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US Judge Blocks Deportation of Columbia University Palestinian Activist

Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
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US Judge Blocks Deportation of Columbia University Palestinian Activist

Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP
Mohsen Mahdawi at a press conference in Vermont last year - Photo by Alex Driehaus/AP

A US immigration judge has blocked the deportation of a Palestinian graduate student who helped organize protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza, according to US media reports.

Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by immigration agents last year as he was attending an interview to become a US citizen.

Mahdawi had been involved in a wave of demonstrations that gripped several major US university campuses since Israel began a massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian born in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has been a legal US permanent resident since 2015 and graduated from the prestigious New York university in May. He has been free from federal custody since April.

In an order made public on Tuesday, Judge Nina Froes said that President Donald Trump's administration did not provide sufficient evidence that Mahdawi could be legally removed from the United States, multiple media outlets reported.

Froes reportedly questioned the authenticity of a copy of a document purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said Mahdawi's activism "could undermine the Middle East peace process by reinforcing antisemitic sentiment," according to the New York Times.

Rubio has argued that federal law grants him the authority to summarily revoke visas and deport migrants who pose threats to US foreign policy.

The Trump administration can still appeal the decision, which marked a setback in the Republican president's efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian campus activists.

The administration has also attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil, another student activist who co-founded a Palestinian student group at Columbia, alongside Mahdawi.

"I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government's attempts to trample on due process," Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys and published Tuesday by several media outlets.

"This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice."

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World

Norway Aid Group: Sudan, DR Congo Top World's Most Neglected Crises

Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Norway Aid Group: Sudan, DR Congo Top World's Most Neglected Crises

Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Sudanese refugees from Al-Fashir, displaced by ongoing conflict in Sudan, gather at sunset at the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia top the list of the world's most neglected displacement crises, the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group said on Thursday.

Sudan, which since 2023 has been ravaged by a bloody conflict between two rival generals competing for power, has more than nine million internally displaced people, the prominent aid organization said in a statement.

A further four million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries and nearly 19.5 million people there are also suffering from hunger, the NRC said.

"It is incomprehensible that a displacement crisis of similar proportions to the crises in Syria and Ukraine at their peak can continue to worsen almost unnoticed," NRC chief Jan Egeland said.

"Countries have become much more inward-looking, more nationalist.

Rearmament is now an absolute priority because we have to ensure our own security in Europe. There is Putin threatening us, and so on," Egeland said in comments to the NRK broadcaster.

"But people then forget that there will be pandemics, migratory movements, and enormous loss of human life if we don't invest in hope on other continents."

"Africa is just across the Mediterranean, where we go on holiday. And if the continent collapses, we will also suffer the consequences."

Relatives mourn during the funeral of a person who died of Ebola in Bunia, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 03 June 2026. EPA/DIEUDONNE DIROLE

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic has added turmoil to the east of the country ravaged by decades of conflict, appears on NRC's list for the 10th year in a row.

In 2025, only 27.4 percent of the funding needed for DR Congo has been secured, leaving more than 21 million people in need, according to the NRC.

"This is a testament to the world's failure to respond to crises that are not regarded as strategically important for rich countries," Egeland said in the NRC statement.

"Millions of people are being abandoned because we have chosen not to act, not because we cannot."

The NGO's list is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media coverage, and lack of political will within the international community.

Several African countries -- Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali and Nigeria -- have featured on NRC's list six or more times, pointing to "a systemic pattern of deliberate neglect", NRC said.

The 10 most neglected crises for 2025 are Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mozambique, spanning three continents and tens of millions of people.

World

Gunmen Kidnap 7 Students from School in Northwestern Nigeria

Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
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Gunmen Kidnap 7 Students from School in Northwestern Nigeria

Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
Nigerian police personnel restrict protesters from convening for the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations against bad governance and economic hardship, in Lagos, Nigeria August 6, 2024. REUTERS/ Francis Kokoroko/File Photo

Gunmen raided an off-campus residence in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped seven students, police said.

The attack occurred early Wednesday in the Kaura Namoda area of conflict-battered Zamfara state, police spokesman Yazid Abubakar said in a statement. One of the students escaped and was in custody, The Associated Press said.

The police spokesman said it wasn't clear where the students were taken but efforts were underway to rescue the remaining six.

Zamfara has been a hotspot for armed gangs that carry out kidnappings for ransom, with abductions of students increasing in recent years across the country.

A tally by local news outlet Premium Times found that at least 1,900 students have been kidnapped from 20 schools since the 2014 mass abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state.

World

Iran's Khamenei Says US, Israel Aim to Sow 'Division' after War Defeat

An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
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Iran's Khamenei Says US, Israel Aim to Sow 'Division' after War Defeat

An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
An Iranian man walks past a billboard carrying a picture of Iran' supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei erected along a street in Tehran on May 28, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

Iran's supreme leader on Thursday accused the US and Israel of trying to sow "division" among Iranians after suffering a "decisive blow" during the Middle East war.

In a written message, Mojtaba Khamenei said "the malicious enemy" was seeking to "plant the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division" among the public, reported AFP.

"In confronting these ill intentions, everyone must, through steadfastness, insight, preserving unity and cohesion... neutralize their sinister plot," his message said.