South Africa host Australia who battle more than ‘Sandpapergate’ memories

Australia play their first Test in South Africa since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal when they start a ⁠three-match series in Durban on Friday, with the visitors unlikely to face more than a few heckles over the incident that rocked the sport eight years ago.

The tourists’ efforts to roughen ⁠up the ball using sandpaper to aid reverse swing in Cape Town in March 2018 were caught on camera and led to a major reckoning for the game in Australia, with captain Steve Smith among those banned for their role in the subterfuge.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the first Test battle in South Africa since the infamous series.

What is the context for the first return of series since ‘Sandpapergate’

South Africa have played Tests in Australia since ‘Sandpapergate’, and ‌Australia have toured South Africa in the interim for limited-overs internationals.

The scandal has attracted little media focus in South Africa over recent weeks in comparison to the attention devoted to the incident in the Australian press.

After dethroning Australia last year in a thrilling World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s to win a first major title, South Africa are focused on improving their chances of a return to the final at the end of the 2025–27 ⁠WTC cycle.

What shape are South Africa in for the visit of Australia?

The pitch at Kingsmead often proves a fickle track but should offer the spinners a chance to play a leading role in ⁠a change from South Africa’s usually seamer-friendly surfaces.

It is unusual for South Africa’s chances to be largely entrusted to their spin attack, but Simon ⁠Harmer and Keshav Maharaj wreaked havoc in India last November ⁠when they triumphed in their last two Test outings.

Spin was also a key factor for the home side as they beat Australia in the recent One-Day International series.

South Africa may therefore opt to rest frontline attack bowler Kagiso Rabada from ‌the Test as he continues his comeback from a hamstring injury.

South Africa also have a choice to make over their number three batsman, with coach Shukri Conrad having several options including a potential first cap for 30-year-old Marques Ackerman.

How are Australia poised for their South Africa return?

Australia are also in need of a boost after a surprise ⁠home Test defeat by Bangladesh in August in their drawn series, and with an Ashes tour to England starting next June.

Injury to Australia all-rounder Cameron Green opens up a chance at number five for Cooper Connolly, or a fairytale return for ‌34-year-old ‌Nic Maddinson after recovering from cancer.

Head hits back at former Australia players in defence of Test team

Australia opener Travis Head has taken to task former Test players turned critics whom he accused on Wednesday of “putting a bullet” through the current team.

Head did not single out any pundit directly, but his strong remarks at a news conference came the day after Matthew Hayden, one-time holder of the record ⁠for the most runs in a Test innings, accused selectors of “promoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we’ve seen in a generation of cricket”.

The reference, made in a podcast, was about the recall of Maddinson, who has been out of Test cricket for nearly 10 years, but who joined the squad in South Africa after Josh Inglis ‌fractured his finger and Cameron Green suffered a stomach injury.

“I think it’s unfairly judged a fair bit from a group of past players, pretty much that put the bullet through a lot of players, which I think is unfair,” Head said.

“But that’s what they’re paid to do. Some of them need a job, so they go after us, and that’s totally fine.

“This group is strong enough to deal with those sorts of things. That’s how it is. It’s unfortunate sometimes to have some of that feedback from a ⁠generation of players that we have huge respect for, but that’s the caper.”

Why have Australia selectors been accused of disrespecting cricket?

Hayden accused the selectors of “disrespecting first-class cricket”, asserting that batsmen should have an average of 45 runs or more before being considered for Test selection.

Head, however, praised Maddinson’s abilities and the benefits of choosing experienced players for Test cricket despite the 34-year-old ⁠replacement having a first-class average of 37.11.

“We need mature guys that know what they need to be doing,” Head said. “That revolves back to why ⁠we’ve been so good over a period of time, and why Australian ⁠cricket was so good back then in that era, because you’d bring in the Mike Husseys of the world, who are 30, who are tried and tested and know what they need to do.”

Former Australia captain Allan Border suggested that the 32-year-old Head would face his ‌toughest test as an opener against the South African bowling attack and would perhaps be better batting at number five.

“I have laughed at a fair bit of it because if a traditional opening batter had pushed out ‌the ‌same sort of numbers in his first 20 innings, I think he’d be pretty safe and not talked about in the way that it has been talked about,” Head said. “It’s a lot of headline stuff.”

South African fans hold up banner with reference to the sandpaper scandal during the Fourth Test match between South Africa and Australia at the New Wanderers Stadium
South African fans hold up a banner with reference to the sandpaper scandal during the fourth Test against Australia in 2018 [File: Gavin Barker/EPA]

Smith still traumatised by Sandpapergate

In the build-up to the series, Smith has admitted he is still traumatised by “Sandpapergate” – the series he oversaw as captain.

