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  • My dream was to be a doctor, now it could come to zero

    My dream was to be a doctor, now it could come to zero

    ### Pakistan’s Order to Deport Afghan Medical Students Sparks Outcry Over Future of Young Aspirations

    For a young Afghan woman who uses the pseudonym Nooria, the dream of becoming a doctor was forged in tragedy. Growing up in an Afghan village, she watched a 13-year-old boy die from appendicitis because blocked roads prevented him from reaching care in time. That moment, paired with her own academic potential, convinced her that she could be the help that so many rural Afghans desperately need. Today, that dream hangs by a thread, caught in the middle of deteriorating cross-border relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

    Nooria is one of hundreds of Afghan medical and dental students studying in Pakistan who now face deportation back to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has barred women from all education beyond primary school and banned them from medical training. Under an order issued earlier this month by Pakistan’s Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), all Afghan students enrolled in Pakistani medical and dental institutions must return to their home country, with regulatory action threatened against colleges that fail to comply. A temporary stay order from the Lahore High Court has paused immediate deportation for students like Nooria in Punjab province, but the next court hearing is scheduled for Friday, and there is no guarantee the protection will be extended.

    The crisis comes amid a broader wave of deportations that has swept Pakistan over the last two years. According to United Nations data, more than two million Afghans have left Pakistan since 2023, with hundreds of thousands forcibly deported. The surge in expulsions comes as bilateral relations between Pakistan and the Taliban-led Afghan government have collapsed dramatically. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of harbouring anti-Pakistan militant groups on Afghan soil, a charge the Taliban government denies.

    The PMDC’s order has sparked widespread condemnation from human rights groups and former diplomatic officials. Amnesty International has decried the decision as “patently discriminatory and arbitrary”, noting that Pakistan is bound by international human rights law to protect the right to education without discrimination based on national origin. Multiple former Pakistani ambassadors to Afghanistan have also called on the PMDC to reverse course, with one describing the order as “shocking” and framing it as a test of Pakistan’s “humanity, compassion and moral responsibility”.

    The PMDC has declined to comment further on the order while the court case is ongoing, but the regulator’s legal representative has told the BBC that none of the affected Afghan students are officially registered with the PMDC. The students, however, say that registration is the responsibility of their host colleges, not individual students, pointing to a PMDC notification issued earlier this year that directs colleges to handle student registration. Afghan student representatives estimate that roughly 1,000 medical and dental students across Pakistan are affected by the order, 65% of whom hold valid student visas. About 15% have either had their visas canceled or have not yet applied, while the remaining 20% are still awaiting visa approval.

    While Pakistan’s foreign ministry has stated that Afghan students with valid visas and registered for legitimate courses will be allowed to complete their studies, students say they have yet to see any practical change to their situation. For Nooria, who is in her final year of medical school in Lahore, the stakes could not be higher. She escaped Kabul as the Taliban advanced, won a scholarship to study medicine in Pakistan, and has spent the last five years sacrificing everything – time with family, social connections, even personal rest – to reach her final year of training. Her final exams are just months away, but deportation would mean all that work counts for nothing.

    “These five years I have sacrificed everything that would be zero, multiplied by zero,” Nooria said. “And then I would become a poor and helpless Afghan female, facing this destiny. I cannot imagine this.”

    Another final year student, Mubin, shared similar despair. He says the order gave students just days to evacuate college accommodation, leaving him completely shocked and disoriented. Many students who have finished their coursework but not completed their required practical House Job training fear they will lose all their academic credits if deported, forcing them to restart their entire medical education from scratch – if they are even allowed to study at all in another country.

    For women like Nooria, deportation back to Afghanistan is not just the loss of an education – it is the end of any chance to build a career, help her community, or escape the systemic gender discrimination imposed by the Taliban. As the court prepares to rule on the temporary stay, the future of hundreds of young Afghans who dared to pursue a better future remains deeply uncertain.

  • ‘This is our company’: Nigerians show off oil wealth after share-buying frenzy

    ‘This is our company’: Nigerians show off oil wealth after share-buying frenzy

    Across Nigeria, a ground-shaking shift in the country’s energy and investment landscapes has turned ordinary citizens into part-time oil industry owners, igniting a national wave of investor enthusiasm that has flooded trading platforms and dominated social media feeds. What started as an ambitious vision from Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest billionaire and Nigeria’s most iconic business leader, to create a “people’s IPO” has turned into the largest share offering in African history, capturing the imagination of a nation grappling with widespread economic hardship.

    On Monday, more than 4 billion shares in Dangote’s sprawling Lagos-based oil refinery hit the public market – accounting for just over 3% of the company’s total equity. The offering was structured to be accessible to everyday Nigerians, with a minimum purchase requirement of just 10 shares, equal to roughly $4 (or £3). This low barrier to entry has opened up stock market investing to thousands of first-time participants, turning casual citizens into joke-playing “part-owners” of a facility that has already reshaped Nigeria’s entire oil sector.

