Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest news from around the world. Our comprehensive news coverage brings you the most relevant and impactful stories in politics, business, technology, entertainment, and more.
US Republican president slams Zohran Mamdani as a ‘communist’, says Andrew Cuomo has a ‘good shot of winning’.
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has backed former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision to run as an independent in the New York City mayoral race, renewing his attack against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Asked about Cuomo’s decision to stay in the contest after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, Trump said on Tuesday that the former governor can still win in the general election in November.
“I think he should stay. I think he has a shot,” Trump told reporters.
The former governor, 67, announced on Monday his intention to run as an independent after handily losing the Democratic contest to Mamdani last month.
But Cuomo has a mountain to climb in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, especially given that he will be competing for the anti-Mamdani vote with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
In an early sign of the challenges he is facing, Cuomo’s announcement on X received a flood of negative responses, with many citing his sexual harassment scandals.
Cuomo resigned as New York governor in 2021 after facing mounting sexual harassment allegations, which he has denied.
On Tuesday, Trump, a native New Yorker who moved to Florida after his first term as president in 2021, stopped short of fully endorsing Cuomo.
Asked whether he prefers Cuomo to win, Trump said: “I don’t want to say. I’m a Republican; he’s a democrat or an independent.”
“I think Andrew would have a good shot of winning. He’s got to run a tough campaign. You know, he’s running against a communist,” he added, referring to Mamdani.
The US president has been increasingly critical of Mamdani, 33, a left-wing state legislator who has made affordability the key component of his campaign.
Accusing Democrats of being communists or communist sympathisers is a frequent, misleading attack line by some Republicans. Analysts have told Al Jazeera that Mamdani’s platform does not contain the key tenets of communism, such as government takeover of industry and private property.
Last week, Trump suggested that he could use the “tremendous power” of the White House to take over New York City if Mamdani wins.
“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York,” Trump wrote in a social media post earlier this month.
“Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards. I’ll save New York City, and make it ‘Hot’ and ‘Great’ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”
Many of the president’s close allies, including several members of Congress, have deployed overtly Islamophobic language to attack Mamadani, who is of South Asian descent.
Last month, the White House said that baseless allegations that Mamdani has supported “terrorism” in the past “should be investigated”, with the intent of revoking his US citizenship.
Some close Trump allies, including billionaire Bill Ackman, backed Cuomo during the primaries.
The race to lead the largest US city has been capturing national and international headlines, in part due to the attacks on Mamdani over his support for Palestinian rights.
On Tuesday, Mamdani’s campaign sarcastically congratulated Cuomo on winning Trump’s backing.
“Obviously, this triumph speaks for itself. The question now is whether Cuomo will embrace Trump’s support publicly or continue to just accept it in private,” the campaign said in a statement.
Francesca Albanese addresses delegates from 30 countries to discuss ways nations can try to stop Israel’s offensive.
The United Nations’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories has said that it is time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, on Tuesday to discuss Israel’s brutal assault and ways nations can try to stop the offensive in the besieged enclave.
More than 58,000 people have been killed since Israel launched the assault in October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israeli forces have also imposed several total blockades on the territory throughout the war, pushing Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation.
“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel … and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”
A Palestinian boy queues for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on July 15, 2025 [Eyad Baba/AFP]
The two-day conference organised by Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.
The conference is co-chaired by South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants. It includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight countries that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For decades, South Africa’s governing African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to areas called “homelands”, before ending in 1994.
The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel, which include a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials who are found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Colombian Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said on Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Turkiye, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.
The Colombian official described Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order.
“This is not just about Palestine,” Jaramillo said in a news conference. “It is about defending international law and the right to self-determination.”
Special rapporteur Albanese’s comments echoed remarks she made earlier on Tuesday addressed to the EU. The bloc’s foreign ministers had been meeting in Brussels to discuss possible action against Israel.
In a series of posts on X, Albanese wrote that the EU is “legally bound” to suspend its association agreement with Israel, citing its obligations under international law.
Albanese said the EU is not only Israel’s top trading partner but also its top investment partner, nearly double the size of the US, and “trade with an economy inextricably tied to occupation, apartheid and genocide is complicity”.
The chancellor has told the financial industry it must change the “negative” narrative around savers investing money in stocks and shares in order to help grow the economy.
In a speech, Rachel Reeves said: “For too long, we have presented investment in too negative a light, quick to warn people of the risks without giving proper weight to the benefits.”
The government is working with the financial regulator to provide support for would-be investors.
At the annual Mansion House dinner in the City of London, Reeves told business leaders: “Our tangled system of financial advice and guidance has meant that people cannot get the right support to make decisions for themselves.”
She said the government is consulting with the Financial Conduct Authority “to introduce a brand-new type of targeted support for consumers ahead of the new financial year”.
Speaking at the Mansion House event, Sir William Russell, former Lord Mayor of the City of London, told the BBC: “Unfortunately, there’s going to be this pause between tonight and October. In a way, that’s not good because there’ll be speculation about wealth tax which I don’t think will happen, this government is much more sensible than that.”
But he said: “That pause doesn’t help because there is uncertainty and if there’s one thing we all would agree with, the City does not like uncertainty.”
Reeves said the new measures to encourage consumers to invest would mean “savers can reap the benefits of UK economic success”.
But the value of investments in assets such as shares can go down as well as up, and savers have tended to be cautious over the risks involved, although the spending power of savings can be eroded by rising prices.
The government has in the past encouraged the public to buy shares in UK companies, including in 2013 when Royal Mail was floated on the London Stock Exchange.
But perhaps the most famous example was in 1986, when the state-owned British Gas was privatised and Margaret Thatcher’s government launched the “tell Sid” campaign. TV adverts featured characters urged each other to “tell Sid” about the chance to buy shares in British Gas.
In reference to her recent travails – including a tearful appearance in the House of Commons – Reeves said that during a visit to a school, a girl had asked her what job she would do if she could have any job in the world.
“Given the events of the last few weeks, I suspect many of you would sympathise if I had said “anything but chancellor”,” she joked with the audience. “But I didn’t.”
In her speech, Reeves said she would “continue to consider further changes to ISAs, engaging widely over the coming months”.
