Category World News

British journalist and pro-Palestine commentator Sami Hamdi is set to return home more than two weeks after he was imprisoned by US immigration authorities, his wife and legal representatives said on Monday.

Hamdi, 35, was stopped at San Francisco international airport in California on October 26, and detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency mid-way through a speaking tour discussing Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hassan M Ahmad, a lawyer from the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), and the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) said in a statement on Monday that the journalist and commentator was punished for his criticism of Israel during his US speaking tour and not for any alleged wrongdoing.

“It is this simple: Sami never should have spent a single night in an ICE cell,” Hussam Ayloush, the CEO of CAIR’s California chapter, said in a statement.

“His only real ‘offense’ was speaking clearly about Israel’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians.”

“The immigration charging document filed in his case alleged only a visa overstay—after the government revoked his visa without cause and without prior notice—and never identified any criminal conduct or security grounds,” Hamdi’s legal representatives said in the joint statement.

Hamdi’s wife, Soumaya Hamdi, welcomed the news in a series of posts on social media, saying, “Sami is coming home, alhamdullilah. Elated doesn’t begin to describe the feeling.”

She also expressed her “heartfelt gratitude” to the “countless wonderful people” who offered assistance during her husband’s detention.

A number of institutions raised concerns about Hamdi’s treatment, including his former university, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and freedom of expression organisation PEN America.

By contrast, some people openly advocated for Hamdi to be detained, including far-right activist and Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer, who celebrated Hamdi’s detention and repeatedly claimed he was going to be deported, without citing her sources.

Loomer, a self-described “proud Islamophobe”, also accused Hamdi of supporting Islamic terrorism, without providing any evidence.

Responding to allegations about his son, Hamdi’s father, Mohamed El-Hachmi Hamdi, said in a post on X that he “has no affiliation” with any political or religious group.

“His stance on Palestine is not aligned with any faction there, but rather, with the people’s right to security, peace, freedom and dignity. He is, quite simply, one of the young dreamers of this generation, yearning for a world with more compassion, justice, and solidarity,” he added.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has targeted a number of pro-Palestinian advocates, even as it has also worked to mediate a precarious truce agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Those targeted include Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian former student of Columbia University. who continues to face challenges to his US immigration status after being freed from detention in June.

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, November 11:

Fighting

• Fighting continues in and around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, with Kyiv and Moscow providing conflicting accounts of the situation in the nearby town of Myrnohrad.
• The Ukrainian military claimed its forces were holding their positions in the city, saying that “the defence of Pokrovsko-Myrnohrad agglomeration continues”. But army spokesperson Andriy Kovalev acknowledged the provision of logistics to the town was complicated.
• The statement came after the Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces were pressing an advance on Myrnohrad and were making gains in two of the town’s districts.
• The Ukrainian Air Force also denied Russian claims of encircling Pokrovsk, saying that food and ammunition supplies to Ukrainian soldiers there are “being replenished in a timely manner”. The “most intense fighting” in Pokrovsk is “currently taking place in the industrial zone”, it said.
• Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, meanwhile, killed at least one person in Kostiantynivka and wounded two others in Vasylkivska on Monday, according to the Ukrainska Pravda.
• An explosion from an unidentified ammunition in a hospital ward in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region injured a man on Monday, police there reported, without providing further details.
• The Russian Defence Ministry also claimed advances in the Zaporizhia region, saying its forces had pushed Ukrainian troops out of the villages of Solodke and Nove. The ministry said Russian forces also seized the village of Hnativka in the Donetsk region.
• In Russia, a man who was seriously wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack in the village of Belyanka in the Belgorod region has died in hospital, medics said.
• Ukrainian forces claimed an attack on a pumping station at the Hvardiiske oil depot in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
• Russian forces announced destroying four Ukrainian drone boats near its Black Sea port of Tuapse. The port had suspended fuel exports after a November 2 Ukrainian attack on its infrastructure.

