Tag: United States

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Israel kills over 50 in Gaza; Qatar calls Israeli attack ‘state terror’

As the world’s attention was focused on Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Israeli forces continued their unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 50 people on Tuesday.

Among the dead are nine Palestinians, who had gathered in the enclave’s south seeking aid. Israel pressed on with its offensive in Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Palestinians to flee to the south for their lives.

The Wafa news agency reported that a drone strike on a makeshift tent sheltering displaced families at Gaza’s port killed two civilians and injured others. Warplanes also hit several residential buildings, including four homes in the al-Mukhabarat area and the Zidan building northwest of Gaza City, it reported.

Another house was reportedly bombed in the Talbani neighbourhood of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, while two young men were killed in an attack on civilians in the az-Zarqa area of Tuffah, northeast of Gaza City.

Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency confirmed footage showing an Israeli strike on the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque in Deir el-Balah. The video captured a flash of light before the mosque’s minaret was enveloped in smoke. Despite the blast, the minaret appeared to remain standing.

Israel issued new evacuation threats on Monday, releasing maps warning Palestinians to leave a highlighted building and nearby tents on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street in Gaza City or face death. It told residents to move to the so-called “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, a barren stretch of coast in southern Gaza.

But al-Mawasi itself has been repeatedly bombed, despite Israel insisting it is a safe zone. At the start of the year, about 115,000 people lived there. Today, aid agencies estimate that more than 800,000 people – nearly a third of Gaza’s population – are crammed into overcrowded makeshift camps.

Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, described al-Mawasi as a vast camp “concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair”.

“There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone. Warnings of famine have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

The Palestinian Civil Defence warned that “Gaza City is burning, and humanity is being annihilated”.

The rescue agency said that in just 72 hours, five high-rise towers containing more than 200 apartments were destroyed, leaving thousands of people homeless.

More than 350 tents sheltering displaced families were also flattened, it added, forcing nearly 7,600 people to sleep in the open, “struggling against death, hunger, and unbearable heat”.

More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 20,000 of them children, in the Israeli offensive, which has been dubbed a genocide by numerous scholars and activists. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes.

The Government Media Office in Gaza said that more than 1.3 million people remain in Gaza City and surrounding areas, despite Israeli attempts to push them south. It described the evacuation orders as an effort to carry out “the crime of forced displacement in violation of all international laws”.

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times in 23 months of genocidal war, and an Israeli curb on aid entry, including food items, has led to starvation deaths. Last month, a UN agency declared famine in Gaza, affecting half a million people.

On Tuesday morning, Palestinians in central Gaza staged a protest against the latest evacuation orders.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that demonstrators carried banners reading, “We will not leave”, and “Not going out”.

“The primary goal of the [Israeli] occupation is displacement,” said Bajees al-Khalidi, a displaced Palestinian at the protest. “But there’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north. We’ve become completely trapped.”

Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces killed two teenagers in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.

Mourners on Tuesday buried 14-year-old Islam Noah, who was shot while attempting to enter the besieged refugee camp. A funeral was also held for another 14-year-old, Muhammad Alawneh. Two others were wounded in the same incident.

Israel sent missiles at Doha as Hamas leaders were meeting in the Qatari capital for talks on the latest ceasefire proposal from the United States to end the war in Gaza. Hamas said five people were killed, while Qatar said a security official was also among the dead. Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination attempt.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned Israel’s “reckless criminal attack” in a phone call with US President Donald Trump. Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called the attack “state terrorism”.

The Qatari prime minister said Doha would continue to work to end Israel’s war on Gaza, but raised doubts about the viability of the most recent talks. “When it comes to the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid right now after we’ve seen such an attack,” he said.

Qatar has sent a letter to the UN Security Council, condemning what it calls a cowardly Israeli assault on residential buildings in Doha.

The Doha attack has drawn global condemnation, with the UN chief calling it a “flagrant violation” of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.

The White House claimed that the US had warned Qatar of the impending strike, but Doha rejected that account, insisting the warning came only after the bombing had begun.

Trump later said he felt “very badly about the location of the attack” and that he had assured Qatar that it would not happen again.

“This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.” (AlJazeera)

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Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigns after election defeats

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced he is stepping down after less than a year in the role, following two major election losses.

The move comes a day before his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was expected to vote on whether to hold an internal leadership vote that could have forced him out.

The LDP has governed Japan for most of the past seven decades, but under Ishiba it lost its majority in the lower house for the first time in 15 years and then lost its majority in the upper house in July.

Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy and a key US ally, now faces a period of political uncertainty as tensions rise with China and regional insecurity mounts.