She also provided more details about changes to the UK’s financial services sector including reforming regulation.
“In too many areas, regulation still acts as a boot on the neck of businesses,” she said. “Choking off the enterprise and innovation that is the lifeblood of growth.”
She said regulators in other sectors “must take up the call I make this evening not to bend to the temptation of excessive caution but to boldly regulate for growth in the service of prosperity across our country”.
Ahead of giving his own speech at the Mansion House gathering, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was asked if there was a trade-off between providing stability and growth.
In the past, Mr Bailey has been cautious about deregulation.
But he told the BBC: “In no way am I suggesting that all our rules are perfectly formed so no, there isn’t a trade-off, but that doesn’t mean to say that we don’t change and modernise the system and keep it up to date – we balance those two things.”
Bedouin groups and fighters from Syria’s Druze minority have been involved in sectarian violence.
Syria’s new government is facing a serious challenge.
This time, it is not from foreign powers or from remnants of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad, but instead, from within the country’s own borders.
Tensions have flared in the south, where fighting between members of the Druze minority and Bedouin groups has reignited fears of wider sectarian unrest.
The violence comes as Druze spiritual leaders refuse to recognise the authority of President Ahmed Sharaa – the man now leading the post-Assad transition government.
And in a move that could further inflame tensions, Israel has warned Damascus not to harm the Druze.
Are the concerns of the community justified?
And what does all this mean for the unity of Syria?
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Louay Safi – Syrian political scientist and former professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University
Shadi Abou Karam – Political activist and researcher originally from Suwayda Province in Syria
Sami Akil – Political analyst and acadamic specialising in Syrian affairs
The Trump administration has faced a raft of legal challenges as it seeks to radically restrict immigration to the US.
A United States federal judge has ruled that the administration of President Donald Trump cannot block approved refugees from entering the country under the guise of a wider travel ban.
US District Judge Jamal Whitehead ruled late on Monday that Trump’s June order barring people from 12 countries from entering the US expressly states that it will not stop people from seeking refugee status.
“In other words, by its plain terms, the Proclamation excludes refugees from its scope,” Whitehead wrote.
The ruling is the latest development in a dizzying number of court cases challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to radically restrict immigration through a raft of policies that have stretched the limits of executive power.
The judge ordered the administration to continue processing a group of 80 refugees who had already been through vetting and were “presumptively protected refugees” who were nonetheless turned back due to the travel ban.
That ban applies to 12 countries and expands on a similar effort pursued by Trump during his first term in office, when his so-called “Muslim ban” prompted widespread anger and faced legal challenges before being ultimately upheld by the conservative-majority Supreme Court.
The June order applies to countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, and Sudan, as well as Haiti and Myanmar, among others.
The administration has also revoked existing legal status for scores of people from countries like Afghanistan and Haiti, throwing their future in the country into doubt and opening them up to the possibility of deportations to countries that experts say remain mired in conflict and unsafe conditions.
A US court temporarily paused an order by the Trump administration ending Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Afghans living in the US on Monday, several hours before it was set to expire, extending that status by one week as the court deliberates on the issue further.
Trump suspended the US refugee admissions programme upon entering office at the beginning of his second term in January, leaving thousands of people who had already been cleared for admission, sometimes after years of an arduous bureaucratic and vetting process, in a state of limbo.
A handful of refugees and advocacy groups sued, and Whitehead ruled in February that the administration could not suspend a programme created and funded by Congress. A US Circuit court put that decision on hold in March, however, ruling that the president has wide latitude over the question of who may enter the country.
Thunderstorms triggered flash floods in New York City and New Jersey on Monday, stranding commuters and motorists. The downpour was the city’s second-wettest hour in history, with more than two inches of rain. Authorities say two people were killed in New Jersey when their vehicle was swept away.
Leicester City have named former Queens Park Rangers head coach Marti Cifuentes as their new manager on a three-year deal.
The 43-year-old Spaniard replaces Ruud van Nistelrooy at the Foxes’ helm with less than a month until the season starts.
Cifuentes takes charge of a Leicester side that finds itself in the Championship for the second time in three years, having been immediately relegated from the Premier League after going up as second-tier title winners under Enzo Maresca in 2024.
Cifuentes now joins Maresca, who left Leicester after promotion to take the job at Chelsea, as one of the six permanent managers the Foxes have had in just over two years.
Just as the Italian was tasked with returning the East Midlands club to the top flight during his tenure, promotion will also be expected of Cifuentes.
In his time at QPR, the Spaniard oversaw 18th and 15th-placed finishes.
Leicester say they feel the Spaniard will bring “a modern, progressive footballing philosophy” to the club, while chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha says that Cifuentes “is an excellent fit”.
“We felt strongly that bringing him to the club would help us to create the success we all want in the years ahead,” Srivaddhanaprabha added.
Cifuentes took charge of QPR when they were second-from-bottom in the Championship in October 2023 and escaping relegation was first asked of him at Loftus Road.
His latest campaign ended with him on gardening leave after the Hoops suffered a 5-0 defeat by already-promoted Burnley in April.
United States inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances.
Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said on Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4 percent in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3 percent from May to June, after rising just 0.1 percent the previous month.
Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. The sharp inflation spike after the pandemic was the worst in four decades and soured most Americans on former President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy. Higher inflation will also likely heighten the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding.
The central bank is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent range at a policy meeting later this month.
Trump has insisted repeatedly that there is “no inflation”, and because of that, the central bank should swiftly reduce its key interest rate from its current level. Yet Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he wants to see how the economy reacts to Trump’s duties before reducing borrowing costs. Minutes of the central bank’s June 17-18 meeting, which were published last week, showed only “a couple” of officials said they felt rates could fall as soon as the July 29-30 meeting.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation increased 2.9 percent in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8 percent in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2 percent from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed.
The uptick in inflation was driven by a range of higher prices. The cost of gasoline rose 1 percent just from May to June, while grocery prices increased 0.3 percent. Appliance prices jumped for the third straight month. Toys, clothes, audio equipment, shoes, and sporting goods all got more expensive, and are all heavily imported.
