The attack in Dilling town comes a day after Sudan’s military declared an end to RSF siege there. Displaced people ride an animal-drawn cart, following RSF attacks on the Zamzam displacement camp in the town of Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, on April 15, 2025 [Reuters] Dozens of people have been killed in a drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a key town in war-torn Sudan’s South Kordofan state, according to local media reports. Multiple areas of Dilling, including the headquarters of the Sudanese army’s 54th Brigade and the central market, were struck by suicide drones during Wednesday’s attack, the Sudan Tribune reported, citing local sources and medical groups. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the latest RSF attack, which came a day after the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced that it had broken a nearly two-year-long RSF siege on Dilling, gaining control over key supply lines. Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli – the besieged state capital – and el-Obeid, the capital of neighbouring North Kordofan province, which the RSF has sought to encircle. The RSF and the SAF have been waging a brutal civil war for control of Sudan since April 2023, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions. Since the siege was lifted, Dilling has endured a wave of drone attacks that have destroyed service facilities and caused several casualties. Military sources told the Sudan Tribune that the RSF was attempting to reinstate the blockade, though the SAF continues to hold the area and repel assaults near the strategic town of Habila in North Kordofan state. Amid these clashes, the Sudan Doctors Network has called for an urgent humanitarian corridor to deliver life-saving food and medicine. Local sources said the situation on the ground remains desperate, with a severe lack of health services and a critical shortage of essential supplies, particularly intravenous fluids. After being forced out of the capital, Khartoum, in March, the RSF has focused on the Kordofan region and el-Fasher city in North Darfur state, which was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region until the RSF seized it in October. Reports of the paramilitary carrying out mass killings, rape, abductions and looting emerged after el-Fasher’s takeover, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a formal investigation into “war crimes” by both sides. Dilling has reportedly experienced severe hunger, but the world’s leading authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, did not declare famine there in its November report because of a lack of data. A United Nations-backed assessment last year confirmed famine in Kadugli, which has been under RSF siege for more than a year and a half. More than 65,000 people have fled the Kordofan region since October, according to the latest UN figures. The conflict has created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis , though some people have returned to their homes despite shattered infrastructure. At its peak, the war has displaced about 14 million people, both internally and across borders. Thousands escaping violence have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad , which already hosts more than 880,000 Sudanese refugees. Although now safe from immediate danger, many refugees struggle to survive as humanitarian funding continues to decrease. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

Rohingya refugees gather in Kutupalong camp to mark the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Myanmar military’s 2017 genocide, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2019.  © 2019 Rafiqur Rahman/Reuters Genocide Emergency: Myanmar January 2026 By Jeanne Macé   On September 30, 2025, a “ High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar ” was held on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Genocide Watch urged UN members to take strong measures to sanction Myanmar for its systematic persecution of its Rohingya population.   Since Myanmar's independence from the U.K. in 1948, the Rohingya Muslim minority has faced systematic persecution in Rakhine State. It has included the 2012 attacks by the Buddhist Rakhine majority and Myanmar security forces, and the 2016-2017 genocidal military operation carried out by the Myanmar army, the Tatmadaw.   In 2026, Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State are still being systematically attacked, displaced, and killed by both the Arakan Army  (an ethnic Rakhine armed militia) and the Myanmar junta forces (Tatmadaw), which have been fighting  each other since 2018 for control of Rakhine State. The Arakan Army terrorizes the Rohingya population, which it accuses of collaborating with the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.   The Arakan Army commits crimes against humanity of extreme brutality against the Rohingya, including beheadings, detentions, “disappearances”, forced labor, forced conscription, looting, burning, and pillage. On August 5, 2024, a drone and mortar attack  by the Arakan Army killed 200 Rohingya  fleeing fighting in Maungdaw, near the Bangladesh border. 2024  saw the most atrocities against Rohingya since the genocide of 2016-2017.   Staying in Myanmar and Living under Apartheid   Approximately 630,000 Rohingya still live in Myanmar under a system of state-sponsored discrimination and ethnic segregation  imposed by laws, policies, and practices aimed at isolating the Rohingya community. Myanmar has denied Rohingya citizenship  since the 1982 Citizenship Law , which reserves this right to citizenship to ‘national races’ that the law lists as settled in Myanmar before 1823.   The list pointedly excludes Rohingya. Myanmar claims Rohingya immigrated from what is now Bangladesh since 1832, despite conclusive evidence that they lived in Rakhine State over a century before 1832. During the 2014 census, Myanmar required Rohingyas to self-identify as “Bengali” immigrants, thereby emphasizing their foreignness and providing a ground for deportation . In the long-promised sham elections of January 2026, designed to ensure the junta's continued grip on power , Rohingyas were  again barred from voting.   Myanmar subjects Rohingyas to extreme restrictions on movement. In the open-air detention camps  in Sitwe, where 150,000  are confined, military and police checkpoints have been set up, and entry and exit authorizations are required. This blatant deprivation of liberty severely hampers Rohingyas access to food, work, and healthcare.   These discriminatory laws and practices, combined with widespread violations of the Rohingya’s economic and social rights and their systematic social and political exclusion, have led Amnesty International  and other organizations  including Genocide Watch to denounce Myanmar’s systematic crime of apartheid.   Leaving Myanmar and Fearing Repatriation   Most of the 1.1 million  Rohingya who have fled Myanmar since 2017 have sought safety and shelter in Bangladesh. In the past 18 months, the border town of Cox’s Bazar has taken in 150,000  more Rohingya in already overcrowded refugee camps, which face shortages of water, food, healthcare, and shelter. US cuts in aid have already exacerbated their plight. Rohingya refugees are subjected to restrictions  imposed by Bangladesh on their livelihoods, movement, and education.   Bangladesh has never ratified international refugee conventions. Bangladeshi authorities refuse asylum to Rohingya refugees and will not allow them to become citizens of Bangladesh. It is official policy to organize their repatriation to Myanmar. But few Rohingyas want to return for fear of further persecution in Myanmar. A symbolic repatriation of 1,100 refugees  to Myanmar’s Rakhine State took place in May 2023. Rohingya activists say this operation was only meant to appease the International Court of Justice's investigation  into Myanmar’s genocide.   In May 2025, India detained and deported  at least 40 Rohingya refugees living in Delhi, most of whom held identification documents issued by the UN Refugee Agency. Indian authorities forced them onto an Indian naval ship before abandoning them  in international waters in the Andaman Sea, near Myanmar. The refugees, including children and elderly people, were only given life jackets with no choice but to attempt to swim to an island in Myanmar territory. Many drowned. Such violations of the principle of non-refoulement must cease.   Starvation is the New Weapon of Genocide   Since November 2023, the Myanmar junta has imposed a blockade on almost all humanitarian aid in the areas it still controls in Rakhine State. The Arakan Army further restricts Rohingya livelihoods in areas they control. This deliberate policy threatens more than 2 million  people with starvation in Rakhine State. Over 500,000 belong to the remaining Rohingya community. The destruction of agricultural equipment and the contamination of land with landmines and unexploded ordnance are resulting in rising famine .   