Targeting

eBay has agreed to buy Depop from Etsy in a $1.2 billion deal, a move that deepens the online marketplace’s push into secondhand fashion and the Gen Z resale economy. The companies said the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. The acquisition is aimed at broadening eBay’s reach with younger shoppers and reinforcing its long-term growth strategy in “pre-loved” apparel and accessories, a category that has surged alongside climate-conscious and cost-aware buying habits. “Depop has built a…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is gathering a slate of foreign leaders in the U.S. capital to inaugurate the “Board of Peace,” a new initiative he casts as a vehicle to consolidate a fragile calm in Gaza and project an alternative model of U.S.-led crisis management far beyond the Middle East. About two dozen heads of state and senior officials are expected, including several of Trump’s closest ideological allies — among them Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Argentina’s President Javier Milei — but few of the…

China has agreed to lift sanctions on five British lawmakers and two members of the House of Lords, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during a visit to the country, marking a thaw in a three-year dispute that began over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Starmer said he raised the issue directly with Chinese leaders and was told the restrictions “no longer apply,” adding that President Xi said “all parliamentarians are welcome.” The seven U.K. parliamentarians were sanctioned in 2021, barred from entering China and from…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. Africa Command says it has carried out 23 airstrikes in Somalia so far this year targeting Al-Shabaab and ISIS, underscoring a stepped-up counterterrorism tempo that U.S. officials say is coordinated with partners across the continent. AFRICOM spokesperson Maj. Mahalia Frost said Wednesday the increase is part of a broader U.S. effort against ISIS in Africa, noting recent American strikes in Nigeria. She said instability in Somalia and Nigeria is intertwined, arguing that regional cooperation and…

U.S., allies launch “large-scale” strikes on Islamic State targets across Syria after Palmyra attack U.S. and allied forces carried out large-scale strikes against the Islamic State group across Syria today, the U.S. military said, describing the operation as a direct response to last month’s attack that killed three Americans in the ancient city of Palmyra. U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X that “the strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria” as part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, launched after a Dec. 13…

Red Sea flashpoint: Israel’s North Western State of Somalia recognition collides with Türkiye’s long game in Somalia In the strategic waters that link the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, two storylines are converging with destabilizing force. Israel’s December 2025 recognition of North Western State of Somalia, the breakaway region abutting the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has injected a new geopolitical shock into a corridor already strained by Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in Yemen. The…

Trump orders blockade of sanctioned oil tankers to and from Venezuela, escalating pressure campaign President Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete” blockade of sanctioned oil tankers heading to and from Venezuela, intensifying a months-long U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and sharpening Washington’s confrontation with President Nicolás Maduro’s government. “Today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social…

MOGADISHU — Jubbaland’s Darwish forces launched a sweeping security operation Saturday in the town of Qooqaani in Somalia’s Lower Jubba region, targeting areas used by Al-Shabab and working to secure key routes linking the town to surrounding districts, regional officials said. Security chief Mahmoud Adan Hassan Gaaboow, who directed the mission, said troops searched access roads and nearby settlements that have served as transit points for the militant group. The operation is intended to curb ambushes and roadside…

Somalia says intelligence raid strikes al-Shabab leadership in Jilib; separate operation reported to kill 13 near Afgooye MOGADISHU — Somalia’s intelligence service said Thursday its forces carried out an overnight operation in Middle Juba targeting senior al-Shabab commanders inside the militant group’s longtime stronghold of Jilib. The National Intelligence and Security Agency, known as NISA, said the mission zeroed in on leadership elements within al-Shabab but did not disclose casualties or the extent of damage.…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used his Thanksgiving message to attack Somali-Americans and propose sweeping new immigration restrictions, singling out Minnesota and offering no evidence for claims that refugees are driving crime and economic turmoil. In remarks posted online, Trump asserted that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” and described “Somalian gangs” roaming the streets. He did not provide data to support the statements. He also…