    Social media has erupted with playful memes and viral content celebrating the new status of small investors. One widely shared video shows a Nigerian stopping a speeding delivery truck owned by Dangote’s company, lecturing the driver against being reckless with “our company property.” Other memes show small stakeholders dialing up Dangote directly to weigh in on corporate strategy. A new slang term, “Yangote” – a Hausa language pun that translates roughly to “we all own a share now” – has quickly risen to the top of Nigeria’s social media trending charts.

    The unprecedented demand caught popular mobile trading platforms off guard. Leading Nigerian investment app Bamboo crashed entirely on the IPO’s opening day, overwhelmed by the surge of user activity trying to purchase shares. In a public statement after the outage, the platform apologized to users, acknowledging “We know we let you down.”

    Observers say this level of national excitement is almost unprecedented in Nigeria’s modern investment history. Public affairs analyst Jamil Ubah noted that the IPO has tapped into a deep-seated dream of financial advancement for a population where millions struggle to cover basic daily expenses. “I think the hope for the common man is that his money will grow into something big, and don’t forget this is coming at a time when many are struggling as the economy is not doing great,” Ubah explained in an interview with the BBC.

    That enthusiasm has translated directly into action for first-time investors like 25-year-old clothing vendor Idris Lawal Musa, who made his first ever stock market purchase by sinking 21,000 naira ($16, or £12) into 40 shares. “It is no longer Dangote but ‘Yangote’, the company belongs to us now,” Musa told reporters, laughing. Like many small investors participating in the offering, Musa said he plans to sell quickly if the share price rises, fitting with his background as a small business trader.

    The explosive popularity of the IPO also reflects a longer-term shift in Nigeria: the rise of a new investment culture among young Nigerians, who have increasingly embraced mobile trading platforms, digital savings products and cryptocurrency over the past decade. Pre-IPO hype spread rapidly across social media, with users sharing step-by-step investment guides, debating the refinery’s market valuation, and urging friends and family to join in to avoid missing out on the opportunity. That FOMO (fear of missing out) has pulled many first-time investors into the market who have little prior experience with stock risk.

    Even amid the national frenzy, financial experts have issued clear warnings about the potential downside of the hype. Shares can just as easily decrease in value as they can rise, meaning inexperienced investors could lose part or all of their initial investment. Financial analyst Shuaib Uwais cautioned that prospective buyers should not treat the IPO as a guaranteed path to quick wealth. He urged investors to carefully weigh multiple risks that could impact the refinery’s future performance, including disruptions to crude oil supply, unexpected operational challenges, shifting regulatory policies, and global fluctuations in demand for refined petroleum products. “If for any reason the company experiences difficulty in sourcing its raw materials, there could be challenges,” Uwais noted.

    Despite these risks, the IPO marks a major milestone for both Nigeria’s economy and Dangote’s years-long project to end the country’s reliance on imported refined fuel. Until the Dangote refinery launched operations two years ago, Nigeria – Africa’s largest crude oil producer – had no large-scale domestic refining capacity, forcing it to import nearly all finished petroleum products for domestic use. Today, the 700,000-barrel-per-day facility meets most of Nigeria’s domestic fuel demand, transforming the country’s energy sector. For Dangote, the public share offering is designed to raise capital to fund further expansion of the business – a goal that thousands of newly minted small Nigerian shareholders are now eager to support.

  • New wild cat species discovered – with only one known living member

    New wild cat species discovered – with only one known living member

    For decades, a diminutive spotted feline native to Bolivia’s dense forests has managed to slip through the cracks of scientific classification, confused with its close tiger cat relatives that share nearly identical markings. Now, cutting-edge genetic analysis has finally revealed what makes this tiny cat one-of-a-kind: it is an entirely new species, marking one of the most exciting mammalian discoveries in recent years and highlighting how much of Earth’s biodiversity remains undocumented.

    The newly identified species, formally named *Leopardus tilcayo* and nicknamed the Tilcaya cat, is roughly the same size as an average domestic house cat. Its discovery traces back to a single 10-year-old individual named Tigrino, who currently resides as the only confirmed living member of the species at a Bolivian wildlife rescue sanctuary. Tigrino first came to the attention of scientists after a local resident found him as a kitten, mistakenly assuming he was a domestic cat. As he matured, his unusual behavior and distinct physical traits caught the eye of Bolivian researcher Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz from Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, who launched an investigation into his origins.

    Intrigued by unconfirmed reports of similar unusual small cats in Bolivia’s Yungas forest region, Nogales-Ascarrunz partnered with an international team of geneticists and wildlife researchers to analyze DNA samples collected from both living tiger cats and preserved museum specimens. The results of the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal *Current Biology*, upended long-held assumptions about the tiger cat group: instead of just three recognized species, the research confirms there are actually five distinct species, with the Tilcaya cat being the latest addition.

