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A stunning Democratic win in a Texas state Senate race that former President Donald Trump carried by 17 points in 2024 has jolted Republicans and sharpened questions about their midterm prospects. The upset, following a string of Democratic gains in recent months, suggests shifting political currents in even reliably red terrain as November approaches. Trump had urged supporters in Texas on Truth Social to “GET OUT AND VOTE” for the “phenomenal” Republican candidate, declaring, “Today is the day!” Twenty-four hours later,…

Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians, including seven children, across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, in a surge of violence that threatens to further unravel a nearly four-month-old ceasefire. Among the dead was a medic who had rushed to treat casualties in the southern city of Khan Younis and was killed by a subsequent strike on the same location, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities. In Gaza City, health officials said a five-month-old boy…

UK MPs vote to release Peter Mandelson appointment files after Starmer hands security veto to Parliament watchdog British lawmakers have approved the release of government documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the United States, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer abandoned plans to let the Cabinet Secretary decide what should be withheld on national security or foreign relations grounds. Under pressure from Labour MPs led by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Starmer agreed that the…

In the harsh light of midday in Hariro, a settlement carved into the rock and dust of Somalia’s Bari region, Mahado Cilmi Matan tightens the cloth walls of a shelter stitched from branches and tin. The hut barely holds her and her 11 children. Shade is thin, cold seeps in at night, and the wind picks at the seams. A year after war began in the Almiskad mountains above them, the family is still displaced and living without income, pushed to the edge by conflict and a relentless drought. “There is no food available,” Mahado…

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has launched a hunger strike from prison to demand access to phone calls, her lawyers and family, her Paris-based attorney said, as authorities tighten restrictions on one of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders. Mohammadi, 53, was arrested on Dec. 12 in the eastern city of Mashhad and “has been on hunger strike for the last three days,” lawyer Chirinne Ardakani told AFP. “She is demanding her right to make a phone call, have access to her lawyers in Iran and…

The African Union is facing a legitimacy test. Across social media and public forums, Africans are asking whether the AU has moved beyond symbolism to deliver the integration and security it promises. The recurring questions are blunt: If the AU cannot advance a single currency, a unified military or a common passport, what, exactly, is the union for? Those questions may sound harsh, but they capture a growing frustration. In one widely shared post, commenters joked that the AU should be rebranded “Western Union,” a jab at…

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Ryan Routh, the 59-year-old man found hiding in the bushes along a Florida golf course with a semi-automatic rifle during an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump less than two months before the 2024 election, was sentenced to life in prison in federal court. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon imposed the punishment after a jury in September convicted Routh on five counts, including attempted assassination. “It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon…

Analysis: How Somalia’s “family feud” shows sameness alone can’t secure peace Somalia appears, on paper, like a country built for cohesion. Nearly everyone is ethnically Somali, speaks Somali and practices Sunni Islam. Yet three decades after the state collapsed in 1991, the country remains trapped in fractious, often intimate violence. The paradox is instructive far beyond the Horn of Africa: shared identity does not guarantee stability. When institutions fail and rules disappear, homogeneity can magnify rivalries instead…

U.S. Deploys Troops to Nigeria for Counter-Terrorism Efforts The U.S. Command Africa (AFRICOM) commander, General Dagvin Anderson, has announced the deployment of a small team of U.S. soldiers to Nigeria. This move comes as part of a mutual agreement between the U.S. and Nigeria aimed at strengthening counter-terrorism efforts in the region. This development signifies the first official acknowledgment of U.S. troops on the ground in Nigeria since U.S. airstrikes last December. The decision follows President Donald Trump's…

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Peter Mandelson of “betraying our country” by leaking information to Jeffrey Epstein and said the former Labour grandee “lied repeatedly” during the process that led to his appointment as U.K. ambassador to the United States. Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister and ex–EU trade commissioner, resigned from the House of Lords on Tuesday. Hours later, British police said they were investigating “misconduct in public office offences” linked to the matter. Starmer said he regretted…