White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who earned a reputation for acid putdowns of journalists, is to step down, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday adding she would remain a senior advisor.

Leavitt, 28, the youngest ever US presidential top spokesperson, has been a fiercely loyal Trump defender, delivering fluent and aggressive performances at often combative press briefings.

“Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family,” Trump said on social media.

“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party.”

In May, Leavitt announced the birth of her second child — a girl named Viviana — just days after delaying her maternity leave following an alleged assassination attempt on Trump when a gunman tried to storm the White House correspondents dinner.

Her departure, just weeks after returning to the job, comes as Trump faces steadily sinking poll numbers and the Republican Party risks defeat in the November midterm congressional elections.

“I am thankful to the President for entrusting me with the distinct privilege of speaking on his behalf at the White House podium,” Leavitt said on social media as her departure was announced.

“I have relished holding the liberal media accountable and ensuring the American people hear the truth about President Trump’s successes.”

Leavitt wrote that after returning to the White House after the birth of her daughter, “I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve” while devoting the attention needed as press secretary.

Leavitt is a Trump veteran who served in his press office during his first term, which ended in 2021 and then as his spokesperson during his 2024 election campaign.

Leavitt’s tenure as press secretary saw a revival of regular briefings that had petered out during the first term, but she presided over sea change on White House interactions with journalists.

In February 2025, she stunned the press corps when she announced that the White House itself — and not an independent association of correspondents — would choose which reporters got to cover Trump up close in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.

She also facilitated press credentials from right-wing, pro-Trump media outlets, diluting the presence of traditional news media that tend to ask more challenging questions in the briefing room.

Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, Leavitt sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticised Trump in class.

After Trump’s 2020 election loss, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform.

She then won his praise for steely television performances during his 2024 re-election campaign.

She signalled her intent to pursue a political path, stating, “Our country is facing an existential threat from an increasingly extremist Democrat Party that seeks to destroy everything great about America.”

“My fight is entering a new phase, but it is far from over.”

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded dozens across Ukraine overnight Saturday and Sunday, while a Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region.

More than four years after the start of Russia’s large-scale offensive against Ukraine, the two warring countries are ramping up long-range strikes, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.

Russia is relying on “ballistic terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, stating that 61 missiles of various types had been fired at his country this week.

“More pressure, more sanctions against Russia and more air defence for Ukraine are needed,” he said.

The two people killed by a Russian drone strike were in the major northeastern city of Kharkiv, where four floors of a residential building were also destroyed, Zelensky.

Twenty-three people were also injured, according to regional governor Oleg Synegoubov. Images he shared show a gutted building with emergency services working at the scene.

According to the Ukrainian president, eight people were also injured overnight in Odesa, where strikes damaged the power grid, the port, and residential buildings.

Zelensky condemned another “absolutely brutal” strike targeting energy infrastructure near a shopping centre in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Nine people, including four children, were injured there, he said.

Images posted on social media Saturday evening — which AFP has not been able to verify — show buildings on fire in what appears to be a commercial area.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack on the border city of Belgorod killed three people, according to the region’s acting governor, Alexander Shuvaev.

Twenty-five people, including children aged four and nine, were also injured, he added.

Fires broke out in cars, two apartment buildings, and a house, according to him.

A video released by Russian media shows an apartment building engulfed in flames at night, watched by residents gathered across the street.

On the front line, the Russian army claimed on Sunday to have captured two small villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The claim has not yet been independently verified.

One of them, Vasiutynske, is located about ten kilometres (six miles) from the city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian urban and logistical hub.

The Russian invasion, which began four and a half years ago, continues with prospects of a peace agreement largely stalled.

The South African Consul-General to Nigeria, Prof Bobby Moroe, has said Nigerian singer, Ayra Starr, was initially denied a visa because she submitted an inappropriate yellow fever certificate.

Moroe, who disclosed this in an interview with Saturday said the visa rejection was not a recent development as portrayed, but occurred in February 2024.

The envoy said the controversy resurfaced after reports alleged that Starr and her team were denied entry visas to South Africa, prompting the South African mission to meet with her team and clarify the requirements that needed to be fulfilled.

According to him, the rejection was based on failure to meet visa requirements and was not related to the singer’s personality or status as a Nigerian seeking entry into the country.

He said, “I do not see the relevance of that rejection to the development of today, except for using that rejection to sow division.

“One of the challenges was that they did not submit an appropriate yellow fever certificate. They submitted the yellow fever certificate of another country when they were supposed to submit the yellow fever certificate of their home country.

“Subsequently, the matter was resolved amicably and they were granted a one-year visa to go and perform in South Africa in 2024, and I think that was what they forgot to mention.”

The professor said applicants were assessed based on immigration requirements regardless of their status.

South African Consulate, Patrick Matshisevhe; Project Manager of Blak Dave, TRUFOM, Elienai Julius; Consul-General of South Africa to Nigeria, Prof Bobby Moroe; Creative Director of Alpheria, Akabike Kosi and DJ Solomon Akinkunmi during the presentation of Visas at the South African Embassy in Lagos on Wednesday. Photo: Daniel Ayantoye
“If you meet the requirement for a visa, whether you are a star or not, tall, short, black or white, if you qualify, you will get it. But if you don’t, regardless of who you are, the immigration section will uphold the immigration law of the country,” he said.

He explained that travellers applying for visas are required to submit relevant documents, including a yellow fever certificate from their home country, as proof of vaccination before travelling to South Africa.

The clarification comes amid renewed concerns over alleged visa restrictions on Nigerians travelling to South Africa following claims that some Nigerian entertainers had faced difficulties obtaining entry permits.

The South African diplomat dismissed claims that the country had stopped issuing visas to Nigerians, saying visa decisions were based strictly on requirements.

He said, “Whether you are Ayra Starr or anyone, if you qualify, you will get it. The narrative that we have stopped issuing visas to Nigerians is false. We are not politicians; we don’t get into politics. Whether there are unrest or not, if you qualify for the visa, you will be given.”

Moroe also disclosed that visa applications from Nigerians had increased compared with previous years.

He said applications, which previously averaged between 40 and 60 monthly, had risen to between 60 and 80 monthly.

“The visa applications have increased compared to the past. Before now, it used to be between 40 and 60 applications monthly, but now it has increased to between 60 and 80 applications monthly,” he added.

Meanwhile, the South African Consulate in Lagos on Wednesday issued visas to five Nigerian disc jockeys travelling to the country for an event.

One of the DJs, Solomon Akinkunmi, who spoke with our correspondent at the embassy, confirmed the development.

He said, “We were five that were given visas. I was given a one-year visa, while others were given three months each.”