Newspaper Review & World Brief: U.S-Iran in Renewed Strike Exchanges

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:03][music] Well, it's time for the world brief and a review of some of the headlines of today's newspapers from all around the world. Well, we kick off with a fragile ceasefire that has been broken as the US has carried out new strikes near Bandar Abbas airport uh just there at the edge of the street of Hermus targeting a military facility and downing four Iranian attack drones. Uh the US argues that these were in defense uh following a threat to one of their vessels. Well, the Iranian retaliatory attack has also retaliated, excuse me, on the American air base in Kuwait. The IRGC claimed that their target was the source of the attack. Well, these developments come as US President Donald Trump's cabinet meeting yesterday left no stones unturned in propping up American global military efforts on Iran. Trump set the record straight following an alleged draftou containing peace terms that had been publicized on Iranian TV earlier in the day. Now, this alleged that was circulated yesterday included clauses such as the reopening of the straight of Hormuz under the management of Iran and Oman. But here's what Donald Trump had to say.

[00:01:19]>> Control of the straight over Moose.

[00:01:21]Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait? And would they have to open it immediately or would you be open to that happening over a period of time?

[00:01:30]>> No, the strait's going to be open to everybody. It's uh >> And who would control it?

[00:01:33]>> It's international waters. Nobody's going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have.

[00:01:42]They would like to control it. Nobody's going to control it. It's international waters and uh Oman will behave just like everybody else. So, we'll have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine.

[00:01:52]>> Oh, casually says he'll just blow them up. Well, in what has become a tradition at these cabinet meetings, each secretary has the opportunity to praise Donald Trump and reel out their department's successes. Well, for Secretary of War Pete Hexith, this included a collaboration with the federal government of Nigeria to launch an attack on ISIS terrorists. maybe a year ago, uh he heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed uh by ISIS in Nigeria and he said, "Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians. Partnerships like that can take time behind the scenes." But he never wavered on it and we got the assets there. And over the last month, and there hasn't been much coverage of this, we killed ISIS number two in Nigeria, who was most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the US homeland, and have since because of the intel we gathered, killed hundreds of ISIS members who were targeting and killing Christians in Nigeria, creating a whole new opportunity there. So, there's a lot of things we do that the media pays attention to and a lot of things that the president empowers the department to do on behalf of the American people, uh, that he deserves great credit for.

[00:03:01]>> All right. Well, there you hear it from Pete Hexit. Well, we're still touching on US foreign policy, but this time as it pertains to the spread of the Ebola Bundi Bojo virus. Kenyan and Ugandan officials have confirmed that their respective governments are engaged in ongoing discussions with the United States to quarantine Americans exposed to the virus in Kenyan and Ugandan facilities. Now, this story was first reported by the New York Times, which detailed the Trump administration's plan to send US citizens exposed to the Ebola virus to a facility in Kenya to be quarantined, monitored, and treated rather than bringing them back home.

[00:03:43]Now, that would come after the administration invoked a public health law known as Title 42 to bar immigrants and legal permanent residents who had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days from entering the United States. Well, this development comes as Uganda has closed its borders to the Democratic Republic of Congo with immediate effect and this will be in place for a period of 4 weeks restricting movements outside of humanitarian and security operations. Uh so no end in sight. I've also seen some statements from the WH calling for a ceasefire because of course we know there's also a conflict in eastern uh Democratic Republic of Congo uh which is intensifying making things worse with regards to trying to control the spread of Ebola. Well, we now shift our attention to Ghana where the statement, "There's no place like home," was truly the order of the day as 300 Ghanaians who volunteered to be repatriated from South Africa following waves of anti-immigration threats and violence touched down in the nation's capital, Accra. Well, they were received on board Ethiopian Airlines by Foreign Minister Samuel Ablakwa, who sang joyously with them and hugged the children on board.

