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United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he has authorised the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.
He added that his administration was also mulling land-based military operations inside Venezuela, as tensions between Washington and Caracas soar over multiple deadly US strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks.
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On Wednesday, Trump held a news conference with some of his top law enforcement officials, where he faced questions about an earlier news report in The New York Times about the CIA authorisation. One reporter asked directly, “Why did you authorise the CIA to go into Venezuela?”
“I authorised for two reasons, really,” Trump replied. “Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.”
“The other thing,” he continued, was Venezuela’s role in drug-trafficking. He then appeared to imply that the US would take actions on foreign soil to prevent the flow of narcotics and other drugs.
“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela,” Trump said. “A lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea. So you get to see that. But we’re going to stop them by land also.”
Trump’s remarks mark the latest escalation in his campaign against Venezuela, whose leader, Nicolas Maduro, has long been a target for the US president, stretching back to Trump’s first term in office.
Already, both leaders have bolstered their military forces along the Caribbean Sea in a show of potential force.
The Venezuelan government hit back at Trump’s latest comments and the authorised CIA operations, accusing the US of violating international law and the UN Charter.
“The purpose of US actions is to create legitimacy for an operation to change the regime in Venezuela, with the ultimate goal of taking control of all the country’s resources,” the Maduro government said in a statement.
Earlier, at the news conference, reporters sought to confront Trump over whether he was trying to enforce regime change in Caracas.
“Does the CIA have authority to take out Maduro?” one journalist asked at the White House on Wednesday.
“Oh, I don’t want to answer a question like that. That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given,” Trump said, demurring. “Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”
He then offered an addendum: “But I think Venezuela’s feeling heat.”
Claiming wartime powers
Trump’s responses, at times meandering, touched on his oft-repeated claims about Venezuela.
Since taking office for a second term, Trump has sought to assume wartime powers – using laws like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – by alleging that Venezuela had masterminded an “invasion” of migrants and criminal groups onto US soil.
He has offered little proof for his assertions, though, and his statements have been undercut by the assessments of his own intelligence community.
In May, for example, a declassified US report revealed that intelligence officials had found no evidence directly linking Maduro to criminal groups like Tren de Aragua, as Trump has alleged.
Still, on Wednesday, Trump revisited the baseless claim that Venezuela under Maduro had sent prisoners and people with mental health conditions to destabilise the US.
“Many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela. They were down and dirty,” Trump said.
The authorisation of CIA operations inside Venezuela is the latest indication that Trump has been signing secret proclamations to lay the groundwork for lethal action overseas, despite insisting in public that he seeks peace globally.
In August, for instance, anonymous sources told the US media that Trump had also signed an order allowing the US military to take action against drug-trafficking cartels and other Latin American criminal networks.
And in October, it emerged that Trump had sent a memo to the US Congress asserting that the country was in a “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels, whom he termed “unlawful combatants”.
Many such groups, including Tren de Aragua, have also been added to the US’s list of “foreign terrorist organisations”, though experts point out that the label alone does not provide a legal basis for military action.
Strikes in the Caribbean Sea
Nevertheless, the US under Trump has taken a series of escalatory military actions, including by conducting multiple missile strikes on small vessels off the Venezuelan coast.
At least five known air strikes have been conducted on boats since September 2, killing 27 people.
The most recent attack was announced on Tuesday in a social media post: A video Trump shared showed a boat floating in the water, before a missile set it alight. Six people were reportedly killed in that bombing.
Many legal experts and former military officials have said that the strikes appear to be a clear violation of international law. Drug traffickers have not traditionally met the definition of armed combatants in a war. And the US government has so far not presented any public evidence to back its claims that the boats were indeed carrying narcotics headed for America.
But Trump has justified the strikes by saying they will save American lives lost to drug addiction.
He has maintained the people on board the targeted boats were “narco-terrorists” headed to the US.
On Wednesday, he again brushed aside a question about the lack of evidence. He also defended himself against concerns that the bombings amount to extrajudicial killings.
“When they’re loaded up with drugs, they’re fair game,” Trump told reporters, adding there was “fentanyl dust all over the boat after those bombs go off”.
He added, “We know we have much information about each boat that goes. Deep, strong information.”
Framing the bombing campaign in the Caribbean as a success, Trump then explained his administration might start to pivot its strategy.
“ We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now, we’ll stop it by land,” he said of the alleged drug trafficking. He joked that even fishermen had decided to stay off the waters.
“ We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”
Christopher Cash (left) and Christopher Berry (right) were both accused of spying for China
The government’s deputy national security adviser warned in 2023 China was carrying out “large scale espionage” activities against the UK when asked to provide evidence in the now-collapsed case against two men accused of spying for China.
A second witness statement written by Matthew Collins in February 2025 as evidence for the case of two men accused of spying on MPs, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, said China’s spying threatened “the UK’s economic prosperity and resilience”.
A third witness statement published in August this year restated the UK’s view of the challenge posed by China.
But the second two statements made clear the government was “committed to pursuing a positive economic relationship with China”.
Both Mr Cash and Mr Berry have denied the allegations against them.
All three statements by Collins were published by Downing Street on Wednesday night as the government continued to face questions after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unexpectedly dropped charges against the two men last month, prompting criticism from ministers and MPs.
The first of the three statements by Collins was given to prosecutors in December 2023, when he was serving under a Conservative government.
The second and third statements were submitted this year after Labour had taken power.
Previously, the director of public prosecutions said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said he would publish the deputy national security adviser’s statements after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of a “cover-up”.
The documents show that in December 2023, Collins concluded: “The Chinese Intelligence Services are highly capable and conduct large scale espionage operations against the UK and other international partners to advance the Chinese state’s interest and harm the interests and security of the UK.”
In February 2025, he said: “China is an authoritarian state, with different values to the UK. This presents challenges for both the UK and our allies. China and the UK both benefit from bilateral trade and investment, but China also present the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security.”
And in a third statement this August, he said China’s “espionage operations threaten the UK’s economic prosperity and resilience, and the integrity of our democratic institutions”.
He pointed to a number of actions which UK authorities believe Beijing was behind, including a cyber-attack on the UK electoral commission between 2021 and 2023.
In his 2025 statements, Collins made clear the government sought a good economic relationship with China, writing: “It is important for me to emphasise, however that the government is committed to pursuing a positive economic relationship with China.
“The government believes that the UK must continue to engage with international partners on trade and investment to grow our economy while ensuring that our security and values are not compromised.”
When the second statement was originally signed by Collins, it was dated in error as February 2024. But the government said it had actually been signed and submitted to prosecutors in February 2025, by which time Labour were in power, and this had been clarified to the CPS at the time.
BBC News understands that Collins assumed he had given enough evidence for the prosecution to continue when he submitted his third witness statement in August 2025.
A government source pointed to comments made by him where he described “the increasing Chinese espionage threat posed to the UK” as an example of why he believed he had said enough to satisfy the CPS’s threshold for prosecution.
It is also understood that the CPS contacted Collins after his first witness statement to ask for further clarification on the threat posed by China, but that they were not explicitly clear what the official would need to say in subsequent statements, in order to meet the CPS’s threshold.
New details of alleged spying
In his first statement, Collins writes in detail about the allegations made about Mr Cash and Mr Berry he said was based on information provided to him by counter terrorism police.
