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  • All supporting acts quit Ed Sheeran tour in protest of Macklemore’s removal

    All supporting acts quit Ed Sheeran tour in protest of Macklemore’s removal

    A wave of artist withdrawals has rocked Ed Sheeran’s ongoing *Loop Tour*, after opening act Macklemore was removed from the lineup for his public pro-Palestine stance, leaving the British pop star facing widespread criticism over his neutral position on the escalating Gaza conflict.

    On Tuesday, Grammy-winning artist Finneas became the highest-profile of four supporting acts to confirm their exit from the tour, joined by Irish singer Aaron Rowe, Irish folk band Beoga, and Danish pop group Lukas Graham. All four acts issued public statements framing their departure as an act of solidarity with both Macklemore and the Palestinian people, arguing that artists must never be silenced for speaking out against human rights abuses.

    “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas wrote in a social media post confirming his exit. Aaron Rowe, who described Sheeran as a personal friend who had transformed his career, emphasized that his Irish background gave him unique perspective on systemic violence and occupation. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation. I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children,” Rowe said.

    Beoga echoed this position in their own announcement, blaming pressure from Zionist lobbies for Macklemore’s removal from the tour. Lukas Graham frontman added that freedom of speech must extend to conversations about civilian suffering in conflict, saying, “Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we’re allowed to acknowledge.”

    The chain of exits traces back to a September 4 performance, when Macklemore took the stage as an opening act and delivered a two-minute speech calling for a free Palestine before performing his track *Hind’s Hall*—a song named for 5-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza earlier this year. The speech quickly drew both widespread praise from pro-Palestine activists and fierce backlash from pro-Israel groups, including the Israeli American Council, which launched a public petition demanding Sheeran drop the rapper from the tour.

    On Monday, Macklemore released a statement explaining his ouster: after billionaire Robert Kraft organized a coalition of stadium owners to threaten to block Sheeran from accessing their venues if he kept Macklemore on the lineup, Sheeran and his management team removed the rapper from all remaining tour dates. Sheeran has pushed back against this narrative, arguing that the decision to cut Macklemore rested solely with tour promoters, not with him.

    The *Shape of You* singer has also rejected accusations that he is complicit in silencing pro-Palestine voices by refusing to take a public stance on the conflict. Sheeran says he holds personal views on what he calls a devastating ongoing conflict, but chooses not to inject political discourse into his professional tour platform. “Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have [views] and it doesn’t mean I don’t care,” he said in a statement. Still, many fans have taken to social media to criticize Sheeran’s position, pointing to past instances where the singer has used his platform to raise awareness for other political and social causes.

  • US limits visas for South African officials over alleged anti-white discrimination

    US limits visas for South African officials over alleged anti-white discrimination

    Diplomatic relations between the United States and South Africa have plunged to a new low after the Trump administration announced sweeping visa restrictions against South African individuals it accuses of perpetrating racial discrimination against the country’s white Afrikaner minority, marking the latest escalation in a months-long downward spiral in ties between the two nations.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement official in a formal statement released Tuesday, confirming that the entry ban will target individuals linked to what Washington describes as race-based discrimination, violent incitement, and uncompensated land expropriation under South Africa’s post-apartheid land reform policy. Rubio did not publicly name any specific individuals covered by the restrictions, but emphasized that the South African government has failed to meaningfully address longstanding concerns raised by the US over its domestic racial and land policies.

    “The South African government has not adequately addressed the previously laid out concerns,” Rubio said in the statement. In a separate social media commentary released the same day, he doubled down on the US’s position, accusing Pretoria of pursuing deliberate “racial grievance against the Afrikaner minority” and arguing that individuals responsible for these alleged injustices “have no place in the United States.” He added that the actions targeted by the new restrictions undermine “peace, economic stability and the rule of law” in South Africa, and that “the United States will not allow such behaviour to go unchecked.”

