Rwanda Files Lawsuit Against the UK Over Abandoned Migrant Agreement

Rwanda Files Legal Action Against the UK Over Abandoned Asylum Deal The ongoing saga of the now-defunct migrant deal between Rwanda and the United Kingdom has escalated, as the Rwandan government has launched a legal case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The action stems from claims that the UK has failed to fulfill financial commitments under the controversial agreement, which was originally designed to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda. Under the terms of the deal signed by the former Conservative…

Eritrean National Gets 20-Year Prison Term for Smuggling Migrants in Netherlands

The Netherlands has sentenced an Eritrean national, Amanuel Walid, to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of leading a transnational migrant-smuggling network that operated through Libya, Dutch prosecutors said Friday. Walid was convicted on a string of charges that included human smuggling, extortion, violence and money laundering. Prosecutors said members of the network detained migrants in Libya, subjected many to severe abuse in detention camps, and forced relatives in the Netherlands to pay ransoms — a pattern…

Senior Trump aide says Minneapolis agents may have violated protocol

White House reviews immigration tactics after fatal Minneapolis shooting; Trump vows to ‘de‑escalate’ WASHINGTON — The White House is examining whether U.S. immigration agents breached protocol before the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti during weekend protests in Minneapolis, senior aide Stephen Miller said, as the administration signaled a shift in tactics amid mounting political fallout. Miller, who oversees President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, said the administration had issued “clear guidance”…

UN agency reports school supplies enter Gaza after two-year block

UNICEF has delivered school kits into Gaza for the first time in two and a half years, a breakthrough the U.N. children’s agency says could restart learning for hundreds of thousands of students after Israeli authorities previously blocked the supplies. The move comes as Gaza’s education system remains shattered by war and severe restrictions on basic classroom materials. “We have now, in the last days, got in thousands of recreational kits, hundreds of school-in-a-carton kits,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said. “We’re…

Russian strikes kill two in Kyiv region, officials report

Russian strikes near Ukraine’s capital killed two people and wounded several others on Monday, regional authorities said, as a fresh wave of attacks overnight left at least a dozen people dead across the country and knocked out power in freezing temperatures. In a post on Telegram, Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv region’s military administration, said a man and a woman were killed in the Bilogorodska community west of the capital. Four other people sought medical assistance following the strike, he added. The regional…

Uganda Announces Somalia Troop Exit After Nearly 20 Years of Peacekeeping

KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda plans to withdraw its troops from Somalia after nearly two decades on the front lines of African Union peacekeeping, a move that could reshape security calculations in the Horn of Africa and test hard-won gains against Al-Shabaab. Gen. Wilson Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, said in a post on X on Sunday that the country’s military mission in Somalia “has officially ended” and that preparations are underway for a full pullout. “After 19 years in Somalia, we plan…

EU backlash mounts after Trump’s military threats, dismissal of NATO forces

Europe’s leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump after he questioned the value of NATO allies and floated military options over Greenland, a one-two punch that further rattled the transatlantic alliance and revived legal and sovereignty concerns from Brussels to Copenhagen. In an interview Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, Trump downplayed allied sacrifices in Afghanistan and cast doubt on whether NATO partners would aid Washington if needed. “We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them,” he told…

Slovakia and Hungary to take EU to court over Russian gas ban

Slovakia will challenge the European Union’s decision to end imports of Russian natural gas by 2027, Prime Minister Robert Fico said, aligning Bratislava with neighboring Hungary’s plan to sue over the measure. The legal move deepens a rift inside the bloc over how quickly to sever energy ties with Moscow more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both Slovakia and Hungary are landlocked central European countries that have maintained close links to the Kremlin and remain heavily reliant on Russian…

Spain plans to grant legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants

Spain’s left-wing government has approved a decree to grant legal status to an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants, a sweeping regularisation that underscores Madrid’s divergence from tougher migration policies elsewhere in Europe. Migration Minister Elma Saiz said those who qualify will be able to work “in any sector, in any part of the country,” framing the plan as both an economic necessity and a rights-based reform. “We are talking about estimations, probably more or less the figures may be around half a million…

U.S. humanitarian Jessica Buchanan details 93 days held hostage in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Jessica Buchanan remembers the voice before she saw the faces. After 93 days as a hostage in Somalia, wrapped in a blanket and bracing for the worst, she felt a stranger’s hands at her shoulders and heard a young American say her name: “Jessica, it’s okay. You are safe now.” The American aid worker’s account of abduction and rescue traces a grim arc through one of the world’s most dangerous kidnapping economies — from her capture on Oct. 25, 2011, near Galkacyo, to a pre-dawn U.S. Navy SEAL raid on Jan.…