Global Pulse

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  • They quit the West for Russia’s traditional values, but it wasn’t what they expected

    They quit the West for Russia’s traditional values, but it wasn’t what they expected

    Against a backdrop of sweeping international isolation following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has launched an unconventional immigration initiative designed to position itself as a global bulwark of traditional cultural values, drawing a small but notable stream of disillusioned Westerners to its borders. Introduced by President Vladimir Putin in 2024, one month after Texas native Leo Hare received Russian asylum, the Shared Values visa—colloquially known as the “anti-woke” visa—offers up to three years of temporary residency to citizens of the 47 nations Russia classifies as “unfriendly”, with a uniquely low barrier to entry.

    Unlike standard Russian immigration pathways, the scheme waives mandatory exams in Russian language, Russian history and national law. Instead, applicants need only sign a declaration affirming they align with Russia’s traditional spiritual and moral principles, and reject what the Kremlin labels the “destructive neoliberal ideology” of their home countries. After the three-year temporary residency period, visa holders must either pass the required language and history exams to secure permanent residency or exit the country. The program offers no government-funded housing or financial support; applicants only pay a 1,600 rouble (roughly £17 or $22) administrative fee and clear standard medical and criminal background checks.

    As of spring 2026, Russian authorities report nearly 3,400 people have submitted applications under the scheme—though independent verification of this figure, and of how many applications have ultimately been approved, remains impossible to obtain. The visa program is the practical realization of a policy vision Putin first outlined in a 2022 decree, where he warned that Western ideological influence posed a direct threat to core Russian values such as traditional marriage and family structure, and called for a global rebranding of Russia as a counterweight to perceived Western moral decay. Today, a sprawling online network of relocation services and social media influencers amplifies this narrative, marketing Russia to Western audiences as a haven where family-centric culture remains intact and daily life feels more secure than in their home countries.

    Ilja Belobragin, who runs a firm assisting foreign nationals relocate to Russia, says the most common refrain he hears from clients is that they no longer recognize the communities they grew up in. Many prospective migrants cite grievances ranging from rapid cultural shifts, high levels of immigration, and declining living standards in their home countries. For most of those making the move, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has not proven to be a deciding factor. Some openly back Russia’s military campaign, while others frame their decision as rooted entirely in cultural values rather than geopolitics.

    Philip Hutchinson, a former UK Conservative Party candidate who now resides in Moscow and helps other Westerners relocate, says he deliberately avoids discussing the conflict. “What are my thoughts on it? Look, I don’t really get involved in that. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here to live a nice quiet life with my family,” he explained. When asked if facilitating relocations under the Shared Values visa constitutes a political act, Hutchinson rejects the framing, arguing the program is simply the most accessible pathway to residency currently available for Westerners.

    Leo Hare, the Texas father of three who received asylum months before the program launched, became one of the most high-profile early examples of Western migration to Russia. A devout Christian, Hare had grown increasingly disillusioned with deep political polarization in the U.S., genetically modified food, and what he viewed as the expanding influence of the LGBTQ movement, and saw Russia as a promising alternative built on Christian faith and traditional family values—a narrative actively promoted by the Russian state. After arriving, he threw himself into local life: sampling traditional pelmeni dumplings, milking goats on a rural farm, and creating social media content documenting his experience for followers back in the West. Russian state media even filmed his asylum granting ceremony, where Hare publicly thanked Putin for welcoming his family, and he initially saw himself as a pioneer for what he called an “unprecedented” new immigration policy.

    But the reality of life in Russia quickly grew far more complicated than Hare anticipated. Within weeks of arriving, he and his family were defrauded of 5 million roubles (approximately £52,000 or $66,000) by a trusted contact, leaving them homeless. When interviewed earlier this year, Hare was living separately from his wife in the city of Ivanovo, and his two older children had returned to the United States. He now describes the past two years as both the best and worst period of his life.

    Hare still speaks warmly of ordinary Russian people, recalling how members of his local Orthodox church community stepped in to support his family after they lost their savings, including a local woman who took in his youngest son and taught him Russian free of charge. “My heart is just full of love for these people,” he said. He has since found work as an English tutor, and has experienced life across a range of settings, from an Orthodox monastery to Soviet-era small apartments and modern high-rise developments. But over time, he has grown increasingly concerned about restrictions on access to information and ongoing struggles with Russia’s economy. He has also stepped back from his earlier role promoting migration to Russia, admitting he once bought into the state’s promotional narrative. “I believed in the propaganda,” he said. Though he says he feels bound to stay in Russia by a sense of destiny, he now openly misses the civil liberties that shaped his life in America, noting “[In] Russia you don’t have these human rights values.”

    Other Western migrants have pushed back against the idealized narrative of Russia as a conservative utopia promoted by some influencers and the Russian state. Ben, a UK national from Derby who moved to Russia in 2023 on a private family visa to live with a Russian woman he met on a language exchange website, says he feels safer in his daily life in Russia and praises the warmth of local residents, but rejects the framing of Russia as a perfect conservative alternative to the West. Ben, who now lives in Kursk near the Ukrainian border, says his family initially thought he was insane for moving to a region near active conflict. He points to high rates of single-parent households, widespread acceptance of abortion, and extremely high divorce rates as evidence that Russia does not live up to the conservative ideal promoted online. “Russia isn’t some utopia,” he emphasized, arguing that many influencers promoting the country have hidden political agendas.

