Fresh headlines and publisher-supplied excerpts from Kenya, Africa and the world—collected in one transparent, attributed briefing.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia’s ‘fight for truth and justice’ in Ukraine will continue ‘through to the end’, vowing that the objectives of Moscow’s military operation will be achieved.
Read briefingAfghan taxi drivers are playing music in their cars despite it being banned by the Taliban. The drivers are risking punishment by the morality police. Music has been restricted to religious or patriotic songs approved by Taliban authorities since they returned to power in 2021.
Read briefingDozens of countries’ delegations walked out of or were absent for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN General Assembly speech in protest over Israel’s war in Gaza. Here’s which countries’ seats were visibly empty — and which delegations remained.
Read briefingIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UNGA was filled with bold claims about Israel’s policies. But as delegates walked out and with Israeli elections weeks away, was his real audience at the UN, or back home? Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Saleh has the latest.
Read briefingPakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, a signatory to the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia at UNGA 81, calling threats to holy sites a ‘red line’. His remarks come as Pakistan and Turkiye send military chiefs to Riyadh for an urgent meeting.
Read briefingLittle-known Israeli mapping team is redrawing land boundaries as Palestinians face growing illegal settlement expansion.Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank – As the October olive harvest approaches, Bilal Abu Alia stands near his home, gazing at his family’s land – territory he says Israeli authorities have taken from his family in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.Of their original 0.4sq km (100 acres) of land, Bilal explains that his family can now only access a small area that includes their home and a few olive trees.Land confiscation in the occupied West Bank doesn’t always begin with a direct seizure. In many instances, the process starts with the redesignation and demarcation of land on official Israeli maps, with the Israeli Civil Administration’s “Blue Line Team” playing an important role.According to a report published in mid-September by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements, a body affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Blue Line team was officially established in 1999. Its primary role is to identify and formally designate areas that Israeli authorities classify as “state land”.Comprising surveyors, cartographers and legal experts, the team uses modern surveying technology and geographic information systems to review and redraw those boundaries on official maps, according to the bureau.The significance of the process is that land included within the boundaries Israel recognises as “state land” can subsequently be allocated for settlement projects, which are illegal under international law.Israel’s Civil Administration has argued that Blue Line revisions are technical corrections of historic surveying errors. But the United Nations has said that the revisions have essentially expanded the boundaries of land classified by Israel as state property.The bureau report argues that, in recent years, the Blue Line team has evolved from a technical mechanism for boundary demarcation into a tool increasingly used to accelerate settlement expansion and legitimise settlement outposts.The team recently re-demarcated areas in the northern and central West Bank totalling almost 0.2sq km (49 acres) that were reclassified from “state land” to land designated for settlement activity, according to the office. That included land that belonged to the Palestinian villages of Jalud, Qaryut, Turmusayya and al-Mughayyir.Al Jazeera has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment, but has yet to receive a response.In August 2025, an Israeli settler was shot while encroaching on Palestinian land in al-Mughayyir. Israeli forces subsequently launched a four-day operation in the village, during which bulldozers uprooted thousands of olive trees across much of the village, including the land later taken from Bilal’s family.“We were informed that we were barred from accessing this land, that it had become a military zone and then state land. We watched as the olive trees planted by my great-grandfather a century ago were bulldozed and uprooted right before our eyes, yet we were powerless to stop it,” Bilal told Al Jazeera.Israel informed the family that the land had become a closed military zone, off-limits to both Palestinians and settlers. However, shortly after, Bilal noticed a settler plowing the land. After the family lodged a complaint with the military liaison office, the settler stopped ploughing for a few days but soon resumed under the protection of the Israeli army.“Furthermore, in December 2025, months after the olive trees were uprooted, we attempted to gather the debris to at least salvage the wood,” he added. “We discovered that the land was under camera surveillance; my father, my elderly uncle and I were arrested and held for three days handcuffed, blindfolded and left lying on the cold ground at an army camp.”The land was once a source of livelihood for Bilal’s extended family, but the family says it can no longer farm it. Meanwhile, settlers continue to enter and use land in the area surrounding their home.The family attempted to file an objection against the confiscation of their land, but Bilal said he was only given three days to file an objection, leaving them no real opportunity to act, while bulldozers had already begun work on the site.The implications of the Blue Line team’s work go far beyond merely altering colours or boundaries on a map: A reclassification of land to state property can effectively open it up to construction projects or illegal settlement expansion.In the case of al-Mughayyir, this occurs within the context of broader settlement expansion that, according to the National Bureau, encircles the village and restricts residents’s ability to access and utilise their land.This mechanism suggests that land seizure often unfolds in stages: The land is first surveyed and boundaries redrawn before being designated ‘state land’ and then designated for settlement expansion.In the northern West Bank, the measures add to the continued expansion of Israeli settlements around Jenin. For example, the bureau points to military seizure orders affecting land around Qabatiya, near Jenin.