    Eduardo Eizirik, a conservation geneticist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and co-author of the study, explained that the species went undetected for so long due to a severe lack of research and documentation. “There’s so few records or pictures, no individual in a museum, so it was hiding because nobody was looking,” Eizirik noted. Nogales-Ascarrunz emphasized that the discovery shatters the common misconception that new large mammal species can only be found in remote, extreme environments like deep-sea trenches or isolated volcanic islands. “It’s amazing that there are still new species waiting to be discovered: we don’t have to go to a volcano, an island, or deep into the sea,” she said.

    The ramifications of this discovery extend far beyond adding a new name to biological textbooks. Previously, the entire Felidae family – which encompasses all living wild and domestic cat species, from tiny house cats to massive Siberian tigers – was recognized to include just 41 species. This discovery, paired with the reclassification of tiger cats, pushes the total number of recognized feline species to between 44 and 45. Andrew Kitchener, a mammal expert at National Museums Scotland who was not involved in the research, described South America’s small tiger cats as a longstanding “taxonomic nightmare” due to their near-identical appearances and sparse museum collections. He noted that genetic research is only now untangling this confusion, revealing hidden diversity that had evaded even expert eyes.

    Most importantly, the discovery carries critical implications for wildlife conservation. Tiger cat species across Central and South America are already classified as vulnerable to extinction, facing existential threats from widespread deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and illegal hunting. Until a species is formally identified and its range documented, conservationists cannot implement targeted protection strategies to save it from disappearing. “These are animals similar in size to a domestic cat, so you might think we would know them all by now, but this discovery shows how much biodiversity is still to be uncovered in some of the less-studied regions of the world,” said co-researcher Caroline Sartor of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford. “It’s impossible to protect a species if we don’t know what it is or where it lives,” she added.

    While only one confirmed individual of *Leopardus tilcayo* is known to science today, researchers are confident that other members of the species survive in the undisturbed dense forests of Bolivia, waiting to be documented. Scientists hope the high-profile discovery will draw much-needed public and funding attention to the conservation of small wild cats in the Americas, a group that has long been overshadowed by larger, more charismatic big cat species like lions, tigers, and leopards.

  • India’s hospital boom is improving access but pricing millions out of critical care

    India’s hospital boom is improving access but pricing millions out of critical care

    A walk down a 5-kilometer road in Miraj, a mid-sized regional town in India’s western state of Maharashtra, offers a clear snapshot of a seismic shift reshaping India’s healthcare landscape: more than 50 new multi-specialty hospitals, diagnostic hubs and private clinics line the route, almost all built in just the last five years. This proliferation of private care facilities is far from an isolated trend. It is the visible marker of an unprecedented boom that has swept India’s private healthcare industry over the past decade, transforming access to care while sparking urgent debate over systemic inequality and affordability.

    Across the country, private hospital groups are expanding at breakneck speed, adding thousands of new beds every quarter to meet rising demand. Diagnostic chains are rapidly extending their reach into tier-2 and tier-3 towns that were long underserved by formal healthcare, while leading medical institutions are tapping public markets to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for nationwide expansion. In early August 2026, Manipal Health, India’s largest multi-specialty hospital chain, pulled in nearly $1 billion through an initial public offering (IPO), marking the country’s second-biggest public market debut of the year.

    Global private equity investors have also flocked to the sector, lured by India’s growing demand for healthcare as incomes rise and chronic disease rates increase. Data from consulting firm Grant Thornton shows that between 2022 and 2024, Indian healthcare and pharmaceutical companies closed nearly 600 merger and acquisition (M&A) and private equity deals worth a combined $30 billion. Forty percent of that total investment went directly to hospital operators, and the BBC’s analysis of additional Grant Thornton data reveals the sector has raised a further $20 billion in just the past two years.

    While this wave of investment has dramatically expanded the overall availability of healthcare infrastructure across India, it has also pushed life-saving care out of reach for millions of low- and middle-income citizens, deepening a national affordability crisis that has sparked alarm among policymakers and public health experts. A new government advisory panel report has laid bare the stark inequality at the heart of India’s fast-growing private healthcare economy, warning that unregulated growth is leaving vulnerable households at severe financial risk.

    The panel’s analysis found that the cost of treatment at private hospitals is typically 5 to 10 times higher than at comparable public sector facilities. The gap grows even wider for patients battling high-cost chronic and critical illnesses including cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. The report also points out that unbridled expansion of small clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centers, paired with inconsistent enforcement of national regulatory standards, has created huge disparities in both care quality and pricing across the private sector. This lack of oversight leaves patients exposed to arbitrary pricing and widespread substandard care practices.

    Rampant commercialization of private healthcare, the report adds, has driven a surge in patient complaints over excessive billing, unnecessary diagnostic testing, and exorbitant costs for routine procedures such as childbirth. These inflated costs are directly pushing vulnerable households into catastrophic, life-altering debt, forcing many to sell assets or deplete decades of savings to cover medical bills. The crisis of unregulated pricing was highlighted earlier this month when Maharashtra’s food and drug regulator discovered that private hospitals in the state were selling intravenous (IV) fluid sets with a staggering profit margin of 2,800%, a mark-up that regulators noted is almost entirely unmonitored under current rules.