Collins said in this 2023 statement “it had been assessed that the Chinese state recruited Mr Berry as an agent and successfully directed him to utilise Mr Cash” who had access to the Commons China Research Group (CRG) and other MPs.
Mr Cash worked as a parliamentary researcher and was involved with the CRG, which was set up by a group of Conservative MPs looking into how the UK should respond to the rise of China.
In his statement, Collins said that in July 2022, Mr Berry met with a senior Chinese Communist Party leader and that he understands Mr Cash was made aware of the meeting by Mr Berry.
Collins said Mr Cash responded to Mr Berry with multiple messages, including one reading: “You’re in spy territory now”.
Collins also said information gathered was passed to an individual named “Alex” who was believed to be an agent of the Chinese state.
He said in assessing whether this was prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, he had proceeded on the basis the facts, as alleged, by counter terrorism police were true.
This included information about the prospect of Tom Tugendhat MP being made a minister and the likelihood of Jeremy Hunt pulling out of the Conservative leadership race.
In a new statement released on Wednesday evening, Mr Cash said he was “completely innocent”.
He said: “I have been placed in an impossible position. I have not had the daylight of a public trial to show my innocence, and I should not have to take part in a trial by media.
“The statements that have been made public are completely devoid of the context that would have been given at trial.”
While Mr Berry has previously denied spying for China, he has not commented since the day the case ended.
House of Commons
Sir Keir Starmer committed to urgently publishing the documents in the Commons on Wednesday
Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power.
They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.
The director of public prosecutions has said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.
He said while there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought against the two men, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year meant China would need to have been labelled a “threat to national security” at the time of the alleged offences.
The Conservatives have claimed the government did not provide sufficient evidence because it does not want to damage relations with Beijing.
However, the Labour government has argued that because the alleged offences took place under the Conservatives, the prosecution could only be based on their stance on China at the time.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said: “Under this government, no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence.”
The publication of the documents followed pressure from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who had called for them to be released.
On Tuesday, senior government figures had suggested that the CPS had told them publishing the witness statements would be “inappropriate”.
But the CPS later made clear it would not stand in the way if ministers chose to put the government’s evidence in the public domain.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
A trio of U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers was tracked flying orbits in international airspace off the coast of Venezuela earlier today. This is a major show of force that comes amid a larger U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, ostensibly aimed at stemming the flow of illegal drugs north. At the same time, the Trump administration has been focusing particular pressure on the regime of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, and the possibility of direct military action, beyond at times lethal maritime interdiction operations, has been steadily growing.
The three B-52s, with the calligns BUNNY01, BUNNY02, and BUNNY03, were tracked leaving Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and heading south early this morning. The bombers subsequently turned east and flew to a patch of international airspace within what Venezuela refers to as the Maiquetía Flight Information Region (FIR).
BUNNY01 flt now orbiting within the confines of the MAIQUETIA FIR. The FIR doesn’t not constitute Venezuelan airspace but simply a ATC sector that they control. Are the B-52s talking to MAIQUETIA CONTROL or DUE REGARD? I don’t know. @liveatc had a MAIQUETIA ATC feed up 2 days ago… https://t.co/rM4PHgvBb5pic.twitter.com/Evw1nJOxRx
The B-52s appear to have orbited within the Maiquetía FIR for roughly two hours before departing. U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, presumably Marine Corps B variants flying from the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico, as well as Air Force aerial refueling tankers and other aircraft, have also been tracked in this same general area in recent weeks.
BUNNY03 parece estar retornando, según comunicación con tráfico de control aéreo saldría por waypoint AMBIN. BUNNY01 Y BUNNY02 parecen continuar hacia el Este. pic.twitter.com/B05YXyw5KU
A pesar de lo “tranquilo” que parece estar el espacio aéreo sobre el Mar Caribe y FIR Maiquetía, hoy ha habido mucha actividad, incluyendo Pegasus registro 20-46078 asistiendo a los F-35B, trabajando en conjunto con SENTRY AWACS 76-1605, entre otros 😉. El Cartel de Los Soles los… pic.twitter.com/LdyQJUNrYO
There are unconfirmed reports that at least one of the Venezuelan Air Force’s pocket fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighters reportedly took off from El Libertador Air Base, situated to the west of Caracas, while the B-52s were orbiting offshore, but also that this may have been an unrelated training flight. Whether any attempt to intercept the bombers was made is unknown. Maduro did order new snap exercises today in the wake of another lethal U.S. attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat in international waters near Venezuela. In September, he said he had deployed some 25,000 troops to help secure the country’s border areas and key oil infrastructure against potential U.S. threats.
The F-16 is only performing training at BAEL, meaning there was no attempt at any interception of the B-52s from the Venezuelan military aviation, likely assessed to be too risky due to previous threats by the US after the low flybys of US vessels
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether or not the B-52s have returned to base or are still airborne. TWZ has reached out to Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) and Air Forces Southern (AFSOUTH) for more information about the bomber sorties into the Caribbean. AFSOUTH directed us to contact the Pentagon.
It is worth noting that B-52s, as well as Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. military combat aircraft, have taken part in counter-narcotics operations in the skies over the Caribbean, on and off, for decades now, as you can read more about here. The range and targeting capabilities that the B-52 possesses, in particular, can be useful for spotting and further investigating suspected drug smuggling vessels.
At the same time, openly flying B-52s in such proximity to Caracas seems clearly intended to send a message to Maduro and his regime. The bombers are capable of unleashing waves of standoff cruise missiles and can carry a host of other conventional munitions that can be employed against targets on land and at sea. Though the Venezuelan armed forces have limited air defense capabilities, they could still pose a threat. Standoff strikes from aircraft like the B-52 and other assets would be a likely component of any future U.S. direct action against targets inside the country to help reduce risks to friendly forces. They could even target air defense systems to help clear the way for follow-on operations.
Earlier today, an Air Force C-17 cargo plane was also tracked making an unusual flight straight from Edwards Air Force Base in California to José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Puerto Rico. The purpose of that sortie is currently known. Edwards is the Air Force’s preeminent test base, rather than an installation for operational units.
🤔 REACH 287 (C-17) departed Edwards Air Force Base and is landing at TJRV Airport in Ceiba, Puerto Rico just at 2 am local time, this is the time of night when you transport something you don’t want anyone to see.
There has already been a major buildup of U.S. forces in the region, including the deployment, as mentioned, of Marine aircraft to the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. Air Force MQ-9 Reapers and now AC-130J Ghostrider gunships have also been spotted flying sorties from Puerto Rico. It is worth pointing out here that AC-130Js are routinely tasked with interdiction and armed overwatch-type missions, including in support of direct action special operations raids.
El que faltaba se unió al grupo. El temido Fuerza Aérea 🇺🇲 AC-130J Ghostrider registro 16-5837 activo en Jose Aponte de la Torre (TJRV), Puerto Rico. Miren los cañones 30mm GAU-23 automatico y 105mm M102 howitzer además de los misiles Hellfire x 8 📸 de Omar Y. Perez ayer 9/Oct pic.twitter.com/ztrQGiIU2E
Based on publicly available images, it appears that at least five different USAF MQ-9As have flown/are flying out of Aguadilla (BQN/TJBQ) 🇵🇷 in support of ongoing counternarcotics ops in the Caribbean.
A host of other U.S. air and naval assets are now operating in the region, as well. This includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG)/22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), several Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, a Los Angeles class nuclear powered fast attack submarine, and even the Ocean Trader, a shadowy special operations mothership.
