NEWS

Mike Johnson, the top legislator in the United States Congress, has visited an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the trip by the speaker of the US House of Representatives on Monday a “blatant violation of international law”.

Johnson, who is next in line for the US presidency after the president and vice president, is the highest-ranking US official to visit a West Bank Israeli settlement.

His trip comes amid escalating settler violence against Palestinian communities that killed two US citizens in July.

The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank as it carries out its brutal assault and blockade on Gaza.

Johnson’s visit contradicts Arab and US efforts to “end the cycle of violence” as well as Washington’s public stance against settlers’ “aggressions”, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.

“The ministry affirms that all settlement activity is invalid and illegal and undermines the opportunity to implement the two-state solution and achieve peace,” it added.

According to Israeli media reports, Johnson visited the settlement of Ariel, north of Ramallah, on Monday.

“Judea and Samaria are the front lines of the state of Israel and must remain an integral part of it,” Johnson was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post newspaper, using a biblical name for the West Bank.

“Even if the world thinks otherwise, we stand with you.”

The House speaker’s comments appear to be in reference to recent moves by some Western countries – including close allies of the US and Israel – to recognise a Palestinian state.

‘Illegal under international law’

Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. The International Court of Justice, the top United Nations tribunal, reaffirmed that position last year, saying that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible”.

Asked about Johnson’s visit, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Monday: “Our standpoint on the settlements, as you know, is that they are illegal under international law.”

Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, and annexed the entire holy city in 1980.

Successive Israeli governments have been building Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank on land that would be the home of a Palestinian state if a two-state solution were to materialise.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers now live in the occupied West Bank.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, bans the occupying power from transferring “parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.

While the Oslo Accords granted the Palestinian Authority some municipal powers over parts of the West Bank, the entire area remains under full Israeli security control.

Israel also controls the airspace and ports of entry in the territory.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank have full citizenship rights, while Palestinians live under Israel’s military rule, where they can be detained indefinitely without charges.

Leading rights groups have accused Israel of imposing a system of apartheid on Palestinians.

‘It’s a matter of faith for us’

For decades, the US has publicly rejected West Bank settlements and called for a two-state solution despite providing Israel with billions of dollars in military aid.

However, US President Donald Trump has taken US policy further in favour of Israel, refusing to criticise settlement expansion or commit to backing a Palestinian state.

Many Republicans, meanwhile, have long expressed support for Israel from a theological perspective, arguing that it is a Christian religious duty to back the US ally.

“Our prayer is that America will always stand with Israel. We pray for the preservation and the peace of Jerusalem. That’s what scripture tells us to do. It’s a matter of faith for us,” Johnson said on Sunday during a visit to the Western Wall.

In a social media post, Marc Zell, chair of the US Republicans Overseas Israel, cited Johnson as saying on Monday that the mountains of the West Bank are “the rightful property of the Jewish People”.

Far-right activist Tommy Robinson has been arrested in connection with an assault at St Pancras railway station.

British Transport Police did not name Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, but confirmed a 42-year-old man, from Bedfordshire, was arrested over an assault in London on 28 July.

The force said the arrest took place at Luton Airport shortly after 18:30 BST on Monday, following a notification that the man had boarded an incoming flight from Faro.

The man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and will be taken to custody for questioning, police said.

The statement added he had been wanted for questioning after leaving for Tenerife in the early hours of 29 July following the incident.

British Transport Police previously said that they found a man with “serious but non-life-threatening injuries” following the incident at the railway station in Kings Cross.

The force confirmed on Thursday that he had been discharged from hospital.

Video footage on social media emerged shortly after the alleged assault showing Robinson walking back and forth near a motionless man lying on the floor, near the stairs down to the northbound Thameslink line.

The clip did not show how the man ended up on the floor.

Robinson then starts coming back up the stairs, appearing to try to talk to the passing commuter who called for help.

Robinson can be heard saying: “He’s come at me bruv.”

Robinson was contacted by a female BBC reporter for comment after the incident, but Robinson responded with a message that said “slag”.

Since the incident, Robinson has continued to post on his personal X account but has not made any comment on the arrest.

He shared a few supportive posts shortly after British Transport Police released their initial statement on the incident.

The Syrian Democratic Forces allege that Damascus-linked factions attacked four of its positions early on Monday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have said that armed factions associated with the country’s security forces have attacked some of its positions in the northern province of Aleppo, as efforts by Syria’s fledgling government to unify the nation have been hit on several fronts.

In a post on X, the group, which controls much of northeastern Syria, claimed the incident took place early on Monday morning in the Deir Hafer area.

The allegation comes just months after the SDF and the Syrian interim government signed a landmark integration agreement in March.

Government-linked factions launched an assault on four of the SDF’s positions in the village of Al-Imam at 3am on Monday morning, the SDF said, noting that the ensuing clashes lasted for 20 minutes.

“We hold the Damascus government fully responsible for this behaviour, and reaffirm that our forces are now more prepared than ever to exercise their legitimate right to respond with full force and determination,” the SDF added.