“You are starting to see scattered bits of the tariff inflation regime filter in,” said Eric Winograd, chief economist at asset management firm AllianceBernstein, who added that the cost of long-lasting goods rose last month, compared with a year ago, for the first time in about three years.
Winograd also noted that housing costs, one of the biggest drivers of inflation since the pandemic, have continued to cool, which is holding down broader inflation. The cost of rent rose 3.8 percent in June compared with a year ago, the smallest yearly increase since late 2021.
“Were it not for the tariff uncertainty, the Fed would already be cutting rates,” Winograd said. “The question is whether there is more to come, and the Fed clearly thinks there is,” along with most economists.
Trump has imposed sweeping duties of 10 percent on all imports, plus 50-percent levies on steel and aluminium, 30 percent on goods from China, and 25 percent on imported cars. Just last week, the president threatened to hit the European Union with a new 30 percent tariff starting August 1.
He has also threatened to slap 50 percent duties on Brazil, which would push up the cost of orange juice and coffee. Orange prices leapt 3.5 percent just from May to June, and are 3.4 percent higher than a year ago.
Overall, grocery prices rose 0.3 percent last month and are up 2.4 percent from a year earlier. While that is a much smaller annual increase than before the pandemic, it is slightly bigger than the pre-pandemic pace of food price increases. The Trump administration has also placed a 17-percent duty on Mexican tomatoes.
Powell under fire
The acceleration in inflation could provide a respite of sorts for Powell, who has come under increasingly heavy fire from the White House for not cutting the benchmark interest rate.
The Fed chair has said that the duties could both push up prices and slow the economy, a tricky combination for the central bank since higher costs would typically lead the Fed to hike rates while a weaker economy often spurs it to reduce them.
Trump on Monday said that Powell has been “terrible” and “doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” The president added that the economy was doing well despite Powell’s refusal to reduce rates, but it would be “nice” if there were rate cuts, because people would be able to buy housing a lot easier.”
Last week, White House officials also attacked Powell for cost overruns on the years-long renovation of two Fed buildings, which are now slated to cost $2.5bn, roughly one-third more than originally budgeted. While Trump legally cannot fire Powell just because he disagrees with his interest rate decisions, the Supreme Court has signalled, he may be able to do so “for cause,” such as misconduct or mismanagement.
Some companies have said they have or plan to raise prices as a result of the tariffs, including Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Carmaker Mitsubishi said last month that it was lifting prices by an average of 2.1 percent in response to the duties, and Nike has said it would implement “surgical” price hikes to offset tariff costs.
But many companies have been able to postpone or avoid price increases, after building up their stockpiles of goods this spring to get ahead of the duties. Other companies may have refrained from lifting prices while they wait to see whether the US is able to reach trade deals with other countries that lower the duties.
The previous government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.
The details of nearly 19,000 people who had applied to move to the UK after the Taliban takeover of the country were released by a British defence official in February 2022.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 and created a new resettlement scheme nine months later. It has seen 4,500 Afghans arrive in the UK, with a further 600 people and their immediate families still to arrive.
The existence of the leak and scheme was kept secret for more than three years after the government obtained a superinjunction.
Details of the major data breach, the response and the number of Afghans granted the right to live in the UK as a result were only made public on Tuesday after a High Court judge ruled the gagging order should be lifted.
The leak contained the names, contact details and some family information of people potentially at risk of harm from the Taliban.
The government also revealed on Tuesday:
The secret scheme – officially called the Afghan Relocation Route – has cost £400m so far, and is expected to cost a further £400m to £450m
The scheme is being closed down, but relocation offers already made will be honoured
The breach was committed mistakenly by an unnamed official at the MoD
People whose details were leaked were only informed on Tuesday
Speaking in the House of Commons, Defence Secretary John Healey offered a “sincere apology” to those whose details had been included in the leak, which came to light when some details appeared on Facebook.
He said it was as a result of a spreadsheet being emailed “outside of authorised government systems”, which he described as a “serious departmental error” – though the Metropolitan Police has already decided a police investigation was not necessary.
Healey said the leak was “one of many data losses” related to the Afghanistan evacuation during that period, and contained the names of senior military officials, government officials, and MPs.
The MoD has declined to say how many people may have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach, but Healey told MPs an independent review had found it was “highly unlikely” an individual would have been targeted solely because of it.
He said that review had also judged the secret scheme to be an “extremely significant intervention” given the “potentially limited” risk posed by the leak.
In a High Court judgement issued on Tuesday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said it was “quite possible” that some of those who saw the Facebook post containing the leaked personal data “were Taliban infiltrators or spoke about it to Taliban-aligned individuals”.
BBC News has seen an email sent to those impacted by the breach, which urges them to “exercise caution”, and take steps like protecting their online activities and not responding to messages from unknown contacts.
Healey said those who have been relocated to the UK have already been counted in immigration figures.
‘Unprecedented’
Tuesday’s disclosure dates back to the August 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, which saw the Taliban retake power and quickly surround the capital Kabul.
The leak involved the names of people who had applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which the UK government set up to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.
The evacuation has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a “disaster” and a “betrayal”.
When the government set up a new relocation scheme last year in response to the leak, members of the press quickly learned about the plans.
The government asked a judge to impose a superinjunction on the media, preventing outlets by law from reporting any detail.
Healey told the House even he had been prevented from speaking about the breach because of the “unprecedented” injunction, after being informed while still shadow defence secretary.
Reading a summary of his judgment in court, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the the gagging order had “given rise to serious free speech concerns”.
He continued: “The superinjunction had the effect of completely shutting down the ordinary mechanisms of accountability which operate in a democracy.
“This led to what I describe as a ‘scrutiny vacuum’.”
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, who was in government when the secret scheme was established, said “this data leak should never have happened and was an unacceptable breach of all relevant data protocols”.
Erin Alcock, a lawyer for the firm Leigh Day, which has assisted hundreds of Arap applicants and family members, called the breach a “catastrophic failure”.
From camps in Borno to street corners in Jos or online forums in Lagos, Nigerians are asking the same question: “Who’s responsible for our safety?”
