trump’s order on birthright citizenship

    A United States of America, USA, judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s order to change birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the Constitution.

    Read Also: What Nigerians should know about Trump’s order on American birthright citizenship

    The judge says the order, which was slated to take effect on 19 January, was “blatantly unconstitutional”.

    The order

    Among the executive orders President Donald Trump signed just hours after taking office as the 47th President of the United States of America, USA, was the one directing government agencies to stop issuing citizenship documentation for babies born in the US to parents without legal status.

    Immigration advocacy groups have already gone to court. It is expected that more lawsuits will follow, given the controversial nature of the orders.

    The order is titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”.

    ‘Blatantly unconstitutional’

    In Seattle, today, according to BBC, things did not go well for Trump’s lawyers during the brief hearing in Seattle.

    Four states asked a judge to immediately block Trump’s attempt to deny the right to birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented migrants and people in the US temporarily.

    Just as Justice Department lawyer, Brett Shumate, began his arguments on the validity of the order, Judge John Coughenour cut in, asking him point blank: “Is this order constitutional?”

    The judge again interrupted as Shumate began to respond, saying: “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.

    “We look back in history and say ‘where were the judges, where were the lawyers?’”, the judge continued.

    “Frankly, I have difficulty finding that a member of the bar can state confidently that this is a constitutional order.”

    The “bar” refers to the American legal professional institution.

    In Seattle, lawyers for the four states are now speaking to the press about the temporary block of Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship.

    “This was fairly obvious. This was simple,” says Nicholas Brown the attorney general of Washington, speaking about the judge’s decision.

    He says the nationwide block is just the first step, but predicts that it won’t be overturned by another court.

    We are waiting to hear what the Trump administration’s next legal move will be.

  • UK tech minister expresses concern over TikTok

    UK tech minister expresses concern over TikTok

    Britain’s technology minister is “genuinely concerned” about how Chinese-owned TikTok could use the data of millions of Britons, according to an interview with The Guardian newspaper published Thursday.

    The UK, unlike the United States, has stopped short of calling for a ban on the social media platform, as concerns rise over how the app could be exploited by the Chinese government.

    “I am genuinely concerned about the ownership model of TikTok,” Peter Kyle said.

    “I’m genuinely concerned about their use of data, linked to the ownership model.”

    He nevertheless called TikTok a “desirable product”, adding that “young people should be free to explore all sorts of cultures and ideologies”.

    A TikTok ban law has been passed in the United States owing to concerns that the Chinese government could use the social media app to spy on Americans or covertly influence US public opinion through data collection and content manipulation.

    The United States gave TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance the choice to sell the platform or face a ban. The deadline for this has been extended by 75 days by new president Donald Trump.

    Responding to The Guardian interview, a TikTok spokesperson told AFP:

    “In the UK, TikTok is provided by a UK registered company, subject to UK laws and regulated by UK regulators.”

    “Our parent company is majority-owned by international investors, predominantly from the US.”

    TikTok insisted that the Chinese government has no stake in ByteDance.

    The company also said it has invested £10 billion ($12 billion) to set up a data security programme in the UK and mainland Europe.

  • Trump orders release of last JFK, RFK, King assassination files

    Trump orders release of last JFK, RFK, King assassination files

    US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification Thursday of the last secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.

    Trump signed an executive order that will also release documents on the 1960s assassinations of JFK’s younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

    “That’s big one, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

    “Everything will be revealed.”

    After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying “Give that to RFK Jr.,” JFK’s nephew and the current president’s nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

    The order Trump signed requires the “full and complete release” of the JFK files, without redactions that he accepted back in 2017 when releasing most of the documents.

    “It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” the order said.

    Trump had previously promised to release the last of the files, most recently at his inauguration on Monday.

    – ‘Overwhelming evidence’ –

    The US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963 assassination of president Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.

    It said at the time of the latest large-scale release, in December 2022, that 97 percent of the Kennedy records — which total five million pages — had now been made public.

