Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has been unambiguous about his desire for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping voting law that supporters say will boost election security and that detractors say risks disenfranchising millions of voters.
The push has gained new urgency, with the US Senate continuing debate on the law following a two-week recess.
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The president has said the bill, which at its core would create higher documentation standards for proving citizenship when registering to vote and casting a ballot, is his top priority ahead of the midterm elections in November, which will determine which party controls the Senate and the US House of Representatives.
The bill has near-total support from Republicans, with Democrats remaining largely unified in opposition. It passed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in February along party lines.
The measure has since remained stalled in Congress, where Republicans control 53 out of 100 seats, short of the 60 votes it will likely need to pass.
That is, unless party leaders move to change the chamber’s longstanding rules, a transformative approach considered a”nuclear” option that will reverberate for years to come.
Here’s what to know.
What would the SAVE America Act do?
The version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act passed by the House in February would require voters to provide proof of citizenship – a birth certificate or passport – when registering to vote. It would also implement stricter voter identification requirements for individuals casting ballots, whether by mail or in person.
Under the US Constitution, states administer elections, and currently have different processes for registering voters and confirming citizenship. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal, and all people registering to vote attest they are US citizens under threat of perjury.
The bill does not provide any funding for the new verification processes, which would be effective immediately upon the bill being signed into law.
The legislation would also require all states to run their voter rolls through a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “Alien Verification Eligibility” system to identify potential noncitizens already enrolled.
It would include criminal penalties for election officials who register voters without the required documentation.
What has Trump said about the SAVE Act?
The US president has long maintained that elections in the country are marred by widespread fraud, including noncitizen voting, despite there being no evidence to support these claims.
Even the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has influenced many of Trump’s policies, has found only exceedingly rare instances of voter fraud over decades of US elections.
Trump’s focus on election administration dates back to his 2020 loss to former US President Joe Biden, which he continues to maintain was the result of the vote being “stolen”. Again, no evidence has emerged to back those claims.
The president has called the SAVE America Act “one of the most IMPORTANT & CONSEQUENTIAL pieces of legislation in the history of Congress, and America itself”.
In March, he vowed not to sign any other bills into law until the legislation was passed. He has further vowed not to endorse any Republicans who do not support the legislation.
Trump also told members of his party in March that passing the bill would “guarantee” their success not only in the midterm elections but in the years to come.
Several top Republicans have embraced Trump’s messaging, with US House Speaker Mike Johnson saying opponents of the legislation “want illegal aliens to vote in our elections”.
What have critics said about the SAVE Act?
Critics have said the bill would be tantamount to widespread voter disenfranchisement, creating onerous barriers to address what several studies show to be the fleetingly rare problem of noncitizens registering to vote.
Several studies have shown that about 11 percent of eligible voters do not have access to birth certificates, while 52 percent do not have valid passports. All told, a recent study by several election-monitoring groups found that about nine percent of eligible voters in the US do not have easy access to documents proving citizenship, accounting for about 21.3 million people.
Several groups, including the Bipartisan Policy Center, have argued the legislation risks doing more damage than good. Data from a USCIS voter verification system, which some states already use to identify noncitizens in their voter rolls, found that only 0.04 percent of reviewed cases were flagged as potential noncitizens.
But as noted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, evidence indicates that the rate may be considerably lower, pointing to a review by Travis County, Texas that found that a quarter of the voters flagged by USCIS had actually provided proof of citizenship.
In another example, a review of all registered voters in Utah from 2025 to 2026 found only a single instance of a noncitizen registered to vote out of more than two million voters. There were no confirmed instances of a noncitizen actually voting.
Top Democrats have echoed those criticisms, while charging that Trump is seeking to influence the outcome of the midterms as part of what they call a years-long effort to politicise voting administration.
“The only thing Republicans are trying to save with this legislation is their own skin in the next election,” Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said earlier this week.
Could it affect women and name changes?
A main point of contention for opponents of the legislation is the additional barriers it could create for individuals, primarily women, who changed their last names after marriage or for other reasons.
An estimated 69 million women in the US lack easy access to documentation linking their current legal names to those at birth, according to the League of Women Voters, which has been a leading opponent of the bill.
The requirement for extra documentation for some married women creates inherent inequality in the system, the organisation has argued.
The law would further create extra barriers for individuals who move regularly, including members of the military, and those who have been afflicted by disruptive life changes, including natural disasters, opponents have argued.
How does this relate to the filibuster?
The so-called “filibuster” is a procedural rule in the Senate that can be used to require 60 votes to pass most bills, as opposed to a simple majority of 51 votes in the 100-seat chamber.
Parties in the minority have long used the rule to temper the party in the majority, with Republicans and Democrats rarely holding a filibuster-proof 60 seats.
Being a rule of the Senate’s own making, it could be easily scrapped by the party in power. However, doing so has long been seen as a “nuclear” option. While it would offer short-term benefits to the majority party, it would undermine the same party if it becomes the minority in future elections.
Nevertheless, Trump has heaped pressure on Republican leaders in the Senate to scrap the rule, writing on Truth Social in March, they need to “Kill the Filibuster”.
What happens next?
Debate remains ongoing in the Senate over the legislation, but major shifts in support are seen as extremely unlikely.
Republicans are unlikely to bring the legislation to a vote if they do not have the support for it to pass.
Currently, there is no plan to hold a vote to do away with the filibuster, which would require only a simple majority.
Lawmakers have also not yet pursued other, more incremental procedural manoeuvres to pass the bill without 60 votes.
All this comes as Trump has been telling media outlets that he believes the war could soon end. We’ll talk more about that later in this story.
“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz,” the American leader proclaimed on Truth Social, even as the flow of oil from the Middle East has been drastically reduced by the war. “I am doing it for them, also – And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran.”
“President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks,” he added. “We are working together smartly, and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to – far better than anyone else!!!”
In a pre-taped interview that aired Wednesday morning, Trump told Fox News that the war hasn’t soured his relationship with Xi, who has expressed frustration with American actions in the Middle East.
“I don’t think it does,” Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “He’s somebody that needs oil. We don’t. He’s somebody I get along with very well. He just wrote me a beautiful letter…He responded to a letter that I wrote because I had heard that China is giving weapons to – I mean, you’re seeing it all over the place – to Iran…I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that, and he wrote me a letter saying that essentially he’s not doing that.”
Trump:
I wrote a letter to Xi. I asked him not to give Iran weapons. He wrote me a letter, and he is saying that he is essentially not doing that. pic.twitter.com/yrTT9Dwi2V
Before his Truth Social Post and the Fox interview aired, Financial Times reported that Iran “secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite that gave the Islamic republic a powerful new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East during the recent war.”
“Leaked Iranian military documents show the satellite, known as TEE-01B, was acquired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Aerospace Force in late 2024 after it was launched into space from China,” according to the outlet. “Time-stamped coordinate lists, satellite imagery and orbital analysis show that Iranian military commanders later tasked the satellite to monitor key US military sites. The images were taken in March before and after drone and missile strikes on those locations.”
Meanwhile, China continues to push back against accusations that it is helping Iran and repeated previous assertions that it will respond should Trump go through with his threat to impose a 50% tariff.
“Media reports accusing China of providing military support to Iran are purely fabricated,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stated on X. “If the U.S. goes ahead with tariff hikes on China on the basis of these accusations, China will respond with countermeasures.”
Lin did not offer details about those countermeasures.
Media reports accusing China of providing military support to Iran are purely fabricated.
If the U.S. goes ahead with tariff hikes on China on the basis of these accusations, China will respond with countermeasures. pic.twitter.com/QwETjpJEyY
Regardless, Iran’s use of commercial space imagery to strike U.S. and allied targets “will force the Pentagon to adjust, the head of U.S. Space Command said,” according to Defense One.
“We have to recognize that the rest of the world can now see the entire planet transparently and almost 24/7 and so we have to be able to operate in that environment successfully,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, the head of U.S. Space Command told reporters Tuesday during the Space Symposium conference.
UPDATES
UPDATE: 2:24 PM EDT –
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied the U.S. requested an extention to the ceasefire.
‘I saw some reporting that we had formally requested an extension of this ceasefire. That is not true. We remain engaged in these negotiations.’
She also thanked Pakistan for its help in the negotiations.
PRESS SEC on U.S.-Iran negotiations: The Pakistanis have been incredible mediators and we really appreciate their friendship and efforts to bring this deal to a close.
The President feels it’s important to continue to streamline this communication through the Pakistanis. pic.twitter.com/3iIeF0oUpn
Trump, as we noted earlier, is saying that he believes the war could soon be concluded.
“I think it’s close to over,” Trump posited. “I mean, I view it as very close to over. You know what? If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we’re not finished. We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.”
When asked by Sky whether a deal could happen before King Charles visits the U.S. at the end of the month, Trump said: “It’s possible. Very possible. They’re beaten up pretty bad.”
U.S. and Iranian negotiators made progress in talks on Tuesday, moving closer to a framework agreement to end the war, two U.S. officials said, Axios reported on Wednesday.
“U.S. officials and sources familiar with the mediation cautioned that a deal is not guaranteed, given the substantial differences between the two sides,” the news outlet noted.
“Let’s wait and see if we can get a deal. We are hopeful and accordingly trying to push with both sides,” a Pakistani official told Axios.
“U.S. officials and sources familiar with the mediation cautioned that a deal is not guaranteed, given the substantial differences between the two sides.”
“We want to make a deal. And parts of their government want to make a deal. Now the trick is to get the whole of government…
In another step toward potential future negotiations, Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff Asim Munir arrived in Tehran today for talks.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said that during the visit, “the views of both sides are likely to be discussed in detail.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirms that a high-ranking Pakistani delegation will visit Tehran today to follow up on talks with the U.S. in Islamabad. “During this visit, the views of both sides are likely to be discussed in detail,” Baghaei said. pic.twitter.com/bdMnyCKUA5
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) April 15, 2026
Baghaei, however, said Iran would not capitulate.