The prolific batter was sent home in disgrace, banned for a year and sacked as captain for his role in the ball-tampering scandal during the third Test in Cape Town eight years ago.

David Warner, considered the ringleader, was suspended for 12 months and stripped of all leadership roles, while Cameron Bancroft was slapped with a nine-month ban.

Smith said he still suffers flashbacks to a traumatic period of his life, haunted by memories of leaving Johannesburg airport, with cameras clicking furiously around him, and a harrowing Sydney news conference on his return when he broke down in tears.

“I’m not a big fan of cameras … I get anxious around cameras to be honest,” he told News Corp.

“That was a traumatic experience in my life, and when I hear the flash of a camera it makes me revisit that in a way.

“The 24-48 hours of being told by James Sutherland [then Cricket Australia chief executive] that I was getting banned for a year. That and going through the airport in Johannesburg getting absolutely mobbed, and then flying back and doing that press conference.

“I still have little flashbacks here and there of it.”

Smith bore the brunt of the scandal that is considered one of Australian sport’s darkest moments, but bounced back emphatically.

He smashed a superb century against England on his return and has gone from strength to strength, with 10,920 Test runs so far at an average of 56.

“It was certainly a difficult period, particularly the initial period a few days after,” he said.

“The mental state I was in was not great. That’s somewhere I’d like not to get to again, but I certainly learned from that and have been able to move forward with my life.

“I’ve tried to kind of erase a lot of 2018 and what happened,” he added.

“I can’t remember a lot about the series. I’ve tried to block most of it out of my memory bank.”

Smith has been back to South Africa for a white-ball series since 2018, but not for a Test, and he is bracing for hostile crowds.

But the 37-year-old is unperturbed, having negotiated multiple Ashes tours to England since 2018, where the Barmy Army abused him relentlessly.

“It’s something I’m kind of used to. I’ve copped a lot at times away from home at different venues across my career and it’s something that I take in my own stride,” he said.

“I use it as motivation to try and go out and do well and try and take a positive from it.”

Harmanpreet Kaur: The captain who changed how India’s women played cricket

For nine years, Harmanpreet Kaur’s career as captain of the Indian women’s cricket team teetered on the brink of near-misses and lingering deliberations.

The biggest question centred on an elusive maiden World Cup title and India’s failure to cross the final hurdle at major tournaments.

Their breakout run at the one-day international (ODI) World Cup ended in heartbreak in 2017, a year after Kaur was appointed captain in the Twenty20 format and earmarked to take over the reins across all formats of the game.

Under her leadership, India qualified for but lost their first T20 World Cup final in 2020 and ended with a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, before suffering another agonising T20 World Cup semifinal defeat in 2023.

In November 2025, the what-if was finally buried.

Kaur’s India beat then-defending champions Australia in a sensational come-from-behind World Cup semifinal before overcoming a resolute South Africa in the final to be crowned world champions for the first time – in front of adoring home fans.

Less than a year later, on October 6, 2026, Kaur stepped down as India’s all-format captain, ending a decade-long leadership journey that saw India transform into world champions after decades spent chasing cricket’s traditional heavyweights Australia and England.

“This is not an easy decision,” the 37-year-old wrote in an Instagram post, adding that she will continue to play international cricket. “As a captain, I have had to make difficult decisions. Decisions that were not always understood, not always easy, and sometimes came at a personal cost.”

The announcement was made after discussions on the future of Indian women’s cricket, which took place a day earlier between Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, head coach Amol Muzumdar and Devajit Saikia, honorary secretary of the Indian cricket board.

Mandhana, who was Kaur’s deputy for four years, replaced her as captain.

Kaur, India’s most capped women’s cricketer, enjoyed a leadership stint that included five Test matches, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is, with win percentages of 80, 58.82 and 59.35 respectively.

The Punjab-born top-order batter’s last game in charge was the recently concluded Asian Games in Japan, where India stepped on the podium as gold medallists.

Nine days earlier, Kaur led them to an Asia Cup trophy in the United Arab Emirates.

The medals and trophies tell one part of Kaur’s tale as captain. The other lies in how India learned to play differently under her.

India's Harmanpreet Kaur
Harmanpreet Kaur poses with the trophy after winning the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup final against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, India, on November 3, 2025 [Rafiq Maqbool/AP]

Big-hitting batter

Kaur took over as India’s full-time T20I captain in 2016, after the team’s disappointing group-stage exit at a home T20 World Cup.

