Thousands of right-wing Israelis have marched through occupied East Jerusalem to celebrate Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 following the Six-Day War.
They made their way through Palestinian neighbourhoods, chanting “death to Arabs” and anti-Islamic slogans.
Police forces were dispatched in advance, as the settlers regularly assault and harass Palestinians in the Muslim quarter.
Right-wing Israelis also stormed the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
Last year’s procession, held during the first year of the Gaza war, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. Four years ago, the march contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day war in Gaza.
Ukraine says Russia launched a record number of drones overnight on Monday, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing the attacks as a sign that Moscow is “acting with impunity”.
Ukrainian air defences downed most of the 355 drones, but several broke through defences, causing casualties, according to authorities. Two elderly women were killed in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said.
Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of launching aerial attacks on its “social infrastructure”. The Ministry of Defence said it shot down at least 48 Ukrainian drones on Monday, after shooting down 96 overnight.
Russia’s state TASS news agency, citing the Defence Ministry, reported that Russian forces have taken over the villages of Volodymyrivka and Belovody in the northeastern region of Sumy.
The governor of Sumy said Russian forces had captured four other villages as part of an attempt to create a “buffer zone” on Ukrainian territory. He identified them as Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka, and said that residents had long been evacuated.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said Russian attacks have killed 630 Ukrainian children and wounded 1,960 since the beginning of the war.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs special envoy Rodion Miroshnik has accused the Ukrainian military of causing more than 400 civilian casualties in April, including with “inhumane methods of warfare”.
Military aid
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Ukraine’s key Western allies are no longer limiting the range of weapons they supply, a move the Kremlin said would be “dangerous”.
Ukraine says it has confirmed information that China is supplying a range of important products to Russian military plants, including tooling machines, special chemical products, gunpowder and components specifically to defence manufacturing industries.
Politics and diplomacy
The Kremlin responded to United States President Donald Trump’s remark that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy” over the scale of Russian air attacks, suggesting the US leader may be experiencing “emotional overload”.
It also said that serious work on Russia’s proposal for a possible peace deal for the war in Ukraine was ongoing and that a draft had not yet been submitted. “This is a serious draft, a draft of a serious document that demands careful checks and preparation,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 900 drones as well as missiles towards Ukraine over three nights, and again called for intensified pressure on Moscow. “There is no military sense in this, but it is an obvious political choice – a choice by Putin, a choice by Russia – a choice to continue the war and destroy lives,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly video address.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he believes Trump is beginning to see that Putin “lied” to him about the war in Ukraine. He also called for the imposition of a deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, backed up by the threat of “massive sanctions”./li>
Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericton also said that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine over the weekend proved that Moscow is not interested in peace.
Finland summoned Russia’s Helsinki ambassador to ask for an explanation regarding a suspected violation of Finnish airspace which took place last week. The NATO member said on Friday that it believed two Russian military aircraft entered its airspace off the coast of Porvoo in the southern part of the country.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has urged doctors in England to “vote no” in a ballot on industrial action which gets under way on Tuesday.
In a BBC interview, he urged resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, to “work with the government” and warned strikes risked hampering the progress being made in the NHS.
He said it was in no-one’s interests for strikes to take place.
Last week it was announced resident doctors would be getting a 5.4% average pay rise this year – more than other doctors, nurses and teachers.
But resident doctors, who took part in 11 strikes in 2023 and 2024, said it was not enough to make up for below-inflation pay awards since 2008.
The union is urging members to vote for industrial action, with sources saying strikes would be the likely action taken.
This year’s pay rise comes after resident doctors were awarded rises worth 22% over the previous two years.
Streeting agreed to that deal shortly after coming into office, ending a dispute which had lasted more than a year.
Taking account of this year’s pay rise, it means the starting salary for a doctor fresh out of university has risen by £9,500 over the past three years to around £38,800, the government said.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) said even after the latest pay rise another 20% was needed to bring wages back to where they were in 2008.
Resident doctors’ committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “We are urging doctors to vote yes to strike action.
“By voting yes they will be telling the government there is no alternative to fixing pay – this cannot wait for different fiscal circumstances and a healthier NHS. The answer is to fix it today.”
The vote on industrial action runs until 7 July.
Streeting said his door was always open but added there was no more money to increase salaries above the latest award.
And he said a fresh bout of strikes would put attempts to rebuild the NHS at risk.
Speaking to the BBC, Streeting said: ” I don’t think strikes are in their interests, in patients interests and I certainly don’t think it’s in the interest of the NHS overall.”
Streeting has often cited the deal he reached last year to end the previous round of strikes as evidence of the government’s ability to reform the health service and cut waiting lists.
Meanwhile, BMA sources said consultants were likely to start a dispute process over their 4% rise – the first step towards moving to an industrial action ballot.
Other staff including nurses, midwives and physios have been given a 3.6% increase. The Royal College of Nursing said it was “grotesque” nurses were getting less than doctors for the second year in a row.
The Scottish government has agreed a deal worth 8% over two years with health unions representing all staff apart from doctors and dentists. There have been no strikes by health workers in Scotland.
Police say a male suspect is taken into custody after a car collides with several pedestrians in Liverpool.
A man has been arrested after driving a car into a crowd in Liverpool during a parade to celebrate Liverpool FC’s Premier League football title, emergency services say.
Merseyside Police in northwest England said they were contacted just after 6pm (17:00 GMT) on Monday “following reports a car had been in collision with a number of pedestrians”.
The PA Media news agency, quoting police, reported the arrested man is a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area”.
“Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision,” police said. “We would ask people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding tonight’s incident.”
There was no immediate word from authorities about how many people were injured.
Social media footage appeared to show a dark-coloured car swerving into the dense crowd at the end of the celebrations as players showed off the trophy on an open-topped bus through the city.
Harry Rashid, who was at the parade with his wife and two young daughters, told The Associated Press news agency the car began ramming people about 3 metres (10ft) away from him.
“It was extremely fast,” Rashid said. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”
The area in Liverpool is cordoned off [Phil Noble/Reuters]
Crowds and uniformed police officers quickly surrounded the vehicle and several people lying on the ground.
Cordons were put in place, and a fire engine was also at the scene.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being kept updated about the incident.
“The scenes in Liverpool are appalling – my thoughts are with all those injured or affected. I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident,” Starmer said on social media.
