“The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. The court said in a statement that warrants were issued in July and September last year for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. Also wanted are Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim. The existence of the warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani was revealed last year, but the warrants remained sealed. With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan and the court having no police force to execute warrants, the prospect of any of the suspects being arrested is remote.” (10/05/26)
“Teachers in Libya have escalated their protests over salaries into an open-ended strike at public schools. Protests began on September 13, the day the school year was due to start. Sit-ins were held outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli. Two weeks later, Libya’s teachers union stepped up the campaign with a nationwide strike. It has kept students out of classrooms across the country. On Sunday, several Libyan unions representing other sectors threatened to join the strike unless the government entered talks to address a cost of living crisis.” (10/05/26)
“The Supreme Court is rebuffing an appeal from a Michigan woman fighting a school district’s ban on shirts with the phrase ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ a jab at then-President Joe Biden with a coded reference to profanity. The mother of two boys says their First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the sweatshirts she bought them for Christmas in 2022. A lower court disagreed, finding that the veiled vulgarity of the phrase, which functions as a stand-in for ‘F-— Joe Biden,’ allows schools to ban it. The woman’s attorneys argued that the decision wrongly gives school officials wide latitude to squelch political speech based on their personal ideas of what is vulgar. The phrase itself doesn’t contain any swear words or sexual implications, they said.” (10/05/26)
“The death of a worker at an anti-plague laboratory in Russia has prompted officials to put at least one hospital facility under quarantine and nearly 200 people reportedly under medical observation as of Monday. The female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died from a ‘pneumonia of undetermined’ origin last week, according to the regional governor, Igor Kobsev. He said no ‘microorganisms linked to the employee’s professional activities were detected’ in her body, and that there had been ‘no new cases’ of illness among other employees of the lab. … Russian media cited officials saying that nearly 200 people who had been in contact with the woman had been placed under precautionary medical observation.” (10/05/26)
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Roy Moore’s push to restore an $8.2 million defamation verdict over a 2017 Senate race ad funded by a Democratic-aligned super PAC. Justices declined to hear Moore’s appeal of a lower court decision that vacated the large verdict. The outcome keeps in place the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that erased a jury’s decision that Moore had been defamed by the ad. It was a victory for Senate Majority PAC, which funded the ad, and argued it was truthful. … Leigh Corfman said Moore inappropriately touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. Moore denied the accusation. Other women said Moore dated them, or asked them out on dates, when they were older teens.” (10/05/26)
“More than 5,000 supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began a dayslong march toward Islamabad on Sunday to demand his release, after talks between the government and the opposition fell through. The looming showdown threatens to deepen Pakistan’s political uncertainty at a time when the country is also grappling with a surge in militant attacks. Khan is current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s main political rival and has been imprisoned since 2023 on corruption and other charges that he and his party say are politically motivated.” (10/05/26)
“Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated on Monday that his landlocked country must have access to the Red Sea, despite neighboring countries saying at a summit Sunday that responsibility for the sea rests with states along its shores and warning of the risk of regional conflict. Ethiopia lost direct access to the Red Sea in 1993 after Eritrea, formerly a region of Ethiopia, became independent. Abiy said access to the Red Sea was critical to Ethiopia’s ‘civilization’ and that he would work to ensure the country has a port. … Ethiopia’s relations with its regional neighbors have deteriorated in recent months. The country also faces renewed war with separatist rebels in the northern Tigray region.” (10/05/26)
“The U.S. military said it attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, [murdering] four people, as the Trump administration continues its yearlong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. The latest attack brings the number of people who have been [murdered] in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 235 in 70 strikes since the administration began targeting those it calls ‘narcoterrorists’ in September 2025.” (10/05/26)
“The co-pilot accused of trying to hijack a flydubai plane planned to crash the aircraft into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport or a tower block in the Israeli city, US and Israeli reports suggest. The Omani national was ‘a lone wolf’ extremist, according to the reports. The United Arab Emirates’ attorney-general has said the co-pilot attempted to carry out ‘a terrorist act’ on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv last Wednesday. He attacked and wounded the captain with the emergency crash axe kept in the cockpit before being overpowered by passengers. Another crew travelling on the plane was able to land it in Saudi Arabia. Israel’s prime minister has said the co-pilot underwent ‘Islamist radical indoctrination’ and the captain, passengers and a second crew prevented ‘a 9/11 disaster’.” (10/05/26)
“Authorities in France were forced to close as many as 500 high schools across the country as protests by thousands of students over the state of the education system extended into a third week. Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced Sunday that the schools would not reopen after the weekend with classes at 400 to 500 partially or completely canceled because of security that did not meet the levels required. Accusing left wing extremists of exploiting the dispute, Geffray said 78 staff had been injured and 24 schools ‘burned or ransacked’ since the protests, which he said were unprecedented, erupted Sept. 21 in low-income districts of Paris’ southeastern suburbs.” (10/05/26)
