Newspaper Review & World Brief: Sonko Sets Personal Vendetta Aside for Assembly

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Well, it's now time for the world brief and the review of some of the headlines of today's newspapers from all around the world. Well, we kick off with the US President Donald Trump who has scrapped his plan to convene his entire cabinet at Camp David on Wednesday, May 27th.

[00:00:22]And this is due to poor weather. Of course, we know he would have taken a helicopter and the weather in DC has not been great. Well, the meeting at the presidential retreat would have been his second since the inception of his administration. This has sparked chatter about what the US is planning. Well, Trump will instead convene his cabinet at the White House. Now, there's a long laundry list of potential issues that are expected to top the agenda, but the fragile Iranian peace deal is expected to take center stage. Now, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to retaliate on May 26 after the US Central Command said it conducted defensive strikes on missile launch sites and boats in southern Iran that were attempting to lay mines. Well, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters hours after the strikes that Trump is either going to make a good deal or no deal. Here's what he had to say.

[00:01:16]>> He's either going to make a good deal or no deal.

[00:01:19]on that everyone's more.

[00:01:24]>> Of course, everybody thought we were headed towards a deal, and well, here we are again. It seems we're back to square one. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio concluded a 4-day state visit to India in an effort to steady strained Washington, New Delhi relations as the US seeks to reinforce strategic and economic ties. This is despite recent trade tensions. Rubio's visit, which coincided with a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers, was undoubtedly a charm offensive after continued tensions over the Iran war, tariffs, and of course, concerns by India about alleged racist anti-immigration policies that specifically target Indians in the US.

[00:02:06]>> My question is on technological partnership. How do you see India as a trusted technological partners partner?

[00:02:13]Uh the second question is on energy and critical minerals. Once your visit is over, what will be the key outcomes when it comes to these two aspect? And thirdly, there have been a lot of racism, racist comments coming from United States um against Indians, Indian-Americans. Now this goes against the basic premise of India US relationship. So what's your take on that?

[00:02:34]>> Yeah. What's your third question? on lot of comments racist comments coming from US that >> who who made those comments >> we all have seen those comments sir we have seen endorsement of those comments >> which ones I'm >> says well known sir >> uh we we >> and to jank my question is uh in terms of the energy partnership uh we know that we are importing LNG we are importing crude from United States but there is a joke point at uh the Hormus.

[00:03:08]So what is the future strategy when it comes to cooperation with the United States?

[00:03:14]>> You go this side. Okay. Um I I don't know how to address that, but I'll take that very seriously about the comments.

[00:03:20]Look, I I'm sure that there are people that have made comments online and other places because every country in the world has stupid people. I'm sure there are stupid people here. There are stupid people in the United States that make dumb comments all the time. Um I don't know what else to tell you other than uh the United States is a very welcoming country. Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country have come from our country from all over the world have become Americans have assimilated into our way of life and have contributed greatly. So um uh that's all I can comment on that in regards to your point. Your second question there's another question about technology cooperation.

[00:03:55]>> Well whilst Marco Rubio says those comments were made by stupid people. The question of course referred to when Donald Trump had reposted excerpts from the Savage Nation talk radio show in which commentator Michael Savage had said, and I quote, "A baby here becomes an instant citizen and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hell hole on the planet."

[00:04:21]Well, that's a moment of irony. He may not have known that Donald Trump made that post, but he certainly had to account for it during his trip to India.

[00:04:29]Well, we now shift our attention to South Africa where Fikil Balula, the secretary general of the nation's ruling party, the African National Congress, has condemned anti-immigration vigilante groups that have threatened to unleash violence on June 30 if undocumented migrants fail to leave the country, warning that acts of intimidation violate South Africa's strict new hate crime laws. He made it clear that those engaging in mob justice or harassment would face prosecution, adding that the party fully backed the South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority in enforcing the prevention and combating of hate crimes and hate speech act. This comes as groups such as March and March continue to publicize the self-imposed June 30 self-deportation deadline.

[00:05:16]>> National TV and threatened violence.

[00:05:19]Who are you in a democratic state?

[00:05:24]Express your views. Criticize government about in its inepness quote unquote uh in dealing with matters of illegal immigrants. But don't call for violence in our country. We know what violence can do. These people who call for violence, look at what they did in June and July unrest looting here in Jupiter and now they think no this thing is doable.