Read briefingBystander video of ICE agents forcibly arresting a US citizen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, has gone viral after federal officers mistook the man for a suspect they were seeking. The man was hospitalised with head and neck injuries. Police are investigating.
Read briefingThe lawsuit comes two months after the state filed a similar lawsuit against competitor Kalshi.New York State has filed a lawsuit against prediction market company Polymarket amid allegations that it violated state laws against illegal gambling.The suit, filed on Thursday by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, comes two months after the state filed a similar lawsuit against competitor Kalshi. That followed the state suing Coinbase and Gemini for offering users the ability to bet on “sports, entertainment, and elections, in violation of New York laws”, according to a release from the attorney general’s office at the time.The state accused all the companies of operating without licences from the State Gaming Commission.“Our gambling laws exist to protect New Yorkers, prevent the potential harms of problem gambling, and ensure funding for educational and public benefit programs,” James said in a statement announcing the suit.“By skirting New York’s laws, Polymarket is targeting the most vulnerable and depriving New York families of critical services and support. My office will never hesitate to take action to defend our laws and keep New Yorkers safe.”The suit also alleges that the company encouraged gambling among young people. It accuses Polymarket of targeting users as young as 18, while state law requires users to be at least 21 years old to take part in mobile sports betting.“By running an unlicensed gambling operation, Polymarket has done more than just knowingly violate state law, they have put New Yorkers at risk, especially those underage who are most vulnerable to problem gaming,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.The more than 30-page lawsuit claims that Polymarket, which is valued at more than $20bn, has advertised sports betting in particular since July 2025. It pointed to a post on X from August 17, 2025, about the launch of its US mobile app that said it was “BAD NEWS (For sportsbooks)”.Prediction markets allow users to wager on so-called event contracts, covering political events, sports, elections and even award shows. Concerns about the role of prediction markets came to a head earlier this year when wagers were made in the hours before the United States and Israel first struck Iran, prompting widespread backlash in Washington.“We chose to engage with them directly on the substance and address their concerns,” chief legal officer Neal Kumar said in a statement.“They preferred the media hit. Any time the [attorney general’s] office wants to swing by, our door is open for a conversation about how we protect consumers and offer fair, transparent and legal markets.”Kalshi is facing similar allegations in New York State. Kalshi has been critical of reporting on lawsuits against it and allegations that it is akin to a sports betting or gambling platform.The Polymarket lawsuit comes days after reporting from the Wall Street Journal that alleged a wave of users had linked stolen bank debit cards and then used them to make wagers, effectively draining the accounts. According to the report, when CEO Shayne Coplan was made aware of the issue, he responded: “Just keep growing and pay a fine if regulators ever find out.”New York State’s lawsuit joins a growing list of states that have sued prediction market platforms, including Arizona, Massachusetts, Nevada and many others. Those states are at odds with the federal government, as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has claimed that the federal agency exerts authority over the regulation of prediction markets.Polymarket has close ties with the family of US President Donald Trump. The prediction market platform has investment from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Donald Trump Jr, the president’s eldest son, who also serves on the company’s advisory board.
Read briefingIsrael’s election panel has voted to disqualify the two main Palestinian-led lists from next month’s election. Reacting to the decision, Hadash lawmaker Ofer Cassif, also barred, told Al Jazeera Israel has become a ‘fully fledged fascist dictatorship’. The bans are not final and appeals are expected.
Read briefingThis week the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) joined forces with former rivals to create an opposition alliance. The fighters say they want to overthrow the government in Addis Ababa.Some commitments contained in that deal remain unfulfilled. Both the government and TPLF accuse each other of breaching the terms of the agreement.
