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Initially, archaeologists believed that humans began to live with cats about 9,500 years ago in... parts of the present-day eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This timeline coincides with the beginning of the Neolithic era, when agriculture started to spread. The grains used in farming attracted rodents, which then enticed the wildcats to come and eat the rodents. Neolithic humans then likely kept the wildcats around to keep the rodents away, paving the way for domestication. Cat remains dating [circa 9500 years ago] have been discovered in present-day Cyprus, indicating that the animals were a part of daily life by then.Cats...

Their revolution could soon be coming to an end. January 3, 2026. Caracas. 2:47 AM. The helicopters had come in low over the Caribbean, running dark. The Delta Force operators on board were well-rehearsed. By 3:29 AM, it was over. Thirty-two Cuban bodyguards lay dead in the compound. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were in flex cuffs, hustled onto a transport aircraft bound for New York. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump watched the operation unfold in real time with his national security team. It was January 3—exactly 36 years to the day since American forces had extracted military dictator Manuel...

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United States is sending troops to Nigeria to help train the West African nation's military in fighting extremism, Nigerian authorities said Wednesday, as a multifaceted security crisis spreads in the north of the country.The American personnel won't engage in combat or have a direct operational role, and Nigerian forces will have complete command authority, Maj. Gen. Samaila Uba, spokesman for Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, said in a statement.“At the invitation of the Government of Nigeria and in continuation of our longstanding security cooperation and military-to-military partnership with the United States, Nigeria will host a contingent of...

Kenyans were lured to Russia by job promises, then forcibly conscripted into its army for Ukraine under death threats, made to sign military contracts. In Ukraine, these recruits faced apocalyptic combat, drone attacks, severe injuries, and death, labelled 'cannon fodder' due to Russia's high casualties. A Kenyan recruitment agency employee faces human trafficking charges; hundreds of Kenyans sent to fight highlight Russia's exploitation of African economic desperation.

The mayhem started an hour before sunset on Tuesday as residents of the farming community were heading home from their fields, where they grow yams, maize and millet. The militants headed straight to the home of traditional leader Umar Bio Salihu - because they had written to him asking if they could come and preach... Salihu was not at his home in Woro at the time, so they set his compound alight and killed two of his children. ... The jihadists then went on a killing spree that lasted all night. Amnesty International said many of the dead had been...

US President Donald Trump don chook mouth again ontop wetin e describe as violence against Christians for Nigeria. Trump say e know say Christians dey come under attack for Nigeria but im no go allow make dat kontinue.

Sanctioned Ilyushin Il-76 follows same flight pattern seen before Maduro's capture in VenezuelaA Russian cargo plane typically used to transfer military equipment landed at a military airfield in Havana Sunday night, echoing flight patterns seen ahead of the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.The U.S.-sanctioned Ilyushin Il-76, operated by Russian state-linked airline Aviacon Zitotrans, was tracked landing at San Antonio de los Baños Airfield, a Cuban military installation roughly 30 miles south of Havana, according to public flight data.Flight-tracking records show the aircraft stopped in St. Petersburg and Sochi in Russia; Mauritania, Africa; and the Dominican Republic. Each landing would...

For every person lauding President Donald Trump's efforts to "Make America Great Again," another soul is staring into the depths of despair. The U.S. president certainly has his detractors—but his latest critics are an unlikely bunch: jihadis in Africa. In a new propaganda video, the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab referred to Trump as a “brainless billionaire who’s single handedly succeeded in making the United States the greatest joke on Earth.” Al-Shabab has been battling the Western-backed Somali government for more than a decade. Recent data revealed that the group is  one of the deadliest in Africa. 

A police officer shot a 16-year-old boy when he refused to drop the broomstick he was holding in Salt Lake City last night. The officer was responding to an unrelated call in the Utah capital at 8.15pm when his team spotted two teenagers arguing with a man, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Surrounding them, police allegedly told the boy to drop what he was holding - part of a broomstick. When he did not, 'shots were fired'. The boy was hit in the chest and the stomach.

Over the past 5,000 years, East Africa has dried out. Now, new research finds that this change may be making the continent pull apart faster. Faults in the East African Rift Zone have sped up since the levels of large lakes have dropped, according to research published in November in the journal Scientific Reports. The findings highlight the two-way relationship between the climate and plate tectonics, said study senior author Christopher Scholz, a geologist, physicist and professor emeritus at Columbia University.

