Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) had an hours-long firefight with troops after attacking a base on the outskirts of Geidam, 180 kilometres (112 miles) from the Yobe state capital Damaturu, early Wednesday before laying siege to the town, residents said. A Nigerian army convoy in Borno State, where up to 30 soldiers were killed by Islamists. Photograph: Afolabi Sotunde/ReutersSuspected IS-aligned jihadists have besieged a northeastern Nigerian town for a third day, as troops enforce a round-the-clock curfew that has kept residents indoors, military sources and residents told AFP Friday.Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) had an hours-long firefight with troops after attacking a base on the outskirts of Geidam -- 180 kilometres (112 miles) from the Yobe state capital Damaturu -- early Wednesday before laying siege to the town, residents said.Residents told AFP that they could not say if any troops or jihadists were killed in the gunfight."We have been forced to stay indoors since Wednesday by soldiers who warned everyone not to step outside," Abubakar Musa, a resident of Geidam, told AFP by phone.Two military officers, who spoke to AFP anonymously, said the curfew was necessary because ISWAP militants had "surrounded" the town of about 89,000 residents and could launch renewed attacks."The terrorists are lying low outside the town whil...
Read briefing MPs sound alarm as 32 million Kenyans join SHA but only 5 million pay People Daily
Read briefing MPs sound alarm as 32 million Kenyans join SHA but only 5 million pay People Daily
Read briefing RSF added that its forces subsequently took control of weapons and military equipment left at the two bases. The claims could not immediately be independently verified as there was no immediate confirmation from the Sudanese army that the positions had fallen.
Read briefing In a statement, the minister described the incident as a coordinated attack allegedly carried out by an armed cross-border criminal network, with simultaneous assaults reported in Majak and Alabek payams.
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Read briefing Stoni Athi is expected to test every aspect of the competitors' preparation. Autocross demands quick reactions, precise car control and the ability to extract maximum pace from a machine while keeping it intact through the various stages of competition.
Read briefing Mladic died in prison in The Hague after failed requests by Serbian authorities to secure early release to his home country.Ratko Mladic, a war criminal convicted for his role in orchestrating the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995 – the first genocide on European soil since the second world war – died in prison in The Hague at the age of 84.He had been serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity – crimes whose “seriousness” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres restated after his death on Thursday.“The Secretary-General stands in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Mr Mladic was found guilty … [and] reiterates his call on all those in position of power to refrain from denying the seriousness of the crimes that have been adjudicated,” Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.On Friday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the UN war crimes court of “uncivilised behaviour” for not allowing Mladic early release, which would have seen him die in Serbia. Earlier this year, Belgrade requested he be allowed to receive medical treatment outside prison, saying his health condition was “serious”.Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, Mladic was one of the most notorious military commanders of the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Under his command, Bosnian Serb forces seized Srebrenica, near the Serbian border, in July 1995, despite the UN declaring the municipality a “safe area”. In the following days, the forces killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.Here is a timeline of the major events of Mladic’s life, leading up to his death in detention this week:Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb, was born in March 1942 in the village of Bozanovici in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina). His father was a member of a communist-led resistance to the Axis powers in World War II.In 1966, Mladic married Bosiljka Jedic and later had two children, Darko and Ana.At the age of 22, Mladic joined the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) and moved up the ranks. By 1991, he was the head of the Operational Teaching Department of the 9th Corps in Knin (today’s Croatia) and later commanded the Headquarters of the 9th Corps Maritime Division.The Presidency of the Social Federative Republic of Yugoslavia promoted Mladic to the rank of major-general in 1991 and lieutenant–colonel general in April 1992. He commanded the headquarters of the JNA’s Second Military Area Command in Sarajevo.The Bosnian Serb army, led by Mladic, laid siege to the capital city of Sarajevo.The longest military siege of a capital city in modern history, it lasted 1,460 days, killing more than 11,500 people. An estimated 480,000 to 500,000 missiles were fired on the city.In July 1995, Mladic’s troops captured Srebrenica and Zepa, enclaves under the protection of the United Nations. In what was later termed a genocide, 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed, and between 25,000 and 30,000 were expelled from the area.Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, were indicted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This included the killings at Srebrenica, along with the mass expulsion of Bosniak civilians.Mladic was charged with 20 offences, including genocide. In 1996, the ICTY issued an international arrest warrant for Mladic and Karadzic.Mladic remained in hiding after the ICTY indictment, moving to different locations in Serbia.War crimes prosecutors and media investigations continued to track Mladic’s movement based on rumours, witness interviews, intelligence, and court documents.In 2001, he reportedly moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina before going back to Serbia.On May 26, 2011, Mladic was arrested in Lazarevo, northern Serbia, at his cousin’s house. He was taken into custody in Belgrade and then transferred to The Hague to be prosecuted by the ICTY.The trial commenced in June 2011, and closing arguments were delivered in December 2016. Mladic refused a plea deal.Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 over the Srebrenica genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.In late 2022, Mladic was hospitalised in “poor health”, his family said at the time.In June 2025, Mladic had filed a request to be freed, saying he only had a few months to live. His request was denied.Mladic died while hospitalised in The Hague, after spending approximately 15 years in custody and detention over war crimes in Bosnia.
