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10 things To know about The New Pope Leo XIV

Following Pope Francis’s passing, United States Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has emerged as the 267th leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Senior Cardinal Dominique Mamberti announced Prevost to a cheering crowd on St Peter’s balcony on Wednesday afternoon, saying the famous Latin words “Habemus Papam,” meaning “we have a pope.”

Picking the papal name Leo XIV, the newly elected Pope becomes the first American to occupy the exalted religious position.

Speaking in Italian, the 69-year-old described his predecessor as always “courageous and blessed Rome.”

1. Prevost was born on September 14, 1555, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez.

2. In 1997, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) and made his solemn vows in 1981.

3. As a former prefect of the influential Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost shared similar views to his immediate predecessor and spent many years as a missionary in Peru before he was elected the head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.

4. The Chicago-born prelate earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University in 1977, before proceeding to Catholic Theological Union in Chicago for his Master of Divinity. He subsequently bagged both a licentiate and doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, with a doctoral thesis on “The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.”

5. He was ordained as a priest in 1982 and joined the Augustinian mission in Peru shortly after, where he served as chancellor of the Territorial Prélature of Chulucanas from 1985 to 1986.

6. Between 1987 and 1988, he was in his home country of the US, working as pastor for vocations and director of missions for the Augustinian Province of Chicago. In 1988, he returned to Peru, where he spent the next ten years heading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo and teaching canon law in the diocesan seminary, doubling as prefect of studies. Prevost also served in other capacities there, including as a parish pastor, diocesan official, director of formation, seminary teacher, and judicial vicar.

7. He returned to Chicago in 1999 and was elected provincial prior of the “Mother of Good Counsel” province in the archdiocese, before emerging as prior general of the Augustinian order and serving two terms until 2013.

8. The American prelate returned to Peru in 2014, following his appointment as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. He was elevated to Bishop of Chiclayo in 2015, where he served as vice-president and member of the permanent council of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference from 2018 to 2023.

9. Prevost served as apostolic administrator of Callao in Peru between 2020 and 2021.

10. In January 2023, Pope Francis appointed Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a powerful position responsible for selecting bishops. He held this position until his predecessor died on April 21, 2025. On September 30, 2023, Pope Francis elevated Prevost to the rank of Cardinal.

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Wike’s son accused of collecting $2.1 million for land in Abuja

Jordan Ezenwo Nyesom-Wike, son of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, is facing a civil suit over an alleged $2.1 million land deal gone wrong, with the claimants saying most of that money was intended for his father.

According to court filings, two men say they met Jordan in London and later reconnected with him in Abuja, where they asked for his help securing 60 hectares of land split between Katampe and Guzape. They claim Jordan told them the facilitation fee would come to $2.1 million: $2 million of it earmarked for the minister himself, and $100,000 as Jordan’s own cut.

The claimants say they handed over the full amount on 26 September 2025, at a property in Gwarimpa, Abuja, with several named witnesses present. They allege that after the money changed hands, they got no land and no refund, and Jordan stopped responding to them.

Jordan’s defence hinges on a single detail: he says he wasn’t even in the country that day. Under cross-examination at the FCT High Court in Maitama, he told the court he was on a British Airways flight from Abuja to London on 26 September 2025, the exact date the claimants say the payment was made. He also denies signing any acknowledgment of receipt for the money, calling the signature on the document a forgery.

The exchange prompted the claimants’ lawyer to ask the court to compel Jordan to produce his American passport, to check it against his travel claim, and to write out his name and signature five times on a plain sheet of paper for comparison. Justice Sylvanus Oriji granted both requests. Jordan produced the passport the following day; the court has not yet ruled on whether his account of his whereabouts holds up.

Jordan has said he flagged the allegations himself, in a letter to his father and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission back in November 2025.

The case has since drawn wider attention. Rights lawyer Chidi Odinkalu has called on Justice Oriji to step aside from the case over family and professional ties, while the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has urged the EFCC and ICPC to open an independent investigation rather than wait for the civil case to conclude.

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Morocco gets first Female Prime Minister

Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri has made history as Morocco’s first woman prime minister and only the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world. Morocco has made history after Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was appointed the country’s first woman prime minister, making her only the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world.

King Mohammed VI appointed El Mansouri on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, and tasked her with forming a new government after her Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) emerged as the biggest party in Morocco’s September 23 parliamentary election.

Morocco officially refers to the position as head of government, although it is commonly described internationally as prime minister.El Mansouri’s appointment marks the first time a woman has occupied the position since Morocco established its modern government system

Her rise also places her in a particularly small group of women who have headed governments across the Arab world. She becomes only the second woman to serve as prime minister in an Arab country, following Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who served as Tunisia’s prime minister from 2021 to 2023.