All told, there are reportedly now some 10,000 U.S. personnel, in total, forward-deployed in the region. Last week, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) stood up a new task force, led by elements of II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF), to help manage the expanded counter-narcotics operations across the Western Hemisphere.
Since September, U.S. forces have conducted at least five lethal attacks on small boats in the Caribbean, killing numerous individuals, all alleged to have been involved in drug smuggling. President Donald Trump announced the most recent of these just yesterday. Serious questions have been raised about those missions and the legal authorities behind them.
Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast… pic.twitter.com/XWDpGZ4lsZ
— Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) October 14, 2025
There has otherwise been a steady drumbeat in recent weeks of reporting on the Trump administration’s stepping up of efforts to put pressure on Maduro. Just today, The New York Times reported that Trump has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to undertake covert actions in Venezuela and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Reports last week, citing U.S. officials, said that Trump had ordered an end to efforts to reach a diplomatic resolution to the current impasse with Venezuelan authorities.
Some members of the Trump administration have reportedly been pushing for action to oust Maduro. Since 2020, the dictatorial Venezuelan leader has also been wanted in the United States over drug trafficking and other charges, and American authorities are currently offering a $50 million bounty for his capture.
The appearance today of the three B-52s off Venezuela’s coast marks another major development in the still-expanding U.S. operations in the Southern Caribbean.
Colonel Randrianirina set to assume presidency in Madagascar after President Andry Rajoelina removed.
Published On 15 Oct 202515 Oct 2025
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Military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina will be sworn in as Madagascar’s transitional president on Friday, the country’s new leadership has announced, as the African Union (AU) said it would suspend the country after a coup to remove President Andry Rajoelina.
Randrianirina “will be sworn in as President of the Refoundation of the Republic of Madagascar during a solemn hearing of the High Constitutional Court” on October 17, said the statement, published on social media by a state television station on Thursday.
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Rajoelina, who was impeached by lawmakers after fleeing abroad during the weekend, has condemned the takeover and refused to step down despite youth-led demonstrations demanding his resignation and widespread defections in the security forces.
Randrianirina led a rebellion that sided with the protesters and ousted Rajoelina on Tuesday in the sprawling country of about 30 million people off of Africa’s east coast. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the country has had a history of coups and political crises.
The latest military takeover capped weeks of protests against Rajoelina and his government, led by youth groups calling themselves “Gen Z Madagascar”. The protesters, who also included labour unions and civic groups, have demanded better government and job opportunities, echoing youth-led protests elsewhere in the world.
Among other things, the Madagascar protesters have railed against chronic water and electricity outages, limited access to higher education, government corruption and poverty, which affects roughly three out of every four Madagascans, according to the World Bank.
Although some suggest the military seized power on the backs of the civilian protesters, demonstrators cheered Randrianirina and other soldiers from his elite CAPSAT unit as they triumphantly rode through the streets of the capital Antananarivo on Tuesday. The colonel has promised elections in two years.
The takeover was “an awakening of the people. It was launched by the youth. And the military supported us”, said the protest leader, Safika, who only gave one name as has been typical with the demonstrators. “We must always be wary, but the current state of affairs gives us reason to be confident,” Safika told The Associated Press news agency.
The protests reached a turning point Saturday when Randrianirina and soldiers from his unit sided with the demonstrators calling for the president to resign. Rajoelina said he fled to an undisclosed country because he feared for his life.
Randrianirina had long been a vocal critic of Rajoelina’s administration and was reportedly imprisoned for several months in 2023 for plotting a coup.
His swift takeover drew international concern. The African Union condemned the coup and announced the country’s suspension from the bloc. The United Nations said they were “deeply concerned by the unconstitutional change of power”.
Jared Kushner, a billionaire real-estate scion, is shaping the future of Gaza. Why is the United States president’s son-in-law at the heart of the Gaza ceasefire deal – and the future of the Middle East?
Stellantis announced a $13bn investment in the US, which will see production of the Jeep Compass move to the US from Canada.
Published On 15 Oct 202515 Oct 2025
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Canada has threatened legal action against carmaker Stellantis NV over what Ottawa says is the company’s unacceptable plan to shift production of one model to a United States plant.
On Wednesday, Minister of Industry Melanie Joly sent a letter to Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa noting that the company had agreed to maintain its Canadian presence in exchange for substantial financial support.
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“Anything short of fulfilling that commitment will be considered a default under our agreement,” she said. If Stellantis did not live up to its commitment, Canada would “exercise all options, including legal”, she said.
Stellantis announced a $13bn investment in the US on Tuesday, a move that it said would bring five new models to the market. As part of the plan, production of the Jeep Compass will move to the US state of Illinois from a facility in Brampton in the Canadian province of Ontario.
A copy of the letter was made available to the Reuters news agency. The existence of the letter was first reported by Bloomberg.
Stellantis had paused retooling of the Brampton plant in February, shortly after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs against Canadian goods, upending the highly integrated North American auto industry.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa had made clear it expected Stellantis to fulfil the undertakings it had made to the workers at the plant.
“We are working with the company to develop the right measures to protect Stellantis employees,” he said.
Ontario is Canada’s industrial heartland and accounts for about 40 percent of its national gross domestic product (GDP).
“I have spoken with Stellantis to stress my disappointment with their decision,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on social media on Wednesday.
Stellantis spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin said the company was investing in Canada and noted plans to add a third shift to a plant in Windsor, Ontario.
“Canada is very important to us. We have plans for Brampton and will share them upon further discussions with the Canadian government,” she said in an emailed statement.
Dominic CascianiHome and legal Correspondent, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court
Reuters
Protesters in London’s Trafalgar Square on 4 October for a demonstration against the ban on Palestine Action
Twenty-eight people have pleaded not guilty after being charged under anti-terrorism laws with allegedly supporting the banned group Palestine Action.
In the first of a series of complex hearings on Wednesday, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard about 2,000 people are likely to be charged with showing support in demonstrations for the group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July.
Judges face trying to find time and courtrooms to hold 400 trials of those accused of taking part in protests.
While the judge began setting provisional trial dates for March, there is no certainty they can take place before the end of 2026 because of the ongoing legal battle over the group’s proscription.
The government proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July, after activists broke into an RAF base and damaged two military aircraft earlier in the year.
Since that ban more than 2,100 people have been arrested at demonstrations in England and Wales. Each of them has been accused of holding up a placard reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.
So far, some 170 of them – many of them pensioners – have been charged with displaying an item supportive of a banned organisation. This is a low-level terrorism offence which can be dealt with in a magistrates’ court and can lead to six months in jail.
The first of two days of dedicated hearings to manage the cases dominated Westminster Magistrates’ Court, as district judge Michael Snow set out how the courts would deal with all of them.
Most of the 28 defendants appearing, who were among those arrested at the first protests in July, did not have a lawyer. That meant many were often unclear about what was going on or had not had an opportunity to read the basics of the accusations they face.
Many complained to the court that their prosecution was unjust.
Anthony Harvey, 59, travelled from his home in Oban, in the Scottish Highlands, to deny supporting a proscribed organisation.
He told the judge: “Protesting against genocide is not terrorism, I’m not guilty.”
The oldest defendant was 83-year-old the Reverend Susan Parfitt, from Bristol, who is partially deaf.
She gently held onto a hand rail in the courtroom as Judge Snow came down from the bench to sit next to her, so she could hear him.