Read briefing Experts examined the use of forced contraception on the Inuit community during the 1960s and 70s.
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Read briefing Residents protest against insecurity after a fatal overnight raid by an armed gang, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in Kenscoff, Haiti, August 24, 2026. REUTERS/Fildor Pq EgederAug 28 - Nearly 200,000 people were forcibly returned to Haiti in the first eight months of this year, a U.N. official told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday, days after a brutal gang attack killed nearly 50 people near the capital.The forced return represents at least 20,000 more people than in the same period last year, Indrika Ratwatte, the acting assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the meeting.Sunday night's attack took place days after Haiti received its first U.S. deportation flight since the Trump administration won a legal battle ending Temporary Protected Status for around 350,000 Haitians. On Thursday, another flight arrived with migrants from the U.S. and the Bahamas.Haitian security analysts have meanwhile warned that the flood of illegal arms entering the country is worsening the conflict that has claimed more than 21,000 lives since 2022.The U.N. estimates most guns in Haiti originate from the southeastern United States, though many are trafficked into the country through the land border with the Dominican Republic.Ratwatte briefed the Security Council alongside Carlos Ruiz, the head of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), who warned that without improved security, efforts to advance preparations for the country's first elections in a decade remain "severely constrained and vulnerable to setbacks."Ruiz said three boys and two girls were among the 47 people killed in the hillside community of Kenscoff near the capital Port-au-Prince on Sunday, where houses were set on fire and people who sought to escape were attacked inside a church."This latest heartbreaking episode is a stark reminder of the urgent need to further strengthen international security support for Haiti," Ruiz said.Diplomats argued the attack showed the need to more rapidly scale up the deployment of the U.N.-backed multinational force mandated to help police fight gangs that have massively expanded their influence over the last five years.Haitian authorities first requested foreign military assistance in 2022, but this was slow to materialize, and a year ago the U.N. mandated a different, larger and more aggressive force to deploy, called the Gang Suppression Force (GSF).The GSF aims to reach a capacity of 5,500 troops by fall this year. The Security Council will vote on whether to renew its mandate at the end of September.U.S. representative Jennifer Locetta called on the Security Council to renew the mandate."The GSF was not created to issue statements from within a compound wall or spend our money while Haiti suffers," she said, adding if more countries bring material support to the force, it could help police fight gangs more efficiently."This attack is precisely why the U.N. authorized Gang Suppression Force's mission and mandate matters," she said.A representative for the Haitian government said Chad, Mongolia and Ivory Coast had agreed to support the force and work was under way for similar agreements with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Guatemala. The latter two countries had already deployed personnel under a prior iteration of the force. REUTERS
Read briefing US President Donald Trump holding up a jacket given to him by the Artemis II crew members after presenting them with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Aug 28, 2026.HOUSTON, Texas - US President Donald Trump signed an order on Aug 28 creating a US Space Academy, billing it as a new military and civilian institution modelled after West Point and other military service academies.The proposed academy would build on Trump’s space agenda, which he and White House officials have described as a key component of his legacy.Trump launched the US Space Force as a sixth branch of the military during his first term, has attended multiple NASA launches and now aims to return Americans to the moon and eventually reach Mars.An eight-member commission, led by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, will advise the president on launching the institution, which Trump’s proclamation said would “develop a professional corps of civically grounded leaders prepared to advance American interests within the space domain.”Speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Trump said he would choose the location for the academy “very shortly,” and hinted that the Texas congressional delegation in attendance wanted the institution in the Lone Star State.He has pledged that the US will land astronauts on the moon during