NEWS

Ukraine’s European allies pledged increased levels of military aid to Ukraine this year, making up for a United States aid freeze, as Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his ambition to absorb all of Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

“At this moment, the Europeans and the Canadians have pledged, for this year, $35bn in military support to Ukraine,” said NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ahead of the alliance’s annual summit, which took place in The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24-25.

“Last year, it was just over $50bn for the full year. Now, before we reach half year, it is already at $35bn. And there are even others saying it’s already close to $40bn,” he added.

The increase in European aid partly made up for the absence of any military aid offers so far from the Trump administration.

In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to buy the US Patriot air defence systems Ukraine needs to fend off daily missile and drone attacks.

The Trump administration made its first sale of weapons to Ukraine the following month, but only of F-16 aircraft parts.

At The Hague this week, Zelenskyy said he discussed those Patriot systems with Trump. At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump said: “We’re going to see if we can make some available,” referring to interceptors for existing Patriot systems in Ukraine. “They’re very hard to get. We need them too, and we’ve been supplying them to Israel,” he said.

Russia has made a ceasefire conditional on Ukraine’s allies stopping the flow of weapons to it and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated that condition on Saturday.

On June 20, Vladimir Putin revealed that his ambition to annex all of Ukraine had not abated.

“I have said many times that the Russian and Ukrainian people are one nation, in fact. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” he declared at a media conference to mark the opening of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum on Friday, June 20.

“But you know we have an old parable, an old rule: wherever a Russian soldier steps, it is ours.”

“Wherever a Russian soldier steps, he brings only death, destruction, and devastation,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the next day.

In a post on the Telegram messaging platform on June 21, Zelenskyy wrote that Putin had “spoken completely openly”.

“Yes, he wants all of Ukraine,” he said. “He is also speaking about Belarus, the Baltic states, Moldova, the Caucasus, countries like Kazakhstan.”

German army planners agreed about Putin’s expansionism, deeming Russia an “existential threat” in a new strategy paper 18 months in the making, leaked to Der Spiegel news magazine last week.

Moscow was preparing its military leadership and defence industries “specifically to meet the requirements for a large-scale conflict against NATO by the end of this decade”, the paper said.

“We in Germany ignored the warnings of our Baltic neighbours about Russia for too long. We have recognised this mistake,” said German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday, highlighting the reason for an about-turn from his two predecessors’ refusal to spend more on defence.

“There is no going back from this realisation. We cannot expect the world around us to return to calmer times in the near future,” he added.

Germany, along with other European NATO allies, agreed on Wednesday to raise defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035.

It was a sign of the increasingly common threat perception from Russia, but also a big win for Trump, who had demanded that level of spending shortly after winning re-election as US president last year.

Of that, 1.5 percent is for military-related spending like dual-purpose infrastructure, emergency healthcare, cybersecurity and civic resilience.

Even Trump, who has previously expressed admiration for Putin, seemed to be souring on him.

“I consider him a person that’s, I think, been misguided,” he said after a moment’s thought at his NATO news conference. “I’m very surprised actually. I thought we would have had that settled easy,” referring to the conflict in Ukraine. “Vladimir Putin really has to end that war,” he said.

In the early weeks of his administration, Trump appeared to think it was up to Ukraine to end the war.

Putin continued his ground war during the week of the NATO summit, launching approximately 200 assaults each day, according to Ukraine’s General Staff – a high average.

Ukraine, itself, was fighting 695,000 Russian troops on its territory, said Zelenskyy on Saturday, with another 52,000 attempting to create a new front in Sumy, northeast Ukraine.

“This week they advanced 200 metres towards Sumy, and we pushed them back 200–400 metres,” he said, a battle description typical of the stagnation Russian troops face along the thousand-kilometre front.

Terror from the air

Russia continued its campaign of demoralisation among Ukrainian civilians, sending drones and missiles into Ukraine’s cities.

Russian drones and missiles killed 30 civilians and injured 172 in Kyiv on June 19.

“This morning I was at the scene of a Russian missile hitting a house in Kyiv,” said Zelenskyy. “An ordinary apartment building. The missile went through all the floors to the basement. Twenty-three people were killed by just one Russian strike.”

“There was no military sense in this strike, it added absolutely nothing to Russia militarily,” he said.

Overnight, Russia attacked Odesa, Kharkiv and their suburbs with more than 20 strike drones. At least 10 of the drones struck Odesa. A four-storey building engulfed in flames partly collapsed on top of rescue workers, injuring three firefighters.

A drone attack on Kyiv killed at least seven people on Monday this week. “There were 352 drones in total, and 16 missiles,” said Zelenskyy, including “ballistics from North Korea”.

A Russian drone strike on the Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday killed 20 people and injured nearly 300, according to the regional military administration.

Ukraine focused on drone production

Ukraine, too, is focused on long-range weapons production. Five of its drones attacked the Shipunov Instrument Design Bureau in Tula on June 18 and 20. Shipunov is a key developer of high-precision weapons for the Russian armed forces, said Ukraine, and the strikes damaged the plant’s warehouses and administration building, causing it to halt production.

“Thousands of drones have been launched toward Moscow in recent months,” revealed Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin last week, adding that air defences had shot almost all of them down.

But Ukraine is constantly improving designs and increasing production.

On Monday, the United Kingdom announced that Ukraine would be providing its drone manufacturers with “technology datasets from Ukraine’s front line” to improve the design of British-made drones that would be shipped to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is the world leader in drone design and execution, with drone technology evolving, on average, every six weeks,” the announcement from Downing Street said.

On the same day, Norway said it would invert that relationship, to produce surface drones in Ukraine using Norwegian technology.

Zelenskyy said this Build with Ukraine programme, in which Ukraine and its allies share financing, technology and production capacity, would ultimately work for missile production in Ukraine as well.

His goal is ambitious. “We want 0.25 percent of the GDP of a particular partner state to be allocated for our defence industry for domestic production next year,” he said.

Among Ukraine’s projects is a domestically produced ballistic missile, the Sapsan, which can carry a 480kg warhead for a distance of 500km – enough to reach halfway to Moscow from Ukraine’s front line.

Asked whether the Sapsan could reach Moscow, Zelenskyy’s office director, Andriy Yermak, told the UK’s Times newspaper: “Things are moving very well. I think we will be able to surprise our enemies on many occasions.”

Trouble with club membership

Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO and the European Union, leaving Russian orbit, is what triggered this war, and Russia has said that giving up both those clubs is a condition of peace.

NATO first invited Ukraine to its 2008 Summit in Bucharest. But in February, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said NATO membership for Ukraine was not a “realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement”, and a “final” ceasefire offer from the White House on April 17 included a ban on NATO membership for Ukraine.

Despite this, on Wednesday, Rutte told Reuters: “The whole of NATO, including the United States, is totally committed to keep Ukraine in the fight.”

Earlier this month, Rutte told a discussion at the Chatham House think tank in London that a political commitment to Ukraine’s future membership of NATO remained unchanged, even if it was not explicitly mentioned in the final communique of the NATO summit.