The latest incident came after the Syrian government accused the SDF of injuring four soldiers and three civilians in the northern city of Manbij on Saturday.

The Defence Ministry called the attack “irresponsible”, saying it had been carried out for “unknown reasons”, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Meanwhile, the SDF, which allied with the United States to help defeat ISIL (ISIS) in the region, blamed the Syrian government, saying it had responded to an unprovoked artillery assault against civilians.

Such skirmishes have cast a shadow over the integration pact the SDF made with Damascus in March, following the fall of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

As part of efforts to reunify the country after almost 14 years of ruinous war, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, the agreement seeks to merge Kurdish-led military and civilian institutions with the state.

As well as its clashes with the SDF, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is grappling with the fallout from sectarian violence that broke out on July 13 in the southern province of Suwayda between Bedouin and Druze groups, during which government troops were deployed to quell the fighting. The bloodshed worsened and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops, and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire there, four deaths were reported in the province over the weekend, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that three of the victims were government soldiers and one was a local fighter. Syria’s state media reported on deaths among security forces.

The Syrian government said in a statement that gangs in the area had “resorted to violating the ceasefire agreement by launching treacherous attacks against internal security forces on several fronts”.

Moscow already helped by Pyongyang; Zelenskyy says fighters from China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and African also on board.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that his country’s troops in the northeast are battling foreign “mercenaries” recruited by Russia from various countries, vowing to “respond”.

The Ukrainian president visited front-line troops in the Kharkiv region on Monday, hearing reports from his “warriors” that fighters from China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and African countries were on board with Russia.

Russia is already known to have been assisted by thousands of North Korean troops in the defence of its Kursk region, and Ukraine had already accused Moscow of recruiting Chinese fighters – a charge denied by Beijing.

At the time of reporting, there was no comment from the additional countries accused by Zelenskyy of joining Russia’s war effort.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said there was no way of verifying Zelenskyy’s claims.

Conversely, he added, “lots of foreign fighters” had also volunteered to fight for Ukraine and were still on the front lines.

Zelenskyy had met front-line fighters with Ukraine’s 17th Separate Motorised Infantry Battalion of the 57th Brigade near the front-line town of Vovchansk.

He said in a post in X that he had held discussions with commanders on “the frontline situation, the defence of Vovchansk, and the dynamics of the battles”, and was also looking at “drone supply and deployment, recruitment, and direct funding for the brigades”.

As Ukraine battled to repel Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, its troops were also engaged in “ongoing heavy fighting” around the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, said Stratford.

As fighting has continued, Russian and Ukrainian officials have held several meetings in recent months in Istanbul, Turkiye.

The latest meeting secured an agreement to exchange 1,200 prisoners, Zelenskyy announced on Sunday.

That day, United States President Donald Trump said his special envoy Steve Witkoff would fly to Russia to continue talks on the war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Russian state news agency TASS cited sources saying the visit would take place on Wednesday.

Trump has threatened to impose “very severe tariffs” on Russia if it fails to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine soon, recently shortening his initial deadline of 50 days to within 10-12 days.

Video shows gunfire hitting the ground near a group of Palestinians seeking aid in the vicinity of a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food distribution site in Gaza. More than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating in May 2025.

Nineteen suspects accused of being involved in the 2024 shooting attack in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149 people, and wounded over 600, have appeared in court in a glass cage at the beginning of their trial. A faction of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has compared newly released images of two captives in Gaza to Nazi starvation of Jews in the Holocaust. But Netanyahu is himself accused of committing war crimes by starving Gaza’s population. Warning: This video contains distressing images.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims, without providing evidence, that Ukraine was involved in the attack, an allegation Kyiv vehemently denies.

The trial has begun for 19 defendants accused of involvement in the 2024 shooting attack in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149 people, and wounded over 600, in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital since the era of the Russian-Chechen wars in the 1990s and 2000s.

The suspects appearing in court on Monday, under heavy security, kept their heads bowed as they sat in the defendants’ cage.

An ISIL (ISIS) affiliate claimed responsibility for the March 22, 2024 massacre at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in which four gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a rock band and then set the building on fire. ISIL’s Afghan branch – also known as ISKP (ISIS-K) – claimed responsibility for the attack.

President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have claimed, without providing any evidence, that Ukraine was involved in the attack, an allegation Kyiv has vehemently denied.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency, concluded in June that the attack had been “planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilise the political situation in our country”. It also said the four suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterward.

The four, all identified as citizens of Tajikistan, were arrested hours after the attack and later appeared in a Moscow court with signs of having been beaten.

The committee said earlier this year that six other suspects were charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organising the training of the four. Other defendants in the trial were accused of helping them.

In 2002, some 40 rebels from Chechnya stormed the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow and took around 800 people hostage while demanding an end to Putin’s war in the separatist southern republic.