It followed a match-winning innings that helped India win their first T20I series against Australia in any format, and a few months later, she was signed as the first Indian cricketer in the Big Bash League, Australia’s franchise T20 cricket competition

It did not take long for Kaur, the batter, to announce her intentions.

Facing the mighty Australia in the semifinal of the ODI World Cup in 2017, Kaur played an unbeaten innings of 171 that took India into the final and challenged long-held assumptions about the power and aggression an Indian batter could bring to the women’s game.

Following the World Cup runners-up finish, which is widely regarded as a defining moment in Indian women’s cricket, the top-order batter recalled how her father’s friends would discourage her from playing big shots, saying, “Why do you need to attempt big hits when you know girls do not have power to clear the rope?”

“After watching [the 2017] World Cup, they started believing maybe my teammates and I can clear the rope,” she said in an interview with The Cricket Monthly magazine.

Years later, former Australia captain Alyssa Healy made a telling observation about her contemporary’s influence on the Indian team.

“What she has done in leading this Indian side, and [a] new generation of Indian women into the modern game, has been amazing to watch,” Healy said in 2023, before India’s Test match against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

At her first T20 World Cup as full-time captain in 2018, Harmanpreet led India to their first semifinal in eight years, while scoring India’s first T20I century with a 51-ball 103 against New Zealand.

It set in motion an evolution in Indian women’s T20s, a format they had historically struggled in.

India’s strengths had been better suited to ODIs, making Kaur’s task of shepherding a younger side towards a more aggressive, modern T20 game crucial and timely.

In 2020, India went a step further in the T20 World Cup, reaching their first final, driven largely by 16-year-old batting all-rounder Shafali Verma and legspin bowler Poonam Yadav. Still, Australia overpowered them in front of a record 86,000-plus home crowd at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Despite her own poor performance in that tournament, Kaur evolved as a leader.

“Two or three years ago, I used to be a lot more aggressive on the field,” she said during the tournament.

“I used to lose my temper very quickly, but things have been changing within me. I have seen that change translate into results for me and the team.”

Then-India head coach WV Raman praised Kaur’s handling of a young side. “The most important thing as a captain is to make each member of the side realise that they are an integral part of that side,” Raman said. “In that regard, it was a challenge for her, but she has coped with it brilliantly.”

Cricket - Women's One Day International Series - England v India - The Spitfire Ground St Lawrence, Canterbury, Britain - September 21, 2022 India's Harmanpreet Kaur hits a six Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Harmanpreet Kaur hits a six [File: Andrew Boyers/Action Images via Reuters]

Raising the bar

Kaur inherited a T20I side in transition, with an influx of younger players bringing greater fearlessness and athleticism.

After heavy defeats against Australia and England in a home tri-series in 2018, she called for “fit players who can run all across the ground”.

Her attacking philosophy extended beyond the physical aspect of the game and instilled a conviction that India could beat Australia and England.

Following the retirement of India’s iconic captain Mithali Raj in 2022, Kaur enjoyed all-format captaincy for the first time.

In the same year, India travelled to England and shocked them with a 3-0 ODI series win for the first time in 23 years. Kaur scored a series-leading 221 runs, including an unbeaten 143 from 111 balls.

The final match of the series was played at Lord’s Cricket Ground and offered a glimpse of Kaur’s leadership skills.

India’s all-rounder Deepti Sharma ran out England’s Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end for the final wicket of the match. When the dismissal, legal according to the rules of cricket, threatened to overshadow the series sweep, Kaur publicly stood by her player.

“Well, I thought you would ask about the first 10 wickets because they were not easy to take,” she told the host broadcaster, matter-of-factly, when questioned about the incident after the match. “I will back my player because I don’t think she has done something which is not in the ICC rules.”


From chasing the best to becoming the best

Despite their growth, India failed to get over the line in big finals.

Australia denied them a Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and knocked them out of the 2023 T20 World Cup in the semifinals.

Embarrassingly, India exited the 2024 and 2026 editions of the T20 World Cup at the group stage.

But under Kaur’s captaincy, expectations rose as India continued to win bilateral series against England, Australia and South Africa.

And in 2025, India won the ODI World Cup.

There was a neat symmetry to Australia being their semifinal opponents. Eight years after Kaur’s 171 knocked Australia out of the 2017 World Cup, her 89 and Jemimah Rodrigues’s Player of the Match innings of 127 not out helped eliminate the same opponents.

Verma, the all-rounder whom Kaur backed at the 2020 T20 World Cup as a 16-year-old, was named the best player in the final and credited her captain after Kaur announced her decision to quit the role.

