Global Pulse

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  • Israeli teen threatened with suspension over call to refuse military service

    Israeli teen threatened with suspension over call to refuse military service

    A wave of grassroots conscientious objection among young Israelis has sparked a disciplinary clash after an 11th-grade student at Ramat Gan’s Ohel Shem High School, a campus just outside Tel Aviv, was summoned for official punishment over distributing leaflets that urge peers to reject mandatory military service over Israel’s documented atrocities in Gaza and ongoing ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. Leading Israeli daily Haaretz first reported the incident, which has pulled back the curtain on deep political tensions around military conscription and free speech within Israeli educational institutions.

    The student was not immediately suspended, but school officials informed her that disciplinary action, including a suspension starting in the upcoming academic year, remains on the table. The teen was one of three young organizers who circulated the leaflets, titled “We Hereby Refuse,” just outside the Ohel Shem High School campus, per the Haaretz report.

    The document directly calls on teens approaching conscription age to sign a pledge committing to refuse enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces, citing widespread war crimes committed by the military in occupied Palestinian territories that have continued since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023. “We, teenagers slated for conscription in the Israeli Army, hereby refuse to take part in its crimes and to serve the dictatorial government’s interests,” the leaflet reads in part.

    To date, organizers confirm that roughly 130 students have added their signatures to the refusal pledge. The campaign is backed by Mesarvot, an Israeli grassroots organization that provides support to young people who choose to refuse mandatory military service on conscientious and political grounds. The group has long criticized Israel’s education system for normalizing militarism, arguing that schools intentionally embed a pro-military worldview into daily student life from an early age.

    The refusal letter expands on this critique, noting: “The schools prepare us for the army by embedding militaristic discourse. The truth is that the army is not a preordained fate – no one is born a soldier.” It adds that even with a temporary ceasefire in place in Gaza, “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes continue,” highlighting that Israeli military forces and civilian settlers in the occupied West Bank are actively advancing a state-backed policy of ethnic cleansing. “We refuse to take part in moral wrongdoings,” the statement continues, adding that signatories refuse to “collaborate with a fascist government” and “continue the cycle of bloodshed.”

    During the disciplinary meeting, Ohel Shem principal Israel Vilozny told the student that distributing activism materials focused on education or climate change would have been treated as a far less severe offense, according to the student’s account. The teen’s parents have hit back against the school’s action, accusing administrators of selective enforcement of campus rules and targeting their daughter for political persecution.

    Vilozny has defended his handling of the case, arguing that the student broke campus policies by distributing unauthorized political materials on school grounds. The Ramat Gan municipality, which has oversight over the public high school, has issued a full statement backing the principal’s decision, framing mandatory military service as “a sacred value” at the core of Israeli civic life. While the municipality acknowledged that it supports open political dialogue on campus, it maintains that all political materials require advance approval from school leadership before they can be distributed.

    In a controversial comparison, the municipality drew a parallel between the anti-conscription leaflets and the spread of racist ideology by followers of the extremist Kahanist movement, a far-right Jewish nationalist faction classified as a terrorist organization by multiple governments. “Tomorrow another student could show up with two Kahanists to spread racist poison,” the municipality’s statement warned. Officials also pushed back against messaging aligned with the International Court of Justice’s recent rulings on Israeli actions in Gaza, warning that the campus would not tolerate “propaganda in support of” those ICJ findings.

    Mandatory military service remains one of the most central and widely accepted institutions in mainstream Israeli society, especially in urban centers like Ramat Gan, despite growing reporting of rising influence for extremist settler and ultranationalist factions within the Israeli military. Official Israeli military data published in February 2024 underscores this broad acceptance: 84 percent of eligible men from Ramat Gan enlist in the armed forces, with 38 percent serving in frontline combat roles. At Ohel Shem High School specifically, enlistment rates are even higher, with 93 percent of eligible male students joining the military and nearly half serving in combat units, the data shows.

    The disciplinary incident comes as Gaza continues to grapple with widespread destruction from Israel’s military campaign, and Israeli media has documented a sharp, alarming rise in anti-Palestinian sentiment among young Israelis across the country’s educational system. An earlier Haaretz report published in the same month found that more than one-third of students in Israeli secular schools believe Palestinian citizens of Israel do not deserve equal rights or membership in Israeli society.

  • Syrian Druze chief suggests Sweida integration into Israel

    Syrian Druze chief suggests Sweida integration into Israel

    Five months after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long authoritarian regime, Syria remains trapped in a cycle of sectarian fragmentation and political instability, with a provocative new proposal from a senior Druze spiritual leader throwing the country’s already fragile territorial status into question.

    Speaking at a memorial marking one year since brutal sectarian violence erupted in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, Hikmat al-Hijri, the most prominent pro-Israel figure among Syria’s Druze community, has publicly floated the idea that Sweida could maintain its local autonomy under Israeli protection — or even formal integration as part of the Israeli state.

