Today

The 156-day trial, the most high-profile use of Beijing’s draconian national security law, is set to come to a close.

Hong Kong’s High Court is set to hand down a verdict in the case of pro-democracy campaigner and media mogul Jimmy Lai next week, bringing an end to his lengthy national security trial.

Lai’s verdict will be delivered by a three-judge panel in a hearing that begins at 10am local time (02:00 GMT) on Monday, according to a court diary notice seen on Friday.

Founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, Lai, 78, is charged with foreign collusion under Hong Kong’s national security law, which Beijing imposed following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

He previously pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces, as well as a third count of sedition under a colonial-era law.

Authorities accuse Lai, who has been detained since December 2020, of using the Apple Daily to conspire with six former executives and others to produce seditious publications between April 2019 and June 2021.

He is accused of using his publication to conspire with paralegal Chan Tsz-wah, activist Andy Li, and others to invite foreign countries – including the United States, Britain and Japan – to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile measures against Hong Kong and China.

Prosecutors also accuse Lai of stoking hatred against authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong through writing and publishing more than 150 critical op-eds in the outlet.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Lai has been held in solitary confinement for more than 1,800 days, with his family saying they fear for his wellbeing and his health is deteriorating as he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, as well as heart palpitations that require medication.

In August, the court postponed closing arguments in his 156-day trial – which began in December 2023 – citing a “medical issue” involving the 78-year-old’s heart.

Authorities say Lai has received proper treatment and medical care during his detention.

Trump to do ‘everything I can to save him’

Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 after more than 150 years under British colonial rule.

As part of the “one country, two systems” approach, Hong Kong officially operates a separate judicial system based on Common Law traditions, meaning Lai has greater legal protections than he would in mainland China.

But Hong Kong has experienced significant democratic backsliding in recent years, which accelerated following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019-20, which resulted in a harsh crackdown on dissent in the territory by Beijing.

In 2020, Chinese authorities introduced a draconian national security law to crush the protest movement, establishing secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign organisations as crimes carrying hefty punishments.

Lai’s trial represents the most high-profile use of that law, with critics condemning his trial as politically motivated.

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments insist Lai is being given a fair trial and have said the legal process must be allowed to reach its conclusion.

But his case has drawn international scrutiny, including from US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly promised to “save” Lai. In August, Trump promised to do “everything I can to save him”.

“His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do,” Trump told Fox News Radio.

Trump also reportedly raised Lai’s case during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping when the pair met in South Korea in October.

The Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them, as Washington steps up pressure on Caracas.

Two of the sanctioned nephews were previously convicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges before being released as part of a prisoner exchange.

The US is also targeting Venezuela’s oil sector by sanctioning a Panamanian businessman, Ramon Carretero Napolitano, whom it says facilitates the shipment of petroleum products on behalf of the Venezuelan government, along with several shipping companies.

The US Treasury Department said on Thursday that the measures include sanctions on six crude oil tankers it said have “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.

Four of the tankers, including the 2002-built H Constance and the 2003-built Lattafa, are Panama-flagged, with the other two flagged by the Cook Islands and Hong Kong.

The vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela, according to internal shipping documents from state oil company PDVSA.

‘An act of piracy’

In comments on Thursday night, Trump also repeated his threat to soon begin strikes on suspected narcotics shipments making their way via land from Venezuela to the US.

His remarks followed the US seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US would take the tanker to a US port.

“The vessel will go to a US port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” Leavitt said during a news briefing. “However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”

Maduro condemned the seizure, calling it “an act of piracy against a merchant, commercial, civil and private vessel,” adding that “the ship was private, civilian and was carrying 1.9 million barrels of oil that they bought from Venezuela”.

He said the incident had “unmasked” Washington, arguing that the true motive behind the action was the seizure of Venezuelan oil.

“It is the oil they want to steal, and Venezuela will protect its oil,” Maduro added.

Maduro’s condemnation came as US officials emphasised that the latest sanctions also targeted figures close to the Venezuelan leader.

Maduro’s relatives targeted

Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, were also sanctioned. The two became known as the “narco nephews” after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 during a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting.

They were convicted in 2016 on charges of attempting to carry out a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal and sentenced to 18 years in prison, before being released in a 2022 prisoner swap with Venezuela.

A third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, was also targeted. US authorities allege he was involved in a corruption scheme at the state oil company.

Maduro and his government have denied links to criminal activity, saying the US is seeking regime change to gain control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Beyond the individuals targeted, the US is also preparing to intercept additional ships transporting Venezuelan oil, the Reuters news agency reported, citing sources.

Asked whether the Trump administration planned further ship seizures, White House spokesperson Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future actions but said the US would continue executing the president’s sanctions policies.

“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said on Thursday.

Wednesday’s seizure was the first of a Venezuelan oil cargo amid US sanctions that have been in force since 2019. The move sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.

In the large displacement camps of Gaza, rows upon rows of makeshift tents blanket debris, empty lots and what remains of flattened neighbourhoods. With Storm Byron descending upon the enclave, a sense of terror has seized a population already exhausted from two years of Israel’s genocidal war with its unrelenting bombardment, starvation and chaos.

For the 1.5 million Palestinians living under plastic sheets and tattered tarps, the storm means something more than just bad weather. It’s another danger piled on top of the current battle for survival.

For several days, meteorologists have warned that heavy rainfall and strong winds could hit the strip today, tomorrow and over the weekend, risking flash flooding and significant wind damage. What is certain, though, is that Gaza is not facing this storm with ready infrastructure, stocked shelters or functioning drainage systems.

It faces it with tents propped up with pieces of scrap metal, paths that become mud rivers after only one night of rain and families who have nothing left to protect.

Solidarity a survival strategy

In the camps of Gaza City, the scenes of vulnerability are everywhere. Most tents are constructed from aid tarpaulins, pieces of plastic salvaged from rubble and blankets tied to recycled wooden poles. Many sag visibly in the middle; others are erected inadequately, so much so that they quiver and flap violently under the slightest breeze.

“When the wind starts, we all hold the poles to keep the tent from falling,” said Hani Ziara, a father sheltering in western Gaza City after his home was destroyed months ago.

His tent was flooded last night in the heavy rain, and his children had to stay outside in the cold. Hani wonders painfully what else he can do to protect his children from the rain and strong winds.

In many camps, the ground was already soft from previous rainfall. Wet sand and mud stick to shoes, blankets and cooking pots as people shuffle through. Trenches dug by volunteers to divert water often collapse within hours. With nowhere else to go, families who live in low-lying areas are preparing for the worst: that floodwaters will be pushed directly into their tents.

Stocking up on food, storing clean water and securing shelter are the most basic steps when people prepare for a storm, but that is considered a luxury for the displaced of Gaza.

Most families receive scant water deliveries, going sometimes days without enough to cook or wash. Food supplies are equally strained, and while irregular aid distributions provide basics like rice or canned beans, the quantities seldom last more than a few days. Preparing for a storm by cooking ahead, gathering dry goods or storing fuel is simply not possible.

“We could not sleep last night. Our tent was flooded with rainwater. Everything we had was flushed out by water. We want to prepare, but how?” asked Mervit, a mother of five children displaced near the Gaza port. She added, “We barely have enough food for tonight. We can’t save what we don’t have.”

Despite poverty, solidarity has become Gaza’s strongest survival strategy. Neighbours, with whatever they have, help secure the tents. Young men go through the rubble and scavenge for metal and wood remains to serve as temporary posts. The women organise collective cooking so that hot meals can be distributed to families in need, particularly those with young children or elderly family members, whenever possible.

These unofficial networks become more active the closer a storm gets. Volunteers trudge from tent to tent, helping families raise sleeping areas off the ground, patch holes in canopies with plastic sheets, and dig drainage channels. Crowds try to move those who are in precarious, extremely exposed areas to other locations, sharing information about safer places.

‘We are exhausted’

Beyond physical danger, the psychological impact is deep. After months of displacement, loss and deprivation, another crisis – this time, not war, but forces of nature – feels overwhelming.

“Our tents were destroyed. We are exhausted,” said Wissam Naser. “We have no strength left. Every day there is a new fear: hunger, cold, disease, now the storm.”

Many residents describe the feeling of being sandwiched between the sky and the ground, exposed on both ends and unable to protect their families from either.

As clouds mass along Gaza’s shore, families prepare to take a hit. Some weigh down tent walls against the wind with rocks and sandbags. Others push children’s blankets to the driest corner, hoping a roof will last. Most don’t have a plan. They just wait.

The storm will not be another single-night affair for the displaced in Gaza. It would be a further reminder of how fragile life has become, how survival depends not on preparedness but rather on endurance.

They wait because they have no alternative. They prepare with what little they have. They pray that this time, the winds will be merciful.

A British backpacker who struck and killed a man while riding an e-scooter drunk has been jailed for four years in Australia.

