targeting

The US is charging two men allegedly associated with antifa with “terrorism”. The case follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to designate antifa a “domestic terrorist organization”, despite most experts agreeing that antifa is an ideology rather than an organised group. What does the latest move from the Trump administration mean for dissent and free speech in the US?

The judge ruled NSO caused ‘irreparable harm’ to Meta, but said an earlier award of $168m in damages was ‘excessive’.

A United States judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users, saying the firm’s software causes “direct harm” but slashed an earlier damages award of $168m to just $4m.

In a ruling on Friday granting WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO’s spyware from being used in the messaging service, district judge Phyllis Hamilton said the Israeli firm’s “conduct causes irreparable harm”, adding that there was “no dispute that the conduct is ongoing”.

Hamilton said NSO’s conduct “serves to defeat” one of the key purposes of the service offered by WhatsApp: privacy.

“Part of what companies such as WhatsApp are ‘selling’ is informational privacy, and any unauthorised access is an interference with that sale,” she said.

In her ruling, Hamilton said that evidence at trial showed that NSO reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install its spyware Pegasus on users’ phones, and repeatedly redesigned it to escape detection and bypass security fixes.

NSO was founded in 2010 and is based in the Israeli seaside tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.

Pegasus – a highly invasive software marketed as a tool for law enforcement to fight crime and terrorism – allows operators to remotely embed spyware in devices.

NSO says it only sells the spyware to vetted and legitimate government law enforcement and intelligence agencies. But Meta, which owns WhatsApp, filed a lawsuit in California federal court in late 2019, accusing NSO of exploiting its encrypted messaging service to target journalists, lawyers and human rights activists with its spyware.

Independent experts have also said NSO’s software has been used by nation states, some with poor human rights records, to target critics.

Judge Hamilton said her broad injunction was appropriate given NSO’s “multiple design-arounds” to infect WhatsApp users – including missed phone calls and “zero-click” attacks – as well as the “covert nature” of the firm’s work more generally.

Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said in a statement that the “ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again”.

“We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society. It sets an important precedent that there are serious consequences to attacking an American company,” he said.

Meta had asked Hamilton to extend the injunction to its other products – including Facebook, Instagram and Threads – but the judge ruled there was no way for her to determine if similar harms were being done on the other platforms without more evidence.

Hamilton also ruled that an initial award of $168m against NSO for damages to Meta in May this year was excessive, determining that the court did not have “sufficient basis” to support the jury’s initial calculation.

“There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious’,” Hamilton wrote.

The judge ruled that the punitive damages ratio should therefore be “capped at 9/1”, reducing the initial sum by about $164m to just $4m.

The men are suspected of of being ‘foreign operatives’ for Hamas and will appear in court Thursday, prosecutors say.

German authorities have arrested three men suspected of preparing a serious act of violence against Jewish targets in Germany, allegedly on behalf of the Palestinian group Hamas.

Prosecutors say they suspect the three men of being “foreign operatives” for Hamas and of being involved in procuring firearms and ammunition for attacks targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany.

“In the course of today’s arrests, various weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and several pistols, as well as a considerable amount of ammunition, were found,” the federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The three men, identified under German privacy laws only as German citizen Abed Al G, Wael FM, born in Lebanon, and German citizen Ahmad I, were arrested in Berlin on Wednesday. A security source said the three were in their 30s or 40s.

The suspects are set to appear in court on Thursday, when a judge will determine whether the trio will be held in custody before trial.

Hamas is designated as a “terrorist” organisation by Germany, as well as the European Union (EU) as a whole.

In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin in what prosecutors described as the first court case against members of the Palestinian group in Germany.

“Anti-terrorism” investigators observed the suspects meeting in Berlin for a weapon handover before operational forces intervened and discovered functional weapons, including a Glock pistol, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said.

Forensic technicians are examining the arsenal, and searches have also taken place in the eastern city of Leipzig, where one of the suspects lives. Authorities also conducted a search in Oberhausen in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the spokesperson added.

Germany is one of Israel’s strongest allies due to the legacy of the Holocaust, and security is tight at synagogues and other Jewish institutions. It did not join France, the United Kingdom and several other countries last month in recognising Palestinian statehood.

Hamas has carried out hundreds of attacks against Israeli civilians over the years, but it has rarely operated outside Israel and the Palestinian territories. Questions will likely be raised over whether the suspects were acting on orders from Hamas’s leadership or if they were merely sympathisers with Hamas or the Palestinian cause.

The arrests come as Israel continues its genocidal war on Gaza despite mounting global outcry and repeated appeals for a ceasefire. At the same time, Israel has enforced a crippling aid blockade on the enclave, where most of its two million residents have been displaced multiple times and are now facing famine and extreme hunger.

Israeli forces have killed at least 66,148 Palestinians since the assault began nearly two years ago, according to local health officials, though experts warn the true toll could be three times higher.

The arrests also took place as Hamas said it would study US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal to end the war.

Tens of thousands of people have also recently rallied in Berlin, protesting German support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Demonstrators marched over the weekend following a call from a broad coalition of some 50 groups, including pro-Palestinian organisations, Medico International, Amnesty International, and the opposition Left Party, for a large demonstration.

They demanded “an end to German complicity” in Israel’s war and called for “an end to all military cooperation with Israel,” including “the import, export, and transit of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment”.

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a White House visit on Monday to extend a formal apology to his Qatari counterpart for a recent military strike targeting Hamas officials in the Gulf emirate that infuriated Arab leaders and triggered rare criticism by the U.S. of Israel.

Meanwhile, the White House has released a Trump plan for ending the Israel-Hamas war and Gaza governance. There’s no immediate word on whether Israel or Hamas has accepted the deal presented by the U.S. administration.

Netanyahu made the call to Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, as he met with President Trump for critical talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza and developing a U.S. plan on postwar governance in the war-battered Palestinian territory, according to the White House.

“As a first step, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his deep regret that Israel’s missile strike against Hamas targets in Qatar unintentionally killed a Qatari serviceman,” the White House said in a statement. “He further expressed regret that, in targeting Hamas leadership during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and affirmed that Israel will not conduct such an attack again in the future.”

The White House talks, and apology from Netanyahu, come at a tenuous moment. Israel is increasingly isolated, losing support from many countries that were long its steadfast allies. At home, Netanyahu’s governing coalition appears more fragile than ever. And the White House is showing signs of impatience.

The question now is whether Trump, who has offered steadfast backing to Netanyahu throughout the war, will change his tone and turn up the pressure on Israel to wind down the conflict.

As he welcomed Netanyahu to the White House, Trump responded affirmatively when asked by reporters whether he was confident a deal soon would be reached to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“I am. I’m very confident,” Trump said.

Netanyahu’s apology for strike that angered U.S. ally

Israel struck the headquarters of Hamas’ political leadership in Qatar on Sept. 9 as the group’s top figures gathered to consider a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The strike on the territory of a U.S. ally was a stunning escalation and risked upending talks aimed at winding down the war and freeing hostages. No senior Hamas officials were killed in the strike.

The attack on an energy-rich Gulf nation hosting thousands of American troops, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas throughout the war and even before, was described by Trump as out of step with Israeli and U.S. interests. And Trump sought to move quickly to assuage his Qatari allies.

Qatar, meanwhile, condemned the strike as a “flagrant violation of all international laws and norms” as smoke rose over its capital, Doha. Other key U.S. allies in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, promised their support to Qatar.

