Author: Prima News

Nigeria is preparing to open select government-owned assets to private capital beginning in 2026 as part of a broader strategy to strengthen investment inflows and deepen public-private partnerships (PPPs). The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, disclosed that the federal government is developing a structured framework to determine which assets may be commercialised or partially divested. The move is expected to align with the administration’s wider economic reform agenda focused on restoring fiscal balance, improving efficiency in public enterprises, and enhancing investor confidence. According to the minister, preparatory work is already underway to identify viable…

European Union leaders gather in a Belgian castle on Thursday to thrash out how they can compete economically with a global rival like China and a less reliable ally like the U.S. as the rules-based world order frays. EU growth has been persistently lower than that of the United States over the past two decades, with EU productivity and innovation, particularly in fields like AI, falling short. The EU is now contending with Donald Trump’s trade war, opens new tab, and most recently tariff threats over Greenland, as well as Chinese restrictions on exports of critical minerals that the 27-nation bloc urgently needs. With…

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed in a phone call efforts for regional de-escalation and stability, the Emiri Diwan said on Wednesday. The call comes ahead of a meeting between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu where the Israeli prime minister is expected to press him to widen U.S. talks with Iran to include curbs on Tehran’s missile arsenal and other security threats beyond its nuclear programme.

Portuguese Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral has resigned amid criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they describe as the authorities’ slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago. The office of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said late on Tuesday that he accepted the minister’s resignation at the request of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, after Amaral said she “no longer had the personal and political conditions necessary to carry out the role”. The president’s office said Montenegro will temporarily take over the interior portfolio until a successor is appointed. Storm Kristin swept across central mainland Portugal…

Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. The outburst brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighboring United States, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, police said. Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died…

President Donald Trump will host Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday where the Israeli prime minister is expected to press him to widen U.S. talks with Iran to include curbs on Tehran’s missile arsenal and other security threats that go beyond its nuclear program. In his seventh meeting with Trump since the president returned to office nearly 13 months ago, Netanyahu will be looking to influence the next round of U.S. discussions with Iran following nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday amid heightened Middle East tensions. Trump has threatened to carry out strikes on Iran if an agreement is not reached,…

 France’s National Rally has yet to win over the business elite, who fret over its shifting economic positions and are wary of engaging with a far-right party many still regard as toxic, according to over a dozen sources. Little more than 14 months before a presidential election, polls indicate party leaders Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen have a solid shot at power after a decades-long march from fringe movement to mainstream force. But despite growing appeal among once-wary voters, CEOs, founders, business group heads, lawmakers and party officials interviewed by Reuters say the nationalist, anti-immigrant party has made little headway with France’s economic establishment. Executives…

Fresh tensions erupted within the Labour Party on Tuesday night after the Julius Abure-led faction announced that it had reclaimed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, barely 24 hours after the Nenadi Usman-led caretaker committee took over the facility. The Abure faction, through its National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, made an announcement in a statement issued in Abuja late Tuesday night. Ifoh confirmed that the party’s national headquarters, which was ‘forcefully’ invaded in the early hours of Tuesday, has been reclaimed. The spokesman also sent photographs showing the banners and billboards carrying the image of the National Caretaker Committee  Chairman,…

The management of United Nigeria Airlines and Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the industrial training of engineering students of the university at the airline’s facility. The Vice-Chancellor of ABUAD, Prof. Smaranda Olarinde, said the partnership would enable engineering students of the university to “undergo a robust, hands-on and industry-driven training programme in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering.” The Vice-Chancellor spoke in Ado Ekiti on Saturday during the signing of the MoU. She said, “Under the terms of this MoU, about 20 400-level students of our College of Engineering will be enrolled annually under the…

In a key address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Annalena Baerbock repeated her call to uphold multilateralism amid “trying times” globally. She noted that just 40 days into 2026, the world has already seen crises around Venezuela, Iran and Greenland, on top of continuing devastation in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. International order ‘under attack’ “The international order is not only under pressure, it is under attack,” she told lawmakers.  “And we face a new and more troubling kind of crisis: conflicts waged not even under the pretence of self-defence or respect for international law but often carried out in open defiance of it.” She warned that at precisely the moment the world most needs cooperation and the UN, “powers – even those who have a special…