Alicia Kemp, 25 – from Redditch, Worcestershire – was driving at speeds of 20 to 25km/h (12 to 15mph) when she hit 51-year-old Thanh Phan from behind on a Perth sidewalk in May.

She had been drinking with a friend all afternoon, the court heard, and had an alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.

Phan, a father-of-two, hit his head on the pavement and died in hospital from a brain bleed two days later.

A friend of Kemp, who was a passenger on the scooter, was also hurt in the crash – sustaining a fractured skull and broken nose – but her injuries were not life-threatening.

Kemp, who was in Australia on a working holiday visa, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in the Perth Magistrates Court in August.

Her sentence will be backdated to 1 June, and she’ll be eligible for parole after serving two years of her sentence. Her driver’s licence was also disqualified for two years.

The Pentagon is continuing to rapidly add military capabilities to Operation Southern Spear, a mission that began as a counter-narcotics effort but is increasingly aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Images emerged online today of Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) aircraft having arrived in Puerto Rico. In addition, KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers are now flying missions out of the Dominican Republic. We also found that KC-46 Pegasus tankers have been flying sorties out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months, with a major ramp-up in activity in recent weeks. This is all on top of yesterday’s arrival of EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets in Puerto Rico and the news we broke today that USAF F-35As are being sent to the Caribbean, as well.

Clearly, the Pentagon is moving into a posture in the region that is much better equipped for tactical air combat operations over hostile territory than it was just days ago.

Despite all this movement, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon that U.S. President Donald Trump does not want to see a protracted conflict in Venezuela.

“A prolonged war is something the president is not interested in,” she said, adding that Trump wants to “see the end of illegal drugs trafficked into the United States.”

On Thursday, Reuters published photos showing HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) planes and HH-60W Jolly Green Giant II CSAR helicopters on the ramp at Roosevelt Roads, the former U.S. Navy facility in Puerto Rico. These aircraft are stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, though the helicopters reportedly arrived from deployment to Kadena Air Base in Japan.

A Reuters image from today (11 Dec) shows 3x USAF HC-130Js from Moody AFB on the ramp at Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico.

Credit: Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters. pic.twitter.com/oAV7VEp9yn

— LatAmMilMovements (@LatAmMilMVMTs) December 11, 2025

The deployment of dedicated CSAR aircraft to the region is a sign that the Trump administration could be about to drastically increase its pressure on Maduro and go after the cartels inland with strikes. The aircraft are needed for rapid rescues of any aircrews that are lost during military operations, specifically over contested territory. While the Marine aviation force from USS Iwo Jima and its escorts are also capable of this mission, as are helicopters from the USS Gerald R. Ford, to varying degrees, the unique capabilities and the highly specialized crews the HC-130J and HH-60W bring to the table are prized. This is especially true now that USAF tactical airpower in the form of F-35As is about to arrive in-theater.

The Stratotankers arrived in the Dominican Republic sometime around Sunday or Monday, according to the @LatAmMilMovements X account, an open-source tracker who has been closely following these deployments. They are now taking up a good portion of an entire runway at the airport.

A Sentinel-2 pass from today (10 Dec) shows a total of six USAF KC-135s at Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas (SDQ/MDSD) in the Dominican Republic.

From here, the tankers will continue to support E-3G and RC-135 missions in the Caribbean.

Work w/ @MikeRomeoAv. pic.twitter.com/tzJ8PNhqdD

— LatAmMilMovements (@LatAmMilMVMTs) December 10, 2025

Forward deploying the tankers reduces the amount of time needed to fly to the region and thus increases time on station and sortie rates. The presence of these jets in the Dominican Republic also represents a widening of the mission’s footprint, a U.S. official told us. The bulk of U.S. land-based operations are run out of Puerto Rico, and Roosevelt Roads in particular.

Noted parked up at Santo Domingo Airport ( SDQ ) in the Dominican Republic today, 6 Boeing KC135 refueling aircraft of the United States Air Force pic.twitter.com/U4bnLhhFIQ

— Michael Kelly (@Michaelkelly707) December 11, 2025

“This is an expansion of Southern Spear,” the U.S. official said of the Stratotanker presence in the Dominican Republic. “This is about capabilities and location. In case of any service support needed, you want to have that in a strategic area. The Dominican Republic is not too close, not too far and they have the capabilities to support a number of aircraft.”

The Dominican Republic presence, however, was not the first tankers operating forward in the region. They have been operating out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months.

The KC-46s have been in the U.S. Virgin Islands since the middle of September, according to archived satellite imagery. This presence has grown steadily with now between five and six tankers being seen on the ramp there at any given time. The low-resolution satellite photo below was taken Dec. 9 and obtained by The War Zone via Planet Labs.

As the relatively sudden surge of assets to the Caribbean continues, the world waits to see what the Trump administration plans to do with all of it.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

For the first time since the termination of the Cold War, a major military crisis is heating up in the Caribbean. Since early September 2025, United States aerial combat drones have been patrolling and targeting the suspected smuggler boats in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea. These strikes were initially portrayed as kinetic measures to choke off the drug trade through the Caribbean Sea. According to US officials, by 04 December, 22 strikes have been conducted and 87 narco-terrorists have been killed. However, it’s worthy to note that the majority of cocaine production is centered in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico and enters into the United States through an inland or Pacific route—not through the Caribbean Sea. Out of 22 strikes, only 10 have been conducted in the Pacific waters.

Washington’s political ambitions eventually became evident in October once it forward deployed a naval flotilla at the strike range to Venezuela. Currently, eight US Navy vessels are operating in the Caribbean Sea. The USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, with its vast combat aviation wing comprising F-35C Lightning IIs, F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, and a variety of support fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, is currently stationed in the US Virgin Islands. Other forward-deployed naval vessels include the MV Ocean Trader command vessel and the USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship with over 4,000 marines. These ships are supported by two Ticonderoga-class cruisers, two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and the USS Newport News, a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine (SSN), each equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. The presence of this naval flotilla suggests that the USN has mustered enough capability to not only launch aerial and cruise missile strikes but also conduct amphibious operations at the Venezuelan coast. In parallel, Venezuelan airspace has been declared ‘closed’ by the Trump administration. Such assertive measures are not meant for anti-narcotic operations but perhaps for regime change either through coercive diplomacy or through direct military action. Whatever the case may be, it’s evident that for the first time in decades, the United States is apparently preparing for a direct military conflict in its own hemisphere.

Understanding how this crisis escalated requires looking back at the recent history of bilateral tensions. The fractures began to appear in US-Venezuela relations from 1999, when Hugo Chávez came to rule on a wave of anti-American populism and nationalized the country’s oil industry. Within three years, mutual relations collapsed so abruptly that first Washington imposed sanctions and then briefly removed Chávez from power through a CIA-backed coup. Chávez regained the rule in a matter of a few days. This move, however, further intensified anti-American sentiments in the Venezuelan public. Chávez made subversion of Washington a political identity; his successor Nicolás Maduro turned it into state doctrine. In 2019, Washington even declared Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader of Venezuela, as the country’s ‘legitimate president.’ Besides the open political signaling of the White House, the CIA also attempted another coup to topple the Maduro regime but again failed to achieve the requisite results.

Maduro successfully exploited continuous intervention by the United States to augment its political narrative at the public level and managed to earn a third consecutive term in 2025. However, the results of elections were regarded as dubious and were generally dismissed as fraudulent, further degrading relations with the West.

For Venezuela, oil has attracted more trouble than prosperity. The country has more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves—more than Saudi Arabia (267 billion barrels)—yet it produces less than 10 percent of its 1990s highest productivity rate. The Venezuelan crude oil is ultra-heavy (8-12° API) and has very high sulfur content. Such dense oil is not only very challenging to refine—both economically and technologically—but also very hard to transfer and cannot be pumped through pipelines without imported diluents. In a nutshell, despite possessing the largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela cannot refine and export its black gold without significant foreign assistance. The current oil infrastructure, developed during the Cold War, is gradually crumbling. Pipelines are either blocked or leaking, and refineries are now operating below 15 percent capacity. Approximately 58 billion USD worth of investment is required to repair and revive the current infrastructure. Being a struggling economy, Venezuela simply does not have the financial capacity to do so. Meanwhile, the majority of technical expertise has been eroded due to brain drain. For example, PDVSA once employed more than 40,000 engineers but now has a total strength of only 12,000 with a large portion of untrained manpower. Currently, while Gulf nations are earning huge revenue from oil exports, Venezuela stands isolated as an oil superpower that cannot even power itself.

The aforementioned factors have imparted grave consequences on the Venezuelan economy. Its national GDP has shrunk from about 300 billion USD to a mere 110 billion USD approximately. More than half of the population is living in poverty, and unemployment has crippled public development. Roughly 28 percent of the total population is in need of humanitarian assistance. These financial woes have compelled common Venezuelan citizens to seek refuge outside the country. Currently, nearly 8 million locals have left the country and are living as refugees in neighboring countries, including Columbia, Peru, Brazil, and even the United States.

