Nigerian Afrobeats trailblazer Ayra Starr is poised to add another groundbreaking milestone to her already illustrious career this weekend, when she steps into the spotlight as the headline performer for the half-time show of the upcoming NFL London match between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. What makes this performance particularly historic is that Starr will become the first African artist ever to headline a half-time show for one of the American football league’s international fixtures, marking a pivotal moment of global recognition for both the singer and African popular music at large. In an exclusive interview with BBC Newsbeat ahead of Sunday’s show, the 24-year-old star described her history-making appearance as far more than just a performance — it is a deliberate cultural statement. Following in the footsteps of Puerto Rican icon Bad Bunny, who made history in 2023 as the first artist to perform an entirely Spanish-language set at the Super Bowl (the most-watched annual televised event in the U.S.) to center Latin American culture, Starr emphasized that grabbing this global platform matters deeply for underrepresented artists. “At the end of the day, as artists, we speak for the culture and we speak for the people that listen to us,” she said. “And we have to represent any way that seems fit, that they need.” While Starr kept details of her set tightly under wraps to keep the surprise for fans at the stadium and watching around the world, she confirmed that the performance will feature fan-favorite tracks from her latest full-length studio album, *Starrgirl*, which dropped to critical acclaim back in August. Currently deep in intensive rehearsals for the show, Starr shared her excitement for what’s to come: “Sunday is gonna be amazing. It’s a lot of work we’re putting in so I’m really excited.” Starr is no stranger to making history across the global music industry. The 24-year-old breakout star has already racked up a string of unprecedented firsts: she was the first African woman to take home the Best International Act award at the MOBO Awards, and the first Nigerian woman to cross one billion video views on YouTube. Long before she became a global household name, Starr pursued a university degree in political science and international relations — a background that she says has shaped every part of her artistry and public advocacy. “When it comes to matters of women and equality and the girl child and even just children – I’m very outspoken on any platform that sees fit,” she explained. “Even with my music, my music is very much like ‘I will do what I want’ and freedom.” In recent years, Afrobeats — the vibrant, rhythm-driven popular music genre that emerged from West Africa — has experienced an explosive surge in global mainstream popularity, climbing to the top of streaming playlists across the world and earning its leading artists spots at the most prestigious international festivals, from Glastonbury to All Points East, where Starr performed just this summer. For Starr, this global boom isn’t a sudden trend — it’s simply the world catching up to a sound that has been central to African popular culture for decades. “The rest of the world is just ‘catching up’ to a style that’s been popping in Africa for the longest time,” she noted. She called it a surreal honor to stand alongside fellow Afrobeats icons like Wizkid and Burna Boy as one of the faces that have led the genre’s global breakthrough. Even with all the progress, Starr acknowledges that Afrobeats remains a male-dominated space, and she is pushing for greater representation for women creators in the genre. “I would like female artists to have more space in the genre and be allowed the same privileges,” she said. Still, the star remains optimistic about the future of the sound she loves. “Afrobeats just keeps evolving, it keeps growing and it just keeps getting better,” she said. “I want it to be one of the top genres in the world.”
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Analysis: Trump’s shock Russia deal highlights mounting pressure to curb fuel prices
In a striking policy reversal that has sent ripples through global politics and energy markets, former President Donald Trump has announced a new deal to bring Russian diesel fuel into the United States and global markets, just three weeks after signing legislation that expanded sanctions and tariffs on countries importing Russian oil and gas.
Per Trump’s announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed to supplying hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel in the coming months. The agreement comes as the Trump administration continues to navigate political fallout from the ongoing Iran conflict, which has driven global energy prices sharply higher, with just weeks remaining before the 2026 U.S. midterm elections that will decide whether Republicans retain control of Congress.
Surging fuel prices across the United States have dragged down Trump’s public approval ratings, as consumers face steep costs at the pump and broader inflation triggered by energy price increases. The strain has been particularly severe in major agricultural states, where diesel is an indispensable input for operating farm equipment and moving crops and goods to market. Key agricultural states including Iowa, Kansas, Texas, and Ohio have emerged as critical swing battlegrounds in the upcoming midterm contests, making energy affordability a top political priority for the Republican party.