The incident followed a large celebration in the city centre, where tens of thousands of dancing, scarf- and flag-waving fans braved wet weather to line the streets and watch Liverpool’s players display the Premier League trophy atop two buses bearing the words “Ours Again”.
The hours-long procession – surrounded by a thick layer of police and security – crawled along a 10-mile (16km) route and through a sea of red smoke and rain. Fireworks exploded from the Royal Liver Building in the heart of the city to seemingly signal the end of the parade.
Rashid said after the car struck its initial victims, it came to a halt and the crowd charged the vehicle and began smashing windows.
“But then he put his foot down again and just ploughed through the rest of them. He just kept going,” Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”
Rashid said it looked deliberate and he was in shock and disbelief.
“My daughter started screaming, and there were people on the ground,” he said. “They were just innocent people, just fans going to enjoy the parade.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool said in a post on X that it was in direct contact with police about the event. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident,” the team said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the US president ‘wants peace’ but will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Washington, DC – United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says she delivered a message from President Donald Trump to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the two countries should be aligned on how to approach Iran.
Noem, who concluded a visit to Israel on Monday, told Fox News that her talks with Netanyahu were “candid and direct”. Her comments come days after US and Iranian officials held their fifth round of nuclear talks in Rome.
“President Trump specifically sent me here to have a conversation with the prime minister about how those negotiations are going and how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out,” she said.
On Sunday, Trump suggested that the talks were progressing well.
“We’ve had some very, very good talks with Iran,” the US president told reporters. “And I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good.”
Last week, CNN reported, citing unidentified US officials, that Israel was preparing for strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite the US-led talks.
Iran has promised to respond forcefully to any Israeli attack, and accused Netanyahu of working to undermine US diplomacy.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said last week that the Israeli prime minister is “desperate to dictate what the US can and cannot do”.
Israel has been sceptical about the nuclear negotiations, and Netanyahu has been claiming for years that Iran is on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear bomb. Israeli officials portray Iran – which backs regional groups engaged in armed struggle against Israel – as a major threat.
On Monday, Noem said that the US understands that Netanyahu does not trust Iran.
“The message to the American people is: We have a president that wants peace, but also a president that will not tolerate nuclear Iran capability in the future. They will not be able to get a nuclear weapon, and this president will not allow it,” she said.
“But he also wants this prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to be on the same page with him.”
A major sticking point in the talks has been whether Iran would be allowed to enrich its own uranium.
US officials have said they want Iran not just to scale back its nuclear programme, but also to completely stop enriching uranium – a position that Tehran has said is a nonstarter.
Enrichment is the process of altering the uranium atom to create nuclear fuel.
Iranian officials say enrichment for civilian purposes is a sovereign right that is not prohibited by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
During his first term, in 2018, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had seen Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.
Since then, the US has been piling sanctions on Iran. Tehran has responded by escalating its nuclear programme.
On Monday, Iran ruled out temporarily suspending uranium enrichment to secure an interim deal with the US.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei stressed that Iran is not buying time with the talks.
“We have entered the course of talks seriously and purposefully with the intention of reaching a fair agreement. We have proved our seriousness,” Baqaei was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
Watch: King Charles III arrives in Canada to a ceremonial welcome
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in Canada for a visit meant to underscore Canada’s sovereignty in the face of tensions with the US.
The two-day visit began on Monday with a whirlwind of pomp and pageantry that included a welcome ceremony for the King and Queen at the airport, a ceremonial hockey puck drop and a tree planting.
It comes ahead of a big day on Tuesday, when the King will deliver the Speech of the Throne – which will lay out the government’s priorities and goals – to Parliament.
A monarch has not delivered the throne speech in Canada since 1977, making this royal visit a rare occasion.
“The Royal Visit is a reminder of the bond between Canada and the Crown – one forged over generations, shaped by shared histories, and grounded in common values,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday.
Here is a look at King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s time in Ottawa so far:
EPA
An arrival guard from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, a senior armoured regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces, participated in the ceremony
The King and Queen touched down in Ottawa at around 13:15 local time (18:15 BST). They were welcomed by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Armed Forces.
Waiting for them on the runway were Prime Minister Carney, his wife Diana Fox Carney, Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon and other dignitaries.
They were also met by national indigenous leaders.
The King wore a dark red patterned tie, while the Queen donned a light pink ensemble from a British designer.
She wore a diamond maple leaf brooch that was given by King George VI to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1939 ahead of their first royal tour to Canada.
That same brooch was passed down to Queen Elizabeth II, and has been loaned to other royals including Catherine, Princess of Wales.
PA Media
Prime Minister Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, personally welcomed the King and Queen
Reuters
The King and Queen were also welcomed by leaders of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, who have a long relationship with the Crown
Carney extended an invitation to the King earlier this year and announced the visit shortly after his Liberal party won Canada’s general election in April.
The visit comes amid a trade war with the country’s neighbour and close economic ally, the United States.
US President Donald Trump has also repeatedly said the country would be better off as a 51st US state.
At the airport, the Queen was given a bouquet of flowers and she and the King were greeted by school groups from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Some of the children who attended the arrival are enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh programme, a global youth development programme launched by the late Prince Phillip – the King’s father – in 1956.
AFP/Getty Images
Crowds gathered well before the arrival of the King and Queen at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park
After the airport greeting, the King and Queen travelled to Lansdowne Park in central Ottawa, where they met well-wishers, local community groups, farmers, and vendors.
The King took part in a ceremonial street hockey puck drop.
Getty Images
It was too warm for ice hockey, but the King helped kick off a street hockey game
PA Media
The King and Queen were invited to sample local wares, including maple syrup treats
The King and Queen later partook in a tree planting ceremony at Rideau Hall, the official residence of Canada’s governor general.
It is the fifth tree planted by the King in Canada, and the second with Queen Camilla by his side.
They planted a Blue-Beech tree, a small deciduous tree native to eastern North America that grows well in the region, and that is known for its distinctive leaves that change colour with the seasons.
Afterwards, the King will hold an audience with Governor General Mary Simon and later with Prime Minister Carney.
These are typically private meetings held to discuss official matters with the reigning monarch.