    Nearly two years after the Shared Values visa launched, Russia’s experiment in attracting ideological migration remains small in scale. While it has failed to draw the large wave of “anti-woke” migration its creators may have hoped for, it has cleared a path for a small group of Westerners to build new lives in Russia—for reasons ranging from love and faith to a simple desire for a fresh start.

  • Meloni and Trump: A very public fall-out that is proving very hard to fix

    Meloni and Trump: A very public fall-out that is proving very hard to fix

    Viral AI-generated memes circulating across Italian social media have perfectly captured a dramatic shift in transatlantic politics: the once-close alliance between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. President Donald Trump has devolved into a very public, very messy political breakup. The memes, which show Meloni engaging in classic post-breakup activities from getting a new haircut to signing up for a dating app, lean into a joke that has resonated deeply with the Italian public because it reflects a very real rupture that has unfolded over the past six months.

    It was not long ago that Meloni was widely known as Washington’s favorite European right-wing leader, nicknamed the “Trump whisperer.” She held the distinction of being the only European head of government to claim a front-row seat at Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, and just months later, she was tapped as the European Union’s top envoy to the White House for high-stakes talks aimed at defusing rising tensions over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on European goods. For Meloni, who spent years rebranding from a fringe post-fascist politician to a mainstream, credible leader of the European right, this close relationship with Trump was far more than a convenient diplomatic tie. It was global validation that she had arrived as a major player on the world stage.

    But Trump’s well-documented unpredictability has created a minefield that Meloni has been unable to navigate, eroding her credibility at home and abroad. The first major crack in the relationship emerged in late March, when Italy’s defense ministry announced it would require parliamentary approval before allowing U.S. military aircraft bound for the Middle East to use the NATO Sigonella airbase in Sicily. The decision aligned with Italy’s constitutional requirements and reflected overwhelming public opposition to expanded conflict in the region, but it set the stage for escalating friction.

    The dispute boiled over in April, when Trump launched a public attack on Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social after the pontiff criticized the U.S.-led campaign against Iran, calling the Pope “weak on crime.” As the leader of a deeply Catholic nation, Meloni had no choice but to push back, labeling Trump’s attack “unacceptable.” The U.S. president reacted sharply, telling Italian daily *Corriere della Sera* that he had been wrong about Meloni’s political courage. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he said. “She is unacceptable… she is not the same person, Italy is not the same country.”

    By the June G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, it looked like the pair had smoothed over their differences. Photographs showed the two leaders holding an extended, closed-door conversation on a summit sofa, and Meloni told reporters the discussion had been “very positive,” with “no friction.” But the truce collapsed within days. In a leaked, Italian-dubbed phone interview with Italian broadcaster La7 that was never aired in English, Trump claimed Meloni had “begged” him for the summit photograph. “She wanted a picture with me so badly,” the voiceover quoted Trump as saying. “I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her.”

    Meloni responded immediately with a scathing video address posted to her social channels, calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated.” “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies,” she said. “I can only say it’s a pity he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West… But there’s one thing he must remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.” The political fallout across Italy was swift and unified: President Sergio Mattarella called Meloni to express full solidarity, government lawmakers called the comments an insult to Italian dignity that demanded an apology, and opposition parties joined in condemning the remarks as an unacceptable affront to the entire nation. Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani went a step further, canceling a planned official trip to Washington.

    Trump doubled down on his claims from Camp David, posting to Truth Social that Meloni had asked for the photograph “over and over” and accusing her of only seeking to repair ties now that the U.S. had “defeated Iran militarily.” Before the original dispute could cool, a second controversy erupted over comments from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Appearing on Fox News last Wednesday, Rutte claimed around 500 U.S. aircraft had taken off from bases in Italy to support “Operation Epic Fury,” the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, framing the movement as part of broad European support for the operation. Rome rejected the account forcefully, with the defense ministry calling Rutte’s claims “fallacious” and “totally misleading,” emphasizing that Italy had only authorized technical and logistical flights, not combat operations, and had rejected all requests that crossed that line. A NATO spokesperson later walked back the comments, clarifying that Rutte had only meant to note that all allies, including Italy, had upheld existing bilateral basing agreements. Still, the incident reignited domestic pressure on Meloni, who has repeatedly insisted her government never authorized the use of Italian territory for direct military action against Iran.

    For Meloni, who is already navigating political headwinds after a recent defeat in a national constitutional referendum and faces a general election next year, the feud has opened up pressing questions about her future political positioning. Analysts point out that her long-held strategy of balancing between competing European and U.S. interests has collapsed. “This might be a tough situation to turn around,” said Gianni Riotta, author and vice chairman of the Council for the United States and Italy, speaking to the BBC. “Meloni’s ability to build a bridge now looks like a mere illusion, she couldn’t stand between Europe and the US. She tried to please both sides, on Ukraine, on tariffs. Then the Pope broke it: she had to back him, and Trump doesn’t accept that. Trump has had a friend-or-foe outlook since his property days in New York, you’re either with me or against me, and once that understanding broke down, he pushed harder, and Meloni played up her tough-woman image.”