[00:05:55]You can go to TV and say that on such and such a date if you don't move mountains you will see what will happen. YOU ARE INCITING VIOLENCE. INNOCENT PEOPLE are going to be you know how many people we lost in the July and more than 400 South Africans died in that in that thing. We will never support anarchydriven uh uh activities.

[00:06:26]Uh we are detailing in our statement as a matter of >> of course when he makes reference to that July 2021 unrest uh is the period that former president Jacob Zuma was arrested and of course the nation was uh plunged into chaos as protesters looted across Johannesburg and Durban. Well, we now conclude here in West Africa in Sagal where a stunning turn of events was punctuated by a historic speech following former prime minister and now president of the National Assembly Osman Sonko. So who made a vow to put all personal vendetta aside in a speech that followed his confirmation into office.

[00:07:06]Now we decided to take some of the most powerful quotes from his speech as we've got them here. Uh the of course the speech was in French so we'll just translate. Sagal must show Africa that a crisis can be faced without hatred, without violence, and without institutional collapse. Thought that was a very profound quote, especially coming from the issues concerning xenophobia in South Africa. He said, "I'll not use this rel responsibility to organize institutional chaos to fuel personal vendettas that would be to betray our own struggle. We must prove that an African people can debate firmly without destroying its own state. We must demonstrate that fidelity to principles is stronger than calculations of circumstance. And finally, history will remember less the positions held than the principles defended in the decisive moment. Well, we continue to watch how things will play out in Sagal. Of course, most people are expecting that the next move will most likely be to impeach uh the president since uh the now president of National Assembly, Usman Sonko has the numbers uh in the parliament to do so. Well, that's where we end our world brief. Now, let's take a look at some newspaper headlines from across the globe. Of course, as always, we begin with this day newspaper. And this day is leading uh with the biggest stories of the day. Of course, President Tinubu's 15 paragraph message to the nation, focusing on security as he vowed to defeat all forces of evil evil troubling the nation uh during this uh festive period of uh Eid. Now, of course, another big story on the front page is Justice Omotosho's ruling on the INC timetable reinforcing the supremacy of the Electoral Act 2026 over INC guidelines. Well, the Guardian newspaper stays on issues pertaining to as the Guardian reports that INC has disowned political parties membership figures that had been thrown out by the national chairman of the APC. Uh they said they have no comment. Those numbers do not belong to them. We wonder what the numbers are and who has custody over them. Anyway, let's move to Vanguard newspaper. Vanguard leads with controversies that trail are trailing the ADC primaries as the court clears former President Good Luck Jonathan to run in the 2027 election. And of course, the court dismissed the suit with 21 million naira costs. Could a four-h horsese race be looming at this point?

[00:09:26]Who knows? Of course, we know that former president Good Luck Jonathan was in Sierra Leon yesterday uh having a tetatet with President Bio. So, uh our guess is as good as yours. Let's move on to the Punch newspaper of course, which focuses on issues pertaining to security. Uh Punch reports that the chief of defense staff has deployed spy aircraft and special forces in an attempt to rescue those abducted in the Oreo kidnapping. A punch also reports that the US is claiming that 30,000 fani militants are fueling Nigeria's insecurity. That is a United States report. We go quickly to our international papers as the eye reports on a warning from Tony Blair. He says Britain is at risk of becoming irrelevant as Blair turns on Labor rivals. He says, "A former Labour Prime Minister uh launches blistering broadsided star and leadership contenders, saying Britain risks being marooned on an island of irrelevance."

[00:10:25]Woo, that's hitting hard. We close with the New York Times. New York Times takes on the US judges rejecting Alabama's efforts to use a new map in the November midterm elections. That's here. It kind of echoes of what we are seeing with the worry ward delineation movement of boundaries before an election is always a huge huge issue and the United States is not left out of that. So that's all we've got today in our world brief and newspaper review.

[00:10:54]>> It's all Jerry Mandarin baby. Like they say it's all Jerry Mandrin. So uh a couple of things. Number one, isn't it funny and shocking that the person from the ANC speaking now is just speaking now after Jul MMA had been speaking for a bit and what is the incumbent ANC government doing to prosecute those people? I've always said you need you need strong measures. You need to be able to take them to the criminal courts. You need to be able to prosecute those people. You are saying way now those people are going on television and inciting violence. What have you done to them? Wa have you arrested them?