“The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit,” Rutte said.

If that gave Ukrainians renewed hope, this was perhaps dashed by the European Union’s inability last week to open new chapters in its own membership negotiations.

That was because Slovakia decided to veto the move to do so in the European Council, the EU’s governing body. Slovakia also blocked an 18th sanctions package the EU was set to approve this week, because it would completely cut the EU off from Russian oil and gas imports.

Slovakia and Hungary have argued they need Russian energy because they are landlocked. Their leaders, Robert Fico and Viktor Orban, have been the only EU leaders to visit Moscow during the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has openly accused Fico of benefiting personally from energy imports from Russia.

In a week of disruptive politics from Bratislava, Slovakia also intimated it could leave NATO.

“In these nonsensical times of arms buildup, when arms companies are rubbing their hands … neutrality would benefit Slovakia very much,” Fico told a media conference shown online on June 17. He pointed out that this would require parliamentary approval.

Three days later, the independent Slovak newspaper Dennik N published an interview with Austria’s former defence minister, Werner Fasslabend, in which he said Slovakia’s departure from NATO might trigger Austria’s entry into the alliance.

“If Slovakia were to withdraw from NATO, it would worsen the security situation for Austria as well. It would certainly spark a major debate about Austria’s NATO membership and possible NATO accession,” Fasslabend said.

Israeli soldiers have deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being “ordered” to do so by their commanders, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

Israel ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over the allegations by some soldiers that it revealed on Friday, Haaretz said.

At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 injured while waiting for food aid distributed at sites run by the Israeli-and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Gaza Government Media Office said on Thursday. The GHF has been a source of widespread criticism since its establishment in May.

According to the Haaretz report, which quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers, troops were told to fire at the crowds of Palestinians and use unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

“We fired machineguns from tanks and threw grenades,” one soldier told Haaretz. “There was one incident where a group of civilians was hit while advancing under the cover of fog.”

In another instance, a soldier said that where they were stationed in Gaza, between “one and five people were killed every day”.

“It’s a killing field,” that soldier said.

Method of ‘control’

According to Haaretz, the Military Advocate General has told the army’s General Staff’s Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, which reviews incidents involving potential violations of the laws of war, to investigate suspected war crimes at these aid sites.

One of the authors of the report, Nir Hasson, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli directive to fire on civilians is part of a method to “control” the aid seekers.

“It’s actually a practice of … controlling the crowd by fire, like if you wanted the crowd to run off [from] a place, you shoot them at them, even though you know they are unarmed … You use fire to move people from one point to another,” he said from West Jerusalem.

While the journalist and his colleagues do not know the name of the commander who might have issued such a directive, Hasson said that he would likely hold a position high up in the army.

Despite this practice at these sites, most Israelis and the army’s troops still believe the war on Gaza is just, even while some cracks are emerging in this understanding, the journalist said.

“[There are] more and more people who are asking themselves if this war is necessary, but also what is the humanitarian price the Gazan population is [paying] for this war,” he said.

‘A death trap’

Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said the Haaretz report is “shocking”.

“People in Gaza have said these distribution centres have now become a death trap for Palestinians,” Salhut said.

“Aid groups have said that Palestinians are left with no choice – to either starve to death, or die seeking the very little food that is offered in the distribution centres run by the GHF,” she added.

The GHF operates four food distribution sites in Gaza – one in the centre and three in south.

Since an Israeli blockade was lifted on the entry of humanitarian goods at the end of May, attacks on aid seekers in Gaza have increased.

On Friday, medics said six people were killed by gunfire as they tried to get food in southern Gaza.

But the GHF has come under intense condemnation by aid groups, including the United Nations, for its “weaponisation” of vital items.

On Friday, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials, MSF, called the GHF’s aid distribution sites “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid”.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 56,331 people have been killed, with 132,632 wounded in Israeli attacks, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported.

EPA

PA Media

A heatwave, but for how long?

EPA

The spate of insecurity in Nigeria is turning many local communities into ungovernable spaces. As the secular government withdraws from these communities, terrorist groups expand their influence, consolidate authority, and accumulate illicit wealth. Traditional leaders—once the primary link between the people and governance—now operate under the coercive control of armed factions, which have established parallel administrations and seized the reins of the local economy.

North East

The government’s absence is nearly absolute in northeastern Nigeria, around the Lake Chad basin. Here, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and remnants of Boko Haram terrorists operate not as fugitives but as rulers. Their authority is layered, structured, and chillingly effective.

ISWAP has organised its territory into mantikas (localities), which are regional districts aligned with Nigeria’s federal structure. These mantikas oversee taxation, zakat (alms-giving), farm levies, education (Qur’anic schools and ideological reprogramming), security, courts, and patrols.

Several communities in Abadam, Guzamala, Kukawa, Marte, and Mobbar no longer wait for state forces; they negotiate directly with insurgent-appointed administrators. The group’s brutality is, for many, accompanied by a disturbing sense of order within a context devoid of hope.

North West

While ISWAP’s rule is ideological, in North West Nigeria, it encompasses a chaotic mix of economic, ethnic, and religious factors. In Zamfara, armed groups now operate like proto-states. The forests of Maru, Bakura, and Anka are home to well-defended camps with command hierarchies, blood-draining tax systems, and armouries supplied via Sahelian trafficking routes and after raids on military positions.

HumAngle investigations found that communities like Tungar Doruwa, Maitoshshi, Chabi, and Kwankelai—once protected under the Dankurmi Police Outpost—are now under the firm control of Kachalla Black and Kachalla Gemu. Further south, Kungurmi, Galeji, and Yarwutsiya are governed by Kachalla Soja and Kachalla Madagwal. Up north, Kango Village and Madafa Mountain serve as fortresses for terrorists like Wudille and Ado Aleru, who command loyalty through a combination of fear and patronage.

Here, terrorism is no longer sporadic. It is systemic. It is territorial governance without borders, aided by the region’s gold trade, deep forests, and a broken justice system. Entire LGAs now function as autonomous war zones where Nigerian laws hold no sway.

The little-known Lakurawa terror network is enforcing a form of stealth insurgency in the areas of Isa, Sabon Birni, and Rabah in Sokoto State. Schools are shuttered, roads are mined, and civilians pay levies for survival. The group’s cross-border tactics, using the Niger Republic as a tactical fallback, make them elusive and resilient.

Many villages with large populations, like Galadima, Kamarawa, and Dankari in Sokoto, now survive on whispered warnings and ritual bribes. Lakurawa’s governance is less visible but equally firm, with taxation, curfews, and brutal retribution. Residents say sporadic military raids offer little relief; the terrorists return hours later, more vengeful than before.

The fractures in Kaduna State mirror the broader problems in Nigeria. In Chikun, Giwa, and Birnin Gwari, attacks by Ansaru factions and criminal warbands have pushed out state institutions. Southern Kaduna adds another layer, with ethnic violence fused with terror raids, leaving villages like Jika da Kolo and Tudun Biri in ruins.