“Since the day I made my debut, you’ve always been there for me, on and off the field,” Verma wrote on social media. “You’ve led us through some incredible moments and helped shape the team we are today.”

The final weeks of Kaur’s captaincy brought more silverware, but against the backdrop of dwindling returns.

The calls for 30-year-old Mandhana to take over as captain grew louder.

The left-handed opener has been India’s best batter in the past two and a half years and recently broke the record for most runs in women’s cricket.

And with the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy, slated for early 2027, and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics in sight, Mandhana was handed the reins.

At the end of her four-year run as India’s all-format leader, the defining image of Kaur’s captaincy will be her role in ending South Africa’s innings in last year’s World Cup final.

From cover, Kaur backtracked to catch Nadine de Klerk’s lofted shot, prompting wild celebrations.

Almost a decade since she was first entrusted with a leadership role, Kaur’s final act was to end the country’s agonising wait for a World Cup.

India's captain Harmanpreet Kaur celebrates after winning the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup final match against South Africa in Navi Mumbai, India, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Harmanpreet Kaur celebrates after taking the catch that won India their first World Cup [File: Rafiq Maqbool/AP]

US Republicans, independents express low trust in election integrity: Poll

With less than a month to go before the United States’ pivotal midterms, a new survey found that most independent voters and supporters of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party do not believe the elections will be honest.

Polling from Gallup, released on Wednesday, found 37 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of independents have confidence in the country’s electoral system, significantly lower than US Democrats (63 percent).

Overall, 49 percent of Americans said they were confident in the honesty of elections, while 51 percent said they were not. Those figures are unchanged from the country’s last midterm election in 2022.

This “marks a change from 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, when confidence was nominally higher among approvers (51 percent) than disapprovers (45 percent)”, Gallup wrote in a statement highlighting the results of the survey.

The numbers highlight a deep, historic partisan divide over confidence in US elections.

“Since 2025 and Trump’s return to the White House, the relationship between leadership approval and confidence in elections has disappeared,” Gallup wrote.

Gallup said that the US is the only country out of more than 100 polled annually over the past 15 years to show this pattern – trust in US election integrity is markedly higher among those who disapprove of the country’s leadership under Trump (52 percent) than those who approve (41 percent).

In more than 100 countries where the polling organisation tracks views of national leadership and confidence in elections, people who approve of their governments have generally been more likely to trust their country’s elections.

In 2025, 70 percent of people globally who approved of their national leadership expressed confidence in the honesty of their elections, compared with 30 percent among those who disapproved.

“The current US pattern is highly unusual compared with the rest of the world,” Gallup wrote.

Under former US President Joe Biden, 81 percent of Americans who approved of the government expressed confidence in elections, compared with just 30 percent of those who disapproved, according to Gallup.

Gallup said the unusual divide could have implications for the November elections, raising questions about whether some voters will view the results as legitimate.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Democratic FCC member warns of AI robocall misinformation risks in US

Anna Gomez, the Democratic member of the United States Federal Communications Commission, has urged the federal agency not to allow robocalls generated with artificial intelligence in the lead-up to the midterm elections in early November.

On Wednesday, the commissioner pushed back against a petition from Club for Growth, a national conservative fiscal policy organisation, to allow AI-generated robocalls.

The petition, filed on August 31, requested that the federal agency allow political groups to make automated phone calls to people without their prior permission. The group said it would limit calls so that the same person would not receive more than three calls over the course of 30 days and would be presented with the option to opt out.

The FCC’s public comment period began on September 4, with the deadline for comments on Monday. Responses to those comments are due October 19, and the FCC has yet to decide whether it will approve the request.

Robocalls have been used in political campaigns for years. The FCC prohibits such calls to cellphones and pagers without the called party’s prior express consent, but they are permitted to landlines.

The concern with the use of AI is that it can sound like a real person and make it easier to impersonate someone. On the back of a rising number of scams using the technology, the FCC, in February 2024, banned it, saying, “this action now makes the act of using AI to generate the voice in these robocalls itself illegal.”

“[If] the FCC allows a dark money group to flood Americans’ phones with AI-generated robocalls they never agreed to receive, it would bring chaos so close to Election Day,” commissioner Gomez told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

She told The Associated Press that removing the FCC’s consent requirement could lead to a rise in unwanted robocalls and misinformation.

Representatives for Gomez did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The concerns are not unfounded. In advance of the 2024 New Hampshire primary, voters received a robocall featuring an AI-generated version in the voice of President Joe Biden, the Democrat incumbent, telling them not to vote.

The FCC said that political consultant Steve Kramer, who was working for long-shot primary challenger Dean Phillips, was responsible and could face $6m in fines. He was later acquitted of voter suppression charges.

