cost

US has spent $12bn on Iran war, White House economic chief says, as Pentagon signals escalation Kevin Hassett gives latest cost since Feb. 28 joint US-Israel strikes; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says bombing of Iran is “about to surge dramatically” Standfirst: The Trump administration faces growing questions over the war’s price tag and purpose. Markets remain on edge over possible Strait of Hormuz disruptions, while Senate Democrats warn of “mission creep.” The United States has spent $12bn on its war against Iran since…

East Africa’s new drought surge pushes millions toward hunger as water prices soar and livestock die Friday March 6, 2026 MOGADISHU — A failed rainy season has deepened drought across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, thrusting nearly 26 million people into extreme hunger, accelerating livestock deaths and sending water prices soaring, Oxfam warned in a report released this week. The crisis arrives less than three years after the Horn of Africa’s longest and most severe drought on record, when five consecutive rainy seasons…

Each morning in Lviv’s historic Lychakiv Cemetery, the newest section fills with quiet footsteps. Among the mourners is Olga Smolynets, who arrives daily to visit the grave of her son, Ostap. The site has become a ledger of the war’s cost, a place where Ukraine’s recent history is etched into wood for now, and soon into stone. More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and servicewomen killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion are buried here, their resting places forming a stark geography of loss at one of Eastern Europe’s most…

Every morning, Olga Smolynets walks past rows of fresh graves in Lviv’s historic Lychakiv Cemetery and stops at her son’s resting place. She comes every day, she says, to sit with his memory. For Smolynets—and for thousands of families across Ukraine—the cemetery has become a map of grief etched into the landscape of a war with no clear end. More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and servicewomen who have been killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion are buried at Lychakiv. Last December, the current military…

Somalia’s khat bill: How a daily airlift of mira to Mogadishu drains a fragile economy Somalia’s dependence on khat—known locally as qaad and as mira in Kenya—has evolved from a social habit into a structural economic liability. Official statements tabled in Kenya’s National Assembly on December 3, 2025, show just how lopsided the trade has become: Somalia is Kenya’s largest export destination for mira, accounting for more than 95 percent of Kenya’s total mira export volume. The crop supports an estimated 110,000 Kenyan…

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), public finances are still not healthy. Following the resumption of the consolidation of civil servants 'census in April last year, Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Lihau confirmed at the Council of Ministers' meeting this weekend that the payroll lists of civil servants and agents for the State are full of duplicates, fictitious agents losing $ 240…

Somalia's upcoming election will cost $ 40 million, FM says MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Federal Government of Somalia announced the budget for the country's forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections amid a dispute that delayed the voting plan. Somalia's Finance Minister Abdirahman Dualle Beileh has said in a television interview on Friday night that the next election will cost $ 40 million, with…