Katari, once a symbol of Kaduna’s transport link to Abuja, is now a ghost zone, haunted by the memory of the 2022 train attack. Trains now pass, but the residents remain missing, displaced or dead.

North Central

In Niger State, rural districts like Shiroro, Mashegu, and Borgu are steadily slipping from state and federal control. After attacks such as the 2021 Mazakuka mosque massacre, entire villages fled, leaving behind ghost towns. ISWAP and affiliated terror cells have since moved in, using dense forests to launch ambushes and collect tribute.

In Rafi, Allawa, Bassa, and Zazzaga, residents speak of “government by gun”, which is enforced through nighttime raids and extortion rackets. What began as raids has metastasised into permanent displacement. Farming has ceased. Children grow up never having seen a police officer.

Niger State is next to Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital territory.

South East

The secessionist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has transformed parts of Imo and Anambra States into shadow states. What began as ideological agitation has evolved into fragmented shadow governance, particularly in Orsu, Oguta, and Nnewi South, where IPOB’s Eastern Security Network (ESN) now operates checkpoints, enforces lockdowns, and levies informal taxes. Police presence is almost nonexistent; courts are shuttered; schools function sporadically.

This pattern is not isolated. As Mgbeodinma Nwankwo reports for HumAngle in Onitsha, “Southeast Nigeria has greatly changed from a region with historical landmarks and trade centres to areas of gunfire that make life deadly for civilians and law enforcement officers.” States like Anambra, Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi have become centres for violence. Non-state armed groups routinely block roads and attack police stations. Businesses close early, travel routes are avoided, and fear governs daily life.

IPOB’s camps, hidden in forest belts, serve as training grounds and operational bases – funded by diaspora networks and sustained by black-market arms. The state’s coercive apparatus has collapsed in these ungoverned interiors, like Ihiala and stretches of rural Imo. Local vigilante outfits like Ebube Agu and Operation Udo Ga Chi strive to maintain a fragile order, often overwhelmed by better-armed non-state actors.

As Nwankwo describes, uniforms have become “magnets for attacks.” Police and military personnel are hunted, ambushed, kidnapped, or executed. One soldier, attending a party in Imo while off duty, was identified and found dead the next morning. 

“Wearing a uniform here is like painting a target on your back,” said a police officer in Imo, speaking anonymously. “We go to work in mufti and only change when necessary. Even then, we operate in groups, as solo patrols pose a significant risk.”

The psychological toll is immense. Morale among security forces is at an all-time low. Many seek transfers, and while some still consider the southeastern region postings financially rewarding, the life-threatening risks overshadow any incentives.

The violence is driven by a volatile mix: separatist agitation, criminal opportunism, and state withdrawal. IPOB and ESN are often suspected to be responsible for many of the terror attacks, though they frequently deny involvement. Criminal gangs, exploiting the chaos, further destabilise the region.

State response has focused on increasing highway checkpoints, leaving interior communities exposed. Critics argue this reactive approach exacerbates tensions. “Deploying more soldiers is not enough,” warns Dr Chioma Emenike, a conflict resolution expert based in the southeast. “There must be dialogue, economic empowerment, and trust-building between security agencies and local communities.”

Ultimately, the region faces a dual crisis of security and legitimacy. As uniforms vanish from the rural southeast, so does any semblance of state authority. What remains is a precarious state of fear and survival—residents trapped between hostile non-state actors and a disengaged state, teetering on the edge of anarchy.

Nigeria’s unseen frontlines

Nigeria’s forests have become its most telling metaphor. Once tourist destinations and biodiversity treasures, they are now frontlines of insurgency. No-go zones include Kamuku, Kainji, Falgore, and Sambisa. Dumburum and Kagara are insurgent capitals.

Even southern states are not spared. In Ondo, Edo, and Lagos, the forests harbour kidnappers and traffickers. In the Niger Delta, mangroves shelter oil theft rings bleeding billions from the national treasury.

These green belts mark the outer limit of Nigeria’s practical sovereignty. Beyond them lies another Nigeria: unrecognised, ungoverned, and rapidly growing.

Kabir Adamu, a seasoned security analyst and the CEO of Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited–a security risk management and consulting firm– expressed concerns over the scarce presence of governance and secular leadership in territories overrun by terrorists.

“Where they exist, they typically include poorly staffed and under-resourced police posts, non-functional or abandoned local government offices, dilapidated schools, and health and medical centres with little to no medical personnel or supplies,” he told HumAngle, noting that, in some locations, especially in northern Borno and remote areas of Zamfara and Katsina, such structures have been destroyed or taken over by terrorists, further eroding state presence.

Adamu added that, as the state recedes, communities have been forced to adapt in ways that challenge conventional notions of governance. He said many communities have resorted to local self-help mechanisms, including forming or reviving armed vigilante groups, with support from traditional rulers or local elites in some cases.

“These groups often serve as the first and only line of defence against armed groups, conducting patrols, manning checkpoints, and gathering intelligence. Unfortunately, the formation of the vigilantes continues not to reflect the communities’ diverse residents,” the security analyst noted.

Forest guard corps

The federal government’s response to these problems offers a glimmer of optimism, as it established the new Forest Guard Corps to reclaim these wild spaces. Trained in guerrilla warfare and intelligence, these units, drawn from local populations, are tasked with intercepting armed groups and restoring order.

However, without systemic reforms such as real policing, honest governance, and economic renewal, the corps risks becoming merely a temporary solution to a persistent problem. These affected communities nationwide need more than just soldiers; they need schools, courts, trust, and opportunities.

Although Adamu admitted that the Nigerian government has taken various actions in and around ungoverned spaces to reduce the influence of armed groups, he insisted that these approaches remain fragmented and often lack the institutional follow-through needed to fill the broader governance vacuum.

“There are clear signs that the ungoverned spaces in Nigeria are expanding, consolidating, and in some cases, connecting across local government and state boundaries in mostly the northern regions but also affecting some of the southern areas,” he said, adding that although military operations have resulted in the arrest or killing of militants, and recovery of weapons, the gains are often temporary in the absence of sustained civilian governance.

The rise of an economy of fear

As formal taxation collapses, ransoms rise in northwestern Nigeria. In Dansadau, HumAngle found that farmers trade goats and sorghum to retrieve kidnapped relatives. In Zugu and Gaude, families pay monthly levies to criminals to avoid attacks. Pay tribute is the only way to ensure public safety in some places.

A breakdown of ransom payments made in Nigeria between May 2023 and April 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Infographics: Damilola Lawal/HumAngle>

In Gaza, if civilians are not killed by bombings or attacks, they’re killed by diseases caused by hazardous waste.Al Jazeera’s digital investigation team, Sanad, captures just how widespread waste sites are across Gaza, highlighting an environmental and health risk brought on by the war.