    While neither Rome nor Washington is pushing for a full diplomatic rupture, public tensions remain high. Earlier this week, reports circulated that multiple Italian government ministers planned to boycott the U.S. Embassy’s annual Independence Day reception at Rome’s Villa Taverna, brought forward this year to July 2, in solidarity with Meloni, who was already not expected to attend. That talk of a boycott has since softened, with Tajani announcing he will attend “with my head held high” and Meloni’s allies saying ministers are now free to make their own choice about attendance. The real test of the relationship will come next month, when both leaders are scheduled to attend the NATO summit in Ankara, marking their first public appearance in the same room since the explosive G7 dispute.

  • The Bhojpuri singers fighting vulgar tag on one of India’s oldest languages

    The Bhojpuri singers fighting vulgar tag on one of India’s oldest languages

    A haunting century-old Bhojpuri folk song performed on a hit Indian music platform has become a viral overnight sensation, igniting a long-overdue reckoning with harmful stereotypes that have obscured the language’s rich, layered cultural heritage for decades.

    When 29-year-old folk singer Udit Utpal, hailing from the rural Saharsa district of India’s northern state of Bihar, took the stage for *Coke Studio Bharat* — the Indian iteration of the global popular music franchise that amplifies underrepresented regional sounds for cross-South Asian audiences — to perform *Kachaudi Gali* alongside acclaimed vocalist Rekha Bhardwaj, the track quickly amassed millions of views. Beyond launching Utpal’s national career, the unexpected breakout hit has drawn renewed attention to Bhojpuri, a language spoken by tens of millions across northern India and a global diaspora stretching from the Caribbean to the South Pacific, yet one long reduced to harmful, one-note stereotypes in mainstream Indian culture.

    For most modern Indians, Bhojpuri is synonymous with a commercial entertainment industry dominated by crude, sexually charged lyrics and misogynistic tropes. On film and television, Bihari characters and accents are routinely pushed into one-dimensional roles: comic sidekicks, impoverished migrant laborers, or unrefined rural outsiders. This persistent caricature has completely overshadowed Bhojpuri’s centuries-deep literary and folk canon, which includes thousands of folk songs, epic poetry, theatrical works, and oral storytelling traditions rooted in the lived experiences of Bihar’s people. For decades, regional folk artists have worked to preserve these traditions, but their work has been largely eclipsed by the language’s more visible, negative mainstream image.

    For Utpal, changing that misperception has become a life’s mission. Growing up moving across different regions of Bihar for his father’s government job, he absorbed local folk melodies from childhood; in his early 20s, he began diving deeper into the work of iconic Bhojpuri playwrights and poets like Bhikhari Thakur and Mahendra Misir, who shaped the state’s folk artistic identity. A defining throughline of Bhojpuri folk music, he learned, is the experience of migration — a theme that has shaped Bihar for centuries, from the forced colonial labor systems that shipped Bihari workers across the British Empire to the modern pattern of outmigration to India’s wealthy urban centers for work. *Kachaudi Gali* itself embodies this history: it tells the story of a colonial-era woman mourning as her husband leaves to fight in a distant British war, cursing the empire that tore him from her and even imagining taking up arms herself.

    “It hurts when you are deeply connected to the music of your roots, yet others perceive it poorly,” Utpal told reporters. “I really want to change that. I want people to realise that Bhojpuri and Bihari music have much more depth than the stereotypes suggest. I want them to hear the stories the music conveys.”

    To make these stories accessible to new audiences, Utpal shares detailed contextual explanations of the history and cultural meaning of every song he posts to social media, pairing short performances with reflections on colonialism, migration, and the legacies of Bhojpuri’s greatest artists. It was this commitment to context that caught the eye of Khwab, producer of *Kachaudi Gali* for *Coke Studio Bharat*, who discovered Utpal a year ago through an Instagram video of the singer performing the track in his village.

    “Utpal is obviously a brilliant singer, but when I read his explanation of the song’s history, I literally sat up in bed. I knew then that something significant had to come from this,” Khwab recalled.

    For the *Coke Studio* reimagining, Khwab crafted a production that balances modern pop polish with uncompromising respect for the song’s traditional roots: all core traditional instruments — including shehnai, tabla, dholak, harmonium, and dotara — were recorded live, rather than relying on synthesized backing tracks. “It’s about preserving what might be lost while creating something fresh. I wanted others to realise that folk music can be cool too,” Khwab explained of the project’s mission.

    Utpal’s folk revival is not the only effort to rewrite mainstream narratives about Bhojpuri: hundreds of kilometers away, independent rapper Sanket Shikriwal is challenging stereotypes from an entirely different angle, blending Bhojpuri language and themes with jazz, spoken word, and hip-hop to create a completely contemporary sound that bridges Bihar’s rural past and India’s digital present. Where Utpal’s work centers recovering forgotten traditional heritage, Shikriwal’s thrives on creative collision: his verses weave together village childhood memories with references to Franz Kafka and John Coltrane, pairing stories of migration with modern internet culture, and creating an ongoing conversation between past and present, village and city.