“If a negotiation is based on one side imposing conditions on the other, that is not negotiation; it is dictation and imposition, and you know that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian nation will never accept such imposition,” he stated.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson:
If a negotiation is based on one side imposing conditions on the other, that is not negotiation; it is dictation and imposition, and you know that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian nation will never accept such imposition. pic.twitter.com/lnKeJT9Pow
In an X post, CENTCOM on Wednesday said that during “the first 48 hours of the U.S. blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports, no vessels have made it past U.S. forces. Additionally, 9 vessels have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or coastal area.”
During the first 48 hours of the U.S. blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports, no vessels have made it past U.S. forces. Additionally, 9 vessels have complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and return toward an Iranian port or coastal area. pic.twitter.com/h4msgvaPTl
Late Tuesday night, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, took to X to announce that the “blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as U.S. forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East.”
“An estimated 90% of Iran’s economy is fueled by international trade by sea,” Cooper noted. “In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea.”
Senior IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi claimed the Islamic Republic would consider it a prelude to the breach of the ceasefire if “the aggressive and terrorist America” continues the blockade.
Abdollahi “threatened that the powerful Iranian armed forces would not allow any export and import to keep going in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea region, in the face of the US maritime aggression,” the official Iranian IRNA news agency stated on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Malta-flagged VLCC Agios Fanourios I became the first crude carrier to head west through the Strait of Hormuz since the US blockade on Iran’s ports came into force, according to MarineTraffic.
First crude carrier heads west through Strait of Hormuz since the US blockade
The Malta-flagged VLCC Agios Fanourios I has become the first crude carrier to head west through the Strait of Hormuz since the US blockade on Iran’s ports came into force. According to #MarineTraffic… pic.twitter.com/K8syfSZtFL
Though another round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran is being discussed, the Pentagon continues to pour resources into the Middle East, something we have been reporting about for weeks.
“The forces moving into the region include about 6,000 troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and several warships escorting it, said current and former officials,” according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous officials. “About 4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are expected to arrive near the end of the month.”
The Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mitchell Mason) Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitchell MasonA stock picture of the Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. USN
During the pause in fighting, Iran appears to be using the time to reopen entrances to underground missile cities damaged during the war, according to CNN. The network published footage showing engineering equipment at the Tabriz South missile base and the Khomein missile bases.
The network also noted that, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, about half of the Iranian missile launchers remained intact after a month of fighting, and that many of these launchers could have been buried in underground storage facilities as a result of strikes on the entrances.
CNN published footage showing engineering equipment making use of the ceasefire to reopen the entrances to underground facilities at missile bases that were damaged during the war.
The sites documented include the Tabriz South missile base and the Khomein missile base.
A day after negotiations took place in Washington between the U.S., Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a veiled threat to Beirut. Considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, Hezbollah was not a party to the talks.
“The Lebanese authorities must reconsider their actions and return to the embrace of the people,” said Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah in a statement. “The authorities withdrew the army from the south, leaving it vulnerable to occupation and giving the enemy [Israel] free rein.”
Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to bombard Hezbollah.
“In the past 24 hours, the IDF struck over 200 Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon,” it claimed. “Among the targets struck: terrorists, military structures, approximately 20 launchers, including those recently used to fire towards the State of Israel.”
ביממה האחרונה הותקפו יותר מ-200 מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בדרום לבנון. בין התשתיות שהותקפו: מחבלים, מבנים צבאיים וכ-20 משגרים, בהם משגרים ששיגרו לעבר שטח הארץ והושמדו בסגירות מעגל מהירות. pic.twitter.com/LeR2mr37Vv
Iran has condemned a ban imposed by YouTube on a pro-Iranian group that releases Lego-style artificial intelligence videos. But as war messaging moves into
The experts call Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon on April 8 ‘a blatant violation of the UN Charter’.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
A group of United Nations experts has denounced Israel’s attack on Lebanon a day after the United States and Iran agreed a ceasefire as illegal and urged UN member states to halt all arms transfers to Israel.
The 19 experts – including special rapporteurs and independent experts across a range of human rights mandates – issued the condemnation on Wednesday as Israel continued to pound areas of southern Lebanon, killing at least 16 people, including four paramedics, Lebanese state media reported.
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Referring to a devastating wave of Israeli attacks across Lebanon on April 8, which Lebanese authorities said killed more than 350 people, including 30 children, the experts said: “This is not self-defence. It is a blatant violation of the UN Charter, a deliberate destruction of prospects for peace, and an affront to multilateralism and the UN-based international order.”
They called for Israel to “cease all military operations in Lebanon” and urged UN member states to halt arms transfers to Israel while “there is credible evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law”, according to the UN Human Rights Council.
Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon on March 2 after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in response to the US-Israel killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei two days earlier, the first day of their war on Iran.
Israel has carried out a devastating bombardment across Lebanon and a ground invasion in the south, killing more than 2,000 people and forcibly displacing more than 1.2 million.
The UN experts said such forced displacement “of a civilian population constitutes crimes against humanity”. They also condemned Israel’s targeted “destruction of homes”, particularly in predominantly Shia areas of the south, as “a form of collective punishment” that “points to ethnic cleansing”.
Israel’s continuing bombardment of Lebanon has been a point of tension in US-Iran negotiations. Tehran said Lebanon should be covered in the ongoing ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire with Iran and Israel will continue to target Hezbollah “wherever required”.
On Saturday, days before Israel and Lebanon held rare, high-level diplomatic talks in the US, Netanyahu said Israel wanted long-term peace with Lebanon but on the condition that Hezbollah is disarmed.
The Reuters news agency quoted a senior Israeli official as saying Israel’s security cabinet planned to convene on Wednesday evening to discuss a possible ceasefire in Lebanon. It also quoted several senior Lebanese officials as saying ceasefire efforts were under way.
Italy’s decision to suspend a defence agreement with Israel has more symbolic value than concrete consequences, but it is an unprecedented move by the Italian government and reflects deep unease over its longtime ally’s actions in the Middle East, analysts say.
On Monday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy would not renew a memorandum of understanding – signed in 2003 and ratified in 2005 – between the two countries’ ministries of defence. The accord provided a framework for cooperation in “defence industry and procurement policy” and “import, export and transit of defence and military equipment”, among other things.
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The memorandum was set to automatically renew every five years “unless a written notice of intention to denounce is given” by one of the two countries to the other.
That notice arrived on Monday in a letter written by Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz.
The Israeli government has downplayed the move. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was a deal that “never materialised” and did not have “substantial content”. “Israel’s security will not be harmed,” he wrote on X.
It is true that the Italy-Israel agreement constituted more of a political framework than a series of operational commitments between the two countries. Furthermore, the Italian government’s decision does not cancel it outright, as opposition parties and human rights advocates have long demanded, but merely suspends it.
Still, the move is a sharp reversal for a right-wing government that has been one of Europe’s staunchest allies of Israel.
Along with Germany, Italy has been one of the strongest opponents of calls to suspend a trade agreement between Israel and the European Union. Italy has largely supported Israel’s war on Gaza, which a United Nations inquiry says amounts to genocide, and it has refused to recognise Palestinian statehood.
But relations between Israel and Italy have soured recently.
On Monday, the Italian ambassador to Tel Aviv, Luca Ferrari, was summoned after Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned Israel for its “unacceptable attacks against the civilian population” in Lebanon during a visit there. And last week, the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, prompting Tajani to summon the Israeli ambassador.
Israel also launched a massive attack across Lebanon last week, bombing 100 targets in 10 minutes on Wednesday, shortly after a two-week truce between Iran and the US was called. That series of strikes killed hundreds of people in one of the country’s worst mass slaughters since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990. Observers say the attack on Lebanon was an unwelcome disruptor to efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.
De-escalating Middle East tensions
The Italian government’s decision to suspend its defence agreement with Israel “must be seen within a broader effort to progressively stabilise the region, including by reducing tensions in Lebanon”, said Michele Valensise, president of the Institute for International Affairs and former secretary-general of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Israel’s military operation there objectively constitutes an irritant, complicating negotiations with the Iranians,” said Valensise. “If the Lebanese front can be part of a deal with Iran, then everyone has an interest in de-escalation there.”
European governments, including Italy, have been watching nervously as the United States-Israeli war on Iran has unfolded. Following initial joint Israel-US strikes on Tehran on February 28, Iranian forces brought shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to a near-total halt, causing the paralysis of the one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports that pass through the narrow waterway in peacetime.
Following a first failed round of high-stakes Iran-US talks in Islamabad last weekend – amid a fragile two-week truce – Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, further aggravating fears of a protracted energy crisis. Italy heavily relies on gas imports.
‘Stop the genocide’
Possibly more importantly, Italy’s government and prime minister are preparing for elections next year.
“There is a general discontent over the war in Iran and the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz – a crisis that’s impacting Italian growth and, if it continues, could have a significant impact on citizens, something Meloni worries about in a pre-election year,” said Arturo Varvelli, a political scientist and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Italian public opinion also has a strong pro-Palestinian component. Last October, more than two million Italians took to the streets as part of a general strike in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israel while trying to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza. The flotilla had been carrying 40 Italians among its passengers, calling on Israel to “stop the genocide”.
“There’s a concern that this will be a long agony, between an increasingly unmanageable Trump and the economic problems he and Netanyahu have caused with the war in the Middle East,” Varvelli said.
After years of efforts to emerge as US President Donald Trump’s “whisperer” in Europe, Meloni has been pushed by the war in Iran to put some distance between herself and Trump. Rome refused the US president’s request to join a naval coalition to force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and to allow US bombers to refuel at a military base in southern Italy.