Two babies died of starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s continuing blockade of vital aid. The deaths come as the US approved $30 million in funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food from its aid centres.

Johannesburg, South Africa – On the night of June 27, 1985 in South Africa, four Black men were travelling together in a car from the southeastern city of Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, to Cradock.

They had just finished doing community organising work on the outskirts of the city when apartheid police officials stopped them at a roadblock.

The four – teachers Fort Calata, 29, and Matthew Goniwe, 38; school principal Sicelo Mhlauli, 36; and railway worker Sparrow Mkonto, 34 – were abducted and tortured.

Later, their bodies were found dumped in different parts of the city – they had been badly beaten, stabbed and burned.

The police and apartheid government initially denied any involvement in the killings. However, it was known that the men were being surveilled for their activism against the gruelling conditions facing Black South Africans at the time.

Soon after, evidence of a death warrant that had been issued for some members of the group was anonymously leaked, and later, it emerged that their killings had long been planned.

Though there were two inquests into the murders – both under the apartheid regime in 1987 and 1993 – neither resulted in any perpetrator being named or charged.

“The first inquest was conducted entirely in Afrikaans,” Lukhanyo Calata, Ford Calata’s son, told Al Jazeera earlier this month. “My mother and the other mothers were never offered any opportunity in any way whatsoever to make statements in that,” the 43-year-old lamented.

“These were courts in apartheid South Africa. It was a completely different time where it was clear that four people were murdered, but the courts said no one could be blamed for that.”

Soon after apartheid ended in 1994, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up. There, hearings confirmed the “Cradock Four” were indeed targeted for their political activism. Although a few former apartheid officers confessed to being involved, they would not disclose the details and were denied amnesty.

Now, four decades after the killings, a new inquest has begun. Although justice has never seemed closer, for families of the deceased, it has been a long wait.

“For 40 years, we’ve waited for justice,” Lukhanyo told local media this week. “We hope this process will finally expose who gave the orders, who carried them out, and why,” he said outside the court in Gqeberha, where the hearings are taking place.

As a South African journalist, it’s almost impossible to cover the inquiry without thinking about the extent of crimes committed during apartheid – crimes by a regime so committed to propping up its criminal, racist agenda that it took it to its most violent and deadly end.

There are many more stories like Calata’s, many more victims like the Cradock Four, and many more families still waiting to hear the truth of what happened to their loved ones.

Known victims

Attending the court proceedings in Gqeberha and watching the families reminded me of Nokhutula Simelane.

More than 10 years ago, I travelled to Bethal in the Mpumalanga province to speak with her family about her disappearance in 1983. Simelane joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) – the liberation movement turned majority ruling party in South Africa.

As an MK operative, she worked as a courier taking messages and parcels between South Africa and what was then Swaziland.

Simelane was lured to a meeting in Johannesburg and it was from there that she was kidnapped and held in police custody, tortured and disappeared.

Her family says they still feel the pain of not being able to bury her.

At the TRC, five white men from what was the special branch of the apartheid police, applied for amnesty related to Simelane’s abduction and presumed murder.

Former police commander Willem Coetzee, who headed the security police unit, denied ordering her killing. But that was countered by testimony from his colleague that she was brutally murdered and buried somewhere in what is now the North West province. Coetzee previously said Simelane was turned into an informant and was sent back to Swaziland.

Until now, no one has taken responsibility for her disappearance – not the apartheid security forces nor the ANC.

The case of the Cradock Four also made me think of anti-apartheid activist and South African Communist Party member, Ahmed Timol, who was tortured and killed in 1971 but whose murder was also covered up.

Apartheid police said the 29-year-old teacher fell out of a 10th-floor window at the notorious John Vorster Square police headquarters in Johannesburg, where he was being held. An inquest the following year concluded he had died by suicide, at a time when the apartheid government was known for its lies and cover-ups.

Decades later, a second inquest under the democratic government in 2018 found that Timol had been so badly tortured in custody that he would never have been able to jump out of a window.

It was only then that former security branch officer Joao Rodrigues was formally charged with Timol’s murder. The elderly Rodrigues rejected the charges and applied for a permanent stay of prosecution, saying he would not receive a fair trial because he was unable to properly recall events at the time of Timol’s death, given the number of years that have passed. Rodrigues died in 2021.

‘A crime against his humanity’

Apartheid was brutal. And for the people left behind, unresolved trauma and unanswered questions are the salt in the deep wounds that remain.

Which is why families like those of the Cradock Four are still at the courts, seeking answers.

In her testimony before the court this month, 73-year-old Nombuyiselo Mhlauli, wife of Sicelo Mhlauli, described the state of her husband’s body when she received his remains for burial. He had more than 25 stab wounds in the chest, seven in the back, a gash across his throat and a missing right hand, she said.

I spoke to Lukhanyo a day before he returned to court to continue his testimony in the hearing for his father’s killing.

He talked about how emotionally draining the process had been – yet vital. He also spoke about his work as a journalist, growing up without a father, and the impact it’s had on his life and outlook.

“There were crimes committed against our humanity. If you look at the state in which my father’s body was found, that was a clear crime against his humanity, completely,” Lukhanyo testified on the sixth day of the inquest.

But his frustration and anger do not end with the apartheid government. He holds the ANC, which has been in power since the end of apartheid, partly responsible for taking too long to adequately address these crimes.

Lukhanyo believes the ANC betrayed the Cradock Four, and this betrayal “cut the deepest”.

“Today we are sitting with a society that is completely lawless,” he said in court. “[This is] because at the start of this democracy, we did not put in the proper processes to tell the rest of society that you will be held accountable for things that you have done wrong.”

Fort Calata’s grandfather, the Reverend Canon James Arthur Calata, was the secretary-general of the ANC from 1939 to 1949. The Calata family has a long history with the liberation movement, which makes it all the more difficult for someone like Lukhanyo to understand why it’s taken the party so long to deliver justice.

Seeking accountability and peace

The office of South Africa’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, says the department has intensified its efforts to deliver long-awaited justice and closure for families affected by apartheid-era atrocities.

“These efforts signal a renewed commitment to restorative justice and national healing,” the department said in a statement.

The murders of the Cradock Four, Simelane and Timol are among the horrors and stories we know about.

But I often wonder about all the names, victims and testimonies that remain hidden or buried.

The murders of countless mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters by the apartheid regime matter not only to those who cared for them but for the consciousness of South African society as a whole, no matter how normalised the tally of the dead has become.

It’s not clear how long this new inquest will take. It is expected to last several weeks, with former security police, political figures and forensic experts testifying.

Initially, six police officers were implicated in the killings. They have all since died, but family members of the Cradock Four say senior officials who gave the orders should be held responsible.

The state, however, is reluctant to pay the legal costs of apartheid police officers implicated in the murders, and that may slow down the process.

Meanwhile, as the families wait for answers about what happened to their loved ones and accountability for those responsible, they are trying to make peace with the past.

