On Thursday, a US federal judge said President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.

Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting the policy’s implementation for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge.

The temporary restraining order sought by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington was the first to get a hearing before a judge and applies nationally.

The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and some immigrant rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are U.S. citizens by birthright and names of pregnant women who are afraid their children won’t become U.S. citizens.

Trump in his executive order directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.

“I am having trouble understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this order is constitutional,” the judge told a U.S. Justice Department lawyer defending Trump’s order. “It just boggles my mind.”

Beyond the impact that Trump’s order will have on their residents, Washington and the other states are arguing that the end of birthright citizenship will burden their state programs financially and logistically, as those children are shut off from federal benefits that they would be entitled to as citizens.

The Trump administration is arguing that that clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” allows the president to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants and even children whose parents are lawfully present but lack permanent legal status.

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has disclosed how its operatives rescued Sikirat Odumosu, the wife of retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Hakeem Odumosu, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.

The Witness had reported that Sikirat was kidnapped at her residence in the Arepo area of Ogun State on January 16, 2025.

Speaking on the incident via a statement on Thursday, January 23, 2025, the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said Odumosu’s wife was rescued unhurt by the operatives of the Ogun State Police Command in the early hours of Thursday.

Adejobi disclosed that the police also recovered N10 million ransom which was demanded by the kidnappers.

Adejobi stated: “Police operatives engaged in extensive surveillance of the creeks surrounding Arepo, gathering crucial information to track down the assailants. Their efforts culminated in a raid on January 23, 2025, at about 06:45 a.m. The intelligence-led operation took the police to a creek in the swampy area of Ikorodu where the kidnappers were reportedly planning their next attack.

“Upon arrival, the operatives encountered the kidnappers, who opened fire. In the ensuing confrontation, two of the gunmen were neutralized, while four others fled the scene, abandoning their operational weapons.

“The victim, Mrs Odumosu was rescued within the swampy creeks during the operation, unharmed. She is currently undergoing medical evaluation as a precautionary measure and has since been reunited with her family.

“The police also recovered 4 Ak-47 rifles, 3 locally made single barrel rifles, ammunition of various calibers, and the sum of N10,000,000 ransom previously demanded by the kidnappers, further ensuring that justice is served.”

Adejobi said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has commended the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, and his operatives for their displayed gallantry in the successful operation.

“This operation exemplifies the dedication and resilience of our Police officers. The Nigeria Police Force remains steadfast in its mission to combat kidnapping and other violent crimes, providing safety and security to all citizens,” he added.

Had she not become First Lady, Melania Trump might have graced the silver screen as a Bond girl – with her supermodel figure, alluring foreign accent, and head-to-toe couture. While her husband transformed from a real estate tycoon and reality TV star to the world’s most powerful man, the woman beside him has her own fascinating story. As she prepares to potentially make her elegant return to the White House in Manolo Blahniks, here are some revealing facts about Melania Trump.

Father, mother, and half-brother
The 54-year-old wife of the comeback-seeking president was born Melanija Knavs in 1970 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia), to a father who started as a driver before becoming a car salesman and a mother who was a fashion designer. She has one sister and a half-brother from her father’s previous relationship, whom, according to reports, she never met as their father refused to acknowledge him as his son.

As a child, she participated in fashion shows and showed talent in sewing and design. Beyond her artistic abilities, she also demonstrated impressive academic skills and served as her school’s treasurer.

Modeling career and nude photoshoots
With her striking features, sculpted figure, and impressive height of 5’11” – like his mother, her son Barron stands tall at 6’9″ – it was almost inevitable that Melania would try modeling. She began at age 16, leading to a contract with a modeling agency and subsequently a career in Europe and the USA that included shoots for prestigious fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Sports Illustrated.

During her career, she appeared nude in a series of photos for GQ and Max magazines, and in what seemed like a prophetic shoot, she posed as First Lady in a 1993 fashion editorial.

Early in her modeling career, she won a beauty contest where the prize was a movie role, but she declined it after being sexually harassed by a producer. During this period, to advance her international modeling career, she changed her surname to Knauss.