The White House said Al Thani welcomed Netanyahu’s “assurances” and emphasized “Qatar’s readiness to continue contributing meaningfully to regional security and stability.”

But even as the White House was spotlighting the apology, Israel’s far right national security minister newly defended the decision to carry out Israel’s attack.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key coalition partner of Netanyahu’s, in a posting on X called the operation “an important, just and ethical attack.”

“It is very good that it happened,” he added.

Geller, Mednick and Madhani write for the Associated Press.

Sept. 26 (UPI) — The gunman who killed four people in a New York City office building housing the NFL had a generative brain disease linked to repeated head injuries while playing sports, the city’s medical examiner’s office said Friday.

On July 28, Shane Tamura, 27, killed himself after opening fire at 345 Park Ave. Tamura’s note said: “Study my brain please. I’m sorry.”

“Following a thorough assessment and extensive analysis by our neuropathology experts, OCME has found unambiguous diagnostic evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, in the brain tissue of the decedent,” the Office of Chief Medical Examiner said in a statement obtained by ABC News and other media outlets. “The findings correspond with the classification of low-stage CTE, according to current consensus criteria.”

The report added: “CTE may be found in the brains of decedents with a history of repeated exposure to head trauma.”

Pathologists, led by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham, didn’t say whether CTE played a role in his behavior, including shooting people.

“We continue to grieve the senseless loss of lives, and our hearts remain with the victims’ families and our dedicated employees,” the NFL said in a statement.

“There is no justification for the horrific acts that took place. As the medical examiner notes ‘the science around this condition continues to evolve, and the physical and mental manifestations of CTE remain under study.'”

His family didn’t comment to The New York Times. They had said he suffered from migraines, mental illness and multiple concussions.

Tamura had two Mental Health Crisis Holds on his record, and a prior arrest for trespassing in Nevada, where he also received his concealed carry license.

Tamura, a former high school football player in California, wrote in the three-page note: “The League knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits.”

The note was found in his pocket.

He drove from his apartment in Las Vegas to Manhattan. Authorities said he took the wrong elevator bank and instead reached the offices of Rudin Management, where he again opened fire after spraying bullets across the building’s lobby.

NFL employees were warned during the incident to shelter in place, although the shooter never arrived in those offices.

Four people died in the shooting: NYPD officer Didarul Islam, Blackstone real estate executive Wesley LePatner and Rudin employee Julia Hyman, who was named by the New York Post.

In all, he fired 47 rounds, reloading once.

Researchers have studied cases of former athletes who played in contact and collision sports, including football players, ice hockey players and boxers.

“Being a high school football player is certainly a possibility for CTE,” Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the Boston University CTE, told CBS News. “We have a recent study where we found about 30% of former high school players had CTE. Now that’s a very select group of people. It doesn’t mean 30% of the general population of high school football players have CTE, but it’s a distinct possibility.”

Researchers say the link is not conclusive because most families donate the brains because they were displaying the symptoms.

“There is damage to the frontal lobes, which can damage decision making and judgment,”McKe recently told The Times. “It can also cause impulsivity and rage behaviors, so it’s possible that there’s some connection between brain injury and these behaviors.”

The center has studied thousands of brains of athletes, soldiers and others exposed to brain trauma.

In 2023, the center reported 90% of 376 deceased NFL players’ brains examined were diagnosed with CTE.

Some former NFL players committed suicide, including Dave Duerson, who deliberately shot himself in the chest to preserve the brain. Duerson left a note asking to have his brain studied.

“I would never draw a direct line between someone’s brain pathology and any specific violent act, because the majority of people who have CTE never committed anything like this,” Dr. Daniel H. Daneshvar, chief of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, recently told The Times.

In 2024, the NFL allowed players to wear special head protection, called Guardian Caps.

Also, the NFL changed kickoffs to reduce full-speed tackles.

“They need to do much more than just the helmet design, which is never going to prevent CTE,” McKee told CBS News. It’s really rules of play and styles of play, eliminating the hits to the head that occur in practice as well as games, paying attention to the players, monitoring the players for the number of hits they’ve sustained and actually keep track of the players over time.”

THIS is the moment a Ukraine naval drone strikes one of Vladimir Putin’s key fuel sites sparking chaos in Russia.

The Salavat factory was hit for the second time in less than a week amid Volodymyr Zelensky’s soaring campaign against Russian oil.

6

6

6

Footage shows thick black smoke billowing out of the facility as an inferno rages on the ground.

A second explosion, meanwhile, is seen pounding the building.

Locals reported hearing a “loud noise” before flames ravaged the surrounding area.

The Salavat refinery, considered a linchpin in Russia’s oil industry, was last hit on September 18 – causing a “massive explosion”, according to local media.

It’s just one of a number of facilities Ukraine has targeted in recent weeks as it steps up its campaign on Russian energy infrastructure.

The strikes have sparked chaos in Moscow with petrol stations reportedly not able to stockpile fuel.

Widely used petrol – such as Ai 92 and Ai 95 – are often unavailable, according to reports.

One employee at a petrol station in the western Belgorod suggested the oil crisis had reached a tipping point, with stations forced to close “because there was no gasoline”.

She told Reuters: “The station in the neighbouring village also closed, and others simply ran out of gasoline.”

Moscow has been forced to ban fuel exports for six months, sacrificing vital revenue just to stop unrest at home.

Military intelligence expert Philip Ingram MBE previously explained how “Putin’s greatest fear” is “the Russian people rising up.”

Before the invasion, energy exports made up around 40 per cent of the Kremlin’s budget.

Even under sanctions, oil and gas still bring in 30 per cent of Russia’s income.

He showed how Ukraine has zeroed in on this “river of oil money” with pinpoint strikes hundreds of miles inside Russian territory.

Long-range drones have torched colossal refineries, exploded pumping stations and set storage tanks ablaze – systematically dismantling Moscow’s refining capacity.

The campaign has shattered Russia’s aura of invulnerability, exposed its sprawling oil empire as a fatal weakness, and brought the war crashing into the lives of ordinary Russians.

And as Ingram puts it: “It proves that in modern warfare, the most effective battle plans aren’t always about brute force on the tactical frontline, but about finding your enemy’s single point of failure – and striking it again and again with unrelenting precision.”

6

6

It comes as Donald Trump announced in his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back “every inch” of its territory with Russia.

In a major pivot from his previous stance on the three-and-a-half-year conflict, Trump also dismissed Russia’s military strength and mocked its inability to beat Ukraine in just a few days.

Posting on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said Ukraine “may be able to take back their country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that”.

Trump’s Vlad-bashing follows months of growing frustration at Putin’s refusal to end the offensive in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back at Trump’s insults, particularly those levelled at the Russian economy.

“The phrase ‘paper tiger’ was used in relation to our economy,” he said.

“Russia is more associated with a bear. And paper bears don’t exist.

“Russia is a real bear.”

Peskov did, however, admit that the Russian economy had faced “tensions”.

6

The recent suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is an attack on democracy. Though not necessarily the democracy one might think.

Free speech is protected by the 1st Amendment. This grants the late-night host the freedom to say whatever he thinks without fear of arrest or state-sanctioned violence. It does not necessarily guarantee that he will not be censured, or fired, if his remarks violate his employer’s rules or standards.

President Trump discovered this in 2015 when, citing inflammatory remarks the then-presidential candidate made about undocumented Mexican immigrants, NBC — the network that aired “The Apprentice” and Trump’s Miss Universe pageant — cut ties with him.