    To address these systemic gaps, the government panel has put forward a sweeping set of policy recommendations, including several highly contentious proposals. Among the most debated ideas are a cap on private hospital room rates capped at the average rate of a local three-star hotel, mandatory price regulation for essential treatments, diagnostic services and routine procedures across all private facilities, and enforced standard treatment guidelines to cut down on unnecessary over-treatment. The panel also issued a red flag over foreign ownership exceeding 51% of large domestic hospital chains.

    India’s private healthcare industry has pushed back aggressively against many of these proposals, arguing that price caps will stifle future investment and slow the expansion of much-needed care capacity. In an official statement to the BBC, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Secretary General of NATHEALTH, the leading industry association for India’s private healthcare sector, said policymakers should focus on cutting structural costs that drive up care prices including high taxes, expensive land, costly capital, strict regulatory compliance fees and high skilled labor costs, rather than imposing arbitrary rate caps.
    Bhattacharya noted that healthcare delivery is an extremely capital-intensive and investment-heavy sector, with return on capital employed hovering around just 10% — far lower than the 15-25% returns common in many other sectors of the Indian economy. He also rejected the comparison of hospital room pricing to three-star hotel rates, arguing that the analogy overlooks the costly mandatory compliance standards that hospitals must meet, including rigorous infection control protocols and patient safety requirements that add significantly to operating costs.

    Leaders of India’s largest hospital chains, including Max Healthcare and Fortis, have echoed these concerns, warning that arbitrary price caps will drive away domestic and foreign investors alike, who will exit the market if they cannot guarantee fair returns on the large upfront capital investments required to build and operate hospitals.

    Despite industry pushback, public health experts argue that price regulation is a necessary intervention, noting that India’s private healthcare market currently operates entirely as an unregulated seller’s market that gives providers near-total control over pricing. “With large amounts of foreign private equity flowing into the sector, especially for advanced tertiary care, pricing decisions are increasingly being made by stakeholders outside of India, and that is not a sustainable model,” Dr. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, told the BBC.

    Vivek ND, a leading New Delhi-based health policy expert, added that government intervention is particularly critical given the super-sized profits many large hospital chains are currently earning from unregulated pricing. “The growing trend of hospitals pushing patients to undergo dozens of unnecessary tests and unneeded procedures needs urgent scrutiny,” he noted. Vivek welcomed some of the panel’s more moderate proposals, such as a restructuring of India’s goods and services tax regime to lower costs for healthcare providers and patients, but called for broad consultations with all stakeholders before any binding policy changes are implemented.

    Dr. Reddy echoed that view, noting that before any blanket price caps are imposed, policymakers need to conduct full nationwide surveys to calculate the actual cost of delivering private care across different regions. “Healthcare costs vary widely from state to state and between large cities and small towns, so a one-size-fits-all national cap simply will not work,” he explained.

    As the debate over regulation heats up, public health experts across the board agree that the long-term solution to India’s healthcare affordability crisis lies in drastically expanding public sector healthcare capacity to reduce citizen dependence on expensive private facilities. This is a core recommendation of the government panel’s report itself.

    Currently, India’s central government spends just 1.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public healthcare, falling far short of the 2.5% target set out in the National Health Policy nearly a decade ago, and a fraction of the 5% of GDP the World Health Organization recommends as a minimum for strong public health systems. The government panel’s report notes that chronically underinvestment in public secondary and tertiary care has pushed millions of Indians to seek care from private facilities, leading to the catastrophic out-of-pocket health spending that pushes 6 million Indians into poverty every year, according to World Bank data.

    “The Indian government has to step up its investment in public healthcare dramatically to reduce the ordinary person’s dependence on private hospitals,” Vivek said. Yet policymakers face a difficult balancing act: estimates show India needs an additional $300 billion in healthcare investment over the next decade to meet growing demand for care, and the vast majority of that capital will have to come from private domestic and foreign investors.

    That leaves policymakers with the unenviable task of crafting regulation that protects ordinary patients from exploitative pricing without driving away the investment India needs to expand overall care capacity. The outcome of this debate will shape the health and financial security of hundreds of millions of Indians for decades to come.

  • Pakistan says time has come to implement Mecca defence pact

    Pakistan says time has come to implement Mecca defence pact

    As Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia grow more frequent and intense, Pakistan’s defense minister is calling for the immediate implementation of a trilateral defense agreement signed earlier this year with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In an interview with Pakistan’s Geo News on Wednesday, Khawaja Asif reaffirmed his country’s unwavering commitment to defending Saudi Arabia and its two holiest Islamic sites, Mecca and Medina, noting that Pakistan bore a moral and strategic duty to protect these locations even in the absence of a formal agreement.

