The Trump administration is weighing a new requirement for US banks to verify citizenship information of current and future customers as part of the president’s aggressive immigration crackdown, sources told CNN. The potential action, which one source said could take the form of an executive order, has raised concern in the industry that banks could be compelled to ask customers for an unprecedented category of documents, including passports and other documents that verify citizenship status. The source cautioned that plans haven’t been finalized and that there are still considerations underway over other options and legal authorities. “It’s a bad idea.…
Author: Oki Bin Oki
The Trump administration is withholding more than $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota, claiming widespread fraud as it escalates a pressure campaign on the state’s Democratic leadership. Vice President JD Vance announced the extraordinary move on Wednesday, blaming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for failing to adequately police the safety-net program and warning the pause would continue until the state submitted an acceptable plan for targeting its misuse. “We are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer,”…
A former US Air Force fighter pilot with more than two decades of experience with nuclear delivery systems and aircraft, including advanced F-35 stealth jets, has been arrested and charged with conspiring to help the Chinese military. Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on Wednesday and charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act by providing training to pilots in China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. “Providing US military training to our adversaries represents a significant threat to national security,” Lee…
The drone strike that killed M23 military spokesperson Willy Ngoma in eastern Congo this week left at least nine people dead but narrowly missed the rebels’ military commander, who escaped unharmed, four sources told Reuters. The strike hit near Rubaya, a strategic mining hub controlled by M23 that produces around 15% of the world’s supply of coltan and was recently added to a shortlist of mining assets being offered by the Congolese government to the United States under a minerals cooperation framework. Ngoma’s death marks a sharp escalation in the conflict, removing one of the M23’s most visible senior figures…
The High Court in Kibera sentenced a young man to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his employer in Kabete, Dagoreti Sub-County, Nairobi. Delivering the sentence, Justice Diana Kavedza said the circumstances surrounding the killing were particularly disturbing and aggravated the offence, despite the accused saving the court’s time by admitting to the charge. The court heard that the convict killed his employer, Miriam Wangari, in 2021 before proceeding to dismember her body. Parts of her remains, including her head and limbs, have never been recovered. Justice Kavedza observed that the brutality of the…
Zimbabwe rejected a US health deal that would have provided $367m (£272m) in funding over five years because of Washington’s demand for sensitive data. The decision has come to light after a government memo from December was leaked, revealing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa felt the deal was “lopsided”. A government spokesman has since explained the US was demanding access to biological samples for research and commercial gain but said it was not willing to share the benefits for future vaccines and treatments. “We will now turn to the difficult and regrettable task of winding down our health assistance in Zimbabwe,”…
Former US treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers is retiring from his roles at the Ivy League university after its review into his ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Harvard said it had accepted Summers’s resignation as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and that he would retire from his other academic and faculty posts. Last year, Summers expressed “regret” over his links with Epstein, while addressing students in a class he had been teaching at Harvard. Released emails had indicated that he corresponded with Epstein until the day before the financier’s 2019 arrest…
The UN Security Council has announced new sanctions on four leaders of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces over atrocities committed in the western Sudanese city of el-Fasher. The deputy commander, Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo and Brigadier General Al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, more commonly called Abu Lulu, who became known as the “Butcher of el-Fasher”, are among those proscribed. The others are RSF deputy commander Gedo Hamdan Ahmed and field commander Tijani Ibrahim. The RSF’s capture of the city in October was one of the most brutal chapters of Sudan’s nearly three-year civil war. Last week a UN fact-finding mission concluded that…
In what became the longest-ever address of its kind, President Donald Trump provided his update on America as part of his State of the Union address, offering victorious – and sometimes combative – remarks, praising the work of fellow Republicans and outlining his future agenda. The annual address by the president is made to members of the US Congress, his cabinet, members of the Supreme Court – along with the president’s family and other guests. The speech came at a particularly pivotal time for the president as tensions flare over Iran, and just days after his global tariffs programme was…
Abigail Spanberger, the first female governor in Virginia’s history, attacked President Donald Trump’s economic and immigration policies during Democrats’ response to the State of the Union address. She questioned whether the president was working to make life more affordable and safer for Americans, while criticising Trump’s immigration crackdown in US cities and tariffs on imports. The rebuttal – first delivered in 1966 by a rising star in the opposing party – came just moments after Trump finished his remarks on Capitol Hill. Spanberger, 46, was elected as Virginia’s governor in November after serving in Congress and working as a CIA…
A bomb scare at the Australian prime minister’s home originated from written threats directed at a Chinese dance and music group banned by Beijing. In emails seen by local media and the BBC, performers of the Shen Yun group were told to cancel their upcoming Australian shows or risk explosives being detonated at Anthony Albanese’s official residence in the nation’s capital. Authorities refused to comment on the emails, only confirming they had attended an “alleged security incident” at the leader’s home on Tuesday and “nothing suspicious was located”. Shen Yun was founded by the religious movement Falun Gong, which is…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Israel for a two-day visit, his first since the war in Gaza began. Modi is expected to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and hold meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. There is no meeting with Palestinian leaders on his schedule. The visit comes as both countries look to strengthen ties in defence, technology and trade – a relationship that has grown significantly since Modi came to power more than a decade ago. Analysts, however, say the visit will also test India’s foreign policy as it tries to balance…
Bill Gates “took responsibility for his actions” and addressed his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a meeting with staff from his charitable foundation, the organisation said. “Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Gates apologised to staff, said he had two affairs with Russian women which Epstein later found out about, and in relation to the late financier said: “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit.” Gates has come under renewed scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein following the release of…
Kenyan authorities deported Zimbabwean constitutional lawyer Brian Bright Kagoro, accusing him of orchestrating a foreign-funded operation to destabilize the government through renewed street protests. Immigration officials declared Kagoro, 51, persona non grata and removed him from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Sunday night following hours of interrogation. Security sources claimed investigations spanning six months linked him to what they described as a sophisticated political mobilization network allegedly bankrolled by international donors. The deportation, officials said, signals the government’s diminishing tolerance for foreign activists engaging in domestic political mobilization. According to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Kagoro made…
The Kenyan Court of Appeal rejected an application by Paul Ndung’u to reopen a concluded legal dispute over the SportPesa brand. The decision, delivered by a three-judge bench, rejected the application made by Ndung’u and ultimately dismissed his motion in its entirety, finding it had “no merit”, and awarding costs to Milestone Games. This is the second legal case that Mr. Ndung’u has lost against SportPesa in recent months, with the English High Court finding in November 2025 no substance to a legal claim filed by Ndung’u against the company and its leadership. “The court’s decision to reject this baseless…