Reuters
The King celebrated after the ceremonial planting of a a blue-beech tree at Rideau Hall. This was the fifth tree planted by the King and the second planted by Their Majesties together.
Some Israelis chant, ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘May your village burn,’ as they march through Jerusalem’s Old City.
Right-wing Israelis in Jerusalem have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and a United Nations facility for Palestinian refugees as an annual march took place marking Israel’s conquest of the eastern part of the city.
Some Israelis chanted, “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn,” as they marched through the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday, going through the Muslim quarter to mark “Jerusalem Day”, which commemorates the Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 war.
Thousands of heavily armed police and border police were dispatched in advance because settlers regularly assault, attack and harass Palestinians and shops in the Muslim quarter. The settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Groups of young people, some carrying Israeli flags, were seen on Monday confronting Palestinian shopkeepers, passers-by and schoolchildren as well as Israeli rights activists and police, at times spitting on people, lobbing insults and trying to force their way into houses.
Police detained at least two youths, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
A small group of those rallying, including an Israeli member of parliament, stormed a compound in East Jerusalem belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.
Israel has banned the agency from working in occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel, impacting the life-saving work that it has been carrying out for more than 70 years in areas that include the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.
UNRWA West Bank coordinator Roland Friedrich said about a dozen Israeli protesters, including Yulia Malinovsky, one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that banned UNRWA, entered the compound, climbing its main gate in view of Israeli police.
Last year’s procession, held during the first year of Israel’s assault on Gaza, saw ultranationalist Israelis attack a Palestinian journalist in the Old City and call for violence against Palestinians. And four years ago, the march contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day war in Gaza.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and other politicians were among more than 2,000 Israelis who stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas.
Ben-Gvir released a video on his X account from the site – Islam’s third holiest – saying he “prayed for victory in the war, for the return of all our hostages, and for the success of the newly-appointed head of the Shin Bet – Major General David Zini”.
Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Vaserlauf and Knesset member Yitzhak Kreuzer were among those accompanying the ultranationalist minister.
Backed by armed police, Ben-Gvir has carried out similar provocative moves in the compound before, often at sensitive junctures in Israel’s war on Gaza, to advocate for increased military pressure and to block all humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
The Jerusalem Waqf – the Islamic authority that oversees the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) – decried the storming of the compound by Ben-Gvir and other members of the Israeli Knesset and called for a halt to all “provocative activities” in the area.
Under the management of the Jordan-appointed Waqf, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the compound.
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the march is aimed at asserting Israeli dominance over the city.
“Videos show Israeli citizens inside the Old City of Jerusalem attacking Palestinian shops and throwing objects at them,” Ibrahim said, reporting from Doha, Qatar as Al Jazeera has been banned from reporting in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
“This is again a reminder that no one has immunity.”
The layoffs come days after US President Donald Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs on EU goods.
Swedish automaker Volvo is set to cut 3,000 white-collar jobs amid restructuring efforts as prices begin to rise due to tariff-driven uncertainty.
The company announced the news on Monday. The layoffs come as the Swedish automaker tries to resurrect its rock-bottom share price and drum up better demand for its cars by restructuring part of its business and cutting costs.
CEO Hakan Samuelsson, who was recently brought back to the role after heading the company for a decade until 2022, unveiled a programme in April to slash costs by $1.9bn (18 billion Swedish crowns), including a substantial cut to Volvo’s white-collar staff, who make up 40 percent of its workforce.
“It’s white collar in almost all areas, including R&D [research and development], communication, human resources,” Samuelsson told the Reuters news agency.
The layoffs represent around 15 percent of the company’s office staff, Volvo Cars said in a statement, and would incur a one-time restructuring cost of $160m (1.5 billion crowns).
Volvo Cars’ new CFO Fredrik Hansson told Reuters that while all of its departments and locations would be impacted, most of the redundancies will happen in Gothenburg.
“It’s tailored to make us structurally more efficient, and then how that plays out might vary a bit depending on the area. But no stone is left unturned,” Hansson said.
With most of its production based in Europe and China, Volvo Cars is more exposed to new United States tariffs than many of its European rivals, and has said it could become impossible to export its most affordable cars to the US.
The company said in a press release that it would finalise a new structural setup by the third quarter of this year.
Volvo withdrew its financial guidance as it announced its cost cuts last month, pointing to unpredictable markets amid weaker consumer confidence and trade tariffs causing turmoil in the global auto industry.
The layoff announcement comes only days after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union from June 1. On Monday, however, he backed away from that date, restoring a July 9 deadline to allow for talks between Washington and Brussels.
As a result, Volvo’s CEO said the move would make it harder for it to sell one of its electric vehicles (EVs) — the EX30 EV that is made in Belgium — in the US market.
Farmers demonstrate against changes to legislation that would ease restrictions on pesticide and water use in farming.
French farmers have disrupted highway traffic around Paris and rallied in front of parliament to protest against amendments filed by opposition lawmakers to a bill that would loosen environmental regulations on farming.
Members of France’s leading farming union, the FNSEA, parked about 10 tractors outside the National Assembly on Monday to put pressure on MPs, who began debating the legislation in the afternoon.
The legislation, tabled by far-right MP Laurent Duplomb, proposes simplifying approvals for breeding facilities, loosening restrictions around water use to promote irrigation reservoirs and reauthorising a banned neonicotinoid pesticide used in sugar beet cultivation that environmentalists say is harmful to bees.
The proposed law is part of a wider trend in numerous European Union states to unwind environmental legislation as farmers grapple with rising costs and households struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.
More than 150 farmers from the Ile-de-France, Grand Est and Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur regions gathered peacefully in front of the National Assembly, drinking coffee and eating croissants, after blocking the main roads around the capital.
“This bill to lift the constraints on the farming profession is very important to us,” FNSEA Secretary-General Herve Lapie told the AFP news agency.
“What we are asking for is simply to be able to work in a European environment: a single market, a single set of rules. We’ve been fighting for this for 20 years. For once, there’s a bill along these lines. … We don’t have the patience to wait any longer.”
The FNSEA and its allies say the neonicotinoid pesticide acetamiprid, which has been prohibited in France since 2018 due to environmental and health concerns, should be authorised in France like it is across the EU because it is less toxic to wildlife than other neonicotinoids and stops crops from being ravaged by pests.