To survive internal implosion, Caracas has sought external assistance from Washington’s strategic competitors, including Russia, China, and even Iran. Both Russia and Venezuela are signatories of the 10-year Strategic Partnership Treaty, which was ratified in Oct-Nov 2025 with the overarching objective of combating unilateral coercive measures. Russia has provided military assistance and technical support for the training of troops and maintenance of military equipment, which is predominantly of Soviet origin. China has repeatedly provided diplomatic support and financial loans to support Venezuela’s energy infrastructure. Both Russia and China have vetoed resolutions at the UN Security Council for imposing stringent sanctions against Venezuela. With Iran, Venezuela also shares a strong relation, which was formalized by a 20-year agreement in 2022. Their domains of cooperation include trade, repairing of energy infrastructure, modernization of the defense force, and technology sharing for refinement of crude oil. For the United States, these collaborations are meant to develop a foothold in Latin America by Russia, China, and Iran—something Washington considers intolerable.

When the Trump administration returned in 2025, within weeks, it scrapped Chevron’s license, eliminating Venezuela’s last stable revenue stream. The most significant escalation came on July 25, 2025, when the US Treasury designated Venezuela’s military leadership—the Cartel de los Soles—as a global terrorist organization. No foreign military in American history had ever received such a label. Simultaneously, the reward for the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro has been doubled to 50 million USD by the Trump administration on federal charges of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. And now, with a fully equipped US naval strike force sailing in the Caribbean Sea, the situation is getting increasingly volatile. The Venezuelan military simply does not possess the capability to defend against such a strike force.

If hostilities break out, then instead of placing boots on the ground, the United States is likely to conduct targeted strikes at key assets, impose and sustain a naval blockade, and eventually undermine the Venezuelan military’s and nation’s loyalty to Maduro through coercive diplomacy. The current crisis illustrates that although the Trump administration claims to have taken numerous initiatives to end conflicts and promote trade & collaboration in the Eastern Hemisphere, it will show little to no tolerance for the growing influence of Moscow and Beijing in the Western Hemisphere. Under the Monroe Doctrine, the United States seeks to sustain its control in the Western Hemisphere, including Latin America. For Trump, an example can be crafted out of Venezuela to demonstrate the potential consequences of deepening collaboration with Moscow and Beijing in Washington’s backyard.

The midwestern state of Indiana has dealt a setback to United States President Donald Trump’s redistricting push ahead of the pivotal 2026 midterm elections, voting down legislation to redraw its congressional map.

Late on Thursday afternoon, Indiana’s state Senate voted 31 to 19 to reject the proposed congressional districts, despite a strong Republican majority in the chamber.

Of the state Senate’s 50 seats, 39 are held by Republicans, and the state has voted consistently Republican in every presidential race since 1968, save for a single flip for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008.

The vote is likely to reinforce the sentiment that the Republican Party is fracturing under Trump’s leadership, as his poll numbers slump during the first year of his second term.

Trump was confronted with the results of the Indiana vote at an Oval Office signing ceremony shortly after it happened.

“Just a few moments ago, the Senate there rejected the congressional map to redistrict in that state,” one reporter said. “What’s your reaction?”

Trump responded by touting his successes in pushing other Republican-led states.

“ We won every other state. That’s the only state,” the president said, before referencing his three presidential bids. “It’s funny because I won Indiana all three times by a landslide, and I wasn’t working on it very hard.”

Trump then proceeded to denounce the Indiana Senate president, Rodric Bray, and threatened to support a primary challenge against the Indiana leader.

“He’ll probably lose his next primary, whenever that is. I hope he does,” Trump said.

“It’s, I think, in two years, but I’m sure he’ll go down. He’ll go down. I’ll certainly support anybody that wants to go against it.”

Fractures in the caucus

Currently, Indiana sends nine Congress members to the US House of Representatives, one for each of its nine districts. Two of those seats are currently occupied by Democrats.

Republican leaders in the state, however, had proposed a new map of congressional districts that sought to disempower Democratic voters in the state, clearing the way for conservative candidates to claim all nine seats in next year’s midterm races.

The proposed map was part of a nationwide effort by the Trump administration to defend Republican control in the US Congress.

Already, the partisan map had passed the lower chamber of Indiana’s legislature. On December 5, Indiana’s House of Representatives voted 57 to 41 to send the House Bill 1032 to the state Senate.

The bill had the backing of Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Braun, who encouraged the state senators to emulate their colleagues in the lower chamber.

But even before the bill arrived in the state Senate, there were cracks in the Republican caucus. Twelve Republicans in the state House broke ranks to vote against the map.

And certain Republican state Senators likewise expressed reticence.

Some Republicans, like Indiana state Senator Greg Walker, had a history of opposing redistricting efforts. He was quoted in the Indiana Capital Chronicle as saying, “I cannot, myself, support the bill for which there must be a legal injunction in order for it to be found constitutional.”

Partisan redistricting has long been a controversial practice in US politics, with opponents calling the practice undemocratic and discriminatory.

Critics also pointed out that the Indiana proposal would force some voters in urban centres like Indianapolis to commute more than 200 kilometres for in-person voting.

Walker joined a total of 21 Republican state Senators, including Bray, in voting against the redistricting bill on Thursday.

A nationwide campaign

But the Trump administration had invested significant time and effort into swaying the vote.

In October, Vice President JD Vance travelled to the Hoosier State to try to convince wary Republicans. US House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly made personal phone calls to state leaders. And a day before the critical state Senate vote, Trump took to social media with a mixture of cajoling and pressure.

“I love the State of Indiana, and have won it, including Primaries, six times, all by MASSIVE Majorities,” Trump began in a winding, 414-word post.

“Importantly, it now has a chance to make a difference in Washington, D.C., in regard to the number of House seats we have that are necessary to hold the Majority against the Radical Left Democrats. Every other State has done Redistricting, willingly, openly, and easily.”

Currently, the US House of Representatives holds a narrow 220-member Republican majority, out of a total of 435 seats.

All of those seats, however, will be up for grabs in the 2026 midterm elections, and Democrats are hoping to flip the chamber to their control.

Starting in June, reports began to emerge that Trump was petitioning the state legislature in the right-wing stronghold of Texas to redistrict, in an effort to help conservative candidates sweep up five extra congressional seats.

Texas Republicans complied, and in August, the state legislature embraced a new redistricted map, overcoming a walkout from state Democrats.

Republicans in other states, including Missouri and North Carolina, have followed suit, passing new maps that seek to increase right-wing gains in the midterm races.

But Democrats have fired back. In November, California voters passed a referendum to suspend their independent districting commission and adopt a Democrat-leaning map created by state lawmakers.

Indiana, however, appeared poised to buck the redistricting trend. In Wednesday’s lengthy post, Trump warned that the state could put Republican power “at risk” if it failed to pass a new map.

He also called Bray and other Republican splinter votes “SUCKERS” for the Democrats.

“Rod Bray and his friends won’t be in Politics for long, and I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again,” Trump wrote.

“One of my favorite States, Indiana, will be the only State in the Union to turn the Republican Party down!”

In the wake of Thursday’s defeat, Trump and his allies doubled down on their threats to remove the 21 Republican state senators who voted against the bill from office.

“I am very disappointed that a small group of misguided State Senators have partnered with Democrats to reject this opportunity,” Governor Braun wrote on social media, calling it a decision to “reject the leadership of President Trump”.

“Ultimately, decisions like this carry political consequences. I will be working with the President to challenge these people who do not represent the best interests of Hoosiers.”

Twenty states had challenged the end of the programme, meant to make localities more resilient to natural disasters.

A federal judge has said the administration of United States President Donald Trump acted unlawfully in ending a programme aimed at helping communities become more resilient to natural disasters.

The Trump administration had targeted the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) programme as part of a wider effort to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

But on Thursday, US District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that the administration lacked the authority to end the grant programme. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by 20 states, the majority led by Democrats.

Stearns said the administration’s action amounted to an “unlawful executive encroachment on the prerogative of Congress to appropriate funds for a specific and compelling purpose”.

“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote, adding that the “imminence of disasters is not deterred by bureaucratic obstruction”.

Stearns had previously blocked FEMA from diverting more than $4bn allocated to BRIC to other purposes.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell was among the plaintiffs praising the decision.

“Today’s court order will undoubtedly save lives by preventing the federal government from terminating funding that helps communities prepare for and mitigate the impacts of natural disasters,” she said in a statement.

BRIC is the largest resiliency programme offered by FEMA, designed to reduce disaster-related risks and bolster efforts to recover quickly.

The programme is emblematic of efforts under FEMA to take preventive measures to prepare for natural disasters, as climate change fuels more extreme weather across the country.