The appointment came after PAM won the largest number of seats in Morocco’s 395-member House of Representatives.

The party secured 97 seats, but fell well short of the 198 seats needed for a majority, meaning El Mansouri will have to negotiate with other political parties to form a coalition government.

The appointment is also significant because Morocco operates as a constitutional monarchy in which the king remains head of state, while the head of government leads the cabinet and oversees the government’s day-to-day administration.

Under Morocco’s constitutional system, the king appoints the head of government from the political party that wins the most seats in the House of Representatives. El Mansouri was therefore selected after her party emerged as the largest bloc in the latest election.

El Mansouri, 50, is a lawyer and experienced politician who has held several prominent positions in Moroccan public life. Before her appointment as head of government, she served as Morocco’s minister responsible for national planning, urban planning, housing and urban policy. She also served as mayor of Marrakesh, a position she first won in 2009, making her the city’s first woman mayor. She later returned to the position in 2021.

She is also a senior figure in PAM, a liberal-centrist party founded in 2008.El Mansouri’s appointment comes at a significant moment for Morocco, with the new government expected to deal with economic pressures, unemployment and public concerns over living standards. The government will also oversee preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal. The tournament is expected to involve major infrastructure and investment projects across the country.

The September 23 election recorded turnout of about 38%, down from roughly 50% in the previous parliamentary election, according to Reuters. The low turnout came amid concerns about economic conditions and frustration among parts of Morocco’s population, particularly young people.

El Mansouri now faces the task of turning her party’s electoral lead into a functioning government.

Because PAM does not have a parliamentary majority, she will need to reach agreements with other parties before she can form her cabinet and begin governing.

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Tems and Runtown In Scintilating Prformance at Spotify Surround Sound in Lagos

Spotify brought fans closer to Tems and Runtown across two nights of Surround Sound in Lagos, inviting selected Premium listeners based on their listening behaviour to experience the artists and music they care about in an intimate, in-the-round setting.
Held at Livespot in Lagos on 25 and 26 September, the performances brought two distinct catalogue stories into the room. Tems revisited For Broken Ears, while Runtown placed Mad Over You at the centre of a career-spanning set.

Surround Sound is Spotify’s live performance format, launched from Sub-Saharan Africa, which brings artists and fans together at close range and captures those performances as full-length music films for Spotify. Lagos provides the cultural context for these stories, with Nigerian artists and listeners at their centre.

Tems performed For Broken Ears tracks including Ice T and Damages, alongside earlier singles Mr Rebel and Try Me and later material such as Love Me JeJe and What You Need, tracing different chapters of her catalogue.

Ahead of the performance, she reflected on the beginnings of that journey: “I remember making Free Mind on my bed, on my laptop, experimenting with chords and seeing what stuck. The first two chords sounded so good, and it ignited melodies in me. Those melodies I made on my bed are what is in the song right now.”

Spotify’s relationship with Tems also reaches back to that period. In September 2020, shortly after the release of For Broken Ears, she became the third artist to join Spotify’s RADAR Africa programme, following South African singer Elaine and rapper Willy Cardiac. Six years later, Surround Sound revisited that early chapter of her catalogue in Lagos.

During the performance, Tems turned towards the audience and invited them to sing along, making the fans’ voices part of the experience. The following night, Runtown opened with Lagos to Kampala and Gallardo, moving through For Life, International Badman Killa and Unleash. The set also included Kini Issue, drawing together different parts of his catalogue.

Mad Over You became a shared moment between artist and audience. Runtown performed the song during the set before returning to it a second time to close the show, with fans singing along.

Speaking ahead of the performance, Runtown said: “This is the first time in 10 years I am performing with my band, and I am looking forward to seeing my fans.”

Spotify’s September 2026 analysis offers context for the continuing relationship with this music. Of the listeners who played For Broken Ears in January 2022, 21.6% also listened in August 2026. Meanwhile, Mad Over You appeared in more than three million user-created playlists at the time of the analysis.

Surround Sound connected that existing relationship with an opportunity to experience the artists live. There was no public ticket sale; Spotify invited selected Premium listeners directly through the platform, using listening behaviour to identify fans for the experience.

The live room is intentionally intimate and has a fixed capacity,” said Rifumo Mdaka of Spotify. “We use listening signals to reach selected Spotify Premium listeners in Lagos directly rather than running a public ticket sale. The aim is to create a close artist-fan experience while keeping the room suitable for the performance and film capture.”

Across both nights, Premium’s fan value took a tangible form: selected listeners had the opportunity to hear familiar music performed up close, with the audience’s responses becoming part of the experience.Both performances were filmed for Spotify.

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