Few Americans know anything about the country. They’re minimally knowledgeable geographically about nations only when Washington goes to war – testimony to public ignorance, a national disgrace in a nation where it’s simple to stay informed by following reliable independent online sources.

Niger is landlocked in central northwest Africa, nearly twice the size of France territorially. It’s the world’s fifth largest source of uranium, its fourth largest producer, reason enough for America’s presence.

Its other valued resources include coal, iron ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum, gypsum, salt and oil – with at least 40 billion barrels of proved reserves, perhaps multiples this amount, it’s believed, along with plentiful natural gas.

Niger became newsworthy with reports of militants killing four US special forces, the Pentagon saying little about what happened.

With Pentagon officials offering the first details on the Niger ambush incident, they also revealed details about the ongoing US war in Niger, including the revelation that there is an ongoing US war in Niger. Nobody seems to have known about it.

Especially not those whose job it is to know. Senate Armed Services Committee members confirmed they were “stunned” by the revelation, and had no idea that the US had upwards of 1,000 ground troops operating inside Niger.

Gen. Joe Dunford presented this military operation as being targeted at an ISIS affiliate inside Niger, and the suggestion is that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Afghanistan is serving as the legal justification.

The October 4 ambush in Niger that killed four US Special Forces members forced the Pentagon to admit that they had been routinely carrying out ground patrols inside Niger, but African command (AFRICOM) may be cashing in on the incident.

With the revelation that there are US military operations ongoing in Niger and countless other countries, AFRICOM is noting that they’d requested a lot more military equipment than they got, and some of that might conceivably have come in handy during the ambush.

The US special forces were, after all, sent out in unarmored vehicles, with no air surveillance, and no way of evacuating if a problem happened. Instead of questioning why they sent troops into such dangerous circumstances in the first place, officials just say it proves they should’ve been given way more equipment.

France will do everything to protect its interests in Niger after an attack on a uranium plant run by nuclear reactor maker Areva near the northern town of Arlit earlier on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande said.

“We will have the same will to co-operate (with Niger) to fight against terrorism and will also protect our interests,” he told reporters.

The US must step up support for French troops fighting Islamic State in West Africa, the French defense minister said during a visit to Washington, even as US officials sparred over the ambush in Niger that left four US service members dead.

“Much more needs to be done,” Defense Minister Florence Parly said after a meeting Friday with her US counterpart James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, according to Reuters. “We can’t be and don’t want to be, the praetorian (guards) of sovereign African countries. They must be made able to defeat terror on their own.”

Without US support, Parly said, the mission is likely to fail.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis thanked French Defence Minister Florence Parly for France's help after four US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, sparking controversy over American operations in the west African country. The Iran nuclear deal and Chad, which is affected by President Donald Trump's travel ban, were among other questions raised by Parly during her visit.

"Thank you for your support and for your letter of condolences for our fallen following this attack," Mattis told Parly when they met on Friday.

French helicopters, backed up by warplanes, arrived to evacuate the US victims within 30 minutes of the ambush by about 50 attackers, thought to be jihadists, near the Mali border.

Another deadline has passed without agreement in Niger in the government's ongoing negotiations with the French nuclear company Areva on the renewal of the company's license to operate in the country.

After months of discussions, the mining minister, Omar Tchiana, said last week that Friday would be the final deadline for the two sides to strike a deal. Now it has been agreed that talks will continue without a fixed deadline.

The negotiations are deadlocked on the issue of the royalties Areva pays Niger for the rights to two large uranium mines, Somair and Cominak in the arid north of the country. The terms of the original deal struck in the early 1970s have never been made public, but government sources say the company pays about 5.5% of its revenues in royalties. Niger wants the terms of a new mining code passed in 2006 to be implemented, which would force Areva to pay between 12% and 15% in royalties, and end a number of tax breaks on materials and equipment.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis provided a Capitol Hill briefing about the deadly ambush in Niger that took the lives of four U.S. troops – and the emerging details describe a chaotic encounter with inadequate support.