Putin refused to negotiate with the fighters, and the standoff ended with mass death days later when Russian special services pumped a powerful gas into the building to stun the hostage-takers before storming it. Most of the 129 hostages who died were killed by the gas.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire

Analysis

India beat England by six runs to win fifth Test on its final day at the Oval and level the five-match series at 2-2.

Mohammed Siraj has been inspired as India have taken the last four wickets in under an hour to bowl England out for 367 and win an astonishing final Test by six runs to draw the series.

Siraj was India’s hero on Monday, dismissing Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton before bowling Gus Atkinson to complete a five-wicket haul at The Oval in London.

After Prasidh Krishna had bowled Josh Tongue for nought, Chris Woakes walked out to bat wearing a sling to protect his dislocated shoulder with 17 runs still needed.

Atkinson hit Siraj for six to give England brief hope and cleverly protected Woakes from the strike, but Siraj produced another brilliant yorker to earn India their narrowest ever Test win.

“With 60-, 70-odd runs to win with seven wickets in hand, you don’t get to see many games like this,” India captain Shubman Gill said. “Very happy to get this over the line, a little bit of luck for us.”

England, 301-3 at one stage, lost their last seven wickets for 66 runs, a collapse prompted by Harry Brook’s reckless dismissal after he had made a superb century.

India suddenly had a chink of hope, and they took full advantage, removing Jacob Bethell and Joe Root (105) before bad light and rain ended the fourth day early.

England still needed 35 runs to complete their second highest Test run chase and by far the largest for any team on this ground.

The Oval was full for the final act of a series that fluctuated wildly over seven weeks and under grey skies in an atmosphere of unremitting tension as one of the most dramatic endings to a Test match duly played out.

It was fitting that Siraj was the main man for India because he had stepped over the boundary cushion after dropping Brook on 19 on Sunday, an error that looked likely to cost his team the game.

Woakes was the not-out batsman, having not faced a ball but running bravely in obvious pain.

“I didn’t expect him to come out like that, batting with one hand. Kudos to him,” Gill said after his team did a lap of honour.

More than 60 Palestinian women are staging a hunger strike to demand the release of the body of Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen, who was shot dead last week in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Two women have received medical treatment as a result of the collective action, which started on Thursday.

The group is demanding the unconditional release of the body of the 31-year-old community leader who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year. Israeli police set several conditions, including holding a quick and quiet burial at night outside the village, with no more than 15 people in attendance.

The protesters are also demanding the release of seven Umm al-Kheir residents arrested by Israeli forces who remain in administrative detention – a quasi-judicial process under which Palestinians are held without charge or trial.

Umm al-Kheir is part of Masafer Yatta, a string of Palestinian hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, where residents have fought for decades to remain in their homes after Israel declared the area an Israeli military “firing” or training zone.

Iman Hathaleen, Awdah’s cousin, said women aged 13 to 70 were taking part in the hunger strike. “Now, as I’m talking, I am starving and I am breastfeeding,” she told Al Jazeera. “We will continue this until they release the body, so that we can honour him with the right Islamic tradition. We have to grieve him as our religion told us to.”

Awdah was taken by an ambulance to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva on July 28, where he was pronounced dead after having been shot by an Israeli settler. The police transferred his body to the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Jaffa for an autopsy, which was completed on Wednesday. They then refused to return the body unless the family agreed to restrictive conditions on the funeral and burial.

‘A tactic to break their spirit’

Fathi Nimer, a researcher at the Al-Shabaka think tank, said Israel’s policy of withholding the body of a Palestinian was common practice. “This is not an isolated incident; there are hundreds of Palestinians whose bodies are used as bargaining chips so that their families stop any kind of activism or resistance or to break the spirit of resistance,” Nimer told Al Jazeera.

“Awdah was very loved in the village, so this is a tactic to break their spirit,” he added.

Meanwhile, Yinon Levi, the Israeli settler accused of firing the deadly shots, was released after spending a few days on house arrest. A video of the incident filmed by local activists shows Levi opening fire on Awdah, who died from a gunshot wound to his chest.

An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025

Residents in Umm al-Kheir on Monday documented Levi’s return to the area. Pictures shared on social media groups depicted him overseeing bulldozing work alongside army officers at the nearby Carmel settlement.

Levi is among several Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who were previously sanctioned under the former administration of United States President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump reversed those sanctions in an executive order shortly after taking office for a second term in January. The United Kingdom and the European Union, however, maintain sanctions against Levi.

Nimer said sanctions against individuals do little to stop settler violence and the expansion of Israel’s illegal outposts. “It’s not just individuals – there needs to be real international action to sanction Israel and to stop any of this kind of behaviour,” he said.

A ‘continuous trauma’

Iman, Awdah’s cousin, said Levi’s return makes her worried about her family’s safety. “Today, we are afraid that he’s back and can do this again, maybe he will shoot someone else,” she told Al Jazeera. Her father, Suleiman Hathaleen, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2022.

Oneg Ben Dror, a Jaffa-based activist and friend of the Hathaleen family, said the hunger strike was a desperate gesture for a community that has lost all hope of obtaining justice via legal means.