    His music often uses raw street language and profanity to express social agitation, a choice he says is no different from the profanity long accepted as a tool for commentary in global hip-hop or even mainstream Punjabi music, which has grown into one of India’s most successful cultural exports under artists like Diljit Dosanjh and Sidhu Moosewala. Shikriwal argues that Bhojpuri is held to a double standard: other regional genres are allowed to experiment and work through raw emotion, but Bhojpuri is constantly expected to sanitize itself to prove its respectability.

    “The question isn’t whether Bhojpuri can be made respectable. It’s why Bhojpuri speakers are always expected to prove that they are,” Shikriwal said. “What I hope for is not a sanitised version of Bhojpuri culture, but a more confident one — secure enough to define itself on its own terms. I want people to look at Bihar and see philosophers again. We call it the Land of Buddha, yet we treat its people with such disrespect.”

    For Utpal, the viral success of *Kachaudi Gali* is already a sign that change is coming. Millions of listeners across India and beyond have connected with the song’s raw, centuries-old story of grief and resistance, proving that audiences are hungry for the full, unfiltered story of Bhojpuri culture. “It was a reminder that one of India’s most widely spoken languages is still waiting to be heard on its own terms,” Utpal said.

  • World Cup what to know: Round of 32 to be finalized after final 6 matches of group play

    World Cup what to know: Round of 32 to be finalized after final 6 matches of group play

    After more than two weeks of cross-border group stage play at the expanded 48-team World Cup, the final batch of six matches on Saturday will lock in the full 32-team field for the knockout round, which kicks off just one day later. With most qualification spots already secured, the remaining fixtures bring high drama: teams are jostling for favorable group positions, fighting for their tournament lives, and sitting on the bubble of elimination, waiting for other sides’ results to shape their fate.

    The format shift to 48 teams has added layers of intrigue, and occasional confusion, to the qualification race. Under the new structure, the top two finishers from each of the 12 groups advance, along with eight best third-place teams, creating a wider range of possible outcomes and putting tiebreakers at the center of many teams’ calculations.

    The headline matchup of Saturday’s slate is the Group K showdown between Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Colombia, held in Miami Gardens, Florida, where kickoff conditions will see temperatures near 30 degrees Celsius coupled with high humidity. Colombia has already locked in its knockout spot, and a win or draw will give it the Group K title. Portugal, meanwhile, needs three points to top the group, but can still move on with a draw — and in some scenarios, even a loss. For Portugal manager Roberto Martinez, securing the group’s top position is a secondary goal: the only priority is advancing.

    “My experience, probably in my first World Cup, I would have said yes [that winning the group matters]. You sit down and you are so inexperienced, you want to plan everything … and then you realize that doesn’t happen in competitions,” Martinez told reporters. In the end, he added, “you have to be able to beat everybody and anybody.”

    Also in Group K, underdog Congo will look to claim its first ever World Cup win and secure a knockout spot when it faces Uzbekistan in Atlanta. Congo shocked tournament observers by holding Portugal to a 1-1 draw in its opening match, earning the country its first ever World Cup point. It has only qualified once before, in 1974 when it competed as Zaire and lost all three of its matches, including a 9-0 defeat to Yugoslavia. “We are very, very happy to have got this first point and first goal for Congo, but we have a final to play tomorrow,” head coach Sébastien Desabre said. “I hope that I’ll get the Congolese people to dream tomorrow a little bit.” A win against winless, point-less Uzbekistan would punch Congo’s ticket to the knockout round, joining the growing contingent of African nations that have advanced in this tournament.

    In Group L, Ghana and Croatia will face off in Philadelphia with everything on the line. Sitting level on four points alongside England, Ghana only needs a draw to secure its first knockout round appearance since it reached the quarterfinals in the 2010 South Africa World Cup. Croatia enters the match with three points, needing a win to guarantee its spot in the Round of 32. “Everyone’s ready, everyone was real happy with the result against England,” Ghana midfielder Antoine Semenyo said. “It’s going to be a tough game tomorrow, but everyone is excited and ready.” England, tied with Ghana at four points, closes its group stage against Panama in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

    One of the most unusual storylines heading into Saturday’s play comes from Group J, where Austria faces Algeria in Kansas City, Missouri. With group leader Argentina already guaranteed the top spot, the bracket structure creates an odd scenario: finishing third could give Austria a far easier knockout matchup than finishing second. The Group J runner-up will face Group H winner, likely reigning European champion Spain, while a third-place finish would set up a game against Group B winner Switzerland, widely viewed as a more manageable opponent. The awkward dynamic echoes the infamous 1982 “Disgrace of Gijon,” where a fixed result between West Germany and Austria eliminated Algeria and led FIFA to mandate simultaneous kickoffs on the final group stage day to avoid match-fixing risks. Austria’s manager Ralf Rangnick rejected any suggestion his side would play for a loss. “No, definitely not. Once we start we will know, but it will not influence our match. If we have a draw tomorrow, we can go on, but we cannot go into a match and just say, ‘We’ll play for a draw.’” Midfielder Konrad Laimer echoed that sentiment: “We go out, we want to win the game. It doesn’t matter who we face.”

