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The White House has begun tearing down parts of the East Wing to make way for President Trump’s new ballroom – although the project reportedly hasn’t yet received formal approval. Soraya Lennie explains.

Israeli army and settlers have carried out 158 attacks against olive pickers since the start of the current season

Israel has ordered the deportation of 32 foreign activists supporting olive-harvesting Palestinian farmers amid mounting Israeli army and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank two weeks into the harvesting season.

Israeli news outlet Israel Hayom reported that the activists were arrested last week near the town of Burin, in the Nablus Governorate, as they protested an Israeli general order stating that only those working on the harvest are allowed on the land during the harvesting period.

Israeli army and settlers have carried out 158 attacks against olive pickers since the start of the current season, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

The assaults included a range of violations, including beatings, mass arrests and shootings. At least 74 attacks targeted olive-growing lands, including 29 cases where trees and farmland were cut, bulldozed or uprooted. A total of 765 olive trees were destroyed.

The UN and rights groups have said Palestinian farmers face a heightened risk while gathering olives.

“Settler violence has skyrocketed in scale and frequency,” Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territory, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Two weeks into the start of the 2025 harvest, we have already seen severe attacks by armed settlers against Palestinian men, women, children and foreign solidarity activists.”

The UN estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families rely on the olive harvest for their livelihoods, Sunghay said.

On Wednesday, a statement by Interior Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated that the activists would be deported over their alleged affiliation with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).

A 99-year entry ban was imposed on the activists, the statement said, without specifying their identities, nationalities or where they would be deported to.

Settler violence against Palestinians has worsened since the start of the war in Gaza.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 2023, in the occupied West Bank, according to the United Nations, and thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced due to Israeli settler attacks, movement restrictions and home demolitions.

The UN says the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage – a 13 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

On Sunday, a settler attack in the town of Turmus Aya was captured on camera and showed Israeli settlers descending on Palestinian olive harvesters and activists and beating them with clubs. One woman was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

At least 36 people, including journalists, were injured earlier this month when settlers attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in the Jabal Qamas area of Beita, beating them and setting fire to three vehicles.

More than 700,000 settlers live in 150 settlements and 128 outposts – both illegal under international law – dotting the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Settlers are often armed and frequently accompanied or protected by Israeli soldiers.

In addition to destroying Palestinian property, they have carried out arson attacks and killed Palestinian residents.

Oct. 21 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Melissa is moving slowly through the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday, meaning portions of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica were expected to see major flooding through the week, the National Hurricane Center said.

Melissa was about 305 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and 335 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, the NHC said in its 8 a.m. EDT update. The storm had remained virtually stationary since the agency’s previous update 3 hours earlier.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was moving west-northwest at 2 mph.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Jamaica. Those elsewhere in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba should monitor the progress of Melissa, the NHC said.

A decrease in speed and a gradual turn to the northwest and north are expected in the next few days, according to the NHC, which said it expects Melissa to approach Jamaica and the southwestern portion of Haiti later this week.

The NHC forecasts that Melissa will strengthen into a hurricane Friday afternoon.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic can expect 5 to 10 inches of rain through Friday, the NHC said. More heavy rainfall is possible after Friday, but forecasters aren’t confident in predictions because of the uncertainty of Melissa’s speed and direction. Areas of significant flash flooding and mudslides are possible.

Across Aruba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica rainfall of 1 to 3 inches is expected through Friday. Flash and urban flooding will be possible across Puerto Rico through at least Friday.

Melissa is the 13th named storm of the season, and it’s the first in the Caribbean. This season has seen few storms, which has warmed the Caribbean Sea. Now, the warm water is fuel for stronger, more dangerous storms.

Following the September assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have shaped their political agenda by blaming the left for political violence.

“Political violence, it’s just a statistical fact that it’s a bigger problem on the left,” Vance said while guest-hosting The Charlie Kirk Show podcast on October 15 in the aftermath of Kirk’s killing. About a minute later, he added, “Right now that violent impulse is a bigger problem on the left than the right.”

A Vance spokesperson did not answer our questions. When referring to left-wing violence, a White House spokesperson recently pointed to a September 28 Axios article about a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonprofit policy research organisation.

Democrats, calling your political opponents Nazis has consequences.

Study: Left-wing terrorism climbs to 30-year highhttps://t.co/30NvIj9nzC

— Abigail Jackson (@ATJackson47) September 28, 2025

The study found that “2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right”. The study also showed that for the 30 years before 2025, right-wing attacks had outpaced left-wing violence.

“The rise in left-wing attacks merits increased attention, but the fall in right-wing attacks is probably temporary, and it too requires a government response,” the authors wrote in the study.

Vance’s statement oversimplified political violence and drew from part of one study of a six-month period. The federal government has no single, official definition of “political violence”, and ascribing ideologies such as the left wing and the right wing is sometimes complicated. There is no agreed upon number of left- or right-wing politically violent attacks.

Research before 2025 largely points to higher levels of right-wing violence over longer periods of time.

Trump has used the administration’s statements about rising left-wing violence to label antifa as a domestic “terrorist threat”, and administration officials also said they will investigate what they call left-wing groups that fund violence.

Although political violence is a small subset of violent crime in the US, it “has a disproportionate impact because even rare incidents can amplify fear, influence policy and deepen societal polarisation”, sociology professors at the University of Dayton, Arthur Jipson and Paul J Becker, wrote in September after Kirk’s assassination.