“The women feel that it’s their way to protest, it’s a last resort to bring back the body,” she said. “The community needs the possibility to mourn and… start the recovery from this horrible murder.”

She added that the presence of Levi and other settlers on the ground in Umm al-Kheir was a “continuous trauma and a nightmare for the community and for his wife”, who has been widowed while caring for three young children.

Dozens of left-wing Israeli and international activists on Sunday took part in a march in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to echo the demands voiced by the hunger strikers. Four activists were arrested during the demonstrations.

The United Nations office has reported 757 settler attacks on Palestinians since January, up 13 percent from 2024, as deaths since January near 1,000.

The Israeli army has also intensified raids across the occupied West Bank and the demolition of hundreds of homes. On Monday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin. The Israeli municipality also issued a demolition order targeting the home of Palestinian residents in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinian authorities say 198 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, while 538 were killed in 2024. At least 188 bodies are still being withheld by Israeli authorities.

A top United States official has accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying oil from Moscow, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on New Delhi to cut off its energy imports from Russia.

“What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of Trump’s most influential aides, said in an interview with Fox News.

India is the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, after China, and more than 30 percent of its fuel is sourced from Moscow, providing revenue to the Kremlin amid Western sanctions. New Delhi imported just 1 percent of its oil from Russia before the Ukraine war started in 2022.

Miller’s criticism was among the strongest yet by the Trump administration – which came after the US slapped a 25 percent tariff on Indian products on Friday as a result of its purchase of military equipment and energy from Russia. The Trump administration also threatened additional penalties if India continued its purchase of arms and oil from Russia.

“People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller also said on the show.

The US aide tempered his criticism by noting Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he described as “tremendous”.

Last week, Trump also underscored the “friendship” with India on the day he announced the tariffs on Asia’s second-largest economy.

While India was “our friend”, it had always bought most of its military equipment from Russia and was “Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE – ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on July 30.

“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.”

Trump has threatened 100 percent tariffs on US imports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. The US president has also criticised India for being a member of BRICS, of which Russia and China are founding members.

Some analysts say the tough stance taken by the Trump administration might be aimed at pressuring Russia, while others see it as a pressure tactic to get New Delhi to agree to terms set by Washington, as the two countries are engaged in trade talks. Trump wants to reduce the US trade deficit with India, which stands at $45bn.

‘Time-tested’ ties

Meanwhile, Indian government sources told the Reuters news agency on Saturday that New Delhi will keep buying oil from Moscow despite US threats.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said its relationship with Russia was “steady and time-tested” and should not be seen through the prism of a third country. New Delhi’s ties to Moscow go back to the Soviet era.

Russia is the leading supplier of oil and defence equipment to India. According to a March report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia remains the biggest arms supplier of equipment and systems for the Indian Armed Forces.

Prime Minister Modi travelled to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, as New Delhi has tried to balance its ties between the West and Russia. He has since met Putin several times at international forums.

India has historically bought most of its crude from the Middle East, but this has changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as India bought the oil at discounted rates after the West shunned Russia to punish it.

New Delhi bought 68,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Russia in January 2022. By June of the same year, oil imports rose to 1.12 million barrels per day. The daily imports peaked at 2.15 million in May 2023 and have varied since.

Supplies rose as high as nearly 40 percent of India’s imports at one point, making Moscow the largest supplier of crude to New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported, citing data from Kpler, a data analytics company.

India says its imports from Russia was within legal norms, adding that it has helped stabilise the global crude prices.

The financial regulator’s proposed redress scheme for car finance mis-selling is “completely impractical”, the trade body for the car finance industry has said.

Stephen Hadrill of the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) told the BBC there was concern that the redress scheme would cover loans from as far back as 2007, as firms and customers may no longer have the paperwork for that time.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled hidden commissions from lenders to dealers on car loans were not unlawful, meaning millions of motorists will not be able to claim for mis-selling.

However, the judgement left open the possibility of compensation claims for particularly large commissions.

On Sunday, the UK’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said it would begin a consultation on who should be eligible for compensation and how much they should get in October.

It estimates the redress scheme will cost the industry between £9bn and £18bn, although individual victims of mis-selling are likely to get less than £950 per deal.

The FCA said it “anticipate[s] requiring firms as far as possible to make customers aware they may be eligible and what they may need to do” and that claims “should cover agreements dating back to 2007”.

But speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Mr Hadrill said: “[There is] a major concern, really, about the redress scheme going back to 2007. I just think that’s completely impractical.

“It’s not just firms that don’t have the details about contracts back then, the customers don’t either.

“And, if we’re going to have to take careful decisions about who gets compensation, who gets redress, and who doesn’t – you need that information. I just think going back that far is not the right thing to do.”

He also said that the cost of a redress scheme could mean that lenders offer fewer car financing plans to customers in the near future.

“That cost will have to be absorbed somewhere.”

“Ultimately, the more expensive lending becomes, the more expensive borrowing becomes for the consumer.”

The FCA has said it expects “a healthy finance market for new and used cars to continue notwithstanding any redress scheme we propose”.