    Closing out the day’s slate in Arlington, Texas, defending champion Argentina will face Jordan already confirmed as Group J winners, leaving head coach Lionel Scaloni with a tough call: play 39-year-old star Lionel Messi to let him add to his World Cup scoring record, or rest his star forward to avoid injury ahead of the knockout round. The match is widely expected to see Messi start on the bench, though the player himself has pushed for playing time in past similar scenarios.

    Beyond the storylines of the final matchday, tournament data reveals a surprising trend: scoring first does not guarantee a positive result. Seven different teams have fought back from first-half deficits to secure group stage wins so far, including South Korea’s late 2-1 comeback over the Czech Republic, Algeria’s 2-1 victory against Jordan, and most recently Turkey’s last-second 3-2 win over the United States. Egypt, Germany, Morocco and Ecuador have also rallied from deficits to claim three points.

  • A Minnesota man accused in a $250M fraud scheme has been taken into custody in Somalia

    A Minnesota man accused in a $250M fraud scheme has been taken into custody in Somalia

    Mogadishu, Somalia — A 42-year-old Minnesota man identified as a core conspirator in one of the largest public fraud schemes in U.S. Midwest history has been apprehended by authorities after years as a fugitive, U.S. federal law enforcement officials confirmed Friday.

    Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, a resident of Burnsville, Minnesota, was taken into custody on Thursday in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announced in an official media statement. As of the latest update, court records have not listed any legal representation for Eidleh, and he has not yet appeared before a judicial officer to enter a plea to the charges against him.

    Eidleh is among more than 40 individuals indicted back in 2022 for their alleged roles in a coordinated, multi-million dollar scam targeting a U.S. federal child nutrition program launched to support vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 public health crisis. At the center of the scheme was Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based non-profit that publicly claimed it would use federal funding to distribute millions of free meals to food-insecure children across the state when pandemic school closures disrupted access to regular school nutrition services.

    Court filings lay out damning allegations that only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars allocated to the organization actually went toward feeding children in need. Prosecutors say the vast majority of the funds were illegally siphoned off through a network of dummy shell companies, then laundered to fund personal luxuries for the conspirators: high-end residential and commercial real estate purchases, luxury vehicles, and extravagant international vacations.

    As a former employee of Feeding Our Future, Eidleh is accused of taking on a central coordinating role in the fraud. Court documents allege he helped create dozens of fake program meal sites, falsified daily attendance and meal distribution records that claimed the sites were serving thousands of children every day, and set up the fraudulent shell companies that were listed as official meal vendors for the non-existent sites. The grand jury indictment brings six separate types of charges against him, totaling 31 counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, substantive wire fraud violations, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, substantive bribery charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and substantive money laundering charges.

    Colin M. McDonald, Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, emphasized the severity of the alleged crimes in public comments following the capture. “Eidleh was a central figure in one of the largest fraud schemes in Minnesota history,” McDonald said. “He not only stole taxpayer dollars, but he also robbed vulnerable children of critical resources they desperately needed. Rather than answer for his crimes in the United States, he fled to Somalia in a futile attempt to evade justice.”

    The high-profile fraud case has already spilled over into national political discourse. Former U.S. President Donald Trump cited the case as a key justification when he announced a sweeping immigration crackdown targeting the state of Minnesota in late 2023, framing the scam as evidence of weak border security and lax enforcement that enabled large-scale public corruption.

  • ‘Financial death penalty’: How US sanctions are upending the lives of ICC judges

    ‘Financial death penalty’: How US sanctions are upending the lives of ICC judges

    In a landmark legal challenge that has sparked global debate about judicial independence and the power of unilateral U.S. sanctions, three sitting International Criminal Court judges have detailed the devastating personal and professional harm inflicted by restrictions imposed by the former Trump administration, in a complaint filed last month in a New York federal court.

    The penalties were enacted under Executive Order 14203, signed by then-President Donald Trump in February 2025, targeting the three jurists for official judicial rulings that ran counter to U.S. and Israeli political interests. All three judges—Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin—have served on the ICC bench since March 2018. They are asking the court to strike down the sanctions, which they describe in their filing as “tantamount to a financial death penalty.”

    Prost and Bossa were sanctioned for their participation in a 2020 Appeals Chamber decision that approved an ICC investigation into allegations of war crimes committed in Afghanistan, including claims of abuses by U.S. military and intelligence personnel. Alapini-Gansou was targeted for her role on Pre-Trial Chamber I, which issued widely publicized arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.

    The complaint, filed June 24 with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lays out granular harms that have upended nearly every aspect of the judges’ daily lives, far beyond their professional work at the court based in The Hague. James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and co-counsel representing Prost, called the sanctions an “unprecedented attack on judicial independence.”

