Islamic militants have stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital, engaging in an hours-long exchange of fire with the security forces that left at least 20 people dead, according to police and witnesses. In addition, at least 40 people were wounded in the late Friday night attack and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel, they said Saturday. The attack started with explosions outside the hotel before the gunmen entered the building. Somali forces were still trying to end the siege of the hotel almost 24 hours after the attack started. Gunfire could…

Losses arising from cryptocurrency hacks jumped nearly 60% in the first seven months of the year to $1.9 billion, propelled by a surge in funds stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, according to a blog post from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released on Tuesday. In the same period last year, stolen funds from hacking amounted to $1.2 billion. DeFi applications, many of which run on the Ethereum blockchain, are financial platforms that enable crypto-denominated lending outside of traditional banks. Chainalysis noted that the trend is not likely to reverse any time soon, given the $190 million hacking of cross-chain bridge…