Read briefingMacklemore says ‘being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work’, promises to donate proceeds to Palestinian causes.Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore has announced a string of shows in support of Palestine after he was controversially dropped from Ed Sheeran’s United States tour after speaking out against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.The 43-year-old American rapper, who has almost 40 million monthly listeners on Spotify, announced his Free Palestine Tour on Thursday, with shows set to take place in Dublin, Paris and London in late October.Macklemore said he will be joined by other musicians and will announce their names soon. He added that US shows are currently being organised.He said all proceeds raised from the tour will be donated to causes supporting the Palestinian people and the wider movement.“If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” Macklemore said in a statement.“There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now. It’s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore,” he continued.“People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it.”English punk rap duo Bob Vylan have expressed their support for the tour, responding to Macklemore’s Instagram post with a heart emoji. The British YouTuber and influencer known as Chunkz, who has more than four million followers on Instagram, also praised Macklemore.On September 4 at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Macklemore, who was one of Sheeran’s opening acts, expressed support for Palestine.“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine’ … My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality,” Macklemore told the audience at the time.Soon after, the rapper announced that he had been dropped from the Sheeran tour.Venue owner Robert Kraft later confirmed that Macklemore was barred from performing at his Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Kraft denounced what he described as the rapper’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery” and argued that such actions led him to decide that allowing Macklemore to perform at his venue “would cross that line”.Kraft is a Jewish-American billionaire and has donated to several Israeli causes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity, said in 2019 that Israel did not have a “more loyal friend” than Kraft.Macklemore claimed Sheeran and his team removed him from the tour following pressure from Kraft.He alleged that Kraft rallied the owners of the remaining stadiums that the tour would include and persuaded them not to allow him to perform. The rapper said that Kraft then told Sheeran the tour would not go ahead unless he was dropped.Neither Kraft nor Sheeran have commented on Macklemore’s allegations that stadium owners were contacted by Kraft.
Read briefingEthiopian President Taye Atske Selassie warned the UN General Assembly of “forces of destruction and mayhem” as Tigray rebels joined other rebel groups to seize airports and target government positions in northern Ethiopia, triggering fears of a renewed civil war.
Read briefingUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio says summit would be opportunity for Russian president to engage with global leaders.United States President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the upcoming G20 summit in Miami, Florida, the latest step meant to build ties between the two countries amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that Putin had been invited to travel to the summit in December, saying that he hopes the Russian leader will take the opportunity to meet with global leaders.“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with,” Rubio said. “So we’ve invited President Putin to the G20.”“We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.Rubio’s remarks followed a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), currently convening in New York City.During a speech to the UNGA on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the world to place more financial pressure on Russia.“When someone gives Russia more money through trade, they give this war more time. And that is exactly why we insist on limiting trade with the aggressor, and why we are burning Russia’s revenues ourselves,” he said, adding that he is sceptical that Russia is sincerely interested in taking steps that could end the war.Trump has searched in vain for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.Ukrainian officials have called for a pause on strikes targeting energy infrastructure and for steps to facilitate shipping for the Black Sea. Russia has given little sign that it is interested in such an arrangement.“We are not going to have a pause in our special military operation,” Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, accusing Europe of wanting to pause the fighting in order to “pump the Kyiv regime with weapons”.Rubio, however, continued to express optimism about the possibility of a temporary ceasefire.“I think both sides have expressed an interest in some limited ceasefire that involves grain and energy,” he said. “Obviously, you know, that won’t be easy, either.”Zelenskyy told reporters that Kyiv remains open to a maritime truce in the Black Sea.“We are waiting for Russia’s response,” he said, adding that his country is ready “to ensure safe shipping and food security in the Black Sea if Russia is ready to take real steps towards de-escalation, too”.The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian territory. The arrest warrant obliges member states to arrest Putin if he travels to their countries, but the court has no enforcement mechanism for this. The US is not a member of the ICC.