When he asked her for her plea, she replied: “I was objecting against the proscription of Palestine Action and I therefore plead not guilty.”
David Kilroy, 66, from Plymouth, wearing a Just Stop Oil t-shirt, told the court: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty. Not guilty.”
During the day, prosecutor Peter Ratliff told the court that there were difficulties in fixing firm trial dates from early next year for what could end up being 2,000 defendants because of the ongoing legal challenge to the banning of Palestine Action.
If that challenge overturns the ban, the prosecutions would almost certainly be scrapped. But if the ban remains there could still be complex questions over how the suspects can defend themselves.
Three lead cases, which came to court in September, are being prioritised to try to decide those questions – but any of these legal standoffs could end up before the Supreme Court.
If that happened, trials would have to be delayed, perhaps into 2027.
Judge Snow acknowledged the risk of having to revise plans for 2,000 defendants if the Supreme Court ultimately gets involved in the case – but he said he had to nevertheless set timetables. Courtrooms at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London are being set aside to manage the cases.
That plan involves at least two trials a day of a total of 10 defendants, starting from 23 March. If the 2,000 defendant figure is correct, that would require at least 400 trials – or 200 full days of court time.
But on Wednesday defendants and a lawyer told the judge there was a risk the trials would be too short to be fair.
Katie McFadden, acting for some of the defendants, said that a half-day trial of five defendants at a time raised questions about whether that was enough time for them to individually give evidence, present their free speech arguments and be cross-examined.
Another suspect, 72-year-old Deborah Wilde, told the court: “I don’t think I can get a fair trial on the [time] limit that you have allocated to me. I would like to seek leave to appeal.”
Judge Snow told her that was not legally possible.
“I’m satisfied that the time is sufficient,” he said. “I’m not allowing more time for the trial. Your only remedy is the High Court.”
Another 30 defendants are due in court on Thursday to continue allocating trial dates.
On Friday, the Court of Appeal will rule on a government attempt to stop the challenge to Palestine Action’s ban.
Separately in November, the first trial is due to begin of alleged Palestine Action members who are accused of offences, including violence, relating to the targeting of an Israeli defence firm.
Leonardo DRS has revealed a new capability in its range of what it calls Maneuver Air Defense payloads. The new Air Defense Light Variant (ADLV) is based on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) as a lighter-weight member of its counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) and short-range air defense family. It comes hot on the heels of the counter-drone directed-energy Stryker armored vehicle that the company unveiled last year at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual conference in Washington, D.C.
The ADLV revealed this week at AUSA blends a different set of sensors and effectors, with the Leonardo DRS RPS-42 MHR radar for detection and the EOS R400 Slinger remote weapons station equipped with an electro-optical sensors, laser designator and a 30mm cannon. APKWS laser-guided rockets and Stinger missiles in a four-pack launchers make up the type’s longer-reaching effectors that can also engage traditional aircraft and other threats. The AV Titan 4 provides electronic warfare support and a Skyview system offers passive detection of unmanned aircraft. This is all packed into an extremely mobile and supportable platform that the JLTV provides.
Leonardo DRS’ Joseph Ralwes talked us through the company’s approach to the latest U.S. Army C-UAS needs, and how he sees this in-demand role evolving in the coming years.
Spain argues NATO funding should address real threats, not arbitrary targets, amidst Trump’s tariff retaliation plans.
Published On 15 Oct 202515 Oct 2025
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The European Commission and Spain’s government have dismissed US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose higher tariffs on Madrid over its refusal to meet his proposed NATO target for defence spending.
Trump said on Tuesday that he was “very unhappy” with Spain for being the only NATO member to reject the new spending objective of 5 percent of economic output, adding that he was considering punishing the Mediterranean country.
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“I was thinking of giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I think I may do that,” Trump added. He had previously suggested making Spain “pay twice as much” in trade talks.
Trade policy falls under the remit of Brussels, and the European Commission would “respond appropriately, as we always do, to any measures taken against one or more of our member states”, commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
The trade deal between the European Union and the United States signed in July was the right platform to address any issues, Gill added.
“The defence spending debate is not about increasing spending for the sake of increasing it, but about responding to real threats,” Spain’s Economy and Trade Ministry said in a statement.
“We’re doing our part to develop the necessary capabilities and contribute to the collective defence of our allies.”
Spain has more than doubled nominal defence spending from 0.98 percent of gross domestic product in 2017 to 2 percent this year, equivalent to about 32.7bn euros ($38bn).
Defence Minister Margarita Robles said allies weren’t discussing the 5 percent target for 2035 in Wednesday’s meeting because they were prioritising the present situation in Ukraine, but wouldn’t completely rule out a shift in Spain’s position.
Targeted tariffs by the US against individual EU member states are rare, but there are precedents, said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel.
In 1999, the US hit the EU with 100 percent punitive tariffs on products such as chocolate, pork, onions and truffles in retaliation for an EU import ban on hormone-treated beef. But those tariffs excluded Britain, which at the time was still a member of the trade bloc.
The US could impose anti-dumping penalties on European products that are mostly produced in Spain, said Juan Carlos Martinez Lazaro, professor at Madrid’s IE business school.
In 2018, Washington imposed a combination of duties of more than 30 percent on Spanish black table olives at the request of Californian olive growers. Spain’s share of the US market plummeted from 49 percent in 2017 to 19 percent in 2024.
Another option would be moving the naval and air bases the US has in southern Spain to Morocco – an idea floated by former Trump official Robert Greenway – which would damage the local economies through the loss of thousands of indirect jobs.
A car exploded outside a shopping mall in Ecuador’s largest city Guayaquil, killing at least one person and injuring several more. Authorities say the blast was a deliberate act by criminal groups as police hunt for those responsible.
A house was filmed floating away off Alaska’s coast after Typhoon Halong made landfall over the weekend, killing one person and leaving two missing. More than 1,300 people have been displaced by the storm, with residents saying they witnessed around 20 homes floating out to sea.
Claire Leveque, 24, died from stab wounds to her neck and chest
A man has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend in a hot tub in Shetland.
Aren Pearson, 41, stabbed 24-year-old Claire Leveque to death at his mother’s home in Sandness on 11 February last year.
Pearson denied murder and claimed in court that Ms Leveque had stabbed herself – but a jury found him guilty after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Judge Lord Arthurson said it was a crime of “exceptional depravity” and “feral butchery” and described Pearson’s evidence in court as “malicious” and “fabricated”.
He will have to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
Police said Pearson had a “controlling and violent” relationship with Ms Leveque, and had attempted to degrade and abuse her before the murder.
“The level of violence Aren Pearson inflicted is truly horrifying,” said Det Insp Richard Baird.
Claire Leveque
Aren Pearson said Claire Leveque stabbed herself
Ms Leveque was stabbed more than 25 times on her neck and chest during the attack.
The couple, who are both from Canada, had moved to Scotland in 2023.
The trial was told that Pearson’s late mother Hazel Pearson, who died in May, had dialled 999 on the evening of the murder.
She told police that her son had walked into the kitchen and returned with a knife.
He stabbed himself in the neck and told her that he had hurt his girlfriend.
Ms Pearson then found Ms Leveque in the hot tub, which was in a shed at her home.
“The water was red with blood,” she told police.
“Claire was covered with blood. She had severe injuries to her face.”
Pearson drove his Porsche into the water
Ms Pearson also told detectives that her son had looked like “a zombie” after the attack.