Trump had not commented on those decisions until yesterday, when, in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he took aim at Meloni. The Italian PM had leapt to defend Pope Leo XIV after he became embroiled in a feud with Trump. Pope Leo had condemned the US president’s threat that Iran’s “civilisation will die” if it didn’t re-open the Strait of Hormuz. In response to that, Trump unleashed a storm of criticism at Leo, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy”. He said he does not “want a Pope who criticises the President of the United States”.
Trump also posted a bizarre image of himself as a Christ-like figure healing the sick on social media. He has since claimed it was meant to depict him as a doctor, following widespread criticism.
Of Meloni, who he once affectionately called “a real live wire”, Trump said, “I’m shocked at her” during an interview with Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.
“Do people like her? I can’t believe it,” he said in the interview, adding, “I thought she had courage. I was wrong.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The Cold War-era Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne might have been plagued with issues, but there’s no doubt it was among the world’s most advanced helicopters of its day. The AH-56 was so fast, and its features so ahead of their time, that the U.S. Army has decided to port over its name for its highly anticipated MV-75 tiltrotor, now officially named the Cheyenne II. The name also continues the Army’s tradition of naming its helicopters after great Native American tribes, and will find its place among icons like the Apache, Chinook, and Lakota.
A rendering shows a pair of MV-75s, now named Cheyenne II. Bell
The Bell V-280 Valor was developed for the Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technical Demonstrator program as a precursor to the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Bell/Matthew Ryan
The rollout took place today at the Army Aviation Association of America’s Army Aviation Warfighting Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. Speaking to journalists, including TWZ, before that event, Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, the commanding general of the Army Aviation Center and Portfolio Acquisition Executive — Expanded Maneuver Air, announced the MV-75’s rollout as “a pivotal moment for Army Aviation, for our soldiers.”
In keeping with other Army rotorcraft, the MV-75’s name also honors a Native American tribe (more accurately, two tribes), the Cheyenne.
As Maj. Gen. Gill explained: This name reflects more than heritage. It reflects identity. The Cheyenne people inhabited the Great Plains for 400 years, adapting to a harsh and unforgiving environment as highly proficient hunters and gatherers. Their way of life required constant mobility, organized around nomadic buffalo hunting, enabling them to assemble, disassemble, and move quickly to meet the demands of their environment. In many aspects, that same ability to rapidly organize, reposition, and operate with precision is reflected in the MV-75 platform.”
“Life in that environment demanded resilience and strength,” Gill continued. “Tribes navigated rivalries, dirt, conflict, and adapted as Westward expansion reshaped the landscape around them. Today, the Cheyenne are represented by the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana, in the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in Oklahoma, whose legacy reflects the proud and enduring warrior tradition, ground and protection, provision and leadership. Those values demand capability, and in today’s fight, that capability comes in the form of speed, range, lethality, and adaptability. That spirit of mobility, resilience, and disciplined strength is what the name Cheyenne II represents.”
As for the other, historical Cheyenne, the AH-56, this was a first-generation attack helicopter drafted during the Vietnam War. Most impressively for the time, the helicopter could hit a 224-mile-per-hour cruise speed and dash at speeds up to 240 miles per hour, driven by a nearly 4,000-horsepower turbine engine and a pusher propeller on the tail boom.
F 03873 US Army Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne multi weapon attack Helicopter
While it boasted incredible performance and was packed full of advanced features, the AH-56 was destined for failure. A combination of technical issues, program management shortfalls, changing procurement priorities, high cost, and a fatal crash in 1969 saw the program terminated. But despite never entering service, the Cheyenne left a profound impact on the concept of close air support and attack helicopter design and today holds a special place in military aviation history.
On the other hand, there are plenty of obvious differences between the AH-56 and the MV-75, not least their missions. They also had different prime contractors, and, the Army must hope, will have very different outcomes.
Maj. Gen. Gill continued: “What the [AH-56] Cheyenne was when it was initially conceived in the 1960s was a transformational leap ahead in technology. It was a rotorcraft when we were still learning how helicopters flew and how we could get the maximum utility, speed, and range out of them. And the Cheyenne, at the time that it was developed, was completely different. It had a pusher prop on it that allowed it to achieve speeds that we hadn’t seen before. You could draw a lot of parallels between going from the current fleet of rotorcraft that we fly, that is really 1960s, 1970s-era technology … to what we’re doing with the tiltrotor technology. Twice as far, twice as fast, vertical takeoff and landing, but flying at airplane speeds. You can certainly draw the metaphor there if you want, between the AH-56 back in the late 1960s and the MV-75 today.”
AH-56 Cheyenne firing rockets. U.S. Army
Continuing on the transformational theme, Brent G. Ingraham, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, provided his assessment of the MV-75, describing it as “a generational capability for the Army,” and one that “truly fundamentally changes how commanders think about distance, time, and maneuver on the battlefield.”
Ingraham continued: “It combines the vertical lift of a helicopter with the speed and range of an airplane, allowing us to project combat power from safer distances, penetrate deeper into contested environments, and deliver soldiers where they are needed most, faster than we ever have before.”
For the soldier, this means “restoring full-squad insertion at extended range, expanding medevac reach well beyond today’s Golden Hour, enabling large-scale, long-range air assault operations that can reshape the battlefield,” Ingraham added. Just as critically, the Cheyenne II will be able to self-deploy globally, reducing cost, complexity, and response time in a crisis. This is also especially relevant for future operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where operating locations and objectives are likely to be dispersed across large areas with limited options for making intermediate stops.
A rendering of an MV-75 launching drones. Bell
Ingraham also noted another key aspect of the program, namely the incredibly aggressive schedule to get it into service. Claiming the program as an “acquisition success story,” he described the team moving “with urgency while maintaining discipline.”
The MV-75 is designed around a modular, open-systems approach, with a digital backbone that should make it easier to adapt and upgrade as the program evolves.
“That means we can rapidly integrate new technologies, adapt to emerging threats, and avoid the costly redesigns of the past,” Ingraham said.
Soldiers are gaining hands-on experience with the future MV-75 through an immersive Virtual Prototype at Redstone Arsenal. U.S. Army/Matthew Ryan
Ingraham confirmed that the fielding timeline is being accelerated, which means the first Cheyenne II unit should be equipped in Fiscal Year 2030. Exactly how realistic that ambition is is something that we will discuss in a follow-on story.
As Ingraham said, speed matters, not just in the air, but in acquisition as well.
“We did it through strong partnerships across industry, the requirements community, and our operational units like the 101st [The 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s premier air assault unit, and the first unit set to get MV-75s], ensuring this platform is not just technologically advanced, but operationally relevant from day one. Simply put, the MV-75 Cheyenne II is how we deliver capability at the speed of relevance.”
For a rotary-wing program that puts a lot of emphasis on speed, its new Cheyenne II name is especially appropriate. Let’s just hope its warp-speed development doesn’t end the same way as its partial namesake.
Norway is preparing to lift restrictions preventing its $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund from investing in government bonds issued by Syria.
The move follows the political transition after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose government has been seeking economic recovery and international reintegration after more than a decade of war and sanctions.
At the same time, Norway plans to newly restrict investments in bonds issued by Iran, aligning with ongoing international sanctions.
Policy Shift and Financial Context
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, plays a major role in global financial markets. Its investment decisions often influence broader investor behaviour.
The updated policy removes Syria from the exclusion list for government bonds while adding Iran, reflecting changing geopolitical and sanctions dynamics.
Although the fund does not currently hold investments in Middle Eastern government bonds, the policy shift opens the door for future allocations and signals a reassessment of risk and legitimacy.
Geopolitical Significance
Norway’s decision represents a notable step toward Syria’s re-entry into the global financial system. It comes alongside other developments, including the restoration of Syria’s financial links with international institutions after years of isolation.
The move also highlights a divergence in how states are being treated: while Syria is gradually being reintegrated, Iran remains economically isolated due to continued tensions and sanctions.
As one of the world’s most influential sovereign investors, Norway’s stance could encourage other countries and institutions to reconsider their own restrictions on Syria.
Analysis
The decision reflects a broader recalibration of international economic engagement based on political change and shifting strategic priorities. By opening the possibility of investment in Syrian bonds, Norway is signalling cautious confidence in the new government’s direction and stability.
At the same time, the move remains largely symbolic in the short term. The wealth fund has no immediate exposure to Syrian debt, and actual investment will depend on risk assessments, market conditions, and institutional safeguards.
More importantly, the policy underscores how financial tools are increasingly used as instruments of foreign policy. Inclusion or exclusion from global capital markets can legitimise governments, incentivise reforms, or reinforce isolation.
In Syria’s case, gradual financial reintegration could support reconstruction and economic recovery, but it also raises questions about governance, transparency, and long-term stability after years of conflict.
From Maddie Lee: As left-hander Alex Vesia emerged from the Dodgers bullpen, heard the electric guitar riff of Seether’s “Gasoline,” and felt his adrenaline spike with the roar of the crowd, he knew 27 of those cheering fans had helped him and wife Kayla through a devastating loss just months prior.
He and Kayla had chosen the Dodgers’ game against the Mets on Tuesday, Healthcare appreciation night at Dodger Stadium, to celebrate the hands-on staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center who had cared for them last October, through the death of their newborn daughter Sterling Sol.
He’d spotted their suite by shirts Kayla had customized for the group, bearing the initials SV with a heart, and signed by Alex.
“Today was the first time I’ve seen pretty much all of them since everything,” Alex Vesia said after earning the save in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Tuesday. “So it was very special, very emotional. … I couldn’t have written it any better.”
