Reuters says it has identified the elusive British street artist Banksy as Robin Gunningham, a Bristol-born man who later used the name David Jones, following an extensive investigation that links immigration records, eyewitness accounts and past legal documents to murals the artist claimed in Ukraine in 2022. The news agency’s probe centers on a series of stencil works Banksy posted on Instagram in late 2022 as his own, painted on shattered buildings around Kyiv. Witnesses in the village of Horenka told Reuters an ambulance…

On the 11th anniversary of his disappearance, human rights groups renewed calls for truth and accountability in the case of pro-democracy activist Itai Dzamara, who was abducted outside a barber shop in Glen View, Harare, on March 9, 2015, and has not been seen since. Dzamara’s disappearance remains unresolved a decade after the incident that shocked Zimbabwe and drew attention to the risks faced by vocal critics of the country’s former president, Robert Mugabe. Amnesty International Zimbabwe said Dzamara’s family has…

ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — When Abdi Daisane first resettled in the United States in 2009, he called family overseas to describe a freedom that felt radical after years in a Kenyan refugee camp: no one demanded to see his papers. In Minnesota, he didn’t live at a checkpoint. Seventeen years later, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surged into Minnesota in recent months, that assurance unraveled. Daisane, who owns Blooming Kids Child Center in St. Cloud and is running for an open state House seat, found himself…

Kharkiv, Ukraine — On a frigid Friday morning, as children climbed the steps from Lyceum No. 105 — an underground school purpose-built to shield them from Russian airstrikes — municipal crews were out in force. They hacked at ice, scooped slush, and scrubbed sidewalks clean. The joke among Ukrainians about Kharkiv’s devotion to well-groomed streets survives even here, under constant threat from the sky. The city authorities have had little rest since February 2022. Vladimir Putin’s forces have pounded Ukraine’s…

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine marks a grim anniversary as President Volodymyr Zelensky declares that Vladimir Putin has failed to break the country and vows to seek a “strong, dignified, and lasting” peace on Ukraine’s terms. In a video address to the nation on the fourth anniversary of the February 2022 invasion, Zelensky said Ukraine had “preserved” its statehood and would “do everything to achieve peace — and to ensure there is justice.” Any agreement, he added, “must not simply be signed, it must…

Analysis: Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine faces its hardest winter as U.S.-brokered talks inch forward and Moscow hardens demands Four years after Russia launched its full-scale assault by land, sea and air, Ukraine enters a fifth year of war under punishing pressure: nightly missile and drone attacks on power stations, a slow-moving battlefield that chews through men and machines, and a diplomatic track that shows glimmers of structure but scant substance. A U.S.-led initiative that began a year ago…

Kenya to reopen Somalia border in April after 15-year closure, Ruto says MANDERA, Kenya — Kenya will reopen its border with Somalia in April, President William Ruto said Thursday, pledging tight security as his government moves to revive formal cross-border trade after years of closures tied to al-Shabab attacks. Speaking at the NYOTA Capital Disbursement event in Mandera, Ruto said he will personally officiate the reopening of the Mandera Border Post, which has been shut since 2011. “We cannot trade with closed borders. For…

King Charles III Invites Nigerian President to Historic State Visit In a significant diplomatic gesture, King Charles III and Queen Camilla have invited Nigerian President Bola Tinubu for a state visit, marking the first of its kind by a Nigerian leader to the United Kingdom in 37 years. The last state visit from Nigeria occurred in 1989, when then-President Gen Ibrahim Babangida met with Queen Elizabeth II. Unlike routine official trips, state visits follow a formal royal protocol and are designed to enhance diplomatic…

Russia launched its most powerful barrage of the year against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, Ukrainian officials said, knocking out heating for hundreds of thousands as temperatures plunged below minus 20 C and ahead of a new round of talks aimed at halting the four-year war. The strikes hit as an arctic cold snap gripped the country and damaged the base of Kyiv’s iconic Soviet-era Motherland monument, adding a symbolic wound to widespread utility outages. “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to…

KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda plans to withdraw its troops from Somalia after nearly two decades on the front lines of African Union peacekeeping, a move that could reshape security calculations in the Horn of Africa and test hard-won gains against Al-Shabaab. Gen. Wilson Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, said in a post on X on Sunday that the country’s military mission in Somalia “has officially ended” and that preparations are underway for a full pullout. “After 19 years in Somalia, we plan…