Environmental campaigners and some unions representing small-scale and organic farmers say the bill benefits the large-scale agriculture industry at the expense of independent operators.
President Emmanuel Macron’s opponents on the political left have proposed multiple amendments that the protesting farmers said threatened the bill.
“We’re asking the lawmakers, our lawmakers, to be serious and vote for it as it stands,” Julien Thierry, a grain farmer from the Yvelines department outside Paris, told The Associated Press news agency, criticising politicians from the Greens and left-wing France Unbowed (LFI).
Ecologists party MP Delphine Batho said the text of the bill is “Trump-inspired” while LFI MP Aurelie Trouve wrote in an article for the French daily Le Monde that it signified “a political capitulation, one that marks an ecological junction”.
FNSEA chief Arnaud Rousseau said protests would continue until Wednesday with farmers from the Centre-Val de Loire and Hauts-de-France regions expected to join their colleagues.
Protests are also expected in Brussels next week, targeting the EU’s environmental regulations and green policies.
Farmers across France and Europe won concessions last year after railing against cheap foreign competition and what they say are unnecessary regulations.
Beneath the violence that has come to define the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) lies a highly organised financial ecosystem sustaining their operations. Fuelled by a complex blend of taxation, extortion, smuggling, and ideological justification, the groups have transformed parts of northeastern Nigeria into a conflict-driven economy.
For over a decade, terrorists have waged war against Nigeria and its neighbouring countries, displacing millions and wreaking havoc on communities. They took control of some civilian communities, collecting taxes, enforcing laws, and offering basic welfare, particularly within their strongholds around Lake Chad.
In recent times, HumAngle has uncovered how these groups have moved beyond the conventional tactics of ransom collection and taxation. They are now tapping into the dark web to generate revenue, exploiting the anonymity of cryptocurrencies to evade traditional financial surveillance. This marks a strategic shift by Islamic State affiliates, especially as the core group struggles with diminished income following its territorial losses in Iraq and Syria.
File: A digital campaign soliciting donations through cryptocurrency attributed to the IS affiliates.
Beyond the traditional hawala system, which transfers funds informally through networks of trust, terrorist financiers are now leveraging decentralised digital currencies to solicit donations and channel funds. These covert financial pipelines challenge counterterrorism efforts and expose a growing blind spot in the global fight against extremism.
Drawing from interviews with former fighters, security experts, and residents of conflict-affected communities, HumAngle has also traced offline funding methods that jihadist factions continue to rely on across the Lake Chad region.
“Zakat is paid willingly by members and enforced on outsiders,” said a former ISWAP member, who spoke anonymously due to safety concerns. “It is pooled to the Baitul Ma-al (treasury) at the headquarters of the different wilayats.” For the outsiders and non-combatants, the term is referred to as “jizya”, a levy enforced on an individual who doesn’t subscribe to the jihadists’ version of Islam.
The wilayat (smaller territories under ISWAP control) enforcing the zakat and jizya serve as administrative zones modelled after Islamist governance. They function not only as extensions of the Islamic State’s ideology but also as de facto provinces, each led by a wali (governor). At the local level, operations are controlled by an administrator known as an Amir.
The insurgents operate a formal taxation system that draws from Islamic principles but is executed with military precision. Residents pay zakat, the religious tithe, alongside fees for farming, fishing, or conducting trade. Outsiders entering the dawlah (state) are subjected to additional levies.
“Revenues are collected by appointed officials who move around town, villages, farmlands and grazing areas,” the former fighter explained. “The financial records are kept by the revenue collectors.”
Compliance is mandatory. Refusal brings swift and brutal retribution. “Confiscation of assets, jail sentence or capital punishment were the typical sanctions,” he said. “[Sometimes] it could amount to capital punishment.”
Farmers interviewed by HumAngle in Borno, for instance, are required to pay about ₦10,000 per hectare. No one is permitted to begin farming without this payment, and receipts are issued by the group as proof. Recently, that levy has been increased to a whopping ₦50,000, causing some discontent among the people living under ISWAP’s control, reportedly making them defect to the Jama’atu Ahlussunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (JAS) faction of Boko Haram.
To mask coercion under religious legitimacy, ISWAP invokes theological language. Appeals for financial support are couched in terms like isti’dad (preparation for jihad). While donations are said to be “according to your means,” refusal is harshly punished.
“Sometimes businessmen are fined for disobedience, and it’s called a donation,” the former terrorist recalled. “It’s never really voluntary.”
This fusion of religious rhetoric and criminal enforcement allows ISWAP to assert moral authority while wielding authoritarian control. The collected money doesn’t simply enrich individual fighters. Much of it flows into a central Albaitul maal, where it is redistributed across operational and administrative needs.
According to the former fighter, funds are used for multiple purposes: “Weapons, paying fighters, giving stipends to widows and orphans of dead fighters, running health clinics on special days. Even some community services.”
Fighters receive monthly salaries and bonuses during military campaigns. Welfare packages are given to the families of dead fighters. Some areas under ISWAP’s influence maintain makeshift clinics and rudimentary schools, financed from this central pool.
While this may resemble the functions of a state, it is fundamentally underpinned by coercion. Services are tied to loyalty, and taxes to survival.
“Those living in the dawlah see it as normal activity, and forcefully living under the dawlah, they have no strength to make any reaction,” the former member said.
People living under ISWAP-controlled areas are divided into Awam (commoners/non-combatants) and Rijal (contextually meaning fighters). For civilians in ISWAP-held areas, daily life is a constant negotiation with fear. Some comply to survive, and others, especially new arrivals, live in quiet terror.
Crypto donations
Nigeria’s status as one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets offers fertile ground for terrorist financing, allowing terror groups like ISWAP to use different platforms, such as Monero, a digital crypto page with enhanced privacy features.
ISWAP’s use of digital currencies in its financial playbook mirrors a broader trend among insurgent groups in Africa and beyond. On the dark web, their propaganda outlets have actively solicited Monero donations, leveraging its anonymity and security.
Monero, developed in 2014 by anonymous creators, conceals transaction details on its blockchain. This has made it the preferred choice for both ransomware operators and extremist networks. The Islamic State’s dark web platforms have openly called for Monero donations in support of insurgent activities. While IS branches like Khurasan have launched dedicated crypto campaigns, ISWAP has yet to do so. However, researchers identify it as a leading crypto user among IS affiliates globally.