Mattis briefed Armed Services Chairman Sen. John McCain, who was so upset by the lack of information that he threatened to issue a subpoena.

A congressional source briefed on the mission called it a 'massive intelligence failure,' NBC reported.

The ugly row over whether President Trump disrespected the young widow of a fallen American soldier has overshadowed a bigger issue. That is, the increasing number of US military operations across the African continent.

A horrific bomb attack in Somalia's capital on Saturday killed at least 231 people and wounded hundreds of others.

A vehicle packed with explosives detonated outside the entrance of a busy hotel in Mogadishu in what authorities are calling the deadliest attack ever in the Horn of Africa which includes the countries Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Panic has ensued in Madagascar where a recent outbreak of the plague has claimed the lives of at least 24 people. Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana has announced a ban on all public gatherings and demonstrations in effect until the outbreak can be contained.
The plague is a deadly disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. It usually begins as the bubonic plague, which is spread from small mammals (such as rats) and fleas to humans. If detected early, the bubonic plague can generally be treated and controlled with antibiotics and proper environmental measures. However, half of all reported cases in Madagascar are the pneumonic plague –- the deadliest form of the disease.

The pneumonic plague is transmitted person to person. Since this form of the plague is airborne, it spreads extremely rapidly and can have catastrophic consequences. Those who contract the pneumonic plague must be treated immediately as it can be fatal within less than 24 hours of onset.

US “training” operations in Niger took a turn for the deadly on Wednesday, when three US soldiers were killed, and two others wounded in an ambush by unspecified “enemies” near the Niger-Mali border. These are the first US combat deaths recorded in Niger, with another US soldier killed in a vehicle accident earlier this year.

The incident is raising a lot of questions, however, because US commanders had been telling everyone involved that the patrols were “low risk” and that there was little hostile activity in the area.

Now officials are trying to figure out what happened, and whether patrols became so predictable that the troops in the country made themselves a target in the area. For now, even who carried out the attack is subject to speculation.

An unidentified group of assailants attacked and killed soldiers from both the US and Niger in an ambush near the Niger-Mali border on Wednesday, according to CNN and local French-language media.

Three green berets were killed in the incident, the first US casualties in a mission to assist local troops against Al Qaeda's African branch, and five soldiers from Niger were also killed.

Three US Special Forces troops were killed and two wounded in an ambush while on a joint patrol with Nigerien forces in southwest Niger, US Africa Command confirmed in a statement.

“On Oct. 4, three (3) US service members and one partner nation member were killed while the US was providing advice and assistance to Nigerien security force counter-terror operations, approximately 200 km north of Niamey, in southwest Niger. Additionally, two US service members were injured and evacuated in stable condition to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany,” the statement reads.

The Chinese military has for the first time staged live-fire drills at the country's first overseas base opened recently in the Horn of Africa, near the strategic Straits of Hormuz in Djibouti.

Less than two months after inaugurating and deploying troops to China's first foreign naval military base abroad, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA) held live-fire drills for the first time in this east African location on Friday, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

China’s first overseas military facility was inaugurated on August 1 after being under construction for more than a year. China’s military presence in Djibouti will continue until 2026, with a contingent of up to 10,000 soldiers. Beijing has long wanted to use its several footholds in Africa to seek closer ties with nations on the continent that could help it gain access to natural resources and provide new markets.

Afghanistan isn’t the only place the US military is increasing operational tempo: 13 airstrikes have been conducted on al-Shabab jihadists in Somalia since June, Stars and Stripes reports.

Internationally renowned public relations firm Bell Pottinger could end up in administration within a week, after its financial plight worsened significantly in the wake of widespread outrage over its secret campaign to stir up racial tensions in South Africa.

At least 1.4 million people uprooted by Boko Haram's insurgency in northeast Nigeria are living in 'cholera hotspots', prey to an outbreak of the deadly disease which is sweeping through camps for the displaced, the United Nations said on Thursday.

