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MOGADISHU — U.S. Africa Command carried out airstrikes targeting al-Shabaab militants in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region on Dec. 18, following clashes sparked by a militant assault on government and allied militia positions, the command said. The strikes occurred near Nur Dugle, approximately 215 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu. AFRICOM described the action as part of ongoing cooperation with Somali authorities to diminish the extremist group’s operational capacity. “AFRICOM, alongside the Federal Government of…

Jubaland Leader Warns Somali President Against Power Grab Amid 2026 Election Dispute KISMAYO, Somalia — Jubaland state President Ahmed Madobe on Thursday warned Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud against consolidating power, accusing the federal leader of advancing policies he once opposed and underscoring growing rifts ahead of Somalia’s 2026 elections. Speaking at the Somali Future Council conference in Kismayo, Madobe cast the gathering as a forum to confront political tensions and said Somalia’s governance must rest…

Libya's Path to Stability: A Fragile Balance Recent security arrangements have brought limited improvements in Tripoli, but instability persists. The U.N. special envoy outlines the current situation and the necessary steps for Libya. Security environment in Tripoli improved but remains fragile Need for cooperation among relevant actors for stability Economic challenges continue to undermine progress Security Arrangements and Ongoing Concerns The U.N. special envoy for Libya, Hanna Tetteh, addressed the…

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth with a soft splashdown off Florida’s Gulf Coast, ending an unplanned nine-month wait to come home after their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered problems that derailed a short test mission to the International Space Station. The pair touched down in a SpaceX capsule on March 18 near Tallahassee, closing a mission that was supposed to last about a week. A NASA photo showed recovery teams working on the spacecraft shortly after it was secured in the water.…

Jubbaland’s Ahmed Madobe warns Somalia’s president against centralizing power at Kismayo forum KISMAYO, Somalia — Jubbaland State President Ahmed Mohamed Islam, widely known as Ahmed Madobe, used the opening days of the Somali Future Council conference in Kismayo to warn President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud against consolidating power in ways he once opposed, sharpening a national debate over governance and inclusion. Speaking Thursday at the gathering, which he said was convened to address Somalia’s broader political challenges,…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The man believed to have killed two students in a mass shooting at Brown University and to have fatally shot an MIT physicist in Boston was found dead in New Hampshire, authorities said, ending a multistate manhunt that gripped two of the nation’s top universities. Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez identified the suspect as Claudio Neves-Valente, 48, a Portuguese national and student at Brown. Perez said Neves-Valente “took his own life tonight” and was discovered at a storage unit in New Hampshire…

Australia will launch a sweeping national gun buyback in response to the Bondi Beach mass shooting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, as hundreds of residents returned to the surf Saturday to honor the victims with a solemn ocean gathering. Albanese vowed to “get guns off our streets” and to tighten firearms laws that allowed the suspected gunman, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, to legally own six high-powered rifles. The prime minister said it would be the largest buyback since 1996, when Australia overhauled gun laws after…

The U.S. Justice Department has released more than 300,000 pages of records from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, responding to mounting political pressure and a new law compelling disclosure. The trove, posted online with redactions, immediately intensified a yearslong fight over transparency around the late financier and convicted sex offender’s connections to powerful figures. It was not immediately clear how much of the material is new, given extensive disclosures since Epstein’s 2019 death in a New York jail, ruled…

Analysis: Somalia’s ‘one person, one vote’ push risks crisis without consensus and constitutional safeguards Somalia’s federal government is advancing a “one person, one vote” election model it says will anchor the country’s democratic transition. But the process, as described by Puntland State State Minister of the Presidency Abdifatah Abdinur, suffers from deep constitutional, legal and practical flaws that threaten to compound — not resolve — Somalia’s political fragility. The concerns revolve around three pillars of any…

Somali president meets Ethiopia’s Abiy in Addis Ababa to bolster security, trade ties ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in Ethiopia on Friday for a one-day working visit and held talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed focused on strengthening bilateral relations and regional security, according to the Somali Presidency. In a statement, Mogadishu said the leaders discussed deepening cooperation across four priority areas: security coordination, political engagement, trade, and wider regional…