This is the most obvious explanation for Trump declaring war on television, despite it being the industry that, via “The Apprentice” and a deluge of coverage during his first presidential campaign, helped propel him to the presidency. Paybacks are a b— and this particular president thrives on them.

And it is definitely war. Trump has a long history of attacking various TV networks and personalities, including Kimmel. The regularity, name-checking and vitriol of these attacks far outstrip the anger many presidents have expressed toward the media, but they are in keeping with Trump’s general brand of “whataboutism” and victimization.

A brand that last year a majority of voters decided, in a free and fair election, represented their best interests.

What they did not vote for, because it was not part of Trump’s platform or promises, was the weaponization of his office in general, and the FCC in particular, to destroy the democracy of broadcast television.

First by a spurious suit against “60 Minutes,” which many believe was settled to allow the sale of Paramount Global to Skydance Media to go forward, then with CBS (owned by Paramount) canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and now with the suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Television is an industry that relies on a continual public voting system — people watch or they don’t watch, and the networks renew, cancel and tweak their programming accordingly. This is an oversimplification of a byzantine and often mysterious system that often involves the personal preferences of network executives and, increasingly, algorithms, but essentially the viewers are in charge — with their eyeballs and, occasionally, their outrage.

If, as the president claims, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had been canceled due to its low ratings or suspended after Kimmel’s recent remarks caused longtime viewers to inundate ABC or the show’s sponsors with messages of outrage, fans would have been upset, but it would have been a mere blip in the news cycle.

But that is not what happened. Instead, a handful of conservative pundits who have made it their business to punish anyone who mentions slain influencer Charlie Kirk with anything but near-sanctification used a few ill-chosen but innocuous lines regarding the crime in Kimmel’s opening monologue Monday to call for swift and terrible retribution.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr answered the call. On the podcast “The Benny Show,” hosted by right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, he threatened television affiliates with regulatory action if they did not take action against Kimmel.

He did so knowing that Nexstar, which owns many of those affiliates, was attempting to buy Tegna, in order to gain control of over 80% of U.S. television stations. That merger would require not just FCC approval but Carr’s willingness to eliminate the rule that prevents any media company from owning more than 39% of television stations.

Nexstar appeared to do precisely what Carr demanded of them. As did ABC/Disney, which decided that the loss of revenue from these affiliates, and the animosity of Trump and his supporters, posed a bigger threat than the potential fallout from pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air. (And good luck getting the four-time Oscars host to emcee this ceremony again in the future.)

Perhaps it did. But given that “seize the media” and “silence comedians” are historical hallmarks of totalitarianism, the resulting three-day-and-counting news cycle, in which Carr, Trump and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger have been regularly accused of dismantling democracy, has given anti-MAGA forces a new and legitimate rallying cry.

All while pushing broadcast television just a bit closer to the edge of extinction.

Nexstar denied that it benched Kimmel due to pressure from Carr.

“The decision to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” Gary Weitman, Nexstar’s chief communications officer, said in a statement.

Trump’s obsession with broadcast networks and late-night hosts is perilous, and not just because it underlines his desire to attack culture with every means at his disposal (including those that may not be legal).

Certainly, it exposes his authoritarian bent, but it also reveals his anachronistic view of the world.

First, in these divisive times, having critics allows your supporters to coalesce around hating them. And second, broadcast television, including and especially late night, has been in its death throes for more than a decade.

As alarming, unacceptable and authoritarian as the attacks on “60 Minutes,” Colbert and Kimmel are, media freedom is not going to die on this particular hill for the simple reason that it is no longer the free media’s main residence.

Carr ordered his hit on Kimmel not from the comforts of “Fox & Friends” but on a podcast. Trump still delivers televised speeches, but most of his communications and policy decisions are delivered via social media.

The tsunami of corporate mergers involving television networks and streaming services have occurred not because these things are profitable tools of power but because, at least separately, they are not. YouTube is the most popular media platform in the country.

As Trump points out, Kimmel’s television ratings are very low — less than 2 million on average. Kimmel himself has said that he and other late-night shows get far more viewers from clips on social media than on television. If he and Colbert decide to take their voices straight to social media, well, good luck controlling that.

There is certainly much to fear in Trump’s brazen attacks on venerable institutions like “60 Minutes” and late-night television (though with conservatives like Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson siding, at least in principle, with Kimmel, things may not be going quite the way Carr or Trump planned), but as Kirk knew, one doesn’t need a television show to be an effective, influential voice.

Seen from one angle, Trump is most certainly attempting to quash what we have come to know as democracy. But from another, it’s a grudge-holding president kicking the industry that helped him achieve power when it’s already struggling for breath.

Planet Labs has collected satellite images that show just the level of precision in yesterday’s unprecedented Israeli airstrike on a Hamas compound in Doha, Qatar. The IAF hit a compound where negotiators for the terror group were meeting to consider a Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by the U.S. government. You can read our initial reporting on that incident here.

The images offer views of what that compound looked like before and after the attack. The one taken after the attack shows it was confined to a cluster of five buildings without damage to surrounding structures. The building in the lower right corner of the compound appears to have suffered the most damage, but other areas of the compound are clearly affected too. This includes a small structure that sits near a pool being destroyed. The buildings right next to the compound seemed to have emerged largely unscathed.

You can see a street view of the strike in the following video.

Israeli officials said the Doha strike was carried out by 15 Israeli fighter jets, firing 10 precision munitions against a single target, the BBC reported, citing Israeli media. We don’t know at the moment what weapons were used.

Qatar and its U.S. guests have very advanced air defense systems and sensors that would provide prior alert to an impending attack, in most circumstances. With standoff munitions launched at distance the most likely means of attack, why there was no attempt to intercept these weapons if they were of unknown origin isn’t clear. The use of F-35s is possible here, as well, which may have been able to make closer proximity standoff attacks, but Israel has F-15 and F-16-launched weapons capable of reaching hundreds of miles and strike with pinpoint accuracy.

The U.S. military spotted Israeli jets flying east toward the Persian Gulf but had little time to react, according to Axios.

“The U.S. sought clarification, but by the time Israel provided it, missiles were already in the air,” the publication reported, citing three U.S. officials.

At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump “was informed of the impending strike by his military and alerted Qatar’s leadership,” White House spokesperson Karonline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

So exactly what the U.S. knew about the impending strike and when, and when Qatar was informed, remains disputed at this time.

Qatari officials complained that they only found out about the attack after it took place. Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said notification from the U.S. only came after explosions were heard in Doha. He did not address why his nation’s air defense system did not pick up the Israeli jets.

The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless. The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha.

— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) September 9, 2025

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, however, said Israeli jets went undetected by radar.

Israel used weapons that were not detected by Qatari air defence radar, says Qatari PM Al Thani: 

“US officials notified Qatar of Israeli attack 10 minutes after the attack began”

pic.twitter.com/X3m22vnOGs

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) September 9, 2025

The Iranian Press TV news outlet questioned why “with many air defense systems present”…the U.S. hadn’t “fired a single shot to defend Qatar against the Israeli invasion.” The U.S. military’s largest salvo of Patriot interceptors took place at Al Udeid back in June, defending against an Iranian missile barrage. You can read more about that here.

As we previously reported, the widely condemned strike targeted Hamas leadership but killed five lower-level Hamas negotiators instead. Now it appears some Israeli officials are trying to distance themselves from that attack.

“Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who has led Israel’s ceasefire negotiations for months, told U.S. officials that he was unaware of the specific strike plan when he met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff one day earlier, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous officials.