It echoes louder each time a village is attacked, a school is shut, or families are forced to flee again. The country is replete with soldiers and police checkpoints. A new special task force is formed frequently. Yet, the violence continues.
Across the North East, insurgents wage a relentless campaign, displacing communities and destabilising entire regions. Separatist agitation is volatile in the South East, feeding unrest and confrontation. The North West is plagued by the kind of terrorism that blurs the line between ideological violence and organised crime, while the North Central battles a dangerous mix of terrorism and sectarian conflict.
In Nigeria’s commercial centres, violent crime festers, expressing itself through kidnappings, cult clashes, and armed robbery that no longer respect time or place. Each is complex, rooted in history, grievances, and deep socio-economic fractures. Though different, they all persist, grow, and adapt despite the government’s multi-pronged security interventions. For every new strategy launched or force deployed, the violence seems to morph and resurface elsewhere, often with greater ferocity.
The military’s grip on internal security
Nigeria’s reliance on the military for internal security is not new. A retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) notes it began during the military era, when armed forces sought visibility and influence, often at the cost of the police.
Brigadier General Saleh Bala (rtd.), a veteran of many military campaigns and the president of White Ink Institute, provides deeper historical context. He links the military’s domestic role to the post-colonial period, particularly the Tiv riots and Operation Wetie in the Western Region. Even then, while police retained the lead, the military’s active support gradually expanded.
According to Bala, the real shift occurred post-civil war, with surging armed robbery in urban areas during the era of notorious figures like Oyenusi and Anini. The police’s inability to match this threat due to outdated equipment, low morale, and inadequate training enabled the military’s growing internal role. This, he says, was cemented further after the 1983 coup, where regime protection became paramount following attempts by then Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sunday Adewusi to thwart the coup.
These developments paved the way for the military’s sustained involvement in internal policing through state-led operations like “Operation Sweep” under General Buba Marwa, which set the template for numerous state-level joint task forces today.
The AIG remarks, “The result was that the police were denied funding for equipment and training, lost morale, and slowly withdrew.” Bala adds that while military interventions initially curtailed violent crime, overexposure led to diminishing professionalism and allegations of abuse similar to those levied against the police.
Soldiers as police: a reversal of roles
Today, soldiers respond to crime scenes, enforce curfews in peacetime cities, and patrol highways. The line between policing and military duties has blurred, with the military often serving as the de facto internal security force.
Bala agrees with this description but clarifies, “The military does not assume this role unilaterally. It acts only when requested by civil authorities and sanctioned by the President through the National Security Council.” He emphasises that this support role is constitutional and subsidiary, designed to help the police regain control and hand over post-stabilisation.
Where the AIG sees erosion of roles, Bala sees the outcome of evolving threats, particularly hybrid threats like Boko Haram and multi-layered terrorism, that overwhelm police capacity. However, both agree that the police must be revitalised to regain primacy in internal security.
Policing the elite, not the public
The CLEEN Foundation and a number of other civil society organisations in Nigeria have written extensively on the drift from securing the nation by the police to a troubling focus on protecting VIPs, in addition to widespread corruption and low faith in the police institution.
The AIG points out a disturbing trend: officers cluster around VIPs, leaving ordinary citizens exposed. This elite capture of police services, coupled with a dismal police-to-citizen ratio in most African countries, including Nigeria, undermines the safety and security of citizens.
Infographic design: Damilola Lawal/HumAngle
Brigadier General Bala refrains from directly challenging this critique but shifts focus toward the need for the police to “rise above their preference for soft, high-profile urban operations.” He urges a move toward rural policing and special operations, citing international examples where law enforcement operates capably across diverse terrains.
He stresses political leadership as the driver of such reform: “The police need political direction to prioritise nationwide security expectations over elite security needs.”
Too many uniforms, too little coordination
HumAngle has, over the years, documented Nigeria’s bloated security environment, in which the DSS, NSCDC, Immigration, Customs, and other agencies frequently act in opposition. Intelligence is delayed, mandates are unclear, and many outfits lack focus.
The AIG calls for streamlining, suggesting that the DSS return to its 1980s and 1990s focus on community-centric intelligence gathering, while the NSCDC personnel be redeployed as a foundation for state police. Many analysts offered similar advice for merging vigilantes and dozens of self-help militias across the country into the NSCDC and maybe decentralising this outfit into regional police, rather than each state in Nigeria having semi-autonomous or independent security force.
“Rather than 36 separate police entities, we should have regional police that are in line with Nigeria’s six geographical zones,” a top police officer in Abuja said, adding that if state-based police institutions are adopted, governors who already have authority over local government administration “will muster too much power.”
The crisis of imagination
The AIG argues that Nigeria’s insecurity stems from a flawed belief that force alone ensures safety. Instead, he champions investigative policing, forensic tools, training, and direct departmental budgeting.
Bala provides a broader context: “Warfare itself is now institutionally all-encompassing. Security threats are increasingly urban and asymmetric. Policing must now be part of a whole-of-government, all-of-society approach.”
He warns of the “militarisation of all security forces” due to adversaries’ tactics. He draws attention to advanced democracies where police forces are as capable as some militaries. This, he suggests, should inform Nigeria’s transformation: building police forces that are not only community-responsive but also operationally hardened.
Restoring trust, rebuilding institutions
Illustration by Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
The AIG proposes revamping police colleges in Ikeja, Kaduna, and Maiduguri into detective hubs. He calls for merit-based recruitment and unassailable discipline to restore legitimacy.
Bala doesn’t directly oppose these views but reiterates the need for synergy: “Military, intelligence, law enforcement, and paramilitaries must become domain-specific specialists who can adapt across blurred threat boundaries.”
Both agree that trust in the police can only be restored through professionalism, neutrality (especially during elections), and effective public service—not militarisation.
Infographic design: Damilola Lawal/HumAngle
Towards a new vision
Nigeria stands at a crossroads. Its current security model, built on elite protection and military overreach, is unsustainable. Both Bala and the AIG call for a pivot towards decentralised, professional policing, political will, and community-grounded justice.
Bala underscores the need for coherence: “The answer lies in orchestrated cooperation. Security cannot be left to force projection alone. It must be institutional, strategic, and inclusive.”