According to the lawsuit, FEMA approved about $4.5bn in grants for nearly 2,000 projects, primarily in coastal states, over the last four years.

Upon taking office for his second term, Trump initially pledged to do away with FEMA, with the agency sitting at the crossroads of the president’s climate change denialism and his pledge to end federal waste.

Trump has since softened on his position amid pushback from both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers. He has said he plans to reform the agency instead.

In November, acting FEMA head David Richardson stepped down from his post. That came amid internal pushback over Richardson’s lack of experience and cuts to the agency.

In a letter in August, nearly 200 FEMA staffers warned the cuts risked compounding future disasters to a devastating degree.

Upon taking on the role in May, Richardson threatened he would “run right over” anyone who resisted changes to the agency.

European leaders have sent new peace proposals for the war in Ukraine to US President Donald Trump.

Loss of territory to Russia and use of frozen Russian assets in Ukraine remain areas of disagreement.

But could the war be nearing an end?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Peter Zalmayev – Director of Eurasia Democracy Initiative

Chris Weafer – CEO of Macro-Advisory, a strategic consultancy focused on Russia and Eurasia

Steven Erlanger – Chief diplomatic correspondent for Europe at The New York Times

The first B-52 ever equipped with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar has arrived at Edwards Air Force Base for testing. This is a major and much-delayed milestone, one of many that will occur as the B-52H morphs into the significantly modernized B-52J. With the news of the ferry flight, which originated in San Antonia, where the installation of Raytheon’s AN/APQ-188 Bomber Modernized Radar System took place, we are also getting a good look at what the fighter-derived radar looks like installed in the B-52’s unique nose profile. To say it is a more modern-looking arrangement than the mechanically scanned AN/APQ-166 that came before it is an understatement.

“The ferry flight of this upgraded B-52 marks an important moment in our efforts to modernize the bomber force,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in a statement in an Air Force press release. “This radar modernization ensures that the B-52 will continue to serve as a cornerstone of American airpower well into the future. We are committed to extending the life of this vital platform, allowing it to operate alongside next-generation fighter and bomber aircraft.”

The BUFF’s new radar is based directly on the AN/APG-79 that has equipped most F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and all F/A-18G Growlers, as well as nearly 100 F/A-18A-D Hornets still serving with the USMC. The F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15EX Eagle II’s AN/APG-82 also builds upon AN/APG-79 technology. At this point, it’s one of the Pentagon’s most proven fighter AESA just based on time served and production numbers.

That isn’t to say that things have been smooth going in adapting the radar to the B-52’s needs. The program has gone over budget and busted schedules, which led the USAF to inquire about alternatives. The price tag also rose high enough to trigger a deep, legally mandated review of the program’s core requirements and cost estimates. Flight testing of the first B-52 with the new radar was originally expected to start in 2024.

Just getting the new radar to fit physically in the B-52’s nose is known to be one of the challenges the program has had to overcome.

“The Air Force continues to refine the system radome design to, address aircraft integration issues. Depending on final radome design, radar performance may be impacted,” the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test of Evaluation noted in its most recent annual report, which was released earlier this year. “The program office should fully characterize performance with the final radome design to inform operational employment tactics.”

From the pictures that have been released now, the external shaping of the B-52’s nose looks to be largely unchanged following the installation of the AN/APQ-188. There is a relatively narrow off-color seam visible between the nose and the cockpit.

It’s worth noting that the AN/APG-79 variant installed in the BUFF is angled downward. This would reflect its unique placement in the B-52, basically in the lower deck of a massive radome enclosure. Its ability to look up is hampered by the bulkhead above it, something we will come back to later on.

The new radar installation on the B-52 also comes along with “two Display and System Sensor Processors as its mission computers to integrate the radar with B-52 systems, along with two large 8×20-inch high-definition touchscreens at the Nav and Radar Nav stations for radar imagery, control and legacy displays, and two fighter-like hand controllers for radar operation,” according to a press release from Boeing. “The system features upgraded cooling, providing liquid cooling for the radar and engine bleed-air heating for very cold conditions.”

Regardless of the issues the radar upgrade program has faced, the USAF appears to be sticking with the AN/APG-79-derived AN/APQ-188. A new AESA radar is really a must-have in order to keep the B-52 relevant for decades to come.

Simply put, giving the B-52 a modern multimode AESA provides a massive capability boost. As we have discussed in the past:

“In general, AESA radars offer greater range, fidelity, and resistance to countermeasures, as well as the ability to provide better overall general situational awareness, compared to mechanically scanned types. Increasingly advanced AESAs bring additional capabilities, including electronic warfare and communications support.

For the B-52, any new multi-mode AESA will improve the bomber’s target acquisition and identification capabilities, including when used together with targeting pods available for the bombers now. New radars for the bombers will also be helpful when it comes to guiding networked weapons over long distances to their targets and could provide a secondary ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and synthetic aperture radar surveillance capabilities. The radar upgrade could help defend B-52s from air-to-air threats, including through improved detection of incoming hostile aircraft.“

Beyond their tactical advantages, AESAs are generally more reliable, particularly due to their lack of moving parts. Without the need to move a radar dish rapidly in multiple directions, while the jet is under various g-loads and is rocked by turbulence and hard landings, the actual time the radar is available for use goes up. The aforementioned secondary electronic warfare capability also can’t be understated. The new radar will surely become a key and very powerful component of the B-52’s upgraded electronic warfare suite, which will be critical to its ability to survive in future fights.

As mentioned, the positioning of the AN/APQ-188 in the BUFF’s nose impacts its ability to look up. At the same time, this is also aligned more with air-to-surface tasks considering the B-52’s mission set. As a point of comparison, the AN/APG-79 as installed in the Super Hornet is angled upward. This is due, at least in part, to match the reduced observability (stealthy) features of the Super Hornet. In the Legacy Hornet, the array is nearly vertical, as there are no low-observable demands for that platform. In that case, space concerns may also be an issue. The B-52 is about as unstealthy as an aircraft can get, so the downward angle is clearly not dictated by observability design drivers.

The new radar is just one facet of the comprehensive upgrade program now in development for the B-52 that will end in the jet receiving the B-52J designation. Even more important than the new radar is replacing the BUFF’s antique TF-33 low-bypass turbofan engines with Rolls-Royce F-130 turbofans. That program is now well underway but is also behind schedule and over budget, with full operational capability not slated till 2033. So the fully featured ‘super BUFF’ won’t be plowing the skies anytime soon, but the hope is that once complete, the fleet of 76 jets can remain reliable and relevant through 2050, at least, serving alongside the drastically more modern B-21 Raider.

You can learn all about what makes up the B-52J and how it will be used in our video below.

B-52 Future Stratofortress: The Upgrades That Will Transform The B-52H Into The B-52J

As it stands now, the Air Force plans to put the B-52 with the new AN/APQ-188 through a series of ground and flight tests in the next year. An initial round of system functional checks was conducted before the plane was flown to Edwards, according to Boeing’s release.

Following the successful completion of the testing at Edwards, the Air Force will make a formal decision regarding the start of series production of the radars for integration on the rest of the B-52 fleet. The service has said most recently that it expects to reach initial operational capability with the AN/APQ-188 on the B-52 sometime in the 2028 to 2030 timeframe.

“This phase of the program is dedicated to getting it right at the start so that we can execute the full radar modernization program,” Troy Dawson, Vice President of the Boeing Bombers division, said in a statement.

A major step in that direction has now been achieved with the arrival of the first B-52 to feature the AN/APQ-188 at Edwards.

Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com

Washington, DC – American journalist Dylan Collins wants to know “who pulled the trigger” in the 2023 Israeli double-tap strike in south Lebanon that injured him and killed Reuters video reporter Issam Abdallah.

Collins and his supporters are also seeking information about the military orders that led to the deadly attack. But more than two years later, Israel has not provided adequate answers on why it targeted the clearly identifiable reporters.

Press freedom advocates and three United States legislators joined Collins, an AFP and former Al Jazeera journalist, outside the US Capitol on Thursday to renew calls for accountability in this case and for the more than 250 other killings of journalists by Israel.

“I want to know who pulled the trigger; I want to know what command structure approved it, and I want to know why it’s gone unaddressed until today – on our strike and all the others targeted,” Collins said.

Senator Peter Welch and Congresswoman Becca Balint, who represent Collins’s home state of Vermont, and Senator Chris Van Hollen stressed on Thursday that they will continue to push for accountability in the strike, which wounded six journalists.

“We’re not letting it go. It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us. We’re not letting it go,” Balint told reporters.

The attack

Welch said he was sending his seventh letter to the US Department of State demanding answers, accusing Israel of obfuscation.

Israeli authorities, he said, claim they investigated the attack and ruled the shooting unintentional, but they provided no evidence that they questioned soldiers. Israel also never contacted the key witnesses – namely, Colins and other survivors of the strike.

In October, the Israeli army told the AFP news agency that the attack was still “under review” in an apparent contradiction of what Welch had been told.