    “They are trying to induce judges to refrain from deciding on the basis of facts and law, and instead take into account their own personal interests—that is the threats to their own financial and personal wellbeing imposed by these sanctions,” Goldston told Middle East Eye in an interview.

    For Prost, the sanctions have dismantled nearly every ordinary financial service she relied on for decades. Her primary HSBC account in Midtown Manhattan has been frozen, leaving her unable to use credit cards even from institutions based outside the United States. While she retains limited banking access in parts of Europe and Canada, even routine domestic transfers within the European Union are regularly rejected or blocked by financial institutions complying with U.S. rules. When she travels outside the EU or Canada, she is forced to rely entirely on cash, as any currency conversion transaction that passes through the U.S. financial system is barred. Access to mainstream digital services has also been cut off: her accounts with Amazon, Google, and Expedia have been restricted or shut down entirely, turning routine tasks such as booking a hotel, ordering groceries online, hailing a rideshare, or purchasing public transit tickets into difficult or impossible undertakings. Most critically, Prost has lost access to health insurance; her existing provider has refused to pay out on any of her medical claims despite collecting her premium payments, and no other insurer will offer her coverage.

    The harm to Bossa mirrors that of Prost: her account at the UN Federal Credit Union in New York, which she has held since 2003, has been frozen, locking away her personal savings. She is also barred from using credit cards, converting currencies through the U.S. financial system, paying dollar-denominated bills, or transferring funds between dollar accounts. Booking international travel and accommodation has become nearly impossible, and she has lost access to her personal Google email account, cutting off a critical line of professional and personal communication.

    For Alapini-Gansou, who holds no U.S. bank accounts, the impact of the sanctions has still crossed borders, disrupting her life in Europe and West Africa. Her personal account in France has been restricted, and her French-issued credit card no longer works, leaving her unable to cover even basic daily expenses. Like the other two judges, she is barred from conducting any U.S. dollar transactions through the global financial system, making travel planning a major logistical barrier. She has also lost her health insurance coverage, with no alternative provider willing to take on her policy.

    Beyond financial harm, Alapini-Gansou now faces direct threats to her physical security and freedom of movement. The complaint notes that she can no longer walk freely to the ICC’s headquarters in The Hague, and must now be transported by armed security detail for her own safety. She has reduced the frequency of visits to her home country of Benin out of caution, and even routine travel across Europe requires her to notify local law enforcement and arrange dedicated security protection, turning simple professional trips into complicated, stressful ordeals.

    The sanctions have also forced Alapini-Gansou to step back entirely from her longstanding outreach work with African civil society. She has canceled all planned seminars and workshops for non-governmental organizations across the continent, fearing that any collaboration would expose the groups and their staff to severe legal penalties under the U.S. sanctions regime, which allows for up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment for U.S. citizens who provide services to designated individuals. In multiple instances, event organizers have asked her to withdraw from public participation entirely to avoid regulatory repercussions.

    Professionally, the sanctions have isolated all three judges from longstanding professional communities. Prost, who has deep ties to the U.S. academic and legal community, has been barred from entering the U.S. to speak at engagements, and even virtual participation has been blocked. Last October, she was scheduled to deliver the opening keynote address at Fordham University’s annual International Law Weekend, hosted by the American Branch of the International Law Association, but was unable to attend in person or join remotely. She has indefinitely postponed a planned visiting trip to Vanderbilt University and abandoned plans to attend the 2026 annual conference of the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. At the December 2025 meeting of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, U.S.-based human rights NGOs reportedly received informal guidance to limit interactions with Prost, cutting her off from a professional network she engaged with freely for years. Bossa faces identical professional isolation, barred from U.S. speaking engagements and cut off from collaboration with U.S.-based human rights groups.

    The harm of the sanctions has extended beyond the judges themselves to their immediate family members. Prost’s relatives in Canada, many of whom travel to the U.S. routinely for leisure and work, now avoid trips to the country out of fear of legal repercussions simply for being related to a sanctioned individual. Alapini-Gansou’s son abandoned his plans to attend law school in the U.S., a decision that will permanently alter his career trajectory, and one of her daughters, who works for an international NGO, has been forced to cancel all work-related trips to the U.S., disrupting her own professional progress.

    Despite the severe personal and professional cost of the sanctions, all three judges have continued to fulfill their judicial obligations in line with their oaths of office. “Judges Prost, Bossa, and Alapini-Gansou have resisted this immense pressure because they are committed to upholding the rule of law, including by discharging their judicial duties faithfully and independently, despite the great personal cost,” the complaint states.

