Sunday May 17, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s stalled political transition has once again drawn urgent attention from the African Union, which on Saturday called on the federal government and opposition leaders to return to the negotiating table after a three-day round of talks in Mogadishu collapsed without a deal. The discussions, held from May 13 to 15, brought together the Federal Government of Somalia and representatives of the Somali Future Council. The AU Commission said it had monitored the process closely and…

Joseph Gedeon in WashingtonTuesday April 21, 2026 Representatives from more than a dozen foreign diplomatic missions, United Nations offices, and the media view damage at sites previously targeted by US-Israeli strikes, on 20 April 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday that he expects the US to resume bombing Iran, even as a delicate 14-day ceasefire heads toward its Wednesday deadline with no agreement in place. “I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better…

In a renewed bid to halt a grinding conflict that has ravaged eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, government representatives and delegates from the M23 rebel movement convened in Geneva, even as clashes drift into hard-to-reach highlands where danger grows and past ceasefire attempts have repeatedly unraveled. This ninth round of talks seeks to chart a path out of the fighting in the east, now focused on North Kivu and South Kivu. There, M23 has captured swaths of territory while the Congolese army, backed by its…

Fresh hopes for diplomacy emerged on Monday as the United States and Iran appeared poised to return to Islamabad for another round of talks aimed at ending the war, sources told Reuters, even after weekend negotiations collapsed and Washington responded by imposing a blockade on Iranian ports. Tehran denounced the US move in fierce terms, but the prospect that back-channel efforts were still alive helped steady oil markets, sending benchmark crude back below $100 a barrel. The weekend meeting in Pakistan's capital — the…

Wednesday April 1, 2026 Baidoa (AX) — Air traffic to Somalia’s Southwest State resumed on Tuesday, ending a suspension that had lasted nearly two weeks, just one day after federal forces took complete control of Baidoa, the region’s administrative hub. The return of commercial flights offers a tentative sign of calm after days of heavy fighting that forced Southwest State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen to step down and set off a fresh political transition in the region. Somalia’s Speaker of the House of the…

Taiwan reports return of large-scale Chinese air force activity after two-week lull TAIPEI — Taiwan on Sunday said Chinese military flights around the island have resumed at scale after an unexplained pause of more than two weeks, with 26 People’s Liberation Army aircraft detected in the previous 24 hours, the defense ministry reported. The sorties — concentrated in the Taiwan Strait — mark the largest single-day tally since Feb. 25, when Taipei tracked 30 aircraft as Beijing carried out what it called a “joint combat…

Sunday, February 22, 2026 MOGADISHU — High-level talks between Somalia’s federal government and the opposition-aligned Somali Future Council resumed Sunday at Villa Somalia, with both sides still divided over the country’s electoral direction as current mandates near expiration. The meeting is part of an ongoing consultative conference launched last week to resolve disputes over elections and constitutional reform. The stakes are rising as political actors face pressure to agree on a roadmap that averts a constitutional…

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Tuesday hosted opposition leaders, including members of the Somali Future Council, for a luncheon in Mogadishu, signaling a renewed push to break a political deadlock over elections and constitutional reforms. The talks follow a federal invitation to a National Consultation Conference intended to ease rifts between Villa Somalia and opposition-aligned regional leaders. Discussions centered on the electoral process, disputed constitutional…

MOGADISHU — The United States will resume World Food Programme food distributions in Somalia after the federal government accepted responsibility for actions that disrupted humanitarian operations at the Port of Mogadishu earlier this month, clearing the way for life-saving aid to reach millions facing acute food insecurity. U.S. officials said Somalia’s acknowledgment of accountability satisfied conditions set after Washington halted certain assistance on Jan. 7, when it accused Somali officials of demolishing a U.S.-funded…

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, and KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday of ordering massive missile and drone strikes as negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States met in Abu Dhabi for a second day to discuss a plan to end the nearly four-year war. "Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X. "Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal massive missile strike against…