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Angels hit five homers to beat Yankees
Mike Trout homered for the third time in two games, combining with Jo Adell and Jorge Soler for three consecutive long balls in a five-pitch span against Ryan Weathers in the first inning, and the Angels beat the New York Yankees 7-1 on Tuesday night.
Trout hit a 2-and-1 fastball to the loading dock adjacent to Monument Park in center field and Adell hit another fastball on the next pitch into the visiting bullpen in left-center field. Three pitches later, Soler drove a 2-and-0 fastball into the left-field seats
Trout homered for the third straight at-bat after connecting in the sixth and eighth innings in Monday’s 11-10 loss.
Jake DeBrusk scored his second goal of the game in overtime and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Kings 4-3 on Tuesday night.
DeBrusk collected a pass from center Elias Pettersson and tapped a shot in to seal the victory 2:58 into the extra period.
Defenseman Elias Pettersson opened the scoring for the Canucks (25-48-8), and DeBrusk and Zeev Buium added goals in the second period. Elias Pettersson had two assists. The Canucks won their third straight game for the first time since Dec. 14-20, when they took four straight road victories.
Hunter Haight got his first career goal and rookie Jesper Wallstedt auditioned for action in the playoffs with 35 saves as the Minnesota Wild finished their regular season by beating the Ducks 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Danila Yurov and Robby Fabbri also scored for the playoff-bound Wild, who have won 21 of their last 22 games against the Ducks, including eight in a row.
Wallstedt, who is second in the NHL in save percentage, went 18-9-6 in his debut and has given the Wild plenty to consider for a potential postseason goalie rotation with Filip Gustavsson. Wallstedt allowed only 12 goals over his last six starts.
It marked the sixth of 14 practices leading up to the annual spring game on May 2 at the Rose Bowl.
“The defense took strides today,” said Chesney, who was hired as the Bruins’ 20th head football coach on Dec. 26, replacing DeShaun Foster (fired after an 0-3 start in 2025) and interim coach Tim Skipper. “There were a couple turnovers in there. This was our second day with the officials, it was a different group and they were throwing some flags today. We just have to understand the game we’re in. As you get further along the referees step aside, but early in the season they’re excited to do their jobs and we gave them enough to throw laundry at so we’ll go back and check it all out.”
From Kevin Baxter: Aaron Levinson wanted to go to a World Cup game this summer, but he didn’t want to take out a second mortgage to pay for that. So after winning a chance to spend $560 for individual tickets in a FIFA lottery last fall, Levinson backed out.
Then he backed in again this spring.
“Maybe the sticker shock kind of started wearing off,” he said Sunday. “I got caught up in the excitement.”
So Levinson decided to pluck down $850 for two Category 3 tickets — among the cheapest available — for he and his wife to go the final U.S. group-play game at SoFi Stadium in June. When his wife reminded him that his two sons would be visiting then, he bought two more tickets, bringing his investment to $1,700, more than double the price of a seven-day cruise.
And that doesn’t include the nearly $250 it will cost to park near the stadium.
“That’s really steep,” said Levinson, a Galaxy season-ticket holder for more than a decade.
From Broderick Turner: Rebounding was not a strength of the Lakers over the course of the regular season. Rebounding was a strength of the Houston Rockets during the 2025-26 campaign.
So, on their first day of practice Tuesday for Game 1 of the first round Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers worked diligently on rebounding drills, knowing full well that will be one of the keys against the Rockets.
The Lakers were the fourth-worst rebounding team in the NBA, averaging 41.0 per game. The Rockets were the top rebounding team in the league, getting 48.1 overall and 15.0 on the offensive end.
And one of the Lakers’ better rebounders, Luka Doncic, won’t be available because he’s dealing with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that he went to Spain for treatment. Doncic is second on the Lakers in rebounding at 7.7 per game. His starting backcourt mate, Austin Reaves, also is a good rebounder but he also won’t play because of a Grade 2 left oblique strain. Reaves is averaging 4.7 rebounds per game.
“They’re out indefinitely,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said about Doncic and Reaves.
Saturday: Houston at Lakers, 5:30 p.m, ABC Tuesday: Houston at Lakers, 7:30 p.m., NBC Friday, April 24: Lakers at Houston, 5:30 p.m., Amazon Prime Video Sunday, April 26: Lakers at Houston, 6:30 p.m., NBC *Wed., April 29: Houston at Lakers, TBD *Friday, May 1: Lakers at Houston, TBD *Sunday, May 3: Houston at Lakers, TBD
*-if necessary
Clippers playoff schedule
Wednesday vs. Golden State, 7:30 p.m., Amazon Prime Video
Loser is eliminated, winner advances to second play-in game on Friday, where they will play the loser of the other play-in game. Winner of that game becomes the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
This day in sports history
1901 — Boston Marathon won for second straight year by Canadian Jim Caffrey.
1907 — Boston Marathon won by Canadian Tom Longboat.
1937 — The Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 3-0 to take the Stanley Cup in the fifth and final game.
1952 — The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 to capture the Stanley Cup. The Red Wings holds the Canadiens to two goals in the four-game sweep.
1979 — 43rd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Fuzzy Zoeller wins his only Masters with a birdie on the 2nd hole of a playoff with Ed Sneed and Tom Watson.
1984 — Ben Crenshaw wins the Masters by two strokes over Tom Watson.
1985 — Marvin Hagler retains his world middleweight title by stopping Thomas Hearns in the third round at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Both slug it out with reckless abandon for eight minutes, which many consider the most electrifying three rounds in boxing history.
1990 — PGA Seniors’ Championship Men’s Golf, PGA National GC: South African Gary Player wins his third event title by two strokes.
1991 — Magic Johnson sets an NBA record for career assists in a 112-106 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Johnson, who needed nine assists to break Oscar Robertson’s record of 9,887, gets 19.
2000 — NFL Draft: Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown first pick by Cleveland Browns.
2005 — Top-ranked Roger Federer’s 25-match winning streak ends when French teenager Richard Gasquet saves three match points before capturing a third-set tiebreaker at the Monte Carlo Masters. Federer’s 35-1 record this year is the best start on the men’s tour since John McEnroe was 39-0 in 1984.
2005 — Two-time Olympic champion Steven Lopez of the United States wins his third world taekwondo title, capturing the welterweight gold medal with a 3-2 victory over Ali Tajik of Iran.
2018 — Victor Oladipo scores 32 points and the Indiana Pacers hold off Cleveland’s second-half rally for a stunning 98-80 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series, handing LeBron James and the Cavaliers’ their first loss in the opening round in eight years.
2019 — The Clippers overcome an NBA record 31-point deficit to score an improbable 135-131 Game 2 playoff victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1909 — Leon Ames of the New York Giants pitched a no-hitter for 9 1-3 innings on opening day, but lost 3-0 to Brooklyn in 13 innings.
1915 — Rube Marquard of the New York Giants no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning 2-0.
1947 — Jackie Robinson played his first major league game for the Dodgers. He went 0-for-3, but scored the deciding run in a 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in Brooklyn. He was the first Black man to appear in the majors since 1884.
1957 — President Eisenhower officially opened the 1956 season by tossing out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C. The ball was the 10 millionth Spalding baseball to be used in major league play.
1958 — Major league baseball came to California as the transplanted Giants and Dodgers played the first game on the Pacific Coast. Playing in Seals Stadium in San Francisco, Ruben Gomez blanked Los Angeles 8-0.
1968 — Houston and the New York Mets played 24 innings in a night game in the Astrodome before the Astros won 1-0. The game lasted more than six hours.
1976 — New York opened the refurbished Yankee Stadium with an 11-4 rout of the Minnesota Twins.
1977 — Hank Aaron becomes the first player to have his uniform number retired by two teams. The Atlanta Braves retire his No. 44 during a pre-game ceremony. The Milwaukee Brewers had previously retired Aaron’s number.
1987 — Juan Nieves threw the first no-hitter in Brewers history as Milwaukee beat Baltimore 7-0.
1993 — Sparky Anderson earned his 2,000th victory as a manager as the Detroit Tigers rallied to beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2.
1993 — Andre Dawson became the 25th player to hit 400 home runs as the Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 4-3.
1997 — The 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in major league baseball is celebrated before 54,047 at Shea Stadium during a game between the Mets and the Dodgers. MLB retires Robinson’s No. 42 for all of major league baseball.
1998 — The first-ever AL-NL doubleheader is held in New York’s Shea Stadium as the New York Yankees beat the Angels 6-3 and the New York Mets edge the Chicago Cubs 2-1. The Yankees draw a crowd of 40,743, a dramatic contrast to the gathering of 16,012 who show up for the Mets game at night.
2000 — Cal Ripken became the 24th player to reach 3,000 hits when he lined a clean single to center off Twins reliever Hector Carrasco. He reached the milestone with his third hit in a 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins and became the seventh player in major league history to get 3,000 hits and 400 home runs.
2004 — Fifty-seven years after the historic event, major league baseball begins the tradition of Jackie Robinson Day, an annual celebration marking the day the color line was broken.
2006 — Eric Chavez, Frank Thomas, and Milton Bradley all homered on consecutive pitches in Oakland’s 5-4 victory over Texas.
2008 — Jose Lopez became the 12th player in major league history to hit three sacrifice flies in a game, and the Seattle Mariners tied the team record for five sac flies in an 11-6 victory over Kansas City.
2009 — Every player in Major League Baseball wears number 42 today on Jackie Robinson Day, in honor of the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line.
2009 — Ian Kinsler of Texas became the fourth player in team history to hit for the cycle, and was 6-for-6 in Texas’ 19-6 win over Baltimore.
2010 — Florida’s Jorge Cantu extended his major league season-opening record to 10 games with a hit in a 10-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
2011 — Texas tied an AL record by turning six double plays and the Rangers picked up where they left off last October, beating the New York Yankees 5-3. This was the 15th time an AL team made six DPs in a game. The major league mark for double plays in a game is seven by San Francisco in 1969.