In a country overwhelmed by uniforms, one truth endures: security is not guaranteed by presence, but by purpose. And that purpose must be justice.
George Orwell’s dystopian foresight could easily find new expressions in the ongoing Israeli wars of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon. Much like “war is peace”, the Biden administration and the European Union have contributed to creating phrases such as “aggression is self-defence,” “murder is collateral damage”, “safe areas are death traps” and “humanitarian aid is a starvation diet.”
After enduring a full year of Israeli terror, extreme torment and military occupation, fear never conquered Gazans. Despite the complete Israeli blockade – abetted with the help of the Egyptian regime – and the stark imbalance in military power, Gaza’s collective resistance, by all means necessary, remained steadfast and resilient.
Notwithstanding the above, Benjamin Netanyahu has not succeeded in achieving any of his declared objectives. For instance, less than seven per cent of the freed Israeli captives were recovered by force. Perhaps because the Israeli prime minister’s undeclared Zionist objectives, such as land grabs in the West Bank under the shadow of the Gaza genocide, took precedence over pursuing a proven venue for the release of Israeli prisoners.
Netanyahu’s war success can be only measured by Israel’s scale of vengeance, as the toll of the murdered and injured has reached 150,000. Gaza has been turned into a living hell. A war that pervasively and systematically diminished Gaza’s economic capacity, following an 18-year blockade that crippled the economy and forced upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency.
Yet, Israel failed to bring any part of Gaza into submission. As a result, several Israeli generals, led by former national security adviser Israeli Maj-General Giora Eiland, contrived a new approach, the “General’s Plan”, to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza.
The General’s Plan is not exclusively a military strategy but rather an orchestrated noncombatant action, euphemistically termed to mask its true intention: genocide and ethnic cleansing through starvation. It calls first for the complete isolation of northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip. Second: compartmentalise northern Gaza into separate quarters and declare each section a war zone, forcing civilians to leave or become legitimate military targets.
The initial phase, which began in early October, blocked aid trucks from reaching the north and then segregated the Jabalia camp from its surroundings. In other words, genocide by attrition, one quarter at a time, in a slow motion.
As part of the General’s Starvation Plan, Israel bombed the only UN distribution center in Jabalia camp on Monday, murdering ten civilians queuing to receive food aid. Since last October, around 400,000 civilians remain in northern Gaza out of the original 1.2 million. Many refuse to evacuate despite the unbearable conditions. They know from historical experience that evacuation is an Israeli alias for ethnic cleansing. Once they leave, they may never return, as happened in 1948. They also saw what happened to those who evacuated, many were killed as they “moved south”, while others were murdered in the Israeli death traps, otherwise known as designated “safe areas.”
The Biden administration has been whitewashing Israeli use of starvation as a method of warfare since 9 October, 2023 when the Israeli minister of war declared “no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” However, on Tuesday, a little over a year after the minister’s declaration, the American secretaries of state and defence sent Israeli officials a letter giving them another grace period of 30 days to allow food aid into north Gaza or risk a restriction of US military assistance to Israel.
The new warning feels like a classic case of a déjà vu. In April 2024, the Biden administration issued a similar warning to Israel ahead of a report that was being prepared by American officials examining Israel’s violation of the Leahy Law, particularly subsection 6201(a). The law stipulates that the US should not provide assistance to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”
Following that warning, US government agencies and officials concluded that Israel was blocking American humanitarian aid to Gaza. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) notified the State Department of Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments” of American aid to Gaza residents. In addition, the State Department’s refugee bureau issued a similar opinion stating that “facts on the ground indicate US humanitarian assistance is being restricted.”
Even after those palpable reports from the two US agencies, the Israeli Sayanim and American Secretary of State, told Congress on 10 May that Israel does not restrict “the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
Empowered by Washington, the General’s Starvation Plan aims to block the delivery of medical aid, food, fuel and water to the besieged quarter, currently Jabalia camp where more than 20,000 people live. This is part of what appears to be a gradual genocide, while creating the illusion of allowing aid trucks into the northern area, as the US ambassador informed the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
The entry of aid trucks does not guarantee the delivery of food to the starving population. It means that Israel retains complete control over what section is fed and who is left to starve. It also confirms that American officials continue to be Israel’s willing enablers to carry on with its General’s Starvation Plan in a systematic and phased mini-genocide.
With close to half a million fans attending the group-stage games, the UEFA Women’s Euros has attracted attention like never before.
Now, the spotlight shifts to the knockout stages, where the stakes are high and the pressure even higher.
Eight teams remain in contention to lift the trophy, with hosts Switzerland reaching the quarterfinals for the first time. World champions Spain have lived up to their billing as the team to beat at the competition, while holders England advanced after overcoming an early scare.
Here’s how the Euro 2025 quarterfinals line up:
⚽ First quarterfinal: Norway vs Italy
When: Wednesday, July 16 at 9pm (19:00 GMT) Where: Stade de Geneve, Geneva
With a perfect nine points, Norway finished on top of Group A as expected, but they lack cohesion. The two-time European champions conceded five goals in the opening round – the most among the table toppers of the four groups.
Nonetheless, the experienced duo of striker Ada Hegerberg and winger Caroline Graham Hansen has proven to be vital for the Norwegians, who have an excellent opportunity for a deep run with Italy their quarterfinal opponent.
The Italians, who finished second in Group B, will be playing in the knockouts for the first time since 2013. Top-four finishers at six of the first seven Euro tournaments, Le Azzure have endured a barren spell since and have made the knockout round only twice in the 21st century.
But after surviving a tricky group stage – registering a win, a draw and a defeat – the Italians believe their best football is ahead of them in the last-eight.
“We have a great desire to do well, to continue dreaming, to continue writing important pages of a story that is only at the beginning,” midfielder Annamaria Serturini said before the quarterfinals.
The winner of this match will face either Sweden or England in the semifinals.