ISWAP generates significant revenue, which is often converted into the Monero cryptocurrency platform, which can facilitate anonymous transactions. The preference for Monero stems from its enhanced privacy and security measures, making it challenging for authorities to track and monitor financial flows. By utilising Monero, ISWAP maintains secrecy and evades detection, potentially complicating efforts to disrupt their financial networks and operations.
File: This website was created to support ISWAP and other IS provinces soliciting donations through Monero cryptocurrency.
Smuggling and black markets
In addition to cryptocurrencies, black market operations and regional trade form a large portion of the insurgent economy. Smuggling routes span Nigeria’s borders with Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, facilitating the movement of fuel, food, and drugs.
“Smugglers bring in fuel through Banki and Kirawa [in Borno State],” the former fighter said. “They pay a levy to pass. The group taxes everything.”
Markets within ISWAP’s domain operate under strict supervision. The group controls livestock and fish markets via appointed intermediaries—local businessmen who handle external trade and launder profits back to leadership.
“They are businessmen, but they are also collaborators,” the former ISWAP member told HumAngle. “They don’t carry weapons, but they are part of the system.”
This economic integration has allowed the insurgents to embed themselves into local commerce, making it harder for Nigerian forces and international partners to isolate and weaken them.
The financial engine behind Boko Haram and ISWAP is resilient, adaptive, and deeply entrenched in local realities. It flourishes in the absence of Nigerian state authority, often aided, willingly or otherwise, by community actors.
A 2023 report by the International Crisis Group observed that ISWAP’s economic model mimics state structures and generates steady revenue, especially from taxation of local businesses and traders, noting that defeating this system would take more than military might.
“Breaking the financial backbone of these groups involves restoring legitimate governance and providing alternative livelihoods,” a former staff member of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit told HumAngle, pleading anonymity for security reasons. “As long as they provide services and the state does not, they will retain influence.”
Fifteen years into the conflict, the fight against Boko Haram and ISWAP is no longer solely about military victories, the expert said. It is also about dismantling the systems that keep them alive. In a conflict-ravaged region where the state has faltered, insurgents have constructed a parallel order, founded not only on violence but also on function.
“They are fighting a war, yes. But they are also running a government,” the former ISWAP fighter reiterated.
Hundreds gathered in Minneapolis on Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Activists said the failed push for police reform in the city cast a shadow over the vigil and argued nothing has changed since he was killed.
With 31 league goals and 62 points, Mbappe is European football’s top scorer this season.
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe has ended his first season in Spain by collecting the European Golden Shoe award.
Mbappe, who also won the Pichichi Trophy for being the top goal scorer in La Liga, scored twice in Real’s final league game on Saturday to overtake Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres at the top of the weighted table, which counts only league goals.
Mbappe, 26, ended with 31 league goals and became the third Real Madrid player to win the award after Hugo Sanchez and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The last Frenchman to collect the Golden Shoe was Thierry Henry, who won it in 2004 and 2005 with Arsenal.
Mbappe could have been caught on Sunday while he was in Monaco watching the Formula One Grand Prix.
Mohamed Salah, who needed a hat-trick in English champions Liverpool’s last league game, scored once to finish third with 29 goals.
Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona, already certain to finish ahead of Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish league title, scored twice on Sunday at Bilbao. He achieved a total of 27 goals for fourth place in Europe and second in the Pichichi.
The Pole won the Golden Shoe twice with Bayern Munich and claimed the Pichichi in 2023.
Last year’s Golden Shoe winner, Harry Kane, finished fifth with 26 Bundesliga goals to go with his league champions medal at Bayern. Mateo Retegui with 25 for Atalanta was the top Serie A player in sixth place.
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe scored 31 goals in La Liga in the 2024-2025 season [File: Matthew Childs/Reuters]
Gyokeres outscored Mbappe with 39 goals, but the table is weighted. Each goal in the “big five” European competitions – La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A – is doubled. For the next 16 ranked leagues, goals are multiplied by 1.5.
Below that, a goal is just a goal.
In the final calculations, the top five in the rankings were as follows: Mbappe (62 points), Gyokeres (58.5), Salah (58), Robert Lewandowski (54) and Harry Kane (52).
Mbappe, the top scorer in the 2022 World Cup, hit 43 goals in all competitions for Real this season.
Claude fears he may soon die – either from starvation or violence – as he waits at a food distribution tent in a refugee camp in Burundi.
He is among thousands of Congolese refugees trapped between a brutal conflict across the border and severe reductions in international food assistance.
A former bouncer from Uvira, a town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Claude fled after violence erupted in the east, sparked by the rapid advance of the Rwanda-backed M23 group.
Armed groups “were shooting, killing each other, … raping women,” recalled the 25-year-old, who escaped across the border into Burundi in February.
In the overcrowded Musenyi camp, Claude now faces a different struggle as food rations dwindle.
Hunger has fuelled new tensions within the camp, prompting Claude to join volunteers who patrol the area to prevent theft of what supplies remain.
“When I arrived here, I was given 3.5kg [7.7lb] of rice per month. Now it’s a kilo [2.2lb]. The 3kg [6.6lb] of peas have dropped to 1.8kg [4lb]. What I get in tomato sauce lasts one day. Then it’s over,” said Claude, whose name has been changed for security reasons, as have the names of other refugees interviewed.
Some of the most desperate resort to slashing neighbours’ tents in search of food, he added, while gangs “spread terror”.
“The reduction of assistance will lead to many crimes,” he warned.
Oscar Niyibizi, the camp’s deputy administrator, described the cut in food rations as a “major challenge” that could “cause security disruption”.
He urges refugees to cultivate land nearby but said external support remains desperately needed.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump slashed its aid budget by 80 percent, and other Western nations have also reduced donations. As a result, many NGOs and United Nations agencies have been forced to close or significantly scale back their programmes.
These cutbacks have come at a “very bad time” as fighting escalates in the DRC, according to Geoffrey Kirenga, head of mission for Save the Children in Burundi.
Burundi, one of the world’s poorest countries, has received more than 71,000 Congolese refugees since January while still hosting thousands from previous conflicts.
Established last year to accommodate 10,000 people, the Musenyi camp’s population is now nearly twice that number.