    The dispute between the two countries centers on South Africa’s landmark 2025 land reform legislation, which codifies the government’s authority to expropriate property for public interest purposes, including redressing apartheid-era land dispossession. Under the law, compensation can be set at zero in limited, specific cases, though it mandates that authorities negotiate with landowners in nearly all scenarios and allows affected parties to challenge expropriation decisions in court. White South Africans, who make up just over 7% of the country’s population, still hold the majority of private farmland, a legacy of apartheid policies that systematically displaced Black South Africans from their land over decades of minority rule. The Ramaphosa administration has repeatedly stated that the reform is a necessary step to correct historical injustice, and that the law does not permit arbitrary land seizures.

    Long running tensions between Washington and Pretoria intensified shortly after Donald Trump returned to the US presidency early last year, when Trump announced he would offer refugee status to Afrikaners claiming to face persecution, repeating unsubstantiated claims of a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa that independent researchers and South African crime statistics have thoroughly discredited. South African government data shows no evidence that white South Africans are disproportionately targeted by violent crime compared to other racial groups.

    Since that announcement, relations have steadily deteriorated: Trump has cut US development aid to South Africa, expelled the country’s top ambassador to Washington, and most recently imposed 30% tariffs on South African exports to the US in August, the highest tariff rate applied to any sub-Saharan African nation. South African leaders have made multiple attempts to de-escalate tensions, including a high-profile May visit by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House, where he brought a cross-racial delegation that included white members of his ruling coalition and prominent white South African public figures. But the meeting collapsed into open confrontation when Trump unexpectedly raised the discredited claims of mass violence against white farmers, leaving bilateral ties no closer to repair.

    In comments Tuesday, the US Embassy in Pretoria said that Washington had exhausted diplomatic channels to resolve the dispute, and accused the South African government of failing to uphold commitments to constructive bilateral engagement. Officials confirmed the new visa restrictions are only the first in a series of escalating punitive measures, warning that additional actions will follow if Pretoria does not change its policies. As of Wednesday, the South African government has not issued a formal response to the latest US restrictions. The entry ban is being implemented under a longstanding provision of US immigration law that grants the Secretary of State authority to bar foreign nationals whose entry is deemed harmful to US foreign policy interests.

  • Runaway horse captured by police on motorbikes

    Runaway horse captured by police on motorbikes

    A loose horse that broke free from its owner shortly before a scheduled community parade in New Mexico has been successfully apprehended by a team of police officers on motorbikes, authorities confirmed. The incident, which unfolded ahead of the planned public procession, sparked brief concern among event organizers and local onlookers, who worried the spooked animal might wander into high-traffic areas or disrupt the planned festivities.

    Law enforcement quickly deployed motorbike patrols to track and contain the escaped equine, leveraging the maneuverability of their vehicles to navigate local streets and open areas near the parade starting point. After a short pursuit, the officers successfully cornered and secured the animal without incident. Crucially, the horse emerged from the entire episode completely unharmed, with no reported injuries to the animal, responding officers, or any members of the public in the area. It has since been returned safely to its owner, and organizers confirmed the parade was able to proceed on schedule with no major delays stemming from the escape.

  • NZ apologises to children forced to live in bush for years with fugitive dad

    NZ apologises to children forced to live in bush for years with fugitive dad

    Four years after fugitive father Tom Phillips vanished into the New Zealand wilderness with his three young children, and months after he died in a fatal police confrontation, an independent public inquiry has exposed widespread failures across state agencies that left the children trapped in harmful isolation for nearly half a decade. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon issued a formal public apology to the children and their mother, acknowledging repeated missed opportunities to locate the group and intervene to protect the minors.

    In December 2021, Phillips, who had a prior history of disappearing with his children, took the then 5-, 7-, and 8-year-old siblings into remote bushland. What should have triggered an urgent search never materialized immediately, the inquiry found. Authored by former High Court Justice Simon Moore, the inquiry’s report, released Tuesday, revealed that police initially declined to launch a search and rescue operation based on what it called a “misconceived view” that the children were not at risk. The report also slammed multiple agencies for repeatedly downplaying warnings raised by the children’s mother, including her concerns about Phillips’ access to firearms, dismissing her alarms as typical conflict in a messy parenting dispute.