The incomplete degree and language skills
Despite claims of holding an architecture degree from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, journalists discovered in 2016 that she dropped out after her first year of design and architecture studies. Plot twist: references to her degree were swiftly removed from her official White House biography.

Reports claimed she spoke no fewer than six languages: Slovenian, English, French, Serbian, Italian, and German. However, according to The Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan’s book, people who crossed paths with her over the years alleged that she wasn’t fluent in most of them, and her knowledge was limited to basic words.

First meeting with Trump
In 1998, she first met Trump at a party – at the time he was “just” a wealthy real estate magnate – and the couple began dating while he was in the midst of divorcing his second wife, Marla Maples. They got engaged in 2004 and married in 2005; marriage number three for him, number one (and still counting) for her.

In 2006, their son Barron William Trump was born. While Melania picked his middle name, Trump chose Barron – the same name he’d used as his own alias when trying to keep his identity under wraps.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump kisses his wife Melania as she introduces him at a campaign rally on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016, in Wilmington, N.C. Photo credit: AP /John Bazemore

The million-dollar wedding
Her 2005 wedding featured a Dior gown designed by John Galliano (which graced the cover of Vogue) with an estimated cost exceeding $200,000, taking 550 hours to create, adorned with 1,500 crystals, incorporating 92 yards of premium satin, and a 16-foot veil. It weighed over 44 pounds.

After the ceremony, she changed into a lighter dress by designer Vera Wang. She forwent a bouquet, instead holding ancient family prayer beads. She walked down the aisle to an opera soprano’s rendition of “Ave Maria.” The wedding ring was valued at over $1.5 million, with reports indicating the diamond was 12 carats.

The event was split into two parts: first, a ceremony at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by an elaborate reception at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s resort estate, in a room costing tens of millions to construct, inspired by Louis XIV and decorated with 10,000 flowers. Among the wedding guests were Bill and Hillary Clinton, Heidi Klum, Shaquille O’Neal, Simon Cowell, Barbara Walters, and P Diddy.

Guests enjoyed a Michelin-style menu featuring caviar, shrimp, lobsters, steaks, and hundreds of bottles of premium Cristal champagne. The wedding cake stood at five feet tall, weighed 200 pounds, and was decorated with 3,000 sugar flowers soaked in Grand Marnier cream, though guests never tasted it as it remained uncut. Instead, they enjoyed an extensive dessert menu and were sent home with individual chocolate truffle cakes. A 46-piece orchestra entertained guests while first-tier singers including Elton John, Tony Bennett, Billy Joel, and Paul Anka took turns performing.

Business ventures and plagiarism scandal
Before becoming First Lady, Melania launched a jewelry collection on QVC (the American shopping channel) and a caviar skincare line. Both ventures disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. Parts of her 2016 Republican Convention speech were copied from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention speech. Her team called it “common words and values.” The internet called it copy-paste.

How she ruined Christmas
As First Lady, she launched a campaign called “Be Best” focusing on children’s welfare, cyberbullying, and opioid addiction, with critics pointing out the irony of her anti-cyberbullying stance given her husband’s Twitter habits.

In 2018, her use of red Christmas trees sparked criticism as many compared them to horror movie scenes. Melania stood by her choices, calling them “avant-garde.” In 2020, she became embroiled in another Christmas controversy when leaked recordings revealed her saying “Who gives a f— about Christmas stuff?” during a discussion about her First Lady duties.

An exceptional model?
Melania received her EB-1 visa (also known as the “Einstein visa” or “extraordinary ability” visa) in 2001, typically reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability and skills” in science, technology, education, engineering, mathematics, and other fields, often including Nobel Prize winners or outstanding athletes.

The move raised many eyebrows as Melania was then a model, not typically considered an “extraordinary ability” category. In 2006, she became a US citizen, making her the first naturalized First Lady in American history.