At the state level, Louisiana, Tennessee and Vermont passed laws this year requiring disclosures for AI-generated campaign phone calls. More broadly, 25 states have passed laws concerning the use of AI-generated materials in elections since 2019.

AI election concerns mount

Concerns about AI robocalls underscore broader concerns about AI in the run-up to the midterm elections.

According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 57 percent of registered voters said that the administration of US President Donald Trump has not taken the risks of AI seriously enough, with 54 percent saying the same about congressional leadership.

Late last month, the White House convened leaders from leading AI companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google, to sign a voluntary pact in which the companies agreed to put more safeguards in place around the development of their most advanced AI systems. Its non-compulsory nature has not appeased critics.

“The White House Accord on Super Intelligence is ‘morally binding’ only, allowing AI companies to design their own controls, select their own evaluators, and determine whether their own procedures are being followed,” Tom Wheeler, visiting fellow in governance studies with Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) at the think tank Brookings Institution, wrote about the decision.

“History suggests voluntary commitments from these companies are unreliable, as Facebook, Google, and Twitter have all walked back or violated previous self-imposed standards.”

Former Catholic bishop sentenced for abusing indigenous men in Australia

A former Roman Catholic bishop has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for sexually abusing two young indigenous men in Western Australia.

Seventy-six year old Christopher Saunders was sentenced by the District Court of Western Australia and showed no reaction during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

In August, a court found Saunders guilty of one count of sexual penetration without consent and 12 counts of indecent assault.

The offences took place between 2010 and 2019 when he was bishop of Broome, a remote diocese in northwestern Australia.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, issued a statement apologising for the pain and suffering Saunders inflicted on victims, saying their trust had been “profoundly betrayed by a leader of the Church”.

Saunders was ordained a priest in 1976 and initially worked at mission stations in outback regions from the 1970s onwards. In the 1990s, he was appointed bishop of Broome by Pope John Paul II.

Following the abuse allegations, Saunders suspended his duties in 2020 and in August 2021 Pope Francis accepted his resignation. The clergyman has consistently denied the allegations.

It was revealed in court that the bishop had groomed his victims.

He is said to have regularly invited young indigenous Aboriginal men and teenagers to a beach house or a Catholic Church residence, providing them with alcohol and cigarettes, and giving them money and mobile phones.

The assaults on the two young men reportedly took place while they were heavily intoxicated.

Royal Commission and history of abuse

In 2013, Australia’s government set up a Royal Commission, a high-level inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse, after a series of scandals involving the Catholic Church.

In 2017, the commission revealed that most of the abuse took place in churches, with seven percent of Catholic priests accused of abusing children in Australia between 1950 and 2010. It said allegations were almost never investigated.

It found that 4,444 alleged incidents of child sexual abuse had been reported to church authorities. In some dioceses, more than 15 percent of priests were perpetrators.

The commission also heard testimony from the Vatican’s former finance chief Cardinal George Pell, who was found guilty in 2018 of sexually abusing choirboys in Melbourne, Australia in the 1990s.

Pell – who had been Pope Francis’s anti-corruption tsar – was released from prison in 2020 after a court quashed his conviction. He died in Rome on January 10, 2023, at the age of 81 due to heart complications following hip surgery.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi detained over election chief protest

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has been detained for the third time in two days during a protest demanding the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists.

Gandhi and other opposition lawmakers were apprehended by police on Wednesday as they marched towards Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in India’s capital, New Delhi.

A live feed on the YouTube channel of Gandhi’s Congress Party showed police taking him into a vehicle and driving away. Authorities also detained several other opposition lawmakers and protesters.

Opposition parties, their student units and the “Cockroach” youth movement have been demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the poll body he heads of benefiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

India’s Election Commission has so far removed more than 130 million names from the voter lists, with millions appealing the removals. About 969 million people were eligible to vote in the 2024 election.

Protesters allege the changes disproportionately removed voters who support opposition parties while preserving or adding voters more likely to back Modi’s party.

Police detain Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, during a protest organized by opposition parties demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in New Delhi, India, October 7, 2026. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Police detain Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi during a protest organised by opposition parties in New Delhi [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

The commission and government deny the allegations. They say the revision has no political motive but is aimed at removing duplicate and ineligible entries while ensuring eligible voters remain registered.

Opposition lawmakers led by Gandhi protested on Tuesday as well, before police broke up their gathering and ‌‌briefly detained them.

Speaking before his detention on Wednesday, Gandhi said protesters showed up unannounced after Delhi police “stopped” their gathering the day before.