Italy finished second in Group B on four points, five behind Spain and one ahead of Belgium. Having survived a tricky group stage, Le Azzure are relaxed and full of self-belief ahead of their quarterfinal against Norway [Martin Meissner/AP Photo]
⚽ Second quarterfinal: Sweden vs England
When: Thursday, July 17 at 9pm (19:00 GMT) Where: Stadion Letzigrund, Zurich
After an opening match defeat which raised serious doubts about their title defence, England bounced back in style with consecutive statement wins, reaffirming their status as one of the heavyweights.
Thanks to the attacking prowess of Lauren James, Ella Toone and Georgia Stanway, the holders scored a combined 10 goals in their last two matches, finishing second in Group D.
In the quarterfinals, the Lionesses will be up against familiar foes, Sweden, whom they smashed 4-0 at the same stage during their Euro 2022-winning campaign.
“Sweden are a fantastic team, they’re relentless in the way they go about their game,” England captain Leah Williamson said.
“I think they sort of avoid the expectation of every tournament, and nobody really talks about them, [which is] slightly disrespectful, I think, because they always show up. They always seem to pose a threat to most teams, and normally come out with a medal or [be] a semifinal team, so they’re a strong team. We’re looking forward to the fixture.”
The Swedes laid down a marker with a sensational 4-1 win against a powerful Germany outfit on July 12, sealing the top spot in Group C and laying the groundwork for a revenge victory against England in Thursday’s quarterfinal in Zurich.
Defending champions England have found their goal-scoring form before the quarterfinals but will need to be at their very best to deny Sweden in the last-eight [Martin Meissner/AP Photo]
⚽ Third quarterfinal: Spain vs Switzerland
When: Friday, July 18 at 9pm (19:00 GMT) Where: Stadion Wankdorf, Bern
Playing in the Euro knockout stage for the first time, hosts Switzerland face their biggest test yet against reigning world champions and title favourites Spain.
La Roja, who topped Group B with three wins in as many games, looked unstoppable in the opening round, scoring a tournament-high 14 goals while conceding just three.
Twice Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas once again grabbed the spotlight with three goals and four assists, while striker Esther Gonzalez has led the scoring charts with four goals.
Switzerland, who finished second in Group A, are the underdogs in this contest but will undoubtedly count on passionate home nation support in Bern as their youthful side strives for an unlikely upset.
“I think none of us expected things to happen in Switzerland – sold out crowds… Everything is blowing up way bigger than we ever expected,” Swiss captain Lia Walti said.
“We couldn’t even imagine having this when we were little,” added defender Viola Calligaris. “And now it’s like this for every match. We felt the people cheering – that really gives you strength.”
The winner of this match will face France or Germany in the semifinals.
The Switzerland team will be counting on their enthusiastic host nation fans to provide a boost when they play title favourites Spain in Bern on Friday [File: Sebastien Bozon/AFP]
⚽ Fourth quarterfinal: France vs Germany
When: Saturday, July 19 at 9pm (19:00 GMT) Where: St Jakob-Park, Basel
France enter the quarterfinals in scintillating form, advancing as table toppers in what many had dubbed the “group of death”.
Scoring 11 times in the opening round, including a 5-2 thrashing of the highly-touted Netherlands outfit, France proved why they are the dark horses at this year’s tournament. Attacking winger Delphine Cascarino and striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto are both in stupendous form and have scored two goals a piece in the group stage.
“When it comes to Germany, it’s a very big nation,” Cascarino said. “They won several trophies and they have already knocked out others, so we know it’s going to be a great game… we’re going to try to find the cracks and win.”
For the eight-time record champions Germany, who finished second in Group C, defensive frailties remain a concern, especially after their 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Sweden in the last group match.
The last time these sides clashed was in February 2024 with France defeating Germany 2-1 to reach the first UEFA Women’s Nations League final. A victory on Saturday would also avenge France’s painful defeat to Germany in the Euro 2022 semifinals.
France’s #20 Delphine Cascarino has been on a tear at Euro 2025 and hopes to send France through to the Euro 2025 final-four with victory against Germany in Basel [File: Sebastien Bozon/AFP]
Resignation of United Torah Judaism lawmakers leaves Netanyahu with razor thin 61-seat majority in the 120 seat Knesset.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), has announced it is quitting the country’s fractious right-wing coalition due to a long-running dispute over mandatory military service, threatening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hold on power.
Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ, which is comprised of the Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote letters of resignation, Israeli media reported late on Monday.
UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf had resigned a month ago. A spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed that, in all, seven UTJ Knesset members are leaving the government.
Degel HaTorah was quoted by news reports as saying the decision was made “in accordance with the directive” of the group’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Dov Lando.
Degel Hatorah said in a statement that after conferring with its head rabbis, “and following repeated violations by the government of its commitments to ensure the status of holy yeshiva students who diligently engage in their studies … [its MKs] have announced their resignation from the coalition and the government”.
The decision would leave Netanyahu with a razor-thin majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.
It was not clear whether Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party, would follow suit.
Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long threatened to leave the coalition over the conscription bill. They argue that a bill to exempt “yeshiva” or seminary students from conscription was a key promise in their agreement to join Netanyahu’s coalition in late 2022.
In June, on the eve of Israel’s war with Iran, the coalition barely survived after governing lawmakers reached a deal with ultra-Orthodox parties regarding exemptions to the mandatory military service.
The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis. But last year, the Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Defense to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students.
Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve the deadlock over the new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis.
He is under pressure from his own Likud party to draft more ultra-Orthodox men and impose penalties on dodgers, a red line for the Shas party, which demands a law guaranteeing its members’ permanent exemption from military service.
Netanyahu’s coalition, formed in December 2022, is one of the most far-right governments in the country’s history.
A 3,800-year-old citadel of the Caral civilisation – one of the world’s oldest – has reopened for visitors in Peru after eight years of comprehensive restoration and research.
Researchers have identified the Penico archaeological site as a vital trading centre that connected early Pacific coastal communities with those in the Andes and Amazon regions.
Located in the Supe Valley, about 180km (110 miles) north of Lima and only 19km (12 miles) from the Pacific Ocean, Penico was an unremarkable hilly landscape until excavations commenced in 2017.
Archaeologists believe the site could provide crucial information about the enigmatic collapse of the Caral civilisation, which flourished between 3,000 and 1,800 BC.