“David Barnea, the Mossad director who has played a key role in ceasefire talks, told US and Qatari mediators that he had no prior knowledge of the strikes and learned about them as they took place,” the network added. “But two other Israeli sources familiar with the discussions told CNN that Barnea was aware of the plans and had questioned the wisdom of carrying out the strikes at the same time as the U.S. was launching a new attempt to restart negotiations.

As the cable network noted, it is “highly unlikely that either official would have been unaware of the planning and decision-making to carry out such a high-profile strike.”

In an exclusive interview with CNN on Wednesday, Al Thani expressed outrage at the attack, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice,” and that Arab nations were working on what steps to take next.

“There is a response that will happen from the region,” he told the network. “This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” Al Thani said. An Arab-Islamic summit will be held in Doha in the coming days, where the participants will decide on a course of action.”

Qatar’s PM to CNN:

There will be a “collective response” to Israel’s strike on Hamas officials in Doha.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 10, 2025

Al Thani added that Netanyahu is “trying to undermine any chance of stability, any chance of peace” by attacking Hamas’ leadership in Doha. All this leaves the future of negotiations between Israel and Hamas in doubt. Israel is planning a full-scale ground assault on the Palestinian enclave, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in constant bombardment. These attacks follow the surprise Hamas incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 and resulted in the capture of hundreds of hostages, some still in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a day after the Qatar strike, Israel said it carried out airstrikes on targets in Yemen belonging to the Houthi rebels.

“A short while ago, the IAF struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen,” the IDF said on Telegram. “Among the targets struck are military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Houthis’ Military Public Relations Headquarters, and a fuel storage facility that was used by the terrorist regime for terrorist activity.”

⭕️The IDF struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen.

Among the targets struck:
• Military camps in which the Houthi regime gathered intelligence, and planned & executed terrorist attacks against Israel.
• A…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 10, 2025

The IDF claimed that the airstrikes were “conducted in response to attacks by the Houthi terrorist regime against the State of Israel, including launching UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Israel justified its attack by saying that the Houthis’ public relations department is “responsible for distributing and disseminating propaganda messages in the media, including speeches of Houthis leader Abd al-Malik and spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree’s statements. During the war, the headquarters led the propaganda efforts and the terrorist regime’s psychological terror.”

The military camps that were struck “served the Houthi regime to plan and execute terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF claimed. “Additionally, the military camps included operation and intelligence rooms.”

The Houthis claim without proof that they deflected most of the attack.

“Our air defenses were able to launch a number of surface-to-air missiles during the confrontation of the Zionist aggression on our country, forcing some combat formations to retreat before carrying out their aggression, and thwarting the majority of the attack, thanks to God,” Saree, a target of the airstrike, stated on X. You can read more about the Houthis’ air defenses in our deep dive here.

دفاعاتُنا الجوية تتصدى في هذه الأثناء للطائرات الإسرائيلية التي تشن عدوانا على بلدِنا.

— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21yemen) September 10, 2025

Video and images emerged on social media showing explosions in the Yemeni capital, followed by flames and trails of smoke.

⚡ Israel bombs houthis

An airstrike was carried out on the Houthi government complex in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a. Media reports indicate hits on the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff buildings.

“Israel’s long arm will reach and strike terrorism anywhere it… pic.twitter.com/v9cHMFClDl

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) September 10, 2025

🇮🇱🇾🇪 WATCH: Multiple Israeli Airstrikes against Houthis in Sana’a

Footage captures the moment an Israeli strike targeted the area near the Presidential Palace in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, controlled by the Houthis.

The strikes reportedly target military and government buildings… pic.twitter.com/wC0y3gLLRo

— Conflict Dispatch (@ConflictDISP) September 10, 2025

This is the latest in a series of attacks Israel has carried out against the Houthis in response to the Iranian-backed rebel group’s firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and on Sunday, sent a drone that breached Israel’s vaunted multilayered air defenses and slammed into the country’s southern airport. You can see a video of that incident below.

The mystery as to how Israel pulled off its strike in Qatar remains unsolved at this time, but hopefully we will learn more in the coming days about what was truly an unprecedented and highly controversial operation.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Aug. 24 (UPI) — North Korea has test-fired two missiles newly designed to protect against aerial attacks, overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, state media announced Sunday.

The supreme leader oversaw the missile tests along with multiple members of the Workers’ Party of Korea and military officials, the Korea Central News Agency reported. The outlet said the missiles have “superior combat capability” and a “fast response” to attacks from aerial targets such as drones and cruise missiles.

The testing came less than a week after Ulchi Freedom Shield 25, joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, ABC News reported. The annual training exercises began Monday and were expected to end Thursday.

The training was expected to include live-fly events with U.S. F-35A and F-35C Lightning II aircraft as well as space-related elements, the Defense Department said. The Pentagon said the exercises work to strengthen the agencies’ response capabilities.

“Ulchi Freedom Shield 25 underscores the continuing military partnership between the U.S. and South Korea and is implemented in the spirit of the Oct. 1, 1953, mutual defense treaty,” the Defense Department said in a post Thursday.

“It continues to reinforce the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security, reaffirming the ironclad commitment between the U.S. and South Korea to defend their homelands.”

Hours before North Korea’s missile test, U.N. Command confirmed the South Korean government fired warning shots at about 30 North Korean soldiers who crossed the Demilitarized Zone.

South Korean “forces issued several warning broadcasts in an attempt to notify the soldiers that they had crossed the [Military Demarcation Line], but they did not respond to the broadcasts,” a spokesperson for the U.N. Command’s Military Armistice Commission said in an email to Yonhap News Agency.

South Korean “forces then fired warning shots in a designated warning shot area to compel the [North Korean] soldiers to return to the north side” of the demarcation line.

Yonhap said the North Korean military has been working to fortify the border with South Korea since April 2024, adding barbed wire fences and anti-tank barriers near the Demilitarized Zone.

In India, tens of thousands of Muslims and people from marginalised groups have seen their homes and businesses demolished by authorities in what the country’s Supreme Court has called “unconstitutional” and “lawless” attacks.

Representatives of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, say the demolitions are in response to illegal encroachment.

But critics say the demolitions target Muslims and other minorities, a claim the BJP denies.

101 East investigates if India’s bulldozers are delivering justice – or demolishing it.

After Israel’s attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City, Palestinians say press vests now feel like a target.

Palestinian journalists have long known Gaza to be the most dangerous place on earth for media workers, but Israel’s latest attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City has left many reeling from shock and fear.

Four Al Jazeera staff were among seven people killed in an Israeli drone strike outside al-Shifa Hospital on August 10. The Israeli military has admitted to deliberately targeting the tent after making unsubstantiated accusations that one of those killed, Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, was a member of Hamas.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 238 media workers since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. This toll is higher than that of World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, the war in Afghanistan and the Yugoslavia wars combined.

Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud said, “Press vests and helmets, once considered a shield, now feel like a target.”

“The fear is constant — and justified,” Mahmoud said. “Every assignment is accompanied by the same unspoken question: Will [I] make it back alive?”

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has been among several organisations denouncing Israel’s longstanding pattern of accusing journalists of being “terrorists” without credible proof.

“It is no coincidence that the smears against al-Sharif — who has reported night and day for Al Jazeera since the start of the war — surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war, most recently the starvation brought about by Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into the territory,” CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah said in the aftermath of Israel’s attack.

In light of Israel’s systematic targeting of journalists, media workers in Gaza are forced to make difficult choices.