[00:04:58]Prior to their departure, he had assured the returnees that they would be coming home as royals and not destitutes nor refugees. all of you. Today, the Mahama administration is demonstrating that wherever Ghanaians are, we will make sure you are protected, your dignity is respected, and we will go to the length of this world to bring you home safely.

[00:05:31]I believe sincerely that sometimes God has different ways of opening new doors for us. So let's be very optimistic. As a nation, we shall always stand by our people.

[00:05:42]>> Well, they certainly were given a very befitting and humane welcome home. The Mahama administration has offered the returnees a soft landing package. So that will include transport allowance to their various destinations across the country and also a reintegration allowance. Uh it should also be noted that only 10 of those who were deported who were repatriated, excuse me, were actually in South Africa legally. So 290 out of this group were uh were illegally in South Africa. Uh however, they're home. All is well, that ends well. And uh Ghana has certainly led the way with regards to ensuring that Africans and their own citizens are safe anywhere in the world. Well, let's move on now to our newspaper headlines from across the the globe where we begin in Nigeria with this day newspaper. Always begin with this day. This day, of course, leads with permutations uh of Atiku's accession as the 2027 flag bearer for the ADC uh for the possibility of a 2023 rematch. Tinubu Peter Obi Atiku. They meet again, but this time with plenty other candidates in sight. Let's move quickly to the leadership newspaper which reports on the abducted Kaduna Catholic worshippers who regained their freedom after months in captivity. Now this was confirmed by the Catholic dascese of Kafanchan. The victims were amongst those who were abducted on February 9th. Now just imagine February 9th to May 28th. But they've finally finally been able to regain their freedom. Now let's go to Daily Trust.

[00:07:19]And Daily Trust, like most of the papers today, leads with security matters, but also highlights that um customers sent spent a grand total of 9 trillion naira on airtime in 2025. Guys, who are you calling and who are you texting? 9 trillion naira is what the Telos got from customers spending on airtime in the year of 2025. Now, let's go to Punch newspaper. Punch again like I said security is dominating. However, let's take a look at this uh this article here on fiscal issues where the punch reports that the federal government spent only 3.1 trillion naira on capital projects in the first 9 months of 2025. This is despite accessing 11.89 trillion from various debt financing sources during the period. So this highlights the wide gap between borrowing and infrastructure spending.

[00:08:15]So 26% of the money that we borrowed during this period was spent on infrastructure. What was the rest spent on? Because I thought we were borrowing for production and not for consumption.

[00:08:28]Anyway, we now go to Vanguard newspaper.

[00:08:30]And Vanguard highlights a security report. Again, lots of security. This one is from the US and this details accusations of police and army collusion in insecurity. It says US panel accuses police army of collusion and malicious attacks. And this is the same report that says that 1.3 million people are displaced in the middle belts. And there's also a push uh from Congress to ban individuals from CPC designated nations from being able to pay lobby groups to lobby Washington. That would be quite an interesting uh development.

[00:09:04]So uh th those are some of the papers that we have today. Uh quite a lot to pick up on. So I hand over to you uh Rafi and Dr. fixed volume why we keep asking >> okay all the borrowing what are you doing with it vimai that's your answer only 26%. This is the same people that say oh they borrowing because the investment in the borrowing is for infrastructural development only 26%. So what are the rest doing? They keep saying we are not borrowing to pay salaries. They can fix the presidential fleet. They can keep turning money out for the presidential fleet but at the same time we cannot pay money to be able to get infrastructure for the military.

[00:09:40]only 7% of that budget is funded. So it speaks volumes about the way this government is run and that's why you're having a massive level of insecurity going on because at the same time we saying they're kidnapping people thousands of people all right I've been kidnapping years now but the truth also is what is the government spending on military and these are the things you tell Nigerians that oh suffer once we remove sub you can suffer but don't worry we'll use that same subsidy gains to fix your life then next thing you know the new one they say now they say go and meet your governors That's another one. But how about the borrowing you did as a government? What have you done with it? Only 26% on this.