On Friday, the Supreme Court sided with finance companies in two out of three crucial test cases focusing on commission payments made by banks and other lenders to car dealers.

However, it left open the possibility of compensation claims for particularly large commissions which the court deemed unfair.

The industry is expected to cover the full costs of any potential compensation scheme, including any administrative costs.

Those who have already complained do not need to do anything, the FCA said, advising those who have yet to complain to contact their car loan provider rather than using a claims management company.

Aminu Ishaku now earns a living as a commercial motorcyclist in Abuja.

His family has five hectares of land in Chadari, a farming village in Kano State’s Makoda Local Government Area, North West Nigeria, where they once planted maize, sorghum, and millet, crops that fed and earned them some money.

Until 2021, the land never failed them completely. Some years, it brought 10 bags of sorghum, seven of millet, and nine of maize. 

That year, Aminu borrowed ₦300,000 ($196) and walked into another season with faith. 

“There was rain,” said the 22-year-old. “Everything germinated beautifully. We even added manure to help them grow faster. We were expecting more because of how well they sprouted.”

But the rains stopped. And for two long months, nothing fell from the sky. The young crops dried, devastating the family. No irrigation system, no borehole, no motorised pump. Just the soil and their hopes.

When the rains eventually returned, they planted again. But the second harvest was nothing close to what they needed. 

“That was when I told my father I would go look for work,” Aminu said. 

It was his first time leaving Kano. With only ₦2,000 ($1.31) to cover transport, Aminu, who had just finished secondary school, travelled 12 hours by road to Abuja, arriving on the outskirts of Apo, a district in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), where the city asphalt gives way to dust.

“That is where I settled,” he said.

Each year, he returns briefly during the planting season, hoping things will be different. But it has not been.

“In 2022, there was another drought,” he said. “Then, insects attacked the crops. They grew, but the insects destroyed them. The dry spell made them vulnerable.”

In late 2023, the problem worsened. 

There was flooding, said Aminu. Water swallowed homes and farmlands, and crops that survived the dry spell perished under the flood. 

“That caused food shortages,” he said. “Those whose crops did not drown had to harvest early.”

“We barely had enough to eat, let alone sell,” Aminu added. “That is why I stay in Abuja to work, to support the family.”

Aminu is one of the many young men fleeing the slow violence of environmental breakdown in Northern Nigeria. For some, like 30-year-old Abdulhamid Sulaiman, the journey began earlier. Abdulhamid left Danja, a farming town in Katsina State, in 2014, long before climate change became synonymous with rural poverty.

“Rain would disappear in the middle of the season,” he said. “The crops would grow weak. Then insects would come. Sometimes they ate the maize from inside.”

When he married, his father gave him four hectares of land, where he planted maize and tomatoes.

In good years, he harvested five to 10 bags of maize and earned up to ₦250,000 ($164) from tomatoes. But the rains changed. 

“The harvest could not last us till the following season,” he said. “And I did not have another job.”

Groundwater began to seep from the earth during the rainy season, soaking parts of his farm and stalling growth. 

He did not know why. 

“It just kept coming up, slowly, like it was rising from underneath,” he told me.

So, like Aminu, he left.

Idris Sale’s story is no different. In 2015, he left Kano for Abuja after repeated seasons of dwindling millet and cassava harvests. As food dwindled, he began searching for alternative survival means for his family.

These are not isolated stories. They are early signals of a broader shift.

A 2021 study warned that climate-induced migration could surge in states like Sokoto, Zamfara, and Katsina by 2050 under worsening environmental conditions. Northern Nigeria is already losing up to 350,000 hectares of arable land each year to desertification, a crisis that the United Nations estimates costs the country $5 billion annually in lost livelihoods.

On-the-ground reporting confirms this trend. In July, HumAngle showed how desertification and the shrinking of migration corridors are intensifying farmer-herder conflicts across the region. A 2022 investigation highlighted similar tensions in Yobe, while a 2024 story detailed how desertification continues to consume livelihoods in the Northeast. 

In the same month, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, the Minister of Environment, disclosed that 50 to 75 per cent of the land across Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara States was now degraded, some of it permanently.

The ripple effects are devastating. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) ranks Nigeria as the country with the second-highest number of food-insecure people globally. 

In the first six months of 2025, nearly 31 million people faced acute hunger, another WFP report states. The burden falls disproportionately on children. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international non-governmental organisation working in conflict zones, reported that in Katsina alone, 652 children died of severe malnutrition in just six months.

The structural vulnerability is clear. Roughly 80 per cent of northern farmers are smallholders who grow over 90 per cent of the country’s food. Yet, most lack irrigation, climate-resilient seeds, or access to state support. As environmental shocks multiply, subsistence agriculture is collapsing beneath them.

Life on the fringes

Aminu now lives in Apo, Abuja. He came here chasing the stories he had heard from others back in Chadari, that the capital held promise for those willing to work. But like many climate migrants arriving from the north, he quickly realised that without formal education or connections, the only available work was in the city’s informal economy.