“As a mother and a journalist, I go through this mental dissonance almost daily, whether to go to work or stay with my daughters and being afraid of the random shelling of the Israeli occupation army,” Palestinian journalist Sally Thabet told Al Jazeera.

Across the street from the ruins of the School of Media Studies at al-Quds Open University in Gaza City, where he used to teach, Hussein Saad has been recovering from an injury he sustained while running to safety.

“The deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists has a strong effect on the disappearance of the Palestinian story and the disappearance of the media narrative,” he said. Saad argued the Strip was witnessing “the disappearance of the truth”.

While journalists report on mass killings, human suffering and starvation, they also cope with their own losses and deprivation. Photographer and correspondent Amer al-Sultan said hunger was a major challenge.

“I used to go to work, and when I didn’t find anything to eat, I would just drink water,” he said. “I did this for two days. I had to live for two or three days on water. This is one of the most difficult challenges we face amid this war against our people: starvation.”

Journalist and film director Hassan Abu Dan said reporters “live in conditions that are more difficult than the mind can imagine.”

“You live in a tent. You drink water that is not good for drinking. You eat unhealthy food … We are all, as journalists, confused. There is a part of our lives that has been ruined and gone far away,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said that despite the psychological trauma and the personal risks, Palestinian journalists continue to do their jobs, “driven by a belief that documenting the truth is not just a profession, but a duty to their people and history”.

Aug. 4 (UPI) — FBI officials in Philadelphia on Monday issued an advisory warning international college students about a scam that involves foreign impersonators. They advised potential victims to report it.

Officials at the Philadelphia office of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation say that college and university students studying abroad in the United States — particularly Chinese citizens — are at risk of an ongoing scheme that involves a foreign government impersonator.

“We are actively engaging with the public, academic institutions, and our law enforcement partners to identify and support those impacted by this scheme,” Wayne Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office, said in a statement.

According to FBI officials, since 2022 the Philadelphia office has seen an uptick in criminal activity with actors attempting to make a victim believe they are a Chinese police officer in order to defraud them.

A scammer will tell a victim they are under investigation for an alleged financial crime in China and will need to pay in order to to avoid arrest.

The typically four-phase scam will see a fraudster call from what appears to be a legitimate phone number associated with a mobile telephone service provider. They will inform a victim their private information had been “linked to either a subject or a victim of a financial fraud investigation,” officials say.

They added that a criminal actor will involve another person who acts as a provincial Chinese police officer and will seek to apply further pressure in attempts to get a potential victim to “return to China to face trial or threaten them with arrest.”

“Criminal actors direct victims to consent to 24/7 video and audio monitoring due to the alleged sensitivity of the investigation and/or to demonstrate the victims’ innocence,” the FBI’s Philadelphia field office stated Monday.

“Victims are instructed not to discuss the details of the case, not to conduct Internet searches, and to report all their daily activities,” it added.

The bureau gave a similar notice last year about China-based imposters seeking to extort money from victims.

Other scams in the past also have affected Chinese victims. In 2019, the Chinese mother of a Stanford University student expelled in the college admissions scandal said she was duped into paying over $6 million in the belief the money was for college-related costs.

Jacobs, the FBI’s Philadelphia field office chief, says the scams “inflict more than just financial harm.” He said many victims “endure lasting emotional and psychological distress.”

US protest group Code Pink is targeting key politicians they say are involved in Israel’s starvation campaign in Gaza. The group has previously targeted former President Joe Biden and Senator Lindsey Graham over their support for Israel’s war.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) is calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to explain why the Trump administration has repeatedly ordered cuts to HIV/AIDS programs both at home and abroad.

In a letter to Kennedy dated Thursday, Garcia asserted that the cabinet secretary has a history of peddling misinformation about the virus and disease, and that the planned cuts — which he called “alarming and unprecedented” — would cost lives.

“We are concerned that your motivations for disrupting HIV funding and delaying preventative services and research are grounded not in sound science, but in misinformation and disinformation you have spread previously about HIV and AIDS, including your repeated claim that HIV does not cause AIDS,” wrote Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

A Health and Human Services spokesperson said Kennedy remains committed to science-based public health, that critical HIV/AIDS programs will continue under his leadership, and that ongoing investments in such work demonstrate that commitment.

Both President Trump and Kennedy have previously defended the sweeping cuts to Health and Human Services programs and staff under Kennedy’s leadership. Agency spokespeople have said they would allow for a greater focus on Kennedy’s priorities of “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”

Kennedy has said the department under his watch “will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

Garcia’s letter — which he co-wrote with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the ranking Democrat on the Health Care and Financial Services subcommittee — requested that the health department produce a list of all HIV/AIDS-related funding it has cut and an explanation for how those funds were identified for elimination, as well as other documentation and communications around several of the largest cuts.

The letter is the latest attempt by Democrats, in coordination with health experts and LGBTQ+ organizations, to challenge what they see as an inexplicable yet coordinated effort by the Trump administration to dismantle public health initiatives aimed at controlling and ultimately ending one of the most devastating and deadly epidemics in human history.

It comes the same day that Senate Republicans agreed to a Trump administration request to claw back billions of dollars in funding for public media and foreign aid, but declined an earlier White House request to include in those cuts about $400 million in HIV/AIDS funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which is credited with saving millions of lives in some of the poorest nations around the world.

The House had previously voted for an earlier version of the measure that did cut the funding for PEPFAR, which was started by President George W. Bush in 2003. However, senators pushed for the restoration of the funding before agreeing to sign the broader rescission package.

The House must now approve the Senate version of the measure by Friday for it to take effect.

In an interview with The Times, Garcia said he has long viewed Kennedy as a dangerous “conspiracy theorist” who has “peddled in all sorts of lies” about HIV, vaccines and other medical science. Now that Kennedy is Health secretary, he said, the American people deserve to know whether national and international health decisions are being driven by his baseless personal beliefs.

“Folks need to understand what he’s trying to do, and I think that he has to be responsible and be held accountable for his actions,” Garcia said.

In their letter, Garcia and Krishnamoorthi noted that recent scientific advancements — including the creation of new preventative drugs — are making the eradication of HIV more attainable than ever. And yet Kennedy and the Trump administration are pushing the nation and the world in the opposite direction, they said.

“Since taking office, the Trump Administration has systematically attacked HIV-related funding and blocked critical HIV-related services and care for those who need it most,” Garcia and Krishnamoorthi wrote. “These disruptions would threaten Americans most at risk of contracting HIV, and many people living with HIV will get sicker or infect others without programs they rely on for treatment.”

The letter outlines a number of examples of such cuts, including:

• The elimination of the HIV prevention division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and termination or delay of billions of dollars in HIV prevention grants from that office.
• The termination of a $258-million program within the National Institutes of Health to find a vaccine to prevent new HIV infections.
• The termination of dozens of NIH grants for HIV research, particularly around preventing new infections among Black and Latino gay men who are disproportionately at risk of contracting the virus.
• The targeting of HIV prevention initiatives abroad, including PEPFAR.
• The U.S. drawing back from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Many in the medical and foreign aid community expressed grave concerns about Kennedy being appointed as Health secretary, in part because of his past remarks about HIV/AIDS. Kennedy told a reporter for New York Magazine as recently as June 2023 that there “are much better candidates than H.I.V. for what causes AIDS.”

