The United States said Tuesday it would end a special protected status for Somalis, telling them they must leave the country by mid-March under an escalating crackdown on the community. There is a large Somali community in Minnesota, the Midwestern state at the forefront of raids and searches by immigration officers, one of whom shot and killed a local woman last week, sparking protests.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the enforcement sweeps that have so far reportedly led to 2,000 arrests.In recent weeks Washington has lashed out at Somali immigrants, alleging large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country with around 80,000 members.The Department of Homeland Security said on X it was “ENDING Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in the United States.” “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves,” it said.DHS followed up by re-tweeting its initial post with a photograph of President Donald Trump and the caption “I am the captain now,” a reference to the film “Captain Phillips” in which a tanker is seized by Somali pirates.Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shields certain foreigners from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.Tuesday’s announcement set a March 17 departure deadline for Somalis losing their legal status.Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, said Saturday Trump is “trying to scare them and terrorize them every single day… And what we know is that Somalis are not intimidated.”On Tuesday, the Republican president took to his Truth Social platform to attack Democrats who lead Minneapolis, its twin city St. Paul, and Minnesota. – Alleged major benefit fraud -“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”Local community organizer Mowlid Mohamed told AFP “it looks like the state of Minnesota is under a persecution by the federal government.””They (are) weaponizing the federal agencies to the state of Minnesota to make it that they show their power — and this is one of the tools that they’re using specifically targeting the Somali people.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meanwhile has kept up its migrant sweeps across Minnesota.On Tuesday masked officers dragged a woman from her car as ICE agents conducted checks. Another individual was carried away by their limbs.Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by an ICE officer Wednesday in Minneapolis.Three federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after coming under pressure to focus the probe into Good’s death on her widow’s actions, US media reported Tuesday.The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota’s Somali community.Federal charges have been filed against 98 people accused of embezzlement of public funds and — as US Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed — 85 of the defendants were “of Somali descent.” Fifty-seven people have already been convicted in the scheme to divert $300 million in public grants, prosecutors said.Republican elected officials and federal prosecutors accuse local Democratic authorities of turning a blind eye to numerous warnings because the fraud involved Minnesota’s Somali community.

Boeing secured orders for nearly 1,200 commercial planes last year, topping European rival Airbus for the first time since 2018, according to figures released Tuesday.The US aviation giant booked 175 orders in December, taking the total for 2025 to 1,173. Airbus on Monday disclosed net orders of 889 aircraft for the year.Boeing still lags behind Airbus in terms of the total number of undelivered planes following stumbles in the wake of fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 MAX that have weighed on the US company.But Boeing on Tuesday also received a boost from an order by Delta Air Lines to purchase 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with options for 30 more of the widebody jet.Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC that the company was the only major US carrier without the popular plane but it was “confident” based on Boeing’s efforts under Kelly Ortberg, who joined as chief executive in 2024.”Watching the progress that the team has made, we realize that turnaround is still in midst,” Bastian said.Delta’s order was not included in Boeing’s 2025 figures. – Progress with FAA -The improvement in orders marks the latest sign of progress for Boeing after a bruising 2024. Last year opened with a near-catastrophic emergency landing on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, and concluded with the restart of plane production in the Seattle region following a lengthy labor strike.After the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing fortified its quality control and manufacturing operations under close scrutiny by the US Federal Aviation Administration.In October, the FAA granted approval to Boeing to increase production on the 737 MAX to 42 per month from 38, a key sign of progress.”Our team did great work throughout 2025 to improve the on-time delivery of safe, quality airplanes to our customers to support their growth and modernization plans,” said Boeing commercial plane chief Stephanie Pope.”We’re focused on getting better every day and building on the momentum in the year ahead.”Boeing said it delivered 63 planes in December, taking the annual total to 600 for all of 2025.While that figure marked the most since 2018 and a big jump from the strike-plagued 2024 season, it came in well below the 793 delivered by Airbus.Airbus has dominated deliveries in recent years in the aftermath of the two crashes of Boeing 737 MAX planes that occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Airbus also still holds a sizeable advantage in terms of orders, pointing to a backlog of 8,754 at the end of 2025.Boeing currently lists 6,720 unfilled orders with a backlog of 6,130 after an adjustment under US accounting standards.Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens said the 2025 result was positive for Boeing, but needs to be weighed against the accumulated orders, which is a “better benchmark,” he said.Boeing’s outpacing of Airbus’ orders in 2025 is “a nice bit of news for Boeing, but it is just one year in a competition for a very large market that plays out over decades,” Owens said in an email to AFP.Boeing shares rose 2.0 percent.