The survival of Rohingya people confined to Myanmar internment camps depends on international humanitarian aid. Myanmar authorities refuse to allow the distribution of food and medicine to Myanmar. More than 25,000  people in Pauktaw Township are deprived of food, leading to deaths from starvation.   Denial of humanitarian access is one of the official elements  of the Tatmadaw's 'Four Cuts' military strategy . This tactic consists of deliberately targeting unarmed civilians in order to prevent and deter them from supporting or joining the resistance. When starvation deliberately targets a specific ethnic and religious group, as is the case for the Rohingya community, it is an act of genocide.   Due to Myanmar’s apartheid system maintained by the ruling military junta, through the denial of Rohingya citizenship and deprivation of their freedom of movement, Myanmar is at Stage 3: Discrimination. Due to Myanmar’s deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid intended for the Rohingya community, Myanmar is committing the crime of  Stage 8: Persecution.  Due to the systematic killing of Rohingya people, Genocide Watch considers Myanmar to be at Stage 9: Extermination . Myanmar is committing Genocide against the Rohingya ethnic and religious group.   Genocide Watch recommends that: ●      Nations with universal jurisdiction should prosecute the Myanmar generals primarily responsible for past and present genocide against the Rohingya and other ethnic groups. ●      The International Criminal Court (ICC) should ask all ICC States-Parties and the UN Security Council to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrants against General Min Aung Hlaing for his crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution, and the crime of genocide against the Rohingya people. ●      Myanmar's neighboring countries should take effective measures to ensure the safe passage and protection of Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution and genocide in Myanmar. ●      Bangladesh must ratify the international conventions on refugees. ●      Bangladesh authorities must stop pressuring Rohingya to return to Myanmar. ●      Bangladesh should allow the Rohingya living in camps near Cox’s Bazar and elsewhere full access to education, freedom of movement, and self-support through work. ●      Donor nations should devote more resources to helping Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Associated Press January 27, 2025 By JOSEPH FALZETTA South Sudan’s army has launched a brutal military operation against opposition forces after recent territorial losses South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Copyright AP Photo / Brian Inganga NAIROBI, Kenya -- NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — South Sudan’s army, following territorial losses in recent weeks, has announced a major military operation against opposition forces, raising fears for civilian safety. In a statement on Sunday, army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said Operation Enduring Peace would commence and ordered civilians to evacuate three counties in Jonglei state immediately. He directed aid groups to leave within 48 hours. Koang told The Associated Press on Monday that the operation aims to recapture towns recently seized by opposition forces and “reestablish law and order.” The announcement came a day after a senior army commander was filmed urging his troops to kill civilians and destroy property in the Jonglei offensive, drawing rebuke from the U.N. and others. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, who chairs the African Union Commission, said he felt “deep concern over the deteriorating security situation in parts” of South Sudan. His statement also said Youssouf was "gravely alarmed by reports of inflammatory rhetoric and actions" that could incite violence against civilians. “It is now indisputable: South Sudan has returned to war,” said Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group. “It is incredibly tragic for a country that only grows weaker and poorer.” Here’s what to know about the conflict in South Sudan: Beginning in December, a coalition of opposition forces seized a string of government outposts in central Jonglei, a region that is the homeland of the Nuer ethnic group and an opposition stronghold. Some of those forces are loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar , while others consider themselves part of an ethnic Nuer militia called the White Army. White Army fighters have historically fought alongside Machar but consider themselves a distinct group. Machar, an ethnic Nuer, was made the most senior of five vice presidents under a 2018 peace agreement that ended fighting between his forces and those loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, the country’s largest group. That five-year civil war was waged largely along ethnic lines, killing an estimated 400,000 people. But there has been a resurgence of violence in the past year, with sporadic fighting. Machar was suspended last year as South Sudan’s No. 2 after White Army fighters overran a military garrison in the town of Nasir . He now faces treason and other charges over that attack, which authorities allege Machar helped orchestrate. But Machar’s allies and some international observers say the charges are politically motivated. He remains under house arrest while his trial unfolds slowly in the capital, Juba. Machar’s trial is widely seen as a violation of the 2018 peace agreement . Yet Kiir and his allies say the agreement is still being implemented, pointing to a faction of the opposition still in the unity government. Forces loyal to Machar have declared the agreement dead, and have since ratcheted up pressure on the army by seizing armories and launching hit-and-run attacks on government positions. The government has relied largely on aerial bombardments to beat back a rebellion that analysts say is gaining momentum across multiple states. After seizing the government outpost of Pajut in Jonglei on Jan. 16, opposition forces threatened to advance toward Juba. The government has responded by amassing fighters in nearby Poktap, while several thousand Ugandan soldiers defend Juba. Army chief Paul Nang gave his troops one week to “crush the rebellion” in Jonglei. On Saturday, a day before the army announced its offensive, a senior military commander was filmed urging his forces to kill all civilians and destroy property during operations in Jonglei. It was not clear who took the video, which has been shared on social media. “Spare no lives,” Gen. Johnson Olony told forces in Duk county, not far from Pajut. “When we arrive there, don’t spare an elderly, don’t spare a chicken, don’t spare a house or anything.” Armed groups in South Sudan, including the military, have repeatedly been implicated in civilian abuses, including sexual violence and forced recruitment. Olony’s comments were particularly aggressive, and drew concern. “We are shocked, we are disturbed, we are surprised,” said Edmund Yakani, a prominent civic leader. Olony’s words showed that government troops were being “empowered to commit atrocities, to commit crimes against humanity, and, potentially, even to commit a genocide,” he said. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed “grave alarm” at developments that it said “significantly heighten the risk of mass violence against civilians.” Machar’s political group said in a statement that Olony’s words were an “early indicator of genocidal intent.” Speaking to the AP, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny called Olony’s comments “uncalled for” and “a slip of the tongue.” But he also said that while it was possible Olony was “trying to boost the morale of his forces,” his words are not indicative of government policy. Olony, appointed assistant chief of defense forces for mobilization and disarmament a year ago, also leads a militia, known as the Agwelek, from his Shilluk tribe that agreed to integrate into the army last year. Olony’s deployment to Nuer communities is contentious because of a separate rivalry between the Shilluk and Nuer communities. In 2022, White Army fighters razed Shilluk villages and displaced thousands of civilians before the government intervened with attack helicopters. Olony’s forces were also involved in military operations in other Nuer communities last year. Deploying him to Jonglei “is incendiary,” said Joshua Craze, an independent analyst and writer on South Sudan. “His presence in the state is a propaganda gift to the opposition in its mobilization efforts.” © 2026 ABC News

