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Irish officials have condemned X’s decision to put some of its Grok AI image-editing tools behind a paywall, calling the move “window dressing” that fails to address the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes, including images of children, on the platform. Niamh Smyth, Minister of State with responsibility for AI, said X had informed her it would meet with her in the coming weeks after she requested talks earlier this week. But she said restricting image generation and editing to paying subscribers does nothing to stop…

Storm Goretti battered northern Europe with heavy snow and gale-force winds, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes, closing schools and suspending rail services across France, Britain and Germany as the region endured a week of freezing weather. Emergency crews from the Atlantic coast to the North Sea scrambled to clear downed trees, restore power and keep key corridors open after Goretti slammed into Britain yesterday and moved eastward overnight. France absorbed some of the worst of the impacts as the storm…

The European Union will press ahead with global climate cooperation despite the United States moving to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the EU’s climate chief said, a day after President Donald Trump announced plans to exit dozens of international bodies. “The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” Wopke Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn, referring to the UNFCCC, widely described as the bedrock treaty underpinning…

Somalia asks U.N. Security Council to rebuke Israel’s recognition of North Western State of Somalia MOGADISHU — Somalia has asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel’s formal recognition of North Western State of Somalia, calling the move a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and a direct threat to regional stability in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. In a letter sent to the council on Monday, Somalia said Israel’s decision last week to recognize the self-declared Republic of North Western State of…

KISMAYO, Somalia — Jubbaland’s interior minister warned Wednesday that Somalia is slipping into a national crisis under what he called poor federal leadership, escalating tensions ahead of a political conference in the port city of Kismayo that organizers say is designed to redirect the country’s trajectory. Interior Minister Mohamed Hussein Oogle said expectations placed in President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration have not materialized and that the course charted by federal authorities no longer reflects realities…

Somali Opposition Condemns Arrests of Journalist and Activists Amid Sinai Market Dispute What happened A prominent Somali opposition coalition on Tuesday condemned a string of arrests tied to a long-running land dispute in Mogadishu, saying authorities had unlawfully detained a television journalist and members of a committee advocating for families displaced from the city’s Sinai Market area. The Somali Salvation Forum, a coalition of opposition groups, said in a statement that the arrests amounted to a “clear violation”…

Somali Politics Spill Into Nairobi Again — And Mogadishu Pushes Back It is a familiar scene in East African diplomacy: Somali politicians gathering in a Nairobi hotel to hash out the country’s future far from Mogadishu’s checkpoints and political heat. This week, that well-worn script met a forceful rebuttal from Somalia’s defense minister, who said enough is enough. In a sharply worded post, Defense Minister Ahmed Macallin Fiqi condemned a Nairobi meeting of opposition figures and regional leaders — among them Puntland…

Trump’s jab at Ilhan Omar isn’t just a feud. It’s a mirror of America’s anxieties. When former President Donald Trump told reporters he had asked Somalia’s president to “take back” Rep. Ilhan Omar, the line landed like a punchline in the room—and a gut punch across the Somali diaspora. Omar, the Somali-born Democrat from Minnesota and one of the most visible Muslim women in American politics, answered in kind, calling Trump “a lying buffoon” and urging the public not to dignify his claims. The exchange may sound familiar.…