    “Our core goal is to protect Sweida’s autonomy so our people can live in freedom and build a model of governance that works for this region,” al-Hijri told attendees at the event. “We will never forget those who have stood with us in our darkest hours. Given our geographic proximity, we give special recognition to the State of Israel. We extend respect to all who respect us, and we build on their support to secure lasting safety for our community.”

    Syria’s fractured post-Assad landscape has been defined by recurring intercommunal violence since Assad was ousted by opposition forces in December 2024. While new interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has formally pledged to protect all minority communities across the country, deep-seated mistrust persists. Al-Sharaa previously led the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that carried out large-scale sectarian massacres targeting Druze communities during Syria’s 13-year civil war, leaving many minorities fearing targeted reprisals from the new government’s security forces.

    Sectarian bloodshed has already shaken multiple regions since the regime change. Last year, armed clashes between suspected Assad loyalists and government forces in Latakia, the coastal heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect, escalated into mass violence that left at least 1,500 Alawites dead. A Reuters investigation later traced most of the civilian casualties to operations ordered by senior security officials based in Damascus.

    In Sweida, the violence that broke out one year ago began as clashes between local Druze factions and Bedouin militias, and ultimately escalated into one of the deadliest episodes of intercommunal violence in post-civil war Syria. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights records that more than 2,000 people were killed in the fighting, including 789 Druze civilians. As the violence unfolded, Israel launched multiple air strikes across Sweida and even on the outskirts of Damascus, framing the intervention as a protective measure for the Druze minority.

    Opinions on Israel remain deeply divided within Syria’s Druze community, and al-Hijri’s comments mark the most public and extreme stance yet from his pro-Israel faction, which controls armed militias in parts of Sweida and has repeatedly welcomed Israeli military intervention in the province.

    The political chaos in Syria has been compounded by the controversial launch of the country’s new transitional parliament, which held its inaugural session on Sunday. In his opening address, al-Sharaa hailed the new body as the start of a “new chapter” for Syria, urging lawmakers to “serve as models of responsibility and competence, to build a culture of dialogue, uphold the rule of law, and respect for state institutions.”

    But the structure of the new parliament has drawn widespread criticism from pro-democracy activists who had hoped for inclusive reform after Assad’s ouster. Al-Sharaa directly appointed one-third of the body’s seats, while the remaining two-thirds were selected by local committees stacked with government appointees. Critically, the selection process completely excluded representatives from Sweida, as well as from the Kurdish-majority northeast, where 32 parliamentary seats remain vacant.

    Interim government officials defend the process, arguing that competitive popular elections are logistically impossible in the aftermath of a 13-year conflict that left hundreds of thousands of Syrians dead and millions more displaced inside the country and across the border. But critics say the undemocratic selection process has cemented the same pattern of authoritarian, top-down rule that defined Assad’s regime, leaving marginalized regions and communities even more alienated from the central government in Damascus.

  • More than 53,000 immigrants have been deported or repatriated by South Africa in a crackdown

    More than 53,000 immigrants have been deported or repatriated by South Africa in a crackdown

    JOHANNESBURG – In a sweeping month-long government crackdown on undocumented migration that has unfolded alongside a wave of violent anti-immigrant demonstrations across the country, South Africa has expelled or repatriated more than 53,000 African migrants, officials have confirmed. In a public briefing Sunday, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi disclosed that over 80 percent of the migrants returned to their home countries originated from Malawi, though officials have not yet published a breakdown separating forced deportations from cases of voluntary repatriation.

    The operation comes amid a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment across South Africa that has erupted in targeted attacks on foreign-born residents, leaving multiple communities on high alert. Several African nations have deployed aircraft and ground transportation to retrieve their citizens from South Africa amid the unrest.

    Local law enforcement reports that 350 people have been taken into custody on charges linked to public violence, intimidation, and extrajudicial immigration checks – a dangerous practice where civilian vigilante groups stop migrants to demand proof of legal residency. Investigations are currently underway into the deaths of at least three migrants: two from Mozambique and one from Malawi. Nigerian officials have said two of their citizens were killed during anti-immigrant demonstrations, a claim that South African authorities reject, saying there is no evidence linking the deaths to the protests.

    Officials confirmed that while the vast majority of repatriated and deported migrants were from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, the group also included citizens of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and other African nations.

    The current crackdown and unrest follow an announcement last month by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of new plans to bolster border security and enforce existing immigration laws in Africa’s most industrialized economy. Ramaphosa openly acknowledged growing public tensions around migration, caving to political pressure from anti-migrant groups that have spread unsubstantiated claims that undocumented immigrants are responsible for South Africa’s persistently high unemployment rate and widespread violent crime. The president has publicly warned South African citizens against engaging in vigilante justice following reports of targeted attacks on migrant communities.