Read briefingThe ruling seals six years of legal battles after Weinstein’s initial conviction for sexually assaulting TV assistant.Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, has been sentenced in Manhattan to 15 years in prison for a felony sex crime in another #MeToo reckoning.Weinstein’s sentencing on Wednesday for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley followed a legal odyssey spanning more than six years, when New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction. A second jury found Weinstein guilty again at a retrial last year.Once among the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, Weinstein was an Oscar-winning producer whose hits included “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” But his downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the #MeToo movement.Weinstein, 74, is expected to appeal and maintains that he never raped or sexually assaulted anyone. He is now likely to remain behind bars well into his 80s. Seated in a wheelchair, he was quickly moved out of the courtroom after the sentencing, while some of his accusers hugged and brushed away tears.Haley, 49, appeared in court on Wednesday morning and delivered a victim impact statement in which she talked about enduring seven years of public smear campaigns and humiliation orchestrated by Weinstein, his legal team and allegedly paid podcasters aiming to sour her image.Haley added that her experience following the assault had “already been a life sentence” for her, and implored the judge to take all of this into consideration.Owing to a cycle of retrials, appeals and judicial proceedings, Weinstein has remained incarcerated since his 2018 arrest and is now serving time in a prison medical ward.Weinstein, first publicly accused of wrongdoing in 2017, was detained a year later. In 2024, New York’s highest court overturned the original 2020 conviction that had sentenced the former Hollywood producer to 23 years in prison, ruling that the inclusion of extraneous, non-indicted testimony had compromised the equity of the trial.Prosecutors attempted to retry the case last June, but it ended in a split verdict after the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate amid a jury room feud. Weinstein was convicted of a first-degree criminal sex act on a separate count at the time, again.
Read briefingExperts warn the UN faces crises of funding, relevance, and Security Council gridlock.As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), experts say the institution is battling an existential crisis of funding, relevance and Security Council gridlock.Major conflicts appear intractable, and powers like the United States and Russia can bend the UN’s Security Council to their will; member states are looking for new mechanisms to bring accountability to the venue and for a new secretary-general to voice their concerns. The body has been accused of failing to stop what its own experts have said is a genocide in Gaza.World leaders are not under any illusion that the UNGA is in good health, said Daniel Forti, head of UN Affairs at the International Crisis Group. Yet many still understand the venue’s power.“The vast majority of leaders, from small states, from middle powers, and even a few from major powers, recognise the importance of a UN that is a global conversation platform,” Forti said.The UN is juggling multiple conflicts – from high-profile wars involving Iran to the often overlooked catastrophes in Sudan and Myanmar.In the Ukraine war, the UN says more civilians were killed in the first eight months of 2026 than in the whole of 2025, and even NATO powers now say they worry about spillover into their countries.Russia has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued to appear before the UNGA to urge member states to help stop Moscow.On Wednesday, Zelenskyy spoke for the fifth time before the assembly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, urging leaders to further tighten economic measures meant to punish Moscow despite its vetoes of Security Council resolutions.“Many of you here have seen more than once how the abuse of the veto at the UN weakens the world and pushes peace further away,” Zelenskyy said.In the Israeli war on Gaza, the UN has labelled Israel’s conduct there a genocide, but it has struggled to exercise real agency. Security Council resolutions have been repeatedly vetoed, and UN relief agencies have been targeted by Israel without any accountability.The ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran is having economic impacts across the globe and threatens to plunge Yemen back into a civil war.“From Ukraine, to Gaza, and Sudan, and also with what’s happening now in Iran, the veto problem leaves the UN hamstrung,” said Alanna O’Malley, professor and chair of Global Governance and Wealth and head of the Department of History at Erasmus University.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Jazeera’s James Bays this week that these conflicts were having real humanitarian impacts worldwide, including reduced food access, rising fuel prices, and global inflation.The UNGA will allow the opportunity for some discussions for parties involved in these kinds of conflicts, but it is unlikely they can reach major agreements, said Forti.But the assembly is still the only forum where all 193 member states are equal, and nations have tried to invoke new procedures and reach back into historical mechanisms to try and mitigate the veto deadlocks, O’Malley said.A 1950 resolution, dating from a deadlock over the Korean War, has allowed the UNGA to debate issues vetoed in the Security Council. And in 2022, an impasse over Ukraine generated a new mechanism forcing any permanent council representative – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US, often called the P5 – to come before the UNGA and explain when it uses the veto.“The idea is to build more accountability into the system for the P5, to make the veto not just harder to use, but also ensure it uses a lot of political capital,” O’Malley said.Calls for reforms have only increased since 2023 and Israel’s war on Gaza, O’Malley said, with “unprecedented” majority votes in the UNGA challenging the Security Council.Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the UNGA, though, is remaining relevant as major global powers go their own way.The administration of US President Trump has pushed through its own Board of Peace, a body that has accomplished few of its goals but has secured Security Council approval and claims to take on responsibilities previously handled by UN agencies, like distributing aid or managing refugees.Unhappy with the UN, Trump has also imposed sanctions on the body’s special rapporteurs, as well as organisations like the International Criminal Court.Washington, though, may not be the only government looking to strike out on its own.Chinese President Xi Jinping is in the US this week, but he will not be attending the UNGA. He last addressed the body in 2021 via video, but this year he will skip it altogether, opting instead for one-on-one talks with US President Trump. China has positive views of the UN, often using the Security Council to weigh in on global issues, Forti said, but it is also looking for alternatives, through venues like BRICS and the SCO, to strengthen multilateralism.