“When I first came, I worked at construction sites,” he recalled. 

He moved from one project to another, saving steadily until he could add to the little money he had left behind at home.

Eventually, he bought a motorcycle and started working as a commercial rider (an okada man), shuttling passengers along the busy Galadimawa-Garki-Apo corridor. 

“I was making about ₦15,000 [$9.80] daily,” he said.

Out of that, he regularly sent between ₦10,000 ($6.52) and ₦15,000 home weekly.

The outskirts of Abuja have become a magnet for climate migrating northern youths, who join the 93 per cent of employed Nigerians working in the informal sector.

But the city is not always welcoming.

“My first bike was seized by the VIO [Vehicle Inspection Officers],” Aminu alleged. “I had the papers, but I could not get it back.” 

With no income, he returned to construction work and farming during the rainy season. After a year, he scraped together enough to buy another motorcycle, this time at a discount. That one would be stolen. 

“Now I use a friend’s bike,” he said. “I ride during the day and pay him a return each evening.”

Despite better earnings, the stress wears on Aminu. 

“I am making more money here,” he said, “but I have more peace of mind back home.”

His frustrations echo a broader pattern of tension between informal workers and city authorities. Multiple reports have documented how commercial motorcycle riders in Abuja face routine harassment, extortion, and crackdowns, sometimes sparking violent clashes. In April, the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) crushed over 600 impounded motorcycles, enforcing a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) regulation that prohibits their operation in designated areas.

Abdulhamid’s story took a different turn. When he first left Danja in Katsina, he arrived in Zuba, another edge community in the FCT, where a few acquaintances from home had already settled. 

“I spent five days looking for work,” he recalled. “When I couldn’t find anything, I returned home.”

But hardship forced him back. This time, he found work as a manual sand miner. 

“We go from stream to stream, in different communities, digging sand by hand,” he said. 

On a good day, he earns between ₦6,000 ($3.91) and ₦12,000 ($7.83). From that, about ₦2,100 ($1.37) goes into daily transport and meals. 

“I send at least ₦10,000 [$6.52] every two days to my family,” he said.

“The sand is heavy, and the places are hilly. It is dangerous climbing up and down with it,” Abdulhamid added.

Worse, he has no idea the work he does may be worsening the climate crisis he fled. 

Their only point of contact with the authorities is the farmers who own land near the riverbanks. 

“Nobody from the government has ever questioned us,” he said. 

“We just pay them [the farmers] ₦1,000 per truck of sand.”

But unregulated sand mining is accelerating erosion, destabilising riverbanks, and contributing to downstream flooding, especially in flood-prone areas like the FCT. HumAngle has documented how unchecked mining in Kano destroyed farmland and made seasonal floods deadlier. A similar report shows the issue in Ogun State, South West Nigeria. 

Abdulhamid shrugged. “The sand brings fast money, but we don’t know it’s part of why floods are worse.”

A 2022 UNEP study estimates that 50 billion tonnes of sand are extracted globally each year. In Nigeria, much of this is done illegally and manually, depleting aquifers, degrading river ecosystems, and displacing communities. Ironically, the work Abdulhamid now relies on contributes to the flooding and food shortages that pushed him out of Danja.

Idris Sale’s path was steadier. Since arriving in Abuja from Kano in 2015, he has moved between carpentry and construction labour. 

“On a good day, I make ₦10,000 [$6.52],” he said. 

He saves about ₦7,000 ($4.57) and sends up to ₦20,000 ($13.6) home weekly. 

“There are more job opportunities here,” he said. “I do not get that kind of money in Makoda.”

His main challenge is not the police or permits, but broken promises. 

“Sometimes, they don’t pay me at all,” he said. “Or they give less than we agreed. They just keep postponing it.”

Still, Idris believes the move has been worthwhile. 

“My life has changed,” he said. “Back home, farming was failing. There was no other way to earn.” 

Despite the setbacks, he sees his situation improving. But his shelter is now under threat. Since late 2023, Abuja’s city administration, under FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, has launched a sweeping demolition campaign, targeting informal settlements in what it calls a clean-up and security initiative. Dozens of communities have been levelled.

These demolished neighbourhoods used to shelter many climate immigrants.

According to UN-Habitat, a significant portion of Abuja’s population lives in informal settlements. They are not criminals or squatters, but part of the shadow workforce that keeps the city running. They dig its foundations, ferry its passengers, and haul its waste.

What policies ignore

Aminu has lived through the shifting seasons. He has felt the searing heat, watched the rains falter, and struggled through the floods. But he cannot explain them. 

“Maybe it is the cultivation that drives the rain,” he said. “Before you plant, there will be rain. But after you plant, it will seize.”

Abdulhamid, too, notices the changes. The dry spells have become harsher. But when asked what causes them, he admits, “I have no idea.” 

His family, like others in his community, now relies on a hand-dug well to water crops during dry periods. “An exhausting process with limited results,” he said.