    “The Mecca Agreement is binding on us, and we will honor every obligation it entails,” Asif stated, though he declined to provide specific details on what actions Pakistan might take to fulfill its commitments under the pact. The statement comes amid rising tensions after Houthi forces intensified drone and missile strikes targeting Saudi territory, raising concerns about regional stability and the security of key religious and energy infrastructure.

    Houthi representatives have pushed back against claims that their operations target holy sites, insisting their military actions are strictly limited to Saudi oil facilities and military installations, which are located far from Mecca and Medina. “Our operations only target Saudi oil facilities and military bases, which are far removed from these sacred sites,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree clarified.

    Asif also confirmed that Pakistan has acted as an intermediary, conveying a formal message from Saudi leadership to Iran at a time when Riyadh has grown increasingly alarmed over the escalating attacks. Asif noted that he does not believe Iran, as a sovereign state, will choose to open a new military front in the region, given its existing commitments to ongoing conflicts across the Middle East. He added that Pakistan will continue its diplomatic efforts to prevent the current crisis from spilling over into a wider regional conflict.

    Asif’s comments came on the heels of a deadly attack reported by Saudi state television on Thursday: Saudi air defense systems intercepted a Houthi-launched drone over the southwestern governorate of Taif, but falling debris from the drone killed one Yemeni resident and injured two others. This incident marks the first reported fatality on Saudi soil this month since Houthi forces ramped up their cross-border attacks against the kingdom.

    In recent years, Pakistan has positioned itself as a neutral regional mediator, having previously facilitated high-level talks between the United States and Iran, while simultaneously deepening its bilateral military cooperation with both Saudi Arabia and Turkey. That growing collaboration led to the signing of the Joint Defense Agreement, commonly referred to as the Mecca Pact, by the three nations on August 7. The core principle of the pact mirrors that of NATO’s Article 5, holding that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all three. While the pact drew immediate comparisons to the Western security alliance, analysts have warned against overinterpreting the mutual defense provision as an ironclad commitment to immediate military intervention.

    Separately, Reuters reported this week, citing three anonymous Iranian sources, that China has privately urged Iran to exert its influence over the Houthi movement to de-escalate attacks, after Saudi Arabia formally requested diplomatic assistance from Beijing. While China has publicly called for all parties to exercise restraint, engage in diplomatic dialogue, and restore safe navigation through key regional waterways, private diplomatic channels saw Beijing pressure Tehran to help prevent further disruptions to critical energy supply routes that are economically vital to China. The sources did not disclose how Beijing delivered this message, nor whether the request was raised during Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s official visit to China on Wednesday. Per the sources, Iran’s response to China’s request asserted that lasting peace and stability in the region can only be achieved by ending what it described as the U.S.-led “war on Iran.”

  • Event hosted in parliament hears speaker who argued ‘influence of Islam’ should be ‘resisted’

    Event hosted in parliament hears speaker who argued ‘influence of Islam’ should be ‘resisted’

    A highly controversial address critical of Islam has been held inside the UK Parliament this week, drawing growing scrutiny over the far-right and anti-religious views espoused by the speaker and his parliamentary backers. The event, titled *The Challenge of Islam*, was delivered Tuesday evening in the Attlee Suite of Westminster by British writer Tim Dieppe, an affiliate of the conservative Christian advocacy group Christian Concern.

    Public records and social media materials confirm the talk was hosted by Jim Allister, a Member of Parliament and leader of Traditional Unionist Voice, a hardline right-wing unionist party based in Northern Ireland. While Allister has not issued an official confirmation of his role as host, he was photographed in attendance at the event, and Middle East Eye has reached out to the MP for additional comment on the gathering.

    According to promotional materials shared by Christian Concern on its official website, the talk was organized on behalf of the Protestant Truth Society, a small ultra-conservative Protestant group. The invitation specified the event was primarily intended for sitting parliamentarians and senior Christian church leaders, though it was open to any member of the public who wished to attend. No audio or video recording of Dieppe’s remarks has been released to the public as of yet, but pre-existing public comments from Dieppe have already made clear the incendiary nature of his arguments, guaranteeing the event will draw fierce pushback in Westminster and across British public life.

    Dieppe, who published a 2025 book expanding on his anti-Islam views under the same title as his parliamentary talk, has a long paper trail of public statements calling for broad restrictions on Islamic practice and influence in the UK. In public comments and writing dating back to 2024, he has argued that growing Islamic influence in British society must be opposed through legislative and political action. He has called on Christian institutions in the UK to prepare resources to empower believers to confront Islamic influence at every level of public and private life, from personal interactions with neighbors to public debates in media and policy spaces.

    Dieppe’s core claims are unapologetically critical: he asserts that “Islam is already threatening our democracy and changing our culture”, and has argued that while individual Muslims may be open to redemption, the religion of Islam itself is not. In a 2024 interview with British right-wing media outlet GB News, he called for increased state monitoring of Islamic educational institutions and religious teachings, going on to argue that specific Islamic practices deserve to be formally banned in the UK – a position he attempted to soften slightly by noting he does not call for a full ban on Muslim worship in mosques.