“We will go to the designated protest site, sit there, and tell the country that, for us, Gyanesh Kumar is not the legitimate commissioner,” he told reporters, referring to Jantar Mantar.

“The people who have done this [vote theft] are traitors … Gyanesh Kumar will have to resign,” he ⁠⁠added.

There was no immediate comment from the police on the detentions.

The demonstrations present a new political challenge to Modi midway into his third term, just months after similar protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party ‌‌youth ‌‌movement forced the resignation of his education minister over exam paper leaks.

The “Cockroach” protests, one of the most visible signs of public dissent against Modi’s government in recent years, reflected growing anger over job scarcity, corruption and a lack of government accountability.

 

 

Ultra-Orthodox rabbi’s anti-Zionist remarks stir Israel election row

Comments by one of Israel’s most senior ultra-Orthodox rabbis postulating that Jews may have been better off without a state have prompted controversy in the country.

In footage broadcast by Channel 12 on Monday, the 96-year-old Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party, also said that soldiers adhering to “Religious Zionism” killed in Israel’s wars were dying because of what their rabbis had taught them. The remarks, made at a closed meeting at his home in Bnei Brak, have set off a political storm three weeks before Israel’s October 27 parliamentary election.

“They are killed because their rabbis teach them a distorted Torah,” Lando said, adding that many military operations are carried out “not for saving lives, but for the honour of the state”.

Lando’s comment came in response to a question about admiration among some ultra-Orthodox Jewish men – who have traditionally refused the military draft – for religious Zionists who combine Torah study with military service.

His comments aren’t new – they were first published in February 2025. However, their reemergence this week comes amid an election campaign in which ultra-Orthodox military service has become one of the sharpest fault lines in Israeli politics.

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that there was no legal basis for ultra-Orthodox seminary students to have exemptions from military service, and the government has since not been able to pass legislation restoring the exemptions. The issue has led to large protests on both sides of the divide.

“The question is not what he said, but why this discourse has been placed at the heart of the Israeli debate three weeks before the election,” Ehab Jabareen, a researcher on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera.


Better ‘without a state’

Lando’s party is one of the two factions of the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) alliance, which won seven seats during the last election in 2022, and had been part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government before its ministers resigned last year.

The bloc did continue to intermittently support the coalition government, however, and Netanyahu has been wary of removing the military exemption – despite widespread opposition to it from many in Israel – out of fear that the UTJ and similar parties would remove their support completely.

Along with his role within Degel HaTorah, Lando is also one of the spiritual leaders of Israel’s Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, which makes up roughly a third of the country’s estimated 1.45 million ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as Haredim.

In May, he said he no longer trusted Netanyahu and called for parliament to be dissolved.

In the footage, he goes further. “It is possible to live well with the Arabs without a state,” he says, adding that international or Palestinian rule would have been “the best situation”.

Zionism, he argues, “caused the Arabs to hate us” and brought physical as well as spiritual disaster on the Jewish people. He describes secular Israelis as having built “a state of apostasy and heresy”.

The comments reflect non-Zionist and anti-Zionist positions that used to be dominant within ultra-Orthodox Judaism, but take on an overt reference to the possibility of living within a non-Zionist state, something that is even more controversial in Israel.

Ibrahim Khatib, a conflict studies scholar at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Lando’s remarks drew a line between Zionism and Judaism “from inside the Jewish community itself”, at a time when the official Israeli establishment “tries to bind them together”.

They also put to the test the narrative that Jewish communities in Arab societies were in danger and threatened, and that the Zionist movement came to “save them” at the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, he told Al Jazeera. However, Khatib cautioned that the ultra-Orthodox polity in Israel “is right-wing, its leaders hold right-wing positions, and some of them have made clearly offensive statements about Arabs and Palestinians”.


Political ammunition

Israeli opposition leaders moved quickly after the footage of Lando emerged this week, taking it as an opportunity to attack a figure from a party within Netanyahu’s electoral bloc.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – one of Netanyahu’s main challengers in the upcoming elections – called the remarks “anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist and anti-[Israeli military]”, but aimed his fire at Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who he said “back [Lando] and funnel tens of billions of shekels to him and his friends”.

Gadi Eisenkot, another opposition leader whose Yashar party has campaigned on enforcing the military draft, urged every Zionist party to pledge not to sit with Lando’s party.

Netanyahu, who publicly rejected Lando’s remarks in July when the rabbi accused the Religious Zionism movement of “incitement to murder” for its support of the drafting of religious seminary students to the military, has not yet commented.

Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats, put it bluntly: “Netanyahu is silent because without Rabbi Lando and his emissaries, he has no government.”