During the 999 call, Pearson took the phone and confessed to the killing. He said he had stabbed his girlfriend about 40 times.
He also confessed to police officers at the crime scene and to a doctor while he was being treated in hospital.
However, giving evidence during the trial he claimed Ms Leveque had struck him, grabbed a knife and then jumped into the hot tub, where she stabbed herself four or five times.
Pearson claimed she had lost her temper after hearing him speak to her father Clint in Canada about how much alcohol she was drinking.
Police Scotland
Pearson was detained after the fatal attack
After being detained by police, Pearson was taken to the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick.
The jury heard that he said he had stabbed himself in the neck, consumed brake fluid and driven his Porsche car into the water.
A&E consultant Dr Caroline Heggie treated him for two days following his arrest.
Prosecutor Margaret Barron asked Dr Heggie if Pearson had said something that stuck with her.
She replied: “He said: ‘I’ve been trying to get rid of her for a while’.”
Lord Arthurson said the evidence in the case had been “substantial and compelling”.
‘Quite unimaginable violence’
He told Pearson: “Your much younger girlfriend – your victim in this case – was isolated and vulnerable in Sandness.
“You had from almost the outset of her arrival there subjected her to a cruel campaign of violence and coercive control.”
The judge said Ms Leveque had died “a squalid death of quite unimaginable multifaceted violence”.
“This was a sustained episode of feral butchery,” he added.
“You have sought to blame Ms Leveque for your own assaults against her, and you have, in a grave insult to her memory and to her bereaved family, put forward a defence that Ms Leveque inflicted these catastrophic injuries upon herself – a defence that the jury have unanimously rejected.”
My daughter texted me ‘I love you’ every night
Ms Leveque’s father Clint said his daughter had been “happy, positive and so friendly to everybody”.
Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mr Leveque said his daughter was “a typical daddy’s girl”.
“My daughter texted me every night: ‘I love you dad’. Every night of her life,” he said.
“There’s nothing negative that anybody could possibly say about her.”
Mr Leveque said his daughter, who grew up in Westloch, Alberta, had a love of adventure.
Speaking after the verdict, Ms Leveque’s cousin Hope Ingram described her as “a bubbly, fun girl who brought life to every room that she walked into”.
“I miss her terribly,” she said
“It’s so nice that we can now move forward and just remember Claire instead of thinking of this awful incident.”
‘Hard to comprehend’
She thanked everyone who had helped get justice for her cousin.
Ms Ingram said she hoped that as a result, other victims of domestic violence would be able to “move forward and come forward”.
Hope Saunders, who still lives in Canada, was a close friend of Ms Leveque.
“It’s sickening that someone so bright and so young and so beautiful could have her life taken away from her in the flash of a moment like that,” she said.
“It is hard to comprehend and it gives you that sick feeling in your stomach, and her being so far away in the Shetland Islands breaks my heart even more.
“I don’t want to even think about how scared she might have been in that moment.”
Andrea Manson, the convenor of Shetland Islands Council, said she hoped that the guilty verdict brought some closure to Ms Leveque’s family.
“In a normally safe and caring community the tragic loss of a beautiful young lass is a tragedy that’s being felt by everyone in Shetland,” she said.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The next stage in the evolution of the Gray Eagle Short Takeoff and Landing (GE STOL) drone sees General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) team up with South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace for co-development and co-production of the uncrewed aircraft system, with work set to begin immediately. A demonstrator for the medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone has already operated from a South Korean amphibious assault ship, but the new partnership will see production of the Gray Eagle STOL for all customers taking place in South Korea.
GA-ASI’s Mojave demonstrator during takeoff and landing trials on a dirt strip near El Mirage, California, in August 2023. GA-ASI
As for the Gray Eagle STOL, this is the latest iteration of GA-ASI’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS. At the center of the Gray Eagle STOL is its ability to operate from remote or austere locations with rough strips and limited logistical support. GA-ASI says the aircraft will be able to operate from semi-improved surfaces, including dirt roads, open fields, beaches, and parking lots. The same capabilities render it suitable for flying from aircraft carriers and big-deck assault ships, too.
In the past, GA-ASI has described the Gray Eagle STOL as its “most rugged UAS design,” although it’s worth noting that the basic MQ-1C Gray Eagle for the U.S. Army already put something of a premium on efficiency and usability. The original MQ-1C Gray Eagle was tailored for warfare in the Middle East, uses a heavy-fuel piston engine instead of a turboprop, and can be operated by a cadre of enlisted soldiers.
MQ-1C Gray Eagle. U.S. Army
Under the new joint initiative, GA-ASI and Hanwha plan to build a production-representative Gray Eagle STOL aircraft, which should take to the air in 2027. The companies will, in the meantime, establish a production line that will be able to provide the Gray Eagle STOL to customers in the United States and South Korea, as well as globally, and which should result in cost savings for the drone. The first deliveries to customers should take place in 2028.
“GA-ASI and Hanwha are committed to investing in this project and building development and production capabilities in South Korea,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “We’ll be leveraging the expertise of both companies to quickly bring the Gray Eagle STOL to global customers.”
“This landmark agreement marks the beginning of a new phase in U.S.-Korea defense cooperation, extending beyond traditional alliance structures to deliver next-generation, runway-independent UAS solutions that maximize commanders’ options in the face of evolving mission demands,” GA-ASI said in a statement.
The next steps will see GA-ASI and Hanwha Aerospace working closely together to complete the design phase for the drone and then establish a production facility in South Korea. The final assembly and manufacturing of the GE STOL will be the responsibility of Hanwha in South Korea, with GA-ASI handling the final integration. Meanwhile, GA-ASI will continue to produce other Gray Eagle models at its plant in San Diego, California.
An early rendering of the Gray Eagle Short Takeoff and Landing (GE STOL) drone. GA-ASI
GA-ASI says the new partnership “offers the fastest path with lowest risk to operational capability.”
“Co-producing GE STOL in South Korea and the U.S. will create jobs and help Hanwha secure talent in related fields as well as foster our domestic (Korean) UAS industry ecosystem,” said Jae-il Son, president and CEO of Hanwha Aerospace. “Hanwha is poised to become a comprehensive UAS company capable of executing everything from design to production and maintenance based on our capabilities, which span from fighter jet engines to radar and avionics equipment.”
For Hanwha, the Gray Eagle STOL also presents a way of gaining a foothold in the South Korean military. The country’s armed forces already operate a diverse drone fleet, including Israeli-supplied aircraft. However, on the domestic front, this segment is currently dominated by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Korean Air, both of which already build drones for the South Korean military.
However, GA-ASI has already been working closely with the South Korean Ministry of Defense as it continues to develop the Gray Eagle STOL drone.
Last year, the Mojave demonstrator was used in a demonstration when it took off from the Republic of Korea Navy’s amphibious landing ship ROKS Dokdo, as it was underway off the coast of Pohang, South Korea.
The Mojave drone at the rear of the flight deck of the Dokdo amphibious assault ship in the Sea of Japan. Republic of Korea Armed Forces
The Mojave has also been used for takeoff and landing trials aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in 2023.
Other milestones for the demonstrator drone have included live-fire testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, using the Dillon Aero DAP-6 Minigun, and operations from a dirt strip to prove its STOL credentials, something we have reported on before. The stated performance of the Mojave includes a takeoff run of 400 feet for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, or 1,000 feet when armed with 12 Hellfire missiles.