    The most recent large-scale anti-immigrant protest was held on June 30, a date the groups framed as a self-imposed deadline for all undocumented migrants to leave South Africa. The national government rejected the unofficial deadline, but the threat still drove thousands of Malawian migrants to gather at a temporary immigration processing site in the eastern coastal city of Durban to request voluntary repatriation. South African officials note that while some migrants chose to leave voluntarily, many others were formally deported after being found to lack valid residency documentation. Separately, more than 20,000 migrants have been expelled or repatriated from another temporary processing center set up in the northern border town of Musina, according to government data.

    South Africa has long drawn migrants from across the African continent, drawn by the country’s relative economic prosperity compared to many neighboring nations. This steady inflow of migration has been a recurring source of social tension for decades. In 2008, a major outbreak of xenophobic violence left more than 60 foreign-born residents dead, and smaller waves of anti-immigrant violence have erupted periodically in the years since.

    Immigrant rights advocates say the current climate of fear has pushed even legally residing migrants to flee the country. Sabina Tadera, who works with the Southern Africa Network for Immigrants and Refugees, a regional organization that defends migrant rights, told the Associated Press that many Malawian migrants who recently gathered at temporary repatriation camps actually held valid documentation to stay in South Africa, but left out of fear of becoming targets of violence. “There is a widespread misconception that every person moving across borders in the region is undocumented,” Tadera explained.

    The crackdown and accompanying violence have also sparked diplomatic friction with several origin countries, which have publicly condemned South Africa for allowing what they describe as a growing culture of xenophobia to take root. Laura Freeman, an independent human rights and migration consultant based in the region, noted that for generations, South Africa has been viewed as a land of opportunity for migrants from poorer neighboring countries who cannot find stable work at home. “However, repeated waves of xenophobic violence, including this current outbreak, have shifted that reputation dramatically, and South Africa is increasingly seen as an unwelcome place for foreign-born workers,” Freeman said.

  • Briton tells of surviving Spain wildfire in car as wife and friends died trying to run to safety

    Briton tells of surviving Spain wildfire in car as wife and friends died trying to run to safety

    The quiet, sun-drenched hillside village of Bédar in Spain’s Almeria province was reduced to a charred, ash-covered wasteland last Thursday, when one of the deadliest wildfires in Spanish history swept through the community, leaving 13 people dead and a 70-year-old British expat to grapple with unfathomable loss. Malcolm Timbrell, the sole survivor of his group of friends and neighbors who tried to outrun the advancing blaze, has shared his harrowing account of the disaster that stole his wife of 17 years, Annette Kilgore, 69, and a dozen loved ones from their close-knit expat community.

    Timbrell and Kilgore first fell in love with their Bédar home after appearing on the British Channel 4 property show *A Place in the Sun*, drawn to the quiet tranquility of the Andalusian countryside after years of sailing the world together. Both had previously lost their first partners to terminal illness, and built a new life centered on travel, friendship, and quiet joy. “She was such a happy, outgoing person,” Timbrell told the BBC from the scorched foundation of what was once his home. “We have had an amazing life together – and now it’s stopped.”

    The disaster unfolded rapidly on Thursday, when a wind-fueled wildfire pushed by gusty winds, soaring temperatures, and months of dry vegetation exploded across the region. Timbrell, Kilgore, and their neighbors made the split-second decision to flee their hillside properties by car before the flames cut off escape routes. As the group prepared to leave, Timbrell turned back to rescue the couple’s two pet cats, Charlie and Lilly – a choice that saved his life, but separated him from the people he loved. “If we’d have done the sensible thing and gone the other way and let our cats die, we both would be alive. But when you’ve got animals, you don’t think like that,” he reflected.

    By the time Timbrell had secured the cats and set off to rejoin the group, the fire had advanced too far. He watched in horror as his wife and seven other members of the group ignored his screams to stay back, deciding the only safe path was to cross the advancing fire wall on foot. “I’ve subsequently heard that that fire wall was moving at 20 kilometres per hour, plus. They had no chance,” Timbrell said.

    Trapped alone, Timbrell took shelter in one of the abandoned vehicles the group had left behind. Of six cars parked in the area, four burst into flames almost immediately, forcing him to move from car to car to escape the heat. By a twist of fate, the last remaining car survived, its paint bubbled and its body singed, and Timbrell waited out the blaze inside with one of his cats. When the fire passed, emergency crews pulled him from the wreckage alive.

    In the days after the fire, rescue teams recovered eight bodies on a path leading down from Timbrell’s hillside property, including Kilgore. Four additional victims, found in a right-hand drive vehicle, are confirmed to be British, bringing the total of confirmed British fatalities to three; other victims include one national each from France, Belgium, and Spain, including a 93-year-old British woman who succumbed to her injuries in hospital on Sunday. Not all remains have been formally identified, and Timbrell is currently awaiting DNA confirmation to formally confirm his wife’s death.