  • Bible stories become required reading for Texas schools

    Bible stories become required reading for Texas schools

    In a decision that has reignited long-simmering tensions over religious influence in American public education, Texas’ Republican-controlled State Board of Education has greenlit a policy that will require all public school students across the state to complete mandatory readings of Bible stories starting in 2030. The measure, which impacts more than 5 million K-12 students in the nation’s second-largest state, includes core biblical passages such as the creation narrative of Adam and Eve and the Book of Exodus’ account of God appearing to Moses through a burning bush. The approved required reading list also incorporates well-known English literary works, including Charles Dickens’ classic novel *Great Expectations*, alongside the religious texts. This new mandate is the latest in a series of conservative education policy shifts in Texas, coming one year after the state made history as the largest U.S. state to mandate that all public school classrooms display a copy of the Ten Commandments, the foundational set of biblical laws central to Judeo-Christian tradition. Critics of the new policy have quickly raised sharp objections, arguing that the mandatory inclusion of Bible stories in public school curricula violates the fundamental constitutional principle of separating church and state, and infringes on the religious freedom rights of students and families from diverse religious and non-religious backgrounds. As the policy will not take effect for another four years, legal challenges and ongoing public debate over the role of religious content in public education are expected to intensify across the state and the country in the coming years.

  • Watch: Native Americans mark 150th anniversary of Little Bighorn victory

    Watch: Native Americans mark 150th anniversary of Little Bighorn victory

    Across the rolling plains of southern Montana, where the Little Bighorn River cuts through grasslands steeped in Indigenous history, hundreds of Native American people from dozens of tribes have gathered this week to mark a landmark moment: the 150th anniversary of their ancestors’ decisive 1876 victory over U.S. military forces led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

    The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25 and 26, 1876, emerged from deep-seated tensions over U.S. westward expansion and the displacement of Plains Indigenous nations from their ancestral territories. At the time, the U.S. government was aggressively pushing to seize control of the Black Hills, a region sacred to the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples, after gold was discovered there. When thousands of Indigenous hunters and families defied government orders to move onto overcrowded, resource-poor reservations, the U.S. military launched a campaign to force them into compliance.

    In a remarkable show of intertribal unity, roughly 2,000 Indigenous warriors joined forces to defend their encampment, where more than 10,000 people had gathered for summer hunting and cultural ceremonies. The combined force overwhelmed Custer and his battalion of more than 200 soldiers, killing the commanding officer and every member of his detachment in what remains one of the most lopsided military defeats in U.S. history.

    For 150 years, the battle has carried drastically different meanings for different groups. For the United States, it was long framed as a shocking tragedy that galvanized public support for further military action against Plains Indigenous nations, ultimately leading to the end of their independence and confinement to reservations. But for Native Americans, the victory has always stood as a powerful symbol of resistance, sovereignty, and the courage of ancestors who fought to protect their homelands and way of life.

    This year’s anniversary events included traditional ceremonies, powwows, storytelling sessions led by tribal elders, and wreath-laying at sites connected to the battle. Many attendees traveled hundreds of miles to take part, passing down stories of the battle to younger generations and reaffirming their connection to the land where the historic clash took place. Speakers at the gathering also highlighted the ongoing fight for Indigenous sovereignty, land back movements, and cultural preservation that continues to shape Native communities today, drawing a direct line from the 1876 resistance to modern advocacy efforts.

  • Pete Buttigieg briefly separated from children after false police report

    Pete Buttigieg briefly separated from children after false police report

    Pete Buttigieg, the former United States Transportation Secretary and a widely speculated potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has opened up about a traumatic experience that he says counts among the worst moments of his life: a baseless anonymous allegation that forced him to stay separated from his young children overnight.

    In a lengthy personal post published on the Substack newsletter platform, Buttigieg detailed how an anonymous tip to authorities claiming he posed a risk to his own children triggered an official investigation that upended his family life. Michigan State Police were required to respond to the report, which involved arranging formal forensic interviews with Buttigieg’s four-year-old twin children. As a standard procedural precaution during the investigation, law enforcement instructed Buttigieg not to be left alone with his children until the interviews were completed, requiring him to spend a full night away from them.

    After a full review of the claim, both Michigan State Police and state child protective services concluded the allegation was completely unfounded. Law enforcement officials also shared with Buttigieg that they believe the false claim was politically motivated, a conclusion he echoed in his public account of the incident. When contacted by the BBC, Michigan State Police confirmed their official finding that the anonymous report was false, echoing Buttigieg’s characterization of the ordeal.

    Buttigieg, who is married to Chasten Buttigieg and shares the four-year-old twins with him, described the pain of having his young children dragged into a political dispute. “I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this,” he wrote. “They are four years old. Four. They do not know or care what a Democrat or a Republican is.”

    The former cabinet secretary also raised concerns about the long-term unseen impact this traumatic experience could leave on his family, including his husband and young children. He drew a parallel between the false child protection allegation and the dangerous practice of “swatting” — a harmful harassment tactic where bad actors make hoax emergency calls to send heavily armed law enforcement officers to an innocent person’s home. In Buttigieg’s framing, this false claim was the child welfare system equivalent of that dangerous hoax.

    Michigan State Police echoed warnings about the harm caused by such deliberate false reports. In their official statement to the BBC, department officials noted that baseless allegations like this one are inherently dangerous, as they pull already stretched emergency and child protection workers away from their core work: responding to legitimate threats to children and supporting vulnerable families that actually need intervention.