In their letter, Garcia and Krishnamoorthi called out a specific theory shared by Kennedy that the recreational drug known as “poppers” may cause AIDS, rather than the HIV virus, writing, “We are deeply concerned that the Trump Administration’s HIV-related funding cuts are indiscriminate, rooted in a political agenda, and not at all in the interest of public health.”

Kennedy’s skepticism about the link between HIV and AIDS conflicts with well established science that has long been accepted by the medical establishment, and by the federal government. Studies around the world have proved the link, and found that HIV is the only common factor in AIDS cases.

In August 2023, about a week before Kennedy threw his support behind Trump, his presidential campaign addressed the controversy surrounding his “poppers” comment, stating that Kennedy did not believe poppers were “the sole cause” of AIDS, but contended they were “a significant factor in the disease progression” of early patients in the 1980s.

Garcia and Krishnamoorthi also noted a successful effort by local officials and advocates in Los Angeles County to get about $20 million in HIV/AIDS funding restored last month, after it and similar funding nationwide was frozen by the Trump administration.

The restoration of those funds followed another letter sent to Kennedy by Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) and other House members, who cited estimates from the Foundation for AIDS Research, known as amfAR, that the nationwide cuts could lead to 127,000 additional deaths from AIDS-related causes within five years.

Garcia and Krishnamoorthi cited the same statistics in their letter.

In his interview with The Times, Garcia, who is gay, also said the LGBTQ+ community “is rightly outraged” at Kennedy’s actions to date and deserves to know if Kennedy “is using his own conspiracy theories and his own warped view of what the facts are” to dismantle public health infrastructure around HIV and AIDS that they fought for decades to build.

July 12 (UPI) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traveled to North Korea on Friday to meet with his North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and others during a three-day visit.

He said Moscow respects North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear arms by using its own scientists amid recent military exercises involving the U.S., South Korean and Japanese forces, according to CNN.

The U.S. and its South Korean and Japanese allies conducted a joint aerial training operation on the Korean Peninsula on Friday.

Lavrov warned the United States and its regional allies against targeting North Korea and Russia, Newsweek reported on Saturday.

“No one is considering using force against North Korea despite the military buildup around the country by the United States, South Korea and Japan,” Lavrov said of the joint military exercise.

“We respect North Korea’s aspirations and understand the reasons why it is pursuing a nuclear development,” Lavrov said.

He said Moscow is aware that President Donald Trump recently expressed support for resuming talks with North Korea at the highest level.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov told Russian state media outlet TASS.

“Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support of all the objectives of the special military operation,” he said of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry earlier this week invitedLavrov to visit Pyongyang, which is preparing to deploy between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers for Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea last year deployed 11,000 soldiers to Russia to help repel a Ukrainian incursion in the Kursk region of Russia.

After Zahra Usman* quit a job she described as toxic in a law firm that overworked and underpaid her, affecting her mental health, she found herself searching for a job for over a year. She applied for every opportunity she was qualified for, and that was how she came across one that promised a role at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the United Nations in 2024. 

“My friend sent the flyer to me. It looked like a legit job application. The job had different roles, including legal assistants, and that was the role I applied for,” she says, recalling having no doubts at first, as she submitted her cover letter and curriculum vitae (CV)  to the provided email address. 

She did not receive an acknowledgement email and eventually forgot about it, as it was common not to hear back after applying for a job. However, in April 2024, they sent an email claiming they were recruiting again. Since she had already applied for the other role, they said they reached out because she met the requirements for the current position. 

“They asked me to confirm my interest, reply to the email before the deadline, and send in an updated CV,” she recalled. They even offered an estimated salary of $2,ooo and links to calculate the tax requirements. They also said that due to the high level of applications, they couldn’t reply to individual queries. 

After sending the CV, she didn’t hear back from them until May, when they informed her that she had gotten the job. They asked her to return the signed appointment letter, do a BSAFE assessment (a mandatory online security awareness training for all UN personnel), and submit the certificate. It took her almost the whole day to process the certificate, which required taking short courses and tests for each segment. The final test required answering 80 per cent of the questions correctly. Even though the process was stressful, Zahra still ensured she did it on time. 

They also requested a Quantifiable Emotional Intelligence, Racial and National Diversity, Inclusion, and Validation Certificate (QREDIV). Still, when she followed the link, she discovered a payment of $99, which was about ₦160,000 at the time. At first, she wanted to borrow the money from a friend, but she became suspicious. 

Employment scams were ranked as the second most serious type globally in 2023. Scammers exploit the economic crisis and high unemployment rates by promising lucrative opportunities with reputable companies. This includes fake job postings, phishing emails, and fraudulent job advertisements, many of which go unreported in the country. There is a lack of proper structures in place to trace and address these cases, and feelings of shame often prevent victims from speaking out. Additionally, some of these scams involve fake interviews designed to lure victims into situations where they could be kidnapped for ransom demands from their families.

“I entered the third-party website, and the whole thing made me suspicious. That was why I started to conduct proper research, to be sure, as it felt weird that the UN was expecting me to pay for any course. I searched for James Hall, who signed off all the emails on LinkedIn, but I couldn’t find him, and that was when I started to get more suspicious,” Zahra said. 

The 29-year-old trusted her gut and decided to dig even deeper. She searched on Google to find out if the UN requires payment for courses, which led her to the Naija forum, an online platform where Nigerians shared their experiences. The search also led her to a disclaimer by the UN that they don’t charge a fee at any stage of the application process.

“Everything seemed so genuine. I even tried to run the links on ChatGPT, which confirmed they were legitimate. If people feel stupid for falling for this, they should know that it is not their fault; everything initially seemed legit. I later discovered that the first test I did was a requirement for UN workers,” Zahra added. She is currently job-searching while working at a friend’s law firm. Her near-scam experience has made her more vigilant; she now double-checks every opportunity before applying.

A successful extortion 

In 2024, Fadila Mahmoud*’s cousin called to tell her about a job opportunity at Mentor Mothers, an initiative working towards preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, and she was ecstatic to apply.

The initiative was under the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), which has an office at the Kaduna Ministry of Health in the country’s northwestern region. The only catch was that the job ‘required’ a payment before processing. She and her sister didn’t hesitate to raise the money. 

“I called the man supposed to be in charge, and he assured me of a job opportunity. All I had to do was pay ₦150,000 in instalments, and the job was mine,” she recounted. However, the requirements didn’t end there; a percentage of their salary was expected every month. 

Before starting the job, she and her sister paid an initial fee of ₦75,000. They were then expected to pay the balance within the first three months. A monthly deduction of ₦15,000 from their salary was also required. This included ₦5,000 labelled as ‘miscellaneous’ fees, which was deposited into the team leader’s account, and ₦10,000 that went to a coworker’s account, allegedly the sister of the person who referred them for the job. This arrangement made it difficult to identify the actual beneficiaries of these payments.

HumAngle examined the bank statements and confirmed records of the transfers that were made within those months. 

Nigeria, which is said to have one of the highest misery indices globally, has seen an unemployment and inflation rate from 30.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 to 36.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. This situation is a serious concern, especially considering that the World Bank estimated in 2023 that 87 million Nigerians lived below the poverty line. Additionally, the removal of the fuel subsidy and the resultant cost of living crisis have further exacerbated this crisis.

“Since we needed the job, we agreed to the terms and got the job after a month of payment,” the 23-year-old explained. They signed a contract for the job, but it said nothing about the payment arrangements.

Her responsibility was to orient HIV-positive pregnant women and guide them to the hospital to obtain their medication during community outreach programmes. Each team is assigned to a specific hospital. “We attend antenatal days, sometimes twice a week,” she told HumAngle.

