International

A Deal Within Days, an Air Strike Within Nights: Somalia's Election Talks Advance Under Fire

MOGADISHU

Somalia's federal government and its opposition are within days of signing the first written agreement either side has produced since the country's constitutional order lapsed in the spring, according to a negotiator involved in the talks. The accord would create a body called the Democratic Transition…

Two Days to Clear the Streets: Zimbabwe Sets a Deadline for Its Largest Employer

HARARE

Zimbabwe's street vendors have until Wednesday to leave. On Sept. 9, according to a directive issued last week by Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, government ministries, departments and agencies will begin what the minister called a "comprehensive, zero-tolerance clean-up operation…

Tshisekedi's National Dialogue Opens Without His Opponents — and With a Third Term in View

KINSHASA 

President Félix Tshisekedi's three-month "National Dialogue," announced from Kinshasa on Aug. 28 as a vehicle for reconciling a country fractured by war in its east, is beginning this week with the participation of almost no one the president needs to reconcile with. The main opposition coalition…

A Hill, a Village, and a Truce That Exists Only on Paper: Israel's Deadliest Week in Lebanon Since the June Deal

Background

The agreement that was supposed to end the fighting in southern Lebanon was signed in June 2026 by the governments of Lebanon and Israel, mediated by the United States. Its structure was simple and, in retrospect, self-defeating: Israeli forces would withdraw from positions in southern Lebanon in exchange for…

In Guinea-Bissau, a Junta's Constitution Awaits a Court's Blessing — and Nobody Has Challenged It

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau 

Guinea-Bissau's Supreme Court is expected within days to issue the final proclamation of a referendum that rewrites the country's constitution to concentrate power in the presidency. As of Sept. 2, the court had received no legal challenge to the vote. That is not because the result is…

A Firewall Meets Its Arithmetic: The AfD Wins a German State Election Outright — and Still Cannot Govern

Background

For a decade, German politics has organised itself around a single unwritten rule: no mainstream party cooperates with the Alternative for Germany. The convention is known as the Brandmauer, the firewall, and it has held at federal level and, with occasional local fraying, at state level too. Its logic was…