Read briefingManchester United’s debt remains over one billion pounds ($1.3bn) despite record revenues that are unable to prevent loss at the UK football side.Manchester United’s annual net loss increased by almost one third to 43 million pounds ($57m) despite record-breaking revenues announced on Wednesday.The Red Devils reported 677.6 million pounds ($897.8m) in revenue in the year to June 30, up 1.7 percent.However, the football club announced a seventh straight annual loss after taxes as co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s cuts to operating costs offset contractual payments to sacked manager Ruben Amorim and a big increase in loan repayments.The latest earnings relate to a turbulent 2025-26 season, which saw former United player Michael Carrick replace Amorim and secure qualification for the Champions League.The increase in revenue was driven by an uptick in broadcasting income, boosted by a third-place finish in the Premier League, up from 15th the previous season.But commercial and match-day income each fell close to five percent during a season in which there were no European fixtures. Broadcasting income jumped almost 20 percent.United’s accounts showed that they paid 8.2 million pounds (10.9m) in exceptional items, mostly related to the departure of Amorim, who left in January after 14 months in charge.Accounts also revealed that the club paid 63.5 million pounds ($84m) to acquire land adjacent to stadium site Old Trafford, on which they plan to build a new 100,000-capacity arena.Ratcliffe has overseen wide-ranging, and often unpopular, cost-cutting measures, including widespread job cuts, after completing a deal to buy a stake in the club in February 2024.Man United CEO Omar Berrada said the latest figures showed the club’s underlying strength.“This shows the direct impact of the work we have been doing over the past two years,” he said in a statement.“It also proves Manchester United’s enduring popularity and commercial strength.“While these results confirm that we are on the right trajectory, we will continue to take a disciplined approach to ensure our finances remain sustainable,” he added.United expect revenue of between 740 million pounds ($980m) and 760 million pounds ($1bn) in the current financial year.Carrick’s team has started the new season poorly despite signing a clutch of new players in the summer transfer window.United have taken only five points from their five Premier League games – equalling the club’s worst-ever start to a season – and last week crashed out of the English League Cup.
Read briefingUS President Donald Trump says he had a ‘very good’ three-hour meeting with Iranian officials at the UN as the White House and Tehran explore a possible deal to end the monthslong conflict. Trump described the choice for Iran as “potential greatness” or “obliteration”.