“I’ve been on my own, trying to bring up children – fatherless children,” Nombuyiselo told Al Jazeera outside the court about the years since her husband Sicelo’s death. “The last 40 years have been very difficult for me – emotionally, and also spiritually.”

Labour’s original plan to reform the welfare system was a hasty effort to try to make billions of pounds of cuts to a rapidly growing bill in order to help the chancellor meet her self-imposed rules on government borrowing.

But this latest U-turn raises significant questions about just how stability and credibility-enhancing it really is to tweak financial plans every six months to hit budget targets that change frequently due to a variety of reasons, including things such as the cost of borowing which the government cannot control.

latest dealappears to row back more than half of the annual £5bn earmarked saving from the welfare reforms, by 2029-30.

The planned cut to disability personal independent payment (Pip) eligibility was set to raise the bulk of this saving, £4.5bn.

But now the changes will apply only to new claimants from November 2026, sparing 370,000 current claimants out of the 800,000 identified by the DWP impact assessment.

Another change announced in March, which now only applies to new claimants, involves how Pip applicants are assessed.

Pip assessments involve questions about tasks like preparing and eating food, washing and getting dressed. Each is scored from zero – for no difficulty – to 12 – for the most severe.

They are asked questions about daily tasks and are scored on how difficult they find them. People will need to score at least four points for one activity, instead of qualifying for support across a broad range of tasks.

For example, needing help to wash your hair, or your body below the waist, would be awarded two points, but needing help to wash between the shoulders and waist would equate to four points.

Rebel leader Meg Hillier and ministers have jointly stressed that the new four-point threshold, even when applied to new claimants only, will be a so called “co-production”.

This means they will be drawn up together with disability charities, so how the scoring will be applied is still unclear and suggests the changes may not save as much money as expected.

There will also be a knock-on impact for Carer’s Allowance. It seems plausible that this part will cost about £2bn.

The original universal credit health changes – freezing the health element until 2029-30, and halving it then freezing it for new claimants from next April – would have raised £3bn in 2029-30.

Now 2.25 million existing recipients will see a rise in line with inflation, and the most severe cases out of 730,000 new claimants will no longer see this halved.

This would cost several hundred million, perhaps £1bn.

In addition, the government has promised to pull forward investment in employment, health and skills support in order to frontload support to get those on health benefits back into work.

This was only due to hit next year and be seen at its full £1bn level by 2029. This helps the coherence of the package as a piece of reform rather than cost-cutting.

There are many moving parts here, and it is worth noting that the original costings were highly uncertain and subject to assumptions about changed behaviours. For example, critically, the number of claimants who would successfully say that they were now above the new four-point threshold.

However, it seems likely that the total cost of the overnight deal is more than half of the original £5bn saving – a £2.5-3bn deal.

All will be revealed at the Budget by the government’s financial watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility.

But this is in addition to the £1.25bn cost of the winter fuel payment U-turn, and would either have to come from higher taxes or cuts elsewhere, given the chancellor’s “non-negotiable” borrowing rules.

In a bid to deepen local peacebuilding efforts and also confront the growing threat of online extremist propaganda, HumAngle Foundation, sister organisation of HumAngle Media, on Wednesday, June 25, brought together 15 civil society actors for a multi-stakeholder roundtable discussion in Kaduna, North West Nigeria. 

The event is part of the organisation’s “Advancing Peace and Security through Journalism” project, which aims to equip journalists and civil society groups with tools to strengthen civic accountability and reduce conflict triggers.

With support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Foundation had earlier, in April, trained 15 journalists from across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones during a three-day workshop in Abuja. The April training focused on conflict-sensitive reporting and innovative storytelling tools.

At the Kaduna roundtable, Angela Umoru-David, Director of the Foundation, introduced the participants to the HumAngle Freedom of Information (FOI) platform. Launched in 2024, the platform simplifies and facilitates the process of demanding accountability from government institutions.

“It is not just about asking what money was spent on,” Angela said. “It’s about probing how inclusion is budgeted for. Is there a ministry responsible? How do [ministries, departments, agencies] use their funds? What are the policies around gender inclusion and mainstreaming? These are the questions civil society actors should ask.”

She explained that HumAngle’s headquarters in Abuja is strategically placed to support FOI submissions on behalf of organisations working at the grassroots. Participants were also given a walkthrough of the platform’s interface and practical tips for navigating it.

The next session on fact-checking extremist content online was led by Aliyu Dahiru, who heads HumAngle’s Extremism and Radicalisation desk. He explored the strategies used by extremist groups for propaganda, radicalisation, and recruitment, particularly through social media platforms. 

“In Northern Nigeria, Facebook is the dominant platform used by extremist groups,” Aliyu said, highlighting how extremists exploit emotional appeals and information overload to spread false narratives and incite violence.

He cited injustice, poverty, lack of opportunity, and ethno-religious mistrust as key drivers of radicalisation in the region. Aliyu encouraged civil society organisations (CSOs) to monitor local Facebook and WhatsApp groups for misinformation, train community members to detect fake and radical content, and partner with social media influencers to push counter-narratives.

“You can also document and share harmful content with us,” he added. “At HumAngle, we fact-check, analyse, and monitor. If you share with us, we will help verify the claims.”

Aliyu introduced the participants to practical verification tools such as InVID and Google Reverse Image Search for authenticating videos and photos.

The event concluded with a roundtable discussion moderated by Salmah Jumah, HumAngle Foundation’s Senior Programmes Officer. During the discussions, participants exchanged insights on extremist campaigns they have witnessed and the emerging challenges around the use of new media in conflict contexts.

While commending HumAngle for the initiative, Zainab Ibrahim, a participant who works with the Kaduna State Corporation, said that the roundtable reminded her that the spread of disinformation on violent extremism is not limited to social media. “Even the mainstream media is guilty of that,” she said, pledging to be more mindful in her coverage of sensitive issues. 

Another participant, Hadiza Ismail, noted that she learned more about the growing influence of artificial intelligence in fuelling confusion and spreading fake content. “AI is here to stay, fortunately and unfortunately,” she noted, pointing out that AI-generated images and videos are often circulated by older people who may struggle to distinguish between real and fake visuals. 

Hadiza said she is committed to contributing to community-level sensitisation to bridge this generational knowledge gap and reduce vulnerability to misleading content.

The roundtable reaffirmed HumAngle Foundation’s commitment to empowering local actors with the knowledge and tools necessary to counter extremism and foster inclusive, sustainable peacebuilding in conflict-affected regions.

Six US nationals were taken into custody in South Korea near a restricted border area with North Korea.

South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports.

The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency reports.

The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north.

Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea’s border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap.

On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.

Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details.

In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.

But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents.

Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then.

It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee’s conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification.

Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.

Moscow and Kyiv say their respective soldiers are returning home without specifying number of released prisoners.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war as the two countries continue to trade attacks, despite diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

Officials in Moscow and Kyiv confirmed the swap on Thursday but did not disclose the number of prisoners released.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that the “warriors of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service” were returning home.