In addition to food shortages, the reduction in aid has led NGOs to discontinue support services for survivors of sexual violence, who are numerous in the camp, Kirenga said.
His gravest concern is that “deaths from hunger” may become inevitable.
The World Food Programme has halved rations since March and warned that without renewed US funding, all assistance could end by November.
According to the UN, hundreds of Congolese refugees are compelled to risk returning across the border in search of food.
Michelle Mone started Ultimo with her then husband in 1996
Michelle Mone spent 25 years building her business empire and public profile through the British media.
A brilliant self-publicist, she was regularly described as one of the UK’s most successful businesswomen.
She was the plucky underdog who, through sheer grit and a knack for a good headline, pushed her Ultimo bra concept onto the marketplace and into the high street’s biggest shops.
She even claimed to have given Hollywood star Julia Roberts a cleavage.
The story she told time and time again to a grateful media brought her fame, riches, and even a peerage.
But Baroness Mone of Mayfair has now been stripped of the Conservative whip, is on leave from the House of Lords and a business connected to her is under investigation by the National Crime Agency.
The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone begins in 1999 as the then 28-year-old talks her way into Selfridges in London, and a deal to sell her gel-filled Ultimo bra.
Born in her own words “into nothing”, Mone was raised in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow. She left school at 15 with no qualifications but a determination “to make something of myself”.
Friends from the time describe her hard work ethic, energy and “bubbly” nature. “No matter where you’re from, look at me, you can do it,” she would later say.
She worked as a model and “ring girl” at boxing matches and moved into promotions and sales before setting up MJM International with husband Michael.
They re-mortgaged their house and went £70,000 into debt developing the Ultimo Bra, which is when Mone turned up unannounced at Selfridges.
Virginia Marcolin was the shop’s lingerie buyer, and the person Mone had travelled to London to see.
“I thought: ‘This girl is not what I’m used to dealing with’. She was kind of country bumpkin and a little bit like not overly refined, just very authentic. And this was just such a fresh, new product,” she says.
“That was the start of it. It was her persistence.”
Getty Images
Doug Barrowman and Michelle Mone have been married since 2020
Mone’s natural knack for promotion got them the deal but the cash-poor company needed funds to fulfil the order. They found an investor in Tom Hunter, who in 1998 had just sold his sportswear company JJB Sports for £280m.
The man who made that introduction was Jack Irvine, former newspaper editor turned successful PR executive. He became a key figure in building Mone’s early media profile.
The newspapers and broadcasters were hungry for stories about her, and she was very happy to help.
“She had two driving forces,” Irvine says. “One was to be very rich and one was to be very famous.”
Coverage from that time stressed her humble roots, battle to succeed, new-found wealth, and the global success of her bra.
Magnus Llewellin, now editor of the Times newspapers in Scotland, remembers one infamous story from the time.
“Stories would circulate around Michelle Mone. One of those was that her bra was used in the film Erin Brockovich, that Julia Roberts wore one of her bras,” he says.
“If you actually bother to check, somebody involved in the actual making of the film came out and said an Ultimo bra wasn’t used in the production.”
The truth is that the media, especially the Scottish media, helped create the Michelle Mone myth. And she had a gift for using that.
“The story was almost too good to debunk. A young woman fighting in a male-dominated business world, making a way for herself. That was a great story to tell,” Llewellin says.
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Mone said her Ultimo bra was used in the film Erin Brockovich, a claim denied by the filmmakers
After more than 20 years together as a couple and more than a decade in business, the Mones very publicly separated, divorcing in 2011.
Michelle bought Michael out of the business and became the face and body of the brand, modelling her own lingerie.
Behind the scenes at the company there were a number of employment tribunals, including one high-profile case in which a member of staff found a recording device in his office.
Despite her legal challenges, Mone remained in the public eye, a regular feature on television programmes. And her knack for publicity led to her next move – into the world of politics.
She had been a Labour supporter but defected to the Conservatives in 2010. Four years later she was a prominent voice in favour of the union during the independence referendum, going so far as to say she would leave Scotland in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote.
In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron made her his government’s “entrepreneurship tsar”. Within weeks it was announced she was to become a Conservative peer, as Baroness Mone of Mayfair.
PA Media
Michelle Mone became Baroness Mone in October 2015
By then she had sold her interests in the company she had built. But her new roles brought increased scrutiny over her business record.
Magnus Llewellin points out that MJM International never turned over more than £10.1m a year, and in 2012 lost more than half a million pounds.
“By that time the company was in real trouble,” he says.
Businessman Donald Anderson runs the Gap Group, a plant hire company which in 2024 had a turnover of £302.3m, employed more than 2,000 people, and made a pre-tax profit of £43.9m.
He wrote to the prime minister at the time of Mone’s appointment.
“Miss Mone is not a successful entrepreneur, she is a small time businesswoman with a PR exposure far in excess of any actual success,” he wrote.
He now says: “If the only thing she achieved was self-publicity, I don’t think that’s a very good reason to put you into the House of Lords. If you follow that logic then the House of Lords will be full of influencers in the next 10 years.”
Ken Gaff
Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman made their home in the Isle of Man
In 2016, Mone announced she was in a new relationship with Doug Barrowman, a billionaire businessman. They settled in the Isle of Man, and worked together in the booming crypto-currency sector.
In 2020, the Covid pandemic struck. As the death toll rose, UK ministers sought out firms to urgently supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), even setting up a VIP lane to give priority to some suppliers.
A company called PPE Medpro made it onto the VIP list. This caught the eye of campaigners who were concerned that firms on the list were run by people with connections to the Conservative Party.
It emerged that PPE Medpro was controlled by people connected to Doug Barrowman.
Mone, a Conservative peer, repeatedly denied any involvement in the business, the deal or the subsequent profits.
The paper’s David Conn says: “We did our own freedom of information request, and we got the emails that she’d sent to Michael Gove and Lord Agnew saying that she was offering to supply PPE through ‘my team in Hong Kong’ and that it had gone through the VIP lane.
“And we also got some WhatsApp messages which Michelle Mone had sent about the PPE deals and she said she was sitting on the jet and it was about to take off, which we assumed was their jet, their private plane.”
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Getting PPE quickly and efficiently to medical workers became a priority during the 2020 Covid outbreak
The National Crime Agency (NCA) launched an investigation into PPE Medpro. Several of the couple’s properties were raided.
