Author: David Great

South Africa will host a virtual summit of the BRICS group of nations on Tuesday, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, to discuss the Israel-Hamas war, Pretoria and Moscow said Monday. The BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—are a group of major emerging economies seeking to reshape the US and Western-led global order. Tuesday’s “Extraordinary Joint Meeting on the Middle East Situation in Gaza” will be hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the hope of drawing up a common response to the more than six-week conflict. Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab…

Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has launched a multi-million-pound case against the club at an employment tribunal for claiming unauthorised income deductions while facing criminal accusations. According to Sky Sports, the 29-year-old, who presently plays for Lorient in France, alleges City stopped paying him in September 2021 after he was accused of rape and sexual assault. Mendy was acquitted in both trials this year. His lawyer, Nick De Marco, indicated that he will file a lawsuit to recover all outstanding salaries until his City contract terminated in June 2023. The Premier League champions are accused of withholding compensation for…

Members of the Osun chapter of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on a peaceful protest on Monday in Osogbo, picketing the office of the state’s chief judge, Adepele Ojo. They demanded reasons for the delay in paying their wardrobe allowances since 2021, despite funding from the state government. They also demanded reasons for the unlawful suspension of some JUSUN members from office for upwards of 57 months without proper investigation. The unionists also demanded an explanation about the stoppage of training for judiciary workers at the National Judicial Institute despite annual budgetary allocations. The union’s chairman,  Oluwagbemiga…

Football stakeholders have called for the immediate sack of Nigeria’s Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro, following the team’s second consecutive draw in the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifier. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Super Eagles recorded a second consecutive draw on Sunday after struggling to hold the Warriors of Zimbabwe to a 1-1 draw in Rwanda. The crucial match day 2 Group C encounter of their 10-match qualification series for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was played at the Huye Stadium in Butare. Nigeria had also laboured to a 1-1 draw against the Crocodiles of Lesotho on…

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has cursed out his cabinet and aides, accusing them of working with the opposition party to stifle his handpicked successor, Usman Ododo. Bello bragged that he would punish all those who have erred him, describing them as “enemies within”. In a meeting with All Progressives Congress members in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, the outgoing governor went on a rant, accusing members of his party of working against him and Ododo. “All of those disgruntled elements” moved against him “after everything I did for them,” he claimed in his rant. “I was fighting known enemies…

The money laundering trial of a former speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, was stalled on Monday because Justice Mohammed Liman of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court did not sit. The case, first fixed for continuation of trial on November 15, could not proceed at the last adjourned date as the court did not sit and was consequently set for November 20. On Monday, the case also could not proceed as the court did not sit following a letter by defence counsel seeking an adjournment to a more convenient date. A new date is, however,…

Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, on Monday announced the hiring of OpenAI’s Sam Altman and other members of his team, days after the co-founder of the venture behind ChatGPT was fired. “The mission continues,” Sam Altman, who rose to fame with the launch of the artificial intelligence chatbot last year, posted on X, formerly Twitter. Microsoft-backed OpenAI starts release of GPT-4 Nadella wrote on X that Altman “will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team,” along with OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and their colleagues. OpenAI’s board sacked Altman on Friday, prompting other high-profile departures from the…

The number of people killed in a powerful quake off the southern Philippines has risen to nine, the national disaster agency said Monday, warning the toll could increase further. People fled into the streets or hid under tables when the 6.7-magnitude quake struck the Mindanao region on Friday, causing buildings to shake and part of a ceiling inside a shopping mall to collapse. At least 15 people were injured and more than 800 houses damaged or destroyed, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its latest update. The death toll steadily rose over the weekend as searchers…

Colombian superstar Shakira goes on trial in Barcelona on Monday in a tax fraud case, with Spanish prosecutors seeking a jail term of over eight years for the Grammy-winning singer. They accuse the 46-year-old of defrauding the Spanish state of 14.5 million euros ($15.7 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014, charges denied by the singer who says she only moved to Spain full time in 2015. The case centres on how much time the singer, whose hit singles include “Hips Don’t Lie”, “Whenever, Wherever” and the 2010 World Cup song “Waka Waka”, spent in Spain between 2012 and…

Several members of the Boko Haram terrorist group were eliminated during an air operation conducted by the air component of Operation Whirl Punch in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. In a statement released on Sunday, Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, stated that the air operations were successful. The airstrikes were carried out following an intelligence report that a Boko Haram kingpin, identified as Boderi and his members were at the location. The intelligence report prompted the service to embark on another operation targeted at Boderi’s brother. The two brothers,…