2011 — Brennan Boesch hit a go-ahead two-run double with the bases loaded in the 10th inning and Detroit rallied to beat Oakland 8-4 for manager Jim Leyland’s 1,500th win. Leyland became the 19th major league manager to reach 1,500 wins.
2012 — Vin Scully is back in the broadcast booth for a record 63rd season after missing a week with a bad cold.
2022 — Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated across North America on the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in Major League Baseball.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
England captain Ben Stokes was struck on the face by a cricket ball, which required surgery for a broken cheekbone.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
England Test captain Ben Stokes has said he feels “quite lucky” to be alive as he recovers from surgery after being hit in the face by a cricket ball.
All-rounder Stokes required the procedure after suffering a broken cheekbone sustained by being hit by the ball during a net session while he was coaching academy players at his domestic county side Durham in February.
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Stokes is set to play in two first-class County Championship games next month, but he revealed the incident could have been so much worse.
“I copped one straight in the face,” the 34-year-old told the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“Pretty nasty but, funnily, probably the best result of a bad situation, to be honest. Just a couple of inches one way or the other, I might not be here doing this interview, if I didn’t turn my head round.
“All things considered, although I had pretty major facial surgery to sort it out – it was a bit of a mess under here (cheekbone), I’ve got out quite lucky. So pretty thankful for that.”
He added: “Obviously it set everything back about a month, five weeks, with getting back to where I wanted to be to play at the start of the season for Durham, but just had to sort of quickly go back to the drawing board and put a plan together to get me ready to play a couple of games for Durham before the Test summer starts.
“At the back end of all that now, but it was a pretty scary situation. Thankfully still here and everything’s all right.”
Stokes is expected to be fit to lead England in the first Test of their home season against New Zealand at Lord’s starting on June 4, as they look to recover from their woeful 4-1 Ashes humiliation in Australia.
Stokes downplays rift with England coach McCullum
Stokes, meanwhile, has played down reports of disagreements with head coach Brendon McCullum but added that they do have different viewpoints at times.
British media reported that former New Zealand captain McCullum’s relationship with Test captain Stokes frayed during the Ashes series defeat in Australia, though the duo have publicly backed each other.
“I am very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now,” Stokes said in an interview with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
“But we work together in a slightly different way. The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be.”
Since taking charge in 2022, McCullum and Stokes implemented an ultra-aggressive style of play known as “Bazball”, which has come under much scrutiny since England’s Ashes defeat, prompting the ECB to launch a thorough review into the team’s preparations.
“Agreeing on every single thing, that’s just impossible,” Stokes said.
“We agree 95% of the time on things, but those 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to.
“We put a lot of our heart and soul into this job. Brendon certainly has for the four years he’s done it so far, and hopefully we’ll still be together at the end of 2027, winning what we want to win.”
England host New Zealand for a three-Test series in June before eight limited-overs matches at home to India.
With the global attention fixated on the diplomatic efforts to end the war on Iran, Israel has systematically escalated its attacks on Gaza and choked off vital aid, plunging the besieged enclave into what economic experts are now calling an “engineered, compounded famine”.
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza has dropped drastically in violation of the October 2025 ceasefire with Hamas. Since then, the Government Media Office in Gaza has recorded 2,400 military violations by Israeli forces, resulting in the killing of more than 700 Palestinians.
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On Tuesday, Israel’s military killed at least 11 Palestinians, including two children, in separate attacks across the war-torn Strip.
The intensity of these attacks spiked during peak regional tensions. Between February 28 and April 8, while Israel and the US were engaged in a bombing campaign against Iran, Israeli forces bombed Gaza on 36 out of those 40 days.
In the last five weeks alone, more than 100 people have been killed, including Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah. Israel has killed more than 72,336 people since launching the brutal military offensive on October 7, 2023.
The ‘truck deception’
While Israel frequently claims it is allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza, Palestinian officials and economic experts argue these figures are a deliberate mathematical deception.
According to the Government Media Office, only 41,714 aid and commercial trucks have entered Gaza over the past six months. This represents a mere 37 percent of the 110,400 trucks stipulated under the ceasefire agreement. The fuel situation is even more critical, with only 1,366 fuel trucks entering out of a promised 9,200 – an abysmal 14 percent compliance rate.
Recent daily logs highlight the severity of the bottleneck. On April 13, a total of only 102 aid trucks and 7 fuel trucks were allowed into the entire Strip, alongside 216 commercial trucks – a fraction of the more than 600 total trucks required daily under the “ceasefire” deal. By April 14, the numbers remained critically low with 122 aid trucks and 12 fuel trucks entering.
Crucially, Israeli authorities entirely shut down additional entry points like the Zikim and Kissufim crossings, which had processed dozens of commercial and aid trucks just a day prior, bottlenecking all limited traffic exclusively through Karem Abu Salem.
Mohammed Abu Jayyab, a Palestinian economic expert based in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israel utilises a “technical and commercial deception” to inflate these numbers.
“An Israeli truck carries up to 32 or 34 pallets… which are then unloaded into two or three smaller, dilapidated Palestinian trucks on the Gaza side,” Abu Jayyab explained. “Consequently, the UN and Israel count double or triple the actual number of Israeli trucks entering.” One pallet holds roughly 1 tonne of goods or food items.
Furthermore, Israel recently banned mixed-load shipments. If a merchant brings in 20 pallets of sugar, the remaining 12 pallet spaces on the truck must remain empty, yet it is still registered as a full commercial truck.
“The political agreement stipulated a ‘truck’ but did not specify quantities, weights, or the number of pallets,” Abu Jayyab noted, allowing Israel to weaponise logistics to restrict aid while appearing compliant.
Engineering starvation
This logistical strangulation is part of a broader strategy. Hassan Abu Riyala, undersecretary of the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza, stated in a meeting published on the ministry’s official Telegram channel that Israel is “engineering a policy of starvation”.
To ensure chaos in the local markets and sky-high prices, Israel has deliberately dismantled civil regulatory bodies. “The occupation targeted the majority of the crews that monitored prices, and assassinated the [former] undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and five directors general during the war,” Abu Riyala said.
The results have been devastating, basic commodities have become scarce, and bread production has plummeted to 200 tonnes daily, far below the 450 tonnes required to feed the population.
“We manage this structural deficit under exceptional and coercive conditions,” Ismail Al-Thawabteh, director general of the Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera.
He described the ongoing reduction of supplies despite the truce as a “systematic restriction of basic supplies” that pushes the population towards dangerous levels of food insecurity. Fresh produce has skyrocketed, with 1kg (2.2lb) of tomatoes jumping from $1.50 to nearly $4 in a matter of weeks.
Moreover, the humanitarian catastrophe is being accelerated by the withdrawal of major aid groups. Al-Thawabteh noted that the scaling back or suspension of operations by key international institutions, most notably the World Food Programme (WFP), due to Israeli restrictions, represents a “highly dangerous development” that threatens the complete collapse of Gaza’s relief system.
“We issue an urgent appeal to the international community and the guarantors of the agreement to immediately pressure Israel to open the crossings… before reaching a point of no return and an imminent human explosion,” he said.
A ‘compounded famine’
The crisis has evolved beyond a simple lack of food; it is now a complete collapse of the Palestinian economy.
Abu Jayyab described the current situation as a “compounded famine”. With unemployment soaring to 80 percent and the destruction of more than 160,000 jobs across industrial, agricultural, and commercial sectors, the population has entirely lost its purchasing power.
“It has become illogical to link the entry of food supplies from the crossings to their availability to Palestinian citizens,” Abu Jayyab told Al Jazeera. Even when goods reach the market, between 70 to 80 percent of families simply cannot afford to buy them due to the total absence of income.
This extreme deprivation is forcing civilians into life-threatening alternatives. “The return of long queues for bakeries, and citizens resorting to burning plastic and waste in the absence of cooking gas, are dangerous field indicators of an unprecedented deterioration,” Al-Thawabteh warned, noting that government health facilities are currently struggling to treat respiratory and skin diseases resulting from this toxic pollution.
The medical blockade
Meanwhile, the stranglehold extends to Gaza’s most vulnerable patients. While the ceasefire agreement mandated the opening of the Rafah crossing for medical evacuations, Israel has kept the borders tightly restricted.
Over the past six months, only 2,703 people have been allowed to cross through Rafah out of an expected 36,800 – a compliance rate of just 7 percent. Consequently, only 8 percent of the severely wounded and chronically ill patients slated for urgent medical evacuation have been permitted to leave. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 18,000 people are still trapped in Gaza waiting for life-saving treatment abroad.
Draw for the 24-team 2027 AFC Asian Cup, originally set for Saturday, moved to May 9.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
The draw for the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia has been rescheduled for May 9 in Riyadh as the United States-Israel war on Iran disrupts regional sporting events.
The draw, originally scheduled for last Saturday, will be held at the historic At-Turaif District in Diriyah. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said on Wednesday that the postponement was made to ensure the full participation of all key stakeholders and member associations.
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A number of sporting events across the region have been postponed or cancelled due to the war, which began on February 28.
Saudi Arabia is set to host the 24-team, quadrennial continental championship for the first time from January 7 to February 5. With 23 of the 24 teams already confirmed, the draw will divide the qualified nations into six groups of four.
The final qualification place will be decided on June 4 when Lebanon face Yemen in a playoff.
Defending champions Qatar have already secured their place at the finals along with four-time winners Japan and fellow World Cup qualifiers South Korea, Iran, Jordan, Australia and Uzbekistan.
Three students and a teacher have been killed in the province of Kahramanmaras, according to the local governor.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
A student has shot at least four people dead, including fellow pupils and wounded at least 20 others at a middle school in southeastern Turkiye, according to the local governor.