“The investigation, non-investigation – there’s nothing there,” Welch said. “You’re basically getting the run-around, and you’re getting stonewalled. That’s the bottom line.”

Israel received more than $21bn in US military aid during the two years of its genocidal war on Gaza.

Throughout the war, Israel has stepped up its attacks on the press. But the country has a long history of killing journalists without accountability.

The October 13, 2023, strike, which wounded Al Jazeera’s Carmen Joukhadar and Elie Brakhia and left AFP’s Christina Assi with life-altering injuries, was well-documented in part because the journalists were livestreaming their reporting.

The correspondents, who had set up their equipment on a hilltop near the Lebanese-Israeli border to cover the escalation on the front, were in clearly marked press gear and vehicles.

Israeli drones had also circled above the journalists before the attack.

“We thought the fact that we could be seen was a good thing, that it would protect us. But after a little less than an hour at the site, we were hit twice by tank fire, two shells on the same target, 37 seconds apart,” Collins said at a news conference on Thursday.

“The first strike killed Issam instantly and nearly blew Christina’s legs off her body. As I rushed to put a tourniquet on her, we were hit the second time, and I sustained multiple shrapnel wounds.”

The AFP journalist added that the attack seemed “unfathomable in its brutality” at that time, but “we have since seen the same type of attack repeated dozens of times.”

Israel has been regularly employing such double-tap attacks, including in other strikes on journalists in Gaza.

“This is not an incident in the fog of war. It was a war crime carried out in broad daylight and broadcast on live television,” Collins said.

Earlier this year, UN rapporteur Morris Tidball-Binz called the 2023 strike “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of IHL (international humanitarian law), a war crime”.

US response

Despite the wounding of a US citizen in the strike, the administration of then-President Joe Biden – which claimed to champion freedom of the press and the “rules-based order” – did next to nothing to hold Israel to account.

Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, also pushed on with unconditional US support for Israel.

On Thursday, Collins decried the lack of action from the US government, saying that he reached out to officials in Washington, DC, and showed them footage of the strike.

“I thought that when an American citizen is wounded in an attack carried out by the US’s greatest ally in the Middle East that we would be able to get some answers. But for two years, I’ve been met by deafening silence,” he told reporters.

“In fact, neither the Biden nor the Trump administrations have ever publicly acknowledged that a US citizen was wounded in this attack.”

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens, including Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, over the past decade.

Senator Van Hollen said accountability in the October 13, 2023, attack is important for journalists and US citizens across the world.

“We have not seen accountability or justice in this case, and the State Department – our own government – has not done much of anything really to pursue justice in this case,” Van Hollen told reporters.

“It is part of a broader pattern of impunity for attacks on Americans and on journalists by the government of Israel.”

He called the US approach a “dereliction of duty” by the Trump and Biden administrations.

Israeli ‘investigation’

Amelia Evans, advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said Senator Welch’s description of the Israeli probe shows that the country’s “purported investigative bodies are not functioning to deliver justice but to shield Israeli forces from accountability”.

Evans urged the Trump administration to “take action” and demand the completion of probes into the killing of Abu Akleh in 2022 and the 2023 attack on journalists in Lebanon.

“It must demand Israel name all the military officials throughout the command chain who were involved in both cases,” she said.

“But as Israel’s key strategic ally, the United States must do much more than that. It must publicly recognise Israel’s failure to properly investigate the war crimes committed by its military.”

Israel often uses claims of investigation in response to abuses.

Former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who spent almost two years defending Israeli war crimes and justifying Washington’s unflinching support for its Middle East ally, acknowledged that tactic recently.

“We do know that Israel has opened investigations,” Miller, who incessantly invoked alleged Israeli probes from the State Department podium, said in June.

“But, look, we are many months into those investigations. And we’re not seeing Israeli soldiers held accountable.”

‘Chilling effect’

Amid the push for justice, Collins paid tribute to his colleague Abdallah, who was killed in the 2023 Israeli attack.

“Losing Issam was tough on everyone,” he told Al Jazeera. “He was like the dynamo of the press scene in Lebanon. He knew everyone. He was always the first person to help you out if you’re in a jam. He had a larger-than-life personality.”

The killing of Abdullah, Collins added, had a “chilling effect” on the coverage of that conflict, which escalated into a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah in September 2024.

The violence saw Israel all but wipe out nearly all the border towns in Lebanon.

Even after a ceasefire was reached in November of last year, the Israeli military continues to prevent reconstruction in the devastated villages as it carries out near-daily attacks across the country.

“If the intention was to stop people from covering the war, then it has worked to some degree,” said Collins.

The Danish government has announced a new plan to restrict the use of social media for anyone under the age of 15, though in some cases parents will be able to let their children use social platforms from age 13. The reforms come amid concerns that kids are getting too swept up in a digital world with harmful content.

This is another big game at the bottom of the table.

I am so pleased for Leeds boss Daniel Farke because I was fed up with the rubbish being talked about how he cannot manage in the Premier League.

Leeds have had a tough run of games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool and it felt like there were people out there who were waiting and even wishing for Farke to fail, so he would be sacked.

I am delighted that it has turned out very differently. The performances, the guts, and the quality that Leeds have shown has been brilliant, even in defeat at City, and against Chelsea and Liverpool they have picked up points too.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goals have made the difference, and they will go into this game full of belief, and thinking they have got a real chance.

Brentford are still favourites, though, because their home form is so good – with five wins, a draw and just one defeat under Keith Andrews so far.

The Bees were pretty limp when they went to Spurs last week but on their own patch it is a different story. They have won their past three games there, against Liverpool, Newcastle and Burnley so, like Leeds, they will be full of confidence.

I remember Farke’s last game as Norwich manager in November 2021, when his team beat Brentford but he was sacked a few hours later. This time, I am backing Brentford to win, but Farke’s future should not be in doubt.

Sutton’s prediction: 2-0

Stingray’s prediction: Both teams score quite a lot of goals. 2-2

AI’s prediction: 2-2

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Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado has declared that authorities in her home country would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway, after she emerged publicly for the first time in nearly a year.

Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in the early hours of Thursday following a high-risk exit from Venezuela, where she had been in hiding since January.

The journey, which purportedly included navigating 10 military checkpoints and crossing the Caribbean by fishing vessel, brought her to the Norwegian capital to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.

During a news conference at Norway’s parliament, the 58-year-old right-wing opposition figure delivered sharp criticism of President Nicolas Maduro’s administration, asserting that the government deploys national resources to suppress its population.

When questioned about an oil tanker seized by Washington on Wednesday, she argued this demonstrated how the regime operates. Asked whether she would support a United States invasion, Machado claimed Venezuela had already been invaded by Russian and Iranian agents alongside drug cartels.

“This has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas,” she said, standing alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

“What sustains the regime is a very powerful and strongly funded repression system. Where do those funds come from? Well, from drug trafficking, from the black market of oil, from arms trafficking and from human trafficking. We need to cut those flows.”

The trip reunited her with family members she had not seen in almost two years, including her daughter, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf at Wednesday’s ceremony.

Aligned with Trump 

The political leader has welcomed international sanctions and US military intervention in Venezuela, a move her critics say harkens back to a dark past.

The US has a long history of interference in the region, particularly in the 1980s, when it propped up repressive right-wing governments through coups, and funded paramilitary groups across Latin America that were responsible for mass killings, forced disappearances and other grave human rights abuses.

Venezuelan authorities cited Machado’s support for sanctions and US intervention when they barred her from running for office in last year’s presidential election, where she had intended to challenge Maduro. Machado has accused Venezuela’s president of stealing the July 2024 election, which was criticised by international observers.

Praising the Trump administration’s approach, Machado said the president’s actions had been “decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever.”

She insisted she would return home but did not say when. “I’m going back to Venezuela regardless of when Maduro goes out. He’s going out, but the moment will be determined by when I’m finished doing the things that I came out to do,” she told reporters.

Her escape comes as tensions between Washington and Caracas have intensified sharply. The Trump administration has positioned major naval forces in the Caribbean and conducted strikes against alleged drug vessels since September. The US seized what Trump called a “very large” oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, on Wednesday.

Machado has aligned herself with right-wing hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to US national security, despite doubts raised by the US intelligence community.

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast, killing more than 80 people.

Human rights groups, some US Democrats, and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Machado’s two-month escape operation involved wearing a disguise and departing from a coastal fishing village on a wooden boat bound for Curacao before boarding a private aircraft to Norway.

US forces were alerted to avoid striking the vessel, the WSJ reported, as they had one with similar boats in recent months. Machado confirmed receiving assistance from Washington during her escape.

Maduro, in power since 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, says Trump is pushing for regime change in the country to access Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He has pledged to resist such attempts.

A United Nations report released on Thursday accused Venezuela’s security forces of crimes against humanity over more than a decade.

Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello said Machado left the country “without drama” but provided no details.

United States President Donald Trump has said that the US has seized a sanctioned oil tanker close to the coast of Venezuela, in a move that has caused oil prices to spike and further escalates tensions with Caracas.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” Trump said on Wednesday.

The Venezuelan government called the move an act of “international piracy”, and “blatant theft”.

This comes as the US expands its military operations in the region, where it has been carrying out air strikes on at least 21 suspected drug-trafficking vessels since September. The Trump administration has provided no evidence that these boats were carrying drugs, however.

Here is what we know about the seizure of the Venezuelan tanker:

What happened?

The US said it intercepted and seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking the first operation of its kind in years.

The last comparable US military seizure of a foreign tanker occurred in 2014, when US Navy SEALs boarded the Morning Glory off Cyprus as Libyan rebels attempted to sell stolen crude oil.

The Trump administration did not identify the vessel or disclose the precise location of the operation.

However, Bloomberg reported that officials had described the ship as a “stateless vessel” and said it had been docked in Venezuela.

Soon after announcing the latest operation on Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi released a video showing two helicopters approaching a vessel and armed personnel in camouflage rappelling onto its deck.

“Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran,” Bondi said.

She added that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil-shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”.

Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 10, 2025

Experts said the method of boarding demonstrated in the video is standard practice for US forces.

“The Navy, Coast Guard and special forces all have special training for this kind of mission, called visit, board, search, and seizure – or VBSS,” Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera.

“It is routine, especially for the Coast Guard. The government said it was a Coast Guard force doing the seizure, though the helicopter looks like a Navy SH-60S.”

Which vessel was seized?

According to a Reuters report, British maritime risk firm Vanguard identified the crude carrier Skipper as the vessel seized early Wednesday off Venezuela’s coast.

MarineTraffic lists the Skipper as a very large crude carrier measuring 333m (1,093 feet) in length and 60m (197 feet) in width.

The tanker was sanctioned in 2022 for allegedly helping to transport oil for the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Iran’s Quds Force.

The Skipper departed Venezuela’s main oil terminal at Jose between December 4 and 5 after loading about 1.8 million barrels of Merey crude, a heavy, high-sulphur blend produced in Venezuela.

“I assume we’re going to keep the oil,” President Trump said on Wednesday.

Before the seizure, the tanker had transferred roughly 200,000 barrels near Curacao to the Panama-flagged Neptune 6, which was headed for Cuba, according to satellite data analysed by TankerTrackers.com.

According to shipping data from Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the vessel also transported Venezuelan crude to Asia in 2021 and 2022.

Where did the seizure take place?

The US said it seized the oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea.

US officials have said the action occurred near Venezuelan territorial waters, though they have not provided precise coordinates.

MarineTraffic data shows the vessel’s tracker still located in the Caribbean.

Is the US action legal?

Cancian noted that “seizing sanctioned items is common inside a country’s own territory. It is unusual in international waters”.

He added: “Russia has hundreds of sanctioned tankers sailing today, but they have not been boarded.”

Experts say it is unclear whether the seizure was legal, partly because many details about it have not been made public.

Still, the US could make use of various arguments to justify the seizure if needs be.

One is that the boat is regarded as stateless. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), ships need “a nationality”.

The government of Guyana, Venezuela’s neighbour, said the Skipper was “falsely flying the Guyana flag”, adding that it is not registered in the country.

If a vessel flies a flag it is not registered under, or refuses to show any flag at all, states have the “right of visit”, allowing their officials to stop and inspect the ship on the high seas – essentially meaning international waters.

If doubts about a ship’s nationality remain after checking its documents, a more extensive search can follow.

In previous enforcement actions against sanctioned ships, the US has seized not the ship itself but the oil on board. In 2020, it confiscated fuel from four tankers allegedly carrying Iranian oil to Venezuela.

US law also allows the Coast Guard, which carried out this operation, to conduct searches and seizures on the high seas in order to enforce US laws, stating that it “may make inquiries, examinations, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon the high seas” to prevent and suppress violations.

But some legal experts argue that the US has overstepped, as it “has no jurisdiction to enforce unilateral sanctions on non-US persons outside its territory”, according to Francisco Rodriguez, a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

Rodriguez said the US is relying on maritime rules for stateless vessels “as an entryway to justify enforcing US sanctions outside of US territory”.

“To the extent that the US is able to continue to do so, it could significantly increase the cost of doing business with Venezuela and precipitate a deepening of the country’s economic recession,” he warned in a CEPR article.

The US has no jurisdiction to enforce unilateral sanctions on non-US persons outside its territory. The seizure of ships in international waters to extraterritorially enforce US sanctions is a dangerous precedent and a violation of international law.

— Francisco Rodríguez (@frrodriguezc) December 10, 2025

How has Venezuela responded to the seizure?

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry stated that “the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been exposed”.

“It is not migration, it is not drug trafficking, it is not democracy, it is not human rights – it was always about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.

The ministry described the incident as an “act of piracy.”

The government added that it will appeal to “all” international bodies to denounce the incident and vowed to defend its sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity with “absolute determination”.

“Venezuela will not allow any foreign power to attempt to take from the Venezuelan people what belongs to them by historical and constitutional right,” it said.

What are the potential consequences for Venezuela’s oil exports?

Experts say the seizure could produce short-term uncertainty for Venezuelan oil exports, largely because “this has been the first time [the United States has]… seized a shipment of Venezuelan oil”, Carlos Eduardo Pina, a Venezuelan political scientist, told Al Jazeera.

That may make shippers hesitate, though the broader impact is limited, Pina said, since “the US allows the Chevron company to continue extracting Venezuelan oil”, and US group Chevron holds a special waiver permitting it to produce and export crude despite wider sanctions.

Chevron, which operates joint ventures with PDVSA, said its operations in Venezuela remain normal and continue without disruption.

The US oil major, which is currently responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the US, increased shipments last month to 150,000 barrels per day (bopd), up from 128,000 bpd in October.

Inside Venezuela, Pina warned the move could spark financial panic, however: “It could instil fear, trigger a currency run… and worsen the humanitarian crisis.”

How will this affect US-Venezuela relations?

Diplomatically, Pina said he views the action as a political message to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, noting its timing – “the same day that [opposition leader] Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Prize” – and calling it “a gesture of strength… to remind that [the US is present in the Latin American region].”

Maduro has long argued that the Trump administration’s strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific are not, in fact, aimed at preventing drug running, but are part of a plan to effect regime change in Venezuela. Trump has authorised CIA operations in Venezuela and has given conflicting messages about whether he would consider a land invasion.

Analysts see this latest action as part of a broader strategy to pressure the Maduro government.

“This is certainly an escalation designed to put additional pressure on the Maduro regime, causing it to fracture internally or convincing Maduro to leave,” said Cancian.

“It is part of a series of US actions such as sending the Ford to the Caribbean, authorising the CIA to move against the Maduro regime, and conducting flybys with bombers and, recently, F-18s.”

Cancian added that the broader meaning of the operation depends on what comes next.

“The purpose also depends on whether the US seizes additional tankers,” he said. “In that case, this looks like a blockade of Venezuela. Because Venezuela depends so heavily on oil revenue, it could not withstand such a blockade for long.”

Swiss suffer third crash in a month by an Olympic champion in training ahead of World Cup and 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Two-time Olympic champion Michelle Gisin has been airlifted from the course after crashing hard in a practice run for a World Cup downhill.

The 32-year-old Swiss skier hit the safety fences racing at more than 110km/h (69mph) on a cloudy morning on Thursday at St Moritz in practice for the downhills scheduled for Friday and Saturday, followed by a super-G on Sunday.

One of Gisin’s skis seemed to catch an edge approaching a fast left-hand turn, and she lost control, going straight on and hitting through the first layer of safety nets until being stopped by the second.

There was no immediate report of any injury. Television pictures showed Gisin conscious, lying by the course with scratches and cuts on her face as medics assessed her.

Gisin is the third current Olympic champion in the Swiss women’s Alpine ski team to crash in training in the past month, after Lara Gut-Behrami and Corinne Suter.

Gisin, who won gold in Alpine combined at the past two Winter Games, is currently the veteran leader of the Swiss women’s speed team because of injuries to her fellow 2022 Beijing Olympic champions.

Gut-Behrami’s Olympic season was ended after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee while crashing in practice last month at Copper Mountain, Colorado, in the United States.

Suter is off skis for about a month with calf, knee and foot injuries from a crash while training at St Moritz last month.

At the last Winter Games in China, Suter won the downhill, Gut-Behrami won the super-G — where Gisin took bronze — and Gisin took the final title in individual combined. The Swiss skiers have seven career Olympic medals.

Gisin crashed on Thursday when American star Lindsey Vonn was already on the course, having started her practice run. Vonn was stopped while Gisin received medical help and resumed her run later.

Vonn was fastest in the opening practice on Wednesday.