    Earlier in 2025, Dieppe wrote in an article published on Christian Concern’s platform that “Islam, as assessed by its texts, and by the example of its founder, is not a peaceful religion”, claiming that Western skepticism of the religion is fully justified. In an August 2024 column published in the conservative magazine *The Critic*, he also repeated the baseless claim that Islam is inherently antisemitic, arguing that anti-Jewish prejudice is inherent to the religion’s foundational texts and dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, a claim that has been widely rejected by religious scholars and interfaith leaders. He further framed the growing presence of Islam in the UK as filling a “spiritual and moral vacuum” created by declining adherence to Christianity, framing the religion as an existential challenge to British national identity.

    The Protestant Truth Society, which co-sponsored the parliamentary event, has a well-documented history of anti-Islam rhetoric. Earlier this year, the group drew public criticism after it sent an open letter to King Charles III following the monarch’s annual public greeting to British Muslims marking the holy festivals of Ramadan and Eid. In the letter, the group urged the king to stop issuing any future public messages of greeting for Muslim religious holidays, and called on him to repent and return exclusively to Christian faith.

    The hosting of an event with such explicitly anti-religious views within the grounds of the UK Parliament is expected to reignite debates over the normalization of anti-Muslim prejudice in British mainstream politics, with interfaith organizations and anti-racism campaigners likely to condemn the event in the coming days.

  • Far-right Israelis call for NAZA co-director to be hanged in protest outside parents’ home

    Far-right Israelis call for NAZA co-director to be hanged in protest outside parents’ home

    A wave of fierce public and political backlash has swept across Israel this week, centered on two Israeli filmmakers whose documentary examining alleged war crimes in the country’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza won major international recognition. Dozens of far-right Israeli demonstrators assembled outside the family home of co-director Rachel Szor on Wednesday, issuing violent calls for her execution over the content of the film *NAZA*.

    The controversy ignited after Szor and her creative partner Yuval Abraham, both Oscar-winning filmmakers, took home the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival this past Saturday for their work. Since the award announcement, the pair has faced escalating condemnation and threats from across Israeli political and public life.

    Israeli daily *Haaretz* documented that multiple protesters gathered outside Szor’s home chanted demands for “the death penalty for traitors.” One demonstrator went even further, calling for not only the two filmmakers to be put to death upon their return to Israel but also for Szor’s family to be expelled from the country and their home permanently sealed. A far-right activist with confirmed close ties to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir urged members of the crowd to publicly identify the filmmakers if they encountered them in any public space, insisting the pair should not be allowed to gather in any public venue such as restaurants. “Whoever sees them should circulate their location across all social and community groups — these scums have nowhere to run,” the activist stated.

    Multiple right-wing outlets, including Walla, captured additional hostile remarks from attendees. “This is an act of treason from within,” one protester told the outlet. Photos from the protest show demonstrators holding signs labeling the pair “traitors” and waving flags of Israeli army combat units. One far-right attendee framed the controversy as a unifying cause for all of Israeli society, regardless of political alignment, saying “This is not a matter of right or left” and that all Israelis “need to denounce” the filmmakers. Other protesters vowed to keep organizing demonstrations until the entire country rejects the documentary’s claims, which they dismissed as “blood libels” against Israeli service members.

    *NAZA*, the documentary at the center of the conflict, investigates the artificial intelligence targeting systems the Israeli military uses in its Gaza campaign and explores allegations that military planners explicitly factored high volumes of Palestinian civilian casualties into their targeting strategies. To build the film’s narrative, the directors conducted on-the-record interviews with 24 anonymous current and former Israeli military and intelligence insiders who shared firsthand insight into military targeting practices.

    The backlash against the film and its creators has expanded far beyond far-right street protesters, with mainstream politicians, leading journalists, and senior public figures uniformly lining up to condemn the pair and challenge the film’s core claims. A public opinion poll published by Israel’s Channel 13 News on Wednesday underscores the depth of public rejection of the documentary’s claims: 68 percent of surveyed Israeli adults said they do not accept the film’s allegations of intentional mass civilian killing in Gaza, while only 13 percent said they find the claims credible. On the question of whether the film should be banned from public screening in Israel, 48 percent of respondents supported a ban compared to 32 percent who opposed restrictions on screening.

    In the days following the Venice Film Festival award, senior Israeli political leaders have doubled down on public attacks, even proposing legislative and legal action against the filmmakers. As early as Sunday, Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar called *NAZA* “despicable” and announced he would move immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of the two creators on charges of treason against the state. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Zohar in condemning the pair, revealing he would introduce two new pieces of legislation targeting anyone found to “defame” the Israeli military. The first bill would codify the revocation of citizenship for anyone convicted of defaming Israeli soldiers, while the second would increase potential civil defamation damages against such individuals by 20 times. “They have no place among us,” Netanyahu said of anyone who defames the country’s military.