An estimated 28 people have died from cholera in the conflict-hit region, while about 837 are suspected to have been infected with the disease, including at least 145 children under the age of five, said the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF).

The outbreak was first identified last week in the Muna Garage camp in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which is the heart of jihadist group Boko Haram's brutal eight-year campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.

About 1.8 million people have abandoned their homes because of violence or food shortages, U.N. agencies say, and many live in camps for the displaced throughout northeast Nigeria.

It is reported the assailant snuck up behind the officer and cut his neck. The attack has been called completely unprovoked in Swedish media.

While the officer was conscious and able to sit up on his own as the ambulance arrived. He was discharged from the hospital Thursday afternoon having sustained only minor injuries.

The attack comes just hours after Swedish police were the subject of another potentially deadly attack Thursday morning, again in Stockholm. Officers were called to a bogus burglar alarm in a suburb to the south of the city, and upon arriving instead of finding a householder in distress, their car was pelted with heavy stones from a 10th floor flat in a tower block.

One of the officers, a police dog handler came close to being killed when his vehicle was struck, reports Expressen. Police were able to raid the apartment and arrested one for attempted murder, but a second suspect remains on the run.

The big story is buried in the FDA press release. Here is the Agency’s statement:

“Serious health problems, including those that are life-threatening, can also occur in…people who…have problems with their heart or immune system if they become infected with the [smallpox] vaccine virus, either by being vaccinated or by being in close contact with a person who was vaccinated.”

The FDA states that those with certain prior health conditions who pick up the smallpox virus, as a result of vaccination, are at exceptionally high risk. AMONG THOSE PRIOR HEALTH CONDITIONS IS: “IMMUNE SYSTEM PROBLEMS.”

That simply means weak and compromised immune systems.

And yet…during the years 1966-1980, a massive smallpox eradication campaign was carried out in Africa, under the auspices of the World Health Organization. Roughly 100 million doses of the smallpox vaccine were given to Africans, MANY OF WHOM ALREADY HAD COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEMS.

Moments ago, in response to the devastation from hurricane Harvey, Texas Governor Abbott announced he is activating the entire Texas National Guard, bringing the total number of deployed guardsman to roughly 12,000. These National Guardsman will assist in the ongoing search and rescue effort for any Texans in immediate danger, and will be heavily involved in the extensive recovery effort in the aftermath of the storm.

A Friday morning raid by US and Somali troops in Barire village left at least 10 civilians dead, including three children. This incident was initially reported by the deputy governor of the region, and confirmed over the weekend by Somalia’s Army Chief.

Army Chief Ahmed Jimale Gedi told reporters he was “shocked” by the incident, and attributed it to distrust on both sides. The Somali government had formally dismissed the report Friday, claiming everyone slain was al-Shabaab militants.

The government’s refusal to admit what happened is an ongoing problem, with the provincial deputy governor confirming that the families have placed the bodies of the slain in storage, and are refusing to bury them until the national government admits what happened and agrees to pay compensation.

Afrikaners will have to concentrate together in one area for safety or remain vulnerable as a spread-out minority, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Orania movement in South Africa has said after a renewed wave of black attacks over the past weekend left four white farmers dead.

“JOSEPH KONY Est Mort,” reads a leaflet bearing the murderous Central African warlord’s visage and the message, in French, that he has died.

Over the last six years, the United States invested the better part of $1 billion to make that statement a reality. America sent military advisers, set up bases, gathered intelligence, and funded and equipped local proxies across the region in an effort to kill or capture Kony and destroy his Lord’s Resistance Army, a militia that has committed atrocities since the 1980s. The U.S. military even created that flier to tout Kony’s death and sent reams of them to a shadowy outpost in the Central African Republic where they sat, waiting for the day they could rain down from the sky. Now that leaflet — and that dream — have gone up in smoke.

US and Somali troops attacked the farming village of Barire early Friday morning, capturing a group of ten civilians and summarily executing them one at a time. Locals brought the bodies, including three children, to the capital of Mogadishu to protest the incident.

Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle Ali Nur Mohammed blamed the US forces, saying that they rounded up the farmers working in the fields, then “one by one” shot them, saying that all the slain were unarmed civilians.

US African Command confirmed that US troops were “supporting” the Somali operation, but offered no details. They confirmed being aware of reports of civilians being killed and promised an “assessment” of the matter.

93-year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe made it clear in an address this week that people who murdered white farmers during a government-sanctioned purge in the 2000s will never be prosecuted.

In 2000, Zimbabwe implemented a controversial land reform program that saw squatters invade and seize hundreds of white-owned farms around the country. As Newsweek details, the violent seizures resulted in the murder of several white farmers, with many more displaced, and close associates of Mugabe given large chunks of land.

And now, speaking at a rally in Harare, Mugabe confirmed this massacre will go unpunished, according to Zimbabwean news site NewsDay.

The United States seems to be working toward courting an unexpected ally in its operations in Africa. On Aug. 9, 2017, Alexander Laskaris — an American diplomat that works for the U.S. military’s Germany-based Africa Command — visited Sudan for a series of meetings with military and diplomatic officials.

The visit comes amid a gradual move toward warmer relations. In March 2016, the Sudanese government reopened the military attache’s office in its U.S. embassy after a 28-year gap. Around the same time, Washington named a military attache for its own embassy Khartoum. And in April 2017, a delegation of Sudanese military officials met with AFRICOM in Stuttgart.

Nearly every new policy introduced by government, (in 90% of the occasions with the support by the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance) bears witness of its anti-white, anti-Christian agenda. Over the past two decades, Marxist Government Policies such as Affirmative Action, or Black Economic Empowerment. have forced thousands of competent whites out of the labor market. The official unemployment figure among whites in South Africa, almost nonexistent prior to 1994, has risen to almost 10% today. Just under 1 in 5 white South Africans now live in poverty. White property owners are permanently haunted by continual threats of disownment in the name of “land redistribution,” and about 19 million acres of formerly white property has already been “redistributed” by the black government over the past 21 years.

Kenya has decided it doesn’t need western assistance to ensure it has “free and fair” elections.

The African country is holding a national vote for president, deputy president, and parliament on 8 August.

But the election will have to go forward without the help of two foreign advisors.

John Phillips, a US citizen and chief executive of political consultancy Aristotle, and Canadian citizen Andreas Katsouris, a senior executive at the same firm, were arrested on Friday and deported from Kenya on Saturday, according to Reuters.

The two men were providing political consulting services to opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his National Super Alliance party. Polls show Odinga and incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta neck-in-neck in the race for the Kenya State House.

Kenya’s last two presidential elections were marred by violence and charges from the losing side of vote rigging. Unrest following the 2007 vote left hundreds dead.

Goldman Sachs, the merchant bank, calls cobalt ‘the new gasoline’ but there are no signs of new wealth in the DRC, where the children haul the rocks brought up from tunnels dug by hand.

Adult miners dig up to 600ft below the surface using basic tools, without protective clothing or modern machinery. Sometimes the children are sent down into the narrow makeshift chambers where there is constant danger of collapse.

Cobalt is such a health hazard that it has a respiratory disease named after it – cobalt lung, a form of pneumonia which causes coughing and leads to permanent incapacity and even death.

Even simply eating vegetables grown in local soil can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, thyroid damage and fatal lung diseases, while birds and fish cannot survive in the area.

Some European countries, namely Italy, Germany, France and the UK, are facing the so-called "substitution of nations," where the national ethnical majority is disappearing physically and biologically, and is being substituted by migrants, according to a recent report. Sputnik Italy discussed the issue with Daniele Scalea, the author of the report.

The recent report of the Italian-based Machiavelli Center of Political and Strategic Studies (Centro studi politici e strategici Machiavelli), "How immigration is changing Italian demographics" has revealed that a number of European countries are facing the "biological and physical extinction" of their national ethnicities.

