Author: Carlos ramirez

King Charles has welcomed Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to Windsor Castle for a two-day state visit — the first by a Nigerian head of state in 37 years — with both sides looking to deepen ties at a moment when trade between the two countries is at a record high. After arriving by carriage procession, Tinubu joined Charles in the castle courtyard for a royal salute, inspecting British soldiers in their traditional scarlet jackets and bearskin hats. A state banquet was planned for Wednesday evening, though no formal lunch was held — Tinubu is a practising Muslim and is currently…

The war in Iran is reshaping global oil markets in ways that are creating an unexpected windfall for American crude exporters — even as prices surge and supply chains buckle across the Middle East. On Wednesday, the price gap between US West Texas Intermediate crude and the global Brent benchmark hit $12.05 a barrel — its widest discount since March 2015. The divergence is being driven by the conflict itself: attacks on Middle Eastern oil infrastructure have pushed Brent sharply higher, while a growing domestic supply glut is keeping WTI comparatively cheap. Brent rose 3.8% on Wednesday alone after Iran…

Nigerian troops have beaten back a large-scale assault by Islamist insurgents on a military base in the north-east, killing at least 80 fighters including three senior commanders, the army said on Wednesday. The pre-dawn attack targeted an army position in Mallam Fatori, near the border with Niger, and was carried out by a combination of fighters advancing on foot and armed drones — a sign of the growing tactical sophistication of groups that have been waging an insurgency in the region for nearly two decades. Military task force spokesperson Sani Uba said troops had anticipated the assault and mounted what…

The Senegalese government has called for an “independent international investigation” into “suspected corruption” at African football’s governing body after it stripped Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title and awarded it to Morocco. Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 in January’s final but the Confederation of African Football (Caf) overturned the result on Tuesday because Senegal’s players walked off the pitch in protest when hosts Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty. The players returned after a 17-minute delay, and Brahim Diaz’s ‘Panenka’ penalty for Morocco was saved before Senegal’s Pape Gueye scored an extra-time winner. Following an appeal by the Moroccan FA…

Two months after one of the most chaotic finals in Africa Cup of Nations history, the result has been officially reversed — and the fallout has been immediate and deeply felt on both sides. Late on Tuesday evening, the Confederation of African Football ruled that Senegal had forfeited January’s final by walking off the pitch in protest at a refereeing decision. Although the match eventually resumed and Senegal won 1-0 on the night, Caf ruled that the walkout constituted a forfeiture. Morocco, who hosted the tournament in Rabat, have been handed the title. In Morocco, the news triggered scenes of…

Donald Trump’s top counterterrorism official has walked out — and he hasn’t gone quietly. Joe Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted an open letter to X on Tuesday accusing the administration of starting a war based on a lie, and calling on the president to change course. In the letter, Kent was direct. Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States, he wrote. The decision to go to war, he alleged, came from pressure applied by Israel and its influence within American media and political circles — an “echo chamber,” he called it, built to deceive the…

The Israeli air strike that killed Ali Larijani has taken out one of the most capable and strategically significant figures in Iran’s leadership — and state media has now confirmed his death, alongside that of another senior official, Gholamreza Soleimani. Larijani wasn’t a military commander in the traditional sense, but his influence ran deep. As secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, he sat at the centre of Iran’s most consequential decisions — on war, on diplomacy, on national security. His voice carried particular weight when it came to managing Iran’s confrontation with the United States and Israel. After Supreme…

A senior Zambian government official has gone on record to say that political parties are demanding sexual favours from women who want to stand as candidates in August’s general election — and she’s urging victims to start documenting what’s happening to them. Mainga Kabika, who heads the gender division in the president’s office, made the revelation while addressing a conference of state prosecutors on Monday. She said she had already been receiving messages from women reporting that they were being propositioned in exchange for candidate selection. “I can confirm to you right now that I am actually receiving a lot…

At least 23 people are dead and more than a hundred injured after a series of suspected suicide bombings tore through Maiduguri on Monday evening, in one of the worst attacks the Borno state capital has seen in recent years. Three locations were hit within minutes of each other at around 7:30pm local time — a post office, a busy weekly market, and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. All three were packed with people who had just broken their Ramadan fast. Nigeria’s military has blamed the attack on Boko Haram. Eyewitness accounts paint a chaotic and terrifying scene. Modu…

More than six decades after Patrice Lumumba was executed, a Belgian court has ruled that a former diplomat can stand trial in connection with his killing — a decision his family is calling a long-overdue moment of historical reckoning. Etienne Davignon, now 93, is accused of involvement in the unlawful detention and transfer of Lumumba and of his degrading treatment. He was a trainee diplomat at the time of the killing and went on to become a vice-president of the European Commission. He is the only surviving member of ten Belgians named in a criminal case that Lumumba’s family brought…