by Kay Armin Serjoie, Roxana Saberi, and Fatemeh Jamalpour Candles are placed next to printed portraits of some of the civilians killed in protests in Iran on Jan. 24, in Inner Alster, Hamburg.Gregor Fischer—AP As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME—indicating a dramatic surge in the death toll. So many people were slaughtered by Iranian security services on that Thursday and Friday, it overwhelmed the state’s capacity to dispose of the dead. Stocks of body bags were exhausted, the officials said, and eighteen-wheel semi-trailers replaced ambulances. The government’s internal count of the dead, not previously revealed, far surpasses the toll of 3,117 announced on Jan. 21 by regime hardliners who report directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. (Ministries report to the elected President.) The 30,000 figure is also far beyond tallies being compiled by activists methodically assigning names to the dead. As of Saturday, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed 5,459 deaths and is investigating 17,031 more. TIME has been unable to independently verify these figures. The Health Ministry’s two-day figure roughly aligns with a count gathered by physicians and first responders, and also shared with TIME. That surreptitious tally of deaths recorded by hospitals stood at 30,304 as of Friday, according to Dr. Amir Parasta, a German-Iranian eye surgeon who prepared a report of the data. Parasta said that number does not reflect protest-related deaths of people registered at military hospitals, whose bodies were taken directly to morgues, or that happened in locales the inquiry did not reach. Iran’s National Security Council has said protests took place in around 4,000 locations across the country. “We are getting closer to reality,” Dr. Parasta said. “But I guess the real figures are still way higher.” That appears to be the reality implicit in the government’s internal figure of more than 30,000 deaths in two days. A slaughter on that scale, in the space of 48 hours, had experts on mass killing groping for comparisons. “Most spasms of killing are not from shootings,” said Les Roberts, a professor at Columbia University who specializes in the epidemiology of violent death. “In Aleppo [Syria] and in Fallujah [Iraq], when spasms of death this high have occurred over a few days, it involved mostly explosives with some shooting.” The only parallel offered by online databases occurred in the Holocaust. On the outskirts of Kyiv on Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, Nazi death squads executed 33,000 Ukrainian Jews by gunshot in a ravine known as Babyn Yar . In Iran, the killing fields extended across the country where, since Dec. 28, hundreds of thousands of citizens had assembled in the streets chanting first, for relief from an economy in freefall, and soon for the downfall of the Islamic regime. During the first week, security forces confronted some demonstrations, using mostly non-lethal force, but with officials also offering conciliatory language, the regime response was uncertain. That changed during the weekend commencing Jan. 8. Protests peaked, as opposition groups, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, urged people to join the throngs, and U.S. President Donald Trump repeated vows to protect them , though no help arrived. Witnesses say millions were in the streets when authorities shut down the internet and all other communications with the outside world. Rooftop snipers and trucks mounted with heavy machine guns opened fire, according to eyewitnesses and cell phone footage. On Friday, Jan. 9, an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on state television to anyone venturing into the streets, “if … a bullet hits you, don’t complain.” It took days for the reality to penetrate the internet blackout. Images of the bloodied bodies trickled out via illicit Starlink satellite internet connections. The task of counting the dead was hampered, however, because the authorities had also cut off lines of communications inside Iran. The first firm information came from a Tehran doctor who told TIME that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths after Thursday’s assault. Health care workers in Iran estimated at least 16,500 protesters had been killed by Jan. 10, according to an earlier report by Dr. Parasta in Munich. Friday’s update built on that research, he said. “I am genuinely impressed by how quickly this work was pulled together under extremely constrained and risky conditions,” said Paul B. Spiegel, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University International School of Health. Like Roberts, he expressed wariness of extrapolating from the figures provided by hospitals.  Roberts, who traveled into war zones to research civilian death rates in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo , said, “the 30,000 verified deaths are almost certainly an underestimate.” The emergence of the Ministry of Health numbers appears to confirm that—while underscoring the stakes for both Iranians and a regime that, in 1979, came to power when a sitting government was confronted by millions of people demanding its downfall. On Friday, Jan. 9, Sahba Rashtian, an aspiring animation artist, joined friends on the streets in Isfahan, a city in central Iran famous for its beauty. "Before anyone started chanting," a friend told TIME, "Sahba was seen collapsed on the ground. Her sister noticed blood on her hand.” Sahba died on an operating table at a nearby hospital. She was 23. “She always joked about her beautiful name,” her friend said. “She’d laugh and say, ‘Sahba means wine, and I am forbidden in the Islamic Republic.’” At the burial, the friend said, religious rites were barred, and Rashtian’s father wore white.  “Congratulations,” he told mourners, according to the friend. “My daughter became a martyr on the path to freedom.” © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Nigeria’s Official Strategy of Denial of Another Church Attack TruthNigeria January 21, 2026 By Mary Kiara   Cherubim and Saraphim Church was vandalized during the attack. Photo by Mike Odeh James. Officials dismissed eyewitness accounts and delayed confirmation as Christian worshippers were marched into captivity. (Kaduna) – When armed Fulani militants stormed three churches in Kurmin Wali, southern Kaduna State, during Sunday worship on January 18, congregants fled into surrounding forests, captives were marched away at gunpoint, and survivors began calling security agencies for help. Within hours, Nigeria’s security officials publicly declared that  no kidnapping had occurred.  For more on how the media amplified the official narrative see: How Nigeria’s Mainstream Media Amplified Official Denials of a Mass Kidnapping. Two days later, police confirmed that at least 166 Christian worshippers had been abducted. What unfolded between those statements, the denials, dismissals, and eventual reversal has become a case study in how violence against Christians in Nigeria is first questioned , then minimized , and only later acknowledged , often after critical time has been lost. Eyewitnesses Speak, Officials Deny Church leaders and residents reported that Fulani ethnic militants arrived on motorcycles around 9 a.m., split into groups, and attacked three churches simultaneously. “They surrounded the church and warned that anyone who ran would be shot,” said Yunana Dauji, secretary of a Cherubim and Seraphim congregation in Kurmin Wali. Despite these accounts, Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu initially dismissed the reports as falsehoods spread by what he called “conflict entrepreneurs,” publicly challenging critics to “produce names.” “We mobilized police and other security forces to Kurmin Wali and found no evidence of any attack.” Rabiu told reporters. Local government officials echoed the claim, insisting no kidnapping had occurred. However, TruthNigeria sent a reporter to the village and produced names from survivors and escapees of the kidnapping . Verification Comes After the Damage On Tuesday night, the Nigerian Police Force reversed course, issuing a statement confirming that a mass abduction had taken place. Police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said earlier remarks were intended to “prevent panic” while facts were being verified. By then, survivors said, abductors had already moved captives deeper into forest terrain. “Nigeria’s police are under pressure to project control,” said Dave Oladapo, a security expert. “In that environment, some incidents are denied first and acknowledged later. Unfortunately, that delay benefits attackers, not victims.” Why Denial Comes First Human rights observers say the Kurmin Wali response follows a familiar pattern. “When incidents involve churches, denial is often the default response,” Anuhe Aba, a Journalist told TruthNigeria. “Eyewitnesses are treated as unreliable until the state confirms what already happened.” The abduction came amid weeks of documented attacks across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including killings, church raids, and mass kidnappings. According to the Open Doors World Watch List 2025, Nigeria accounted for 72 percent of Christians killed worldwide  for their faith last year. Yet Nigerian officials continue to reject religious framing, describing the violence as generalized criminality. Narrative Before Rescue The chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, John Joseph Hayab, said security agencies were notified immediately after the attack, making the denials especially troubling. “The moment the incident happened, security agencies were informed,” Hayab said. “Instead of pursuing the kidnappers, time was spent disputing whether the crime even occurred.” Hayab said denial undermined rescue efforts. “The time spent disputing numbers should have been used to pursue the abductors. Instead, they were allowed to move freely.” Civil society investigators attempting to visit Kurmin Wali were later blocked by a military convoy, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria. From Denial to Quiet Confirmation After confirmation, police announced deployments and search operations. Officials said earlier denials had been “misinterpreted” and were merely provisional statements pending verification. “Earlier remarks were not a denial of the incident but a measured response pending confirmation of details from the field, including the identities and number of those affected.” No accountability was announced. The absence of consequences drew comparisons to earlier incidents in which official denials were later reversed. “This mirrors what happened after the 2020 Lekki Toll Gate shootings,” said Samira Ruth, a Lagos-based activist. “The government and security operatives denied what the world could already see.” “Nigeria has a problem with accountability and we see it all the time.” Isa Sanusi, director Amnesty International Nigeria has accused the Bola Tinubu government  of not doing enough to safeguard the lives of citizens. “This clearly shows President Bola Tinubu and his government have no effective plan to end years of atrocities by armed groups and gunmen that killed thousands of people.” Why Ambiguity Works Media analysts say ambiguity is not accidental, it is strategic. “When facts are contested long enough, public urgency fades,” Aba said. “Without consensus, democratic societies stall.” The tactic is not unique to Nigeria. In the 1930s, New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty dismissed reports of mass starvation in Ukraine, helping obscure one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities. Today, critics say similar dynamics appear when eyewitness testimony is subordinated to official reassurance. Seun Ambrose, a global affairs analyst told TruthNigeria, “Duranty did not need to disprove eyewitness reports of famine in Ukraine; he simply introduced doubt, amplified official denials, and delayed moral clarity. That delay cost millions of lives.” Ambrose said Nigeria’s reported $9 million lobbying contract in Washington reflects a similar logic. “You don’t spend that kind of money to change facts,” he said. “You spend it to confuse policymakers long enough that action never comes.” “The objective is ambiguity. If lawmakers are unsure whether persecution is real or exaggerated, they default to inaction. That is the payoff.” As of this writing, 166 worshippers remain in captivity. Their abduction is no longer disputed. But the time lost to denial, hours when rescue might have been possible cannot be recovered. Mary Kiara is a conflict reporter for TruthNigeria.   Copyright 2026 TruthNigeria

Copyright Danylo Antoniuk/2026 The AP. All rights reserved By  Gavin Blackburn Published on 22/01/2026 - 15:35 GMT+1 Russia has repeatedly hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure throughout the nearly four-year war, but Kyiv says this winter has been the toughest yet. The CEO of Ukraine's largest energy provider DTEK is in Davos and spoke to Euronews about what an energy ceasefire can mean for Ukrainians. Maksym Timchenko's comments come a day after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that around 4,000 buildings in the capital Kyiv were still without heating and most of the city was cut off from electricity after Russian strikes earlier in the week. "We passed three winters and we will pass fourth winter during the war But the question is, at what price? At what level of sufferings of our people," Timchenko said. "So, the situation is extremely difficult. We need support. We need help. And that's the reason why we have a lot of meetings here with energy companies and with other stakeholders who can support us in this emergency situation. And now we are in survival mode, actually." Russia has repeatedly hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure throughout the nearly four-year war, but Kyiv says this winter has been the toughest yet, with hundreds of Russian drones and missiles overwhelming air defences during particularly fierce frosts. DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko speaking to Euronews in Davos, 22 January, 2026 Euronews The situation also remained difficult across the country, including in the Sumy, Chernigiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv regions, Zelenskyy added. Zelenskyy announced a "state of emergency" in the country's energy sector last week, with Kyiv schools remaining closed, street lights dimmed and roughly half a million residents leaving the capital. More than 1,000 Ukrainians have been taken to hospital with frostbite and hypothermia over the past 30 days, the health ministry said, adding that the situation could "become threatening if temperatures drop or weather conditions worsen". Germany called the Russian winter airstrikes against energy infrastructure "war crimes." Timchenko urged other countries to see Ukraine as an example of how critical it is to protect energy infrastructure, particularly in winter. "This level of destruction has never been seen for the energy system as we have in Ukraine, not in the modern history. That's why it's difficult to understand. Not even general public, but even for energy specialists, for CEOs,” he told Euronews. A volunteer serves free hot food to Kyiv residents during a blackout caused by Russia's regular air attacks on the country's energy system, 21 January, 2026 AP Photo With temperatures falling as low as minus 20 C in Kyiv, Ukraine is seeing one of the coldest winters in years, deepening the hardship of Ukrainians almost four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Kyiv authorities have set up hundreds of tents across the city, where people can warm up and get hot food and drink. Russia has been pounding Ukraine's energy system since the start of its invasion, in what Kyiv says is an attempt to sap morale and weaken Ukrainians' resistance. The Kremlin says it only targets Ukrainian military facilities and has blamed the continuation of the war on Kyiv for refusing to accept its peace demands. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two top Russian military officials over the attacks on Ukraine's energy grid. Copyright © euronews 2026

Group links attack to China’s ‘crimes’ against Uighurs. Beijing urges Taliban government to protect its nationals. Workers clean up the scene, and Taliban police secure the area on January 20, 2026, after an explosion a day earlier at a Chinese restaurant, right, killed at least seven people, including a Chinese national, in Kabul, Afghanistan [Siddiqullah Alizai/AP] ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for an explosion at a Chinese restaurant in Afghanistan’s capital that killed at least seven people. The group said in a statement posted on its Aamaq news agency late on Monday that a suicide bomber entered a restaurant in Kabul frequented by Chinese nationals and detonated an explosive vest. ISIL’s statement, which claimed 25 people were killed or wounded in the blast, including Taliban guards, linked the attack to “growing crimes by the Chinese government against Uighurs” and issued a further threat against Chinese nationals in the country. Ministry of Interior spokesperson Mufti Abdul Mateen Qani said on Tuesday that the cause of the explosion at the Chinese Noodle restaurant in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw area was “unknown so far and is being investigated”. Police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said the blast killed a Chinese national, identified only as Ayub, and six Afghans. The restaurant serving the Chinese Muslim community was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim man, Abdul Majid, his wife and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, Zadran said. Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a news briefing that five Chinese nationals were injured, requesting that Afghanistan “spare no effort” in treating the wounded and take measures to protect the safety of its citizens and investments. China, which shares a 76km (47-mile) border with Afghanistan, has close ties with the Taliban government, and Chinese business visitors have flocked to the country since the group took control of war-torn Afghanistan in 2021. Beijing denies claims by rights groups that it is guilty of widespread abuses of the Uighurs , a mainly Muslim ethnic minority group numbering about 10 million who make up most of the population of China’s far western region of Xinjiang. Despite Taliban promises to restore security, bomb attacks have continued in the country, many of them claimed by the local affiliate of ISIL. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Raziya Masumi Since December 2025, Iran has witnessed a new wave of protests that initially emerged from the country’s working class. What began as labor-centered demonstrations soon evolved into a nationwide social movement. Workers, facing chronic economic hardship, unpaid wages, inflation, and deteriorating living conditions, raised their voices to demand fundamental rights. However, these demands rapidly transcended economic grievances and turned into broader calls for political change. As the protests spread beyond factories and workplaces, diverse social groups joined the movement. Students, women, professionals, and marginalized communities collectively expressed their frustration with systemic corruption, lack of political freedom, and social injustice. This expansion reflected a deep-rooted public dissatisfaction with the ruling system and its authoritarian governance. One of the most significant aspects of these protests was the emergence of direct slogans against Iran’s Supreme Leader. Such expressions are highly symbolic within the Iranian political context, as they challenge the very foundation of the regime’s authority. The protesters’ chants signaled not only discontent with government policies but a broader rejection of authoritarian rule. Full report:

By Tom Bateman January 18, 2026 BBC accompanies ICE observer on the lookout for agents in Minneapolis With 1,500 troops reportedly on standby to deploy to Minnesota, tensions are rising in the state as protests continue against Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. US officials say they are targeting the "worst of the worst" but critics warn migrants with no criminal record and US citizens are being detained, too. "It could be anybody," says Sunshine, as she drives around her neighbourhood, St Paul - one of the so-called Twin Cities, along with Minneapolis. Snow and ice swirl over the tarmac in the bitter wind. Sunshine is not her real name - she has asked to use a pseudonym because of fears she could be targeted for her actions. "I have decided for my own safety to give them more space," she says, referring to the unmarked patrol cars ahead, driven by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents she is trying to track. Each day, residents in loosely organised groups drive around their neighbourhoods trying to spot ICE agents and film them, they say, to hold them to account. "I, we, have the legal right to drive on the streets of our own city and we have the legal rights to observe [the ICE agents], but they seem to have forgotten that," Sunshine says. The streets of Minneapolis feel like a battle of wills between a Republican president pressing the boundaries of his power and a Democratic city and state pushing back. This week as the temperature plummeted, protests intensified against ICE agents outside the federal building hosting them. Minnesota officials have urged protesters to stay orderly and peaceful, and local officials have said the majority have stayed trouble-free. But at times there have been clashes, with the authorities deploying tear gas and pepper balls to disperse crowds. On Friday, a US federal judge issued an order limiting the crowd control tactics that can be used by ICE agents toward peaceful protesters in Minneapolis. Judge Katherine Menendez said federal agents cannot arrest or pepper spray peaceful demonstrators , including those monitoring or observing ICE agents. Trump has vowed to press on with his mass deportation drive in Minnesota, with thousands of federal agents deployed to the state. Many of them were sent in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman, Renée Good, 37, by an ICE agent on 7 January. The circumstances surrounding her death remain contested , with the Trump administration saying the ICE agent who shot her acted in self-defence, while local officials argue the woman was attempting to leave and posed no danger. The FBI is investigating the shooting, but officials in Minnesota say they have been denied access to evidence. Good's killing has focused the minds of many members of this community who are determined to reverse Trump's campaign. In her car, Sunshine spots two unmarked vehicles with darkened windows containing ICE agents. We follow them to a nearby neighbourhood, where the two cars proceed to drive slowly and repeatedly around the block in circles, in what is seemingly a diversion tactic to take Sunshine away from a shopping centre immigrants often use. "This is the game. But if they're doing this with me, they're not putting their hands on someone," she says. "So, yes, it's gas money and it's my time and I'm okay with that." The week after Good's death there was a second shooting involving a federal officer in Minneapolis. Reuters The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said an officer shot a man in the leg in Minneapolis after being attacked with a shovel as he tried to make an arrest of a Venezuelan migrant who entered the US illegally. After the incident, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent was "beat up" and "bruised", adding ICE officers were "following protocols that we have used for years" from before the Trump administration. The man's family has disputed the DHS' version of events in an interview with the Washington Post, saying he was shot in the doorway and not during a scuffle in the street. Minneapolis is the fifth major city to be targeted in Trump's immigration crackdown after his election pledge for the biggest deportation operation of undocumented migrants in history. The campaign, which remains popular with most Republicans and especially Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) supporters, has sparked a fierce backlash in the Democrat-led cities where operations are taking place. On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators confronted and chased away a small group attempting to hold a pro-ICE and anti-Islam rally. Counter-protesters converged on the event organised by far-right activist Jake Lang, who was pardoned by Trump after being charged with crimes related to the US Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. Lang had vowed to burn a Quran outside City Hall, however it is not clear if he carried out his plan. Minnesota is home to the largest community of Somali immigrants in the US, the majority of whom are US citizens. The president has said they should "go back to where they came from" and described the community as "garbage". He launched the immigration crackdown in December after some Somali immigrants were convicted in a massive fraud of state welfare programmes. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz recently said he would end his bid for re-election amid the fraud scandal. But he has accused Trump and his allies of seeking to take advantage of the crisis to play politics. Against this backdrop, Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act , a 19th Century law that allows active-duty military personnel to be deployed for law enforcement within the US, to quell the city's resistance to his immigration campaign. On Friday the Justice Department opened a criminal probe into the Democrats Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey , accusing them of attempting to impede federal immigration operations. Walz said the move was "weaponising the justice system against your opponents". In a post on social media, Trump called protesters in the city "traitors, troublemakers and insurrectionists" and accused them of being "in many cases, highly paid professionals". Reuters In response to this characterisation, Sunshine says: "I'm definitely not being paid. "I think that I'm doing what I'm doing because I love my neighbours and watching them being racially profiled in the streets of our own our city." She adds: "We have to protect one another." Federal agents have been accused of racial profiling by observers, something the Trump administration denies. Near a Mexican restaurant, we stop the car and another observer who calls herself Misko gets out of her car, heading towards Sunshine, visibly distressed. The two women embrace. Misko is struggling for breath as she recounts what just happened. "Just around the corner. Two of them blocked me in, then they came out. [One agent] had an assault rifle. He was pounding on my window," she says. DHS officials did not respond to questions from the BBC about the incident. Despite the encounter, Misko later tells me she won't be deterred. With the president also renewing his threat to send in troops, Minneapolis feels in the grip of a deepening crisis, and no-one seems prepared to slow it down. Video emerges of Minneapolis shooting filmed by ICE agent who opened fire Who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by ICE? Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved.