Politics

• Ukraine’s anticorruption agency said it was investigating the country’s energy sector on Monday, alleging a $100m kickback scheme involving the state nuclear power company, Energoatom.
• Energoatom, which operates three nuclear plants that supply Ukraine with more than half of its electricity, said it was fully cooperating with the probe as investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) searched its offices.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for accountability in the case, saying: “Everyone who has been involved in corruption schemes must receive a clear legal response. There must be criminal verdicts.”
• Ukrainian Minister of Energy Svitlana Hrynchuk told a news conference that electricity is beginning to be restored to some parts of Ukraine amid massive power outages that have left millions of people in the dark. “We are working to minimise the outage schedules. But the situation continues to be difficult. Practically every week, we experience a massive combined attack,” Hrynchuk said, according to Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency.
• Ukraine’s financial situation in 2026 is expected to be more challenging than this year due to uncertainty over how to cover a budget gap, Deputy Minister of Finance Oleksandr Kava said on Monday. Kava told a conference that the unfunded gap for 2026 and 2027 was about $60bn, and that Kyiv was still in talks with partners on how to raise the required funds.
• In Russia, police in St Petersburg detained Diana Loginova, a teenage street musician already jailed twice for short stints after performing anti-Kremlin songs, as she left prison, state media and her supporters said on Monday.

Diplomacy

• United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US was getting close to reaching “a fair trade deal” with India, which has been facing US tariffs over its continued purchase of Russian oil.
• Trump’s comments came as the Reuters news agency reported that a large delegation of Indian exporters is set to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday for a four-day visit, citing a senior trade body official.
• The Kremlin also said on Monday that it was “actively preparing” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit India before the end of the year, and hoped it would be a substantive trip.
• Russia’s Lukoil declared force majeure at its Iraqi oil field, Reuters reported, as the company’s international operations buckled under the strain of US sanctions.
• The report came as Bulgaria prepared to seize control of Lukoil’s Burgas refinery after adopting legal changes that allow it to take over the refinery and sell it to a new owner to shield the plant from US sanctions. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said on Monday that Bulgarian authorities were conducting inspections and implementing security measures at the site.
• Germany will increase financial aid to Ukraine to 11.5 billion euros ($13.41bn) in the 2026 budget, up from 8.5 billion euros previously planned, Reuters reported on Monday, citing budget documents.

Muslim voters in the United States overwhelmingly favoured Democratic candidates in last week’s elections, amid mounting anger at President Donald Trump’s policies, a new exit poll suggests.

The survey, released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Monday, shows 97 percent of Muslim voters in New York backed democratic socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Virginia’s Democratic Muslim American Senator Ghazala Hashmi also received 95 percent of the Muslim vote in the state in her successful bid for lieutenant governor, according to the poll.

Non-Muslim, more centrist Democratic candidates received strong backing from Muslim voters as well, the CAIR study showed.

Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill – Democratic congresswomen who won the gubernatorial races – both received about 85 percent support from Muslim voters, according to the survey.

California’s Proposition 50, which approved a congressional map that favours Democrats, won 90 percent support from Muslim voters, the poll suggested.

CAIR said it interviewed 1,626 self-identified Muslim respondents for the survey.

The group said the results showed high turnout from Muslim voters.

“These exit poll results highlight an encouraging truth: American Muslims are showing up, speaking out, and shaping the future of our democracy,” the group said in a statement.

“Across four states, Muslim voters demonstrated remarkable engagement and commitment to the civic process, casting ballots that reflect their growing role as active participants in American life.”

The November 4 election, one year ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, offered a boost for Democrats.

But the race for New York, which saw Trump endorse former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, saw a spike of Islamophobic rhetoric, particularly from Republican lawmakers and commentators.

CAIR said Muslim voters showed that they are rising up in “the face of anti-Muslim bigotry” to “build a better future for themselves and their neighbors, proving that participation, not prejudice, defines our nation’s strength”.