Two years into his investigation, David Conn received a leaked document showing Barrowman made at least £65m from the deals, with £29m of this paid into a trust of which Mone and her three adult children are beneficiaries.
Throughout this time, Mone was uncharacteristically quiet.
But that changed at the end of 2023 when she and Barrowman – by then married – released a PPE Medpro-funded documentary in which she admitted being a “conduit” between the company and ministers.
They also agreed to appear on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. On camera, Mone admitted she could one day benefit from the trust, and said they had done nothing wrong.
When asked about lying to the press, she replied: “That’s not a crime.
“Saying to the press I’m not involved, to protect my family, can I just make it clear, it’s not a crime.”
Laura Kuenssberg says: “That’s a phrase that will always stick with me.
“When she said that, I thought: ‘There’s a thing. There’s a headline’.”
Rogan Productions
The Guardian’s David Conn led the paper’s investigation into Michelle Mone and the PPE contracts
Michelle Mone lost the Conservative whip and has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords. She has made no further media appearances.
PPE Medpro is still under investigation by the NCA and the government is suing the company for £122m plus costs, claiming the medical gowns the company supplied “did not comply with the specification in the contract”.
The peer declined the offer to be interviewed for The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone.
In response to the programme, a statement said the couple had provided “full and detailed statements to the NCA and cooperated with the investigation throughout”.
It said they had never been arrested and no charges had been brought against them.
The statement also defended PPE Medpro’s delivery of PPE equipment to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
It continued: “Baroness Mone, along with the whole of the Mone/Barrowman family, were beneficiaries of trusts… never direct recipients of PPE Medpro profits.
“The DHSC was fully aware of their involvement from the outset. It was a mistake to have misled the press.”
After the documentary was released, Mone’s PR company gave a statement saying she was “deeply disappointed” in the BBC’s decision to broadcast the programme, which she said used “misleading and one-sided” accounts of her life and career.
Alamy
Michelle Mone remains on leave from the House of Lords
Michelle Mone’s public life was a self-created fairy story which many in business, politics, and especially the media, bought into.
For Magnus Llewellin, there’s a clear moral to this tale.
“What it does tell us about modern Britain is, we still like fairy tales. We want to believe those rags to riches tales.
“But once you step into the world of politics, things can get a bit trickier.
“It’s a parable of excess, hubris, and then eventually nemesis.”
Laura Kuenssberg says: “For Michelle Mone, public attention, knowing how to grab public attention, is an ability that she obviously always had in spades during her business career.
“But things went wrong for her and you can’t turn that attention off.”
The Rise and Fall of Michelle Mone is available on iPlayer and is on BBC Scotland at 22:00 on Monday 26 May and BBC Two at 21:00 on Wednesday 28 May.
In recent years, HumAngle has established a unique presence within the West African media landscape, characterised by bravery and thoroughness. We have made it our business to spotlight the stories that are often overlooked. These stories centre on conflict, displacement, and human resilience. We take a critical look inward to examine how deeply HumAngle has stayed true to its founding mission: to illuminate the lives and struggles of people affected by insecurity and humanitarian crises across the region.
This thematic audit of our editorial output highlights both the extensive range of issues addressed and the profound level of engagement, especially in high-risk and underreported regions. The data and stories convey a compelling narrative of a newsroom that not only responds to the news cycle but remains deeply integrated within it.
Adhering to the core purpose
From 2020 to 2025, there is a notable and steady focus by HumAngle on issues related to conflict. More than 60 per cent of all stories published focus on themes like armed insurgency, violent extremism, conflicts with both state and non-state armed groups, and the humanitarian effects of violence.
Sub-themes like gender, displacement, child soldiering, and the collapse of local economies receive significant focus within this context. Recently, there has been an increase in our focus on transitional justice and post-conflict recovery, highlighting the newsroom’s ability to adapt and the changing nature of violence in the region.
Coverage from the outskirts
HumAngle’s map of story origins showcases our bold approach to journalism. The coverage spans from Borno to Zamfara and from the Lake Chad countries’ basin to the Central Sahel, highlighting fragile regions frequently considered unreachable or perilous by many media outlets.
This geographic distribution reflects our dedication to covering the realities of insecurity while emphasising our focus on highlighting the struggles of marginalised communities often neglected in broader conversations, both nationally and globally.
HumAngle regularly covers insecurity across Nigeria, the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin region and parts of Central Africa
HumAngle’s storytelling is characterised by our commitment to prioritising human voices. Those who have survived abduction, returned from displacement camps, endured state violence, and worked on the frontlines of humanitarian efforts are not mere background figures; they are the ones who share their stories.
This approach not only provides information but also upholds the dignity of those impacted by crisis, encouraging readers to look past mere numbers.
Advancements and responsible journalism
In a demanding media landscape where support systems were scarce even before the current shrinking funding reality, HumAngle has not only endured; it has also embraced innovation with the limited funds available. The newsroom has broadened its approach to conflict reporting through its explainer series, narrative podcasts, and immersive multimedia projects.
Equally significant, it has upheld rigorous ethical standards, emphasising the safety of its journalists and the informed consent of its sources.
In areas saturated with misinformation and propaganda, a dedication to truth and context stands out as both uncommon and essential.
A purpose fulfilled
HumAngle’s self-reflective mission alignment scorecard, the monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) framework, revealed a significant connection between our editorial choices and our core objectives. We operate with a clear mission, balancing reporting and fairness.
8,104 stories published
Infographics: Damilola Lawal/HumAngle.
HumAngle’s body of work serves as a testament to the struggles faced in our region while also honouring its enduring strength.
The important work ahead
As multiple conflict situations develop and humanitarian needs intensify and grow throughout West Africa and the Sahel region, the importance of specialised, accountability and ethical journalism is increasingly necessary for the stability and development of the region.
Across these regions and Nigeria’s ungoverned territories, millions of people live under the shadow of violence and neglect, completely cut off from state protection and justice. In these lawless zones where the government’s presence is nonexistent, residents endure the oppressive rule of non-state armed groups who impose taxes, collect levies, and demand ransoms with impunity.