In an email interview with PolitiFact, Becker said the report in question “indicates there MAY be a shift occurring from the Right being more violent but 5 vs 1 incidents in 6 months isn’t enough to completely erase years of data and reports from multiple sources showing the opposite or to dictate new policies”.

Study examined three decades of political violence

The CSIS, a national security and defence think tank, published a September report examining 750 “terrorist” attacks and plots in the US between 1994 and July 4, 2025.

The report defined “terrorism” as the use or threat of violence “with the intent to achieve political goals by creating a broad psychological impact”.

The authors wrote that it is difficult to pinpoint some perpetrators’ ideologies, which in some cases are more of what former FBI Director Christopher Wray called a “salad bar of ideologies”. For example, Thomas Crooks, who allegedly attempted to assassinate Trump in 2024, searched the internet more than 60 times for Trump and then-President Joe Biden in the month before the attack.

The full CSIS report gave a more complete picture of politically motivated violence:

• Left-wing violence has risen from low levels since 2016. “It has risen from very low levels and remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers.”
• Right-wing attacks sharply declined in 2025, perhaps because right-wing extremist grievances such as opposition to abortion, hostility to immigration and suspicion of government agencies are “embraced by President Trump and his administration”. The report quotes Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader pardoned by Trump, who said, “Honestly, what do we have to complain about these days?”
• Left-wing attacks have been less deadly than right-wing attacks. In the past decade, left-wing attacks have killed 13 people, compared with 112 by right-wing attackers. The report cited several reasons, including that left-wing attackers often choose targets that are protected, such as government or law enforcement facilities, and target specific individuals.
• The number of incidents by the left is small. A graphic in the report showing the rise in left-wing attacks in 2025 as of July 4 is visually striking. It is based on a small number of incidents: four attacks and one disrupted plot.

Studies have not uniformly agreed on some attackers’ ideological classifications. The libertarian Cato Institute categorised the person charged in the shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers in May 2025 as “left-wing”, while the CSIS study described the motivation as “ethnonationalist”. Ethnonationalism is a political ideology based on heritage, such as ethnic identity, which can create clashes with other groups. The Cato study counted only deaths, while the CSIS analysis was not limited to deaths.

“While Vance’s statement has a factual anchor for that limited timespan, it selectively emphasises one short-term slice rather than the broader trend,” Jipson, of the University of Dayton, told PolitiFact. “In that sense, it can be misleading: It may give the impression that left-wing violence is generally now more dangerous or prevalent, which is not borne out by the longer view of the data.”

The Cato analysis, published after Kirk’s death, said 3,597 people were killed in politically motivated US “terrorist” attacks from January 1, 1975, through September 10, 2025.

Cato found right-wing attacks were more common than left-wing violence. This research has been highlighted by some House Democrats.

Wrong again, JD. The data is clear: for decades, right-wing extremism has been the greater threat.https://t.co/TkxBZ08Xjg https://t.co/PCWv4EuP4H

— House Homeland Security Committee Democrats (@HomelandDems) October 15, 2025

Cato wrote that during that period, “terrorists” inspired by what it called “Islamist ideology” were responsible for 87 percent of people killed in attacks on US soil, while right-wing attackers accounted for 11 percent and left-wing “terrorists” accounted for about 2 percent. Excluding the September 11, 2001 attacks showed right-wing attackers were responsible for a majority of deaths. Measuring homicides since 2020 also showed a larger number by the right than the left.

Our ruling

Vance said, “Political violence, it’s just a statistical fact that it’s a bigger problem on the left.”

He did not point to a source, but a White House spokesperson separately cited an article about a study that examined political violence from 1994 to July 4, 2025. It found that, in the first six months of 2025, left-wing attacks outnumbered those by the right. It is based on a small number of incidents: four attacks and one disrupted plot.

The study also showed that for 30 years before 2025, right-wing attacks had outpaced left-wing attacks.

The study detailed that the left wing “remains much lower than historical levels of violence carried out by right-wing and jihadist attackers”. Research before 2025 largely points to higher levels of right-wing violence over longer periods of time.

The statement contains an element of truth because left-wing violence rose in the first six months of 2025. However, it ignores that right-wing violence was higher for a much longer period of time.

We rate this statement Mostly False.

Chief correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact-check.

Hundreds of anti-immigrant protesters clashed with Irish police outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Dublin on Tuesday, setting a police vehicle on fire and launching fireworks at officers.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — House Democrats are launching a probe of allegations that President Donald Trump is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Justice Department in compensation for investigations conducted against him before he won a second term .

House Judiciary Committee Democrats announced in a statement Tuesday that ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was launching an investigation into the president’s “shakedown of taxpayers.”

The announcement of the investigation was announced in response to a New York Times report that said Trump is demanding the Justice Department pay him some $230 million in compensation.

Trump submitted at least two administrative complaints, the first in 2023 and the second in 2024, seeking compensation, ABC News also reported.

The first administrative claim seeks damages for purported violations of his rights in connection with the investigation into alleged ties between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.

The second seeks claims over allegations is in connection with the August 2022 FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence and subsequent investigation and prosecution on charges that he mishandled classified documents after he left office following the completion of his first term.

Asked about the reports during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he wasn’t aware of the amount being sought but stated he should be compensated.

“I was damaged very greatly and any money I would get, I would give to charity,” he said.

Trump also acknowledged the unprecedented nature and potential ethical issues, stating “I’m the one who makes the decision.”

“And that decision would have to go cross my desk and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” he said.

House Judiciary Committee Democrats chastised Trump, accusing him of “robbing America blind.”

“This is exactly why the Constitution forbids the president from taking any more from the government outside of his official salary,” they said in a statement. “This is Donald Trump First, America Last — the Gangster State at work, billionaires shaking down the people.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., described it as Trump “extorting his own Justice Department” and as “unprecedented, unfathomable corruption.”

“Eye watering conflicts of interests,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement. “More corrupt self enrichment.”

Before his arrest 12 years ago, Ahmadu Gujja was a strong man in his mid-20s and his family’s breadwinner. Life in Gallari, his village, was simple and fulfilling. He farmed, reared animals, and has supported his widowed mother and seven younger siblings since his father’s death. 

Gallari is a community of the Shuwa Arab tribe in Konduga Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. The remote village lies along Damboa road, 28 km away from Maiduguri, the state’s capital, 12 km from the nearest military base, and 98 km away from Chibok LGA. 

In 2014, a tragedy struck. For Gallari, it meant near extinction. For Ahmadu, it meant losing everything overnight. He had just married his second wife and was eagerly expecting the birth of a child from his first wife when the tragedy unfolded.

When HumAngle met Ahmadu, the weight of the memories of that day was almost unbearable. Blind now from injuries and neglect suffered in detention, he struggled through tears to recall what happened.

“I can never forget the day,” Ahmadu started.

On Thursday in April 2014, one week after the 276 school girls in Chibok were abducted by the infamous Boko Haram group, soldiers in a convoy with the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) drove past Gallari without incident. Villagers, including Ahmadu and his neighbour Abubakar, remember seeing them. 

But the following morning, everything changed. Around 9 a.m., soldiers and CJTF members surrounded the village, herding men, women,  and children into a square. 

Ahmadu had barely woken. He was waiting for his wife to finish cooking and to heat water for his bath, a daily routine for Ahmadu before taking his herd to graze. Instead, he was stripped alongside 41 other men. Among them were two strangers, one from a neighbouring village who had come to the market, and another who cut trees for a living. 

“They gathered everyone in the village. They asked if we were Boko Haram. We told them no, but they wanted us to say yes,” Ahmadu recalled.

The soldiers picked all 42 men, tortured them in front of their families, and hauled them away in military trucks to Dalwa, a nearby village. “Some had their ears cut off, others were stabbed. I myself was tied with ropes and beaten by soldiers and members of the CJTF,” Ahmadu recounted the horrors of that morning. 

Before transporting them further, soldiers interrogated the men about the abducted Chibok girls, whether they had seen Boko Haram passing through or witnessed the girls being taken. “We told them we saw nothing, that we don’t know Boko Haram,” Ahmadu told HumAngle.

That same day, the men were moved to Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri. The conditions there were appalling, he recounted.

“The cell was very tight, with no good toilet. We could only defecate in a bucket. There was not enough water, and the food was not enough,” Ahmadu said, adding that their hands were tied tight from behind for as long as he could remember.

They were given pap in the morning, maize for lunch, and semovita at night. Soldiers continued to interrogate them, demanding that they confess to being Boko Haram members.

“We suffered to the extent that if we were hiding something, we would have confessed,” he said.

For one week, they endured torture, including being tied up and left under the scorching sun from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., given just a bottle of water and a biscuit. Within days, three of the men had died due to hardship, untreated injuries, and the unbearable living conditions.

Years of darkness 

After a week at Giwa, 39 survivors from Gallari were flown with hundreds of other detainees to a military detention centre in Niger State, North Central Nigeria. The conditions there were even worse. Their clothes were stripped, and their trousers cut short. They were forced to sleep on bare floors. Water was scarce. It was simply depressing, Ahmadu recounted. 

“They gave us water in a teacup, and it was not daily. Sometimes we spend a whole day without water. They gave us tea with bread, but without water, we couldn’t eat. Sometimes, we drank our urine,” he recounted.

The first year was especially deadly. Ahmadu said many detainees died from hunger and suffering. “We have witnessed several cases of dead bodies disposed of in the cell. I did not have the count, but many Gallari men died within that period,” Ahmadu told HumAngle.

It was in Niger that Ahmadu began to lose his sight, first from a head injury during interrogation, then from months in darkness. “They kept us in a cell for one year without seeing the sun. When they later brought us out, they told us to look at the sun. That was when my eyes began to hurt,” he recalled. “I first lost vision from the right eye, then one year later, I lost the vision of the left eye. Turning me completely blind in a protracted year.”

For years, he suffered without treatment. Doctors in the prison said they had no specialist, and he was denied access to outside care. 

After six years in detention, a court declared Ahmadu and others innocent. But instead of being released immediately, they spent more years in detention. 

“The court said we were not guilty, but we still stayed,” he said.

For more than 11 years, Ahmadu did not hear from his family. “I gave up because I had lost everything. I had stopped thinking about home because it only reminded me of memories I had missed and would never get back. I missed my two wives and the unborn child I left,” he said. 

The isolation drove him to despair. At one point, he contemplated suicide. Ahmadu started shedding tears from the eyes he could no longer see with when he recalled the memories.

A shattered homecoming

In 2024, the detainees declared innocent were moved to Mallam Sidi, a rehabilitation centre in Gombe State in the country’s North East, where they underwent social reintegration activities. That same year, HumAngle compiled a list of the 42 men from Gallari who had been arrested and remained untraceable to their families. We submitted the list to the Nigerian army, asking for their whereabouts. HumAngle never heard back. 

But in April 2025, Ahmadu and two brothers from Gallari — Mohammed and Hashim Garba — were freed and reunited with their families in Maiduguri. “Out of the 42 men from Gallari, only five survived. And out of the five, only three of us were released,” Ahmadu told HumAngle. “The other two, Maina Musa and Isa Usman, remain in custody, waiting for court hearings.”

The military transported them to the Maryam Abacha Hospital in Maiduguri. They were received by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which offered them food and asked about their problems. But no medical care was provided. The military then told them to call their families or find their own way home.

For Ahmadu, returning home after 12 years was devastating. His first wife, pregnant at the time of his arrest, had died with her unborn child from grief and trauma. “She was not eating; she vomited up any meal we made her to eat,” Ahmadu’s mother recalled.

His second wife had been abducted by Boko Haram, bore four children for a fighter before fleeing, and when she heard the news of Ahmadu, she tried to reunite with him. But he refused.

Since his release, Ahmadu has continued to suffer excruciating pain in his eyes and head. With no access to proper medical care, he relies only on the little drugs his mother can afford from local vendors, mostly painkillers that provide temporary relief but do not address his actual ailments.

Two months after his return, Ahmadu continues to live with deep trauma that affects his daily life. His mother, who had long lived with little hope of ever seeing her son again, was overjoyed at his release. In her happiness and out of concern for his condition, she quickly arranged a small wedding so that Ahmadu could have a companion to support him through the hardship of his blindness. 

In June, three months after he was freed, Ahmadu married his new wife. Today, the couple depend largely on his ageing mother, who struggles to provide for them from the little income she makes selling dairy milk. “My biggest fear is for my younger ones. My mother is still the one caring for me,” Ahmadu lamented.

He lives in an unfinished building under thatch that barely gives them shelter. It’s the rainy season, and everywhere is leaking in the room when HumAngle visits his home. Now blind and dependent with no livelihood, Ahmadu lives in humiliation. “Whenever it rains, we cannot sleep because the roof leaks. Before, even our goats had better shelter than this,” he said quietly.

Ahmadu lives with trauma and the weight of a lost life. He longs for justice but fears causing unrest. “If I can get my rights without causing any riot in Nigeria, I will be glad. But I don’t want anything that will cause a problem. We need a lot of help;  I need support to start a business so that I can take care of my new family,” he said.

The brothers’ ordeal

Like Ahmadu, Mohammed, 35, and Hashim, 32, were ordinary herders and farmers before the raid. Soldiers seized them alongside the other men of Gallari. Mohammed remembers the day clearly. He was sitting with his wife, about to eat, before taking his animals out to graze. Then soldiers in nearly 40 vehicles surrounded the village. 

From Gallari to Dalwa, then Giwa Barracks, and finally Niger State, the Garba brothers lived through the same cycle of torture and despair as Ahmadu.

“My friend Dahiru died in my presence because of thirst,” Mohammed said. “We could go four days without water. Some of us even drank urine to survive. By the time the Red Cross came to bring carpets and water, 37 of our people had died.”

Hashim recalled how three men died from torture before his distraught eyes within a week at Giwa Barracks. He also watched his elder brother faint under the beatings. Mohammed’s left ear was cut off, his wrists and back etched with scars from where he had been tied. Hashim, too, bore the marks of restraint and filth, his skin discoloured from months without bathing.

When the International Committee of the Red Cross intervened, conditions improved slightly, but the damage was irreversible.

Although eventually declared innocent by the courts, Mohammed and Hashim remained imprisoned. “We were told to calm down, that someday we would be released. It took 11 years,” Mohammed recounted.

At the rehabilitation centre in Gombe, where they were finally transferred, the brothers heard devastating news from home. “I heard that my wife and unborn child had died. My father, too, had died,” Mohammad said quietly. “When we were captured, my wife was pregnant. She gave birth to a dead child because of the way they took us. Later, she also died.”

Hashim’s grief was different but just as heavy. “We came back with nothing,” he said. 

“Even this phone I use was given to me by my mother. I feel shy when I see people I used to know as children, now grown up. Everything has changed while we were gone,” he said.

The brothers returned to find their family scattered and their property gone. Before his arrest, Mohammed owned about 30 cows and goats. His herd and even his house are now gone. “We only depend on our elder brother, who is taking care of our mother. We want to be self-reliant again,” Hashim said. 

Both men carry lasting scars. Mohammed struggles with heart pain and breathing difficulties. Hashim still bears deep marks on his wrists and head.

“When we first came back, I couldn’t even walk to the toilet without help. I had to reduce how much water I drank just to avoid disturbing people every time,” he said.

But beyond the physical pain is the humiliation of starting life from nothing. 

“We don’t want to be beggars. If I can have a wife, I can have someone to help me every day. But now, even marriage is far from us. Before, I married my wife with ₦100,000. Today, you need nearly a million. And I have nothing,”  Mohammed said.

Upon release, Ahmadu, Mohammed, and Hashim told HumAngle that the authorities gave them ₦50,000 cash. “They wasted 12 years of our lives. How can we recover with ₦50,000? I exhausted the money two days after my release,” Mohammed told HumAngle.

‘When we saw them, we cried’

The release of Ahmadu and the Garba brothers broke years of silence but also reopened deep wounds, especially for families who have lost loved ones forever. “When we saw them, we cried. They were unrecognisable,” a relative told HumAngle.

Other locals, like Kellu Janga, spent everything they had chasing hopes of reunion. She turned to people who claimed they could help to secure the men’s release, but those efforts proved futile. Her grief eventually cost her her eyesight, and she now depends on her grandson Abubakar for survival.

“We need the government to tell us where the rest are. We need justice,” Modu, the village’s deputy head and the only man spared during the mass arrest, told HumAngle.

Gallari’s tragedy has remained invisible, overshadowed by global attention to other incidents like the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls that led to the raid. While the world mourned those girls, Gallari’s men vanished in silence. No official explanation has ever been given. The Nigerian Army has not responded to HumAngle’s letters seeking answers.

Children who were toddlers when their fathers were seized are now teenagers, growing up without fatherly support. Some dropped out of school to fend for themselves. 

Abubakar, only ten when his father and uncles were taken, has carried the burden of raising his siblings ever since. “I just want to see my father again. If he is alive, let them bring him back. If not, we deserve to know,” he said.

‘A gross violation of the constitution’

In the North East, transitional justice has often focused on the reintegration of former Boko Haram members through initiatives such as the Disarmament, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration Borno Model (DDRR) programme, a counter-terrorism project aimed at rehabilitating and reintegrating surrendered Boko Haram members back into society, and Sulhu, a local peace and deradicalisation initiative. 

While these efforts aim to end violence and rebuild communities, they leave behind unresolved wounds for families whose loved ones were arrested arbitrarily and held without trial for years. For these families, justice is not about reintegration alone but also about truth, accountability, and the right to know the fate of those taken away.

Relatives of detainees interviewed by HumAngle argue that any conversation about reconciliation feels incomplete and one-sided when innocent civilians remain behind bars without trial. Their demand is simple: justice must include the release or fair trial of those held in military detention centres, alongside information about those who have died in custody. 

For them, healing cannot come from dialogue with insurgents while their own sons, brothers, and fathers languish in silence and neglect.

Aisha, one of several individuals and groups in Borno State advocating for justice and the release of their loved ones, expressed the frustration shared by many. “How can we have Sulhu with Boko Haram members who were the cause of the mass arrests, detentions, and killings? Our children, sons, relatives, and parents have been detained without trial for many years, and you want us to accept Sulhu? Release our children if you want justice for all. Our children were innocent when the military arrested them,” she said.

Aisha’s activism began with seeking the release of her own son, arrested along with other youths in a mosque in 2012. Since then, she has become a prominent voice for families whose loved ones remain in military custody.

Sheriff Ibrahim, a lawyer and human rights activist in Maiduguri, described the detention of the Gallari men as “a gross violation of the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights law.” He explained that under Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended in 2011), no person should be detained for more than 24 hours or at most 48 hours without being charged in court. 

“The law is clear. Anyone arrested should either be charged within that time frame or released on bail. To hold people for over 10 years without trial is unlawful and unconstitutional,” he said.

According to Ibrahim, the fundamental rights of the Gallari men and their families were completely violated. Chapter Four of the Constitution guarantees the right to life, the right to human dignity, and freedom of movement. “These men were presumed innocent but were treated as though they were guilty without evidence. Their families too suffered years of separation, uncertainty, and economic hardship,” he added.

He further noted that survivors and families of those who died in detention have the right to seek justice and compensation from the Nigerian state. “The victims, survivors, and their families can sue the government for unlawful and unjustified detention. There were no prior charges against them, no fair hearing, and no due process. These are the most basic rights guaranteed by law,” Ibrahim told HumAngle.

In contrast to the treatment of Boko Haram fighters and innocent civilians, Ibrahim criticised what he described as double standards in the Nigerian justice system. “Former Boko Haram members who committed crimes against humanity are reintegrated into society through government programmes. Yet innocent civilians like the Gallari men were locked away for years without trial. That is clearly a misplaced priority and a failure of justice,” Ibrahim said.

To prevent such cases in the future, Ibrahim called for an independent committee of inquiry involving civil society groups, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders. 

“There must be transparency and accountability. If anyone is found guilty of aiding or abetting, they should face charges. But if there is insufficient evidence, then the person should be released immediately and compensated. That is the only way to restore public trust in the justice system,” Ibrahim noted. 

This story was produced by HumAngle and co-published with other media.

Narcotics worth more than $972m seized in two separate operations carried out within 48 hours.

The Pakistani navy, operating as part of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), has seized nearly $1bn worth of narcotics from two vessels sailing through the Arabian Sea.

The CMF, the naval network overseeing the operation, said in a statement on Wednesday that last week, the Pakistani navy intercepted the dhows in two separate operations over 48 hours and seized narcotics worth more than $972m.

The crew boarded the first dhow and seized more than 2 tonnes of “crystal methamphetamine (ICE) with an estimated street value of $822,400,000” on October 18, the CMF said in a statement.

“Less than 48 hours later, the crew boarded a second dhow and seized 350 kg of ICE worth $140,000,000, and 50 kg of cocaine worth $10,000,000.”

The CMF did not provide further details on where the vessels originated, but added that they were identified “as having no nationality”.

U.S. Central Command congratulates the Saudi-led Combined Task Force 150 of Combined Maritime Forces for successfully seizing more than $972 million worth of narcotics. Over a 48-hour period, Pakistan Navy Ship Yarmook conducted boarding operations of two dhows in the Arabian…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 21, 2025

The operations were conducted in direct support of a Saudi-led Combined Task Force 150, which said “the success of this focused operation highlights the importance of the multi-national collaboration”.

It was “one of the most successful narcotics seizures for CMF”, said Saudi Arabian navy’s Commodore Fahad Aljoiad, commander of the CMF task force carrying out the operation.

The CMF is a 47-nation naval partnership tasked with inspecting more than 3.2 million square miles (about 829 million hectares) of waters, including some of the world’s most important shipping lanes, to prevent smuggling, the statement added.

In a separate statement, the Pakistani navy said the achievement highlighted its “unwavering commitment to regional maritime security, global peace, and the collective fight against illicit trafficking at sea”.

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (UPI) — North Korea fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, a week ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s scheduled visit to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“Our military detected several projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Junghwa area of North Hwanghae Province in a northeasterly direction around 8:10 a.m. today,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

The missiles flew approximately 217 miles, the JCS said, and may have landed inland rather than in the East Sea.

“Under a robust South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture, the military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements and maintaining the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation,” the JCS said.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said at a press conference that the missiles did not reach Japan’s territorial waters or exclusive economic zone. She added that Tokyo was coordinating closely with Washington and Seoul, including sharing real-time missile warning information.

The launch was North Korea’s fifth of the year, and the first since South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took office in June. Lee has made efforts to rehabilitate relations between the two Koreas, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

The missile test comes ahead of South Korea’s hosting of the APEC summit in Gyeongju on Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Trump is expected to visit Gyeongju before the official summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee.

Analysts had speculated that the North may conduct a provocation ahead of the event as Pyongyang continues its push to be recognized as a nuclear-armed state.

The regime unveiled its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-20, at a massive military parade earlier this month. The ICBM, which North Korean state media called the regime’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon,” is a solid-fuel missile believed capable of reaching the continental United States.

North Korea last fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on May 8, in what South Korean officials characterized as a potential weapons test before export to Russia. Pyongyang has supplied missiles, artillery and soldiers to Russia for its war against Ukraine and is believed to be receiving much-needed financial support and advanced military technology in return.

Two buses travelling in opposite directions on the Kampala-Gulu Highway collided head-on while overtaking.

At least 63 people have been killed in a major road accident involving multiple vehicles on the highway between Uganda’s capital Kampala and the northern city of Gulu, police have said.

The collision took place just after midnight [21:00 GMT on Tuesday] and was caused by two buses coming from opposite directions trying to overtake a truck and a car.

“In the process, both buses met head-on during the overtaking manoeuvres,” the Uganda Police Force said in a statement on X. “Sixty-three people lost lives, all occupants from involved vehicles.”

The police added that “as investigations continue, we strongly urge all motorists to exercise maximum caution on the roads, especially avoiding dangerous and careless overtaking, which remains one of the leading causes of crashes in the country”.

Those travelling in the truck and the car were injured and taken to Kiryandongo Hospital and other nearby medical facilities, the statement said. It did not give further details on the number injured or the extent of their wounds.

The Kampala-Gulu Highway is one of Uganda’s busiest as it connects the capital with the biggest town in northern Uganda.

The state of emergency lifts constitutional rights, including the right to protest, amid popular unrest over the rise in extortion and killings.

Peru’s Interim President Jose Jeri has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Lima, to stem a wave of protests that contributed to the recent downfall of his predecessor.

In a televised message on Tuesday, Jeri said the emergency in the city would last 30 days.

“Wars are won with actions, not words,” the president said, adding that he is planning a new approach to fighting crime that he described as going “from defence to offence”.

Under the state of emergency, the government can send the army to patrol the streets and restrict freedom of assembly and other rights.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said the announcement comes after six days of uncertainty over whether the interim government would push ahead.

In the decree formally declaring the emergency, the government did not mention how it intended to gather critically needed intelligence to curb extortion cases, which are estimated at 18,000 this year, up 30 percent from last year, Sanchez said.

The rise in extortions has also led to an increase in killings in recent years. Between January and September, police authorities reported 1,690 homicides, compared with 1,502 during the same period of 2024.

“The state of emergency will lift constitutional rights and people will not be able to protest,” Sanchez said.

Dina Boluarte was removed as president by Peru’s Congress on October 10 after an impeachment during which lawmakers said she had been unable to tackle the crime wave. Jeri, the parliament speaker, replaced her immediately and will serve as interim president until July next year.

Peru has been roiled by weeks of antigovernment protests over corruption and organised crime led by Gen-Z activists.

On Thursday, protests to demand Jeri’s resignation turned violent. One person was killed and about 100 were injured, including police officers and some journalists.

Jeri has said he will not resign.

Earlier, Boluarte had declared a 30-day state of emergency in March following the murder of a famous musician, but the move did little to reduce crime.

Paul Flores, a well-known cumbia singer, was killed when assailants attacked the bus he was travelling on in an apparent attempt to extort the operator.

Peru’s interim president Jose Jeri has declared a 30-day state of emergency in the capital Lima and nearby Callao, saying the decision was to tackle surging crime. Anti-government protests last week left one person dead and over 100 injured.

Oct. 22 (UPI) — Authorities in Washington, D.C., have arrested a driver accused of ramming a barricade protecting the White House.

Little information about the incident has been made public.

The U.S. Secret Service said in a brief statement that incident occurred at 10:37 p.m. EDT.

The suspect is accused of ramming the Secret Service vehicle gate located at 17th St. and E Streets NW.

“The individual was arrested & the vehicle was assessed and deemed safe,” the Secret Service said on X. “Our investigation into the cause of this collision is ongoing.”

This is not the first time a vehicle has been driven into a White House barrier.

On the night of May 4, 2024, a driver died after his vehicle, traveling at a high rate of speed, collided with an outer barricade of the White House complex. The driver was identified as 57-year-old James Chester Lewis Jr.

In May 2023, then 19-year-old Sai Varshith Kandula drove a U-Haul truck into the White House as part of what prosecutors said was an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government and replace it with a Nazi dictatorship.