For months, Trump has rolled out a series of measures aimed at easing political pressure on his party amid public frustration over rising costs. He has pushed European allies to draw down their strategic oil reserves, suspended federal fuel taxes for certain uses, and allowed fuel earmarked for agricultural operations to be redirected to interstate trucking. In a rare explicit acknowledgement of the conflict’s political stakes, he also pledged to hold off on new strikes against Iran until after the midterm elections. The Russian diesel deal marks the most dramatic of these pre-election interventions to date.
Key details of the agreement remain opaque, consistent with the often incomplete information shared by Trump on his Truth Social platform. It is unclear how exactly Russia will deliver the fuel to global markets, and what concessions Moscow will receive in exchange beyond the much-needed hard currency that the sales will generate. The deal has already opened Trump to sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers and European allies, who argue the agreement will effectively fund Russia’s ongoing military operations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been among the most vocal critics, dismissing the arrangement as a gift to Putin that Russia will repay with further “terror and perfidy.” “Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged,” Zelensky wrote on the social platform X.
Even beyond the diplomatic controversy, it remains uncertain whether the move will deliver the political boost Trump is seeking for Republican candidates ahead of voting. A prior coordinated release of diesel reserves from Europe failed to move global energy prices meaningfully, and there is no clear timeline for when Russian fuel could reach U.S. markets. Russia’s domestic diesel refinery capacity has already been weakened by repeated Ukrainian strikes—attacks that Trump has previously urged Zelensky to scale back.
In quantitative terms, the impact is also expected to be modest. The U.S. consumes roughly 3.6 million barrels of diesel per day, and even if Russia delivers the promised 300,000 tons this month, that volume equals only about half of one day of U.S. consumption. Most American consumers are unlikely to see an immediate noticeable drop in fuel prices as a result of the deal.
With less than a month until the November midterm elections, early voting is already underway across much of the country, meaning most voters’ political preferences are already largely solidified. In his Truth Social announcement of the deal, Trump framed the move as a priority for working Americans: “Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority.”
Yet over the past seven months, energy, fuel, and consumer prices have continued to climb, even as Trump and his administration have repeatedly reassured anxious voters that an end to the conflict and subsequent economic relief are imminent. Trump is now betting that this last-minute policy shift—despite its problematic diplomatic ramifications—will be enough to convince voters that his promise of incoming economic relief is more than empty political rhetoric ahead of the crucial midterm contests.
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Three men found guilty of murdering Australian brothers and US friend in Mexico
After a harrowing, month-long legal proceeding, a court in Mexico’s Baja California state has delivered a guilty verdict for three men charged with the brutal 2024 murders of three young surfers: Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, and their U.S. friend Carter Rhoad. For legal restrictions, the defendants can only be publicly identified as Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús, and they await formal sentencing. Legal observers have confirmed that prosecutors have pushed for 150 years of prison time for each man, meaning the trio will almost certainly spend the remainder of their lives behind bars if the court accepts the prosecution’s recommendation.
The triple killing, which unfolded just 36 hours after the surfers crossed into Mexico from the United States, shocked global communities, particularly in Australia and Mexico’s local tourism sector. Court testimony laid out a grim narrative: the travelers were ambushed during a botched attempt to steal their pickup truck in an isolated beach area near Ensenada, a popular coastal surf town long considered a safe destination for international visitors. All three victims, all in their early 30s, suffered gunshot wounds to the head, and their bodies were dumped in an abandoned well where they were discovered a week later. Family members later formally identified the remains after a week of agonizing uncertainty.
Throughout the entire trial, Debra and Martin Robinson, the parents of the slain Australian brothers, remained present in the Ensenada courtroom, delivering emotional testimony during the final closing arguments ahead of Friday’s verdict. Outside the court, Debra Robinson spoke publicly of the irreversible pain the crime has inflicted, telling reporters the murders stole the entire future the family had imagined with Jake and Callum. Martin Robinson echoed that grief, noting, “It’s hard for a parent to lose a son, and we lost two sons.” Rhoad’s family members joined the trial proceedings remotely via video link, unable to attend in person. In the weeks after the killings, Debra Robinson publicly thanked the Australian public for the widespread outpouring of support, saying the couple deeply felt the love and solidarity extended to them during their darkest days.
This conviction closes one chapter of the case, though legal proceedings connected to the crime are already complete for one other accomplice. Last November, the girlfriend of the alleged ringleader, Jesús Gerardo who goes by the alias “El Kekas”, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a separate trial after admitting she played a role in planning the botched robbery.