    Over the 44 months the group remained missing, inquiry investigators uncovered a string of unaddressed sightings that could have led to an earlier rescue. Contrary to initial assumptions that Phillips had cut himself and the children off from all outside contact, the inquiry found he made multiple trips into populated areas to resupply. In February 2022, he visited his mother without the children, who gave him NZ$1,000 in cash and emergency food supplies. Two years later, in August 2023, Phillips spent a full day shopping in Waikato region businesses, spending almost NZ$6,000 on a wide range of goods including groceries, children’s clothes, fishing equipment, gardening supplies, knives and lighters. He passed through the community unnoticed by authorities the entire time.

    The standoff ended on September 7, 2025, when police located Phillips in the small North Island town of Piopio, and he died during a subsequent shootout. The three children were taken into state protective custody, where they remain today. After the confrontation, police released photos of one of the squalid, overgrown campsites where the family had hidden, showing a stockpile of firearms, ammunition, and discarded beer cans scattered in the dense bush.

    The inquiry concluded that all involved agencies – including New Zealand Police, national child welfare service Oranga Tamariki, the New Zealand Defence Force, and the Ministry of Education – failed to coordinate effectively and share critical information that could have speeded up the rescue. Investigators confirmed that agencies consistently “underplayed, minimised or overlooked” the severe harm caused by the children’s prolonged isolation, a finding that has sparked widespread public outrage across New Zealand over the systemic failures.

    Alongside Luxon’s apology, top government and law enforcement leaders have publicly accepted the inquiry’s findings and taken responsibility for the missed chances. Social Development Minister Louise Upton directly addressed the children in a statement Tuesday, saying “this report has found that our agencies did not take all practical steps to protect you. For that we are deeply sorry.” She added that the children had been forced to endure four years in squalid conditions that robbed them of a “happy and healthy childhood.”

    Deputy Police Commissioner Jill Rogers acknowledged the force’s mistakes in an interview with 1News’ *Breakfast*, saying “Did it take too long? Did we miss opportunities? Yes, we did. You can’t unsee the images of where those children were living in those campsites… It’s heart-breaking.” While she noted that the investigators assigned to the case had worked tirelessly on the case, Rogers admitted that the force needed to implement sweeping improvements to prevent similar failures in the future, while pointing out that the core mission of recovering the children alive had ultimately been completed.

  • US prepares $2.8bn weapons sale, funded by taxpayers, to Israel: Report

    US prepares $2.8bn weapons sale, funded by taxpayers, to Israel: Report

    A new, highly contentious $2.8 billion arms deal prepared by the Trump administration would send tens of thousands of powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, with U.S. taxpayers on the hook for the full cost, The Washington Post has reported, citing an anonymous senior U.S. official familiar with the military planning. If finalized, the transfer would mark the largest single shipment of this destructive munition from the United States to Israel in modern history.

    Details of the package outline that it includes 40,000 general-purpose 2,000-pound bombs — specifically the MK-84 and BLU-117 variants — alongside an additional 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads. Classified as one of the most devastating conventional armaments in Western military stockpiles, the MK-84 is engineered to penetrate thick concrete and reinforced metal, create massive impact craters, and spray lethal shrapnel across hundreds of meters from its detonation site. This wide destructive radius puts civilian populations at extreme risk when deployed in populated areas.

    The proposed sale has already been shared informally with key congressional committees, creating a awkward political bind for Democratic lawmakers. Tensions between the U.S. Democratic caucus and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached a fever pitch in recent months, as growing frustration over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has strained the long-standing U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship.

    When pressed by reporters about widespread concerns over the humanitarian risks posed by the transfer, a senior Trump administration official declined to comment on the pending deal, noting only that all international arms sales follow standard procedural protocols. The Israeli Embassy in Washington also did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Washington Post.

    Criticism of the proposed transfer spread rapidly across social media, with high-profile journalists and political commentators quickly condemning the deal. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson used his platform on X to argue that the sale is unprecedented and unjustified. “There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing. Nor is there any justification,” Carlson wrote. He added that Israel is not fighting a large-scale conventional war that requires such heavy armaments: it is engaged in limited skirmishes with guerrilla forces in Lebanon and a brutal offensive against the largely unarmed civilian population of Gaza, neither of which necessitates the deployment of 2,000-pound bombs.

    Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald went further, framing the deal as a continuation of former President Trump’s political obligations to Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-born American billionaire and one of the most prominent pro-Israel donors in U.S. politics. “In case you’re wondering when Trump’s debt to Miriam Adelson and her Israeli cabal will finally be paid off, the answer is: never. The debt is eternal and limitless,” Greenwald posted on X. He added that political obligations are just one factor behind Trump’s unwavering alignment with Israeli policy, separate from the former president’s own personal and political motivations for his staunch support.

    The $2.8 billion package outpaces all previous U.S. arms sales to Israel in recent years, including a $2.04 billion sale approved in 2025 that skipped the standard congressional review process. Data compiled from open-source reporting confirms that Israeli forces have already deployed 2,000-pound bombs hundreds of times during their ongoing military campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip and cross-border strikes in Lebanon, resulting in catastrophic civilian casualties.

    Multiple United Nations bodies, including the UN Commission of Inquiry, alongside leading international and Israeli human rights organizations, have officially concluded that Israeli authorities have committed acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. Since the launch of Israel’s military offensive on the enclave in October 2023, more than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

  • Three dead in Los Angeles helicopter crash

    Three dead in Los Angeles helicopter crash

    A tragic helicopter crash in the Chatsworth neighborhood of suburban Los Angeles has claimed three lives and left one person hospitalized with an unknown condition, Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) officials confirmed Wednesday. The incident unfolded shortly before 19:00 local time Tuesday, between two commercial structures near the intersection of Lurline Avenue and Nordhoff Street, as multiple news helicopters were already in the area covering an earlier deadly road collision.

    Scene footage captured thick plumes of smoke and large flames rising from the crash site, where multiple vehicles and two shipping containers caught fire after the aircraft went down. LAFD crews quickly responded to the emergency and fully extinguished the blaze, preventing the fire from spreading to adjacent commercial buildings. According to LAFD Captain Branden Silverman, one victim was found outside the downed helicopter and was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders. Three fatalities have been confirmed in total, while the injured survivor was transported to a local medical facility for treatment, with no update on their condition as of Wednesday morning.

    Early local media reports have indicated the crashed helicopter was a news-gathering aircraft deployed to cover a separate fatal collision that occurred earlier the same day in Chatsworth. In that earlier incident, an SUV collided with a city bus, killing two people and injuring six others, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) noted in a post on X Tuesday night that investigators have not yet finalized the number of people on board the helicopter or confirmed its owner, as first responders continued to clear and secure the crash site overnight.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement of mourning on X Tuesday evening, saying, “I am absolutely devastated by the loss of life in Chatsworth tonight. My heart is with the families and loved ones of those we lost in the tragic bus collision and helicopter crash.” The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been assigned to lead the official investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash, with a preliminary report expected to be released in the coming weeks as investigators piece together details of the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

  • How rising bond yields impact American consumers

    How rising bond yields impact American consumers

    Across global financial markets, a quiet but transformative shift is unfolding: bond yields are on a steady upward trajectory, a trend that carries far more direct implications for ordinary American households than many realize. As explained by BBC financial correspondent Samira Hussain, the connection between surging bond yields and everyday consumer borrowing is far more intimate than most people understand, working its way through the financial system to push up the interest rates on two of the most common forms of borrowing in the U.S. – home mortgages and small business loans.

    Bond yields typically move in line with broader market expectations for economic growth, inflation, and shifts in central bank monetary policy. When investors grow more optimistic about future expansion or anticipate higher inflation ahead, they demand higher returns on fixed-income government and corporate bonds, pushing yields upward. This dynamic does not stay confined to Wall Street’s trading floors; it spills over into the consumer credit market rapidly. Mortgage lenders, for example, often price long-term home loan rates based on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields. As those benchmark yields climb, lenders pass the higher borrowing costs they face directly to home buyers and homeowners looking to refinance.

    For small business owners seeking capital to expand operations, hire new staff, or cover day-to-day operational costs, the impact is equally tangible. Business loan interest rates are commonly tied to various benchmark bond yields, so a rise in these underlying metrics translates immediately to higher monthly payments for new and adjustable-rate loans. This can squeeze profit margins for small businesses, potentially slowing hiring plans and delaying expansion projects.