    Many British expats in Bédar have criticized local emergency response officials for failing to issue a mandatory mobile phone alert to warn residents of the advancing blaze, but Timbrell has declined to assign blame. He noted that high winds and thick smoke grounded water-bombing aircraft, and seaplanes could not reach the area before darkness fell. With the combination of extreme heat, parched vegetation, and powerful gusts, Timbrell argues the disaster was unstoppable. “It’s nobody’s fault. Nobody can be blamed for this,” he said.

    In the wake of his loss, Timbrell said he has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from local residents and friends of all nationalities, and praised local police for keeping him updated on the identification process. Still, he faces an uncertain future, grieving the life the couple planned to spend together in their Andalusian retreat. While he holds a tiny spark of hope that some miracle might have occurred, he acknowledged that the hard evidence points to the loss of everyone he left behind. “There’s just that little spark of hope, even though I know a body has been found clutching a cat. Hard cold facts are pointing to the bodies they’ve found,” he said. Looking ahead to the days after formal identification is complete, Timbrell said he is bracing for the full weight of his loss to hit. “So we are just waiting now for DNA clarification. And after that, I will probably just fall apart.”

  • She was told her missing fiance was killed in Gaza. A year later, he returned alive

    She was told her missing fiance was killed in Gaza. A year later, he returned alive

    It has been nearly a year since 23-year-old Hamada al-Banna stepped toward Israeli aid convoys near Zikim in northern Gaza, chasing a single sack of wheat flour to feed his family amid widespread starvation. What followed was a nightmare of forced disappearance, torture, and a long, agonizing separation that tested the unbreakable resolve of his 18-year-old fiancee, Reem Jadallah. Today, after months of false news and abandoned searches, their bittersweet reunion has cast a harsh light on the growing crisis of forcibly disappeared Palestinians in Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza.

    On August 9, 2025, Banna set out for Zikim alongside his brother Adham, joining thousands of desperate Gazans who risk their lives to access limited humanitarian aid amid crippling food shortages. After securing his sack of flour, Banna learned Adham had been killed by Israeli forces. Dropping his flour to search for his brother, he unknowingly wandered close to an Israeli military outpost. Troops opened fire, a shell exploded, hurling him 10 meters through the air, and he woke with severe leg and chest wounds, with no memory of who he was or how he had arrived.

    In an account shared exclusively with Middle East Eye, Banna described waking from a six-month coma in Israel’s Soroka Hospital, suffering from profound amnesia. As his memory slowly returned, a soldier entered his room and began verbally abusing Banna’s mother. Enraged, Banna threw his IV bag at the soldier, triggering a violent assault that ended with his transfer to Sde Teiman, the notoriously abusive Israeli prison widely condemned for the mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.

    For four months, Banna was held in solitary confinement, where he endured systematic torture at the hands of Israeli prison guards. “They would suddenly enter my cell and beat me brutally for no reason. They sprayed me with pepper spray, beat my genitals, and threw stun grenades into my cell,” he recalled. On one occasion, he was held for six straight days in what Palestinian detainees call a “disco room”: a purpose-built space where prisoners are subjected to constant, deafening noise designed to break mental and physical resilience through extreme sleep deprivation and psychological torture.

    While Banna was held incommunicado, his family in Gaza held out little hope of finding him alive. After months of no contact, Israeli authorities incorrectly notified the family that Banna had been killed while in custody, a death officially attributed to torture. For most of the family, the search ended there. But Jadallah refused to accept the news.

    The couple had met after both their families were displaced from northern Gaza to a shared shelter in Gaza City, as Israeli attacks intensified across the enclave. Banna had proposed to Jadallah shortly before he disappeared, and the pair had been preparing for their wedding, lost when their planned home was destroyed in the conflict. When Banna failed to return from his trip for flour, Jadallah began what would become a months-long search against all odds.

    Across the Gaza Strip, Banna’s case is far from unique. According to the Palestinian Centre for the Missing and the Forcibly Disappeared (PCMFD), roughly 8,000 Palestinians have been registered as missing since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, including nearly 2,900 children. While most are believed killed and buried under rubble from Israeli airstrikes and ground operations, hundreds are suspected of being secretly detained by Israeli forces during incursions, at checkpoints, or while seeking aid near Israeli military zones. Israeli authorities have routinely blocked access to information about detained Palestinians, even refusing requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to confirm their whereabouts or conditions.

    Jadallah held onto the one clue that Banna might still be alive: Israeli legal aid group HaMoked confirmed he was in Israeli custody, but refused to share additional details without a privately hired lawyer. Unable to afford legal fees, Jadallah made the painful decision to sell all of her gold, the only valuable asset she owned, to secure legal representation. Months later, her lawyer returned with the devastating false confirmation that Banna was dead, listed on an official registry of prisoners killed in custody in February 2025.

    While the rest of Banna’s family abandoned their search, Jadallah pressed on alone. “Everyone kept telling me to give up hope, but I never did. Deep inside, I always felt that he was still alive,” she told Middle East Eye. For months, she visited every hospital in Gaza, checking newly arrived bodies to confirm it was not Banna. Every time a group of Palestinian detainees was released by Israel, she brought Banna’s photo to the release site, asking every freed prisoner if they had seen him. Because Banna had spent most of his detention in a hospital and then solitary confinement, no one had seen him – but still, she did not stop.