Clearly, having Hanwha Aerospace onboard the Gray Eagle STOL program, including local production, should make the drone even more attractive to South Korea.
As well as operating from the two Dokdo class amphibious assault ships — the drone doesn’t necessarily need a catapult for launch or arresting gear for recovery — the Gray Eagle STOL could be a valuable addition to the South Korean military’s land-based units.
The Republic of Korea Navy’s amphibious landing ship ROKS Dokdo takes part in maneuvers in waters near Busan, South Korea, in June 2013. Republic of Korea Armed Forces
For the Republic of Korea Army, the Gray Eagle STOL’s runway independence would be a huge advantage during any kind of conflict with North Korea. In the past, GA-ASI has outlined the fact that the drone’s commanders “can choose virtually any bases of operation and take advantage of unconventional locations not normally affiliated with unmanned aircraft or aviation operations as an added level of survivability and surprise.”
In such a scenario, it would likely be in heavy demand for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA), as well as strike. Meanwhile, its manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capability could see it operate closely with the Republic of Korea Army helicopter fleet, including the AH-64E Apache.
A Republic of Korea Army AH-64E Apache during a live-fire military exercise in Pocheon in September 2022. Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP ANTHONY WALLACE
The Gray Eagle STOL is also intended, from the ground up, to be rapidly deployed to remote locations by C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, a type also operated by South Korea. GA-ASI says the drone can be ready to fly from austere locales in as little as 1.5 hours once rolled out the back of a C-130. This makes it ideal for different sorts of distributed and expeditionary operations.
As well as the aforementioned Mojave weapons, the Gray Eagle STOL is planned to be armed with launched effects, a capability that it inherits from the improved Gray Eagle 25M. The latter was developed to provide the U.S. Army with the option to procure a more advanced version of the MQ-1C, which would incorporate various enhancements to better meet the demands of a future conflict, likely to be expeditionary peer conflicts rather than a counterinsurgency fight.
Concept artwork from GA-ASI showing a Gray Eagle 25M launching the company’s Eaglet air-launched drones. GA-ASI
GA-ASI has previously underlined the potential use of this drone to tackle enemy air defense systems in a large and very contested battlefield — just like the one that South Korea could face if it goes to war with its neighbor. In this scenario, the drone would lob its launched effects toward the air defenses before acting as a “quarterback,” relaying data gathered by the smaller drones to other friendly elements, be they aircraft, long-range fires, or other platforms.
Gray Eagle 25M. GA-ASI
At the same time, the growing questions around the survivability of drones like this need to be acknowledged. The Gray Eagle STOL and its relatives are potentially vulnerable even when faced by lower-end adversaries, a fact that has been underscored by the scale of losses suffered by U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones when faced by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. The use of LEs at standoff distances and the addition of self protection and electronic warfare pods, as well as combined force tactics, will help them in the fight in the years to come.
The Gray Eagle STOL would also port other advanced technologies over from the Gray Eagle 25M, including the EagleEye synthetic aperture radar, which can detect and track ground targets out to 50 miles and maritime targets out to 124 miles. GA-ASI is also working to introduce an increased-range active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna, which is intended to allow it to operate beyond the weapons effects zone of many threat systems.
As we have highlighted in the past, the Gray Eagle STOL would also seem to offer a broad portfolio of capabilities that could be of particular relevance to the U.S. military as it prepares for a future high-end conflict, especially one fought in the Pacific against China.
In the past, GA-ASI has specifically said that the “Gray Eagle STOL might go with American forces into an expeditionary base deep downrange, co-locating with them as necessary to support missions, including delivery of supplies with the range to reach from island chain to island chain for units separate from the main body. Operating from a semi-prepared landing zone, a dirt road, or any paved surface, it expands commanders’ options.”
Other roles planned for the Gray Eagle STOL include logistics, and GA-ASI has explored the idea of underwing pods capable of carrying up to 1,000 pounds of cargo. This could be of particular interest for the U.S. military, as it looks increasingly at diverse distributed logistics chains as an essential requirement for supporting future operations in contested environments, especially in the context of a potential future high-end conflict, including in the Pacific.
With these kinds of peer and near-peer conflicts in mind, the Gray Eagle STOL is also intended to be more resilient to hostile electronic warfare jamming, especially to GPS networks. It will have vision-based navigation that can be used to overcome GPS jamming and have SATCOM anti-jam technologies.
Ultimately, the Gray Eagle STOL should emerge as a drone that’s able to fly a wide range of missions, from a variety of land bases and ships. It’s clear that, with their new partnership, GA-ASI and Hanwha Aerospace foresee interest from operators outside of the U.S. and South Korean militaries, too.
After two years in an Israeli jail, Yousef Salem set out on a journey to his house in Gaza. The former detainee, who says he was tortured during his time in captivity, was confronted by the devastation of Israel’s onslaught when he finally arrived home. This is his story.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in court to testify in his corruption trial, days after U.S. President Trump called for him to be pardoned. Protesters outside the court demanded the trial continue as a test of Israel’s democracy. Netanyahu denies all charges.
Dozens of dilapidated stone buildings are all that remain of the once-thriving border village of Martoli, in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Nestled in the Johar Valley and surrounded by Himalayan peaks, the most notable being Nanda Devi, once considered the tallest mountain in the world, this village had traded sugar, lentils, spices, and cloth for salt and wool with Tibetans across the border.
The nomadic inhabitants of several villages spent the winter months in the plains gathering goods to be traded with Tibetans in the summer. However, the border was sealed following an armed conflict between India and China in 1962, disrupting life in the high villages and leaving people with little incentive to return.
Kishan Singh, 77, was 14 when he left with his family to settle in the lower village of Thal. He still returns to Martoli every summer to till the land and cultivate buckwheat, strawberries, and black cumin.
His ancestral home has no roof, so he sleeps in a neighbour’s abandoned house during the six months he spends in this village.
“I enjoy being in the mountains and the land here is very fertile,” he says.
In late autumn, he hires mules to transport his harvest to his home in the plains, where he sells it at a modest profit.
The largest of the Johar Valley villages had about 1,500 people at its peak in the early 1960s. Martoli had about 500 residents then, while some of the dozen or so other villages had 10 to 15 homes each.
Now, only three or four people return to Martoli each summer.
A few villagers are returning in summer to the nearby villages of Laspa, Ghanghar, and Rilkot, as they can now travel by vehicle to within a few kilometres (miles) of their villages on a recently built unpaved road.
Among the scattered remnants of earlier stone houses in Martoli, a new guesthouse has appeared to cater for a few trekkers who pass through the village en route to the Nanda Devi Base Camp.
Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80, family sources have told the BBC.
Odinga died on Wednesday while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in India. He collapsed during a morning walk and was taken to Devamatha Hospital, which said he had suffered a cardiac arrest. It said he did not respond to resuscitation measures and was “declared dead at 09:52” local time (04:22 GMT).
In recent weeks, there has been speculation about his health, although family members and political allies had dismissed reports suggesting he was critically ill.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta – a long-time rival – said Odinga’s death had “left a silence that echoes across our nation”.
Other Kenyan politicians and world leaders have been sending their condolences, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who described Odinga as a “towering statesman and a cherished friend of India”.
His supporters have been pouring onto the streets to mourn, especially in his political strongholds of western Kenya and parts of Nairobi.
A political mobiliser and towering figure in Kenyan politics, Odinga ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times. He rejected the results on each occasion, often saying that victory had been stolen from him.