Wednesday’s deadly incident marks the country’s second school attack in two days.
Three students and one teacher were killed in the incident in the province of Kahramanmaras, Governor Mukerrem Unluer told reporters.
The shooter died in the attack.
The student was in the eighth-grade at the school and concealed their father’s guns in a backpack to carry out the attack, the governor added.
ASML occupies a critical position in the global semiconductor supply chain as the sole producer of extreme ultraviolet lithography systems. These machines are essential for manufacturing the most advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications. As demand for AI computing has surged, driven by data centre expansion and high performance processing needs, the semiconductor industry has entered a new investment cycle focused on capacity growth.
Strong earnings and upgraded forecast
ASML reported first quarter earnings that exceeded expectations and raised its 2026 revenue outlook to between 36 billion and 40 billion euros. This revision signals stronger than anticipated order inflows and reinforces the scale of demand emerging from the AI sector.
The company’s performance reflects a broader trend in which chip demand is outpacing supply. According to CEO Christophe Fouquet, customers are accelerating expansion plans well beyond the near term, indicating confidence in sustained AI driven growth.
ASML as a strategic enabler of AI growth
Investors increasingly view ASML as a foundational player in the AI ecosystem rather than a conventional manufacturer. Its tools are used by leading chipmakers such as TSMC, which produces advanced processors for firms like Nvidia and Apple.
This positioning places ASML at the upstream end of the value chain. Instead of competing in chip design or production, it supplies the essential infrastructure that enables both. As a result, its growth is tied to the entire semiconductor sector rather than any single company.
Supply constraints and industrial limits
Despite strong demand, structural constraints remain significant. Semiconductor fabrication plants require years to build and involve complex global supply chains. ASML itself faces production bottlenecks due to the precision and cost of its machines, which can reach hundreds of millions of dollars per unit.
Even with plans to increase shipments of its leading systems in 2026 and 2027, capacity expansion is gradual. This creates a persistent imbalance where demand continues to exceed supply, reinforcing pricing power across the industry.
Geopolitical and regulatory risks
A key uncertainty for ASML lies in export controls, particularly regarding sales to China. Proposed restrictions in the United States, including the MATCH Act, could limit the company’s ability to supply Chinese customers. Currently, China represents a significant portion of ASML’s revenue.
However, the global shortage of advanced chips may mitigate this risk. Reduced access to one market could be offset by demand from others, especially as countries and companies compete to secure semiconductor supply chains.
Market response and valuation concerns
ASML’s share price has risen sharply, reflecting investor optimism around AI driven growth. The company is often described as a “picks and shovels” investment, benefiting from the broader expansion of the industry regardless of which firms dominate end products.
At the same time, analysts caution that valuations are elevated. The current pricing assumes sustained high growth, leaving limited room for setbacks related to supply constraints or regulatory changes.
Analysis
The upgrade in ASML’s forecast highlights a structural shift rather than a temporary cycle. AI is not only increasing demand for chips but also reshaping the entire semiconductor value chain. ASML’s monopoly in EUV technology gives it a unique strategic advantage, effectively making it a gatekeeper for next generation chip production.
However, this dominance also exposes the company to geopolitical pressures and operational challenges. The interplay between technological leadership, supply limitations, and regulatory dynamics will determine whether current growth trajectories can be maintained.
ASML’s stronger outlook underscores the depth of the AI driven semiconductor boom. While demand momentum remains robust, the company operates within a constrained and politically sensitive environment. Its future performance will depend on balancing rapid industry expansion with the physical and geopolitical limits shaping the global chip ecosystem.
Italy has suspended the renewal of a 20-year-long defence agreement with Israel, following recent tensions between the two countries after the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Release of Mahdieh Esfandiari comes a week after Iran released two French citizens held on espionage charges.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari has returned home after being held in France for more than a year as part of what appears to be an exchange of detainees between the countries.
Iran’s state television reported on Wednesday that the “rights activist”, sentenced to one year in prison after making online comments supportive of Palestine and the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that prompted the genocidal war on Gaza, had returned to Iran.
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The University of Lyon graduate, who had been living in France since 2018, where she worked as a translator, was arrested in February last year on charges of promoting “terrorism”, and released on bail in October.
“I think it’s clear for everyone that there is no freedom of speech, at least not in France where I was. The court’s ruling was very unjust,” Esfandiari told state television in a Wednesday broadcast.
Esfandiari’s release comes a week after French citizens Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived in France after being held for more than three years in Iran.
Kohler and Paris were arrested by Iranian authorities in May 2022 but were freed in November last year, after more than three years in prison on espionage charges that their families vehemently deny.
They were taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran, where they lived under house arrest until their full release on April 7. Upon their release, they were driven from Iran to neighbouring Azerbaijan before taking a flight to Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said their release was the outcome of a “long-term effort”, but talks accelerated in recent weeks due to pressure from the US-Israel war on Iran, giving a sense of urgency to the situation.
While an exchange was not explicitly acknowledged by France, Iran’s state-run agency IRNA had previously said Tehran reached an agreement with Paris for the release of the French citizens in exchange for Esfandiari.
At the end of every farming season, farmers across Kwapre, an agrarian community in Hong Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria, come together to mark an annual event. Known for their guinea corn farming, the men in Kwapre take turns harvesting each other’s farms. A date is fixed for each farmer, and the rest join him on the farm. While the men work, a set of drummers line up behind them, and the women scatter across the field, singing and dancing to the melody of the talking drum.
Harvest season here was always a farming festival that held the community together for generations. It was the celebration of a bountiful harvest, and after every farmer’s crop had been harvested, the whole community came together to drink and make merry. The festival, however, would later stop as insurgency and violence steadily eroded the safety and cohesion of the community.
Buba Baba, a farmer who used to live in Kwapre, remembers the festival with nostalgia.
“We were living well. We had an abundant food supply, and our families were well taken care of,” he recounted.
Everything changed in 2014. The insurgency in the region intensified. The Boko Haram terror group peaked and began spreading its influence across Borno State through sustained attacks and by asserting control over captured communities. From Bama in Borno to Sambisa Forest, the group pushed into hinterland settlements, imposing its rule in areas under its control while terrorising those beyond it.
This influence extended across border communities, cutting through the edges of Borno and spilling into northern Adamawa. Violence moved easily through these indistinguishable boundaries, reaching rural communities in Adamawa. Places like Kwapre, Shuwari, Kaya, and several localities across Madagali, Hong, and Michika LGAs fell within the terror group’s reach. Across these local governments, communities faced the threat of displacement from their land and the loss of their ancestral culture, a fate that soon reached Kwapre.
That same year, terrorists invaded the community. The annual farming festival became inconsistent over the years and eventually stopped when the once-vibrant area was finally completely abandoned in 2025.
Despite repeatedly fleeing, residents kept returning to Kwapre. Google satellite imagery shows a strong tie to their homeland that keeps them returning and growing the communities despite periods of partial exodus. The latest attack led to a full abandonment in 2025. Map illustration: Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle.
The violence that broke ties
Buba is among the over 200,000 persons who have been displaced by Boko Haram in Adamawa State, with most of them from Michika and Madagali local government areas.
He told HumAngle that Boko Haram first attacked his community in 2014, and residents fled the area. After a year, the locals returned, but the terrorists kept storming the area at intervals. Some left for good, while others, like Buba, stayed behind, clinging to their ancestral inheritance and hoping that the violence would end.
“We go back when everything is calm and flee when the conflict starts again, but by 2025, we have all left, and there is currently no one in Kwapre,” Buba said.
Boko Haram has been displacing residents in Adamawa since 2014. About 40 people were killed after the terrorists attacked seven villages in Michika and its environs in 2014. In 2016, the group invaded the Kuda Kaya village of Madagali LGA and killed 24 people during indiscriminate shooting.
In 2019, Boko Haram struck again, but some of them were killed in Madagali after they tried to infiltrate a military camp. However, one soldier and a civilian were killed. In 2020, Kirchinga village in Madagali was attacked after the insurgents stormed the area. Houses were razed and shops looted, causing residents to flee.
Other attacks were unreported. Data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) shows that a total of 665 individuals from 133 households were displaced from their communities in Madagali by a non-state armed group in June 2022.
Chinapi Agara, a resident of Garaha, another community in Hong, told HumAngle that when the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram breakaway group, attacked a military base in the area in February, communities within Garaha had experienced a surge in kidnappings in the last few years, which had forced many to flee.
“Lots of communities like Kwapre, Gabba, and Lar have been completely displaced,” he said. Chinapi’s relative died from a stray bullet during the attack.
Shuwari in Kirchinga, under the Madagali LGA of Adamawa State, is one community that has been deserted following insurgents’ attacks in the area. Despite the recurring attacks in the last decade, locals stayed back, but in February, the entire village was deserted after Boko Haram stormed the area and opened fire on locals. HumAngle learned that 21 people were killed, including the Shuwari community leader.
Bitrus Peter, a resident of Kirchinga, told HumAngle that this was not the first Boko Haram attack in the area. “Since we came back from displacement in 2015, we have been facing this challenge. Sometimes, they give a break of a year or two and then return,” he said.
Gambo Stephen, a survivor of the February attack in Shuwari who has since fled the area, told HumAngle that residents have now been scattered across various places.
Back in Shuwari, Gambo owned a barbing salon that brought in a modest income to support his wife and four children. “I opened the shop immediately after I was done with my tertiary education, and for years, it helped me to provide for my family,” he noted.
On February 24, when Boko Haram raided Shuwari, Gambo’s salon was burnt to the ground alongside other houses and properties in the area. “I narrowly escaped because five people who were running with me were all shot dead,” Gambo said.
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These localities around Kirchinga are geographically at risk of cultural loss.
Kirchinga town itself is a border settlement between Adamawa and Borno states. It lies along the banks of a large river that sustains a livelihood built around fishing. Even with seasonal drying of the water, satellite imagery shows stretches of low-lying land between the levelled terrain, supporting farming during the dry season.
Beyond this, the area serves as a pathway between Borno and Adamawa, with a road tracing the river’s path and linking a chain of localities. Agricultural fields, water sources, and this road network connect these settlements across the local government area through markets and other primary commercial activities.
The land around the settlement dwarfs it. The road sustains movement and exchange, but along that same path is the spread of insurgent influence.
Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
Zooming out from Kirchinga through satellite imagery reveals the other settlements facing similar patterns of displacement and abandonment. To the north lies Bikiti. While its layout differs from Kirchinga, the parallels are clear in the vast cultivation fields surrounding the settlement. Alongside these are a mix of swampy wetlands and local streams, supporting a range of ecosystem services, from farming to aquatic life and small game.
Beyond this lies a large stretch of uninhabited land, many times larger than the settlement itself, composed almost entirely of cultivated fields. Further out, this landscape opens into forested areas that connect toward Sambisa Forest, long associated with insurgent strongholds.
Though these places differ in their satellite layouts, their cultural identities are evident from above. Whether through farming, fishing, hunting or trade, the patterns on the land reflect the life of the people who lived there. These are the same patterns that begin to disappear as displacement takes hold.
Kuda Kaya, another such settlement, offers another case in point. Located northeast of Kirchinga, it has become known for both attacks and displacement.
It is a small settlement, easy to miss at a wider satellite scale. Within its tight layout are key structures: a primary school, a health post, and an administrative building, surrounded by clusters of homes. The settlement itself is heavily vegetated, with tree cover rising to roof level. Beyond this, shorter grasslands spread into cultivated fields, intersected by small streams. While hunting may not be the dominant activity, the landscape supports tree crops and grain farming.
Kuda Kaya is known for both attacks and displacement. Satellite illustration: Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle
The intent behind settlement patterns becomes clear when looking at historical imagery, even as far back as 2004, available on Google Earth. The ancestral communities chose flat terrain near rivers or streams, or large forest areas, settling in compact clusters while using the surrounding land for food production.
At present, signs of abandonment are not always as obvious as in parts of Borno or Benue in the country’s North Central. Some of these communities endured repeated attacks, with residents returning each time. But over time, the strain of persistent insecurity led to wider displacement and, in most recent cases, total abandonment.
In a few years, many of these buildings will begin to collapse. Roofs will give way, and some structures will be burned, patterns already observed across abandoned communities affected by insurgency in Nigeria. What will also become visible is the absence of farming. Recent imagery already shows early signs of neglect across what were once actively cultivated lands.
The same likely extends to the rivers. While satellite imagery cannot fully capture changes in aquatic life, the absence of regular human activity around these waters will affect both the ecosystem and the human systems tied to it, similar to what has been observed in parts of the Lake Chad region.
Zooming further out shows northern Adamawa marked by these border communities, many of which are now within displacement hotspots.
Some abandoned communities in northern Adamawa state. Map illustration: Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle
Today, many of their residents live in resettled communities and displacement camps still active across the region, some farther away, removed from the cultural heritage their ancestral lands once provided. They adapt to the host communities, the only available way for them. They can no longer point to land and trace ownership or inheritance. Even when they take up familiar activities like farming, fishing, or hunting, they remain outsiders for a time.
The geographic shift may not always be extreme, but the separation from their roots is. The connection is severed, even when practices are carried into new environments. For those displaced, especially across generations or into prolonged uncertainty, that break becomes harder to repair. It is reinforced by the trauma of the violence that forced them out.
Some still hold on to the hope of return. Others are already preparing to move on, regardless of what becomes of home.
Resettlement
When the terrorists returned to Kwapre in 2025, Buba faced a near-death experience, and that was the last straw. He fled with his wife and five children alongside other community members when the village was being set ablaze.
“I left home empty,” he stated, adding that his family didn’t flee with any belongings.
Buba moved into Hong town, where he settled with his family. With each passing day, he remembered home, but he knew it would be unwise to return. It’s been about a year since Buba resettled in Hong town. He describes the last couple of months as hell.
“We are suffering, and since I was born, I have never suffered like this,” he said. Buba is unsure of his exact age, but is estimated to be in his 50s. “We have to pay for house rent, and there is no money to do so. We are always pleading with the landlord. We are also managing food supply,” he lamented.
Back at Kwapre, Buba had his own house. As a full-time farmer, he said his harvest was always bountiful, and his family was always cared for, but now, they even struggle to feed themselves. He currently works as a labourer on a construction site. His task is to fill up trucks with sand and transport them, but the wage barely covers his family’s needs. Since he has been a farmer all his life, Buba acquired a plot of land in his new area so he could cultivate crops, keep some, and sell the rest to augment his income from his labouring job.
“I cultivated last year, but it was destroyed by cattle, and I couldn’t get even a bag of maize during the harvest,” he said.
While he considers himself lucky to be alive, Buba says life has taken a difficult turn. “I can’t even pay my children’s school fees. I registered them in a school here in Hong town but they have just been sent back home,” he said.
After making it out of Shuwari, Gambo travelled to Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, and settled in an old secondary school in Saminaka, a neighbourhood in the city.
“I didn’t leave with anything because they burnt everything, so someone gave me a student mattress to lie on,” he said.
After taking shelter at the school, he was able to phone his wife, who had made it out safely with his four children.
“They are currently staying with her relatives in Madagali town,” he said.
Gambo feels his family is better off without him because he has nothing to offer them.
“Thank God for relatives because they do buy things and give them, and also some friends. If I had left home with some of my valuables, I would have started a business, but I don’t have anything on me. They (Boko Haram) also burnt my farm produce, slaughtered all my cattle alongside others in the village,” he said.
If the violence ever ceases and peace is permanently restored, Gambo said he would never return to Shuwari, for he had seen enough.
“My friends died there, and it’s only God that protected me, especially my wife and children,” he said.
Gambo told HumAngle that the community is completely deserted and that his main concern right now is raising capital to start a business at his new location in Saminaka. If things somehow get better, he would send for his family to join him.
In 2025, HumAngle reported how many displaced persons from Adamawa are stuck in displacement camps for about a decade because their hometowns remain unsafe.
Ghost towns
While he has not kept in touch with anyone from his community since he fled, Buba fears that the name ‘Kwapre’ will be erased from history, as the once-lively village now lies empty and silent. He wished things were different. He dreams of a time when the terrorists will stop invading the area, and his people will return and carry on with their regular lives. He looks forward to the annual harvest festival, but he believes his aspirations are not enough to hold water.
“People from Kwapre have been scattered across different regions. It’s even difficult to keep in touch with close relatives,” Buba said.
But if the violence ceases and peace is permanently restored, Buba said he will return home even if it means he will be the only one living there. At least, he’ll have his house, his large farmlands and grains filled in his store. His children won’t go hungry, and he won’t have to labour day and night.
However, some questions linger in his mind: When will the violence end, and even if it does, will Kwapre be the same again?
According to Gambo, the fact that he misses Shuwari can’t be denied. It was the only home he had known all his life. “We used to celebrate together when we were in the village. We lived peacefully, but when the insurgency started, everything crumbled,” he said.
While he misses the community that has stood by him his whole life, Gambo has made up his mind: he is done with Shuwari.
“I won’t go back because the village is on the border of Sambisa Forest,” he said.
Studies have shown that the Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa, which targets communities near the Sambisa Forest, has caused several communities within the Northern Senatorial District of the state to vanish. Madagali, Michika and Hong local governments specifically have the highest number of abandoned communities as attacks continue to intensify. From 2023 to 2025, villages in Kwapre, Zah, Kinging, Mubang, and Dabna in the Hong local government, with a combined population of over 10,000, were said to have been massively displaced, with many residents fleeing to safer towns.
Boko Haram insurgency in Adamawa targets communities at the Borno border, especially near the Sambisa Forest, causing several communities within the state’s northern region to vanish. Photo: Cyrus Ezra
Sini Peter, the youth leader of Kirchinga community in Madagali, told HumAngle that a lot of cultural festivals have stopped due to Boko Haram’s consistent attacks in the area.
The Yawal festival, the most popular cultural event in the area, was held annually in the middle of the year and is no longer held.
“A grass would be tied to a guinea corn stem, which is a year old, and we would go out early in the morning, around 3 a.m., to chant,” Sini recalls how the festival used to be held.
The Yawal festival was so significant to the Kirchinga people that the ritual had to be completed before locals could carry out their daily activities. The chants were traditional songs believed to ward off death from the community and were sung every morning on the day of the festival. Locals were always eager to participate in the ritual and sing the song until terrorists started invading the area.
However, they no longer believe in the ritual’s efficacy or mark the festival, according to Sini. “Boko Haram attacks made death a normal thing to us today,” he said.
According to the youth leader, the February attack on Shuwari, which had caused residents to flee the area completely, shows a broader displacement pattern across Madagali communities that have been affected in the area.
“Villages like Imirsa, Madukufam, Balgi and Yafa, which are bordering Kirchinga, are empty due to the Boko Haram issues,” he said, adding that the terrorists have been looting properties like roofing sheets in some of these communities from time to time.
While many have deserted these areas for good, including Kirchinga town, Sini is among those who stayed behind. “I know that wherever a Marghi man goes, he will remember home because he will not enjoy anywhere like home. Even with the killings, we don’t have anywhere like Kirchinga,” he stated.
