Author: M Barbu

La multiplication des liens entre Al Shabaab et les Houthis favorise les deux groupes militants et contribue à accroître les menaces maritimes et terrestres de part et d’autre du golfe d’Aden.

Les preuves d’une collaboration croissante entre Al Shabaab en Somalie et les Houthis du Yémen augmentent les risques pour le trafic maritime dans la mer Rouge, le golfe d’Aden et l’océan Indien occidental, tout en renforçant la capacité de nuisance des deux groupes.

HRANA – Nationwide protests in Iran continued on their twelfth day, Thursday, January 8, 2026, according to reports collected by HRANA. Demonstrations and protest actions were recorded in at least 46 cities across 21 provinces. At the same time, a wave of strikes and market closures was reported, particularly in Kurdish regions, with dozens of cities in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam provinces joining the strikes.

Who calls the shots in Iran on economic policy, security, and domestic calls for reform? A look at the government’s organization chart indicates how complicated the answer is.

Iran’s system of government is not quite a democracy, nor a theocracy. Founding Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini developed its animating doctrine, known as guardianship of the jurist, in the years before the Islamic Republic’s establishment in 1979. Khomeini posited that a just government was possible if religious scholars sat atop it to ensure consistency with Islamic law. This system was put into place with a constitutional referendum after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The organs of a modern republic—a unicameral legislature (the majlis), executive led by the president, and judiciary—were enveloped by a clerical system. (Most of Iran’s clerical hierarchy, however, remains outside this official structure, based in Qom rather than the capital, Tehran.)

Israel faces mounting challenges: a stalled ceasefire in Gaza, rising Hezbollah threats in Lebanon, and a critical security opportunity with Syria.

With ceasefires unraveling on nearly every front, Israel is once again confronting the unstable reality of the Middle East.

Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.

At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.