Read briefingSettlement is largest of its kind in any US city and is set to affect 260,000 delivery drivers.New York City has finalised a more than $131m settlement with DoorDash amid allegations that the delivery company underpaid its workers.The administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the settlement on Tuesday. It marked the largest settlement for delivery workers in any city in the United States, set to affect 260,000 workers. Of the total, $115m will go directly to the workers, while $16m will go towards civil penalties and other costs.A nearly 70-page consent order, provided to Al Jazeera by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), found the San Francisco, California-based delivery giant failed to pay some of its workers the minimum amount required by law between December 2023 and June 2026.The city expected some of those underpayments to continue through November before corrective measures go into effect, according to the order.DoorDash confirmed that roughly $6.6m in payments never reached its delivery drivers and that there were more than $5.7m in late payments. A spokesperson for the company told Al Jazeera that it will notify the affected workers in the coming weeks.The city echoed DoorDash’s statement and said it has already identified the affected workers using DoorDash’s records.“When a worker earns a wage, they deserve to be paid that wage — not tomorrow, not after a lawsuit, but on time and in full,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference on Tuesday.The city government said that underpaid workers would receive 200 percent of what they were originally owed.“A worker who was owed $1,000 but received no payment will receive $3,000. A worker who was paid $1,000 later than allowed under the law will receive $2,000,” a news release announcing the settlement said.The city began cracking down on delivery driver underpayments under Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams.His administration established a first-of-its-kind minimum-pay rule for app-based delivery workers in 2023.Delivery companies, including DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber, were required to meet a minimum pay rate for covered work.The rule initially called for a minimum pay rate of $17.96 per hour and was set to increase to $19.96 per hour when fully implemented in 2025.Samuel Levine of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) said that the settlement is a result of the Mamdani administration expanding its enforcement capabilities after increasing staff when he took office in January.“What we’ve been able to show, particularly over the last nine months of the Mamdani administration, is that by investing directly and bringing in the best lawyers, investigators, data scientists, and economists to the government, we can cut through a lot of the noise, identify violations when they happen, and put money back in people’s pockets,” Levine told Al Jazeera.New York is not the only city in the US to attempt to address delivery driver underpayments.Seattle, Washington has also adopted a minimum-payment system. Starting in 2024, the city began using data from delivery platforms in an effort to enforce it.In August, Uber Eats agreed to pay nearly $4.4m to settle allegations that the platform violated the city’s minimum-pay rules for delivery workers, affecting 14,000 workers.Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS) said Uber Eats failed to provide required minimum payments for some cancelled orders, including instances when a driver had already arrived at a restaurant to pick up food.Seattle also alleged that Uber Eats failed to provide minimum payments when either the pick-up or drop-off location was outside of the city limits.
Read briefingBrazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the “pain and trauma” inflicted by Israel’s government in Gaza at the UN General Assembly and said UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese must not “be silenced for telling the truth”.
Read briefingDjibouti’s Minister of Social Affairs and Solidarity, Ouloufa Ismail Abdo, has appealed for international support for Yemeni refugees facing urgent humanitarian crises. She highlighted the pressing needs of vulnerable groups, including children, the sick and people with disabilities.
Read briefingDebate over Badar Khan Suri’s release sparks a renewed legal clash over authority between US federal courts and Trump’s immigration system.The administration of United States President Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the decision to release a Georgetown University scholar who had advocated for Palestinian rights and opposed Israel’s war in Gaza.Georgetown scholar and postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri was released last year after a judge heard claims that his detention violated his due process and free speech rights under the US Constitution.On Monday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) petitioned the high court to consider whether federal immigration law barred the lower-court judge from ordering Suri’s release.Suri, an Indian citizen, was first arrested by masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, in March 2025 amid the Trump administration’s targeted crackdown and mass deportation campaigns of foreign nationals and visa holders engaged in pro-Palestinian activism across college campuses.At the time, critics accused the Trump administration of targeting him based on his familial ties. His wife is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.Suri was brought to Texas after his detention and freed in May 2025 on the orders of a district court judge, on the grounds that he was likely to succeed in proving his arrest was in retaliation for his constitutionally protected speech.The Trump administration has argued that the judge should not have interfered in the case.In July, the Virginia-based US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision that nothing prevented a lower-court judge from hearing a challenge to someone’s allegedly unconstitutional detention, even if it related to deportation proceedings pending before the immigration courts.Solicitor General D John Sauer argued that the Fourth Circuit’s ruling threatened nationwide immigration enforcement by letting detainees bypass immigration courts to contest their deportations.Sauer noted that a different appeals court had reached the opposite conclusion earlier this year, overturning a ruling that freed pro-Palestinian activist and former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who had been released on bail in June last year after spending more than 100 days in ICE detention.In January, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that lower federal district courts lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear immigration or detention challenges while active removal proceedings are ongoing. While the order did not influence the core First Amendment arguments in Khalil’s case, it stripped away crucial procedural safeguards.