An Islamist radical recruited to Somalia from Minneapolis inspired the would-be “Texas Terror” killers, who were gunned down in Garland, Texas Sunday night by a sharp-shooting law enforcement officer before they could carry out their mass-murder plot at an art exhibit sponsored by First Amendment heroine Pamela Geller. It’s just the latest example of how and why Minneapolis—and specifically the congressional district of Muslim Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) —has become ground zero for the threat to the United States from Islamist terror groups such as ISIS and Al-Shabaab. ... The terrorist threat emanates from the Minneapolis neighborhood known as...

Hunting with poison arrows has been pushed back to 60,000 years ago, according to a Live Science report. Sven Isaksson of Stockholm University and his colleagues detected traces of poison in residues on five quartz arrowheads recovered from South Africa’s Umhlatuzana rock shelter, which was excavated in 1985. The toxin, called buphandrine, would have weakened prey, thus reducing the length of time and amount of energy expended on the hunt. The toxin epibuphanisine was detected on just one of the arrowheads, but both toxins had probably been applied to all of the weapons, Isaksson said. They may have even been...

– In the narrow, sun-baked streets of Mogadishu, faith is a secret kept behind locked doors and whispered prayers. The city hums with the clatter of market stalls and the wail of distant sirens, but inside dimly lit homes, Christians gather in silence, clutching Bibles that must never be seen. Last year, an article about the underground Christian community there captured the attention of millions online, with some moved to prayer and others to outrage. The article, “Serving the Hidden Church in Somalia,” was originally published in May. It received the usual responses on our Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts...

Polling got underway Thursday in Uganda’s presidential election, but logistical delays hampered voting in some areas while restrictions on internet access drew criticism for potentially compromising electoral transparency. Millions of Ugandans are signed up to vote in a crucial presidential rematch between a former pop star and their long-time authoritarian leader, who aims to prolong his nearly 40-year rule. In their previous encounter at the polls in 2021, President Yoweri Museveni, now 81, won by a landslide. Bobi Wine, a singer-turned-politician, finished a distant second.

Near the equator, the Sun hurries below the horizon in a matter of minutes. Darkness seeps from the surrounding forest. Nearly 10,000 years ago, at the base of a mountain in Africa, people’s shadows stretch up the wall of a natural overhang of stone. They’re lit by a ferocious fire that’s been burning for hours, visible even to people miles away. The wind carries the smell of burning. This fire will linger in community memory for generations − and in the archaeological record for far longer. We are a team of bioarchaeologists, archaeologists and forensic anthropologists who, with our colleagues,...

It was somewhat surprising, and a little dispiriting to me, the number of counter-arguments that - even at the website of a far-right madman - framed what is now an existential crisis for the entire west in sentimentalist and pseudo-mystical terms, if not explicitly left-wing ones - such as "nation of immigrants". As to the broader arguments about America as a "proposition nation", here is one response to Vivek Ramaswamy:Cernovich @Cernovich · Follow Everyone claiming America is a creedal nation should move to Liberia - a country with a Constitution broader and more protective of civil rights than our own....

Although it's undeniably true that Minnesota has a large and proud Somalian community, there are some who have suggested that community is operating in Minnesota in a sinister way. One particular bugaboo for Conservative critics of the Somali community in Minnesota, and the state's embrace of those immigrants, has to do with the changing of the Minnesota state flag. The state adopted a new state flag in 2024, and some think that state flag resembles the state flag of Somalia. Now, many want to know whether that's actually the case. Here's what we know. The new Minnesota flag vs. the...

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, “a fecalized environment. “In plain English: s— is everywhere. People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust — onto you, your clothes, your food, the water. He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water. Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause...

An African-heritage lawmaker in France has sparked outrage by seemingly hailing the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ of the native people of the country by foreigners. Carlos Martens Bilongo, a member of the National Assembly for the far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI), in an appearance on the “African Bookstore” podcast, appeared to boast that minorities are outbreeding the native French people, Le Journal du Dimanche reported. Without explicitly stating the groups he was discussing, the Val-d’Oise MP, who was born in France to Congolese (DRC) and Angolan parents, urged people to “show them that we are more numerous and that...

Yeah, another bombshell. This is a subtle yet significant deal, completely under the radar screen and not reported anywhere, to my knowledge. This is a very slick move, IMO. 1: Israel recognizes Somaliland statehood 2: Who even knew that there was an entity separate from Somalia "Somaliland"? 3: Israel recognizes S-Land well before the UN recognizes it as a state. Very pre-emptive. 4: Israel and S-Land sign cooperation and development deal(s) 5: Possibly this creates a platform where states in that region find out that peaceful cooperation w/Israel can be highly advanatageous. Yeah, sure? 6: While there is certain to...