Ethnic majorities in such countries as Italy, Germany, France and the UK, are gradually turning into ethnic minorities, while being "substituted" by incoming migrants.

A gigantic mine engages in every conceivable destructive practice—strip mining, heap leaching, tailings dams and ponds and so on. It pays such low wages its workers only make ends meet by borrowing from the company at usurious rates. The mine has befouled the air and poisoned the water. Many workers are chronically sick and their children are afflicted with birth defects. The mine’s absentee owners know that the mine is played out and the tailings dam is structurally unsound. They close the mine, count their profits, and move on. A month later the dam gives way. A deluge of noxious sludge inundates the town below the dam, sparing no one and rendering the area uninhabitable.

The government is a strip mining operation, plundering the dwindling residual value of a once wealthy America. Forget ostensible justifications, policy is crafted to allow those who control the government to maximize their take and put the costs on their victims, leaving devastation in their wake.

"The Christians were asked to recite the Islamic dogmas, which they could not, hence they were killed," a source told Morning Star News.

The militants shot, hacked to death, and beheaded the Christians.

Troops in the West African nation of Cameroon have tortured prisoners at a remote military base that is also used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for drone surveillance and training missions.

As the U.S. military has fortified the Cameroonian site, known as Salak, and supported the elite local troops based there, the outpost has become the scene of illegal imprisonment, brutal torture, and even killings, according to a new investigation by The Intercept and the Goldsmiths, University of London-based research firm Forensic Architecture, based on extensive research by Amnesty International. Nearly 60 victims held at Salak described to Amnesty International how they were subjected to water torture, beaten with electric cables and boards, or tied and suspended with ropes, among other abuses.

The proposal to change the so-called Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) — an EU fund worth US$2.62 billion (€2.3 billion), charged with disbursing money for peace-building activities in conflict-ridden developing countries is avowedly part of the European Commission's "capacity building in support of security and development" initiative.

The proposals have been engulfed in legal controversy since their launch by the Commission in 2016. While the European Commission claims the move would strengthen the EU's ability to shore up state institutions in countries whose development has been hindered by violence, critics claim it's a covert attempt to divert financial resources away from traditional aid projects, to the EU's increasingly embattled military operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

A top member of South Africa’s ruling social democratic party says that the United States is trying to foment regime change in his country, and that Washington must clarify the “irregular activities” of some of its diplomats there.

“There seems to be irregular activities coming from the US Embassy,” Keith Khoza, a spokesman for the African National Congress Party, said.

The ANC will relay its concerns to Washington through diplomatic channels, he said.

With every passing day the formerly booming nation of South Africa is getting ever closer to the formerly banana republic of Zimbabwe.

On Wednesday, South Africa's ruling African National Congress proposed at its 5th annual national policy conference that in addition to potentially nationalizing the country's central bank, that land expropriation without compensation should be allowed where it is "necessary and unavoidable," President Jacob Zuma said.

South Africa’s ruling party wants to sharply downgrade ties with Israel.

At its national policy conference on Tuesday, the African National Congress adopted a recommendation “to downgrade the South African embassy in Israel to a liaison office in a bid to reduce diplomatic ties,” the Mail & Guardian newspaper reported.

With every passing day the formerly booming nation of South Africa is getting ever closer to the formerly banana republic of Zimbabwe.

On Wednesday, South Africa's ruling African National Congress proposed at its 5th annual national policy conference that in addition to potentially nationalizing the country's central bank, that land expropriation without compensation should be allowed where it is "necessary and unavoidable," President Jacob Zuma said.

Ordinary South Africans are meanwhile keeping close tabs on the policy conference, adamant that the ANC come up with solutions to overcome deep poverty, the uncontrollable rise in unemployment and inequality.

The ANC should once again become "the party that people voted for so many years ago," says Mbali Nyando, lamenting that 22 years into democracy, the living conditions of the people, black people in particular, are "deteriorating rather than improving."