“Now that a conclusion has been reached in the negotiations concerning the US tariff measures, I believe this is precisely the appropriate time,” Ishiba said, referring to a deal signed last week to ease tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Japanese cars and other exports.

Until Sunday, he had resisted calls to resign, saying it was his responsibility to settle the dispute with Washington before stepping down.

“I have strongly believed that negotiations concerning the US tariff measures, which could be described as a national crisis, must be brought to a conclusion under our administration’s responsibility,” he said.

The 68-year-old said he would continue his responsibilities “to the people” until a successor was selected.

The LDP will now choose a new leader, who will become prime minister following a vote in parliament.

Ishiba, who took office in October 2024 promising to tackle rising prices, struggled to inspire confidence as the country faced economic headwinds, a cost-of-living crisis and fractious politics with the US.

Inflation, particularly the doubling of rice prices in the past year, was politically damaging.

Public support further slid after a series of controversies, including criticism of his decision to appoint only two women to his cabinet and handing out expensive gifts to party members. (BBC)

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Sabalenka beats Anisimova to retain US Open title

World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, on Saturday, successfully defended her US Open title with a thrilling 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win over Amanda Anisimova in New York, United States.

Sabalenka sealed a hard-fought victory against Anisimova at Flushing Meadows, making her the first woman to win the tournament in consecutive years since Serena Williams in 2014.

The Belarusian picked up the fourth Grand Slam title of her career as a result, all on hard courts – having now added two New York triumphs to her pair of Australian Open trophies.

Both women were looking to bury recent scar tissue, with Anisimova back in a major final 56 days after her Wimbledon whitewash, while Sabalenka suffered heart-breaking defeats at the Australian Open and French Open – forced to apologise after an ungracious press conference towards winner Coco Gauff at the latter.

Sabalenka also lost to Anisimova in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, putting her in the strange position of being by a distance the best player in the world but without a major trophy in 2025, but she quelled a fightback from her opponent to secure the silverware.

The set was threatening to run away from Anisimova in a similar fashion to Wimbledon, but she told herself above all this tournament to be brave and she powered winners into opposite corners to finally get on the board.

Having won one game, she quickly made that three in a row, the crowd greeting every winner with a huge cheer.

The American was dominating both the winner and error count and it was the latter that climbed again as Sabalenka responded with four games in a row to take the opening set.

Anisimova, who was struggling with the roof lighting on her ball toss, was too inconsistent to apply any solid pressure.

Anisimova slammed a ball down in frustration when a backhand pass from Sabalenka gave her another break in the third game of the second set and, although she fought back to level, the eighth seed’s serve was too much of a liability.

Sabalenka forged ahead again to lead 5-3 and soon found herself serving for the title.

Perhaps it was inevitable that it would not be straightforward. Anisimova somehow dug out a backhand lob that Sabalenka dumped into the net to give herself a chance to level and more huge hitting made it 5-5.

If there was a moment for the demons to resurface, it was now, but Sabalenka took the set to a tie-break, where she has been untouchable this season, and this time finished the job.

Anisimova’s final tally of 29 unforced errors, including seven double faults, was ultimately too many, but the American, who started the year ranked outside the top 30, will have the consolation of being a top-four player on Monday.

Reacting to her win, Sabalenka, who fell to her knees after clinching victory with an unreturnable serve and jumped up and down with her coaches in the stands in a scene of utter joy, said, “I want to thank everyone who came here, who flew in to be there in my box.

“I’m going to reach a lot more finals and I don’t care where you are in the world I want you in my box.”

Also speaking after her loss, Anisimova, who was left in tears yet again after the heartbreak of her 6-0 6-0 drubbing in the Wimbledon final two months ago, said, “It’s been a great summer, losing in two finals in a row is great but it’s also super hard.

“I didn’t fight hard enough for my dreams today.”

She later admitted having problems seeing the ball with the glare of the roof causing her issues when serving.

“I haven’t played on the court during the day with the roof closed. It was literally white, and I couldn’t see the ball when I was serving the whole match.

“It started from the warm-up. I was like, ‘this is really going to be a problem for me’. I didn’t know what to do.

“There was no way of adjusting, because I could not see the ball when I was serving, and that was a huge shock to my system, because I knew if I can’t hold my serve, it was going to be very tough to stay in the match,” she said. (Punch)

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Trump to rebrand Pentagon as Department of War

US President Donald Trump is directing that the Pentagon be known as the Department of War.

He will sign an executive order on Friday for the Department of Defense to use the new name as a secondary title and for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be known as Secretary of War.

