U.S

US Troops to Train Nigerian Military Amid Islamist Threats The United States is set to deploy approximately 200 troops to Nigeria as part of a strategic initiative to bolster the Nigerian military's efforts in combating the growing menace of Islamist militants. This move marks the first confirmed US ground presence in Nigeria since the controversial Christmas Day airstrikes ordered by former President Donald Trump. Training Deployment Details The troops are expected to arrive within weeks and will focus on providing…

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats accused Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday of orchestrating a “cover-up” of the Jeffrey Epstein files and turning the Department of Justice into an “instrument of revenge” for President Donald Trump, sparking a raucous House Judiciary Committee hearing attended by several Epstein victims. Bondi defended the Justice Department’s handling of the court-ordered release, saying teams of government lawyers undertook a massive review under tight deadlines and that “pending investigations” in…

DUBLIN — Ireland’s government has raised the case of Kilkenny native Seamus Culleton with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after the Boston-based construction worker was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and transferred nearly 4,000 kilometers to a facility in El Paso, Texas. Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said officials have been engaging U.S. counterparts and offering consular support to Culleton, who was arrested by ICE on Sept. 9, 2025. Culleton, originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, told RTÉ’s…

Hargeisa (AX) — The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voiced sharp concern over reports that a United Arab Emirates–linked training center has been established in Ethiopia for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, with potential supply routes running through North Western State of Somalia’s Port of Berbera. In a post on X on Tuesday, Sen. Jim Risch described the RSF as “genocidal RSF thugs” and warned that alleged training and transit activity tied to the UAE would be “escalatory and further reason to…

Congressional Democrats on Wednesday unveiled legislation they say would eliminate the statute of limitations shielding sex traffickers and enablers from civil accountability, invoking the legacy of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and naming the bill in honor of one of his most prominent accusers. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez introduced “Virginia’s Law” alongside survivors of abuse and members of Virginia Giuffre’s family at the U.S. Capitol. The proposal would end the statute of…

Netanyahu to press Trump on tougher Iran deal as White House weighs second carrier deployment Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to push U.S. President Donald Trump to harden Washington’s stance in nuclear talks with Iran during a hastily arranged White House meeting today, as the president signals he may send a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. The talks, set to begin at 11 a.m. local time (4 p.m. Irish time), come days after Iran resumed negotiations with the United States in Oman…

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday denied having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as calls for his resignation intensified and newly released Justice Department files appeared to undercut his earlier account of severing contact more than two decades ago. “Over a 14 year period, I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person,” Lutnick told a Senate committee, adding that while in New York he met Epstein and later had lunch with him during a family vacation around 2012.…

U.S. military says two killed in strike on alleged drug-smuggling boat in eastern Pacific The U.S. military said it killed two people and left a third survivor in its latest strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific, expanding a campaign Washington has framed as a fight against “narco-terrorists” operating out of Venezuela. “Two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike,” U.S. Southern Command said in a statement posted on X. It added that the U.S. Coast Guard was notified to “activate…

Ghislaine Maxwell to face closed-door House deposition; expected to invoke Fifth Amendment Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year federal sentence for trafficking girls to financier Jeffrey Epstein, will be questioned behind closed doors by the House Oversight Committee via prison videolink — but her legal team says she will refuse to answer on Fifth Amendment grounds. The extraordinary deposition, part of a congressional probe into Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and the handling of information about his crimes, follows a…

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Risch warned this week that continued instability in Somalia poses a direct threat to U.S. national security, pressing for tighter oversight to ensure American counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance advances U.S. interests and is shielded from corruption. “The United States faces real security threats from the instability in Somalia,” said Risch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It is essential that our counterterrorism and humanitarian efforts primarily serve…