    While the impact is most acutely felt by consumers and business owners seeking new loans, even those with existing variable-rate borrowing products can see their interest costs climb in tandem with rising bond yields. The ongoing trend serves as a clear reminder that the complex movements of financial markets have direct, tangible impacts on the financial health of ordinary households across the United States.

  • Badar Khan Suri blasts ‘shallow’ Trump administration at immigration hearing

    Badar Khan Suri blasts ‘shallow’ Trump administration at immigration hearing

    On a Tuesday hearing in a Virginia immigration court, Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri delivered a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s legal arguments to justify his deportation, calling the government’s claims baseless, shallow, and rooted in political opportunism rather than factual evidence.

    Suri, a legal permanent U.S. resident and Indian citizen married to a U.S.-born woman from Gaza, first became a high-profile target of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 18 months ago, shortly after he publicly expressed support for Palestinian rights. What began as a routine immigration matter has since erupted into a global flashpoint over the weaponization of U.S. deportation policy to silence dissenting political speech.

    Speaking to reporters outside the Annandale courthouse following Tuesday’s proceedings, Suri pushed back against the administration’s unsubstantiated claims labeling him antisemitic. ‘The government’s argument is very specious. It’s very shallow. They want to talk about something, but it has no roots,’ he said. ‘They are saying that I’m antisemite, I’m anti this or that, but they’re just saying it for the sake of some political agenda.’ Suri also highlighted that dozens of his Jewish supporters attended the hearing to stand with him, noting they reject the government’s effort to weaponize their religious identity for political gain.

    Nader Hashemi, director of Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding where Suri conducts post-doctoral research, framed the case as a clear example of the Trump White House’s deeply entrenched anti-Palestinian policy orientation. Hashemi, who was present in the courtroom for Tuesday’s arguments, told Middle East Eye that Suri would never have been targeted for deportation without pressure from extreme right-wing backers of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He added that Suri himself is not the ultimate target of the administration’s action: because Suri’s wife, a Gaza native, is a U.S. citizen and cannot be legally targeted for political retaliation, officials have opted to harass her by going after her husband instead.

    Records of the case lay out how outside pro-Israel groups laid the groundwork for Suri’s arrest. In late February 2025, the conservative pro-Israel organization Middle East Forum (MEF) announced it had uncovered that Suri’s wife, Saleh, is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former senior political advisor to the late former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh – who has publicly criticized Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. Saleh was later added to the pro-Israel blacklist site Canary Mission, which cited her past work for Al Jazeera and Gaza City birthplace as evidence of purported Hamas ties. Just hours after news of Suri’s pending detention broke, MEF publicly took credit for pushing for his arrest.

    On March 17, 2025, masked federal agents took Suri into custody outside his Washington, D.C. suburban home. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally ordered the revocation of Suri’s visa, officially citing claims that the scholar had ‘spread Hamas propaganda and promoted antisemitism on social media.’ For two months following his arrest, Suri was held in an overcrowded, unsanitary ICE detention facility in Alvaredo, Texas, before a federal judge ordered his release on May 14, 2025, allowing him to return to his family in Virginia while his legal challenge proceeded.

    The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing Suri in his legal fight, has previously outlined that the administration’s legal argument relies on a rarely invoked provision of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. The provision allows deportation when the government claims an individual’s presence ‘compromises a compelling foreign policy interest’ – a standard that legal advocates say is being abused to target political dissent. In July, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Suri, upholding the lower court’s ruling that granted him bail while his case moves forward.

    Today, Suri is pursuing two parallel legal battles: a federal habeas corpus case defending his due process rights, and a separate immigration hearing overseen by an immigration court under the Department of Justice, which answers directly to the U.S. Attorney General. Habeas corpus, a legal principle dating back to 13th-century England, was created to prevent arbitrary detention by state authorities and today applies to all people on U.S. territory, regardless of citizenship status.

    Suri, who has spent 20 years working to advance Middle East peace initiatives, says he remains prepared for the fight ahead and confident that justice will ultimately win out. ‘I know this is a tough thing. So I am ready for these challenges, and I am very hopeful that justice will prevail,’ he said.