    The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

    But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.

    Trump’s move is partly a gesture to one of the most prominent backers of those conspiracies — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself.

    RFK Jr. said in 2023 there was “overwhelming evidence the CIA was involved” in his uncle JFK’s murder and “very convincing” evidence the agency was also behind the 1968 assassination of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy.

    The former attorney general was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of his murder.

    Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. was rewarded with the health nod in Trump’s cabinet for dropping his independent presidential bid and backing the Republican, but he faces a rocky nomination process.

    – Conspiracy theories –

    Thousands of Kennedy assassination-related documents from the National Archives were released during Trump’s first term in office, but he also held some back on national security grounds.

    Then-president Joe Biden said at the time of the December 2022 documents release that a “limited” number of files would continue to be held back at the request of unspecified “agencies.”

    Previous requests to withhold documents have come from the CIA and FBI.

    Kennedy scholars have said the documents still held by the archives are unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.

    Oswald, who had at one point defected to the Soviet Union, was shot to death two days after killing Kennedy by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from the city jail.

    Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK” have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals Russia or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson.

    Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

    James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998 but King’s children have expressed doubts in the past that Ray was the assassins.

  • Immigration crackdown: US ICE agents raid businesses, detain migrants, ‘citizens’ in New Jersey

    Immigration crackdown: US ICE agents raid businesses, detain migrants, ‘citizens’ in New Jersey

    U.S. immigration agents raided business establishments in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday and detained undocumented residents as well as citizens, including a U.S. military veteran, the city’s mayor said.

    The raid in New Jersey’s most populous city, hailed in the past by mayor Ras Baraka for its “sanctuary” policies protecting migrants, follows President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

    Trump issued a raft of executive orders after taking office on Monday that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration. He has taken steps to punish officials who resist enforcement of his sweeping crackdown.

    In a raid of a business establishment in Newark, outside New York City, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents failed to produce a warrant as they detained “undocumented residents as well as citizens,” Baraka said in a statement.

    “One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” Baraka said.

    Baraka said the act violates the citizens’ rights under the U.S. Constitution. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorised,” he said.

    Baraka did not identify the business raided by name. The White House and ICE had no immediate comment on the raid.

    Baraka is one of the first local officials in the U.S. to state a specific raid following the start of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    In 2017, he signed an executive order cementing Newark’s sanctuary status and was a vocal opponent of Trump’s immigration policies during the president’s first term.

    Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with temporary status in 2022, about 44% lived in states with “sanctuary” laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

    That figure does not include those in sanctuary cities and counties in places without a statewide law, such as New Mexico.

    U.S. media outlets reported that federal law enforcement and ICE agents had arrested nearly 500 undocumented migrants wanted for outstanding crimes in sanctuary cities, including some from New York and New Jersey. The reports cited ICE officials who said the arrests took place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

  • Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions

    Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tougher sanctions

    US President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine Wednesday, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war.

    Trump’s warning in a Truth Social post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term.

    “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump said.

    Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and had “always had a very good relationship with President Putin,” a leader for whom he has expressed admiration in the past.

    “All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”

    He added: “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’”

    Russia already faces crushing US sanctions over the war since invading Ukraine in 2022 and trade has slowed to a trickle. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden’s administration imposed sweeping sanctions against Moscow’s energy sector earlier this month.

    But Trump — a billionaire tycoon famed for his book “The Art of the Deal” — and his administration reportedly believe there are ways of toughening measures to press Putin.

    The United States imported $2.9 billion in goods from Russia from January to November 2024 — down sharply from $4.3 billion over the same period in 2023, according to the US Department of Commerce.

    Top US imports from Russia include fertilizers and precious metals.

    – ‘Destroying Russia’ –

    It was Trump’s toughest line on Putin since he returned to the White House this week, and comes despite fears that it was Kyiv rather than Moscow that he would strongarm into making a peace deal.