These communities, already battered by conflict and displacement, face a grim daily reality where survival often depends on submitting to the dictates of violent actors, with no recourse to legal protection or basic rights. The absence of state governance has not only eroded the social contract but has entrenched a parallel system of authority that thrives on coercion, fear, and exploitation. HumAngle’s primary objective is to support this population by telling their stories and offering basic human rights literacy to improve their situation.
The frontlines may change, but HumAngle’s focus remains unwavering.
HumAngle has carved a distinct niche in West African media by focusing on underreported stories about conflict, displacement, and human resilience.
Emphasizing themes like armed insurgency, extremism, and humanitarian crises, over 60% of their stories revolve around these pressing issues, while also diving into gender, displacement, and post-conflict recovery. The geographic reach of their journalism extends from Nigeria’s Borno to Zamfara and across the Lake Chad and Central Sahel regions, highlighting areas often deemed too dangerous or inaccessible.
Their storytelling advances beyond event-based reporting, offering in-depth investigations into topics such as human trafficking and the psychological effects of conflict. These narratives have led to societal shifts, like official inquiries and public response, underscoring their commitment to integrity and responsible journalism. Despite funding challenges, HumAngle continues to pioneer in multimedia projects and narrative podcasts while adhering to ethical standards.
They stand as a voice for neglected communities, aiming to provide them with the attention and basic human rights literacy they desperately need amid ongoing conflicts and humanitarian challenges.
An NGO backed by Israel and the United States has announced that it is set to start distributing aid in besieged Gaza, despite its chief walking out, citing concerns over its independence.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement on Monday that it is set to launch direct aid delivery in the battered enclave, hours after its executive director, Jake Wood, announced his resignation.
GHF, which has been tapped to distribute food, medicine and other vital supplies that have been blocked by the Israeli military for two months, said that it aims to deliver aid to 1 million Palestinians in the territory by the end of the week.
The NGO said it then plans to “scale rapidly to serve the full population in the weeks ahead”.
Israel said last week it would allow “minimal” aid deliveries into Gaza, where aid agencies warn of widespread famine and multiple deaths from starvation, but reports suggest that the few supplies that have entered the enclave have reached Gaza’s starving population of 2.3 million.
The United Nations and other aid agencies have refused to work with GHF, warning that the conditions under which it will work, including requiring Palestinians to gather at centralised aid points, will put people at risk and undermine other aid efforts.
Wood announced his resignation on Sunday, citing concerns over GHF’s independence.
The organisation could not adhere “to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, which I will not abandon,” he said in a statement, and called for Israel to allow the entry of more aid.
The GHF board, in a statement, said it was “disappointed” by the resignation but remained committed to expanding aid efforts across the Strip.
A spokesperson for the US State Department also said it remained supportive of the NGO.
A truck carrying humanitarian aid enters the Karen Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing point on its way into the Gaza Strip [File: Getty]
Wood’s departure follows growing criticism of GHF’s operational structure and independence.
The NGO, which claims it has been based in Geneva since February, emerged from “private meetings of like-minded officials, military officers and business people with close ties to the Israeli government”, according to The New York Times.
The UN and major humanitarian organisations have raised concerns that the GHF’s operations could undermine existing relief efforts, as well as restrict food access to limited areas of Gaza, which would force civilians to walk long distances to access aid and cross Israeli military lines.
There is also a worry that the GHF’s distribution plans, which the US and Israel say are designed to prevent Hamas from controlling aid, could be used to advance an Israeli objective of depopulating northern Gaza by concentrating aid in the south.
‘Weapon of war’
The controversy over the GHF unfolds against a backdrop of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, 1.95 million people – 93 percent of Gaza’s population – are facing acute levels of food insecurity, or not having enough to eat.
Aid agencies have described the crisis as a man-made famine, and have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
Robert Patman, a professor of international relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told Al Jazeera that Wood’s resignation reflected the lack of support from established humanitarian bodies for GHF.
“It’s no secret that major aid donors had not been convinced by this proposal, which is essentially a start-up,” he said.
Patman also noted that many humanitarian actors argue that there is “no need for a new humanitarian organisation”, stressing that the international community should instead focus on lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Preliminary results released by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Monday showed that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies won 82.68 percent of votes cast the previous day for seats in the National Assembly.
That result ensures that the party will maintain control of key levers of power, including the attorney general’s office and the country’s top court, whose members are elected by the 285-seat assembly.
CNE also said that 23 out of 24 state governor positions were won by the government flagging a setback for the opposition, which previously controlled four states.
Turnout in the elections was 8.9 million or roughly 42 percent of 21 million voters eligible to cast their ballots. CNE chief Carlos Quintero noted that was the same figure as in the 2021 elections.
However, the country’s main opposition leaders had urged voters to boycott the election in protest over July’s 2024 presidential election. The opposition insists that it won that race but authorities declared Maduro the winner.
Opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado declared in a post on X late on Sunday that in some areas of the country, up to 85 percent of eligible voters snubbed the election, which she slammed as an “enormous farce that the regime is trying to stage to bury its defeat” in last year’s election.
Maduro, however, shrugged off the boycott.
“When the opponent withdraws from the field, we advance and occupy the terrain,” he said matter-of-factly.
According to journalists and social media posts, turnout was noticeably low in Venezuela’s main cities. Still, images posted by the government party showed scores of people lining up to vote in areas like Trujillo and the Amazons.
Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Argentina, noted that during the campaign, the opposition had been divided on the boycott call, making it difficult to present a more forceful challenge against Maduro.
She added that most analysts have said that they “could not guarantee if the elections were free and fair”.
Tensions were high on Sunday, with more than 400,000 security agents deployed to monitor the vote and more than 70 people arrested.
Among those detained was leading opposition member Juan Pablo Guanipa on charges of heading a “terrorist network” that planned to “sabotage” the vote.
The government, which has warned of foreign-backed coup plots many times in the past, said dozens of suspected mercenaries had entered the country from Colombia, prompting the closure of the busy border with its neighbour until after the election.
Maduro’s success in recent elections comes despite the decline of the economy, once the envy of Latin America, following years of mismanagement and sanctions, with more on the way.
United States President Donald Trump has recently revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to continue pumping Venezuelan crude, potentially depriving Maduro’s administration of a vital economic lifeline.
Washington has also revoked deportation protection from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in the US and expelled hundreds of others to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