his final year in office. “A nation cannot be first on Earth if we’re going to be second in space,” Trump said during a ceremony to award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the four crew members of the Artemis II mission.That crew – Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen – spent more than nine days in space, circumnavigating the moon and traveling deeper into space than any human before.The multibillion-dollar US moon programme is targeting its first astronaut landing in 2028, involving SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket system.That rocket’s development has been delayed, risking the timeline - but another moon lander from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin that is also under development might make the 2028 deadline instead.The Artemis programme rivals the lunar ambitions of China, which is aiming for its own crewed moon landing around 2030 following a series of increasingly ambitious robotic missions.Both countries are seeking to establish a long-term crewed presence on the lunar south pole, where coveted water ice embedded in the lunar soil could be a key ingredient for fuel on the moon.Trump added that the US would launch a separate nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars in 2028 that would be the gateway to broader interplanetary travel. Isaacman said the missions would “inspire the next generation to carry the fire of exploration even further.”Trump’s order said implementing those goals requires new institutions to recruit and train future astronauts, engineers and scientists.It is unclear how logistics for the space academy – including building the campus, creating the programming and recruiting students – would work. Funding would need to be approved by Congress, which is historically gridlocked.Space Force officer candidates are generally commissioned through the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, also has a long tradition of its graduates becoming astronauts.“You think of West Point, and you think of Annapolis, and you think of the Air Force Academy, and you think of the Coast Guard Academy. They’re all good,” Trump said.“But we’re going to have now the Space Force Academy for what the people in this room love the most.”Many US space companies have struggled to attract new talent as the industry rapidly expands, with demand for spacecraft services and rocket launches soaring. Major players such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin have ramped up competition in the sector, driving up the cost of new hires for some smaller companies, analysts say.Staffing challenges have also snagged the US Space Force, whose workforce is 25 per cent lower than what Congress requires for the branch, according to a 2025 watchdog report.Trump also spent part of his two-day trip in Texas raising money for Republican Senate nominee and Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton ahead of November’s midterm elections. REUTERS
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Read briefing The disconnect is particularly pronounced among small and medium-sized enterprises, which claim they are yet to see a meaningful increase in access to credit despite the adoption of risk-based credit pricing. As the banking sector celebrates the growth of credit to the private sector, a clear and distinct disconnect is emerging.The disconnect is particularly pronounced among small and medium-sized enterprises, which claim they are yet to see a meaningful increase in access to credit despite the adoption of risk-based credit pricing.The latest credit data from the Central Bank shows that credit to the private sector grew by 10.2 percent. According to the Kenya Bankers Association, the growth is partly attributable to the risk-based pricing model.But the question remains: Has the growth translated into easier or more affordable financing for businesses and customers?According to the National Taxpayers Association, micro, small and medium enterprises remain Kenya's most credit-constrained segment, partly due to the nature of their typically short-term borrowing.The association argues that although banks have publicly doubled their collective MSME lending commitment to more than Ksh.350 billion, the amount remains modest when compared with the Ksh. 2.54 trillion that banks hold in government securities and public debt.“The scale of this commitment should, however, be read against t...
Read briefing Mourners gather outside the palace as royals, politicians and citizens remember a beloved king, whose son has adopted the family motto "all for norway".
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Read briefing Katiba at 16: Of Ruto, goons and the battle to protect Kenya’s 2027 vote People Daily
Read briefing Katiba at 16: Of Ruto, goons and the battle to protect Kenya’s 2027 vote People Daily
Read briefing 