Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe.
On our radar
“Inevitable” Gaza City invasion and a deadly strike on journalists and medics
The Israeli military is pushing ahead with plans to invade Gaza City, declaring the city a combat zone and saying the forced displacement of around one million people residing there – in the midst of an Israeli-induced famine – is “inevitable”. If the invasion goes ahead, “all hope is gone that we’re ever going to see the end to this”, Sam Rose, a senior official with the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees, told the AP. Rasha Abou Jalal, a contributor to The New Humanitarian who is in Gaza City, told us she could see “fear and terror” on the faces of people around her. “Israeli drones are dropping bombs on the rooftops of people’s homes to force them to flee south,” she added. Abou Jalal’s friend and fellow journalist Maryam Abu Dagga was one of five journalists killed in a double-tap Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis that was captured on live TV on 25 August. Medics responding to the first strike were also killed. Israel said it would investigate the incident. A recent report, however, found 88% of investigations opened by Israel into alleged war crimes in Gaza have either been left unresolved or closed without finding fault. Speaking of her friend Abu Dagga, Abou Jalal said: “I was shocked by her death. She loved life and was very ambitious. She loved photographing food, restaurants, and the sea.” Meanwhile, 10 more Palestinians staved to death in Gaza on 27 August.
Attack on heart of Kyiv casts further doubt on Russia-Ukraine peace
At least 23 people have been killed and 48 others wounded in a rare strike deep in the centre of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The attacks, which took place early on 28 August, have cast fresh doubt on the likelihood of success of a recent push by US President Donald Trump for a peace agreement to end the more than 3.5-year-long war. The building housing the EU Mission to Ukraine was damaged in the strike, and the location of the British Council was also severely damaged. The EU and UK summoned their Russian envoys in response. Despite striking deeper in the centre of the city than usual, the attack came as no surprise to residents of Kyiv. Russia has been ratcheting up drone and missile strikes across the country in recent months, even as it says it remains interested in peace talks. Meanwhile, Russian troops have broken into new territory in eastern Ukraine, where on-the-ground fighting is grinding on and Russia is making slow gains.
Trump’s hostile immigration policies spur drop in US foreign-born population
The foreign born population of the United States declined by nearly 1.5 million people between January and June this year. The drop is the result of unprecedented executive action by President Trump aimed at making it more difficult for immigrants – both documented and undocumented – to come to and stay in the country. It is the first time in decades that the numbers of people leaving the US have outpaced those coming. The US has carried out around 350,000 deportations in that time period. The rest of the decline is the result of other harsh and restrictive policies. In just one example, the administration is now threatening to deport Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, where he was held in the notorious CECOT prison and alleges he was tortured. The Trump administration was forced to bring him back to the US in June, where he was held in prison until 22 August. Three days after he was released, Abrego Garcia was re-arrested and is now being processed for deportation to Uganda.
A year after Israel’s escalation in Lebanon
Mid-September will mark a year since Israel drastically escalated its violence in Lebanon – starting with the remote detonation of pagers and radios it said belonged to Hezbollah members but that killed and injured civilians too. That attack was followed by a devastating campaign of bombing and occupation of south Lebanon. This week, a new report from Amnesty International documents the Israeli military’s destruction of civilian structures and agricultural land both before and after a late November 2024 ceasefire, using explosives and bulldozers to demolish homes, mosques, roads, and cemeteries. The watchdog group says many of these acts of destruction should be investigated as war crimes and that they have made some villages completely uninhabitable. It is another reminder that the war and its effects haven’t truly ended. A US diplomat – in Lebanon this week to present a plan for Hezbollah to disarm (it says it will not do so until Israel stops violating the ceasefire) – was met with outrage when he told a group of Lebanese journalists to “act civilised” and not “animalistic”. Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy to Syria, has apologised for his use of the word “animalistic,” but for people who still feel the effects of US support for Israel in Lebanon and Gaza, the incident truly adds insult to injury.
Nigeria’s deadly kidnapping business
At the beginning of this month, gunmen abducted more than 50 people in a single incident in northwest Nigeria – the latest example of what the risk analysis group SBM describes as an established kidnapping industry. Between July 2024 and June 2025, it estimates that at least 4,722 people were abducted, earning kidnappers $1.66 million in confirmed ransom payments. At least 762 of those abducted were killed, as payment does not always guarantee release. The northwest – and especially Zamfara State – is the epicentre of the industry, a phenomenon linked to the proliferation of criminal gangs known as “bandits”. The region accounted for 43% of kidnapping incidents and 62% of the people taken. It’s also where the most mass abductions occur – typically involving villagers coerced to work on bandit-run farms and mines. The southwest, by contrast, had the least number of cases – just 5% of kidnapping incidents and 3% of victims.
The real reason Russian mercenaries left Mali
The Wagner Group declared “mission accomplished” when it announced its withdrawal from Mali in June – to be absorbed by the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Africa Corps. But a new report from The Sentry, a US investigative and policy organisation, tells a very different story. The mercenaries, who arrived in Mali after a military junta booted out French and UN forces, caused friction with the Malian army by often operating outside its chain of command, using army equipment without permission, carrying out unilateral operations, and displaying racist behavior toward soldiers. Local troops resented Wagner operatives for receiving preferential treatment from the junta and commanding officers, especially when it came to medical evacuations. Like other investigations, the report also found that Wagner used tactics that indiscriminately targeted civilians while enabling the Malian army to escalate its own brutal attacks against communities it accuses of collaborating with armed groups.
Weekend read
How Israel’s new NGO registration rules seek to divide the international aid response
“We’re restricted at every turn, whether it’s through bureaucratic and administrative processes, or direct attacks on us on the ground, where our colleagues have been killed in record numbers.”
International aid workers accuse Israel of waging a concerted campaign to muzzle their advocacy and control their response in service of its war aims.
And finally…
Everything must go!
Looking for a great deal on hundreds of vehicles, thousands of pieces of office equipment, or troves of expired medicine? You may be in luck, if you’re willing to pick them up. In the months since their programmes were decimated at the decree of US President Donald Trump, the shattered remnants of USAID have scrambled to get rid of their unused aid and equipment, auctioning some of it off at pennies on the dollar. The so-called “fire sale” has been chaotic, according to reporting by The Atlantic. Computers and other electronics have been sold at a steep loss, without the buyers being tracked, setting off national security concerns. Some offices have managed to donate their taxpayer-funded goods to local governments or other aid programmes. Others have left millions of dollars worth of equipment lying in warehouses or abandoned in warzones. The estimated $6 billion per year it will cost the US government to shut down USAID over an undetermined period of time does not include the cost of all these wasted items.