He was vindicated by Kenya’s highest court after the 2017 elections, when it annulled Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory and ordered fresh polls. However, he boycotted the rerun, demanding electoral reforms.
The disputed election of 2007, in which Odinga claimed he was cheated of victory by Mwai Kibaki, led to the biggest crisis in Kenya’s history.
Violence erupted around the country, resulting in 1,200 deaths and about 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
To resolve the crisis, a power-sharing agreement was brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading to the formation of a unity government in which Odinga became prime minister.
He has often reconciled with the incumbent president after contentious elections.
After his most recent defeat in 2022, he later joined President William Ruto in a so-called broad-based government, which brought several of his allies into key positions.
He defended the move as necessary for national unity, coming in the aftermath of watershed nationwide protests last year that culminated in the storming of parliament. Dozens of protesters were killed in confrontations with security officers.
The Ruto administration backed Odinga’s bid to become chairperson of the African Union Commission, in elections held earlier this year. Despite strong regional support, he lost to Djibouti’s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Odinga inspired a passionate and loyal following throughout his political career, especially in western Kenya, where he was from.
His supporters called him “Baba” (Father), “Agwambo” (Act of God), and “Tinga” (Tractor) – drawn from his party’s symbol during the 1997 elections.
He was widely regarded as a master strategist and mass mobiliser, often drawing huge crowds to his political rallies, and he had a deep ability to connect with ordinary people.
He will be remembered for his unwavering fight for democratic freedoms and human rights.
He was a former political prisoner, and holds the record for being Kenya’s longest-serving detainee. His struggle against one-party dictatorship saw him detained twice (from 1982 to 1988 and 1989 to 1991) during the rule of Daniel arap Moi.
He was initially imprisoned for trying to stage a coup in 1982, which propelled him on to the national stage.
In November 2024, an empty field suddenly turned into a bustling scene. Women streamed in carrying baskets of tomatoes, while others unwrapped sacks of oranges. At the time, teenage girls hawked in the crowd with trays of boiled groundnuts balanced on their heads. Along the roadside, two trailers lined up a few metres away as young men tossed heavy sacks of maize into one and rice into the other.
This was the Tumba Ra Ngabili market.
For a trader like Asmau Abubakar, she never imagined a market like this could exist, especially when she reflects on the years when the Boko Haram insurgency was at its peak. She says her fear grew the first time she heard the insurgents had arrived in Madagali in 2014, a few towns away from Michika, her hometown, both in Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria.
When rumours spread at the time that the insurgents would not harm women, Asmau urged her husband to flee while she stayed behind with the children. But he refused, insisting the family remain together.
Then came the news that the insurgents were unleashing violence in Gulak. And knowing Gulak was close, Asmau’s family fled to Uba, a neighbouring town, where they passed the night before returning home the next morning.
But the fear never left Asmau. Soon again, word spread that Michika itself would be attacked on a Sunday.
“Before they came, on that Sunday at dawn, my husband got us a car that took us to Yola [the Adamawa State capital] while he fled on foot, passing several villages to reach Gombi,” Asmau recalled. “We were at Mararraban Mubi when I heard the insurgents had entered Michika.”
Many families, like Asmau’s, fled for safety. But that Sunday in September 2014 carried the memory of gunfire echoing in the air, houses burning in flames, and, of course, the lives taken in cold blood. The insurgents did not only stop at attacking Michika, they in fact seized the town and spread into nearby villages, inflicting fear and hardship on the locals. It was a period when they were expanding across northeastern Nigeria in their bid to carve out an Islamic caliphate.
Boko Haram’s violent campaign had started five years earlier in 2009, first as an uprising in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, before spreading across the region. In its wake, families mourned their loved ones, schools and markets were left destroyed, and dozens of communities were turned to ruins, with over a million people uprooted from their homes.
Michika was soon trapped in this same cycle of bloodshed and chaos that forced people across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe to live with fear as part of daily life. Meanwhile, the insurgents held the town captive for months until January 2015, when Nigeria’s military finally drove them out. So, as locals began to return, they discovered that what awaited them were wrecked houses and the loss of nearly everything they owned.
“The walls of my house were riddled with bullets,” Asmau told HumAngle. “They destroyed doors and windows and looted some of our belongings.”
Even as Asmau and other families in Michika began to rebuild and piece their lives back together, they realised that the insurgency had sown deep distrust between Christians and Muslims. The divide between the two faiths grew so intense that, according to locals HumAngle spoke with, it spread into the main Michika market, where Christians chose Saturdays to sell their farm produce and Muslims traded on Sundays when most Christians were in church.
Asmau has not forgetten that period when she moved between the main Michika market and those in Bazza and Lassa to buy and sell bags of maize, beans, and groundnuts.
“Relations between us Muslims and the Christians became strained,” she explained. “They thought the majority of Muslims were Boko Haram.”
HumAngle also learned that, at the time, Muslims said their children could not have relationships with children from Christian families, and Christians equally insisted their children would not relate to Muslim families.
Rebuilding Trust
This situation persisted in Tumba Ra Ngabili, Asmau’s community, until 2020, when the British Council, in partnership with the Women and Youth Economic Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), brought women from the area into its Managing Conflict in Nigeria (MCN) programme.
Aishatu Margima, Executive Director of the Women and Youth Economic Advancement and Health Initiative (WYEAHI), stands in her Yola office detailing the MCN project. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
About 200 women from Christian and Muslim households received training in peacebuilding, conflict management, and Early Warning and Early Response (EWER).
“We learned that due to the insurgency, these women lost their livelihoods. So we felt it would be good that after the training, we should also empower them,” said Aishatu Margima, WYEAHI’s Executive Director.
The women were organised into groups of 20, with each member receiving ₦30,000 to start a business or support an existing one.
“I was happy when my name made it to the list of women selected for the training and even more when I got empowered with ₦30,000,” shared Asmau, recalling it was a time when her business was struggling due to low capital and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted movements and closed markets.
The micro-funding and training also transformed Christiana Emma’s life. She had lived in Tumba Ra Ngabili for 20 years and fled to Yola only when the insurgency struck. Though she lost her house and belongings, she returned after Michika was liberated because the feeling that it was her home did not leave her.
“We started rebuilding with my husband through the grace of God, and to support him, I was selling tomatoes, bananas, and oranges,” Christiana said. She would travel to Besso and Kirchinga villages in Michika and Madagali to collect goods on loan, sell them, repay the loan, and keep the profit.
“The ₦30,000 I got helped me grow my business. I later built a capital of ₦150,000 that allows me to buy goods upfront without taking loans,” she noted. “Today, the proceeds help me cover my family’s bills, from education to feeding and healthcare.”
Muslims now buy from Christiana Emma, and she also sells to them. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
Restoring peace through trade
In their 20-member group, 16 were Christians and 4 were Muslims. The training enlightened them on love and peaceful coexistence.
The group began holding weekly meetings every Sunday to strengthen relationships and discuss business challenges. And in one of those meetings, they decided to establish a market in Tumba Ra Ngabili.
Women who established the market hold one of their weekly meetings on social cohesion at the community chief’s place. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
The women approached the community chief, Lawan Yakubu, who, after consulting with his council members, approved their request and allocated land a few metres from his house for the market.