“Tell everyone we are being massacred”: Overlooked war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo By Rawya Rageh 19 December 2025 Amnesty International In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), across a vast swathe of mountainous terrain, a conflict is raging that the world has forgotten. The Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-linked armed group commonly called the ADF, are abducting and killing civilians with alarming frequency, and abusing women and girls as sexual slaves in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The vast majority of these incidents barely make news headlines. As a researcher with Amnesty International’s team tasked with investigating war crimes and abuses in crises, I visited North Kivu last month to document the abuses committed by the ADF. Even as I was traveling from one city to another to speak to witnesses of recent attacks, new hit-and-run incursions were taking place in real time. Men, women and children told me how they ran for their lives as fighters armed with blades and guns descended on their villages. Several shared horror stories about watching loved ones being killed and abducted. Released hostages talked of agonizing spells – sometimes months and years – spent in captivity, practically starved and forced to do various tasks in ADF camps scattered in the region’s thick forests. However, global media coverage about these attacks has been minimal. While I was in eastern Congo, the steady stream of headlines about DRC focused mostly on the US and Qatari-mediated peace processes in relation to the conflict with the Rwanda-backed March 23 Movement (M23). Meanwhile, the territory of Lubero in North Kivu was experiencing a week-long assault during which ADF fighters went from village to village, hacking people to death with machetes and burning down homes and vital facilities. ADF attacks on civilians ADF, which originated in Uganda, has been targeting Congolese civilians since the early 2000s when it moved to eastern DRC. In 2019, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, officially becoming part of an international enterprise. The DRC’s armed forces (FARDC) and their Ugandan counterpart (UPDF) have been engaged in a joint operation against the group since 2021. The UN mission, MONUSCO , has provided support to various Congolese state bodies over the years, though its direct involvement in facing off with the group has had its limitations. With international and domestic attention shifting to M23’s advances in early 2025, the ADF has seized on the diversion of troops and focus. ADF’s signature ruthlessness expanded both in intensity and geographic reach, further accelerating since August, with civilians rather than security forces primarily being on the receiving end. I started my investigation in Beni city, the now de facto capital of North Kivu province that has long suffered from ADF violence. Given the group’s deeper push into Lubero Territory, I also traveled to the city of Butembo to speak with survivors who witnessed one of ADF’s bloodiest attacks this year, the 8 September massacre in Ntoyo village . In that attack, fighters killed more than 60 people, many of whom were attending a funeral wake. Witnesses told me how ADF members had discretely mingled among mourners for hours, before suddenly starting to strike people’s heads with hammers. Throngs of other camouflage-clad fighters soon joined, burning homes and killing more civilians in the village with machetes and guns. Rawya Rageh interviews a survivor of ADF attacks in the DRC. Copyright: Amnesty International On the way to Butembo, I started receiving messages from sources about a new attack in Lubero’s Byambwe village. We reached out to community leaders and human rights defenders to help connect us to witnesses to gather their testimony. Witnesses told me that, as they had in Ntoyo, ADF fighters initially arrived as a nondescript group that included women and children, this time asking for directions to the local hospital.  Then suddenly gunshots rang out at the medical facility. An older person, who managed to escape from the hospital alongside a grandchild, described crawling out of the facility: “You couldn’t stand; they shot at anything that moved.” In total, the fighters killed more than 30 people, including 17 at the health facility. The fighters did not stop at Byambwe; their rampage continued for days. We held our interviews in Butembo at a medical facility and bodies of ADF victims kept arriving at its morgue during our visit. At one point, we saw relatives packing a body bag into a casket to take it for burial. Grief engulfed not only the mourners, but also the hospital staff who told me of their horror at the string of killings. One said: “Tell everyone we are being massacred.”  The sense of helplessness was clear in the hospital worker’s tone. It echoed the sentiments of scores of victims with whom I spoke. One group that particularly felt abandoned were the girls and women abducted by the group and forced into “marriages” with ADF fighters. I spoke to six survivors – the “choice”, they were told, was to accept or be killed. Most escaped from a life of sexual slavery and domestic servitude after operations by FARDC and UPDF that targeted their camps. But they remained shackled by suspicious looks and whispers from their neighbors in their villages, they said. Those who came home with children described how their own families have rejected the little ones. One woman said pressure by family members to kill her own child almost drove her to taking her own life. These testimonies highlighted the prolonged impact of the group’s violence and the hidden struggle of thousands of victims who need significant and multifaceted support and do not have it. Civilians must be protected The international community must step up efforts to support the Congolese authorities to assist survivors, protect civilians and investigate and prosecute ADF’s pervasive war crimes. Despite shortcomings, MONUSCO’s support to Congolese authorities should continue – something the UN Security Council, led by France as the penholder on this file, must bear in mind when the mission’s mandate is up for renewal this month. In UN hallways, there are whispers that not much shocks anymore when it comes to DRC. But civilians being systematically abducted and murdered with such frequency should not be seen as just another day in eastern DRC. A comprehensive approach to security, justice and accountability is needed. The world cannot continue to ignore the brutality being meted out by the ADF in eastern DRC. As one survivor told me: “How much more must we suffer before this ends?” © 2025 Amnesty International

Released on January 15, 2025 The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security is deeply alarmed and saddened by the state-sanctioned murder  of Renee Nicole Good, 37, on 7 January 2026 by an Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ms. Good was a U.S. citizen. She leaves behind her wife and three children. We extend our deepest condolences to the Good family and condemn state violence against civilians in all its forms.    Ms. Good is not ICE’s first  murder victim this year. On New Year’s Eve, shortly after midnight, an off-duty ICE agent murdered  43-year-old father and U.S. citizen Keith Porter in his front yard. Immigration agents have  shot at least six people  in their cars since last July, two of them fatally, including Ms. Good. The other person killed was Silverio Villegas González , a father and  a cook, who was shot during ICE’s operation in Chicago last fall. 2025 was ICE’s “ deadliest year in more than two decades ,” according to UK newspaper The Guardian . 32 people died in ICE custody, and that may be an undercount. The Lemkin Institute is fearful that the list will grow longer as ICE continues to enjoy ever-increasing power and impunity bestowed by the fascist forces it is working to uphold. It is important to remember that ICE is shooting and killing people during military-style operations against Americans of all legal statuses that are entirely unnecessary for public safety or national security. The Administration’s hysteria about “illegals” is completely fabricated for the purpose of destroying America’s already enfeebled democratic institutions.   At the time of her murder, Renee Good was acting as a Good Samaritan. She was bearing witness to injustice and seeking to protect her community, her neighbors, and her family from the brutal tactics of ICE. She was not protesting, she was not blocking vehicles, she was stopped behind a car and watching.    The Lemkin Institute will not offer a full analysis of the videos that have been circulating since her death. Other outlets  have already done initial forensic analyses . However, we think certain points are quite important, given the U.S. government’s refusal  to investigate. Good encountered a block full of heavily armed ICE officers and vehicles on a street in her neighborhood after she and her wife dropped off their 6-year-old at school. Good, who was driving, apparently stopped her car behind another vehicle, which appears to belong to ICE and which she would have to try to drive around. ICE officers quickly and aggressively approached her vehicle and began pulling on the driver’s side door, telling her to get out. When Good tried to drive away from the officers, she was shot three times at close range .   