Jabareen sees Netanyahu’s silence as “calculated”.

“If Netanyahu attacks Lando forcefully, he pays a price with the Haredim he needs to form a government,” he said. “If he stays silent, he hands his rivals material to tell right-wing voters that the man who speaks of Zionism and security depends on a religious leadership that doubts Zionism itself.”


Who fights and who dies

The military draft of the ultra-Orthodox, Jabareen added, has turned “from an old dispute over religion and state into a question about the Israeli [social] contract itself: Who fights? Who dies? And who gets the exemptions, the budgets and the political influence in return?”

Mohammad Abu Rumman, an academic adviser at the Politics and Society Institute in Amman, said the significance of Lando’s remarks lay in the question that prompted them. The example of a young religious man who combines Torah study with military service, he said, “raises a question inside the ultra-Orthodox world itself: Why don’t we do the same?”

“When Lando describes their teaching as a distorted Torah, he is trying to close the door on emulating them,” Abu Rumman told Al Jazeera. “His words are aimed at his own audience as much as at his opponents.”

But Jabareen argued that the row exposes a rift more dangerous for Netanyahu than the familiar clash between secular and religious Israelis, because it runs through the right itself. Religious Zionists have paid a heavy human price in the war, while the ultra-Orthodox leadership still rejects conscription. Caught between those who pay the price of war and those who refuse to, Netanyahu needs both, and cannot satisfy them at once.

Whether the outrage over Lando’s comments translates into votes is less clear. Abu Rumman expects the remarks to “reinforce existing positions more than change voters’ choices”. The space where they could matter, he said, lies among right-wing voters who serve in the army and resent Netanyahu’s protection of ultra-Orthodox demands.

“If Netanyahu needs these parties to build a majority, that need will not disappear because of a rabbi’s remarks, however shocking,” Abu Rumman said. Netanyahu is also not the UTJ’s only suitor: Channel 12 reported that, frustrated by his failure to secure a law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service, the party would not rule out or oppose a government led by Eisenkot.

“The Israeli right has managed to bring under one political roof two currents with almost contradictory visions of the Jewish state,” Jabareen said. “One sanctifies the state and the expansion of its sovereignty. In the other, one of its most important rabbis can say it might have been better had the state never been founded.”


Witnesses spot Eritrean troops inside northern Ethiopia as tensions flare

Eritrean soldiers have been seen driving through a northern town inside Ethiopia, witnesses tell the Reuters news agency, days after the neighbouring countries severed ties.

At least two witnesses told Reuters they saw “dozens” of Eritrean soldiers drive through Adigrat in two trucks on Wednesday. The town is located 25km (15 miles) south of the border with Eritrea.

The witnesses said they could identify the soldiers as Eritrean by their off-white camouflage uniforms.

Another Adigrat resident who was not in town at the time said family members had told him they had also seen Eritrean troops, according to Reuters, which could not independently verify their accounts.

“The Eritrean army has entered Tigray in uniform, equipped with heavy weaponry,” said Gebreigziabher Beyene, commander of the Tigray Peace Force, a pro-government militia that has fought alongside the federal army.

“This force is being struck by drones,” he said, adding Eritrea was “deliberately deploying its forces so that the fighting takes place inside Tigray rather than spilling into Eritrea”.

Last week, the chief administrator in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region said Eritrean troops were fighting in the area, but Reuters was unable to confirm the claim.

In a statement on X, Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Meskel did not deny that troops had crossed the border, but said Ethiopia’s government was creating “a fallacious narrative of ‘self-defense’ to rationalise and camouflage its war of aggression”.

If confirmed, it would mark the first time Eritrean forces have been seen inside Ethiopia since the renewal of fighting between Ethiopian forces and a seven-group armed alliance, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), on September 23.

Ethiopia has accused Eritrea, as well as Egypt and Sudan of backing the armed alliance which is fighting to remove the government. All three countries have denied involvement.

Eritrea announced it was severing ties with Ethiopia on Thursday after Addis Ababa announced it would close its embassy in Asmara and expel 10 Eritrean diplomats.

In a statement, Eritrea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ethiopia’s actions had left it with “no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia”.

 

Members of the Ethiopian pro-government Tigray Peace Force (TPF) gesture as residents welcome them while they ride in a pickup truck during a street patrol after Ethiopian federal and allied forces entered the Tigray capital of Mekelle, on October 4, 2026.
Members of the Ethiopian pro-government Tigray Peace Force (TPF) give a thumbs up to residents after Ethiopian federal and allied forces entered the Tigray capital of Mekelle on October 4, 2026 [AFP]

On Monday, Ethiopian forces captured Tigray’s regional capital Mekelle, days after the TPLF confirmed that it had withdrawn from the city and moved its regional administration “temporarily” to another location.

