Iran’s parliament speaker warned on Sunday that the United States military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington strikes the Islamic Republic, as threatened by US President Donald Trump. The comments by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came after The New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump has been briefed in recent days on new options for military strikes against Iran, citing anonymous US officials familiar with the matter. Qalibaf made the threat as lawmakers rushed to the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting,”Death to America!” The comments represented the first to add Israel into the mix of possible targets…
Author: Special Correspondent
United States President Donald Trump proposed a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027 on Wednesday, a sharp increase from this year’s $901 billion, fuelling concerns about the potential eruption of wars. “After long and difficult negotiations with senators, members of parliament, secretaries, and other political representatives, I have determined that, for the good of our country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our military budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 trillion, but rather $1.5 trillion,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that…
US President Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from dozens of international organisations, including many that work to combat climate change. Among the 66 groups, nearly half of them are bodies of the United Nations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – a treaty that underpins all international efforts to combat global warming. The White House said the decision was taken because those entities “no longer serve American interests” and promote “ineffective or hostile agendas”. Trump has already stripped many multilateral organisations he dislikes of funds and previously rejected the scientific consensus of man-made climate change as a…
Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president in a parliamentary session that began with demands for the release of ousted leader Nicolás Maduro from US custody. Rodríguez, 56, vice president since 2018, said she was pained by what she called the “kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were seized by US forces in an overnight raid on Saturday. In a dramatic scene inside a New York court room two hours earlier, Maduro had insisted he was still president of Venezuela as he pleaded not guilty to four charges of drug trafficking and terrorism. Meanwhile the…
US has launched strikes against militants linked to the Islamic State group (IS) in north-western Nigeria, where jihadists have long carried out an insurgency. Camps run by the group in Sokoto state, which lies on Nigeria’s border with Niger, were hit, the US military said, adding that an “initial assessment” suggested “multiple” fatalities. US President Donald Trump said the Christmas Day strikes were “powerful and deadly” and labelled the group “terrorist scum”, saying it had been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians”. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC it was a “joint operation” and had “nothing…
By Gitobu Imanyara Constitutions are written to restrain power, anticipating when governments, frustrated by accountability, seek shortcuts to escape oversight while retaining control. Kenya’s 2010 Constitution is explicit on this. It does not only describe how public money should be raised and spent but locks public finance within a rigid structure of transparency, parliamentary control, and audit. Any attempt to bypass that structure is subversion, not innovation. The proposal to register a National Infrastructure Fund, targeting KSh 5 trillion, as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) is unconstitutional by design, not accident. The Constitution is clear. Articles 206, 210, 221, and…
By Daniel Psirmoi Kenya stamped its authority as the region’s athletics powerhouse after its legislators clinched the highest number of gold medals in the sports at the ongoing East African Community Inter-Parliamentary Games (EAC-IPG) in Kampala, Uganda. The country struck gold in the men’s 4x400m relay where overall Team Kenya captain and Bunge Sports Club Co-Chairperson Hon. Vincent Musyoka (Mwala) led Hon. David Ochieng (Ugenya) Hon. Dan Wanyama (Webuye West) and Hon. Bernard Kitur (Nandi Hills) to victory, clocking 50.8 seconds in the race. Hon. Kitur also bagged gold in the men’s 100m with an impressive time of 11.8 seconds…
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding for months, has told the BBC that she knows “exactly the risks” she’s taking by travelling to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. Machado appeared in Oslo in the middle of the night, waving from the balcony of a hotel. It was the first time she has been seen in public since January. The 58-year-old made the covert journey despite a travel ban and a threat from the Venezuelan government that she would be labelled as a fugitive. In an emotional moment, Machado waved to cheering supporters who…
By Col (retired) Seth Shava Effective security partnerships between nations are becoming increasingly significant enablers of regional stability. This is especially important as the post-Cold War rules-based order begins to feel increasingly strained. For instance, the US and Kenya renewed their five-year security cooperation plan in 2023 as part of their Third Bilateral Strategic Dialogue. That continued collaboration will help Kenya to further develop its security infrastructure to meet evolving threats. Such cooperation is illustrated by the enhanced counterterrorism, maritime surveillance, and intelligence capabilities at Kenya’s Manda Bay military base, in which US investment has played a significant part. The…
The National Syndemic Disease Control Council (NSDCC) has raised a red flag over the rising cases of new HIV infections among adolescents and young adults, warning that the trend threatens to erode hard-won gains in the national HIV response. Speaking on Monday in Mbita Sub-County during the World AIDS Day celebrations, NSDCC representative Stephen Oyugi emphasized that adolescents and young people are now driving the epidemic. “The HIV epidemic is now domiciled among adolescents and young people. This is where we are seeing new infections emanating from, and that is why our flagship project, End the Triple Threat, is focused…
