As the music industry gathers for Grammy Week, African music is playing an increasingly prominent role — not only on the awards stage, but across global pop culture. That momentum will be on display in Los Angeles on Saturday at Pamoja, YouTube Music’s annual African music and culture celebration. Organizers say the theme reflects the collaborative and cross-border nature of African music’s global rise. The event will honor nominees in the Recording Academy’s Best African Music Performance category and recognize Nigerian pioneer Fela Kuti with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Pamoja will also highlight the role of the African diaspora and…
Author: Oki Bin Oki
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said China has lifted “all restrictions” on six current members of the British Parliament, after talks with President Xi Jinping. Speaking to the BBC in Shanghai, Sir Keir said a travel ban and other sanctions “no longer apply” to those parliamentarians, which includes four Conservative MPs and two peers in the House of Lords. The PM argued the outcome “vindicated” his approach and said he hoped President Xi would come to the UK when it hosts a G20 summit in 2027. But in a statement, the sitting MPs and peers targeted said they “take…
Panama’s Supreme Court has annulled contracts allowing a Hong Kong-based company to operate container ports on the Panama Canal. The ruling comes a year after US President Donald Trump claimed China was “operating the Panama Canal” – the main shipping link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – in his inaugural speech. CK Hutchison Holding, through its subsidiary the Panama Ports Company (PPC), has operated two of the five ports since the 1990s. It had previously agreed to sell them to a group led by a US investment firm under a wider deal. The court found that laws allowing the…
The United Nations is at risk of “imminent financial collapse” due to member states not paying their fees, the body’s head has warned. António Guterres said the UN faced a financial crisis which was “deepening, threatening programme delivery”, and that money could run out by July. He wrote in a letter to ambassadors that all 193 member states had to honour their mandatory payments or fundamentally overhaul the organisation’s financial rules to avoid collapse. It comes after the UN’s largest contributor, the US, refused to contribute to its regular and peacekeeping budgets, and withdrew from several agencies it called a…
Kevin Warsh has been nominated by Donald Trump to be the new head of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve. Warsh, who served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011, had re-emerged in recent weeks as a potential choice for the top job as speculation grew over who would replace the under-fire incumbent, Jerome Powell. The appointment is seen as a key moment for the Fed’s independence, following Trump’s increasing attacks on Powell in recent months. Powell has angered Trump by not cutting interest rates quickly enough, and federal prosecutors recently opened a criminal investigation over testimony Powell…
Burkina Faso’s junta announced a ban on all political parties, whose activities have been suspended since the military seized power in 2022. Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré has been criticised for suppressing dissent and the move will be seen as the latest move to tighten control. According to Burkina Faso’s Interior Minister Emile Zerbo, the ban is part of plans to “rebuild the state” after what he said were “numerous abuses” in the country’s multiparty system. Zerbo said the system had been “promoting division among citizens and weakening the social fabric”. Parties were previously banned from holding public gatherings but…
Bipartisan senators blocked a massive spending bill Thursday, as eleventh-hour talks continue to avoid a costly partial government shutdown that looms at the week’s end. All Democrats, who are pushing to force changes to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies in the wake of Alex Pretti’s fatal encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis, voted not to advance the six-bill funding package. Instead, they are demanding that Republicans and the White House agree to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, from the rest of the package so it can be renegotiated. Seven conservatives joined Democrats in…
Cinemas in South Africa will not be showing the documentary about US First Lady Melania Trump that is due to be released around the world on Friday. The South African distributor Filmfinity has decided not to release it, its head of sales and marketing told the New York Times and South Africa-based website News24. The company was not explicit about the reasons behind the move. The film, Melania, is not promoted on the websites of the country’s main cinema chains. One Cape Town independent cinema contacted by the BBC said that it was called by Filmfinity and told not to…
Sustained heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been heard in Niger near the international airport outside the capital, Niamey. Multiple eyewitness accounts and videos showed air defence systems apparently engaging unidentified projectiles in the early hours of Thursday. The situation later calmed down, reports say, with an official reportedly saying the situation was now under control, without elaborating. It is not clear what caused the blasts, or if there were any casualties. There has been no official statement from the military government. The gunfire and blasts began shortly after midnight, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the Diori Hamani…
Democratic US Senator Amy Klobuchar has said she is running for governor in her home state of Minnesota amid the tumult of an ongoing immigration crackdown. In a video released on Thursday, she called for unity across all parties, billing herself as someone who could heal political divisions and was “willing to find common ground”. Her candidacy comes after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, announced he would end his re-election campaign early amid criticism of his handling of a fraud scandal in the state. Klobuchar, a four-term senator, reportedly delayed her announcement after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti on…
Trinidad and Tobago-born rapper Nicki Minaj declared herself to be Donald Trump’s “number one fan” on Wednesday, while also showing off her Trump “gold card” visa, which offers applicants residency and a path to US citizenship. The US President called the star up on stage in Washington DC after she announced her support for the so-called “Trump Accounts”, which provide trust funds for children. Previously a critic of Trump’s hardline immigation policies, Minaj, who came to the US with her parents as a child, has praised his leadership in recent years. It comes at a time of protests after Immigration…
China has agreed to allow British citizens to travel to the country for up to 30 days without a visa, Downing Street has said. The announcement came after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met President Xi Jinping in Beijing, as he became the first British leader to visit the country in eight years. The government is seeking closer trade ties with Beijing to help boost economic growth. However, critics have argued the UK should have a more cautious relationship with China because of the risk to national security and the country’s human rights record. There is no date for when…
A Chinese national who exposed human rights abuses in Xinjiang has been granted asylum in the United States, after an immigration judge found he had a “well founded fear” of persecution if he returned to China. In 2020, Guan Heng secretly filmed detention facilitates in the north-western Chinese region, where human rights groups say more than one million ethnic Uyghurs have been detained against their will. Guan, 38, applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021, but was detained in August as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration. Plans to deport him to…
Senegal manager Pape Thiaw has been banned for five games after the chaotic scenes during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Morocco this month. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) issued Thiaw with a $100,000 (£72,000) fine, saying he was guilty of “unsporting conduct” and “bringing the game into disrepute”. It was one of a number of fines handed out, totalling almost £1m, following the game. The final on 18 January in Rabat, which Senegal went on to win 1-0, descended into disarray when Senegal’s players left the field after Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty. Thiaw, still…
The Ministry of Health revealed the country lost a staggering Sh11 billion in six months in yet another scandal at the Social Health Authority. Even after the installation of what was termed as tight procedures and a waterproof IT system to secure hard-earned deductions from Kenyan employees, the billions were still siphoned through fictitious surgeries and fraudulent claims by health facilities, with the help of SHA workers. Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale disclosed a new trend where expectant women were forced to undergo surgeries during childbirth, some of which were unnecessary, to inflate claims. As part of a crackdown on…