Read briefingVictory of United Russia party strengthens Putin’s hand even as the war with Ukraine grows more unpopular.President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has won a record supermajority in tightly orchestrated parliamentary polls that excluded virtually any genuine opposition, near complete official results show.With over 58 percent of votes secured, United Russia, which has dominated Russian politics for 25 years, is on track to win more than three quarters of the seats in the lower house, the State Duma, according to the results announced on Monday after three days of voting that ended on Sunday.The polls were the first parliamentary vote since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the first to include residents of four Ukrainian regions that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year.Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dmitry Medvedenko said the results, along with a high voter turnout of almost 60 percent, “is likely to be seen by Moscow as emboldening, as public support for what it is doing, especially for what it’s doing in Ukraine for the continuation of the war”.Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said Yabloko, the only registered anti-war party in Russia, did not win any seats at the national level. It had been removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court and only had a few dozen candidates in single-seat races.Yabloko did enter the regional parliament in western Russia’s Novgorod region. It said on social media that it received about 12,000 votes – just over six percent of votes and enough to enter the regional legislature.Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticised some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations.The Communists made it into parliament with 13.8 percent of the vote, securing 40 Duma seats. The nationalist LDPR party won 25 seats and the New People party 20.Russia did not invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which the Foreign Ministry has accused of “double standards” for its criticism of the country. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said the decision to exclude observers violated Russia’s commitments as a member.“In the morning, I saw that United Russia was winning. It probably comes as a surprise to nobody,” said Moscow resident Tatyana.Asked what she would like to change, she said: “Well, I guess everyone knows the most acute thing – the conflict in Ukraine. I’d like to see it end sooner, with peaceful methods if possible”.The continuation of the war risks entrenching policies, which are increasingly affecting average Russians and the parliamentary supermajority may struggle to change the dynamic.“Putin, of course, will interpret United Russia’s results as confirmation of the (public) support of the war, even though it is not the case: The overall demand for ending the war is growing,” said Tatyana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in an online commentary.“The main question is: What now? There are great concerns about mobilisation, new repressions, harsher measures and escalation,” she wrote.“The Kremlin silenced dissent, barred the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine and shut out international election monitors. The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia,” Kallas said.In a joint statement, five countries, including Australia, Britain and Canada, condemned Russia’s “sham” parliamentary elections in areas of occupied Ukraine, branding them “part of a wider system of occupation”.
Read briefingIn this episode of On the Record, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns that AI must not be allowed to make life-or-death decisions, saying autonomous ‘killer robots’ should be forbidden. Watch the full conversation on aljazeera.com.
Read briefingJason Eaton faces up to life in prison after a jury rejected his insanity defence.A jury in the US state of Vermont has convicted a man of attempted murder for shooting three Palestinian college students in 2023, rejecting his defence that he was not guilty by reason of insanity.Jason Eaton, 51, faces up to life in prison for the attack near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington. It left Hisham Awartani paralysed from the waist down and wounded his friends Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid.The jury deliberated for several hours on Monday before reaching its verdict after a week-long trial that included testimony from the three men and psychiatric experts called by both the defence and prosecution.Awartani and Aliahmad, who were sitting in the front row of the courtroom, smiled and hugged people around them as the verdict was read.Eaton did not dispute that he shot the three men in November 2023. Instead, his lawyers argued that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.The defence said Eaton was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder and believed the CIA and Israel’s Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio.Joshua O’Hara, the supervising attorney at the Chittenden County Public Defender Office, told jurors that Eaton believed the intelligence agencies had enlisted him to “overwatch duty” to protect a Jewish family living across the street and that God was commanding him to act.Prosecutors rejected the insanity defence, telling jurors that a state psychiatrist had concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect and that the evidence showed he intended to kill the three men.Awartani, Aliahmad and Abdalhamid, now 23, grew up together in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank before moving to the US for university.They were visiting Awartani’s grandmother in Burlington over the Thanksgiving holiday when they went for a walk near the University of Vermont campus after dark.Awartani testified that the friends were smoking cigarettes and speaking a mix of English and Arabic. Two of them were wearing keffiyehs.He said Eaton was standing on the porch of the apartment building where he lived before approaching the friends without saying anything.When Eaton was about five to 10 feet (1.5 to three metres) away, Awartani testified, he pulled out a handgun and began shooting.Awartani, then a student at Brown University, was shot in the chest and left paralysed from the waist down. Aliahmad, who attended Trinity College, was shot in the collarbone, while Abdalhamid, a Haverford College student, was shot in the right buttock.The shooting prompted calls for a hate crime investigation, but no hate crime charges were filed.Police later found three shotguns in Eaton’s apartment as well as a Ruger .380-calibre handgun that crime laboratory testing identified as the weapon used in the shooting.
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