[00:10:19]And yes, it's a crowded field by let's not deceive ourselves. A lot of people are mentioning. In fact, yesterday I got a call and Dad Duke said that that is not his running mate because I had seen a story on one of the newspapers where they were talking about somebody saying that was that was going to be his running mate. But Dunad has debunked that. I also did speak to that yesterday that they have debunked all of that.

[00:10:39]that that is not dand so it's a crowded field but the question is what are they there to do for Nigerians >> how are they going to solve his security problem and the likes and as regard Trump going to bomb another infrastructure in uh in the port in uh in Iran I think Trump should just allow this peace deal sail because I keep saying it why is it that anytime the peace deals or you about to have a deal that's when they start this can't I use the word emik bad spirits bad faith because it's totally unnecessary. They had put forward a deal a couple of days ago. We're thinking about both parties reaching an agreement. They were already even talking about where will they keep all the uranium dust in Iran.

[00:11:22]Then now we're talking something different. We are bombing places. Iran has retaliated. Anyway, this is the second time we're going to breed the ceasefire. It's not even the first time.

[00:11:32]They had a bombing the other time. After the ceasefire, cool heads should just prevail because we can't afford for international prices to keep going up.

[00:11:40]Petrol and fuel prices. It's going to affect all of us. We're reeling from we're suffering.

[00:11:45]>> Okay. The renewed hostilities in the Middle East clearly threatened the ceasefire. The UK, the US President Donald Trump at the end of the cabinet meeting yesterday made it clear that what has been proposed by Iran that they are not satisfied with it. after telling [clears throat] us on Monday over the weekend that uh the deal had been largely negotiated. And then you have on the Iranian side also the foreign minister saying no deal was imminent and that no strike on Iran will be left unanswered. And what we have seen is the demonstration effect of that to the extent that the Americans said that they intercepted four drones and a fifth one from the base uh uh the band Abbas uh site that the Iranians were using to send missiles. This is after on Monday they said they stopped some boats. they were going to uh put mines around the street of uh Umuz and then the Iranians say they have attacked an American military base. I think that the rest of the world should be concerned about the uncertainty around the idea of ceasefire, about peace in the world because we need peace now. And so these two parties involved, they just keep playing games with diplomacy and with the rest of the world. And uh now in Asia Pacific, the markets traded lower today and also uh uh prices have gr gone up. Bren futures by about 3%. WTI by about uh uh 3.42 uh% with Brent crude now at about $97 per barrel. $97.17 per barrel and uh the WTI at [clears throat] 90 $92 uh per barrel. So is the word of the the rest of the world that is suffering. Very quickly, as for Ghana, the question to ask is that the Ghanaians have been able to repatriate 300 persons from South Africa voluntary repatriation and the Ghanaian government is saying, "Oh, we will try to uh you know assist the people, give them allowances and all of that." The South African border uh immigration authority is saying 90% of these people they had overstate by either 30 days or by one year. So two issues. One, there is a problem with African integration clearly and that's what xenophobia is all about. Two, the people who go to other people's countries must also know as Abedi chairperson of Nitcom wanted once pointed out that they must respect the rules of the host country. So there are two sides to the story. Number three is that what is Nigeria what is Nigeria doing? Nigeria said 130 people have signed up to be repatriated. Now Ghana has gone ahead of us. We have not done anything. The Ghanaians picked up the bills. Nigeria is saying those who want to be repatriated must pay >> by waiting for.

[00:14:52]>> So is is that something that Nigeria can learn from this in terms of citizen diplomacy?

[00:14:59]>> Absolutely.

[00:15:00]>> Is that used to do things like this for us easily before? We are waiting for Alima that we've made his life miserable for being a kind person to come and do it for us. That's you see us after Alig questions to ask and are are we really doing enough? But [music] again, Aquaba, welcome home to the Ghanaians who chose to return.

[00:15:24]>> [music]