President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders have traded blame for the impasse. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump suggested the shutdown could serve political purposes, saying it might help eliminate what he described as “Democrat things.”

“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump said, adding, “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns.”

While essential services including the U.S. Postal Service, military operations, and entitlement programs like Social Security and food stamps will continue, up to 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed without pay, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The failed budget deal follows days of tense, last-minute negotiations. On Monday, a high-stakes meeting at the White House made little progress. Despite the House of Representatives passing a stopgap funding measure, the Senate did not act in time.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posted a midnight video on social media, featuring a countdown clock over the U.S. Capitol. “The Republican shutdown has just begun because Republicans wouldn’t protect America’s health care,” Schumer said. “We are going to keep fighting for the American people.”

Source: Punch

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According to a press release issued by the US Embassy in Abuja, “most non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to citizens of Nigeria will be single-entry visas with a three-month validity period.”

The new visa restrictions is said to take immediate effect.

However, the embassy clarified that “those US non-immigrant visas issued before July 8, 2025, will retain their status and validity.”

According to the embassy, the US Mission was working with Nigerian authorities to meet these benchmarks.

“The US Mission is working with the Government of Nigeria to ensure that Nigeria can meet the criteria,” the statement said.

Despite the new restrictions, the embassy reaffirmed its diplomatic relationship with Nigeria.

The embassy also expressed support for ongoing Nigerian reforms, stating that, “We commend the ongoing efforts by the government of Nigeria’s immigration and security agencies to meet standards of international best practices.”

Nigerian travellers were advised to comply with visa regulations.

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The speech came six days into the conflict, with Trump demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender” while boasting the United States could kill Khamenei and fueling speculation about a possible intervention.

The long-range attack began, when Israel launched a massive bombing campaign that prompted Iran to respond with missiles and drones.

The strikes destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear program in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

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This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen.

Recall that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on  Friday that Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was no longer welcome in the United States because he was a race-baiting politician who hates US President Donald Trump.

The presidency however urged South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America and advised urges all stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter.

The expulsion of Rasool, a former anti-apartheid campaigner, has added to rising tensions between Washington and Pretoria.

Trump in February froze US aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers.

Last week, Trump further heightened tensions, saying South Africa’s farmers were welcome to settle in the United States after repeating his accusations that the government was “confiscating land from white people.

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The meeting is scheduled to be held next week as countries seek ways to end the war with Russia.

He made it known yesterday that Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war, stressing that realistic proposals are on the table.

Zelenskyy hinted that he was going to Saudi Arabia next week, adding that after he meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, his country’s diplomatic and military representatives would stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the US team.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation to the high-profile meeting.

Recall that President Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance at the Oval Office a week ago.

However, the meeting did not end on a good note as both parties confirmed, which made the Ukrainian leader to be seeking ways to mend things with the US.

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The review in part targeted multi-year foreign assistance contracts awarded by the US Agency for International Development, USAID, with the vast majority eliminated during its course.

A State Department spokesperson said that after a process led by USAID leadership, including tranches personally reviewed by Secretary Marco Rubio, nearly 5,800 awards with $54 billion in value remaining were identified for elimination as part of the America First agenda — a 92 percent reduction.

The review also looked at more than 9,100 grants involving foreign assistance, valued at more than $15.9 billion.

After the review, 4,100 grants worth almost $4.4 billion were targeted to be eliminated, a 28 percent reduction.

Read Also: US judge blocks DOGE team from accessing Education Department

The State Department statement said the commonsense eliminations will allow the bureaus, with their contracting and grants officers, to focus on remaining programs, find additional efficiencies, and tailor subsequent programs more closely to the Administration’s America First priorities.

The spokesperson said programmes that were not cut included food assistance, life-saving medical treatments for diseases like HIV and malaria and support for countries including Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Lebanon, among others.

On Tuesday, a federal judge gave the Trump administration less than two days to unfreeze all aid, after a previous court order issued nearly two weeks earlier went ignored.

According to reports, the Trump administration filed a petition to put a hold on the lower court order, which was granted by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts late Wednesday.

USAID, created after a bill passed by Congress in 1961, had a workforce of more than 10,000 employees before the freeze, which sparked shock and dismay among personnel.

The agency announced on February 23 that it was laying off 1,600 of its employees in the United States and placing most of the remaining staff on administrative leave.

During his election campaign, Trump promised to slash federal government spending and bureaucracy, a task he bestowed upon his top donor and close advisor, billionaire Elon Musk, as part of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.

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This is following US President Donald Trump’s executive order last month to pull the United States out of the global health group.

Trump, who Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei considers a close ally, moved to exit the organization on his first day in office on January 20.

It was gathered that Milei ordered Argentina’s withdrawal because of deep differences regarding the WHO’s management of health issues.

Read Also: Trump signs order to pull US from WHO

According to the presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni, notable among the issues was the COVID-19 pandemic, citing Argentina’s months-long lockdown under the previous leftist government.

Adorni also cited a lack of independence from the political influence of other states.

Recall that Trump had similarly said that the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises and that it required unfairly onerous payments from the United States, its biggest funder.

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The US President Donald Trump said he had signed an executive order ridding the military of what he called transgender ideology, in a potentially major setback for LGBTQ rights.

In a series of orders related to the military that Trump told journalists he had signed on Air Force One, he also called for the building of a US version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.
The Republicans signed further orders reinstating service members dismissed for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and extending a wider government crackdown on diversity programs to the armed forces.

Trump had told a Republican congressional retreat earlier in Miami that to ensure they have the most lethal fighting force in the world, they will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military.

Trump has previously promised to bring back a ban on transgender troops, but it was not immediately clear what specific steps were contained in the new order, which has not yet been published.

Read Also: Trump signs order to pull US from WHO

A White House official with him said the order involved eliminating gender radicalism in the military.

His orders came at the start of his second week back in the White House and on the day a welcome ceremony was held at the Pentagon for his new defence secretary, a military veteran and Fox News personality, Pete Hegseth.

Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.

The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops serving in the armed forces in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.

Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017.

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79-Year-Old Republican Trump was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017, but as he takes the oath as the 47th US president he is surrounded by America’s wealthy and powerful.

Read Also: US congress certifies Trump’s electoral victory

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all had prime seats in the Capitol alongside Trump’s cabinet members.

Musk, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars and promotes far-right policies on the X social network, will lead a cost-cutting drive in the new administration.

While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after falsely claiming electoral fraud by the Democrat, this time Biden has been keen to restore a sense of tradition.

Biden was joining former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at the Capitol. Former First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were there but Former First lady Michelle Obama was not in attendance.

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The film star also disclosed that they had completed all wedding protocols while praying it would be her last wedding as Biodun Sofuyi-Olabiyi.

Read Also: Mercy Aigbe reveals reasons for marriage

Fans and colleagues have since taken to the comment section to congratulate the couple.

The movie star who announced her engagement in March is believed to have two children from a previous relationship.

Omoborty delved into acting in the early 2000s but shot into the limelight for her role in ‘Tolani Osinrin’.

She has been featured in several Yoruba movies such as: ‘Alapo Aje’, ‘Star Boy’, ‘Ebute’, ‘Okanjua’, and ‘Boseyemi’.

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