“Most of them had been in captivity since 2022. We are doing everything possible to find each person, to verify the information on every name,” he said.

“We must bring all our people home. I thank everyone who is helping us in this effort.”

At the same time, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Telegram that another group of Russian soldiers had returned from Ukraine.

“Currently, Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance,” the ministry said.

The soldiers will then be taken to Russia for treatment and rehabilitation, the ministry added.

During their direct meeting in Turkiye on June 2, Russia and Ukraine pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers in one of the few points that both sides have agreed upon and shown cooperation since the war began in 2022.

But future talks to discuss a path to end the war have stalled as the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv has remained unchanged.

Russia has repeatedly said any territory it has taken during the war must be retained to achieve a ceasefire. However, Kyiv has rejected giving up its land.

Amid the latest prisoner exchange, Russian air strikes on Ukraine killed at least one person and wounded two others in the southern region of Kherson, according to the regional mayor.

Moreover, Russia announced that its forces had captured two Ukrainian villages in the Donetsk region as Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, ordered defensive lines to be built faster as Russian forces take more ground towards the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy signed an accord on Thursday with the Council of Europe to put top Russian officials on trial for the invasion of Ukraine.

Grigory Skvortsov, who denies wrongdoing in sharing details of the bunkers, will serve his sentence in a maximum-security prison.

A Russian court has found a photographer guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years for allegedly sharing information about Soviet-era underground bunkers with an American journalist.

The court in the western city of Perm sentenced Grigory Skvortsov on Thursday after a closed-door trial, without giving more details on the charges. Skvortsov, who was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023, has denied any wrongdoing.

The court said Skvortsov would serve his sentence in a maximum-security corrective prison camp.

It also published a photograph of him in a glass courtroom cage dressed in black as he listened to the verdict being read out.

In a December 2024 interview with Pervy Otdel, a group of exiled Russian lawyers, Skvortsov said he had passed on information that was either publicly available online or available to buy from the Russian author of a book about Soviet-era underground facilities for use in the event of a nuclear war.

Skvortsov did not name the US journalist he was working with in the interview with Pervy Otdel.

Since its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, Russia has radically expanded its definition of what constitutes state secrets and has jailed academics, scientists and journalists it deems to have contravened the new rules.

Skvortsov, who specialises in architecture photography, has also spoken out publicly against Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine. He has alleged that Federal Security Service (FSB) officers beat him during his arrest in November 2023 and said they tried to force him under duress to admit guilt to treason.

An online support group for Skvortsov said on Telegram after the verdict that “a miracle had not happened” and the photographer’s only hope of getting out of jail was to be exchanged as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights organisation Memorial has listed Skvortsov as among those subjected to criminal prosecution that is likely “politically motivated and marked by serious legal violations”.

Earlier this year, a Russian court sentenced four journalists to five and a half years in prison each after convicting them of “extremism” linked to their alleged work with an organisation founded by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

In 1948, as the foundations of the Israeli state were being laid upon the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian villages, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the American Friends of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel (AFFFI), condemning the growing Zionist militancy within the settler Jewish community. “When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the terrorist organisations built up from our own ranks. I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.”

Einstein — perhaps the most celebrated Jewish intellectual of the 20th century — refused to conflate his Jewish identity with the violence of Zionism. He turned down the offer to become Israel’s president, rejecting the notion that Jewish survival and self-determination should come at the cost of another people’s displacement and suffering. And yet, if Einstein were alive today, his words would likely be condemned under the current definitions of anti-Semitism adopted by many Western governments and institutions, including the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, now endorsed by most Australian universities.

Under the IHRA definition, Einstein’s outspoken criticism of Israel — he called its founding actors “terrorists” and denounced their betrayal of Jewish ethics — would render him suspect. He would be accused not only of delegitimising Israel, but also of anti-Semitism. His moral clarity, once visionary, would today be vilified.

That is why we must untangle the threads of Zionism, colonialism and human rights.

Einstein’s resistance to Zionism was not about denying Jewish belonging or rights; it was about refusing to build those rights on ethno-nationalist violence. He understood what too many people fail to grasp today: that Zionism and Judaism are not synonymous.

Zionism is a political ideology rooted in European colonial logics, one that enforces Jewish supremacy in a land shared historically by Palestinian and other Levantine peoples. To criticise this ideology is not anti-Semitic; it is, rather, a necessary act of justice and a moral act of bearing witness. The religious symbolism that Israel uses is irrelevant in this respect. And yet, in today’s political climate, any critique of Israel — no matter how grounded it might be in international law, historical fact or humanitarian concern — is increasingly branded as anti-Semitism. This conflation shields from accountability a settler-colonial state, and it silences Palestinians and their allies from speaking out on the reality of their oppression. Billions in arms sales, stolen resources and apartheid infrastructure don’t just happen; they’re the reason that legitimate “criticism” gets rebranded as “hate”.

READ: Ex-Israel PM accuses Netanyahu of waging war on Israel

To understand Einstein’s critique, we must confront the truth about Zionism itself. While often framed as a movement for Jewish liberation, Zionism in practice has operated as a colonial project of erasure and domination. The Nakba was not a tragic consequence of war, it was a deliberate blueprint for dispossession and disappearance. Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has detailed how David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, approved “Plan Dalet” on 10 March, 1948. This included the mass expulsion and execution of Palestinians to create a Jewish-majority state. As Ben-Gurion himself declared chillingly: “Every attack has to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion.”

This is the basis of the Zionist state that we are told not to critique.

Einstein saw this unfolding and recoiled. In another 1948 open letter to the New York Times, he and other Jewish intellectuals described Israel’s newly formed political parties — like Herut (the precursor to Likud) — as “closely akin in… organisation, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”

Einstein’s words were not hyperbole, they were a warning. Having fled Nazi Germany, he had direct experience with the defining traits of Nazi fascism. “From Israel’s past actions,” he wrote, “we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.”

Today, we are living in the very future that Einstein feared, a reality marked by massacres in Gaza, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the denial of basic essentials such as water, electricity and medical aid. This is not about “self-defence”; it is the logic of colonial domination whereby the land theft continues and the violence escalates.

Einstein warned about what many still refuse to see: a state established on principles of ethnic supremacy and expulsion could never transcend its foundation ethos. Israel’s creation in occupied Palestine is Zionism in practice; it cannot endure without employing repression until resistance is erased entirely. Hence, the Nakba wasn’t a one-off event in 1948; it evolved, funded by Washington, armed by Berlin and enabled by every government that trades Palestinian blood for political favours.

Zionism cannot be separated from the broader history of European settler-colonialism. As Patrick Wolfe explains, the ideology hijacked the rhetoric of Jewish liberation to mask its colonial reality of re-nativism, with the settlers recasting themselves as “indigenous” while painting resistance as terrorism.