Things changed, however, when the company announced a salary increase from ₦75,000 to  ₦120,000. The man who offered them the job demanded that they increase the monthly payment to  ₦20,000, making a total of ₦25,000 monthly. HumAngle saw a record of the text that communicated this to her. 

“The work was supposed to be contract-based; they assured us that we would be retained for two and a half years and our contract would be renewed for another two and a half years.” 

Seven months later, however, Fadila said the head of the Kaduna Mentor Mothers branch called five of them to his office and explained that he had been contacted by the Abuja headquarters that the project they were hired for had been ‘put on hold’ for now. His explanation did not convince them. He also didn’t reference the monetary arrangement, suggesting he knew nothing about the unofficial contract. 

“We thought that what they said was not true, and they had other reasons for doing so. At first, we suspected they might want to sell the job slots to others,” she said. Fadila also claimed three of the five people whose contracts were ‘terminated’ had purchased their job slots. 

However, HumAngle found that the reason was unlikely. Mentor Mothers had to downsize as a result of funding cuts, according to a senior employee, who asked to be anonymous. HumAngle contacted the NEPWHAN Coordinator in Kaduna State, Bala Sama’ila, for his response to the allegations. We followed up for over three weeks but received no tangible response from him. When we reached out to inform him that we would go ahead with the story, he threatened a lawsuit, distancing himself from the allegations, without offering any explanation as promised.

He also asked HumAngle to share the identities of our sources with him, a request that goes against journalistic ethics and the principle of source confidentiality. “As far as I am concerned, I want to distance myself from all the allegations. Finally, I am not aware of the allegations,” he said in a snappy message sent to HumAngle. 

The system is complex

A conversation with a colleague also made Fadila realise that there could be more at play, as she learned that the job slots were ideally intended for HIV patients rather than healthy workers.

Mentor Mothers was initially designed as an empowerment programme for women living with HIV to provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to educate and emotionally support other mothers living with the virus.

HIV patients experience economic hardships due to medical expenses, loss of income, and an inability to work. A study conducted in Oyo State, South West Nigeria, reveals that female HIV patients are more likely to lose employment opportunities, with a ratio of 24.3 per cent of women affected compared to 9.5 per cent of men. Assigning jobs intended for HIV patients to healthy individuals further exacerbates this disparity.

“Normally, they would tell you not to speak about the monetary arrangement to others to keep it ‘under wraps’ and one of the coworkers even claimed to my sister that the money she was paying them was higher than what we were paying,” Fadila explained. 

She felt betrayed and deceived over her job loss. However, she is not the only one being scammed by a seemingly legitimate job.

Habiba Shehu* also faced a similar experience with Mentor Mothers. She paid for a slot, but it did not lead to a job offer. It took several months before she received her money back. At 28 years old, she was waiting for her National Youth Service posting in 2024 when she received a job offer.

“My cousin called me about a job opportunity that her in-laws had sent her. However, they mentioned that I needed to pay ₦75,000 for it. I borrowed the money from others and managed to gather it on time,” Habiba told HumAngle. 

The man assured her about the job, providing the requirements he had previously given to Fadila and her sister. They sent her an appointment letter shortly afterwards, with the man claiming that Habiba had taken someone else’s slot because of the high demand. However, after three months, he called her to say that while others had gotten the job, she was unfortunately no longer on the list.

“I asked for a refund of my money. He asked for a one-week extension and then two more weeks. But when he did send in the money, he sent only half of it and asked for more time,” she said.

After he began to evade them, they resorted to calling and threatening him. He became scared when they threatened to take him to court and refunded the full amount. Currently, Habiba is completing her NYSC, and she hopes the labour market will be much kinder by the time she finishes.

Eunice Thompson, a corporate lawyer and expert in HR and compliance, sheds light on the legal implications of these schemes. 

“The Advanced Fee Fraud Act states that everyone who collects money for something they can’t deliver can be jailed for up to seven years,” Eunice noted that people can sue the individuals and organisations responsible for this scam. The ICPC Act for public service jobs also counts asking someone to pay for a job slot as an act of corruption, which can lead to prosecution. But this also means that the people paying for the jobs are also taking part in the illegal system.” 

The lawyer adds that people who have been scammed can get justice by gathering evidence and acting swiftly. She encourages people to collect documentation of every conversation they have with the person, including screenshots and other forms of documenting interactions.

“There are Ministries of Labour and employment offices in many states where these issues can be reported. If money has been collected, it becomes a criminal case, which can involve the police and the EFCC.  In case you need legal aid in terms of resources, the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria or National Human Rights Commission or other nonprofit organisations can help,” she explained. 

Hope beyond the shores  

Haruna Shuaibu*, who has done jobs throughout his adult life, is another victim of the exploitative system. 

After graduating from secondary school in Zamfara, things stagnated for him. He didn’t have the means to continue his education and was desperate for better opportunities. His desperation made him move to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, hoping to get a better chance at life. However, things didn’t go as planned, and he had to work other menial jobs to survive. 

His first business in this new city was borehole repair, and he also sold carrots on the side. Eventually, these jobs were not sustainable enough to keep him in town,  so he relocated to Kaduna State in 2012. With little to sustain himself, he started to hawk sugarcane in a wheelbarrow, but soon after, his brother-in-law employed him to work as a tiler under his business,  where they got contracts to fix tiles in people’s homes. 

“I worked with him for three years, but realised in 2015 that I could enter the tricycle business (locally known as Keke Napep). This has been the job that has sustained me for many years, during which I was able to start my own family,” Haruna said. 

For the past few years, Haruna has used 23 tricycles, most of which he rented from others. He pays the owner ₦3,000 from his daily proceeds in his current arrangement. He also manages the tricycle’s daily maintenance while the owner handles significant repairs. 

This job does come with its challenges. The tricycle is constantly at risk of being stolen, as it has happened to him before. However, this business has also introduced Haruna to what he believes could be a pathway to a better life.

A kind encounter with a passenger led to his employment as a driver for a family. This connection is what introduced him to the possibility of leaving the country. 

“I worked with them for a few years. Before I learned that her husband helps process job opportunities for people abroad, I had received another job offer,” he recalls. Haruna had never considered leaving for greener pastures. Still, after an incident rendered his tricycle unusable, preventing him from working for almost four months in 2023, he had to explore other possibilities.

“My friend encouraged me to consider leaving with him as he tried to get opportunities out of the country. Someone connected us with a woman who was said to have connections. We were made to process our international passports and undergo a health screening,” he recounts. 

However, the plan fell through due to financial constraints; the agents expected them to pay almost a million naira. They tried negotiating the terms,  hoping to pay when they reached there, but they disagreed.

The opportunity was said to be in Baghdad. The woman collected their passports for a while, claiming she would help them process the jobs to the best of her abilities. “When we discovered that it wasn’t going to work out because the woman herself was leaving the country, we simply collected our passports back, ” he says.

Along the way, Haruna received other opportunities to work in Libya but refused after hearing the horror stories about such trips. Human traffickers have been operating in Libya since 2014, facilitating the smuggling of undocumented migrants across the Mediterranean Sea and causing many to lose their lives. This situation frightened Haruna, making him wary of such opportunities. Shortly after, the woman he worked for learned about his attempts to travel. She then informed him that her husband had connections with individuals who handled these opportunities.

“They said that the problem was that you have to pay first,  due to previous bad experiences,  where people switched jobs and secretly left the company they were assigned to,  without paying their debts to the people who processed the opportunities. This had forced them to start a strict payment before service policy,” he tells HumAngle.