In January, Kandula was sentenced to eight years in prison.

This is a developing story.

US President Donald Trump has explained a decision to postpone plans for a meeting in Hungary with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine war, telling reporters he doesn’t want a ‘wasted meeting’.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Allah Meer’s parents were among the millions of Afghans who fled their country after the then-Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

His family settled in a refugee village in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan. That’s where Meer, now 45, was born. Meer says that more than 200 members of his extended family made the journey from Afghanistan to Pakistan, which has been their home ever since.

Over the past two years, as Pakistan has moved to send back hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, the family has feared for its future, but managed to evade Islamabad’s dragnet.

Last week, the threat of expulsion hit home: Pakistan announced it would close all 54 Afghan refugee villages across the country as part of the campaign it began in 2023 to push out what it calls “illegal foreigners”. These include the villages in Kohat, where Meer and his family live.

“In my life, I visited Afghanistan only once, for two weeks in 2013. Apart from that, none of my family have ever gone back,” Meer told Al Jazeera. “How can I uproot everything when we were born here, lived here, married here, and buried our loved ones here?”

Amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, which returned to governing Afghanistan in 2021, families like Meer’s are caught in a vortex of uncertainty.

Fighting erupted between Afghan and Pakistani forces along the border earlier in October, pushing already strained relations into open hostility. On Sunday, officials from both sides met in Qatar’s capital, Doha, and signed a ceasefire agreement, with the next round of talks scheduled in Istanbul on October 25.

Yet, tensions remain high. And families like Meer’s fear that they could become diplomatic pawns in a border war between the neighbours.

From welcome to expulsion

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As civil war gripped Afghanistan and the Taliban first rose to power in 1996, successive waves of Afghans fled across the border.

After the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the US, the Taliban’s fall prompted thousands of Afghans to return home. But their return was short-lived.

The Taliban’s stunning comeback in August 2021 triggered yet another exodus, when another 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan.

However, as relations between Kabul and Islamabad soured during the past four years, Pakistan – which was once the Taliban’s principal patron  – accused Afghanistan of harbouring armed groups responsible for the cross-border attacks. The government’s stance hardened towards Afghan refugees, even those who have lived in the country for decades – like Meer.

A father of 10, Meer earned a degree in education from a university in Peshawar, and now runs a vocational training project for Afghan refugee children backed by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

Since 2006, the UNHCR has issued what are known as Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to document Afghan citizens living in Pakistan. These cards have allowed them to stay in Pakistan legally, giving them some freedom of movement, although this is restricted, as well as access to some public services, including bank accounts.

But from June 30 this year, the Pakistani government has stopped renewing PoR cards and has invalidated existing ones.

“We all possess the UNHCR-issued Proof of Residence cards, but now, with this current drive, I don’t know what will happen,” Meer said.

In 2017, Pakistan also started issuing Afghan Citizenship Cards (ACC) to undocumented Afghan nationals living in the country, giving them identification credentials to provide them with a temporary legal status.

But the ACC is not a protection against deportation any more.

According to the UNHCR, more than 1.5 million Afghans left Pakistan – voluntarily or forcibly – between the start of the campaign in 2023 and mid-October, 2025.

‘Illegal in our home’

About 1.2 million PoR cardholders, 737,000 ACC holders and 115,000 asylum seekers  remain in Pakistan, Qaiser Khan Afridi, the UNHCR’s spokesperson in Pakistan, told Al Jazeera.

Pakistan’s tensions with the Taliban have added new precarity to their status.

“For over 45 years, Pakistan has shown extraordinary generosity by hosting millions of Afghan refugees,” Afridi said. “But we are deeply concerned by the government’s decision to de-notify refugee villages all over Pakistan and to push for returns [to Afghanistan].”

“Many of those affected have lived here for years, and now fear for their future. We urge that any return should be voluntary, gradual, and carried out with dignity and safety.”

Meer, who has volunteered for the UNHCR over the years, said that seven refugee villages in Kohat alone house more than 100,000 people. He accused both Pakistan and Afghanistan of using the refugee issue as political leverage.

“With the latest situation, our family elders have sat together to discuss options. We thought about sending some of our young men to Afghanistan to look for houses and means to do business, but the problem is, we have no connections there at all,” he said.

With his PoR card now invalidated by the Pakistani government, he has no recognised identity card, making it hard for him to access even medical facilities when his children need treatment for any illness.

“We are, for all practical purposes, considered illegal in a country that I and my children call home,” he said.

Caught between borders

Pakistan’s plan to expel Afghan residents began in late 2023, amid a rise in rebe attacks. Since then, violence has surged, with 2025 shaping up to be the most violent year in a decade.

Pakistani authorities argue Afghan refugees pose a security risk, accusing the Taliban government of sheltering armed groups, a charge Kabul denies.

Two years ago, Pakistan’s then interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, alleged that 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in the country in 2023 were carried out by Afghan nationals. He did not provide any evidence to back his claim, and he did not clarify if the individuals were refugees living in Pakistan, or Afghan nationals who had crossed the porous border between the two countries.

But Meer fears that Afghan refugees in Pakistan will be distrusted back in Afghanistan, too, given the climate of animosity between the neighbours.

“We will be seen as Pakistanis, as enemies there, too,” he said.

Afridi, the UNHCR spokesperson, urged Pakistan to reconsider its repatriation drive.

“UNHCR calls on the government to apply measures to exempt Afghans with international protection needs from involuntary return,” he said.

“Pakistan has a proud history of hospitality, and it’s important to continue that tradition at this critical time,” he said.