    Even before reviewing the film’s content, the Israeli military has formally rejected all of its allegations. Israeli media reports confirm that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has ordered the military’s legal corps, working in partnership with Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, to pursue legal action against Szor and Abraham.

    Prominent Israeli journalists have also joined the condemnation, with many questioning the film’s journalistic credibility and attacking the directors. Michael Shemesh, a political correspondent for the left-leaning Channel 13 News, wrote Tuesday that “One good thing came out of the film *NAZA*: There is a price for defamation,” and praised what he called cross-ideological Israeli unity in rejecting the film. Amit Segal, one of Israel’s most high-profile journalists with Channel 12 News, drew widespread attention Tuesday when he compared *NAZA* to Adolf Hitler’s antisemitic manifesto *Mein Kampf*. After the Union of Journalists in Israel — the country’s largest journalists’ organization — issued a formal statement condemning the threats and attacks against Szor and Abraham, Segal dismissed the union as “a supporter of Hamas’s propaganda ministry,” implying the filmmakers were operating on behalf of the Palestinian armed group.

    Not all official voices have backed the backlash, however. A report published by Channel 12 News noted that senior military and diplomatic officials have expressed discomfort with the coordinated attacks on the filmmakers, warning that the aggressive crackdown risks framing Israel globally as a state that does not tolerate freedom of expression. These unnamed officials also accused Netanyahu of exploiting the controversy surrounding the documentary for domestic political gain. “Israel is trapped between what is right for it internationally and what is right for politicians electorally,” the officials told the outlet.

  • Watch: Can humpback whales experience grief?

    Watch: Can humpback whales experience grief?

    For decades, behavioral scientists have debated whether non-human animals are capable of experiencing complex, human-like emotions such as grief. Now, newly uncovered rare footage collected by marine researchers off Australia’s Gold Coast has added fresh fuel to this long-running conversation, offering compelling visual evidence that humpback whale mothers may mourn the loss of their calves.

    The never-before-seen footage, collected during a recent marine research expedition, captured a humpback whale mother remaining closely alongside her deceased calf for an extended period. Rather than abandoning the body and continuing her migration as is typical for the species after a calf’s death, the mother was observed staying within meters of the calf’s body, slow swimming and repeatedly nudging the calf, behaviors researchers interpret as potential signs of mourning.

    Humpback whales are known for their high levels of social organization, complex communication systems, and large brain structures that support advanced cognitive function, traits that have led many biologists to hypothesize that they possess a capacity for deep emotional experience. Prior anecdotal observations across multiple whale species have recorded similar lingering behavior around dead offspring, but this new, high-quality footage from the Gold Coast offers one of the clearest recorded examples of this behavior to date.

    Marine biologists studying the footage note that while definitive proof of grief remains impossible to confirm without direct access to the animal’s internal experience, the consistent pattern of the mother’s abnormal behavior following her calf’s death strongly suggests an emotional response. This discovery not only deepens scientific understanding of cetacean cognition but also raises new questions about animal consciousness and the ethical responsibilities humans have to protect whale populations around the world.

  • US to allow Iran delegation to attend UN meetings in New York as war passes half-year mark

    US to allow Iran delegation to attend UN meetings in New York as war passes half-year mark

    As the seventh month of open conflict between the United States and Iran approaches with no end in sight, the Biden administration has fulfilled its obligations as host country of the United Nations by granting entry visas to a scaled-down core Iranian delegation headed for next week’s high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. The approved delegation includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a senior diplomatic source familiar with the process confirmed to the BBC.

    US State Department spokespeople officially announced the decision Thursday, noting that the visiting Iranian officials will operate under rigid travel constraints and face strict prohibitions on purchasing a range of American goods. In a public post on X, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott justified the restrictions, arguing that they would block Iranian regime elites from embarking on luxury shopping sprees funded at the expense of ordinary Iranian citizens, who currently face widespread shortages of basic utilities including water and electricity, soaring domestic inflation, and harsh political repression. Pigott also claimed that the Iranian government diverts much of the country’s national wealth to fund terrorist proxy groups across the Middle East, and warned New York retail businesses to remain on high alert for attempts by delegation members to purchase restricted items. To date, the spokesperson has not confirmed whether US authorities have intelligence indicating any specific plans for luxury purchases by the Iranian delegation.

    The rules mirror restrictions put in place for the 2024 UNGA, when Iranian diplomats were barred from making bulk purchases at wholesale retail outlets such as Costco and required to secure advance US approval before buying any luxury goods, including jewelry, motor vehicles, and alcohol. This year’s delegation is also smaller than the group that traveled to New York for last year’s assembly, according to State Department officials.

    The 81st session of the UN General Assembly is already underway, with the flagship annual General Debate scheduled to kick off next Tuesday. The opening day of the debate will feature keynote addresses from US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and French President Emmanuel Macron, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to speak alongside the leaders of Ukraine and Syria on Wednesday.