In the midst of festivities leading into Independence Day, the U.S. opportuned the distraction to bomb yet another sovereign nation in the name of fighting terrorism, launching airstrikes against al-Shabaab militants rebelling against the U.N.-backed Somali government headed by U.S. citizen, President Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed.

These strikes on Sunday follow the granting of expanded powers to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) by President Trump earlier this year, and seems to be the second of its kind.

“We are currently assessing the results of the operation, and will provide additional information as appropriate,” AFRICOM spokesman Chuck Prichard asserted Monday.

Following the airstrikes, AFRICOM spokesman Patrick Barnes also noted, “U.S. forces remain committed to supporting the federal government of Somalia, the Somali National Army and our AMISOM partners in defeating al-Shabab and establishing a safe and secure environment in Somalia.”

RT Documentary travels to the vast, near-landlocked Democratic Republic of Congo, prized for its mineral resources, but plagued by centuries of colonial rule, dictatorship, civil wars and lawlessness, and meets people trying to make a living in one of the most desperate places on Earth.

The documentary crew’s key to understanding the country, seven times the size of Germany, was Bernard Kalume Buleri, born in 1960, the same year DRC was granted its independence from Belgium. Buleri served as an interpreter, guide, and finally the hero and symbol of the country, having been a direct participant in some of its bloodiest chapters.

It began as a squabble between Arab allies, but the standoff between Qatar and its neighbours is threatening to engulf the Horn of Africa. When Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and the Maldives declared at the beginning of June that they were severing diplomatic relations with Qatar it appeared to be of interest mainly to the Arabian Peninsula – and the Gulf in particular.

The Saudis and their allies accused Qatar of backing international terrorism. The US, which has the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, looked askance, but did little more than use its good offices to try to ensure that the war of words did not flare into an open conflict.

But the countries just across the Red Sea have found themselves dragged into the dispute. After prevaricating for some time, Eritrea, which had hitherto good relations with Qatar, fell into line with the Saudis and broke ties with Qatar.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that BRICS cooperation would be more productive and usher in a new "golden decade."

Xi made the remarks when meeting with the heads of delegations from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, who are in Beijing to attend the BRICS foreign ministers' meeting.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the meeting, which also included Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and India's Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh.

Xi extended congratulations on the success of the meeting and thanked other BRICS members for their support.

He said that BRICS countries faced the common task of safeguarding domestic stability and development, creating a favorable international environment and working to make the international order more just and equitable.

As the Western establishment continues to try and crush Syria, Venezuela, Iran and the Philippines, the empire is setting its sights on a new target which is receiving itself less attention: Tanzania.

Although not in the form of bombs and sanctions (yet), the G 8 is moving to force Tanzania to accept GMOs and patented seeds under the guise of developmental assistance and aid to one of the world’s most impoverished nations. The G 8 is doing so through its NAFSN (New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition) which was created in 2012. Its publicly stated goal was to end poverty for 50 million people and it is funded by the EU, U.S., UK, World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of its many partners in Tanzania is of course, Monsanto.

At least two people have been killed and 20 were taken hostage after an African resort popular with Westerners was stormed by gunmen shouting 'Allahu Akhbar'.

Shots were heard by local residents near Le Campement Kangaba, to the eastern edge of the Malian capital, Bamako, with plumes of smoke also seen billowing into the air.

Stunned faces of those who were captured could be seen through the windows of buses that were ferrying them to safety after they had been rescued.

The United States has a pattern of pushing for regime change in sovereign nations, while ignoring the consequences. One major result from the list of countries the U.S. has invaded this century is that they make up the top of the “least peaceful” nations in the 2017 Global Peace Index.

The 2017 Global Peace Index is another reminder that the United States’ seemingly endless pattern of pushing for regime change in sovereign nations that have done nothing to the U.S. has indeed resulted in a significant amount of blowback—most of which will be misrepresented, if not ignored by the mainstream media.

The U.S. military used the expanded authority President Donald Trump granted to the Pentagon in March to strike a terrorist outpost in Somalia on Sunday, officials said.