Oct. 21 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Melissa was churning in the Caribbean late Tuesday, according to forecasters warning Hispaniola to expect heavy rains and flooding over the next few days.

Melissa was about 325 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the National Hurricane Center said in its 11 p.m. EDT update. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was moving west at 153 mph.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Jamaica. Those elsewhere in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba should monitor the progress of Melissa, the NHC said.

A decrease in speed and a gradual turn to the northwest and north are expected in the next few days, according to the NHC, which said it expects Melissa to approach Jamaica and the southwestern portion of Haiti later this week.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic can expect 5 to 10 inches of rain through Friday, the NHC said. More heavy rainfall is possible after Friday, but forecasters aren’t confident in predictions because of the uncertainty of Melissa’s speed and direction. Areas of significant flash flooding and mudslides are possible.

Across Aruba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica rainfall of 1 to 3 inches is expected through Friday. Flash and urban flooding will be possible across Puerto Rico through at least Friday.

Melissa is the 13th named storm of the season, and it’s the first in the Caribbean. This season has seen few storms, which has warmed the Caribbean Sea. Now, the warm water is fuel for stronger, more dangerous storms.

Bolivia’s presidential runoff on October 19^th 2025, marked a major political shift for the country. For the first time since 2005, no candidate from Evo Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party is on the voting ballot. In the August primary, centrist Rodrigo Paz won 32.2% of the vote versus only 3.2% for the official MAS ticket, while conservative former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga was second with about 27%. With MAS’s candidate trounced, Paz and Quiroga, both market-friendly, right-leaning politicians advanced to the runoff.

This officially put an end to MAS’s two-decade dominance and will establish Bolivia’s first non-MAS government in nearly twenty years. Analysts see this as a turning point, a moment when Bolivia moves away from the leftist model that defined the Morales era.

Legacy of Morales and the “MAS” Era

MAS, founded by President Evo Morales in the early 2000s, reshaped Bolivia’s politics and economy. Morales, who served from 2006 to 2019, was the country’s first indigenous head of state. Under his rule, poverty fell sharply, and millions of bolivians moved up into the middle class.

Critics say the party became overly centralized and failed to diversify the economy before gas revenues fell. Questions over term limits and alleged corruption defined Morales’s later years, culminating in his ouster in 2019 amid disputed elections and unrest. Even after Morales went into exile, MAS remained powerful, with Luis Arce, Morales’s former economy minister, winning the presidency in 2020.

By 2025, MAS no longer had the popularity it once took for granted. Voters cited inflation at a 40-year high and fuel shortages.

The Two Right-Wing Contenders

Rodrigo Paz, a senator and son of a former president, ran as a centrist populist in the Christian Democratic Party. He vowed to maintain social programs for the poor while promoting private-sector-led growth. Paz campaigned on a moderate platform: decentralize government spending, give tax incentives to small businesses, and phase out fuel subsidies gradually.

Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga is a veteran conservative. He served briefly as president in 2001-02 and campaigned on a bold austerity agenda, deep cuts to public spending and wanting to abolish or privatize loss-making state firms. Quiroga pitched himself as a reformer, arguing that the country is broke and pledging dramatic, radical change. In debate, he framed Bolivia’s last 20 years as lost and promised a return to business-friendly policies and property rights.

Shifting Alliances Abroad: From China and Russia to the U.S.

The expected rightward turn will reshape Bolivia’s foreign policy. Under Morales and Arce, Bolivia had aligned itself mostly with China and Russia. Chinese firms had multibillion-dollar lithium contracts, and Russia’s Rosatom planned a lithium plant in return for Bolivian uranium access. The MAS government often distanced Bolivia from Washington.

Now, both Paz and Quiroga pledge the opposite: a return to the U.S. orbit. They argue that better U.S. relations can bring investment, aid and energy deals. The U.S. State Department has already praised the election as a transformative opportunity, with Secretary Marco Rubio saying both candidates want stronger, better relations with the United States.

The U.S. may seize the chance to expand its footprint, as it did recently in Argentina, by offering aid or investment in exchange for political alignment. That would be a dramatic flip, with some observers framing the vote as a pro-market shift and U.S. embrace. Argentina and Bolivia’s swings may reveal the fate of other similar political regimes in Latin America, such as Chile’s and Colombia’s upcoming elections.

Domestic Impact and the Path Ahead

Domestically, the new government will face immediate challenges, like the economy having inflation above 20%, empty reserves, and protests over low growth. Paz and Quiroga both promise stimulus, insisting that fuel and social programs will not vanish overnight. Economists warn the fiscal hole is immense, meaning politically unpopular changes are unavoidable.

Any cutbacks will anger MAS’s former base. The powerful miners’ union COB has already warned it will oppose any threats to the social and economic gains of the 2010s. Indigenous groups and rural voters, whose support lifted MAS to power, may feel betrayed if subsidies and jobs are slashed. Paz and Quiroga will need to show voters they can fix the economy without undoing all of Morales’s legacy.

Both candidates have signaled that Bolivia will de-emphasize its former leftist alignment and turn east to west. For U.S. and European observers, that could perhaps mean more cooperation on trade, investment and regional security. But it also raises questions: will Bolivia’s rich lithium and natural-gas resources be opened more to Western firms and can the country still maintain the social gains of the MAS years under a pro-market agenda?

As Paz himself said, “ideologies don’t put food on the table”. Voters clearly decided they wanted change, but whether that leads to better conditions or new problems for Bolivia will depend on how this new government balances its reforms.

With information from Reuters.