The Pentagon – which oversees the US armed services – is the successor to the War Department, which was first established as a cabinet-level agency in 1789 and existed until 1947.

The responsibility of creating executive departments rests with the US Congress, meaning that an amendment would be required to legally change the department’s name.

The BBC has seen the text of the executive order, which says: “The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities.”

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of the name change, arguing that the US had “an unbelievable history of victory” in both world wars under the previous name.

He has also expressed optimism that lawmakers would support such a change.

“I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t even think we need that,” the president said last week. “But, if we need that, I’m sure Congress will go along.”

Trump and Hegseth have sought to refocus the department on “warfighting” and a “warrior ethos”.

They have argued that the department has become too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and “woke ideology”. (BBC)

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US suspends most visas for Palestinian passport-holders, reports say

US officials have further restricted visitor visas for Palestinians, by denying them to almost all applicants who use a Palestinian passport, media reports say.

The development comes days after 80 Palestinian officials were denied visas ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Earlier in August, visitor visas were paused for people hoping to travel from the Palestinian territory of Gaza. This newly-reported decree would affect a wider group – including people living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Department of State did not explicitly confirm the move but said it was “taking concrete steps in compliance with US law and our national security”.

The decision was issued in a diplomatic cable dated 18 August, the New York Times and CNN reported.

US consular officers were told to refuse non-immigrant visas to “all otherwise eligible Palestinian Authority passport holders”, the communication was quoted as saying.

That would apply to Palestinians hoping to come to the US for a range of purposes, including for business, study or medical treatment.

The move meant that officials would be required to perform a further review of each applicant, which amounted to a blanket ban on issuing visas to Palestinians, the New York Times added in its report.

Palestinians who are able to make visa applications using other passports were said to be unaffected.

It is not clear what prompted the reported move, though the Trump administration has been steadfast in its support for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

The news also follows last month’s announcements by a number of other US allies – including the UK, Canada and France – that they would recognise a Palestinian state on certain conditions. US Vice-President JD Vance has said Washington has “no plans” to follow suit.

The Trump administration has also cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.

The move represents a further toughening of the president’s stance on visas, following two earlier measures.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was among a group of dozens of Palestinian officials who were recently blocked from attending the UN General Assembly session in New York later this month, after US officials revoked his visa and accused the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), both of which Abbas leads, of undermining peace efforts.

And the Department of State said on 16 August it had paused approvals of visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza specifically, so that a review could take place.

Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the US, governed Gaza when hundreds of its armed fighters attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The attack triggered a massive and ongoing Israeli military offensive, in which at least 63,459 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The US visa policy has effectively been extended now to include people from the West Bank and wider Palestinian diaspora.

Asked about the latest move, a Department of State spokesperson’s statement said: “The Trump administration is taking concrete steps in compliance with US law and our national security in regards to announced visa restrictions and revocations for PA (Palestinian Authority) passport holders. We refer you to those public announcements for more information on those restrictions and revocations.

“Every visa decision is a national security decision, and the State Department is vetting and adjudicating visa decisions for PA passport holders accordingly.” (BBC)

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Trump administration moves to fire most Voice of America journalists

The Trump administration has moved to terminate almost 500 employees of federally funded news organisation Voice of America (VOA).

The step is the latest in President Donald Trump’s drive to strip back the outlet, which the White House has accused of being “radical”.

Acting CEO of VOA’s parent agency, Kari Lake, said the decision would “help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.” A union representing employees called the step illegal in a statement to the New York Times.

VOA was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda, and has become a major global broadcaster.

The outlet is overseen by the Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which said a total of 532 positions would be eliminated. The majority of those employees are from VOA, which would be left with 108 staff, according to a court filing.

In June, Lake announced 639 employees would be terminated, although the notices were later rescinded due to paperwork errors. Some employees also filed lawsuits to block the terminations.

The announcement late on Friday night came a day after a judge ruled the Trump administration had not followed proper procedures in its attempt to fire VOA’s director, Michael Abramowitz. The judge also ordered Lake to sit for a deposition, where she would be questioned by lawyers.

The lawsuit was brought by a group of agency employees trying to block attempts to close down VOA.

“We find Lake’s continued attacks on our agency abhorrent,” they said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

“We are looking forward to her deposition to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA was done with the rigorous review process that Congress requires. So far we have not seen any evidence of that, and as such we will continue to fight for what we believe to be our rights under the law.”

Most of VOA’s journalists have been on administrative leave since March but some Farsi-speaking staff were called back as war between Israel and Iran broke out this summer.

The notices will also not affect journalists working in its Office of Cuba Broadcasting division, which broadcasts news in Spanish from Miami.