Together with Somali partners, the Pentagon used a drone to target a command and control and logistics hub 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu — the nation’s capital — to kill multiple fighters with al-Shabab, a terrorist organization aligned with al-Qaeda, according to the Pentagon.

The outpost was described by a military official as a mid-level operation, not a high value target.

According to Pentagon Chief Spokeswoman Dana W. White, the bombing was in response to al-Shabab’s recent attacks on the Somali military and used the new authority the Department of Defense received from Trump.

The countries of West Africa's Sahel region are requesting 50 million euros ($56 million) from the European Union to help set up a multinational force to take on Islamist militant groups, Mali's military chief said on Saturday.

The vast, arid zone has in recent years become a breeding ground for jihadist groups - some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State - that European nations, particularly France, fear could menace Europe if left unchecked.

The terrorists who rampaged across London on the night of 3 June were part of a wider extremist network closely monitored by MI5 for decades. The same network was heavily involved in recruiting Britons to fight with jihadist groups in Syria, Iraq and Libya.

Police have confirmed that Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba were the three terrorists shot dead after participating in a brutal van and knife attack in the London Bridge area.

According to press reports, both Butt and Redouane were longstanding members of the proscribed extremist network formerly known as al-Muhajiroun. After 9/11, the group operated under different names such as Shariah4UK, Muslims4Crusades and Islam4UK. Originally founded by Lebanese firebrand, Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was banned from returning the UK after the 7/7 attacks, the network was later run by Bakri’s deputy, Anjem Choudary.

RED FLAGS, MISSED

EU chiefs have agreed to dish out a whopping £43 million (€ 50 million) to fund a new African joint military force as part of a counter terrorism offensive.

In a bid to combat jihadist groups active in the Sahel region, the EU pledged to fund a force made up of troops from Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger – known as the Sahel G-5.

The force will also attempt to tackle trafficking networks and illegal migration in the region.

In the Mali capital Bamako, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said: “Stability and development of the Sahel region are crucial not only for Africa but also for Europe.”

Abdoulaye Diop, Mali’s foreign minister, said on Monday the new force would have some 10,000 soldiers and police officers and would become operational by the end of the year.

The massive Western police state, that is seemingly expanding at an exponential rate, is there to protect us — or so we are told. However, all the spying, phone call intercepts, spied on emails, facial scanners, CCTV cameras, and loss of freedoms did not stop Salman Abedi from murdering innocent people by detonating a bomb inside the Manchester Arena. What’s more, as we are now finding out, British intelligence was warned ahead of time that Abedi was plotting a terror attack in the UK — and they did absolutely nothing to stop it.

Several months before this terrorist blew himself up at the Ariana Grande concert, FBI agents are said to have to have informed British officials that the 22-year-old was part of a North African Islamic State cell based in the north west of England that was plotting an attack in the UK, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

It hasn't happened since the infamous Black Hawk Down battle in 1993.

Last month, a US soldier was shot and killed fighting in Somalia. Reports indicate the Navy SEAL was serving alongside his Somali counterparts — not advising from the operating base — as they battled al-Shabab militants.

New York Times correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman has covered Somalia for more than a decade, and writes about it in his new book, “Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival.”

Gettleman is skeptical of Washington's official explanation that dozens, perhaps hundreds of US soldiers are in Somalia simply to offer advice.

"Many of us suspect this is not simply advise and assist, that American troops are fighting toe-to-toe with al-Shabab militants," he explains. "The fact that a Navy SEAL was just killed in combat in a spray of bullets fired at a vehicle pretty much confirms what we had always suspected."

Italy signed on Sunday (May 21st) an agreement with Libya, Chad and Niger to try to stem the flow of migrants by strengthening border controls and creating new reception centers in African countries. An emergency motivated by this figure:
50,041 migrants have arrived on the Italian coast since the beginning of the year, an increase of more than 45% compared to the same period last year, according to the report released Monday by the Ministry of the Interior.