The opening ceremony featured regional artists playing pututus – traditional shell trumpets – as part of an ancient ritual honouring Pachamama, Mother Earth, with ceremonial offerings of agricultural products, coca leaves, and local beverages.
“Penico was an organised urban centre devoted to agriculture and trade between the coast, the mountains and the forest,” archaeologist Ruth Shady, who leads research at the site, told the AFP news agency. She said the settlement dates to between 1,800 and 1,500 BC.
The site demonstrates sophisticated planning, strategically built on a geological terrace 600 metres (2,000ft) above sea level and parallel to a river to avoid flooding.
Research by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture has uncovered 18 distinct structures, including public buildings and residential complexes. Scholars believe Penico was built during the same period as the earliest civilisations in the Middle East and Asia.
According to Shady, researchers hope the site will shed light on the crisis they believe hastened the Caral civilisation’s decline. This crisis, she explained, was linked to climate change that caused droughts and disrupted agricultural activities throughout the region.
“We want to understand how the Caral civilisation formed and developed over time, and how it came to be in crisis as a result of climate change,” she said.
Listen: I’m ‘disappointed but not done’ with Putin, Trump tells BBC
Donald Trump has said that he is disappointed but not done with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone call with the BBC.
The US president was pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, and replied: “I trust almost no-one.”
Trump was speaking hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal in 50 days.
In an interview from the Oval Office, the president also endorsed Nato, having once described it as obsolete, and affirmed his support for the organisation’s common defence principle.
The president made the phone call, which lasted 20 minutes, to the BBC after conversations about a potential interview to mark one year on since the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Asked about whether surviving the assassination attempt had changed him, Trump said he liked to think about it as little as possible.
“I don’t like to think about if it did change me,” Trump said. Dwelling on it, he added, “could be life-changing”.
Having just met with Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, however, the president spent a significant portion of the interview expanding on his disappointment with the Russian leader.
Trump said that he had thought a deal was on the cards with Russia four different times.
When asked by the BBC if he was done with Putin, the president replied: “I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him.”
Pressed on how Trump would get Putin to “stop the bloodshed” the US president said: “We’re working it, Gary.”
“We’ll have a great conversation. I’ll say: ‘That’s good, I’ll think we’re close to getting it done,’ and then he’ll knock down a building in Kyiv.”
Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, causing record civilian casualties.
Listen: World leaders have ‘come to respect me’, Trump tells BBC
The conversation moved onto Nato, which Trump has previously criticised as “obsolete”.
Asked if he still thought this was the case, he said: “No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that” because the alliance was “paying their own bills”.
He said he still believed in collective defence, because it meant smaller countries could defend themselves against larger ones.
Trump said that the leaders of countries including Germany, France and Spain, had come to respect him and his decision making, partly because world leaders believed that there was a “lot of talent” in being elected to the presidency twice.
When asked whether world leaders were at times “obvious in their flattery”, Trump replied that he felt they were “just trying to be nice”.
President Trump was also asked about the UK’s future in the world and said he thought it was a “great place – you know I own property there”.
On the issue of Brexit, he said it had been “on the sloppy side but I think it’s getting straightened out”.
The president also said of Sir Keir Starmer, “I really like the prime minister a lot, even though he is a liberal”, and praised the UK-US trade deal.
He spoke about how he was looking forward to an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September this year.
On what he wanted to achieve during the visit, Trump said: “Have a good time and respect King Charles, because he’s a great gentleman.”
Muhammadu Buhari, who was the country’s democratic leader between 2015 and 2023, died aged 82 in London on Sunday.
Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari will be buried in his hometown of Daura in the northern state of Katsina, once his body is repatriated from the United Kingdom, the state governor has said.
The remains of the ex-leader, who died aged 82 in London on Sunday following a prolonged illness, will reach Nigeria on Tuesday, with his burial taking place later the same day, according to Dikko Umaru Radda.
Preparations for the burial were under way in Daura on Monday, while the country’s Vice President Kashim Shettima was in London organising the repatriation of Buhari’s body.
Buhari, who first ruled the country as a military leader between 1984 and 1985, served consecutive presidential terms between 2015 and 2023. He was the first opposition politician to be voted into power since the country’s return to civilian rule.
The self-described “converted democrat” is being remembered by many as a central figure in his country’s democratic evolution. However, some critics have also noted his failure to improve Nigeria’s economy or its security during his presidency.
Paying tribute to his predecessor on Sunday, President Bola Tinubu called him “a patriot, a soldier, a statesman”.
“He stood firm through the most turbulent times, leading with quiet strength, profound integrity, and an unshakable belief in Nigeria’s potential,” Tinubu wrote in a post on X.
“He championed discipline in public service, confronted corruption head-on and placed the country above personal interest at every turn.”
Tinubu added that all national flags would fly at half-mast for seven days from Sunday, and said Buhari would be accorded full-state honours.
The Nigerian flag flies at half-mast following the death of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, on July 14, 2025 [Sodiq Adelakun/Reuters]
Radda also paid his respects to the former president, describing him as “the embodiment of the common man’s aspirations”.
Ibrahim Babangida, a former military ruler who ousted Buhari in a coup in 1985, also released a statement after his death was announced.
“We may not have agreed on everything — as brothers often don’t — but I never once doubted his sincerity or his patriotism,” Babangida said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alexis Akwagyiram, managing editor at Semafor and a longtime observer of Nigerian politics, noted that Buhari was popular for his “personal brand of integrity and honesty”.
However, Akwagyiram also highlighted Buhari’s shortcomings on the economy and security, saying that insurgencies from groups such as Boko Haram had “proliferated under his tenure”.
Last week, Warner Bros Pictures released a new reboot of the Superman film series. The movie soared to the top of the box office and grossed an estimated $122m in the United States in its opening weekend. Though the industry is celebrating the film’s early box office totals, they are well below the earnings of comparable blockbusters from a decade ago. For example, in its opening weekend in 2016, Warner Bros’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice reaped a healthy $166m ($224m when adjusted for inflation).