The Milan Cortina Olympics open on February 6 with a women’s Alpine skiing race at the storied Cortina d’Ampezzo hill.

Concerns had been raised in advance of the World Cup in September, primarily about how to limit risks in the high-speed sport, following the death of Italian skier Matteo Franzoso in a training accident in Chile.

The debate continued into the start of the Olympic ski season a month later, with prominent American skier Mikaela Shiffrin stating: “We are often training in conditions where the variables are just too many to control, and you have to decide sometimes: is this unreasonably dangerous?”

Bilkisu Haruna’s* voice carried over 25 years of frustration, rising through the phone. Her life, which she expected to change when she got a job at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, in northwestern Nigeria, in the early 2000s, after years of menial labour, was swallowed into an endless pit of suffering and bitterness. 

Being a casual worker in Nigeria is to drown in a cycle of hopelessness, a feeling she knows too well. 

“When I got hired, I was paid ₦3000, which was ₦100 per day. It was a fair offer because that money did more for me than what I earn now,” Bilkisu told HumAngle. 

At that time, a 50kg bag of rice cost about ₦2500, but the cost-of-living crisis has increased it to an amount that she and many other Nigerians can no longer afford. Her current salary of ₦11,000 can buy only an estimated three bowls of rice, without enough condiments or other necessities to feed her family.

However, most of her salary goes towards paying transport fares to work. She pays an average of ₦500 for a tricycle ride or ₦300 for a motorcycle ride to get to work daily.

“I usually take a bike to go to work, then I walk back home, despite how far it is,” Bilkisu explained, adding that the journey takes her around 50 minutes. “And if you go late, they sometimes send you back without payment. I rarely miss work for any reason, but I am still in the same place after almost 25 years.” 

Workforce casualisation in Nigeria

A study by the International Journal of Business and Social Science describes casualisation as a form of temporary employment that has become a permanent job, yet lacks statutory benefits, such as adequate pay, medical insurance, and a pension. The system also prevents casual workers from the right to unionise. According to a 2018 Nigerian Labour Congress report, an estimated 45 per cent of Nigerians are casual workers, with a high prevalence at both the federal and state levels across all sectors.

Recently, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, warned against the growing normalisation of casual and precarious work arrangements in Nigeria’s labour market, describing the trend as a threat to workers’ welfare and national productivity. Dingyadi noted that many organisations now rely on casual and contract staffing to cut costs, often at the expense of workers’ security and rights.

Bilkisu is a mother of nine; she lost her husband not long ago. Before his passing, he worked as a security guard and often catered for the family, but that entire responsibility now lies on her shoulders. It is even difficult now, as she is observing ‘iddah’, an Islamic practice that mandates widows to mourn their spouses for four months and ten days, and that restricts their movement and activities. 

“Some of my coworkers helped me work for free when I was taking care of my husband while he was sick, but the work is tiring, so I  just made an arrangement with someone I could pay for the duration of my mourning period,” she said. 

There is no provision for casual workers, such as Bilkisu, to receive paid leave during such situations. The few instances she has received grace were when she was very sick. Sometimes, they would ask her to get checked in the hospital, but they don’t give her drugs. Health insurance is not something she can afford on her own. 

“Sometime back, they used to let us see a doctor for free, including admissions. But, I think for the past 10 years, we have to pay ₦1,000 to see a doctor, and no drugs are given; they will only write you the prescription,” she recalled. 

For Bilkisu, she harbours no big dreams; she just wants a better salary so that she can take care of her children and grandchildren. The university has no provision for casual workers to enrol their children in the staff school, leaving them without benefits for all the years they have worked there. 

Over the years, the cost of hostel accommodation has changed, but the salaries of casual workers have remained the same. A former student, who asked not to be named, told HumAngle that she paid around ₦7,000 when she first got into the university in 2018. However, she paid ₦14,000 before graduating, which is still the current price for a hostel bed space at the university. 

Bilkisu supplements her income by fetching water, washing dishes, doing the laundry, and running errands for students. However, the pay is low. Sometimes students can pay ₦50 or ₦100 to wash plates, unless it is a monthly arrangement, in which case it can be up to ₦1500. The side jobs are also highly competitive, as everyone is scrambling to get what they can. 

“Sometimes, you also have to find something to buy and eat at school to get through the day. If not for that extra work, I would not even go to work because I am constantly in debt,” she complained.

These menial jobs have sustained Bilya Nafiu* for over 30 years. At over 50, Bilya finds himself running errands for students young enough to be his children. He shares Bilkisu’s experience, living from hand to mouth as a casual worker.

“When I started, I was being paid ₦1500. I currently earn ₦13,500. Even when other job opportunities come up in the university, such as security jobs, they hardly give them to us, even if we are qualified, ” he lamented. This makes it impossible to become a permanent worker. Sometimes, they make it to the interview stage, but nothing comes of it. 

What does the law say?

Hikmat’llah Oni, a Nigerian lawyer, noted that there is no explicit definition of “casual worker” in the Nigerian Labour Act. She, however, cited Section 73 of the Employees’ Compensation Act 2010. The Act defines what it means to be an employee: a person employed by an employer under an oral or written contract of employment whether on a continuous, part-time, temporary, apprenticeship, or casual basis and includes a domestic servant who is not a member of the family of the employer including any person employed in the Federal, State and Local Governments, and any of the government agencies and in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. 

The legal practitioner stressed that under the Minimum Wage Act, three categories of people are exempted: part-time workers, seasonal workers, and piece-rate workers. 

“What most establishments do is lump casual workers with these three categories of workers in an attempt not to pay the minimum wage, which is unfair because they sometimes do the hardest work; their bargaining power is also not the same as that of one in full-time employment,” she explained. 

The casual workers in the university said they’ve spent decades in the job, but they struggle to pay their bills.

“We have tried to seek help; some of the previous students we know have become professors, but they don’t listen to us. We also tried to seek help from the Student Representative Council (SRC), especially regarding the late payment of salaries, but they don’t even listen to us anymore,” Bilya said. 

In the past, the university provided loans to casual workers, but it eventually stopped. They fear the workers may refuse to repay the loan, leaving them without an outlet for other financial assistance in emergencies. The repayment system was also a problem they encountered, as almost half their salaries were taken off every month to pay back the debt. Another issue was the lack of privacy, where news would spread around the school about who was benefiting from that system, making them feel exposed. 

With a daily transport fee of ₦300 to ₦500, it is almost impossible for Bilya to even handle his family affairs. When he is sick, he has to find an outsider to do his task, as all his older children are women, and he doesn’t feel safe enough to send them to do his work at the male hostels.

The horrible hostel conditions make it harder for them to do their jobs. Immediately after they clean, toilets can get dirty again, and that can get them in trouble with their supervisors. Even when they manage to save water for the next day, students can sometimes sneak in and use it all up before the next morning, Bilya explained. 

Washing the bathrooms also requires them to carry buckets of water up the stairs, and sometimes they have to buy brooms to clean them, because the school rarely provides them with the right tools anymore, taking much more from the little they earn. 

“With all I have poured into the school over the years, even the role of a director is not adequate to compensate me,” he claimed. 

He works part-time as an electrician because the school has its own official workers. He gets side gigs from students to handle minor tasks, such as fixing faulty sockets and light bulbs, which can pay ₦100 or ₦200 per task. Despite these obstacles, he has managed to educate his children. 

As coworkers save from the little they earn for rainy days by contributing ₦1,000 monthly, he sometimes benefits from the kindness of friends and family.

“When we started working, people kept telling us to be patient,  that it would pass, and one day we would be leaders of tomorrow. But many years have passed, and nothing has changed. I can go three years without buying a simple shirt for myself because of outstanding debts. We are suffering, but we are also trying to practice contentment,” he explained. 

Sometimes, the management deducts from their salaries without explanation, even if they didn’t turn up late or miss work, and almost nothing is done when they complain. 

In one particular month, Bilya received only ₦8,000 without an explanation. He tried to follow up, explaining that he had not failed to do his duty that month, but he still didn’t receive the outstanding payment. These days, he doesn’t bother to complain even when his salary falls short of the expected amount. He understands that life as a casual worker also means he can be fired if he steps outside the lines. 

This exploitation is common across different sectors in the country. In 2011, for instance, the Nigerian Labour Congress shut down 15 Airtel Communication showrooms across the country to protest the alleged casualisation and dismissal of 3,000 workers. In 2024, HumAngle published an investigation into the maltreatment and exploitation of some casual workers at the Dangote Refinery in Lagos.

“Casual workers, in most cases, do not have a formal contract, which is the prerequisite for becoming an employee under Labour Law. So, in reality, they don’t get the full ‘package’ of employment benefits, leaving room for cutting their salaries without explanation, because they don’t have a work contract protecting them. Keeping casual workers for years without a contract is exploitative,” the legal practitioner explained. 