    Her unwavering hope finally paid off on July 7, when the ICRC called Banna’s family with an unexpected message: Banna was alive, and had just been released from Israeli custody. He was calling from an ICRC phone to confirm he was coming home. “When his family called to tell me, I was in complete shock. I started laughing. I said, ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’” Jadallah said. “I couldn’t believe it. I was afraid to believe it because I thought it might be another false piece of news. I didn’t truly believe it until I saw his photograph with the released prisoners.”

    When Jadallah rushed to meet her fiance, she found he had already been asking everyone around him to bring his fiancee to him. But the reunion, while joyful, quickly revealed the deep scars left by a year of abuse. “The Hamada who came out of prison was not the same person I had been waiting for all this time,” Jadallah said. “I noticed how much he had changed. Sometimes, in the middle of a conversation, he suddenly stares into space and begins reliving memories of his detention. He has become irritable, and even the slightest sound bothers him.”

    The trauma of his detention shapes every part of Banna’s daily life even after release. He cannot sleep lying down, as most people do; he only sleeps sitting upright, a habit forced on him by his prison conditions. He eats barely any food, his body accustomed to the tiny rations provided to him in detention. The couple’s planned wedding, scheduled just before Banna’s disappearance, has been postponed indefinitely: all of their savings, their furnished home, and the wedding preparations were destroyed in the conflict. For Jadallah, however, none of that loss matters compared to getting Banna back alive. “We lost everything, but I got him back. That is what matters most,” she said.

  • Pro-Palestine activist Fergie Chambers arrested in Spain after US extradition request

    Pro-Palestine activist Fergie Chambers arrested in Spain after US extradition request

    In a high-profile arrest that has reignited debates over political activism and the criminalization of pro-Palestinian speech, American activist and Cox family fortune heir Fergie Chambers has been taken into custody in Spain’s Ibiza at the request of U.S. law enforcement, which accuses him of money laundering, conspiracy, and riot-related charges tied to his support for pro-Palestinian direct action.

    The arrest unfolded at approximately 10:45 a.m. Friday in Ibiza’s quiet, secluded Morna Valley, according to eyewitness accounts obtained by Middle East Eye. As Chambers pulled into a private driveway, a black SUV blocked his path, with two additional unmarked vehicles quickly surrounding the area. Seven Spanish law enforcement officers — five men and two women — displayed official badges, detained the activist, cuffed him, and notified him he was being held under an active international arrest warrant issued at the U.S. government’s request. Later that same day, Chambers appeared before a local Spanish judge, who ordered him held without bail as extradition proceedings move forward.

    Over the past decade, Chambers has become one of the most high-profile private backers of pro-Palestinian direct action across the United States and United Kingdom, drawing on his nine-figure inherited fortune to fund activist groups, legal defense funds, bail funds, and grassroots campaigns. Most notably, he is the founder and primary financial backer of Unity of Fields, which previously operated under the name Palestine Action US. Significantly, the group does not appear on the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, nor has it been designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity by U.S. regulators.

    The 15-count U.S. indictment lays out allegations centered on a supposed coordinated campaign Chambers led between October 2023 and April 2025 to disrupt operations at Elbit Systems of America, an Israeli defense contractor that supplies military equipment to the Israeli armed forces. Prosecutors claim Chambers transferred roughly $7.5 million out of the United States after he left the country in 2023, alleging the funds were intended to provide material support to Hamas. Additional charges include conspiracy to riot, riot itself, and international money laundering. If extradited to the U.S. and convicted on the lead money laundering charge, Chambers faces a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars.

    Prosecutors further allege that Chambers’ personal credit card was used to purchase 18 colored smoke bombs, heavy-duty U-locks, chains, and cables ahead of a direct action protest at an Elbit facility, and that he covered costs for paint and other protest equipment. The indictment also cites a public YouTube interview from October 23, 2023, in which Chambers stated, “We are going to disrupt business and we are going to disrupt business constantly and we are going to use any means that we need to get that point across… I’m very hopeful that we can mount a successful campaign to start shutting down Elbit centres in all of the different states where they’re located.”

    Chambers’ associates and supporters have universally denounced the arrest as a politically motivated act of repression, explicitly framing it as a targeted attack by the Trump administration against a prominent voice for Palestinian human rights. In a statement following the detention, they argued, “This extradition is part of a much broader campaign to suppress global movements for emancipation and liberation, particularly those expressing solidarity with people in the formerly colonised world. Fergie has dedicated significant resources to humanitarian causes, human rights, justice and dignity, and this prosecution is another manifestation of that wider effort to intimidate and silence political activism.”

    Chambers has long been open about his political beliefs, describing himself as a supporter of anti-colonial resistance and universal self-determination, principles he says anchor all his activist work. Long before his current legal troubles, he covered legal fees and bail for UK-based Palestine Action activists who conducted direct action against Elbit Systems sites. The UK’s Labour government implemented a controversial move in July 2025 to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organization under British law, placing the group in the same legal category as the so-called Islamic State. The ban drew widespread condemnation from global human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which warned that the designation effectively criminalizes peaceful pro-Palestinian protest. Since the ban took effect, more than 3,300 people across the UK have been arrested for publicly expressing support for Palestine Action, a crackdown campaigners describe as one of the largest sustained targets of civil disobedience in modern British history. In a separate high-profile case earlier this year, four Palestine Action activists received prison sentences ranging from four years and eight months to seven years and eight months after a judge ruled that property damage at an Elbit factory carried a “terrorist connection.”

    Beyond his work supporting pro-Palestinian causes, Chambers, a self-identified Marxist-Leninist, has a long history of involvement in domestic U.S. protest movements. When he learned his own family’s company had donated to Atlanta’s controversial Public Safety Training Center — widely known to opponents as “Cop City” — he redirected a portion of his wealth to fund bail and legal defense for protesters opposing the facility. He also participated in the 2014 Black Lives Matter uprisings following the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and joined the 2017 Standing Rock protests opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

    As of the latest updates, Chambers remains in custody at a jail on Ibiza, where people close to him say poor detention conditions are taking a toll. “He’s in jail. It’s very hot. There’s no fan, no books and he has no spare clothes,” a person who has been in contact with Chambers since his arrest told reporters, noting he is currently sharing a cell with one other inmate.

    The case is currently being processed by Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, the national court that handles all international extradition requests. As of publication, requests for comment on the status of proceedings, upcoming hearing dates, and the bail ruling have gone unanswered. The U.S. Department of Justice has also not responded to requests for comment on the case.

  • One person killed in shooting involving federal agents in Maine, official says

    One person killed in shooting involving federal agents in Maine, official says

    A deadly shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents has left one person dead in Biddeford, Maine, according to the state’s highest-ranking legislative official. House Speaker Ryan Fecteau confirmed the fatality and the agency’s involvement in a public Facebook post Monday, adding that Maine State Police have secured the incident site and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will lead an independent probe into the circumstances.

    Local law enforcement has described the event as an ongoing active investigation and has declined to publicly confirm the death to date. The BBC has reached out to both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE for official comment on the incident, but no statement has been released as of yet.

    Monday’s fatal encounter comes just one week after ICE agents shot and wounded a man during a routine vehicle stop in Texas, where officials later acknowledged the individual was not the target of their enforcement operation. Few concrete details have been made public about the Maine incident, with local police confirming that a formal press briefing will be held to disclose additional information once it is gathered.

    Multiple Maine elected officials have confirmed they are monitoring the situation closely. U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree wrote on social platform X Monday that she had been notified of the fatal shooting and the suspected ICE involvement, noting that her staff is working to obtain full details and will release updates as they become available. Maine Governor Janet Mills also confirmed she has received an official briefing on the incident, acknowledging that “situations like these are frightening and alarming” for local communities.

    The shooting has reignited public and political scrutiny of DHS, the federal agency that oversees ICE, which is currently led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Mullin took over the top DHS role in March following the dismissal of former Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem’s ouster came after a series of high-profile fatal encounters involving ICE officers that resulted in the deaths of multiple U.S. citizens, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

    Those deaths occurred after the Trump administration announced widespread immigration enforcement surges across Minnesota and other U.S. states. Earlier this year in January, federal officials launched a similar targeted enforcement operation in Maine codenamed Operation Catch of the Day. The operation and broader surge in aggressive enforcement tactics have already drawn legal pushback, with multiple national and local civil rights organizations filing a federal lawsuit against the administration over the practices used by immigration officers during these actions.

  • Yemen government says attacked Sanaa airport, reviving dormant conflict

    Yemen government says attacked Sanaa airport, reviving dormant conflict

    Decades of simmering conflict in Yemen reignited dramatically on Monday, after the internationally recognized Yemeni government confirmed it carried out an airstrike targeting runways at Sanaa International Airport, the most intense escalation of hostilities between government forces and Houthi rebels in more than two years.

    The government justified the strike by stating it aimed to block an Iranian aircraft from landing in the Houthi-held capital. The action came after diplomatic efforts failed to persuade a Houthi delegation returning from Tehran—where they had attended the funeral of former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—to switch to a Yemenia national airline flight instead. Yemeni Defense Ministry officials clarified that the airstrike specifically targeted airport infrastructure in response to what it called a Houthi violation of Yemeni territorial sovereignty by allowing the Iranian plane to enter without prior coalition clearance.

    Under longstanding restrictions imposed since 2011, all aircraft entering Yemeni airspace require advance approval from the Saudi-led coalition that backs the Yemeni government, a rule the coalition says it enforces at the official government’s request. By arranging a direct flight from Tehran to Sanaa without securing that clearance, Houthi forces openly challenged the existing arrangement, prompting the military response. Immediately after the strike, the Yemeni government ordered all of the country’s airports to close indefinitely effective Monday.

    Houthi officials have placed full blame for the attack on Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government’s primary military backer, and warned of imminent retaliation. “This aggression will not go unanswered or unpunished,” said Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree, adding that the strike formally “ends the de-escalation phase” that has held since 2022. The Houthi foreign ministry went further, declaring the attack marked “the end of the phase of de-escalation and the ceasefire and declares the start of war.” Houthi state broadcaster al-Masirah reported that the Iranian plane had already landed safely before the strike, carrying returning Yemeni medical patients and the Houthi delegation. Tensions had already been building through October, with Houthi officials accusing Saudi Arabia of an earlier strike on an Iranian plane traveling to Sanaa earlier this month, a provocation that already drew threats of retaliation against Saudi civilian and military infrastructure at the time.

    Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, sought to temper expectations of a rapid expansion of fighting, saying he had “ordered that the scope of the confrontation not be expanded in a manner that would achieve Iran’s objective of dragging Yemen and its people into wars.”

    The strike comes at a moment of already elevated regional friction, as the United States and Iran have exchanged a series of tit-for-tat attacks across the Gulf that have stoked fears of broader regional conflict. The UN, which brokered the 2022 truce that paused large-scale fighting between Yemeni government and Houthi forces, has moved quickly to urge de-escalation. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg confirmed his office has reached out to military leadership on both sides, saying “We are urging them to de-escalate and refrain from any actions that would risk a new cycle of violence in Yemen.”

    Analysts warn the latest escalation puts the fragile two-year truce at severe risk of total collapse. “If this cycle of action and retaliation continues, it could effectively mark the collapse of the April 2022 ceasefire framework and signal a return to a much more intense phase of the conflict,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen-based risk analyst with the U.S.-based Basha Report. Al-Basha noted that “The coming days will likely show whether both sides are prepared to move back toward sustained military escalation and ground war,” adding that the next steps involving the Iranian plane that prompted the strike will likely shape the trajectory of hostilities going forward.

    The Yemeni civil war, which began when Houthi forces seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen in 2014, has killed more than hundreds of thousands of Yemenis through direct fighting, hunger and preventable disease, creating what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Before Monday’s strike, large-scale fighting had remained largely frozen across frontlines for more than two years, creating a fragile calm that allowed limited humanitarian access and incremental confidence-building talks between rival factions.

  • France’s Macron says Europe will defend freedom at all costs

    France’s Macron says Europe will defend freedom at all costs

    Ahead of a high-stakes gathering of Ukraine’s international backers in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron has delivered a stark, unflinching message: Europe is prepared to defend itself and its core values of freedom and the rule of law, even if that means paying the ultimate price in blood. The Monday summit of the Coalition of the Willing, co-founded by France and the United Kingdom in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, brings together at least 25 heads of state, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, just one day before France’s annual Bastille Day national holiday.

    In his pre-parade address to French armed forces, Macron framed the current moment as a defining turning point for the continent. “Europe is in the process of becoming a power” ready to stand its ground, he told service members, adding that “peace is our goal. Yes, we cherish freedom and the rule of law. And yes, we stand ready to fight to defend them. Always, and at the cost of blood if necessary.” Following the summit, Zelensky and other visiting leaders will remain in Paris to take part in the traditional Bastille Day parade along the Champs-Élysées, an event the Élysée Palace says will be framed to highlight unwavering international solidarity with Kyiv.

    Beyond his warning to adversaries, Macron also used the speech to push for deeper integration of European defense industrial partnerships, a call that comes just one month after France and Germany agreed to scrap their joint sixth-generation fighter jet program, a high-profile collaboration that fell apart over conflicting design and strategic priorities.

    Not surprisingly, the summit has drawn sharp condemnation from the Kremlin. Russian authorities have dismissed the gathering as nothing more than a meeting of parties that have no interest in ending the conflict. “This is a coalition of warmongers,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

    French officials struck an optimistic tone ahead of the talks, framing the moment as a landmark of both transatlantic unity and shifting momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine. One senior Macron adviser emphasized that the summit would cement the coalition’s commitment to Kyiv, making clear that “Ukraine’s supporters remain firmly committed to standing alongside the Ukrainian people, that there is absolutely no sign of fatigue, and that Russia cannot count on any such fatigue setting in.”

    The summit also comes as the United States signals a shift toward greater backing for Ukraine. US President Donald Trump, who has previously sought to maintain open diplomatic channels with Russian President Vladimir Putin while issuing periodic criticism of both Moscow and Kyiv, pledged expanded support for Kyiv during the June G7 summit hosted by France, ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Turkey. Last week, US lawmakers also advanced bipartisan legislation that targets third countries purchasing Russian energy, clearing a path for far more robust economic pressure on Moscow.

    During Monday’s talks, coalition leaders are set to prioritize expanded cooperation on air and missile defense with Ukraine, including plans to allow licensed production of Western-designed air defense systems inside Ukrainian territory. In a key development, Paris officials confirmed that the Multinational Force for Ukraine – a peacetime security force designed to be deployed once active hostilities end – will be officially declared ready for operation at the summit, with joint military exercises scheduled to begin in the coming months.

    First launched in February 2025, the coalition has held more than 15 working meetings. During a January gathering attended by US envoys, members adopted the Paris Declaration, which outlines binding security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future Russian aggression and establishes a framework for monitoring any eventual ceasefire agreement. While the United States is not a formal member of the coalition and has repeatedly ruled out deploying American ground troops to Ukraine, it will take part in ceasefire monitoring activities. France, the United Kingdom and Spain have already confirmed they are prepared to deploy troops to the post-conflict force, a move that has drawn fierce warnings from Moscow, which says any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil would become “legitimate military targets.”

    Despite the diplomatic momentum toward a ceasefire, prospects for an immediate end to fighting remain remote. Heavy clashes continue across the front line, and in recent weeks Ukraine’s air defense networks have been pushed to breaking point by a sustained barrage of Russian ballistic missile strikes. This month, Washington granted Kyiv permission to produce US-designed Patriot air defense systems, which are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, but defense analysts warn it could take many months before the first domestically built systems roll off production lines and enter service. The Russian invasion, now in its fifth year, continues to put massive pressure on Ukraine’s military and civilian infrastructure, and Zelensky has repeated his urgent call in recent days for Western allies to accelerate and expand the delivery of military aid.

  • Sudan’s paramilitary RSF chief sentenced to death over war crimes

    Sudan’s paramilitary RSF chief sentenced to death over war crimes

    More than two years after Sudan’s brutal civil war erupted between the country’s two most powerful military factions, a Sudanese court operating out of army-controlled Port Sudan has issued a landmark ruling: paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — widely known as Hemedti — has been sentenced to death in absentia on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide tied to systemic atrocities in West Darfur.

    Fifteen other high-ranking RSF commanders received identical death sentences in the ruling, including Hemedti’s brother and deputy Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, a second brother Al-Qoni Hamdan Dagalo, and Abdul Rahman Juma Barkallah, the RSF’s top military commander for West Darfur. The court’s conviction centers on atrocities allegedly carried out in el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, most notably the 2023 assassination of West Darfur state governor Khamis Abbakar.

    Judges also found all 16 defendants guilty of coordinating broad attacks on civilian populations, large-scale destruction of communities, widespread looting of private and public property, and deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure including schools, houses of worship, and residential neighborhoods. Beyond the sentences, Special Judge Mohamed Al-Amin ordered the full confiscation of all RSF assets across territory controlled by the Sudanese Army, and formally directed national authorities to request Interpol Red Notices to facilitate the arrest and extradition of all convicted leaders.

    As of this ruling, Hemedti’s current location has not been disclosed to the public, and the RSF has not issued any official response to the verdict. The group has repeatedly rejected all claims of war crimes since the conflict began in April 2023.

    This conviction marks the first time the RSF’s top leadership has been found criminally liable by a domestic Sudanese court since the civil war began, though the practical impact of the ruling remains highly uncertain. The RSF continues to hold de facto control over large swathes of western Sudan, and its top leadership remains outside the reach of the Sudanese Army and the Port Sudan-based government.

    The charges brought against the RSF echo longstanding findings from international investigators and human rights groups. UN investigators and independent watchdog organizations have long accused the RSF and its allied Arab militias of carrying out systematic ethnically targeted violence against the Masalit community, a majority non-Arab group native to Darfur. Earlier in July 2026, the International Criminal Court’s deputy chief prosecutor confirmed the body holds “concrete evidence” directly tying RSF leadership to perpetrated war crimes in the region.

    A May 2024 report from Human Rights Watch documented that the RSF’s military campaign in and around el-Geneina between April and November 2023 killed thousands of civilians and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes. The organization concluded that the patterns of abuse documented amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out as part of a deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign targeting the Masalit and other non-Arab communities across Darfur.

    Notably, human rights monitors have confirmed that both factions in Sudan’s conflict have been responsible for widespread human rights abuses and violations of international war law. In a 2025 finding, United Nations investigators concluded that both the Sudanese Army led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF have deliberately targeted civilian populations and critical civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, in large-scale coordinated attacks.

    Sudan’s current civil war erupted in April 2023, triggered by a violent power struggle between army leader al-Burhan and Hemedti, who once shared control of a transitional military government following the 2019 ousting of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. The conflict has since become one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes: official estimates place the death toll at more than 150,000, with 12 million people displaced from their homes. International aid organizations warn that 28 million Sudanese currently face acute food insecurity, with millions on the brink of famine.