The husband in question later contacted him in 2024 and said they had an opening for a bike delivery man in a factory in Qatar. They thought he would be a perfect match for the job since it was similar to the one he was already doing. But he still wasn’t financially able to pay for it. 

Haruna has been saving up for the next opportunity. He recently started the procedure for a potential job in Saudi Arabia, but he is invited to an interview in Lagos State before everything is set. This opportunity required a ₦500,000 processing fee, which he managed to save up. 

The term “Japa,” which comes from the Yoruba language and means “to flee,” is commonly used to describe the mass outmigration of Nigerians seeking better opportunities abroad. Research indicates that various socio-cultural, political, and religious factors, such as high unemployment rates, insecurity, and poverty, fuel the Japa phenomenon. This trend has resulted in a significant loss of talented individuals. For example, Nigeria’s medical system has experienced a substantial drain of doctors, leading to a troubling doctor-to-patient ratio of approximately one doctor for every 30,000 patients in certain regions.

“I am not sure which kind of job it is, but I know it involves working in a factory,” Haruna says. There weren’t a lot of details given to him about the job in question; the agents claimed that he would get more information when he went for the interview and medical screening in Lagos. The person he is communicating with informs him in Hausa that his potential job is at a ‘waya’ factory, which could translate to either a phone factory or a factory dealing with cables and wires, leaving him unsure of what the job description entails.

The job opportunity is said to last two years. “In those two years, you are expected to pay the company a certain agreed-upon amount from your salary. When the time expires, you can choose whether you want to leave or stay,” he explains. The details of the payment plan have not yet been communicated to him. 

The company informed them that their potential monthly salary may be up to ₦800,000. There are many risks to irregular migration such as kidnaping and theft, exploitation and abuse, physical abuse, rape, torture, deportation from the countries, and enslavement.  

HumAngle found that most of the supposed opportunities are for drivers or delivery men, who usually go to men, with occasional opportunities more suitable for women. The agents, who mostly work as middlemen, require a down payment before travelling, with a few exceptions. 

Bashir Abba*, an agent between job seekers and companies, claimed, “There are many challenges. Sometimes, we get opportunities for people who refuse to pay back after getting the job. Other times, people ask for favours, and when we get them opportunities, they disappear and leave us to bear the cost.” This, among other reasons, is why he is reconsidering leaving that career path.

For Haruna, the reasons for leaving are massive.  “I have many reasons for wanting to leave. I wouldn’t even go anywhere if I got tangible start-up money for my business. I would rather stay here and start a business instead. I am pretty sure there would be something I can do.” 

Haruna expects to travel before the year ends, hoping to make enough money there. However, he is still sceptical, mainly due to the unclear details. He hopes that if he does travel, he will get a chance to change his financial status in Nigeria when he returns. 

A BBC documentary released in April highlighted how scammers steal thousands from unsuspecting people under the guise of job opportunities and fail to deliver on those opportunities. Kelvin Alaneme, a popular Nigerian medical practitioner, who claimed to have helped 5,000 migrants relocate to the UK, was at the centre of this scheme. One of his victims claimed to have paid him £14,000 (₦29 million), after which the job didn’t materialise.   

Payment made, refund denied

The extortionate job slot system thrives because many young Nigerians are desperate, as in the case of Ahmad Hassan*, who expected to get a job immediately after graduating from Ahmadu Bello University in 2015, especially with his skill set. However, 10 years later, like many other young Nigerians, he struggles to find footing. 

Ahmad found himself constantly filling out job applications and delivering his CV to many who promised to help, but his hopes were crushed continuously as none of these opportunities materialised. “I had to find other ways to survive, so I ventured into selling clothing and jewellery. But that business soon went under as people always took things on credit,” he laments. The situation made it difficult for the 34-year-old architect to sustain his business. With few other opportunities in the saturated architectural field, Ahmad believed that buying a job slot or opportunity was his best alternative. 

In 2022,  his friend connected him to someone who was said to have a connection to the government and was offering a Central Bank job. Before that, Ahmad had tried to buy a Prisons Service job slot for ₦200,000 in 2021. He didn’t get the job, nor did he get his money back. He said the CBN opportunity came from a more ‘trustworthy’ source, and the total amount to be paid was ₦3.5 million with an initial deposit of ₦1.5 million, after which a balance of ₦2 million would be paid upon documentation.

“I did my due diligence by making inquiries about the process, people involved, duration of time it takes for the appointment to be ready and any other thing I was aware of.  After I was satisfied with my inquiry and the assurance I got from those involved in finding a government civil service job, I made the payment.”

The initial contract also specified that payments would be refunded three months after they were made if the job did not succeed. However, Ahmad’s hopes were once again dashed when the opportunity he struggled to get money for didn’t manifest. He was left to keep asking for his money back, but the people kept requesting time extensions to source the funds. 

Recruitment fraud in Nigeria has evolved into a multi-million naira industry with thousands falling victim to the schemes, leading to financial losses and mental distress. Earlier this year, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested a scammer who posed as a staff member at a house and defrauded job seekers of an estimated ₦22 million. Besides fake job advertisements, these scammers request an upfront payment or pose as agents from reputable organisations. 

Eunice, the lawyer, explained that selling jobs is illegal especially government jobs which violates the Civil Service Rules, ICPC Act, as well as the Nigerian Constitution, and people who are caught can either be jailed, released from service or forced to pay money back- and as for private sectors, this also violates the Labor Act, the Advance Fee Fraud Act, and the Anti-money Laundering Act. She believes that the lack of access to information on the dangers of buying jobs, as well as the desperation that pushes many job seekers to make that decision, further perpetuates the circle.  

“I got ₦700,000 back in 2023,  and only got the rest back last year in two instalments, ₦500,000 and then later on ₦300,000 was returned to me. I was even among the lucky ones to get their money back, as some people got nothing in return,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad felt he had few options despite the challenges and risks, as other businesses he ventured into eventually failed for one reason or another. Sometimes, he gets the occasional architectural gigs that bring in some cash. Then, a friend informed him that there was an opening for a job with the National Drug Law Enforcement (NDLEA),  with an initial deposit of ₦100,000 required. However, even paying the money on time did not guarantee getting the job; he still struggles to get his money back. 

“They only refunded me ₦50,000 in 2023, and I still haven’t gotten the rest back. When you don’t have options, you have to crawl your way up, and I know people who got jobs in the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  through this process,” he added.

Another challenge he encounters is age limitations, which are a barrier to opportunities for which he is qualified. In 2023, Nigerian senator Patrick Abba Moro called for the dismissal of age limits, which serve as a discriminatory factor in the employment system. This limit has led to desperate Nigerians falsifying birth dates to meet this criterion. Chapter 4, Section 4 (2) of the Nigerian Constitution states that all citizens have the right to be free from Discrimination. 

Ahmad has not given up on finding new business ventures or applying for job opportunities. He is not unwilling to try finding a job through this process, especially since he has seen it materialise for others, and other alternatives don’t seem to be working. 

Like Ahmad, who almost tore his pocket to pay for non-existent job slots,                                                    Linda Joseph can never forget the man who taught her mother for a few years in secondary school. Now, his identity has become the man who defrauded her family with a fake job offer at the Ikeja Airport, Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria. His history with her mother was likely why her parents trusted him and didn’t scrutinise his offer deeply.

Lagos is known as Nigeria’s commercial capital. Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle