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  • Israel recognises Somaliland as independent state, Netanyahu says

    Israel recognises Somaliland as independent state, Netanyahu says


    Tom McArthurand

    Abdirahman Ali Dhimbil

    Getty Images A man in a grey suit wearing black-framed glasses and a traditional kofia hat looks towards the camera.Getty Images

    Somaliland’s president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi called the declaration “historic”

    Israel has become the first country to formally recognise Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel intended to immediately expand cooperation in agriculture, health, and technology. Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, called the development “a historic moment”.

    Recognition by Israel could encourage other nations to follow suit, increasing the region’s diplomatic credentials and access to international markets.

    But the decision has been condemned by the foreign ministers of Somalia, Egypt, Turkey and Djibouti, who in a statement affirmed their “total rejection” of Israel’s announcement.

    Abdullahi said in a statement that Somaliland would join the Abraham Accords, in what he called a step toward regional and global peace.

    Somaliland was committed to building partnerships, boosting mutual prosperity and promoting stability across the Middle East and Africa, he added.

    The two countries had agreed to establish “full diplomatic ties, which will include the appointment of ambassadors and the opening of embassies”, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a statement on X.

    “I have instructed my ministry to act immediately to institutionalise ties between the two countries across a wide range of fields,” he said.

    Meanwhile, Egypt’s foreign minister held separate phone calls with his counterparts in Somalia, Turkey and Djibouti to discuss issues including Israel’s declaration.

    In a statement, Egypt’s foreign ministry said the four countries reaffirmed their support for Somalia’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and warned against unilateral steps that could undermine stability or create what they called “parallel entities” to Somalia’s state institutions.

    They also argued that recognising the independence of parts of sovereign states would set a dangerous precedent under international law and the United Nations Charter.

    The statement added that the ministers reiterated their rejection of any plans to displace Palestinians outside their homeland.

    Israel has for years been trying to bolster relations with countries in the Middle East and Africa, but recent wars including in Gaza and against Iran have been seen as a hindrance to democracy.

    Historic deals struck late in Trump’s first term in 2020, known as the Abraham Accords, saw several countries including Muslim-majority United Arab Emirates and Morocco normalise relations with Israel, with other countries joining later.

    Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden, and has its own money, passports and police force. Born in 1991 after a war of independence against former dictator General Siad Barre, it has grappled with decades of isolation ever since.

    With a population of almost six million, the self-proclaimed republic has recently been at the centre of several regional disputes involving Somalia, Ethiopia and Egypt.

    Last year, an agreement between landlocked Ethiopia and Somaliland to lease a stretch of coastline for a port and military base angered Somalia.



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  • Ex-Malaysia PM Najib Razak given 15-year jail term over state funds scandal

    Ex-Malaysia PM Najib Razak given 15-year jail term over state funds scandal


    Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been jailed for 15 years for abuse of power and money laundering, in his second major trial for a multi-billion-dollar state funds scandal.

    Najib, 72, was accused of misappropriating nearly 2.3 billion Malaysian ringgit ($569m; £422m) from the nation’s sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

    On Friday afternoon a judge found him guilty in four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering.

    The former PM is already in jail after he was convicted years ago in another case related to 1MDB.

    Friday’s verdict comes after seven years of legal proceedings, which saw 76 witnesses called to the stand.

    The verdict, delivered in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, is the second blow in the same week to the embattled former leader, who has been imprisoned since 2022.

    He was handed four 15-year sentences on abuse of power charges, as well as five years each on 21 money laundering charges. The jail terms run concurrently under Malaysian law.

    On Monday, the court rejected his application to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

    But the former prime minister retains a loyal base of supporters, who claim that he’s a victim of unfair rulings and who have showed up at his trials calling for his release.

    On Friday, dozens of people gathered outside the court in Putrajaya in support of Najib.