The survey’s results show that the Democrats are recovering the support of some Muslim voters who deserted the party in last year’s presidential election due to former President Joe Biden’s uncompromising support for Israel amid the brutal assault on Gaza.

CAIR said it recorded 76 Muslim candidates in last week’s election, 38 of whom won.

In Michigan, the Detroit suburbs of Hamtramck, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights elected Muslim mayors in the polls.

Speaking at this year’s COP30 in Brazil, UN chief Antonio Guterres called the inability to limit global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) a “deadly moral failure”.

But does the same apply when it comes to protecting the environment in conflict?

Israel’s two-year war on Gaza has created 61 million tonnes of rubble, with nearly a quarter contaminated with asbestos and other hazardous materials.

And scientists warn that Israel’s use of water, food and energy as weapons of war in Gaza has left farmland and ecosystems facing irreversible collapse.

In Syria, President Ahmed al-Sharaa has cited his country’s worst drought in more than six decades as evidence of accelerating climate change and warned that it could hinder Syria’s post-war recovery.

So, why isn’t conflict seen as a climate issue? And why is the environmental toll of war so often ignored?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests: Kate Mackintosh – deputy chair of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide

Elaine Donderer – disaster risk specialist

Ukraine’s anticorruption agency has launched an investigation into an alleged $100m kickback scheme involving Energoatom, the state-run nuclear power company that supplies more than half of the country’s electricity.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which operates independently of the government, announced the probe on Monday as the country faces another harsh winter under daily Russian bombardment.

In a statement posted on social media, NABU said that a “high-level criminal organisation” orchestrated the alleged scheme, led by a businessman and involving a former adviser to the energy minister, Energoatom’s head of security, and four other employees.

“In total, approximately 100 million USD passed through this so-called laundromat,” NABU said, without naming the suspects.

“The minister’s adviser and the director of security at Energoatom took control of all the company’s purchases and created conditions under which all contractors had to pay illegal benefits,” according to NABU chief detective Oleksandr Abakumov.

He said the group discussed increasing the kickback rate during work on protective structures at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear plant last October.

Investigators said Energoatom’s contractors were forced to pay bribes of 10 to 15 percent to avoid losing contracts or facing payment delays.

“A strategic enterprise with annual income exceeding 200 billion hryvnias [$4.7bn] was managed not by authorised officials but by individuals with no formal authority,” NABU said.

Zelenskyy calls for ‘criminal verdicts’

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing the nation on Monday evening, urged full cooperation with the investigation. “Everyone who has been involved in corruption schemes must receive a clear legal response. There must be criminal verdicts,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s comments come just months after he was forced to reverse plans to curb the agency’s independence following widespread protests. Eradicating corruption remains a crucial condition for Ukraine’s European Union membership bid, a goal Kyiv views as central to its post-war future.

Energoatom confirmed on social media that its offices were being searched and said it was cooperating with investigators.

Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk told reporters she was not yet familiar with the case details, but promised a “transparent process” and accountability for anyone found guilty. “I hope that the transparency of the investigation will reassure our international partners,” she said.

Ukraine’s power infrastructure has suffered extensive damage from Russia’s air strikes this autumn, leaving large parts of the country without electricity. Although Moscow has not targeted nuclear reactors directly, Ukrainian authorities say substations linked to them have been repeatedly hit.

NABU released photographs showing stacks of cash, Ukrainian hryvnias, US dollars and euros, stuffed into bags and piled on tables. The agency did not disclose the owners of the seized money.

The agency conducted 70 searches, reviewed more than 1,000 hours of audio recordings, and deployed its entire detective staff over 15 months.

Opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a strong supporter of anticorruption reform, said he would introduce a parliamentary motion to dismiss Grynchuk and her predecessor, German Galushchenko, now serving as justice minister. Hrynchuk declined to comment on the proposal, while Galushchenko did not respond to requests for comment.