Neither has access to irrigation tools or drought-resistant seeds. Climate change may not be in their vocabulary, but erratic rainfall, failed harvests, livelihood losses, and migration define their lives.

While Aminu and Abdulhamid have quietly adapted by digging wells or leaving home, Nigeria’s climate strategies have not. The country’s policy documents, from the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the National Adaptation Plan, emphasise mitigation: solar energy, reforestation, and emission cuts. But they say little about rural youths like Aminu and Abdulhamid, those forced to migrate not by armed conflict, but by empty fields and dead crops.

The National Adaptation Plan warns of climate risks to agriculture. But it says little about the migration of young people, or the pressure that climate displacement places on informal urban economies.

Meanwhile, data paints a clearer picture. Climate-related displacements across Africa have surged sixfold since 2009, reaching 6.3 million people in 2023. While floods remain the main driver, drought-related migration is accelerating. Nigeria alone recorded over 6 million people displaced by climate events between 2008 and 2021. Yet adaptation funds rarely follow them to the cities where they resettle.

In Abuja, planning documents acknowledge flood threats, but not the steady influx of rural migrants building lives on the fringes. There is no policy for them. No targeted relief. No plan to absorb or empower.

“We are mostly farmers in Chidari,” Aminu said. “And it is rainfed farming. We cannot afford to dig boreholes in our farms, and our politicians did not construct any for us.” 

He is not bitter, just resigned. “During the dry season, we are jobless. Some youths join politics as thugs. Others, like me, leave for the city.”

Aminu says he would return to farming in Chidari if he had access to irrigation tools, fertilisers, and pesticides. Otherwise, he sees himself remaining in Abuja’s informal economy or joining the military. “I have applied several times,” he said, “but ha’ve never been selected.”

Abdulhamid, too, says he would stay in his village if empowered with climate-smart farming tools. 

“I love my village,” he said. “But the hardship and responsibilities were what made me leave.” 

He wishes those in government would come and see what their policies overlook. 

“If I could talk to them, I would ask them to visit the villages during the rainy season. Let them see what we go through,” he said.

On the surface, all this seems positive. Certainly, reports from inside the club say the sports science team were delighted with the numbers from the early training sessions after Amorim’s players returned for the start of pre-season on 7 July.

This, they reasoned, suggested the players had stuck to a pretty detailed and strict fitness programme to work on during their time off.

This is Manchester United, so there were some commercial appearances, but they have reduced from previous tours.

In fact, potentially the most significant commercial event as far as the club was concerned had no player involvement at all as Lord Coe, chair designate of the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) for the Old Trafford regeneration project, was part of a delegation who addressed an audience of Wall Street investment banks and US financiers in New York to try to generate interest in helping to fund the planned £2bn new stadium project.

The fact neither Coe nor chief operating officer Collette Roche, who spoke at length to travelling media about the stadium plans in Los Angeles 12 months earlier, met the press this time suggests strongly nothing significant has changed and the feeling is growing United will not meet an initial five-year timeline minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe spoke of in March.

That is not Amorim’s concern, of course.

He must deliver on the pitch. And to that end, United did look much better than last season.

It was obvious the much-discussed three-man defence splits when Amorim’s team have the ball so, when the build-up begins, the right and left-sided defenders operate as normal central defenders with the middle man of the three – Matthijs de Ligt is in pole position for that role – moves into midfield alongside the deeper of the two chosen for those jobs.

Matheus Cunha definitely brings more invention to Amorim’s attack and Amad Diallo, if selected, is a massive danger offensively at right wing-back, even if questions are asked defensively.

It is clear Amorim feels he can find an upgrade on Rasmus Hojlund, even if many would argue a better use of the funds United do have would be to find someone who can bring physicality and energy to midfield.

Watching the industry of Bournemouth’s Alex Scott emphasises it is a significant weakness in Amorim’s squad.

Nevertheless, as tours go, this has been a fairly calm one. Amorim’s group of players, in general, seem happy enough and the positive spirit needed for any team to be successful does exist.

Yet the reality of modern football is that everything in seen through, and judged by, the prism of results.

The walk through might be an advancement. If United win it will be seen that way. If they lose it will be written off as a terrible idea – even though it is the exactly the same process.

Conceding the winning goal to Tottenham in the Europa League final through a flick off Brennan Johnson – that took a deflection at close range off Luke Shaw and then squeezed in at the corner despite Onana’s desperate attempt to keep it out – has nothing to do with training and everything to do with the small margins managers across the league talk about.

This does seem to be a better United. Amorim is getting his ideas across.

But Arsenal’s upcoming visit to Old Trafford and the 37 Premier Leagues games afterwards will decide whether the progress is real or if pre-season 2025 was just another false dawn.

The Israeli occupation army is grappling with a crisis in morale, which has been described as a “ticking time bomb” by local media, following the decision to extend compulsory military service by four months. This comes amidst ongoing operations in Gaza and rising tensions with Lebanon.