One of the Motorcycles burnt in the Wagga-Mongoro community of Madagali after terrorists invaded the area in 2025 and killed civilians. Photo: Cyrus Ezra
Speaking on the security situation in the area, he noted that the security architecture in Kirchinga is very poor. “What should be done is not done because fear is all over us, including the security personnel,” he said.
When Ahmadu Fintiri, the governor of Adamawa State, visited the area following the attack in Shuwari, he vowed to secure the area, but Sini fears the promise will not translate into action.
“There are people trained now; they are called Forest Guards, and when the attacks happen, they do not have arms, but after the governor left, they were given AK-47s, but when they want to go for duty, they have to go to Shuwa to get the arms and return them after duty,” Sini said.
He explained that this strategy might not work, as the forest guards spend over ₦1,000 daily to obtain and return arms in Shuwa, as protocol demands.
It’s been a month since people treaded the Shuwari path, and with the community now completely deserted, Gambo fears that his children might never know their ancestral homes or experience the cultural heritage that once united their people.
What’s left of the ghost towns?
The analysis of satellite imagery from 2013 to 2025 across 14 communities in Adamawa State, using specialised satellite sensors (Landsat/Sentinel), shows environmental change linked to abandonment and displacement. When fields are left uncultivated, the land does not simply freeze in time. In some areas, weeds overtake cultivation, while in others, the soil and greenery collapse, leaving the land barren.
The vicinity of the abandoned communities. Green shows shrub reclamation. Red shows the growing barrenness of abandoned lands. Data source: Landsat & Sentinel/ illustration: Mansir Muhammed/HumAngle.
In communities like Larh and Dabna, the data shows a steady increase in shrubs and bushes. In recent times, peak vegetation values in Larh have risen by nearly 12 per cent, as weeds are left unattended in places where farmlands used to be.
The seasonal variation has also increased, indicating that the lands now support vegetation growth in response to rainfall rather than following a stable, cultivated rhythm. Mubang and Banga show similar trends, with significant growth in peak farmland weed growth over the same period. The land is reclaiming itself in a chaotic, unregulated way, with invasive, fast-growing plants dominating.
On the other hand, several communities tell a different story. Kirchinga and Kopa have experienced dramatic declines in greenness, with vegetation dropping by 27 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. These are areas where abandonment appears to have compounded other pressures, such as erosion, burning, or neglect, leaving the soil exposed and vulnerable.
Shuwari and Yaza have also lost nearly one-fifth of their peak greenness over the same period. Unlike Larh or Dabna, these communities are not witnessing vigorous shrub growth. Instead, the land shows signs of degradation, with both peak greenness and seasonal variability shrinking, suggesting that vegetation’s capacity to recover is weakening.
This has long-term implications for returnees. The data highlights a dual response to abandonment. In some areas, the absence of farming has allowed nature to fill the gaps, though not always in ways that benefit local livelihoods. In others, the land deteriorates quickly once cultivation stops, leaving behind increasingly unproductive expanses.
These two observed outcomes will shape the future of the homes should locals return.
Javokhir Sindarov wins the Candidates Tournament with a round to spare and will face India’s Gukesh next.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov has clinched victory in the chess Candidates Tournament with a round to spare, drawing with Dutchman Anish Giri to set up a World Championship match against India’s Gukesh Dommaraju.
The 20-year-old stormed through the event in Cyprus on Tuesday, winning six of his 13 games and losing none in a dominant performance never seen at the Candidates.
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Sindarov moved to 9.5 points, two clear of second-placed Giri on 7.5, after the Dutchman failed to convert a winning position against China’s Wei Yi in the previous round.
“It was the hardest week in my life. I even slept really bad the last few days. I am very happy to finish this tournament with a win,” Sindarov said after his win.
The tournament had been seen as a possible last opportunity for the old guard to mount another challenge for the world title, but Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura never seriously threatened.
Gukesh won the title in 2024, defeating China’s Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of their match. Ding had himself become champion by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi after Magnus Carlsen, the five-times champion who remains world number one, relinquished the crown, citing a lack of motivation.
“I do not want to think a lot about the upcoming World Championship match right now. I know it will be a very hard match,” Sindarov said.
“Gukesh has an experience of playing at this level. But I have a very good team. I have a lot to work on, and I will work a lot for this and take my chances.”
While Sindarov’s breakthrough and the broader rise of a younger generation are likely to prompt new speculation about a Carlsen comeback, the Norwegian has said he has no intention of returning to the classical World Championship cycle.
A precise date and a venue for the World Championship match have yet to be announced.
The new officials were backed by a large majority of the legislature. (Archive)
Mérida, April 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) appointed Larry Devoe as the new Attorney General and Eglée González Lobato as the Ombudswoman during an ordinary session on Thursday, April 9.
The appointments were the result of a parliamentary selection process in the wake of the resignations of Tarek William Saab and Alfredo Ruiz, who previously held the positions, in February. The new officials will assume their roles immediately.
The National Assembly finalized the appointments following the review of a list of 71 candidates for Attorney General and 61 for Ombudsman. According to official reports, the selection focused on technical and academic backgrounds, while multiple deputies spoke of the need to select “consensus” candidates.
Devoe is a lawyer who has held various legal and diplomatic positions within the Venezuelan government, having served as the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Council. In recent years, he represented Venezuela before the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS) on human rights matters.
Devoe had taken over the Attorney General post on an interim basis following Saab’s resignation. Saab had served as the country’s top prosecutor since 2017. Following his appointment and swearing-in, Devoe used his official channels to vow that his office would be committed to “defending human rights” and “protecting our people.”
For her part, new Ombudswoman González is also an attorney and a university professor specializing in Administrative Law at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV).
She served as the Director of the UCV’s Democracy and Elections Chair and has worked as an institutional and electoral analyst. The parliamentary nominations committee highlighted González’s academic background and experience in human rights as primary factors for her selection to replace Ruiz.
Devoe and González were ratified on the posts with the approval of 275 of 285 National Assembly deputies, receiving the endorsement of the ruling Socialist Party (PSUV) and allies, as well as part of the opposition.
González, who has been identified as representing a sector of the moderate opposition, was proposed by David Uzcátegui from the Fuerza Vecinal party. Devoe’s candidacy was put forward by the PSUV.
Addressing the chamber, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez emphasized the importance of reaching political agreements and “respecting differences.”
The right-wing Libertad faction opposed the appointments, with legislator Henri Falcón stating that the appointees did not meet “autonomy and democratic plurality” criteria.
“In the past, the institutions have been used as politically partial spaces and ideological trenches,” stressed Falcón, a former presidential candidate.
The renewal of the Attorney General and Ombudsman’s Office coincides with the processing of thousands of amnesty requests currently under review by judicial authorities. According to the National Assembly, the Amnesty Law approved in February has benefited more than 8,000 beneficiaries in less than two months.
“The economy is the most important thing”
Parliamentary leader Jorge Rodríguez stressed the importance of “dialogue” among different political factions and working to “strengthen” state institutions in a recent interview with Spanish daily El País.
“We are rapidly pushing for changes so that people feel the country’s democratic institutions are functioning properly,” he stated.
When asked about the possibility of holding elections, Rodríguez argued that the country’s economy is “the most important thing right now.”
Since January, the Venezuelan legislature has fast-tracked a number of important new laws with support from the acting Delcy Rodríguez administration, including pro-business reforms to the country’s hydrocarbon and mining frameworks.
“The Venezuelan economy needs to gain enough momentum so that the population feels this entire process was worth it,” he added, in reference to the January 3 US bombings and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro which Rodríguez described as a “traumatic event.”
The Venezuelan official went on to argue that “there is much work to be done” ahead of an eventual electoral process, including the selection of an electoral authority that all political organizations can “trust.”
Police in France have arrested students at Sorbonne University, Sciences Po and Paris-Saclay University during a sit-in against a controversial anti-Semitism bill that could outlaw criticism of Israel. Lawmakers are set to vote on the ‘Yadan law’, named after a pro-Israel French MP who sponsored the bill, on April 16.
Roelf Meyer will replace the South African ambassador who was expelled from the US by President Donald Trump in 2025.
Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026
South Africa has appointed Roelf Meyer, who helped negotiate the end of white minority rule in his country in the 1990s, as the next ambassador to the United States, according to local media.
Meyer’s appointment is seen as a sign that Pretoria is aiming to improve its relations with Washington following a “turbulent year”, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
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South Africa has gone without diplomatic representation in Washington, DC, since March 2025, when US President Donald Trump expelled Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool for his criticism of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Posting on social media at the time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.
Rubio’s post linked to a story by US conservative news site Breitbart that reported on a talk Rasool gave on a webinar organised by a South African think tank. Rasool had spoken in academic terms of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity and equity programmes, as well as immigration, and mentioned the possibility of a future US where white people would no longer be in the majority.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, centre left, and former minister and constitutional negotiator Roelf Meyer, centre right, during the first National Convention at the University of South Africa, Pretoria, in August 2025 [File: Phill Magakoe/AFP]
Trump last year also issued an executive order freezing most foreign assistance to South Africa amid the country’s legal action at the International Court of Justice over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the passage of a controversial South African law aimed at correcting historic racial disparities in land ownership.
Tensions escalated further when Trump then launched a refugee programme for white South Africans, whom the US president claims face government-led persecution in their home country.
Meyer, 78, is a seasoned negotiator with experience working under pressure. As a member of South Africa’s white Afrikaans minority, he once served as a minister under the apartheid Nationalist Party government.
He rose to prominence in the 1990s, during the final days of apartheid, as the Nationalist Party held talks with the African National Congress (ANC) to end segregation and white minority rule. The talks paved the way for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.
As the chief negotiator, Ralph had become acquainted with South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was then an ANC negotiator.
Meyer himself later joined the ANC in 2006.
He is set to take up the post as US ambassador once all protocols are complete in Washington, DC, according to Ramaphosa’s office.