The sign for the palace of the community chief, Lawan Yakubu, in Tumba Ra Ngabili, Adamawa. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
They believed the local market would make it easier to run their businesses and improve their earnings without the need to travel to nearby villages or the main Michika market. At the same time, they wanted the market to serve as a space for unity where people from all faiths could trade freely.
At first, the women traded in an open field until the Danish Refugee Council, an international humanitarian organisation, while implementing a different project in the community, learned about the market and decided to support and expand the women’s efforts by constructing a block of 16 roofed tents where traders could display their goods.
The blocks of the Tumba Ra Ngabili market. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
In the two years since it opened, the Tumba Ra Ngabili market has transformed both business and relationships in the community, especially with Christian and Muslim women trading side by side.
Traders gathered in a roofed tent at the market. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
Blessing John, a widow and member of the group who now sells Gwanjo (second-hand clothes), remembers how isolated she once felt and how difficult it was to keep her business running or get help when challenges came.
“Now, I know I can turn to any member of the group, whether at the market or at home, whether a Christian or a Muslim, and get support,” said the 40-something-year-old mother of eight.
Blessing explained that to make it convenient for everyone, the women agreed that the market would mainly operate on Sundays immediately after morning church services.
“The market also opens on Wednesdays, but Sunday has become the main trading day,” she told HumAngle.
Blessing John said when they started the market, some thought it wouldn’t succeed, but they never gave up on their vision. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
Traders troop into the market, mostly during the harvest period, to buy bags of food crops ranging from maize, rice, beans, groundnuts, and even tomatoes, which are then transported in big lorries to Mubi, Maiduguri, and other parts of the country.
Each trader at the market pays ₦50 to the local government as tax on every market day.
Some community members gather under a large tree at the Tumba Ra Ngabili market field. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
Saving together
The women have also started an Adashe (savings pool) system. Every Sunday evening, after trading, they gather to repeat sessions on “maintaining peaceful coexistence with one another,” and each member contributes ₦1,000.
The collected ₦20,000 is kept in a wooden box made by a local carpenter. The box has four keys, each held by a team of four members, and it can only be opened when all group members are present. If a member is sick or unavoidably absent, a representative from her family or relations can stand in to ensure the box can be opened.
After collecting the contributions, any member needing a loan can borrow from the pool and repay it with 10 per cent interest within a month. For example, if a member borrows ₦10,000, she will repay ₦11,000. In the early days of the system, Asmau often borrowed from the pool to strengthen her business capital.
“It helps me make more profit since the capital is much larger when I combine my initial empowerment money with the loaned amount,” Asmau said. From the profit, she buys foodstuffs each market day and contributes to the savings pool.
“I have children and pay their school fees with a part of the profit,” she added.
Seen from behind, Asmau Abubakar, wearing a blue veil, joins the women as they walk home after a social cohesion session at the palace. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
When no one needs a loan, the wooden box is locked and kept by the group’s treasurer, Manga Musa, who shared that the group also has a social fund, to which each member deposits ₦50 weekly.
“It’s the savings we use in case any of us gets sick. We can then support the person without asking for repayment,” she said.
Having united by a shared purpose, women in Tumba Ra Ngabili walk together into the market, sharing conversations of courage and hope. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
And by December each year, a week before Christmas, the group gathers to share all the money in the savings pool before taking a break and returning in January for the new year.
“We buy Christmas food and clothes for our children in December after sharing the earnings,” noted Christiana. “For Muslims, during their festive seasons, if they need to borrow money from the pool, we give it to them.”
The struggle to thrive
However, despite their success stories, some challenges raise questions about how sustainable the women’s efforts are without institutionalised support.
During the rainy season, the market does not come alive like it does in the dry months. When HumAngle visited on a Wednesday, the tents were empty. And even on Sunday, the main market day, only a few items, such as vegetables, fruits, and small household goods, were on display. There were no food crops.
Locals told HumAngle that this is because most traders are occupied with farming at this time of the year and do not come to the market as often.
Last year, the community suffered a flood, and most traders whose farmlands were flooded did not harvest many food crops that could be brought to the market.
Still, the poor roads leading to Tumba Ra Ngabili, along with a river that traders from distant villages must cross, also limit the amount of produce that reaches the market.
An unpaved road leading into Tumba Ra Ngabili. Photo Credit: Yahuza Bawage/HumAngle.
On the other hand, Blessing admitted that business has slowed in recent months. “People focus more on looking for what to eat than buying clothes,” she explained.
Manga said the women’s savings pool is directly tied to market activity. When sales drop, some members struggle to make their weekly contributions, which sometimes delays their cycle of lending and repayment.
Even with the gaps, Blessing dreams of opening a shop to stock clothes instead of pushing them around in a wheelbarrow. Others hope to see the Tumba Ra Ngabili market upgraded into a standard marketplace with proper shops and storage facilities.
Together, the women want their savings pool to grow strong enough to sustain members and extend support to other women in the community.
Now, what remains uncertain is whether the peace they have built can withstand the challenges that still surround them.
This story was produced under the HumAngle Foundation’s Advancing Peace and Security through Journalism project, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
On Monday, we reported on Sikorsky’s new U-Hawk cargo helicopter, which is a UH-60 Black Hawk that has been converted into an uncrewed hauler by removing the cockpit and adding clamshell doors in its place, fly-by-wire flight control systems, and additional modifications. You can read all about this aircraft, its genesis, and its capabilities in our report linked here.
Now we have gotten a tour of the actual helicopter on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual conference just outside of Washington, D.C. Erskine “Ramsey” Bentley, Strategy and Business Development, Advanced Programs at Sikorsky, gave us the walk around, explaining all the U-Hawk’s features.
The State Department says the US has ‘no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans’ after revoking visas over critical social media posts.
The US Department of State says it has revoked the visas of six foreigners over remarks they made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist who was shot dead at a rally in September.
“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the department said in a post on X on Tuesday evening in the US.
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The post was followed by a list of screenshots and critical remarks from six social media accounts, which the State Department said belonged to individuals from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico.
“An Argentine national said that Kirk ‘devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric’ and deserves to burn in hell. Visa revoked,” the State Department tweeted along with a screenshot that had the username blacked out.
The screenshot post said Kirk was now somewhere “hot” – an allusion to religious descriptions of hell.
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:
The news from the State Department came as Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday by President Donald Trump.
Kirk, who was 31 at the time of his death, was a cofounder of the conservative Turning Point student organisation. He was credited with driving young voters to vote for Trump during last year’s US presidential election.
His death led to a wave of social media commentary on the US left and right about his politics, as Trump elevated him to the status of a “martyr for truth” during a memorial service.
More than 145 people were fired, suspended, or resigned over social media posts or comments about Kirk, according to a New York Times investigation.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the Trump administration could revoke the visas of foreign nationals over comments on Kirk, while Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau urged internet users to report social media comments of people applying for US visas.
“I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalising, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action,” Landau tweeted in September. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the [State Department] can protect the American people.”
In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country. I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light…
While the State Department has required visa applicants to share their social media handles on their applications since 2019, in June, it added the provision that student applicants must make all their social media accounts public for government vetting.
The move follows a crackdown on international students who supported pro-Palestine protests on university and college campuses across the US under the Trump administration.
In August, a State Department official told Fox News it had revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year.
About two-thirds of visas were revoked because students reportedly broke US law, the Fox News report said, while “200 to 300” were cancelled because they supported “terrorism” or engaged in “behaviour such as raising funds for the militant group Hamas”.