The murders sent immediate shockwaves through Ensenada, a town whose economy and identity are tightly tied to international surfing tourism. Long known as a welcoming, low-violence alternative to more dangerous regions of Mexico, the brutal, seemingly pointless killings upended that reputation. Local surfers organized a public tribute to the three men, gathering at a popular surf break to paddle out and throw flowers into the ocean in their honor. Following the tribute, local community leaders pushed for expanded security measures for both residents and visiting tourists, pointing to a string of recent violent incidents across Baja California that have flown under the national radar.
State officials have moved quickly to reassure potential visitors that the region remains safe for travel. Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila released a statement following the verdict, reaffirming that “Baja California is and will continue to be a state with safe tourism for the thousands of people who visit us from the rest of the country and the world.” She also extended official condolences and solidarity to the victims’ families as they process the verdict and continue to grieve their losses.
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Powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake hits Panama, damaging buildings
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rattled south-central Panama on Friday, triggering widespread structural damage, forcing mass evacuations, and shaking communities across the region roughly three days ahead of the country’s scheduled national earthquake preparedness drill.
According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the tremor hit shortly before 3:00 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT), with its epicenter located just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) outside the small town of Pitaloza Arriba. The earthquake originated at a relatively shallow depth of 12 kilometers, a geological trait that typically amplifies destructive impacts on the Earth’s surface. USGS analysts noted the quake’s effects were expected to be felt across a broad swath of the country, with an estimated 4.6 million people experiencing moderate to severe shaking.
User-shared and verified footage circulating online documents significant damage across multiple local communities. In the towns of Penonomé and Soná, multiple structures have partially or fully collapsed: one clip captures one entire side and a central spire of a local Penonomé cathedral crumbling during the tremor, while another video shows a neighborhood hotel reduced to a pile of rubble. In one widely shared clip, a man can be heard shouting into collapsed debris, calling for any people who may be trapped beneath the wreckage. As of the latest updates, no injuries or fatalities have been officially reported, but the full scope of harm to infrastructure and residents remains unconfirmed.
Residents across affected regions described widespread fear and uncertainty. Seventy-four-year-old Ricardo Brown, a resident of the Las Minas neighborhood in southern Herrera province, told Reuters that multiple homes in his community suffered visible cracking and structural damage. “We’re scared. It’s just the two of us old folks here. The house has cracked and we’re afraid it could fall on us,” Brown said in an interview. Even in Panama City, roughly 200 kilometers from the epicenter, authorities ordered immediate evacuations of dozens of buildings, including a working maternity ward. Thousands of residents gathered in city streets and nearby parks to wait out aftershock risks, with damage in the capital limited mostly to falling roof debris, according to initial reports.
In the hours following the main tremor, seismologists recorded multiple large aftershocks near the original epicenter, which officials warn could worsen existing structural damage and complicate initial damage assessment efforts. Initially, tsunami warnings were issued for 11 Panamanian neighboring countries across Central and South America, but the U.S. Tsunami Warning System later lifted all alerts, confirming no tsunami threat would materialize from the quake. The Panama Canal Authority, which oversees operations and marine traffic through the critical interoceanic waterway, confirmed that all canal infrastructure and operations remained fully unaffected by the seismic event.
Panama’s sitting President José Raúl Mulino announced that the entire national government had mobilized to coordinate response and recovery efforts, urging calm among the public. “What happened should not be used to cause alarm or disorder,” Mulino said in a public address. The earthquake comes just three days before Panama is set to hold a planned nationwide evacuation drill designed to prepare communities for a major seismic event, and it follows a string of destructive earthquakes that hit Colombia and Venezuela earlier this year.
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West Bank: Almost 20 Israeli settler attacks target Palestinians in day of mass violence
A wave of unrelenting violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank has left at least 19 separate attacks recorded by midday Friday, according to on-the-ground monitoring reports.
The attacks, documented by the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission – a Palestinian authority tasked with tracking Israeli settlement expansion and the construction of the separation barrier – range from direct assaults on olive harvesters to arson against native trees, theft of agricultural crops and livestock, and unprovoked attacks on civilian residents.