    The incident has sparked new conversation about the rising trend of weaponizing child protection systems to target political opponents, as Buttigieg remains one of the most high-profile young figures in the Democratic Party and is frequently named as a likely candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

  • Venezuela earthquakes kill 920 people as families desperate for news

    Venezuela earthquakes kill 920 people as families desperate for news

    In a devastating geological event that has shaken Venezuela to its core, two massive back-to-back earthquakes struck the nation’s northern regions last Wednesday, leaving a trail of death, destruction, and urgent humanitarian need that has drawn a coordinated global response. The second of the two tremors registered a magnitude of 7.5, marking one of the most powerful seismic events to hit the South American country in more than a century.

    Official government updates confirm the disaster has already claimed at least 920 lives, left 3,360 people injured, and left at least 172 individuals still trapped beneath collapsed infrastructure, with hundreds more reported missing. Authorities warn the final death toll is expected to climb as rescue teams work to clear rubble and reach cut-off areas. The coastal state of La Guaira, located just north of the capital Caracas and home to Venezuela’s primary international airport and one of its two largest commercial ports, has borne the brunt of the destruction.

    For dozens of families across the hardest-hit region, every passing minute brings a agonizing mix of hope and despair. Natacha Diaz, a resident of La Guaira, is among those clinging to faith as she waits for news of her two daughters, ages 22 and 23, who were working as manicurists inside a collapsed local shopping mall when the quakes hit. “They were with their friends. I just want them to be found. I have faith and hope that they are there,” Diaz told the BBC. “I just want them back with me. They are all I have, please.”

    Dozens of structures across northern Venezuela have been reduced to rubble, including multiple hospitals, shopping centers, and residential buildings, with more than 1,000 additional critical infrastructure sites sustaining major damage. Surviving medical facilities have been stretched far beyond capacity, treating injured patients in makeshift outdoor care tents. Long before the disaster struck, Venezuela’s decades-long economic crisis and chronic underinvestment had left the country’s healthcare system severely under-resourced, a gap that has been thrown into sharp relief by the earthquake emergency. “All our hospitals lack supplies, lack medicines, we are not able to provide medical attention to our people in a normal day,” Dr. Pedro Javier Fernandez told the BBC. “Now with this tragedy, the emergency is even bigger and it’s more difficult to face than in other countries.”

    Initial rescue efforts were hampered by broken communications links, damaged and blocked roadways, and a critical shortage of heavy equipment and supplies, forcing many first responders and civilian volunteers to dig through debris with their bare hands in a race to pull survivors out. In recent days, hundreds of international search-and-rescue teams have arrived in the country to bolster local efforts, with more personnel and aid en route. A British military flight carrying specialist rescue teams from 14 UK fire services, search dogs, and drone detection equipment departed from RAF Brize Norton on Friday, joining teams already deployed from the United States, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Switzerland. The U.S. has also committed $150 million in humanitarian aid, alongside deploying warships and cargo planes to support relief operations.

    Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said international teams on the ground have already witnessed “horrific damage” across the affected regions, noting that Venezuela’s pre-existing crumbling infrastructure left the nation uniquely vulnerable to such a disaster. “Venezuela was ill-prepared and vulnerable in an emergency situation because of its already crumbling infrastructure following decades of underinvestment,” Egeland told the BBC.

    Amid the widespread grief and destruction, small moments of hope have lifted morale across the country. In one widely broadcast story on state television, three young siblings were pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in La Guaira, emerging covered in dust after being trapped for days. “Come here, my child, come here,” a rescuer called out to the first child, followed by a young girl, and then the third sibling, who emerged sobbing but alive.

    The disaster has also already claimed notable victims, including Andrea, the wife of Venezuelan footballer Héctor Bello, who died while shielding and saving their toddler daughter during the collapse. “I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her, my love – how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who never abandoned her, even as you took your last breaths,” Bello wrote in an emotional Instagram post. Foreign casualties have also been confirmed: one Portuguese national, two Brazilian citizens, and four Spanish nationals are among the dead, while 106 Spanish citizens remain unaccounted for, per Spanish foreign ministry reports.

    Beyond La Guaira, multiple other states across northern Venezuela have felt the impact of the disaster, with the capital Caracas seeing heavy damage in the upscale neighborhoods of Los Palos Grandes and Altamira. More than 214 aftershocks have been recorded since the initial twin quakes, with most concentrated along the northern coastline spanning La Guaira, Aragua, Carabobo, and Falcón.

    The earthquake comes at a moment of extreme political uncertainty for Venezuela. Less than six months ago, long-time leftist leader Nicolás Maduro, who had governed the country since 2013, was seized by U.S. forces in Caracas and extradited to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges. Maduro’s ally, former vice president Delcy Rodríguez, stepped into the role of acting president, a move that has been contested by opposition supporters who had expected the U.S. to install opposition leader María Corina Machado to lead the interim government.

    Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who lives in exile in Spain, described the scale of the devastation as “huge” and said the population remains in “shock.” He criticized the interim government’s inability to mount a timely, large-scale rescue response, but praised the outpouring of grassroots support from Venezuelan civil society. The United Nations has pledged to coordinate the international humanitarian response, with the UN’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher saying, “I want people to know in Venezuela that help is coming.”