READ: Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian school in occupied West Bank

The father of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, stated in his manifesto-novel Altneuland, “To build anew, I must demolish before I construct.” To him, Palestine was not seen as a shared homeland, but as a house to be razed to the ground and rebuilt by and for Jews alone. His ideology was made possible by British imperial interests to divide and dominate post-Ottoman territories. Through ethnic partition and military alliances embellished under the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the ironic Zionist-Nazi 1933 Haavara Agreement, the Zionist project aligned perfectly with the West’s goal, as per the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Israel is thus criticised because of its political ideology rooted in ethnonationalism and settler colonialism. Equating anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism is a disservice not only to Palestinians, but also to Jews, especially those who, like Einstein, refuse to have their identity weaponised in the service of war crimes. Zionism today includes Christian Zionists, military allies and Western politicians who benefit from Israel’s imperial reach through arms deals, surveillance technology and geostrategic partnerships.

Zionism is a global power structure, not a monolithic ethnic identity.

Many Jews around the world — rabbis, scholars, students and Holocaust survivors and their descendants — continue Einstein’s legacy by saying “Not in our name”. They reject the co-option of Holocaust memory to justify genocide in Gaza. They refuse to be complicit in what the Torah forbids: the theft of land and the murder of innocents. They are not “self-hating Jews”. They are the inheritors of a prophetic tradition of justice. And they are being silenced.

Perhaps the most dangerous development today is, therefore, Israel’s insistence on linking its crimes to Jewish identity. It frames civilian massacres, apartheid policies and violations of international law as acts done in the name of all Jews and Judaism. By tying the Jewish people to the crimes of a state, Israel risks exposing Jews around the world to collective blame and retaliation.

Einstein warned against this. And if Einstein’s vision teaches us anything, it is this: Justice cannot be compromised for comfort and profit. Truth must outlast repression. And freedom must belong to all. In the end, no amount of Israel’s militarisation of terminology, propaganda or geopolitical alliances can suppress a people’s resistance forever or outlast global condemnation. The only question left is: how much more blood will be spilled before justice prevails?

The struggle for clarity today is not just academic, it is existential. Without the ability to distinguish anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism, we cannot build a future where Jews and Palestinians all live in dignity, safety and peace. Reclaiming the term “Semite” in its full meaning, encompassing both Jews and Arabs, is critical. Further isolation of Arabs from their Semitic identity has enabled the dehumanisation of Palestinians and the erasure of shared Jewish-Arab histories, especially the centuries of coexistence, the Jewish-Muslim golden ages in places like Baghdad, Granada/Andalusia, Istanbul, Damascus and Cairo.

Einstein stood up for the future for us to reclaim it.

The way forward must be rooted in truth, justice and accountability. That means unequivocally opposing anti-Semitism in all its forms, but refusing to allow the term to be manipulated as a shield for apartheid, ethnic cleansing and colonial domination. It means affirming that Jewish safety must never come at the price of Palestinian freedom, and that Palestinian resistance is not hatred; it is survival.

And if Einstein would be silenced today, who will speak tomorrow?

OPINION: Palestinian voices are throttled by the promotion of foreign agendas

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Prosecutors make closing arguments in six-week trial that heard harrowing testimony from people who faced alleged abuse.

United States prosecutors argued that Sean “Diddy” Combs used his wealth and influence to evade accountability for violently abusing women in closing arguments in the entertainment mogul’s trial.

Prosecutors told the jury on Thursday that Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, oversaw a vast criminal conspiracy.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”

The trial of the billionaire former rapper, a central figure in the rise of hip-hop in US popular culture, has included harrowing testimony from women who described an atmosphere of cruelty, exploitation, and intimidation.

Over six weeks of testimony, prosecutors also said that Combs pushed people to participate in drug-fuelled sex parties known as “freak offs”, with footage of people engaged in sex acts then used as leverage by Combs.

Slavik said that Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” singer and former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura to have sex with escorts for his own entertainment and used a “small army of employees” from his entertainment empire to cover up abuses and intimidate anyone who tried to push back.

Combs sat with his head down while Slavik made her remarks before the jury, wearing a light-coloured sweater and khaki trousers. His lawyers have argued that while Combs has a violent temperament and has committed violent acts against romantic partners, prosecutors have misrepresented a sexually unorthodox lifestyle as evidence of crimes such as racketeering and trafficking.

Judge Arun Subramanian told the jury that they would hear final statements from the defence on Friday, with the prosecution given a chance to offer a rebuttal before jurors are instructed on their responsibilities and sent to begin deliberation.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Friday or Monday, and Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted on all counts.

Seven months after his blockbuster fight against 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, YouTube celebrity boxer Jake Paul will return to the ring to face off against another former world champ, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Chavez Jr, 39, is a former World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion who hasn’t held a major boxing title in 13 years and has fought just once in the last three and a half years. He’s also had some well-documented personal problems over the last few years.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Paul-Chavez bout:

What is the date and start time for the Paul-Chavez fight?

The fight night is on Saturday, June 28, with six undercard bouts before the main fight.

The ring walk for Paul-Chavez Jr is set for 8pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Saturday (03:00 GMT on Sunday) and the fight will begin shortly thereafter.

Where is Paul-Chavez being held?

The Honda Center in Anaheim, California, is the venue for the fight.

It has a seating capacity of about 7,000 for boxing events.

Wasn’t Paul supposed to fight Canelo Alvarez?

In February, Paul claimed Canelo Alvarez “ducked” a fight with him to sign a lucrative four-fight deal with Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season, based out of Saudi Arabia.

In a video posted to his social media account, Paul showed what he said was a contract signed by himself and Alvarez for a fight to be held in Las Vegas on May 3.

“The truth is, you (Alvarez) could be bought,” Paul said at the time. “You’re a money-hungry squirrel chasing your next nut. The truth is, these sports-washing, shady characters are paying you hundreds of millions of dollars to stop our fight from happening because they couldn’t fathom the fact that they can’t create a bigger fight than me and you.”

What problems has Chavez Jr had since becoming WBC world champion?

Chavez Jr, who last held a major boxing world title in 2012, has had a difficult time inside and outside the ring in recent years.

In November 2021, his shock defeat by split decision to 46-year-old former UFC fighter Anderson Silva in a crossover boxing match was undoubtedly the lowest – and most embarrassing – point of his professional boxing career. Coincidentally, Paul beat Silva in a fight last year.

The Mexican’s personal issues have included a lack of motivation, a repeated failure to make weight for fights, alcohol and drug addiction, an arrest for illegal possession of a firearm in his Los Angeles home and a failed drug test. At the launch of the Paul-Chavez fight in May at The Avalon in Hollywood, Paul mocked Chavez’s addiction problems as well as his “lack of mentality.”

“I’m going to embarrass him and run him down like he always does,” Paul said. “I’m going to expose him. He will be the embarrassment of Mexico. There are two things you can’t beat – me and your drug addiction.”

Who is Jake Paul?

Paul gained fame as a social media star on YouTube who turned into a boxer, and has an 11-1 record.

The 28-year-old is one of the sport’s top attractions despite not having a traditional fighting pedigree through a boxing association.