    Hashemi also expressed cautious optimism following Tuesday’s hearing, pointing to widespread public outrage over the Trump administration’s abuse of executive power in the case. ‘I’m feeling confident that there’s a lot of public outrage over the abuse of power that the Trump administration has engaged in, and this has drawn the ire of a lot of concerned American citizens,’ he said. ‘It’s not just about the rights of one post-doctoral fellow in Georgetown. His case now is about the future of democracy in the United States.’

    As of Tuesday, the presiding immigration judge was expected to issue a ruling in the case as early as Tuesday evening local time.

  • Japan to charge rescue fee on Mount Fuji during off season

    Japan to charge rescue fee on Mount Fuji during off season

    Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji has long drawn thousands of hiking enthusiasts from across the globe each year, but a growing trend of dangerous off-season ascents is pushing local authorities to roll out strict new regulations to protect unprepared climbers and cut down on risky rescue operations.

    Starting next year, officials managing the northern flank of Mount Fuji have announced that any climber attempting an off-season ascent who requires emergency helicopter rescue will be forced to pay full cost for the service. This new charge is one of several policy changes Yamanashi Prefecture is implementing to deter ill-prepared and reckless hikers from putting themselves and rescue teams in danger.

    Regional officials are using an existing rescue fee model from nearby Saitama Prefecture as a reference for their new pricing structure. Saitama already charges 8,000 Japanese yen, equal to roughly $51 or £38, for every five minutes of helicopter rescue service in the prefecture’s mountainous regions. Yamanashi has not yet released its final exact fee schedule, but confirmed the structure will align closely with Saitama’s established framework.

    Beyond the new rescue fee, Yamanashi is also adding a mandatory requirement for all off-season climbers: anyone hoping to scale Mount Fuji between early September and July of the following year, the recognized off-peak window, must submit a detailed, step-by-step climbing plan for approval before setting out. The prefecture’s governor, Kotaro Nagasaki, framed the new rules as a urgent public safety measure in comments made Monday.

    “We ask the general public to refrain from climbing during the off-season,” Nagasaki said. “We hope that these measures will cause people to rethink what climbing Mount Fuji during the winter is like.”

    The push for tighter regulation comes as both Yamanashi and neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture, which manages the southern portion of the mountain, have recorded a steady increase in unplanned and off-season climbs in recent years. A growing number of these ascents have ended in emergency situations, with climbers becoming stranded in harsh conditions requiring large-scale rescue responses.

    Shizuoka has also announced its own set of stricter rules to address the trend: the prefecture will impose formal penalties on off-season climbers who fail to register their planned ascent, and will increase patrols and enforcement to keep hikers out of off-limits areas that pose extreme safety risks. Unlike Yamanashi, however, Shizuoka has not yet announced plans to introduce a fee for helicopter rescues.

    Mount Fuji’s official climbing season runs only from July to early September, a window when weather conditions are most stable and visitor infrastructure is fully operational. Roughly 200,000 hikers attempt to reach the summit during this official window each year. Climbing outside the official season is strongly discouraged by authorities, though it remains legally permitted up to the fifth of the mountain’s ten ascending stations.

    Despite the legal allowance, off-season climbing carries significant avoidable risks. Most mountain huts and public toilet facilities along climbing routes are closed during the off-peak months, leaving no place for climbers to rest, refuel, or access basic amenities. Weather conditions on the mountain also turn far more severe outside the official season, with sudden blizzards, high winds, and icy trail conditions that create major hazards even for experienced mountaineers.

  • ‘Consequences of raising my voice’: Leqaa Kordia suffers fifth seizure since ICE detention

    ‘Consequences of raising my voice’: Leqaa Kordia suffers fifth seizure since ICE detention

    Six months after securing her release from 12 months of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, 33-year-old Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia is confronting a debilitating new health condition that never existed before her incarceration: repeated, unrelenting seizures. Her most recent episode, the fifth since her March 2026 release, struck Sunday shortly after she returned home from speaking at a panel hosted by New York City’s Riverside Church. Kordia, who was in prayer and still dressed in her prayer garments when the seizure hit, described the harrowing experience in an Instagram statement shared Monday.