[00:11:36]>> Touch your South African accent.

[00:11:37]>> Have you arrested them?

[00:11:40]That's the question we should ask them because all of this is being hypocritical and have they paid compensation to the Nigerians that and and the Africans that lost their property there in South Africa. I think we should talk about them. I think the ASC is very hypocritical and that's why I still think yeah I know some people have petitioned them on the African Union level they should take them to global court and call them out as a state that supports xenophobia except that stops we will never move forward and we've seen people high up there in South African society supporting this ignoble act against humanity so all of this he's saying is medicine after death is all of this saying going to bring back the the compensation the people that are running the small spouses shop needs No, they should do better. I am happy that the shenanigans of Trump caught up with Rubio in India.

[00:12:33]So he said it was crazy or stupid people that tweeted such a thing. It's reflection. I mean, isn't it funny that when you have a president that acts in a funny, very funny way, at some point life has a way of bringing retributive justice to you that you would tweet something so stupid that your secretary of state would have said, "Oh, it's stupid people that can do such a thing until they discover neither is President Trump." So, they will both go deal. I mean, and that's when you see people support President Anyway, people have a right of choice. But I have still looked for a practical principle on which to support Trump and it eludes me every time.

[00:13:08]And it's not just about not liking his personality. It just eludes me every time. If you want to see a practical, logical, coherent principle to support Trump. I mean, this is the man that lied, that drained the swamp, he has become the swamp himself. He's a cesspit of corruption. Everything he campaigned against, he has gone 360 and done opposites.

[00:13:30]This is a man that is trying to give 1 something billion to people that had an insurrection on the capital.

[00:13:37]So I mean I don't know. So I'm happy that that happened in India and they're trying to to relationships. I think that relationship is is is almost long gone or long gone because Modi knows better.

[00:13:47]Modi knows that this man can't be trusted. The whole world knows that Trump himself can be trusted and has put America in a terrible place.

[00:13:54]>> Okay. I I think it's natural to be excited about uh Balula, the secretary general of the African National Congress in South Africa because he sounded a bit more measured. But what is the contest?

[00:14:08]The African National Congress, they just had their neck meeting where there is a battle over Lutili House uh which is uh the headquarters of the uh ANC uh and where you know Balula is saying that he's the one in charge. I'm the boss here. So there's some tussle within the party. is not as if the party is so peaceful and you know the major piece of Balula's statement at that meeting and at the press briefing that followed after was he saying that former leaders of the party should stop criticizing Sri Raa and that after all you know his tenure is almost over and that he should be given a chance nobody should talk to him as a child and then of course one of the issues that he addressed is this issue of xenophobia.

[00:15:03]Placing it in context, he is saying that the department of home affairs of South Africa needs to come up with a new immigration cooter. That that is very vague. It's not clear enough. And two, that undocumented immigrants need to be properly documented. And that the failure of the Department of Home Affairs is part of the problem. And it was in that regard that he went on to talk about vigilantism and he condemned it saying that look many South Africans are taking the law into their hands. If there are undocumented immigrants they can go home. There should be a sense of order but for people to take the law into their hands and be attacking foreigners.

[00:15:45]He does not agree with it and that's why I say that he seems to have offered a more measured tone different from what the cabinet said. you know when a minister came out and said all these foreigners they had the problem which prompted our own uh senator Adam Sushamal to say that we have to fight back so that's the contest in that regard but of course you know under the African Union constitutive principles no African should be treated badly anyhow shabily in any part of Africa and that is why we say you know that countries should stand up and you know defending interest of their people and that South Africa itself under inter customary international law has a responsibility to protect not just his own citizens but also outsiders as for Sunko in Sagal don't take his words for it after all in 2024 we saw that amity they thought the previous government was bad now they are fighting in November uh F will be in a position to call for an election because what the law says is 2 years. So as I said yesterday, you are likely to find two of them fighting. So don't trust when an African politician tells you there will be peace, there will be whatever. He won 32 votes, right? And there was no opposition. He was the sole candidate.

[00:17:10]>> Just one absession >> as president of the parliament. One absention and the opposition, you know, boycotted