Critics say Trump’s attempts to strip back VOA amount to an attack on press freedom, and impacts America’s ability to exercise soft power abroad. The administration has accused the outlet of being “anti-Trump” and “radical”.

VOA broadcasts TV, radio and digital content in almost 50 languages. (BBC)

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US court rules many of Trump’s global tariffs are illegal

A US appeals court has ruled that most tariffs issued by US President Donald Trump are illegal, setting up a potential legal showdown that could upend his foreign policy agenda.

The ruling affects Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, imposed on most countries around the world, as well as other tariffs slapped on China, Mexico and Canada.

In a 7-4 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected Trump’s argument that the tariffs were permitted under an emergency economic powers act, calling them “invalid as contrary to law”.

The ruling will not take effect until 14 October, to give the administration time to ask the US Supreme Court to take up the case.

Trump criticised the appeals court and its ruling on Truth Social, saying: “If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America.”

He wrote: “Today a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end.

“If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.”

Trump had justified the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president the power to act against “unusual and extraordinary” threats.

Trump has declared a national emergency on trade, arguing that a trade imbalance was harmful to US national security. But the court ruled that imposing tariffs was not within the president’s mandate, and that setting levies was “a core Congressional power”.

In its 127-page judgement, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the IEEPA “neither mentions tariffs (or any of its synonyms) nor has procedural safeguards that contain clear limits on the president’s power to impose tariffs”.

The power to impose taxes and tariffs therefore continues to belong to Congress, the court ruled, and the IEEPA did not override this.

The court wrote that it was unlikely that, when Congress passed the law in 1977, it was intended to “depart from its past practice and grant the president unlimited authority to impose tariffs”.

“Whenever Congress intends to delegate to the president the authority to impose tariffs, it does so explicitly, either by using unequivocal terms like tariff and duty, or via an overall structure which makes clear that Congress is referring to tariffs,” the judges wrote.

The ruling comes in response to two lawsuits filed by small businesses and a coalition of US states.

They were brought after Trump’s executive orders in April, which imposed a baseline 10% tariff on almost every country in the world, as well as “reciprocal” tariffs intended to correct trade imbalances with dozens of countries. Trump declared the date to be America’s “liberation day” from unfair trade policies.

In May, the New York-based Court of International Trade declared the tariffs were unlawful. That decision was put on hold during the appeal process.

In addition to those tariffs, Friday’s ruling also strikes down tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, which Trump argues are necessary to stop the importation of drugs.

However, the decision does not apply to other tariffs, like those imposed on steel and aluminium, which were brought in under a different presidential authority.

Ahead of the ruling, lawyers for the White House argued that invalidating the tariffs would lead to a 1929-style financial collapse, a stock market crash which led to the Great Depression.

“Suddenly revoking the president’s tariff authority under IEEPA would have catastrophic consequences for our national security, foreign policy, and economy,” they wrote in a letter.

“The president believes that our country would not be able to pay back the trillions of dollars that other countries have already committed to pay, which could lead to financial ruin.”

The ruling also raises questions about deals some nations agreed with the US for reduced tariffs rates.

The latest development means the case is now almost certain to head to the Supreme Court, which has in recent years taken a sceptical view toward presidents who try to implement sweeping new policies that are not directly authorised by Congress.

During Joe Biden’s presidency, the court expanded on what it called the “major questions doctrine” to invalidate Democratic efforts to use existing laws to limit greenhouse gas emissions by power plants and to forgive student loan debt for millions of Americans.

The top court’s nine justices, if they agree to consider the case, could weigh whether Trump’s expansive tariff programme is another example of presidential overreach or sufficiently grounded in law and presidential authority.

Even though the appellate court handed the president a defeat, the White House may take solace in the fact that only three of the court’s 11 judges were appointed by Republicans.

The Supreme Court has six Republican appointees, including three who were selected by Trump himself. (BBC)

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Shooter kills 2 children in Minneapolis church, 17 people injured

A gunman opened fire Wednesday on school children attending church in Minneapolis, killing two pupils and wounding 17 people, police said, in the country’s latest violent tragedy.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a media briefing that the shooter, in his early twenties, sprayed bullets into the Annunciation Church as dozens of students were at Mass to celebrate their first week back to school.

The church sits next to an affiliated school in the south of the city, the largest in the state of Minnesota.

“Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” O’Hara said, adding that 17 others were injured, including 14 children.

Two were in critical condition, he said.

The gunman fired a rifle, shotgun and pistol before he took his own life in the parking lot, according to the police chief.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wrote on X earlier that he was “praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence.”