    During a White House press conference on Tuesday Trump said only that it “sounds likely” that he would apply additional sanctions if Putin did not come to the table.

    The US president however declined to say whether he would continue Biden’s policy of sending billions of dollars in weaponry to help Ukraine.

    “We’re looking at that,” he said at the press conference. “We’re talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, we’re going to be talking to President Putin very soon.”

    Trump has also said he expects to meet Putin — with whom he had a summit in his first term in Helsinki — soon.

    Prior to beginning his new inauguration on Monday, Trump had vowed to end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours” and before even taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make territorial concessions to Moscow.

    But his promised breakthrough has proved elusive.

    In unusually critical remarks of Putin on Monday, Trump said the Russian president was “destroying Russia by not making a deal.”

    Trump added that Zelensky had told him he wanted a peace agreement to end the war.

    Putin congratulated Trump on his inauguration for a second term on Monday.

    The Russian leader added that he was “open to dialogue” on the Ukraine conflict with Trump’s incoming US administration, adding he hoped any settlement would ensure “lasting peace”.

    Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, whose hyper-masculine style and professed attachment to traditional values has increasingly found favor among some US Christian conservatives.

    US special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI both investigated alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — which Trump in his post on Wednesday dubbed once again the “Russia hoax.”

    Mueller won convictions of six members of the Trump campaign but said he found no evidence of criminal cooperation with Russia by the Trump campaign.

  • Second coming of Trump and lessons for Nigeria

    Second coming of Trump and lessons for Nigeria

    The much-publicised American presidential election of Tuesday, November 5, 2024, with its earth-shattering outcome came to a fitting climax on Monday, January 20, 2025 with the inauguration of the irrepressible Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States of America.

    Trump, the man many in America and several parts of the world love to hate is back with a bang to the highly coveted White House. This is despite the opposition spearheaded by the Democrats, as he  was able to endure and survive series of lawsuits (or lawfare as it has come to be described) and propagandist media demonisation, including assassination attempts. And typical of the man, he has already hit the ground running, matching defiant words with action, and daring those opposed to his avant-garde style of leadership or governance to stop him if they can. Indeed given his utterances and actions since being sworn in, Trump immediately comes across as a president in a hurry to catch up on lost time.

    Recall that Trump was first elected president on  November 8, 2016, serving a four-year term marked by melodramatic controversies that bordered on what many termed as the outlandish. The overriding impression at the moment is that Trump is not only back, but appears determined to use this second term opportunity to right old wrongs and complete the unfinished jobs of his first term spell as president. That also means that in doing so, he is prepared, indeed eager, to step on sensitive and non-sensitive toes, including those of his fellow Americans and people elsewhere. His mission: To Make America Great Again, MAGA. So, the significance of his declaration that the “Golden age of America begins now” was not lost on most people.

    Even before making a first move in this direction, his resolve in this regard seems to have been eloquently read by Americans as they have quickly come to terms with his return against all odds while waiting patiently for his every move. It is also being felt in distant places, triggering a re-alignment of formerly uncompromising positions, altering the equations of power and politics across the globe, and instilling caution, albeit fear, in countries perceived as enemies of America and its interests.

    The world, it would appear, started changing to conform to him even before he was sworn into power. Trump’s election automatically toppled the woke government of Justin Trudeau of neighboring Canada, facilitated the process for Israel and Hamas to begin the immediate release of hostages under a mutually agreed arrangement, and is seriously ruffling feathers in the European Union, China, Panama, and Denmark. It could prove decisive for the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, the future of the Islamic regime of Iran, and their Houthi puppet regime of Yemen, and possibly encourage Germany to pull out of the EU in its best national interest. Altogether, not all his programmes will be tolerated.

    Donald Trump’s America First agenda is a war cry for the restoration of the values that once made America the greatest country in the world.  Those in a position to know believe that Donald Trump’s America First policies will restore the USA’s place of pride.