In his own video  of the event, the ICE officer responsible for the shooting can be heard shouting “fucking bitch” at Ms. Good after fatally shooting her.    After the shooting ICE prevented  a doctor from tending to her wounds and did not allow an ambulance to get close to the scene. Emergency personnel were forced to approach her body on foot, with no room even for a stretcher.   The U.S. government immediately attempted to explain away this crime with lies and propaganda that targeted Ms. Good and her wife as agents provocateurs. At 12:45pm, only about three hours after the shooting, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement  on social media that read in part: “[R]ioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism. An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.” There is no evidence of a riot or that any ICE officers were hurt in the course of murdering Ms. Good. DHS made this decisive statement of fact without any investigation at all.   At 2:28pm, President Trump, in response to a witness video of the event, wrote  on Truth Social, “the woman screaming [unclear whom he means] was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car [Good] was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed  that Mrs. Good was attempting to run over ICE agents. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s attempts to get away from aggressive ICE agents an “act of domestic terrorism” and also suggested that the killer, Jonathan Ross,  who served in the Indiana National Guard from 2002-2008, and as a machine gunner in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, and who has been a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, was acting in “self defense.” In addition to reiterating the “self defense” justification, Vice President J.D. Vance asserted that, as a federal agent, Ross also acted with " absolute immunity, ” which is not at all true .    On January 13 DHS posted on social media a video  of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller assuring ICE agents that they have absolute immunity , which DHS posted, in its words, as a “reminder.”. This is a clear promise from the Administration that ICE agents will not be held accountable for anything that they do to Americans of any legal status.    Multiple witness accounts, videos, local news outlets, and the mayor of Minneapolis have disputed  DHS’ recounting of events. Given the fact base now available, it seems impossible  to argue that Good was attempting to harm anyone. In fact, she appears to have been attempting to avoid harm. Shortly before she was accosted by officers, she can be seen waving one ICE car to pass in front of her car and can be heard saying “I’m pulling out.” Four cars had easily passed by her car  in the two minutes leading up to the shooting. Seconds before ICE agent Ross killed her, Good spoke to him directly from her car, saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” a clear attempt at deescalation. No video has yet been released to the public showing the killer’s face and demeanor just before he shot Ms. Good, but it appears from existing footage that in the seconds before she tried to pull away, agent Ross was escalating the situation and, given her wife’s panicked words to her (“Drive, baby. Drive!”), he and the other officers seem to have given the impression that they posed a serious threat.   The murder of Ms. Good is a terrifying and tragic outcome of ICE’s authoritarian training, its brutal tactics, and its total impunity, which has led it to treat all human life as expendable. Until Good’s murder, ICE’s victims were largely people of color, so most white Americans were able to tolerate it, even if they disagreed with it. But, as this tragedy teaches, racist violence against people of color – especially when it has a genocidal edge that creates a culture of norm inversion among foot soldiers – rarely stays neatly contained. Ms. Good’s murder in fact exposes the contempt that many ICE agents have for American citizens, no matter what their color, and the special contempt they have for women and the LGBTQ+ community. All of this has been built over decades of bipartisan militarization of the U.S. police forces, which helps explain why the Democratic Party has been weak and ineffectual in resisting the violence unleashed by the Trump regime since January 2025 and why so many Americans are seemingly unbothered by it, at least so long as the torture, disappearances, and murders have remained the problem of people of color.    In ICE’s brutal and cruel acts since Renee Good’s shooting, and in the many Americans who are celebrating it on social media, we see the lethal confluence of three important historical trajectories 1. America’s white supremacist history of genocide and especially its slave patrols, which became today’s modern police forces; 2. Bipartisan “tough on crime” language and laws that, since the Reagan and especially the Clinton presidential administrations, have created a for-profit mass incarceration state involving several interlocking and very profitable worlds of cruelty where human life is ritually abused and thrown away; and 3. A full year of authoritarian state building, with all the violence that it involves, which has been virtually unimpeded by elected officials in either of the two political parties. These three historical trajectories have had an enormous and compounding impact on American civic life and values.    Most importantly, Renee Good’s murder stands as a warning to all Americans that even minor acts of resistance can now be punished with lethal force by government agents. The Trump Administration’s immediate and coordinated response in support of Jonathan Ross is a very clear message: Even if you are white , we have the power to kill you when you do not stay silent and allow us to harm your neighbors, and there is nothing you can do about it.    Citizenship means very little within the current administration’s understanding of power.   We believe that Ms. Good’s murder, and the subsequent attempts  by the U.S. government to characterize it as a legitimate response to “domestic terrorism” that enjoys “absolute immunity,” together constitute a watershed moment in the Trump Administration’s relationship to the U.S. body politic and the U.S. Constitution. The White House has essentially set itself up as the enemy of the American people and has declared war on them and on the promise of the U.S. Constitution, particularly the core belief expressed in the Declaration of Independence  that all human beings are “created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”    The opportunity to turn things around in the U.S. is rapidly disappearing. Courageous Americans have been out on the streets since President Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard to some U.S. cities in the summer of 2025, but they have not been supported by the so-called opposition party and its party leaders , particularly Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), perhaps because those two representatives agree with President Trump’s blind support for Israel’s genocide and prioritize that commitment over all others. There are no indications that the Democratic Party leadership is changing direction in 2026.   Good’s murder occurred in the context of rising tensions across the country and particularly in Minnesota around ICE’s undemocratic terror tactics. At the beginning of December, the Trump administration deployed hundreds of federal agents to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area as part of “ Operation Metro Surge .” At the beginning of this year, DHS dramatically increased ICE’s presence in Minnesota, with 2,000 agents  being deployed in what acting ICE director Todd Lyons has deemed the “ largest immigration operation ever .” Lyons stated in an interview with NewsMax that the role of increased ICE presence was to “ root out fraud ” and “arrest criminals,” referring to viral false allegations of daycare fraud related to Somali communities. In the lead up to Good’s murder, news outlets reported several disturbing incidents of federal agents terrorizing communities and employing violence not only against their targets, but also nearby witnesses to their operations. Federal agents targeted  an undergraduate student outside a residence hall at Augsburg University without producing a warrant and drew weapons on staff and students witnessing the arrest. Agents had also been reported pepper-spraying crowds as well as tasing and detaining witnesses (including U.S. citizens) whom they claim to be “interfering with operations.” In this  environment of increased militarized state presence and escalating state-sanctioned violence against communities, a federal agent can murder a U.S. citizen with the support of the state and be sure that the state will be quick to demonize victims and deploy the justifications of “domestic terror” and “self defense.”    