    The 1MDB scandal made headlines across the world when it came to light a decade ago, embroiling prominent figures from Malaysia to Goldman Sachs and Hollywood.

    Investigators estimated that $4.5bn was siphoned from the state-owned wealth fund into private pockets, including Najib’s.

    Najib’s lawyers claim that he had been misled by his advisers – in particular the financier Jho Low, who has maintained his innocence but remains at large.

    But the argument has not convinced Malaysia’s courts, which previously found Najib guilty of embezzlement in 2020.

    That year, Najib was convicted of abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust over 42 million ringgit ($10m; £7.7m) transferred from SRC International – a former unit of 1MDB – into his private accounts.

    He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but saw his jail term halved last year.

    The latest case concerns a larger sum of money, also tied to 1MDB, received by his personal bank account in 2013. Najib said he had believed the money was a donation from the late Saudi King Abdullah – a claim rejected by the judge on Friday.

    Separately Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was sentenced to ten years in jail in 2022 for bribery. She is free on bail pending an appeal against her conviction.

    The scandal has had profound repercussions on Malaysian politics. In 2018 it led to a historic election loss for Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition, which had governed the country since its independence in 1957.

    Now, the recent verdicts has highlighted fissures in Malaysia’s ruling coalition, which includes Najib’s party United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

    Najib’s failed house arrest bid on Monday was met with disappointment from his allies but celebrated by his critics within the same coalition.

    Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim called for politicians on all sides to respect the court’s decisions.

    Former Malaysian lawmaker Tony Pua told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the verdict would “send a message” to the country’s leaders, that “you can get caught for corruption even if you’re number one in the country like the prime minister”.

    But Cynthia Gabriel, founding director of Malaysia’s Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism, argued that the country has made little headway in anti-corruption efforts despite the years of reckoning after the 1MDB scandal.

    Public institutions have not been strengthened enough to reassure Malaysians that “the politicians they put into power would actually serve their interests” instead of “their own pockets”, she told Newsday.

    “Grand corruption continues in different forms”, she added. “We don’t know at all if another 1MDB could occur, or may have already occurred.”



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  • Two killed in suspected Palestinian ramming and knife attack in Israel

    Two killed in suspected Palestinian ramming and knife attack in Israel


    Magen David Adom An ambulance and other vehicles at the scene of an attack in Israel (26/12/25)Magen David Adom

    The attacker drove into people and then carried out a stabbing several miles away, police say

    Two people have been killed in what police say was a “rolling terror attack” in northern Israel.

    Police said the attacker ran over a pedestrian in the eastern city of Beit Shean, then drove on before stabbing a woman near Ein Harod, about 8 miles (12.5km) to the west.

    A 68-year-old man was killed and a 16-year-old boy was hurt in the ramming, officials said, whilst the stabbing victim was an 18-year-old woman.

    The suspect was eventually shot and wounded later by a civilian outside the city of Afula, according to police.

    A day before the attack, an Israeli reservist was fired after video emerged of him ramming a praying Palestinian with a quad bike.

    The suspect in Friday’s attack came from the village of Qabatiya, in the northern occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister said.

    Following the incident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was preparing to carry out an operation in the Qabatiya area. Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF to act “forcefully and immediately”.

    The IDF said the suspect had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago”.

    Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster said the 37-year-old man had been working illegally in Israel and had used his employer’s vehicle in the attack.

    The incident comes a day after an Israeli army reservist drove a quad bike into a Palestinian man who was praying on a roadside in the occupied West Bank.

    Video shows the man, dressed in civilian clothes but with a firearm, ramming the victim with the vehicle. Reports say the victim was unhurt.

    The Israeli military said the soldier – who had earlier opened fire in a nearby village – had been fired and his weapon confiscated.

    Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have surged in the West Bank in recent years, according to the United Nations, with more than a thousand killed since the Hamas attacks on Israel of 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted into Gaza.

    More than 70,600 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Additional reporting by Tom McArthur



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