In fresh trouble for Indian Premier League (IPL) founder Lalit Modi, the Vanuatu government has decided to cancel the passport issued to him, saying that attempts to escape extradition don’t qualify as a legitimate reason to get citizenship in the South Pacific Ocean nation.

The billionaire fugitive is wanted in India for alleged financial irregularities. Earlier, Lalit Modi filed an application with the Indian High Commission in London to surrender his Indian passport.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Jotham Napat has asked the country’s Citizenship Commission to cancel the passport issued to Lalit Modi “following recent revelations in international media”, his office said.

“While all standard background checks, including Interpol screenings, conducted during his application showed no criminal convictions, I have been made aware in the past 24 hours that Interpol twice rejected Indian authorities’ requests to issue an alert notice on Mr Modi due to lack of substantive judicial evidence. Any such alert would have triggered an automatic rejection of Mr Modi’s citizenship application,” Prime Minister Napat said.

He emphasised that holding a Vanuatu passport is a privilege, not a right, and applicants must seek citizenship for legitimate reasons.

“None of those legitimate reasons include attempting to avoid extradition, which the recent facts brought to light clearly indicate was Mr Modi’s intention,” he added.

The statement added that the Vanuatu government has significantly strengthened the due diligence aspect of its citizenship by investment Programme over the past four years. This, the Prime Minister’s office said, has resulted in a marked increase in applications failing the enhanced scrutiny undertaken by the Vanuatu Financial Intelligence Unit. “The improved process implemented several years ago includes triple-agency checks, including Interpol verification,” it said.

The Ministry of External Affairs recently confirmed that Lalit Modi filed an application to surrender his Indian passport. “He has made an application for surrendering his passport in the high commission of India, London,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “The same will be examined in light of extant rules and procedures. We are also given to understand that he has acquired citizenship of Vanuatu. We continue to pursue the case against him as required under law,” he said.

Lalit Modi left India in 2010. He is wanted in India in connection with allegations that he was involved in the embezzlement of crores during his stint as IPL commissioner.

In his maiden speech after being overwhelmingly elected Justin Trudeau’s successor, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned of “dark, dark days” brought on by US President Donald Trump. Taking a defiant stance, he accused Trump of “attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses.”

Carney said the US President is trying to weaken the Canadian economy by imposing “unjustified tariffs”, while vowing that he will not be allowed to succeed. “We will build new relationships with reliable trading partners and secure our borders. We will impose retaliatory tariffs with the maximum impact on the US, which will remain in place will the Americans show us respect,” he said, to a round of thunderous applause.

The 59-year-old accused the US of wanting Canada’s resources, water and land, adding that Ottawa will never be a part of America in “any way, shape or form”. “Canada didn’t ask for a fight, but if it comes to that, we will win,” Carney said.

Carney, who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who held several senior cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015. Carney won 85.9 percent of the nearly 152,000 votes cast. Freeland took just eight percent of the vote.

However, he may not have the top job for long. Canada must hold elections by October but could also see a snap poll within weeks. Current polls put the opposition Conservatives as slight favorites.

Trump has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.

Ukraine is under US pressure to accept a quick truce to end the war with Russia, with US-Ukrainian talks set to begin in Saudi Arabia. 

​Ukraine is under US pressure to accept a quick truce to end the war with Russia, with US-Ukrainian talks set to begin in Saudi Arabia.