This state-sanctioned violence has only continued to escalate in the wake of Good’s murder. President Trump has threatened  that a “day of reckoning and retribution” is coming to Minnesota. Demonstrations  against ICE presence and operations taking place in multiple cities across Minnesota have been met with shocking brutality  from federal agents. The Bishop Whipple  Federal Building in Minneapolis, which serves as a base of operations for ICE, has been a focal point for protests. Federal agents have detained  and employed flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper balls  against protestors and legal observers alerting their community to ICE presence and documenting interactions. One woman was dragged  from her car by federal agents after they smashed her car’s window and used knives to cut her out of her seatbelt. Former Army combat vets and community members Chelsea Kane and Courtney Azar who have documented ICE activity in Minnesota claim  that they’ve witnessed increasing incidents of aggressive and violent detainments only for people to be released shortly afterwards in addition to ICE going door to door in neighborhoods. Kane explains , "They're doing random arrests. They're not doing warranted searches, they're not doing warranted arrests, they're not going after illegals, they're going after anyone who looks like an 'other.'"     Minnesota is a reflection of similar dynamics and tactics being employed in cities across the U.S., particularly cities deemed “immigrant friendly” by the Trump Administration. Hyper-miltarized mass deportation operations carried out by federal agents in states like Illinois, Oregon, California, New York, New Jersey, Idaho, Connecticut, Indiana, Texas, and North Carolina have resulted in mass human rights violations, including unlawful arrest, excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, and denial of due process (see our monthly human security briefs ). The escalating violence against bystanders and legal observers and the Trump Administration’s quick move to label Good a “domestic terrorist” is in line with the Administration’s earlier broadening of its definition of “domestic terror.” In October 2025, the Trump Administration passed an executive order  designating “antifa” a domestic terror organization and a sweeping national security presidential memorandum, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence , known as the NSPM-7 (See full statement ). In this order and presidential memorandum, the definition of “domestic terror” is defined  broadly as being “anti-American,” “anti-capitalist,” “anti-Christian,” “in support of the overthrow of the U.S. government,” “extremist on migration, race, and gender,” and “hostile towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” NSPM-7  adds to this broad definition by introducing the concept of “politically motivated terrorist acts” which it defines as “organized doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder.” With these sweeping yet vague definitions of “terror,” the Trump Administration can easily demonize anyone it deems undesirable and incompatible with MAGA ideology, and justify violent actions taken against what they perceive as dissent, which has now become criminalized. This extralegal environment sets the stage for future state-sanctioned murders like that of Renee Good to be carried out with impunity.    The Lemkin Institute urges state authorities in Minnesota to effect the arrest and prosecution of the ICE officer Jonathan Ross for the killing of Renee Good. We further urge the U.S. Congress to establish a truth commission to investigate the facts of Renee Good’s murder alongside the ICE-related murders of all other Americans, documented and undocumented, at least since January 2025.  The Lemkin Institute commends the effective organizing of communities nationwide who have responded to this heinous act and urges caution and vigilance to those who, like Renee Good, bravely show up to  protect  their communities. The Trump Administration appears to be radicalizing quickly now with President Trump threatening  to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops to Minnesota. It is very important to remain disciplined and not engage with the Administration’s attempts to instigate a bloodbath. The Lemkin Institute urges the beleaguered American people to  stay unified in the face of this abuse of power, demonstrate solidarity with their neighbors, and continue to bear witness to state crimes. Diligently keep recording the truth, loudly express dissent, and work to protect our immigrant communities and the integrity of our Constitutional order. The world and history are watching as we near a point of no return in this Administration’s march towards dictatorship and genocide. © 2025

Protests began over the fall in value of the currency have grown into wider demonstrations and calls for the fall of Iran’s clerical establishment By Kate Lamb Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, 9 January 2026. Photograph: AP Escalating protests have swept through Iran in recent weeks, sparked by an economic crisis that has evolved into a widespread anti-government movement, and one of the most destabilising episodes of unrest the Iranian regime has faced in years. Despite the internet blackout, reports have emerged that at least 2,000 people have been killed during the demonstrations, with hundreds of protesters sustaining gun shot wounds to the head and eyes . The Iranian government has accused the US of seeking to manufacture a pretext for military intervention, as US president Donald Trump has pledged that “help is on its way”. Here is what we know so far: Donald Trump has said the US “will take very strong action” against Iran if the regime starts to execute people as part of their crackdown on the spiralling protests. Trump told CBS News: “When they start killing thousands of people – and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them.” Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old man arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday , according to the Iranian Kurdish rights group, Hengaw. Authorities had told the family that the death sentence was final, Hengaw reported, citing a source close to the family. The US president has urged the protests to continue, and again suggested US military action could follow . “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! … help is on its way,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White House press secretary said airstrikes were among “many, many options” the US president was considering. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the protests – more than 90% of whom were demonstrators – and over 16,700 people have been arrested, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said. Doctors in Iran have described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who had been shot. One ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries from gunshots in a single hospital. The US state department has said US citizens should leave Iran now and “if safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or Türkiye”. The US virtual embassy for Iran says citizens should “plan alternative means of communication” due to “continued internet outages” and “have a plan for departing that does not rely on US government help”. Donald Trump announced that he was cancelling meetings with Iranian officials “until the senseless killing” stops, signalling a possible breakdown in de-escalation efforts . Trump is expected to receive a briefing on Tuesday night on the scale of casualties in Iran. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is offering people in Iran free internet through Starlink’s satellite service , according to Bloomberg News , as the internet blackout in the country surpassed the five-day mark. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met in secret with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former Iranian crown prince, last weekend, Axios reported. A senior US official told the outlet the pair discussed the protests. In previous messages that have been blocked by the Iranian government internet shutdown, he has said that he is ready to lead a transition. In response to Trump’s social media post that “help is on the way,” Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the US president was inciting violence, threatening the country’s sovereignty and security and seeking to destabilise the government. “The United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth,” he wrote in a letter to the UN security council. Russia on Tuesday condemned “subversive external interference” in Iran’s internal politics , saying any repeat of last year’s US strikes would have “disastrous consequences” for the Middle East and international security. Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian ambassadors in protest over the crackdown . “The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen posted on X. Underscoring international uncertainty over what comes next in Iran, which has been one of the dominant powers across the Middle East for decades, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believed the government would fall. © 2026 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)