Live video footage showed panicked parents retrieving their young children and fleeing amid a major emergency response.

“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” O’Hara said.

“Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost their children, for these young lives that are now fighting to recover, and for our entire community that has been so deeply traumatized by this senseless attack,” he added.

Wednesday’s violence is the latest in a long line of school shootings in the United States, where guns outnumber people and attempts to restrict access to firearms face perennial political deadlock.

“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church. These are kids that should be learning with their friends,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters.

“They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence.”

President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the FBI was responding.

“The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The confirmed shooting comes after a wave of false reports of active shooters at US college campuses around the country as students return from summer break. (Channels)

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US, UK hail Nigeria over arrest of Ansaru terrorist kingpins

The United States and the United Kingdom on Monday commended the Federal Government and its security agencies for the successful arrest of two senior leaders of the terrorist group Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, also known as Ansaru.

The arrests were confirmed by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, who described the development as the result of a “high-risk, intelligence-led, counter-terrorism operation” carried out between May and July 2025.

The individuals apprehended include Mahmud Usman, identified as the self-styled Emir of Ansaru.

According to the NSA, Usman served as the coordinator of numerous terrorist sleeper cells across the country and was behind several high-profile kidnappings and armed robberies used to fund the group’s activities.

His deputy, Mahmud al-Nigeri, led the group’s “Mahmudawa” cell, which was said to be active around the Kainji National Park area, spanning Niger and Kwara states and extending into neighboring Benin Republic.

Following the arrests, the US Embassy in Nigeria issued a statement via its official X handle, describing the operation as a major step in Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and extremism.

The embassy praised the Nigerian security forces and described the arrests as a significant achievement.

The post read, “We commend the Nigerian government and security forces on the successful arrest of wanted #Ansaru leaders, Mahmud Muhammad Usman (aka Abu Bara’a) and Mahmud al-Nigeri (aka Mallam Mamuda).

“This is a significant forward in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and extremism.”

Similarly, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, also took to X to describe the operation as an extraordinary and very significant success, commending the security agencies and their leadership under the NSA.

“An extraordinary & very significant success. A major step forward in the fight against terrorism. Congratulations to the security agencies & officers involved under the leadership of NSA Ribadu,” Montgomery noted.

According to the Federal Government, the arrested terrorist leaders, who were internationally wanted, are now in custody.

Ansaru, formed in January 2012 as a splinter group from Boko Haram, presented itself as a more “humane” alternative but quickly turned to violent attacks on civilians, security forces, and infrastructure. The group aligned ideologically with global jihadist movements, particularly Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and established a presence in urban cells and forest enclaves, especially around Kainji National Park.

Two key figures from Ansaru, long on Nigeria’s most-wanted list, led several major attacks, including the 2022 Kuje prison break, a uranium facility attack, and high-profile kidnappings such as that of French engineer Francis Collomp and traditional leader Alhaji Musa Uba. They also had strong ties with terrorist groups across the Maghreb. (Punch)

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Viral TV Judge Frank Caprio dies at 88 after cancer battle

A US judge who amassed a huge online fan base via clips of his compassion in the courtroom has died.

Frank Caprio was on the bench at a court in Providence, Rhode Island, for almost four decades.

He became affectionately known as the “nicest judge in the world”, NBC Boston reported, after viral videos of him handing out justice with a smile were viewed more than a billion times on social media.

The latter years of his career, which ended in 2023, were documented in the TV show Caught In Providence.

A statement on Wednesday on his Instagram page, which had 3.2 million followers, said he had died aged 88 “after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer”.

It said he was “beloved for his compassion, humility, and unwavering belief in the goodness of people”.

He had posted a message from his hospital bed the day before, saying: “Unfortunately I’ve had a setback, I’m back in the hospital now, and I’m coming to you again asking you to remember me in your prayers once more.”

Caprio’s persona was at odds with fellow TV judges, who were less sympathetic and more confrontational.

In one popular clip, he dismissed a traffic ticket handed to a bartender who skipped a red light, as they were only earning less than $4 (£2.97) an hour.

Another saw him listening sympathetically to a woman whose son had been killed, before dismissing her tickets and fines which had totalled $400 (£297).

Caprio also used his fame to speak out about inequality in the justice system.

“Almost 90% of low-income Americans are forced to battle civil issues like health care, unjust evictions, veterans benefits and, yes, even traffic violations, alone,” he said in one video.

After his death was announced, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee paid tribute to his “warmth and compassion”.

“He was more than a jurist – he was a symbol of empathy on the bench, showing us what is possible when justice is tempered with humanity,” he said. (SkyNews)