According to media reports, the order has sparked widespread discontent among soldiers who have been engaged in combat for over a year and a half. Many express feelings of exhaustion, exploitation and a loss of trust in both the state and military leadership. “Morale is at rock bottom… fighters are trying to escape combat positions for other roles,” an officer stated.

Soldiers reported being taken by surprise when informed of the extension of their service without prior notice. Sergeant Major Rishon A. from the Nahal Brigade, who was scheduled to be discharged last week, said he was notified the day before his discharge about an additional four-month service extension. He added: “The state is exploiting us mercilessly… I feel my personal life means nothing to them.”

Rishon noted that the new salary of 8,000 shekels ($2,205) does not compensate for the frustration: “I could earn this amount as a waiter, but I would prefer to wake up every morning free, not conscripted by force.”

Other soldiers highlighted a severe shortage of combat troops within the army, leading them to undertake non-combat tasks such as working in kitchens, which they view as evidence of the military’s inability to perform its core duties.

Sergeant S., a 14-month veteran in an armoured unit, expressed feelings of frustration, stating: “If I leave, who will fill my place? No one. We’re stuck.”

Additionally, soldiers expressed dissatisfaction with the continued full exemption of Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) from military service, considering it “a grave injustice”, which has intensified feelings of discrimination and eroded trust in the state.

Senior officers confirmed that the decision to extend service has caused significant harm to the army’s combat spirit and willingness to continue serving, particularly in combat units. One officer explained that the directive was implemented unfairly across units, leading to deep frustration among soldiers.

Report: Majority of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews refuse army service

Seoul removes propaganda loudspeakers to signal a shift in policy under President Lee’s administration.

South Korean authorities began removing loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country’s border, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defence has said, as the new government of President Lee Jae-myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

“Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of South Korea’s Defence Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

Shortly after he took office in June, Lee’s administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticising the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour.

But North Korea recently rebuffed the overtures and said it had no interest in talking to South Korea.

The countries remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and relations have deteriorated in the last few years.

“It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military’s state of readiness,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

All loudspeakers set up along the border will be dismantled by the end of the week, he added, but did not disclose the exact number that would be removed.

President Lee, recently elected after his predecessor was impeached over an abortive martial law declaration, had ordered the military to stop the broadcasts in a bid to “restore trust”.

Relations between the two Koreas had been at one of their lowest points in years, with Seoul taking a hard line towards Pyongyang, which has drawn ever closer to Moscow in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The previous government started the broadcasts last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang.

But Lee promised to improve relations with North Korea and reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Despite his diplomatic overtures, North Korea has rejected pursuing dialogue with its neighbour.

“If the ROK… expected that it could reverse all the results it had made with a few sentimental words, nothing is [a] more serious miscalculation…,” Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said last week, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.

Lee has said that he would seek talks with North Korea without conditions, following a deep freeze under his predecessor.

The Home Office has announced £100m in extra funding as part of efforts to crack down on illegal people smuggling in the English Channel.

The money will pay for up to 300 additional National Crime Agency (NCA) officers as well as new technology and equipment.

More than 25,000 people made the journey from France to the UK in small boats before the end of July, a record for this point in the year.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the move would help the UK better “track the [smuggling] gangs and bring them down”. The Conservative Party called it a “desperate grab for headlines which will make no real difference”.

Last month, the government agreed a “one in, one out” pilot scheme with France which aims to deter migrants from crossing the Channel. Under the scheme, some arrivals would be returned to France and in exchange the UK would accept an equivalent number of asylum seekers, subject to security checks.

According to the Home Office, the new £100m will boost border security and strengthen investigations targeting smuggling kingpins who have operations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.

Ms Cooper said gangs had shown a “a ruthless ability to adapt their tactics and maximise their profits, no matter how many lives they put at risk”.

The NCA has 91 ongoing investigations into people-smuggling networks affecting the UK, the agency’s director general of operations Rob Jones said.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Labour of having “no serious plan” to tackle the issue.

“The British public deserves real action, not empty slogans and tinkering at the edges,” he said.

Writing in the Daily Express, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it was an effort to “throw taxpayer money at the illegal immigration crisis and hope it will go away”.

“Another £100 million here or there won’t move the needle. It won’t stop the boats or the gangs,” he added.

Labour and previous Conservative governments have both struggled to reduce the number of people coming to the UK illegally in small boats.

The Conservatives had proposed sending arrivals to Rwanda, but the scheme was delayed by legal challenges. The general election was called before it could be implemented.

One of Sir Keir Starmer’s first acts as prime minister was to scrap the plan, calling it a gimmick.

In another measure, which was revealed on Sunday, people advertising illegal Channel crossings online could face up to five years in prison under a new offence the government plans to introduce.

Assisting illegal immigration to the UK is already a crime, but officials believe the new offence would give police and other agencies more power to disrupt criminal gangs.

It would criminalise the creation of material for publication online which promotes or offers services that facilitate a breach of UK immigration law.

This would include people using social media to advertise fake passports or visas, or the promise of illegal work opportunities in the UK, and as well as jail time could carry a large fine.