    “I was scared, exhausted, dizzy, and confused,” Kordia wrote. “I had never had a seizure before ICE jailed me for exercising my freedom of speech and my right to protest.”

    Kordia first entered the United States in 2016 from the Israeli-occupied West Bank on a Palestinian Authority passport, initially as a visitor before transitioning to student status to study English. Her detention saga began in March 2025, when she voluntarily attended a scheduled meeting with immigration agents after learning authorities had questioned her acquaintances and visited her home to inquire about her. During that March 13 meeting in Newark, New Jersey, Kordia was served a notice to appear for immigration court and was immediately transferred overnight to a detention facility in Texas.

    She spent 368 days in ICE custody before an immigration judge ordered her release on March 13, 2026. Her first seizure, which was documented publicly, occurred one month earlier in February while she was still detained at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, and required emergency hospitalization. Recounting the incident to Middle East Eye in April, Kordia said she had developed a high fever the night before the seizure, and fellow detained women begged guards to provide her with basic over-the-counter pain relievers like Ibuprofen or Tylenol. Their pleas were ignored, Kordia said, and the seizure followed shortly after. “I swear, that night I thought I was going to die,” she told MEE at the time. Supporters had repeatedly raised alarms about the lack of medical access for Kordia during her detention, and she was only hospitalized days after the fever had already spiked.

    Kordia’s ongoing health struggle is far from an isolated incident. It has drawn renewed attention to longstanding, widespread allegations of systemic medical neglect across ICE detention facilities, a crisis that advocacy and medical rights groups have warned about for years. Middle East Eye has previously documented multiple other cases of inadequate medical care for detainees held by ICE.

    One such case involves 65-year-old Syrian detainee Iemad Saifo, who was taken into ICE custody in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, in July 2025. Saifo’s family told MEE in August that facility staff failed to properly log his regular prescription medications when he was admitted. Over his two-week detention, Saifo’s health deteriorated drastically because he could not access his required treatment, a common outcome that disrupts routine, life-sustaining care for detainees entering the system. Kordia herself recounted a similar experience from inside the facility: a woman detained in the same housing unit as her had brought her own medication with her when she was taken into custody, but officers never cataloged the drugs and kept them locked in the woman’s seized purse, despite repeated urgent requests to release the medication.

    Inadequate medical access is not the only pervasive complaint about conditions in ICE detention. Earlier this year, detainees at Delaney Hall, a privately run ICE facility in Newark, launched a hunger strike to protest abysmal living conditions that included insufficient food and substandard medical care. During a May visit to the facility, members of Congress documented these claims, with Representative Jerry Nadler telling reporters that some detainees reported meals containing maggots. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied all allegations of poor conditions in its detention facilities.

    A March 2026 report from the Florence Project, an Arizona-based nonprofit providing legal services to immigrants, further corroborates claims of widespread medical neglect. The organization documented a sharp, alarming rise in the number of its clients facing severe, chronic health conditions that have been exacerbated by life-threatening denial of care in ICE custody. Case studies included in the report mirror Kordia’s experience: a woman who developed recurring seizure-like convulsions only after entering detention, multiple pregnant women denied appropriate prenatal care, and a woman who was scheduled for surgery to repair a broken ankle just before her detention, who remains in severe chronic pain with an unhealed broken bone months later.

    For Kordia, the crisis is deeply personal. “I can’t take back the 368 days that were stolen from me,” she wrote in her Instagram post. “I can’t fully live a normal existence. I don’t know whether I will ever heal from this trauma and sickness.”

    Sally Pillay, executive director of the Mami Chelo Foundation, told MEE that Kordia’s account is deeply troubling and aligns with what the organization hears consistently from people held in ICE detention: requests for medical care are routinely delayed or ignored until a condition becomes a life-threatening emergency.

    “No one should leave civil immigration detention with their health permanently damaged because they could not access timely, adequate medical care,” Pillay said.

    Six months after her release, Kordia says the seizures that started only after her detention continue to upend her life. “Now I carry the pain of my people and my family in my chest, and the consequences of raising my voice live in my brain and body,” she wrote. “I will pay the price of speaking up for the rest of my life.”