Indeed, over the past few years, revenues from such films have steadily fallen, and the new Superman film is not an exception. In the 2010s, superhero movies regularly reaped more than $500m worldwide in box office totals. In recent years, far fewer have reached that high watermark – a fact that is causing unease in the industry. Last year, Hollywood trade magazine Variety warned that the genre was experiencing an “unprecedented box office drought”.
What made superhero movies fall off? According to Hollywood bigwigs, the reason is “superhero fatigue”, as Superman director James Gunn put it. Disney CEO Bob Iger opined that the prolific output of superhero movies “diluted [the audience’s] focus and attention”.
But their narrative — that consumers are simply getting “fatigued” with the genre — is reductive. As with all artistic genres, there are reasons why some rise or fall in popularity. Those reasons are intimately tied to politics.
Superhero boom and decline
Superhero fiction is a uniquely US genre, arguably invented in 1938 with the publication of the first Superman comic book. The first superhero comic adaptation was released in 1941 under the title Adventures of Captain Marvel. The genre was popular among Americans for decades, but it really took off following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Those attacks punctured the relative tranquillity (in the US, at least) of the post-Cold War era and put the US propaganda machine into overdrive. Americans were fed a cartoonish portrait of what a “supervillain” looked like, which fit easily into superhero movie narratives. These supervillains were — like America’s purported enemies — bent on global domination and opposed to liberalism and US hegemony.
The Pentagon played a prominent role in shaping propagandistic narratives in popular culture. As a longtime partner of Hollywood, the Department of Defense has long had the practice of loaning out military equipment to filmmakers in exchange for script approval rights. In the post-9/11 era, it had a say in the scripts of a number of superhero blockbusters, including Iron Man and Captain America. Captain Marvel was even used as a recruitment tool for pilots by the US air force.
As a result, many superhero movies depict the US military and superheroes working hand-in-hand to defeat supervillainy, jointly pushing a vision of Pax Americana: a world where the dominant global power is the US.
The protagonists are often portrayed as defenders of “American ideals” like democracy, inclusivity, and justice. Take someone like Captain America, who originated as a literal embodiment of the US cultural victory over fascism. Other popular superheroes of the past 20 years, like Black Panther, embodied liberal America’s multicultural, pluralistic ideals.
But in recent years, the political reality those heroes are meant to uphold has begun to fracture. A September 2024 poll asked Americans whether they agreed with the statement “my country’s leader should have total, unchecked authority”. An astonishing 57.4 percent of US respondents agreed.
Another poll conducted a year earlier found that 45 percent of Americans “point to people seeing racial discrimination where it really doesn’t exist as the larger issue”.
It increasingly seems that America as a liberal, pluralistic society — the way it is depicted in superhero films — is no longer a universal aspiration for many Americans.
There is also growing scepticism towards America’s moral authority and superpower standing in the world.
A 2024 poll from Fox News found that 62 percent of American voters described the US as “on the decline”. Only 26 percent thought it was rising. A 2023 poll from Pew Research — a year before Donald Trump was re-elected — reported that 58 percent of those polled said that “life in America is worse today than it was 50 years ago”.
Social cohesion collapsing
While public perceptions gradually changed in the post-9/11 period, there were events that accelerated this shift.
The precipitous drop in superhero movie box office totals began in 2020. Why that year? This was when the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated already growing societal divisions.
The sense of a cohesive national identity fully shattered with the onset of this unprecedented public health emergency. Widespread mistrust of the government’s ability to manage the crisis — coupled with a deeply individualistic streak in Americans that precluded any understanding of social obligations that would prevent mass death, such as social distancing or lockdown measures — fostered a furious and splintered American body politic.
The singular vision of liberal American righteousness suggested by superhero films could not resonate amid this factional political landscape.
A year later came the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The decision to pull out upset the notion of the US as a “heroic” intervener — a sort of global superman – heavily projected after 9/11. In contrast to Iraq, Afghanistan was long presented as a potential “success story”, or as The New York Times put it in 2005: the “American-led intervention that could wind up actually making people’s lives better”.
Of course, we all know how that turned out: the US entered Afghanistan in 2001 and exited in 2021, having killed more than 100,000 people and spent $2.3 trillion to pause Taliban rule for 20 years.
With its military power failing abroad and tensions rising at home, the US did not seem like a place that anyone — superhero or mortal — believed in any more. Inevitably, the domestic ills ignored by the political elites came to the fore. Real wages had been in decline for 30 years, while income inequality had been increasing, and infrastructure – decaying.
Americans on both left and right began to question the fitness of the US political system, long portrayed as the best in the world.
Many on the left now believe that corporate interests have so thoroughly captured the Democratic Party that they have ceased fighting for real wealth redistribution or social programmes, and conspire against progressive candidates who do believe in these things. Meanwhile, the American right has grown more venal, racist and authoritarian — the result of failing to understand the true reasons behind the country’s socioeconomic crises.
In depicting America as, ultimately, a force for good, the superhero movie genre does not speak to either of these political lines. Hollywood elites do not seem to understand this, however.
Gunn, who directed the new Superman movie, described the feature as a metaphor for American values. “Superman is the story of America,” Gunn said in an interview with The Times of London. “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
His words spurred a furious reaction from the American right. “We don’t go to the movie theatre to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us,” Kellyanne Conway, former senior counsellor to President Trump, said on Fox News.
The recent American tendency to hyper-politicise film and slot all movies into either “woke” or “anti-woke” categories does not bode well for these kinds of tentpole blockbusters that, in days of yore, would attract audiences of all political stripes.
Superhero movies are an optimistic as well as a nationalistic genre — their primary message is that America, and the liberal order in general, are worth defending. But Americans no longer seem optimistic about the future, nor particularly attached to these ideological values. Fewer Americans seem to even believe in liberal pillars like democracy and multiculturalism — the kinds of things that superheroes typically fight for.
If we cannot seem to agree on what American values even are, it is understandable that we cannot agree on what kind of hero would embody the national spirit. Given these dispiriting political conditions, perhaps it is not super-surprising that Americans are not flocking to the superhero genre like they once did.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has renewed urgent calls for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, warning the humanitarian crisis has reached “horrific proportions.” Guterres said the level of death and destruction in Gaza has “no parallel in recent times.”