The controversial jacket, tennis pavilion renovations, and kidney tumor
In 2018, she sparked outrage when she visited migrant children at a Texas detention center wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “I really don’t care, do U?” In 2020, she renovated the White House tennis pavilion during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing criticism for the timing. During protests following George Floyd’s death, she wore a black dress, generating theories about the message she was trying to convey. In 2018, she underwent surgery to remove a benign growth from one of her kidneys.

The prenup
Before her wedding, Melania signed an extensive prenuptial agreement that, according to reports, was updated after Barron’s birth to secure his inheritance rights. The agreement ensured Melania would remain “financially comfortable” regardless of future family tensions.

In 2017, she delayed her and Barron’s move to the White House after Trump’s presidential election, claiming she wanted to stay in New York with Barron until his school year ended, but according to reports, there was another reason: according to The Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan’s book, Melania was in the midst of renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with Trump, conditioning the move on ensuring Barron’s future status would be equal to his other children.

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Thousands of fresh Higher National Diploma graduates in Nigeria have been thrown into confusion over their current plights in the hands of the Federal Government which has now excluded them from participating in the mandatory one-year national youth service scheme.

The polytechnic graduates noted that they were surprised to discover that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a federal government paramilitary organisation, which is in charge of the scheme, now denied them registration just because they did their ND programs as part-time students.

They said this development was not only strange but alien to the NYSC scheme since its inception 53 years ago.

The young graduates based on this development went on peaceful protest in Lagos early this month when they discovered that their mates who had both their ND and HND programs on full-time were being mobilised for the current Batch ‘C’ Stream 2, 2024 scheme across the country.

They went to Lagos State secretariat of NYSC in Surulere to register their concern and urged the organisation as well as President Bola Tinubu to look into their matter and mobilize them for service without further delay as their mates have been directed to report to camps for their three-week orientation course.

They said they were baffled that NYSC could deny them registration despite they had already regularised their admission with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which issued them admission letters as direct entry students for their HND programmes in the years of their admissions.

During the Lagos protest, the Lagos State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs. Salwang Christiana, addressed the protesters, most of whom were from Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, through a representative Ehimuenma Itoha, an Assistant Director. She pacified them and assured them that NYSC leadership in Abuja was looking into their matter and would communicate with them as soon as possible.

When the students now waited for many days and observed nothing positive was coming forth as a response from the NYSC headquarters and that the registration for mobilisation was almost closed, they sent a six-man representative to Abuja last week for direct conversation with the NYSC leadership.

One of them on the trip, Mr. Kayode Timileyin, narrated their experience when enquiry was made by the Nigerian Tribune on the latest about their concern.

He said, “We went to Abuja last week and met with the Director-General of NYSC, who told us that NYSC is not responsible for our not being mobilised for service but our school and NBTE, which regulates polytechnic education in the country.Best online courses

“He said once YABATECH for example, sends our list to the organization, NYSC will attend to us.

“We were surprised to hear NYSC boss exonerating the organization from the trouble and we then went to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) where we were told we are qualified for service and that our concern had already been officially tabled with the NYSC leadership justifying why we should be mobilised for service.

“The NBTE even showed us a letter written to the NYSC DG to explain that the only consideration to qualify fresh polytechnic graduates for national service is HND and not ND since inception of the scheme.

“We were also informed by the NBTE to have escalated the matter to the House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnic Education and other relevant stakeholders with the advice to resolve the matter amicably without delay.

“So, we were confused more at this point. But we didn’t stop here as we equally went to the Federal Ministry of Youths and Development as well as the Federal Ministry of Education to register our concerns.

“At the Ministry of Youths and Development, we met with the Chief of Staff of the minister, who on his part, expressed surprise to hear about this development as it seemed strange to him.

“Truly, it is a strange development as the practice before our set was that only graduates, who have both their ND and HND programmes on part-time were exempted officially from national service and issued Exemption Letters by the NYSC while those whose ND programs were on part-time and HND in full-time, like us, were participated in the scheme since inception.

“So, why would our own be different from those who graduated before us? In YABATECH alone, we have up to 4,000 graduates affected by this development and one can imagine how large our number will be nationwide.