Different strokes

The cleaners at ABU are categorised into student affairs and health services, with those in health receiving higher pay due to hazardous conditions. The casual workers earning ₦13,500 are those who wash bathrooms and clean gutters, but people who just sweep the compound earn ₦11,500. HumAngle’s findings show that the casual workers are not given any payslip or physical evidence of their salaries. Every month, they queue up at the school bank to collect their cash payments. 

Hikmat’llah explained that the labour law does not require the provision of payslips. However, it requires employers to maintain records of wages and conditions of employment, which can lead to further exploitation of casual workers. 

As a casual worker under health in ABU, Nabila Bello* earns ₦22,000 or ₦22,500, depending on the number of days in a month. Before she got her job 10 years ago, she dabbled in business in her home, which still helps supplement her income. Even with a degree, there is no pension, gratuity, or hope of promotion. Her transport to and from work costs ₦700, which is almost what she earns per day. 

Further research shows that casual workers are more likely to experience more disadvantages compared to permanent employees, such as inadequate statutory protection, social security, and union membership, and are least likely to receive compensation for injuries. 

“Sometimes, I can spend ₦500 if I leave home early and trek to reduce transport fare,” she recounted. Being in a supervisory role means she doesn’t do the cleaning herself, but missing a day’s work also means losing her pay for that day. Unlike the cleaners, she cannot delegate her task. Nabila hopes to get a bigger opportunity with her degree someday. 

This experience is common for other casual workers around the country. In a Federal College of Education in Adamawa, northeastern Nigeria, Maimunah Ado* pays ₦400 daily to get to work from her ₦18,000 monthly salary. Her most significant challenges are the workload, especially on Mondays, which requires extra work, such as cleaning offices. But she has no choice but to keep showing up to work every day. 

It is almost impossible to survive without side jobs. 

After a long day at work, 45-year-old Ilya Adamu* sets his sewing machine to work to supplement the ₦13,500 he earns as a casual cleaner at ABU. Every day, he spends about ₦1,000 on transport to and from work. With four small children still in school, he is barely scraping by to make things work. 

“There are no promotions, and the pay is very little. It makes us feel very stuck and hopeless. Even though payment comes in every month without fail despite the delay,” he said.

HumAngle learnt that the school had months of unpaid wages owed to the cleaners for work completed in 2020. However, the school only paid part of the money after the workers went on a five-day strike in 2024. Some have given up on getting the rest of their money back. Some workers in the ABU Kongo campus claimed that they still have a month’s salary pending from that time, but the sources from the Samaru campus said they have been paid in full. 

Bilya, one of the few who ensured the strike’s success, explained that during the strike, they ensured no cleaner violated it and went to work. Some were delegated to go through the school and stop any staff from working. This strike worsened the already horrible living conditions of the students in the school, making the environment unlivable.

Despite multiple attempts to reach out to Ahmadu Bello University for a response to these allegations, all emails, including follow-ups, have remained unanswered.

A health challenge 

As an asthmatic patient, 50-year-old Halimah Ashiru’s* work as a nanny in Kaduna State poses a lot of risk and triggers for her condition.

“Even when you say you are sick, you are expected to show up at work, unless the sickness is so severe that you can’t get up. There was a time I had a terrible attack in school, and they had to return me home. After that time, my work got reduced, but I had to go back to work the next day, even though I had a smaller attack that day too,” she told HumAngle. 

This is the reason why she doesn’t sweep anymore, unless it is a less dusty place. The Islamic school she works at has two segments: it runs the Western education segment on weekdays and the Islamic school segment on weekends. When she began her job ten years ago, earning ₦3,000, the Islamic segment was from Saturdays to Wednesdays.

“I can’t afford an inhaler, they said I have to keep using it, and I know it’s not sustainable for me. I just asked them to write me other drugs that can help manage my symptoms, and it helps a bit. I also ensure they are always available. Sometimes, I can go months without an attack,” she explained. 

Her condition usually worsens during harmattan, and sometimes even during the rainy season. Still, she tries to avoid her triggers as much as she can, while working overtime to sustain her family. 

Hikmat’llah explained that the Employee Compensation Act provides for claims for health or work-related injuries, entitling casual workers to compensation and similar benefits. According to the Labour Act, employees are expected to be formally hired after three months. Some organisations exploit this loophole to fire and rehire casual workers every three months, or hire new people, to avoid violating the law. This further contributes to the lack of job security for casual workers. But many workers like Halimah are not aware of these provisions. 

Apart from Halimah’s salary, the school sometimes provides food items, especially during Ramadan, and free sacks of rice can arrive at random times. However, her salary has not changed much, even amid the cost-of-living crisis. She currently earns ₦8,000 monthly. 

Her main task is cleaning, but she also serves as a nanny for the children of teachers and other older students at the school during classes.

“My workload has reduced. I used to sweep the classes and environment, clean toilets, and take care of the younger students, especially when they needed to use the toilet. I used to be the only nanny, but they hired another one recently.” Before then, she had worked in residential houses as a cleaner. 

Once, a massive fight with the proprietress led her to quit for a while, but the woman reached out, apologised, and asked her to resume. “If I go late, she removes a small part of my salary, usually ₦500 or ₦700, so I  try to make it on time.” 

The cost-of-living crisis has changed so much for her. The good thing is she lives close to the school and doesn’t need to pay for transport. 

“My salary can only buy things like soap, detergents, and similar items. I keep working because I can’t afford not working,” she said. Halimah takes on part-time cleaning work in residential homes, and she also holds another side job that brings in an extra ₦10,000 per month. On days she has work in the morning, she shows up at the other job in the evening. 

This combined salary is really not enough to take care of her family, but immediately the salary comes in, she tries to stock up on some food items- sometimes the food can last for 10 to 12 days and on other days, she looks for other part-time jobs. 

“My family members also try to help in their own ways,” she added. 

A positive experience? 

Grace Amos* started working as a cleaner at a private hostel at Kaduna State University in 2023. Before then, she ran a small business at home, selling pap and firewood. Her salary is currently ₦40,000, which is still below the current minimum wage of ₦70,000. 

“I am satisfied with my job. The biggest challenge for me is dealing with students. We work hard to keep the environment clean, and they will make it untidy by the next morning, which makes our work harder,” she said. 

Grace sweeps the hostels, washes the toilets, and cleans the hostel’s surrounding area. Her work starts by 7 a.m. and ends by 2 p.m.

“I also supplement my income by taking small jobs from the students, such as laundry,” she said, noting that this makes it easier for her to help herself and her family. 

This experience is shared by thirty-five-year-old Margaret Joseph*, who started working in the same hostel in 2021. 

With a secondary school certificate, she doesn’t see much hope for a bigger opportunity. “There is no chance for career growth when you work as casual staff, but we can only hope for more salary increases. I never expected that I could be paid this much as a cleaner,” she said. 

Even without other work benefits such as pensions, insurance, or promotion, they feel content because their working conditions are much better than those of many others. 

However, investigations show that the working conditions differ from hostel to hostel. The university has regular and private hostels, run by different companies, which vary in cost. Maimunah*, a student at the university, said she paid ₦207,000 for accommodation at a private hostel on campus this year, up from ₦140,000 in 2024.

Inadequate working tools 

Zaliha Ahmad* started working at Kaduna Polytechnic in northwestern Nigeria in 2020. Her biggest challenge is the inadequate provision of cleaning supplies, which makes them dig into their pockets to cover the gap. 

“Students are always complaining about the conditions of the bathrooms, but we usually have to use our own money to buy detergents and bleach. We can go three months without receiving cleaning supplies,” she explained. She is ideally supposed to clean twenty toilets from her assigned two floors daily, but due to inadequate cleaning supplies, she sometimes cleans an average of three to four a day. 

There is also a limited number of cleaners, putting the burden of washing the bathrooms, halls, and even clearing overgrown weeds around the hostel on the casual staff. Sometimes the work gets too overwhelming, and they have to outsource the task to someone else and pay them for their services. 

“We don’t complain because that’s how it has always been; we just find our way around it. But it’s better than staying at home without a job. I try to run small businesses on the side to supplement my income,” she told HumAngle. 

With a monthly salary of ₦20,000, Zaliha spends an average of ₦600 to get to work every day. Sometimes she walks back home, which takes her almost an hour. 

The only other benefit she receives is during Ramadan, when the school provides a form with basic items such as spaghetti, sugar, and other items they may need, and, based on the choices they make, a particular amount is deducted from their salaries every month until they finish paying back. This helps them immensely. 

In 2020, the Nigerian Senate considered passing the ‘Prohibition of Casualisation Bill 2020,’ which aims to criminalise casualisation. The bill also recommended a bail of ₦2 million or two years’ imprisonment for violators. Although it has passed the second reading, it has yet to be signed into law, leaving Nigerian casual workers at the mercy of their employers. 

*Pseudonyms were used to protect the identities of the sources.