Commission officials warn that this outbreak of violence marks a clear escalation of settler aggression during the annual olive harvest, a period that represents the most critical source of annual income for thousands of Palestinian families across the territory. Specific incidents have been documented across multiple communities: In the village of Tell, settlers burned a civilian vehicle during an attack on local farming families; in Qusra, more than 50 mature olive trees were maliciously uprooted. Attacks on harvesters have also been reported in Jurish, Beita, An-Nakura, Birzeit, Deir Ibzi, and Fara’ata.
In separate, unrelated incidents across the territory, settlers opened fire on Palestinian civilians in Deir Ballut, while a farmer was injured in an attack in Kafr ad-Dik. East of Hebron in the village of Birin, an elderly Palestinian woman was wounded after settlers released their dogs on a group of local farmers. Other documented attacks include the theft of sheep in Ein Qiniya, and a violent assault in Yabrud where a Palestinian man and his young son were beaten before their vehicle was stolen. Viral video footage from the Yabrud incident shows two settler-driven vehicles blocking the Palestinians’ car before the assailants exited their vehicles, beat the father, forced both him and his son out of the vehicle, and drove off with it. Settlers have also targeted and damaged civilian vehicles in the communities of Sarada and Al-Rayhan.
The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission warns that the ongoing attacks are making it exponentially more dangerous and difficult for Palestinian farmers to access and tend their land during this critical harvest season. “The repeated nature of these attacks, which often occur with the direct participation or implicit protection of Israeli occupation forces in multiple locations, creates a coercive environment designed to strip Palestinians of the ability to benefit from their own land and push them to abandon their properties,” the commission said in a statement. It added that targeting the olive harvest season directly violates Palestinian rights to land ownership, work, and personal security.
While settler violence against Palestinian communities has long been a regular part of daily life in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the frequency and severity of attacks has spiked dramatically since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023. Settlers now carry out near-daily assaults on Palestinian towns and villages, including arson, property vandalism, physical attacks, and efforts to force civilian displacement – and these acts very frequently occur under the protection of Israeli military forces.
Attacks typically intensify during the October olive harvest, a period that is economically make-or-break for Palestinian agricultural communities across the West Bank. According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 51 separate settler attacks that caused Palestinian casualties or property damage were documented between September 15 and September 21 alone. During that single week, at least 800 olive, fruit, and palm trees were damaged, uprooted, or burned by settlers, OCHA reported.
Earlier this year, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory characterized the surge in settler violence against Palestinian civilians as unprecedented and sustained. The commission found that the Israeli government provides direct support for these attacks through financial backing, logistical assistance, and military protection. “Settler violence is the direct outcome of Israeli policies that support, enable, and protect these actions,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN commission.
OCHA data shows that more than 1,600 settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both were recorded between January 1 and the end of September of this year. That averages out to 6.7 attacks per day, up from 5 attacks per day in 2025 – a year that saw 1,836 total documented attacks. In comparison, roughly 1,500 attacks were recorded in 2024, and just 853 in 2022, marking a clear year-over-year upward trend in violence.
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Turkey moves to defuse Azerbaijan headscarf row after Aliyev’s rebuke
A brewing diplomatic rift between two longstanding regional allies, Turkey and Azerbaijan, has been downplayed by senior Turkish officials, who confirm Ankara has no plans to publicly push back against veiled criticism from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sparked by recent protests over new school dress restrictions in Baku. Multiple anonymous Turkish officials shared the details with Middle East Eye, outlining a deliberate strategy of de-escalation to preserve close bilateral ties.
The controversy traces back to a September policy change by the Azerbaijani government, which introduced new clothing restrictions for public schools framed as a defense of the country’s secular principle. While the rule did not explicitly name headscarves as a banned item, multiple regional reports confirm that several schools began barring female students wearing traditional Islamic head coverings from entering classrooms starting in early October. Footage shared on Turkish social media showed students turned away from school gates in both the Sumgayit and Jalilabad regions, sparking widespread outcry across the border in Turkey.
The restrictions quickly drew comparisons in pro-government Turkish media to Turkey’s own decades-long headscarf ban, implemented during the 1997 28 February post-modern coup when Turkish military and bureaucratic institutions ousted a democratically elected Islamist-led government. Turkish social media criticism of Azerbaijan extended beyond the dress code issue, too: many users condemned Baku’s decision to keep its UN General Assembly delegate in the chamber during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address, while Turkey and dozens of other nations walked out in solidarity with Palestinian victims in Gaza.
On 2 October, during a keynote address to his ruling New Azerbaijan Party’s convention in Baku, Aliyev launched a thinly veiled rebuke of unnamed foreign actors for what he called improper interference in Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs. “Everyone should know their place; they should not interfere in our affairs, stick their noses into our way of life, or tell us what to do. Everyone should mind their own nation and state,” he stated. Aliyev went on to emphasize that Azerbaijan had never required external patronage, noting that Baku independently covered all costs of resettling one million Nagorno-Karabakh refugees after retaking the region in the 2020 conflict – even saying the country paid full global market price for every piece of military equipment it acquired, sometimes at markup, without accepting outside assistance.
Though Aliyev did not name Turkey directly, political observers in Ankara almost universally interpreted the remarks as a direct response to Turkish criticism of the headscarf restrictions. Some Azerbaijan-based political sources have suggested Aliyev’s comments were triggered by a speech Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered at the UN General Assembly on 23 September, where Erdogan condemned headscarf bans in schools across “certain countries” as an attack on fundamental women’s rights.
However, senior Turkish officials push back on that interpretation, noting that Erdogan’s remarks came a full week before the first reported incidents of headscarf restrictions in Azerbaijani schools. The officials confirmed Erdogan’s comments were directed at European nations, specifically France, where right-wing parties have pushed for sweeping public sector headscarf bans, and Austria, which implemented a ban on headscarves for girls under 14 in all public and private schools starting 1 September 2026, with fines reaching €800 for repeated parental violations.
Senior Turkish officials stress that Ankara has never intended to interfere in Azerbaijan’s domestic policy, and has already communicated this reassurance directly to Baku at the highest diplomatic levels. “We believe this is a misunderstanding,” a senior unnamed Turkish official told MEE. Multiple sources confirmed that Turkey will not issue a formal public response to Aliyev’s criticism, instead focusing on quiet diplomacy to reduce tensions.
The senior official described Azerbaijan as a “kin country” for Turkey, highlighting the deep interconnectedness of the two nations across strategic energy infrastructure, cross-border transport networks, and decades of joint military cooperation. Turkey was Baku’s most critical military backer during the 2020 second Nagorno-Karabakh war, providing combat drones, small arms, ammunition, deploying F-16 fighter jets and special operations forces to support Azerbaijan’s successful campaign to retake the region. The official characterized the current disagreement as minor, noting that previous disputes between the two allies have always been resolved through continued engagement.
Omer Celik, spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), echoed that sentiment in televised remarks this week, emphasizing that Erdogan and Aliyev share a “true brotherly relationship.” “There may be differences in their assessments regarding domestic and foreign policy,” Celik said. “When we have disagreements on these issues, we continue on our path by discussing them as two brotherly countries, sharing all of this openly and honestly.”
Celik also sought to distance the Turkish government from the anti-Azerbaijan protests that erupted in Turkey, noting that the demonstrations were organized independently by civil society groups and private social media users, not by the AKP or state institutions. “There is absolutely no connection between these actions and our party or government; those involved are acting on their own initiative,” he said. “We will not tolerate any attempts to create the impression of a rift between Turkey and Azerbaijan, nor will we allow a shadow to be cast that might harm our brotherhood. We view this situation with great displeasure.”
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Navi Pillay, former UN human rights chief, wins Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to 85-year-old Navi Pillay, a former United Nations human rights chief and veteran international judge from South Africa, honoring her decades-long work advancing global peace and the rule of international law. The committee recognized Pillay for laying the foundation for a more inclusive, comprehensive global legal order, highlighting her instrumental work in ensuring accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Born to a bus driver in a segregated, low-income Indian neighborhood of Durban during South Africa’s apartheid era, Pillay blazed a trail for women and people of color in law: she became the first woman to open a private law practice in Natal Province in 1967, and later the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court. Over her 60-year career, Pillay has built a global reputation investigating and prosecuting human rights violations in some of the world’s most volatile conflict zones, including Rwanda, Myanmar, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She served as president of the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which oversaw prosecutions for the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people, was elected to the International Criminal Court in 2003, and most recently chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 2021 to 2025. That three-member commission found that Israel had committed acts of genocide in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant incited genocide through their public statements. The commission also found that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes during the October 7, 2023 attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, and additionally accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. While the commission had no formal legal authority to enforce its findings, its conclusions drew fierce pushback from Israel, which rejected the findings and accused the panel of acting as proxies for Hamas. That criticism has carried over to Pillay’s Nobel award: on Friday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the award a “grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.” U.S. President Donald Trump, who has previously stated he wants the Nobel Peace Prize, reposted a social media post claiming the Nobel Committee had “demeaned” the prize by awarding it to an “unabashed hater of America and Israel.” Just days after the award announcement, the U.S. implemented sweeping new sanctions against the International Criminal Court, citing a goal of restricting the court’s resources and ability to operate – a move the ICC called an assault on the rule of law. Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes pushed back on claims the award was a political statement on the Gaza conflict, emphasizing that Pillay received the prize for her entire body of work, not just her findings on Gaza. Pillay first heard the news of her award while at Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice, where she is currently serving as a judge in the International Court of Justice case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar, accusing the country of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Myanmar has denied the allegations, calling the genocide claims unsubstantiated. When told she had won, Pillay initially joked, “it must be a joke,” before quipping to the crowd gathered to applaud her, “If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” a reference to last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who gave her medal to Trump in January to recognize his commitment to freedom. Pillay dedicated her award to “all the survivors of international crimes” and to international justice practitioners “whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign.” Global leaders and human rights organizations have broadly praised the award. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the award reaffirms that “human rights, the rule of law and justice, and accountability are fundamental to everything, to peace, to security, and prosperity.” UN Secretary General António Guterres called Pillay “a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that Pillay, who got her start defending anti-apartheid activists in her home country, has spent her career “upholding human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally.” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, who was with Pillay when she learned of the award, called it an “inspired choice,” noting that “at a time when both international law and justice are under attack, when too many states attempt to hollow them out, her Nobel Peace Prize could not come at a better time.” With the award, Pillay becomes South Africa’s fifth Nobel Peace Prize winner, following in the footsteps of iconic anti-apartheid leaders Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
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Navi Pillay, eminent South African jurist, awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize
On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee made a landmark announcement, naming 85-year-old veteran South African jurist Navi Pillay as the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Pillay, who most recently chaired the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, was recognized for her decades-long, trailblazing work advancing global peace and the rule of international law.
The committee lauded Pillay as a figure of extraordinary courage and unwavering integrity who has paved the way for a more robust, inclusive global legal framework. In its official citation, the panel emphasized Pillay’s foundational role in pushing for accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide, noting that her work has fundamentally shaped the landscape of international criminal justice.
In her first public remarks following the announcement, delivered at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice’s historic Courtroom 600— the same venue that hosted the landmark post-WWII trials of Nazi war criminals—Pillay centered her most recent high-profile work: the UN commission’s 2025 authoritative report that found Israel responsible for acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“The final work I have led is this report on Gaza, which names what is unfolding there for what it is: genocide,” Pillay told the gathering of friends and colleagues. Addressing widespread praise for her courage in releasing the report, she pushed back on the framing, asking: “Why would you need courage to speak the truth?”
Pillay’s career in international justice spans nearly 30 years, marked by a string of historic firsts that redefined global accountability for mass atrocities. Hand-picked for international service by then-South African President Nelson Mandela in 1995, she joined the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), tasked with prosecuting perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She would go on to serve as the tribunal’s president from 1999 to 2003, and under her leadership, the ICTR secured the first ever legal convictions for genocide in international judicial history.
As ICTR president, Pillay also established a groundbreaking jurisprudential precedent: she formally ruled that rape and sexual violence can be classified as acts of genocide, rather than secondary byproducts of conflict. That ruling, issued in the landmark Akayesu case, transformed how global courts address gender-based violence in mass atrocity contexts.
A founding judge of the permanent International Criminal Court, Pillay currently serves as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where she is currently participating in proceedings to determine whether Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority. She previously served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, expanding the office’s global reach and advocacy for marginalized communities.
In an interview with Middle East Eye’s *Expert Witness* podcast last year, Pillay connected her early groundbreaking work on sexual violence and genocide directly to her findings in Gaza. She explained that the UN commission identified clear parallels between the patterns of violence documented in the Akayesu case and the situation unfolding in Gaza.
“We found that widespread and gender-based violence was instrumentalized, not only as punishment against individual Palestinians, but as part of a deliberate pattern of collective punishment designed to fracture, humiliate, and subjugate the entire Palestinian population,” Pillay explained. She added that the legal precedent she helped set decades ago is directly applicable to the atrocities being committed in Gaza today.
The Nobel Committee explicitly highlighted both Pillay’s decades of precedent-setting judicial work and her recent findings on Gaza in its decision to award her the prize. The panel warned that global commitment to the rule of law is increasingly under threat, noting that international judges today face growing sanctions and attacks on the independent judicial institutions they represent.
“History has shown that a world operating without the rule of law is unjust, unwise and inhumane,” the committee said. “The judges—those who guard the thin red line between order and chaos—are therefore highly deserving of our praise. But today, as these same judges are sanctioned, and their institutions are attacked, we need people of courage, vision and determination—qualities that Navi Pillay demonstrates in every aspect of her work on the bench.”
This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an independent media outlet that provides in-depth, unrivaled coverage of the Middle East, North Africa, and broader global affairs.
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Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru
Exit poll results from Peru’s recent local electoral contests have confirmed a surprising outcome: a candidate bearing the names of two of the 20th century’s most infamous fascist leaders has secured a narrow win to lead a remote Andean district.
Forty-five-year-old Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores, running for the centre-left political party Ahora Nación, will take office as mayor of Queropalca, a sparsely populated mountain district located roughly 360 kilometers northeast of Peru’s capital Lima, in the central department of Huánuco. A lifelong resident of the district, Simeon Flores earned 229 votes in the contest, edging out his closest competitor — a candidate from the right-wing Renovación Popular Perú party — by a margin of just 25 votes.
Official data from Peru’s national elections office indicates that just over 700 eligible voters cast ballots in the race for the small district, which is home to fewer than 1,000 residents. Simeon Flores’ share of the vote totaled approximately 34 percent. While his electoral win only impacts a tiny, remote corner of Peru, his unusual given names — a direct reference to Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini — have drawn widespread international attention to the result.
Local Peruvian outlet Peru21 characterized the candidate’s name, shared with “two of the most well-known figures of 20th-Century European totalitarian regimes,” as a striking talking point of the local contest. This is not the first time a Peruvian politician with the controversial first name Hitler has won local office: in 2018, Hitler Guesclin Alba Sánchez was elected mayor of the Peruvian district of Yúngar. That election gained its own attention after the candidate defeated rival Lenin Vladimir Rodríguez Valverde while campaigning under the unusual slogan “I’m the good Hitler.”
Similar viral attention surrounded a 2020 local election win in Namibia, where Adolf Hitler Uunona, a candidate whose given name also references the Nazi dictator, earned a council seat. In the former German colony, Germanic given names including Adolf remain relatively common among local populations, much like the naming conventions that led to Simeon Flores’ unusual moniker in remote Peru.
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Afcon move to every four years under review by Caf
Two major developments have shaken African football this week, as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirms it is reevaluating a controversial planned shift of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) from a biennial to a quadrennial tournament, while West African side Senegal waits for a landmark Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that will decide whether they get to keep the Afcon title they won in January.
Speaking at a CAF strategy gathering hosted in Cape Verde on Friday, CAF President Patrice Motsepe confirmed that the governing body is reopening discussions on the tournament’s future schedule. “We have debated all possible options over the past several days, including reverting Afcon to its traditional every-two-years format,” Motsepe stated. “We are proceeding with a full review, and no decision has been finalized.”
Afcon has been held on a biennial basis since 1968, with only one exception: a one-year delay between the 2012 and 2013 editions that shifted the tournament’s timeline temporarily. The status quo changed in December 2025, when CAF announced that following the 2027 Afcon hosted in East Africa and a standalone 2028 edition, the competition would move to a four-year cycle going forward.
The announcement sparked immediate widespread pushback from across the African football ecosystem. National football associations across the continent raised multiple urgent concerns: they argued a longer gap between tournaments would erode the global visibility of African national teams, damage key commercial revenue streams for the competition and member organizations, and create scheduling conflicts with other major global football events on the international calendar.
Separately, African football remains in limbo over the outcome of January’s Afcon final. Senegal was originally crowned champion of the tournament in January, but the title was later stripped from the side following a legal challenge. Senegal has now filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the entire continent is waiting for the court’s final ruling that will confirm whether Senegal or Morocco will be recognized as the official 2025 Afcon champion.