“We too want to participate in the national service. It is our dream since we gained admission to school to do so.Best online courses
“For me, I have done with my studies since February, last year, and waiting for national service and now telling me a different story.

“So, now, we are confused on this matter. We have gone round and tried our best with no positive response.

“The only thing we can say now is appeal to the DG of NYSC and President Bola Tinubu to consider our concern and mobilise us to join our mates in camp for service,” Timileyin pleaded.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), pursuant to its power under Section 108 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 (NCA) to regulate and approve tariff rates and charges by telecommunications operators, will be granting approval for tariff adjustment requests by Network Operators in response to prevailing market conditions.

In a statement released by its Director, Public Affairs,Reuben Muoka, the adjustment, capped at a maximum of 50 per cent of current tariffs, though lower than the over 100 per cent requested by some network operators, was arrived at taking into account ongoing industry reforms that will positively influence sustainability.

These adjustments will remain within the tariff bands stipulated in the 2013 NCC Cost Study, and requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis as is the Commission’s standard practice for tariff reviews. It will be implemented in strict adherence to the recently issued NCC Guidance on Tariff Simplification, 2024.

Tariff rates have remained static since 2013, despite the increasing costs of operation faced by telecom operators. The approved adjustment is aimed at addressing the significant gap between operational costs and current tariffs while ensuring that the delivery of services to consumers is not compromised.

These adjustments will support the ability of operators to continue investing in infrastructure and innovation, ultimately benefiting consumers through improved services and connectivity, including better network quality, enhanced customer service, and greater coverage.

Recognising the concerns of the public, this decision was made after extensive consultations with key stakeholders across the public and private sectors.

The NCC has prioritised striking a balance between protecting telecom consumers and ensuring the sustainability of the industry, including the thousands of indigenous vendors and suppliers who form a critical part of the telecommunications ecosystem.

The NCC recognises the financial pressures faced by Nigerian households and businesses and remains deeply empathetic to the impact of tariff adjustments. To this end, the Commission has mandated that operators implement these adjustments transparently and in a manner that is fair to consumers. Operators are also required to educate and inform the public about the new rates while demonstrating measurable improvements in service delivery.

Additionally, the NCC reaffirms its dedication to fostering a resilient, innovative, and inclusive telecommunications sector. Beyond protecting consumers, the Commission’s actions are designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry, support indigenous vendors and suppliers, and promote the overall growth of Nigeria’s digital economy.

As a regulator, the NCC will continue to engage with stakeholders to create a telecommunications environment that works for everyone—one that protects consumers, supports operators, and sustains the ecosystem that drives connectivity across the nation.

Pastor Idowu Iluyomade, the suspended pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David Parish, has launched a new ministry in Lagos called The Family Fellowship.

In a video that went viral on Monday morning, Iluyomade was seen celebrating with members during their inaugural service held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The service, which took place on Sunday morning, was marked by joyous dancing and jubilation.

Announcing the new ministry on Instagram, Iluyomade invited the public to attend the fellowship.

He wrote, “The Family Fellowship invites you specially. Join us tomorrow at the Civic Centre for a special time in the Lord’s presence. Promises to be a great experience.”

Iluyomade, formerly the senior pastor of City of David Parish, was suspended by RCCG in 2024 after his wife, Pastor Siju, hosted an elaborate 60th birthday celebration shortly after the tragic death of Herbert Wigwe, a prominent church member and former CEO of Access Bank, along with his wife and son.

Many criticised the timing of the celebration, which took place just weeks after Wigwe’s passing in a helicopter crash in the United States, viewing it as insensitive.

Wigwe had been a significant supporter of the church before his untimely death.

Following the backlash, the RCCG Governing Council convened a panel to investigate the matter.

In June 2024, Iluyomade and his wife were suspended for three months and reassigned to worship at the church’s headquarters in Ebute Metta.

The couple’s suspension drew further attention after they were disinvited from the Wigwe family’s funeral.

Now, the Iluyomades have established their own ministry to continue their spiritual mission.