It happened as Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for another five-year term, during which he insisted that his landlocked country must have access to the Red Sea.

On the same day, Eritrea joined Somalia, Sudan and Egypt in issuing a joint declaration calling for a political and peaceful solution to the war in Ethiopia.

The declaration appeared to push back against several policies pursued by Ethiopia in recent years, highlighting widening rifts between Addis Ababa and its neighbours.

Saudi Arabia says Houthi attacks on airports killed three foreign nationals

Three civilians have been killed and 36 injured in Houthi attacks on Abha and King Khalid international airports on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a statement from the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation.

The attack on Abha international airport killed two female residents, a Moroccan and an Algerian, and injured 28 others, it added.

The attack on King Khalid international airport in the capital Riyadh killed a Sudanese citizen and injured eight residents, including five Saudi citizens.

The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said it is working, “in full integration and continuous coordination with the relevant security authorities”, to assess the damage and take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of passengers and workers.

On September 18, Saudi-led coalition forces said they intercepted and destroyed a suspected Houthi ballistic missile fired towards the airport in Riyadh from Yemen.

A day later, at least one explosion was heard near the airport on September 19 in Riyadh, and a large plume of black smoke was seen rising from a fuel storage area at King Khalid international airport.

Saudi-backed Yemeni forces from the country’s internationally recognised government are locked in escalating combat with Iran-aligned Houthi forces who seized a broad swath of territory astride the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait which connects the Arabian and Red Seas.

Meanwhile, the United States embassy in Riyadh has issued another security alert for Americans in Saudi Arabia due to the ongoing security situation, reminding “all US citizens to exercise heightened vigilance”.

Most Americans oppose Trump’s taxpayer-funded ‘golden age’ ads: Poll

The Trump administration says its taxpayer-funded television advertisements are about patriotism, reminding people why they should love the United States and why it is worth defending. But an overwhelming majority of Americans say they should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll suggested that 86 percent of Americans, including four out of five Republicans, believe it is inappropriate to use public money for election-related television advertisements featuring US President Donald Trump or members of his cabinet.

The poll comes as Trump says he will stop using taxpayer money to fund the advertisements. On Monday, he said he would instead pay for them himself and with money raised by MAGA Inc, his political action committee.

What remains unclear is whether he will reimburse taxpayers for advertisements that have already aired. The White House said on Tuesday that the president would only pay for future advertisements, but Trump later appeared to leave the door open to reimbursing the government, telling reporters, “The ads were really good. They were promotion for the country, done by many presidents before. So, we’ll decide.”

The Trump administration faces mounting criticism about a number of government-funded advertisements that have been airing in the run-up to November’s midterm elections, celebrating what they describe as a “golden age of America”.

In one, a choir sings “love me” over a montage of Trump as he declares the US will “never be a communist country”. Another uses images of Mount Rushmore as Trump heralds a new “golden age of America”. The third is darker: Trump walks towards the camera in black and white, warning of a “final battle” against the “deep state” and other perceived enemies.

All three end with a disclaimer saying they were “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

The advertisements have already cost taxpayers at least $1.4m, according to media tracking firm AdImpact, and have aired across network and cable television, including during high-viewership programmes, such as NFL games, as well as streaming services.

Democratic lawmakers have said the White House transferred $20m in Department of Homeland Security funds to pay for the campaign and have called for independent investigations.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer criticised the advertisements in a Senate floor speech, saying, “Americans sat down to watch football, not to be force-fed Trump’s propaganda on their own dime.”

But criticism has also come from within Trump’s own party.

“It shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last month.

The White House has defended the advertisements as public service announcements, pointing to government-funded campaigns under previous administrations promoting Medicare, Affordable Care Act subsidies and COVID-19 vaccinations. It says the Trump advertisements are similarly intended to remind Americans to “love their country and understand what makes it worth defending”.

But critics say there is a key difference: those advertisements were tied to specific government programmes or policies, while Trump’s are not.

“There’s nothing in here about a particular policy that’s at all focused,” Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told The Associated Press news agency.

Experts interviewed by The AP also pointed to potential legal issues, as the advertisements may violate federal restrictions on using congressionally appropriated funds for “publicity or propaganda,” as well as rules limiting partisan political activity by government employees.

“You watch all three ads; they’re sheer propaganda,” said Painter. “This is increasingly looking like what authoritarian governments do to promote their leaders.”