    Nigeria must borrow a leaf. Our future should be removed from the grips of foreign powers and their globalist institutions like the IMF and World Bank. We must look inward because we have everything it takes to actualise Nigeria’s greatness. Let us make Nigeria  great  first.

  • Donald Trump Sworn In As 47th US President, Plans Immigration Crackdown

    Donald Trump Sworn In As 47th US President, Plans Immigration Crackdown

    Donald Trump was sworn in for a historic second term as president on Monday, pledging a blitz of immediate orders on immigration and the US culture wars as he caps his extraordinary comeback.

    With one hand raised in the air and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, the 47th US president solemnly took the oath of office beneath the huge Rotunda of the US Capitol.

    Republican Trump and outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden had earlier traveled by motorcade together to the Capitol, where the ceremony was being held indoors — and with a much smaller crowd — for the first time in decades due to frigid weather.

    Earlier, they and their spouses met for a traditional tea at the White House.

    “Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump as he and First Lady Jill Biden greeted their successors at the front door to the presidential residence.

    Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president, but this time around he is surrounded by America’s wealthy and powerful.

    The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all had prime seats in the Capitol alongside Trump’s family and cabinet members.

    Musk, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars and promotes far-right policies on the X social network, will lead a cost-cutting drive in the new administration.

    While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after falsely claiming electoral fraud by the Democrat, this time Biden has been keen to restore the sense of tradition.

    Biden joined former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton at the Capitol. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were there but ex-first lady Michelle Obama pointedly stayed away.

    – ‘American decline’ –

    Unusually for an inauguration where foreign leaders are normally not invited, Argentina’s hard-right president Javier Milei was attending, along with Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

    The bitter cold weather has forced Trump’s inauguration indoors for the first time since Ronald Reagan’s in 1985, missing out on the customary massive crowds along the National Mall.

    Behind the pomp and ceremony, the billionaire is kickstarting his nationalist, right-wing agenda with a barrage of around 100 executive orders undoing Biden’s legacy.

    Trump will declare a national emergency at the Mexico border, give the US military a key role on the frontier, and end birthright citizenship, as he seeks to clamp down on undocumented migrants, an official from his incoming administration said.

    Trump has pledged to start immediate deportations of undocumented migrants.

    He will also sign an order for the US government to recognize only two biological sexes and seek to eliminate federal government diversity programs as he takes office.

    The announcement of the hardline policies came a day after Trump had promised a “brand new day” and to end “four years of American decline.”

    “I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country,” Trump told an inauguration eve rally where he danced with the Village People band.

    – ‘Ecstatic’ –

    Despite promising a new “golden era,” populist Trump also campaigned on often apocalyptic depictions of the country in his victorious election campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

    At sunrise on Monday, the National Mall, where the inauguration was originally due to be held, was largely empty — save for the Fairchild family, who traveled from Michigan to pay tribute to Trump.

    “Ecstatic,” said grandmother Barb, when asked how they were feeling, adding she thought the move indoors was made “to protect our president.”

    With minutes left in his presidency, Biden issued extraordinary pre-emptive pardons for his brothers and sister to shield them from “baseless and politically motivated investigations.”

    He also pardoned former COVID-19 advisor Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley, and members of a US House committee probing the violent January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.

    Biden said he had also restored the tradition of leaving a letter for his successor — though he said the contents were between him and Trump.

    Trump will make history by replacing Biden as the oldest president to be sworn in. He is also just the second president in US history to return to power after being voted out, after Grover Cleveland in 1893.

    Another first is Trump’s criminal record, related to paying a porn star hush money during his first presidential run — and a string of far more serious criminal probes that were dropped once he won the election in November.

    For the rest of the world, Trump’s return means expecting the unexpected.

    From promising sweeping tariffs to making territorial threats to Greenland and Panama and calling US aid for Ukraine into question, Trump looks set to rattle the global order once again.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump ahead of the inauguration and said Monday he was open to talks on the Ukraine conflict, adding he hoped any settlement would ensure “lasting peace”.