    The visa approval comes amid mounting public and political pressure on the White House to move toward a negotiated end to the ongoing Iran war. The conflict erupted on February 28 this year, when the United States and Israel launched a joint military offensive against Iran. Since the outbreak of hostilities, the conflict has pushed global energy prices sharply higher, spilled across Iran’s borders into neighboring countries, and seen repeated Iranian attacks on US military bases, US-allied states in the Persian Gulf, and Israeli territory.

    In a contrasting decision that highlights stark US diplomatic priorities, the BBC has also confirmed that the US has denied entry visas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his full delegation, barring them from attending this year’s UNGA. This marks the second consecutive year the White House has refused visas for the Palestinian delegation, a move aligned with the administration’s refusal to recognize the delegation’s official legitimacy.

  • Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody as family seeks answers

    Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody as family seeks answers

    The death of a 21-year-old Palestinian man held without charge or trial in an Israeli prison has thrown a harsh spotlight on longstanding allegations of abuse and neglect inside Israeli detention facilities, leaving his family shattered and demanding full accountability.

    Moataz Nizam al-Atrash, a native of Hebron and the youngest of six siblings, died earlier this week at Israel’s Ofer Prison, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs confirmed in an official announcement Wednesday. At the time of his death, al-Atrash had spent nearly 12 months in administrative detention – a controversial Israeli policy that allows authorities to hold individuals indefinitely based on sealed evidence labeled a ‘secret file,’ with no formal charges or public trial. Official legal documentation confirms al-Atrash had no pre-existing chronic health conditions prior to his October 2025 arrest at his family home.

    For al-Atrash’s family, the sudden loss has been compounded by a total lack of transparency from Israeli officials. His older brother Basil al-Atrash shared that the family has been left reeling in shock, with no clear explanation for how the young man died. The last contact with al-Atrash via legal representation came two months before his death, in a five-minute meeting where he reported being in good health, passed along well wishes to his family, and showed no visible signs of illness. A former detainee released from Ofer just two days before al-Atrash’s death also confirmed to the family that he appeared healthy during their time incarcerated together.

    ‘Israel’s occupation forces called my father in yesterday, and an officer simply told him his son had died in prison. They gave no cause of death, no mention of any health problems,’ Basil al-Atrash told reporters from Middle East Eye in an interview. He added that Israeli officials asked his father to sign a consent form for an autopsy, and the family is currently awaiting official results. Beyond the uncertainty over the cause of death, the family says it harbors deep fears that Israeli authorities will choose to withhold al-Atrash’s remains – a common practice documented by Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups in dozens of past cases.

    The family had been preparing to welcome al-Atrash home just days before his death. After his initial six-month administrative detention order was issued following his arrest, the order was renewed for a second term that was set to expire on October 3. ‘We were counting down the days to the end of this second renewal, hoping for his release and getting ready to welcome him home,’ Basil al-Atrash said. ‘Instead, we got the devastating news that he would never come back.’ Before his arrest, al-Atrash worked at a local pastry factory, where he was saving to build a future for himself. His 2025 arrest marked his first run-in with Israeli detention, a detention that ultimately proved fatal.

    Leading Palestinian prisoner rights organizations have labeled al-Atrash’s death as part of what they call a deliberate ‘policy of extermination’ targeting Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody. According to joint data collected by the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, al-Atrash’s death brings the total number of verified Palestinian detainee deaths in Israeli prisons to 92 since October 2023. Of those 92 deaths, 53 were detainees from the Gaza Strip. The organizations warn that the 92 figure only includes deaths where the identity of the detainee has been fully confirmed, and the actual death toll is likely far higher.

    Dozens of additional Palestinian detainees are currently considered forcibly disappeared, with no independent or reliable information available about their location or physical condition. In a joint statement released after al-Atrash’s death, the groups noted that ‘Israeli prisons are currently experiencing one of the bloodiest periods for Palestinian detainees since 1967.’ Cumulative data collected by the organizations puts the total number of Palestinian detainee deaths in Israeli custody since 1967 at 329.

    The advocacy groups attribute the sharp recent rise in detainee deaths to widespread, systematic abuse inside Israeli facilities. They cite a pattern of torture, severe starvation, deliberate medical neglect, physical violence, sexual assault, systemic humiliation, and the routine denial of basic human rights to detainees. The statement added that the fates of hundreds of Gaza detainees remain unknown due to widespread enforced disappearance, and that accumulating witness testimony and evidence confirms dozens of detainees have been subjected to extrajudicial field executions.

    As of early September 2025, Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups estimate that roughly 9,350 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails. This official count includes 90 women and more than 350 minor detainees, most held at Megiddo and Ofer prisons. Approximately 3,176 of those detainees are held under administrative detention, the same policy that kept al-Atrash imprisoned without charge. An additional 1,393 detainees have been classified by Israeli authorities as ‘unlawful combatants,’ a designation that also allows for indefinite detention without formal charges or trial. The organizations note that their current count does not include the full number of Gaza detainees held in Israeli military camps under the unlawful combatant classification, nor does it include Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria held in Israeli custody.