His fight last November with Tyson, which Paul won in an eight-round decision, peaked at a staggering 64 million concurrent streams on Netflix.

Jake Paul has made at least $60m since starting his boxing career, according to multiple sources.

Who is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr?

The son of Julio Cesar Chavez, a legendary three-division world champion, Chavez Jr has amassed a professional boxing record of 53 wins (34 KOs), six losses, and one draw over a 17-year career.

Chavez was crowned the WBC middleweight champion in 2011 after defeating Sebastian Zbik of Germany. He defended the title three times and was considered to be in the upper tier of middleweight boxers alongside fellow Mexican, Canelo Alvarez.

But a series of disappointing results, beginning with a loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012 through to a one-sided defeat to Alvarez in 2017, sent his career off the rails.

Chavez’s professional record is a mediocre 8-6 since 2012. Despite his many personal issues, Chavez Jr is still considered to be armed with an advanced boxing skillset that will be a step up in competition for the novice fighter Paul.

What has Paul said about the fight?

“I would say Chavez is most likely going to be the toughest opponent (I have faced yet), the most experienced, literally the most amount of fights out of all of my opponents,” Paul said during an interview with DAZN Boxing.

What has Chavez Jr said about the fight?

“Yes [I’m motivated to end Paul’s career],” Chavez Jr said on The Ariel Helwani podcast on June 18. “[I still think] that I’m better than Jake Paul, so I think after this fight maybe Jake continues to fight [and tries] to be a [better] boxer, but I don’t think he has [the] skills and everything [necessary to] win [against me]. I want to end Jake Paul’s career.”

Paul stats:

Nationality: American
Age: 28
Height: 6′ 1″ (1.85m)
Reach: 76″ (1.93m)
Total fights: 12
Record: 11-1 (7 KOs)

Chavez Jr stats:

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 39
Height: 6’0″ (1.83m)
Reach: 73″ (1.85m)
Total fights: 62
Record: 54-6-1 (1) (34 KOs)

Who is on the undercard?

The main undercard bouts are expected to begin at 5pm local Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Saturday (00:00 GMT on Sunday).

• Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr (cruiserweight)
• Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (C) vs Yuniel Dorticos (WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles)
• Holly Holm vs Yolanda Vega (lightweight)
• Floyd Schofield vs Tevin Farmer (lightweight)
• Avious Griffin vs Julian Rodriguez (welterweight)
• Raul “Cugar” Curiel vs Victor Ezequiel Rodriguez (welterweight)
• Naomy Valle vs Ashley Felix (light-flyweight)

What is the fight purse?

The prize money for the match is reported to be in excess of $20m, although the purse split has not been announced.

How to watch

The fight will stream live exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. FACE OFF#PaulChavez x #RamirezDorticos | June 28 | Live Exclusively on DAZN | @MostVpromotions | @GoldenBoyBoxing | 🎟️Available to buy soon pic.twitter.com/nH9UWxu3RL

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 14, 2025

The armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video message on Wednesday afternoon showing an Israeli captive currently held in Gaza, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported. The footage shows Omri Miran lighting a candle on what he described as his “second birthday” in captivity.

“This is my second birthday here. I can’t say I’m celebrating; it’s just another day in captivity,” said Miran. “I made this cake for the occasion, but there is no joy. It’s been a year and a half. I miss my daughters and my wife terribly.”

He addressed the Israeli public directly, including his family and friends. “Conditions here are extremely tough. Thank you to everyone demonstrating to bring us home safely.”

The captive also urged Israelis to stage a mass protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence. “Bring my daughters so I can see them on TV. Do everything you can now to get us home. Netanyahu’s supporters don’t care about us, they’d rather see us dead.”

Screengrab from footage shows Israeli captive Omri Miran

He asked captives released in previous prisoner exchange deals to protest and speak to the media. “Let the people know how bad it is for us. We live in constant fear of bombings. A deal must be reached soon before we return home in coffins.

Miran urged demonstrators to appeal to US President Donald Trump to put pressure on Netanyahu: “Do not believe Netanyahu. Military pressure is only killing us. A deal — only a deal — will bring us home. Turn to Trump. He seems to be the only powerful person in the world who could push Netanyahu to agree to a deal.”

He also mentioned the worsening humanitarian situation: “The captors told me the crossings are closed; no food or supplies are coming in. As a result, we’re receiving even less food than before.”

In conclusion, the captive sent a pointed message to the Israeli leadership: “Netanyahu, Dermer, Smotrich, Ben Gvir — you are the reason for 7 October. Because of you, I am here. Because of you, we’re all here. You’re bringing the state to collapse.”

READ: US synagogues close their doors to Israel MK Ben-Gvir

English side Manchester City beat Italy’s Juventus 5-2 in Orlando at FIFA’s Club World Cup staged in United States.

Manchester City sealed top spot in Group G with a 5-2 thumping of Juventus in Orlando at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Jeremy Doku put on a brilliant display with plenty of support, and some help from the opposition, in Thursday’s game as the English side sealed a third win from their three games in the group.

Juventus, like City, had already sealed qualification for the round of 16 with two wins in their opening two games.

“We played well. I’m happy with the victory,” City forward Doku said. “Now we’re just curious to see who we’re going to play against.”

Defender Pierre Kalulu’s gaffe on a cross from Savinho past his own keeper nudged City into the lead, 2-1, at the 26th minute.

In the 52nd minute, striker Erling Haaland scored while shuffling his feet with a touch that bounded into an open net on a dish from Matheus Nunes. It was the 300th career goal combined for team and country for the 24-year-old Norwegian in only his seventh minute in Thursday’s match.

Phil Foden entered off the bench and tapped in the fourth goal of the match in the 69th minute. Haaland’s header failed only for Savinho to power a rebound off the crossbar and into the goal to make it 5-1 in the 75th minute.

Juventus trimmed the lead on a breakaway from Dusan Vlahovic, who scored for the second consecutive match with just over five minutes to play.

Juventus had led the group on goal difference entering the match, but City’s win took them to the top and also bumped them to the top of the tournament’s goalscoring list with 13 strikes.

City also became the only club to win all three matches in the group stage.

As the Group G winner, City stays in Orlando for Monday’s round of 16 match with the Group H runner-up.

The opponent will be determined by Thursday’s later match between RB Salzburg and Real Madrid. Juventus head to Miami as the runner-up in the group.

Man City went ahead 2-1 and held the margin at halftime, marking first at the nine-minute mark when Doku hit the brakes in front of the net and found the top right corner.

Teun Koopmeiners evened the score two minutes later, but that was the final indication of a close tussle.

The victory was Man City’s first outright over Juventus since 1976.

Protests in Kenya to mark the anniversary of deadly 2024 anti-tax protests turned deadly themselves. Rights group Amnesty Kenya said at least 16 people were killed, and 400 others were injured in Wednesday’s demonstrations. A government minister accused the protesters of attempting a coup.