Author: niyidaram

The corruption trial of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Nigerian minister of petroleum resources and the first woman to serve as president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is set to begin in London on Monday, January 26. Alison-Madueke, 65, faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with her tenure as Nigeria’s oil minister between 2010 and 2015, during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Prosecutors allege that she accepted “financial or other advantages” from individuals linked to two energy companies between 2011 and 2015. The alleged benefits…

Iran has issued a fresh warning to the United States after President Donald Trump ordered a major naval deployment towards the country and said Washington was “watching” Tehran closely, amid escalating tensions following a deadly crackdown on protests ordered by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The warning came as a senior Iranian cleric, Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, said Tehran could target US-linked investments across the Middle East if Washington moved to strike Iran. “The one trillion dollars you have invested in the region is under the watch of our missiles,” he said. The standoff has intensified after Trump issued renewed…

TikTok has finalised a $14bn deal to establish a US subsidiary, averting a nationwide ban on the popular video-sharing platform. The new ownership structure includes US private equity firm Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi-based artificial intelligence company MGX and Oracle, the technology giant co-founded by Larry Ellison, an ally of US President Donald Trump. Each of the three firms will hold a 15 per cent stake in the US joint venture. TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, will retain a stake of just under 20 per cent, while the Dell Family Office, the investment arm of Dell Technologies chairman and CEO Michael…

The Oscars 2026 nominations have finally been announced. Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror Sinners made Oscar history for the 98th annual Academy Awards by being nominated for a record-breaking 16 categories, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay, breaking the record for the most Oscar nominations, which was previously held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016). One Battle After Another is next with 13 nominations, while Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sentimental Value are next with nine, and Hamnet has eight. The awards will take place on Sunday, March 15, hosted by US comedian Conan O’Brien.…

President Donald Trump unveiled his Board of Peace on Thursday, with world leaders signing on to pursue a lasting agreement for Gaza. Trump inaugurated the board during a speech and signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations,” Trump said in a statement. “This isn’t the United States, this is for the world,” he added. “I think we can spread it out to other things as we succeed in Gaza.”

UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he will not bow to US President Donald Trump’s demands over Greenland, rejecting what he described as pressure tactics aimed at forcing Britain to soften its stance on the strategic Arctic territory. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer dismissed Trump’s latest outburst, in which the US president accused him of “great stupidity” over the Chagos Islands and threatened tariffs, as an attempt to compel the UK to abandon its “values and principles”. “President Trump deployed words on Chagos yesterday that were different to his previous words of welcome and support when I met…

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he has accepted an invitation from US President Donald Trump to join the US-led Board of Peace established to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. In a statement, Netanyahu confirmed that he would participate as a member of the board, which he said would be made up of world leaders. No further details about the board’s structure or timeline were provided. The announcement comes just days after Netanyahu’s office publicly opposed the composition of the board when it was first unveiled by Trump as part of his plan to end the Gaza…

European equities edged lower and precious metals climbed to fresh record highs on Wednesday, January 21, as investors grew cautious ahead of US President Donald Trump’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where his push to seize Greenland has dominated debate and strained ties with key allies. Market nerves have been heightened after Trump threatened tariffs of up to 25 percent on several European countries, including France, Germany, Britain and Denmark, in response to their opposition to his Greenland ambitions. The warning triggered talk of retaliation in Davos, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the…

The man who fatally shot former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, more than three years after the assassination stunned Japan and exposed political ties to the Unification Church. The Nara District Court on Wednesday convicted 45-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami of murder and firearms violations over the July 2022 killing of Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, who was shot from behind with a handmade gun while delivering a campaign speech. Judge Shinichi Tanaka said Yamagami was “determined” to kill Abe and described the daylight attack as “despicable and extremely malicious,” noting that Abe was…

Hilda Baci has announced that she is now a three-time Guinness World Records holder, with her latest recognition stemming from a record-breaking jollof rice cook in September 2025 According to Hilda on Instagram, she received the news, confirming that her jollof rice feat had broken not one, but two records: largest serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice and largest serving of rice overall. This adds to her existing record for the longest cooking marathon, set in 2023 with a total of 93 hours and 11 minutes of continuous cooking. The massive 8,780-kilogram pot of jollof rice was enough to feed over…