Editor’s Note: Warning: This article contains descriptions of torture.

Saman Yasin thought he was leaving prison. It was 5 a.m. and the guards had just told him to pack up his belongings. But the next thing he knew, he was blindfolded with a noose around his neck.

“I could tell that they had brought in a cleric, and he was reciting the Quran over my head… and he kept telling me ‘Repent, so that you go to heaven.’”

Yasin spent two years in Iran’s jails for his involvement in the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022, during which he joined street demonstrations and recorded anti-regime songs.

The months-long uprising was sparked by the death of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September that year after she was arrested for allegedly not observing Iran’s mandatory hijab law.

Yasin, whose legal name is Saman Sayedi, was arrested in October 2022 and is among many artists who were prosecuted in connection with the movement.

He was initially sentenced to death after being charged with the Islamic Republic’s crime of “waging war against God” by pulling out a gun during an anti-government protest, firing three bullets into the air, and “gathering and colluding with the intention to carry out a crime against national security,” according to the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency. Yasin denies the charges.

Both Amnesty International and the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran say that 10 men have been executed in relation to the insurrection sparked by Amini’s death.

Yasin was one of dozens of protesters who appeared in what rights groups described as sham trials based on forced confessions extracted under torture.

Iran’s Supreme Court later overturned Yasin’s death sentence on appeal, and his sentence was eventually set at five years. In the summer of 2023, the artist managed to release an audio message from prison, shared by a Kurdish rights organization, in which he first alleged being abused by the authorities as they attempted to extract a confession.

Now, he is able to describe his ordeal in far greater detail as he recovers in Germany, and earlier this month testified before a UN human rights commission in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Physically, the torture I endured has changed me tremendously – there are still lasting effects. I developed a lot of trauma after prison,” he said. The words “Nothing can stop me” are tattooed in English on one of his wrists.

Yasin had long been writing what he describes as “protest music” about social injustice and hardship in Iran.

In his song “Haji,” written and released months before being arrested, he sang:

“I stood tall with pride. Yet they banned my voice. They forbade my happiness. They hung me upside down like a sacrificial animal.”

Those lyrics were to foreshadow the torture he says was inflicted by Iranian authorities after his arrest.

‘They call it the morgue’

“They inserted a pen into my left nostril and then forcefully hit it from below. I passed out from the pain, and when I woke up, I was covered in blood,” he said.

Then there was the underground cold room inside the Evin prison compound, which Yasin says interrogators told him “doesn’t even exist on the map.” He believes it’s in a building that belongs to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.

“I heard from the other prisoners that they call it the morgue because the temperature is so low,” he said. “It is freezing cold.”

His testimony is consistent with the findings of a two-year investigation into the 2022 crackdown by the UN’s fact-finding mission. It said the Iranian government “consistently refuted allegations of torture,” but did not indicate whether allegations had been investigated or why they had been dismissed. The UN report also found that the alleged crimes were committed “in furtherance of a state policy.”

A daring escape from Iran, and the cost of freedom

In late October 2024, after two years in prison, Yasin was released on medical furlough. About a month later he had nasal surgery and was recovering at home when the phone rang unexpectedly. The authorities were ordering him to go back to prison, five months earlier than expected.

But he didn’t go back. “I thought to myself, I can’t just sit here and do nothing,” the rapper said. “If I left the country, first of all, it would spare my family from even more suffering because of me. And second of all, if I was on the outside, I could be a voice for the people, I could do something meaningful and take a step forward for them.”

“When I got to the very top, the pressure was too much – my nose started bleeding, and I passed out,” he said. “By some miracle, I made it into Iraq.” From there, with the help of NGOs and a German politician, he was able to travel to Germany.

Now he finds himself starting from scratch in Berlin on a special humanitarian visa, a struggling artist with dreams of making it in America. Loneliness and being far from family are taking a toll, but he’s trying to make terms with the cost of freedom.

“In those early days, even though the atmosphere was terrifying, and the repression aimed at silencing people was intense, there was still a scent of freedom in the air,” he said.

“After prison, I feel like I have a huge responsibility toward the people. I have much greater expectations of myself – to be their voice… that means everything to me.”

The Israeli military struck southern Beirut on Friday for the first time since November, after Israel said that two projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “struck a terrorist infrastructure site used to store UAVs by Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit (127) in the area of Dahieh, a key Hezbollah terrorist stronghold in Beirut.”

The IDF said Hezbollah “systematically embeds its terrorist infrastructure amidst the Lebanese civilian population, a clear example of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilians as human shields.”

Shortly before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation orders to Lebanese residents in a neighborhood in southern Beirut.

“To everyone located in the building marked in red on the map, as well as the surrounding buildings: you are in close proximity to Hezbollah-affiliated facilities,” the IDF said. “For your safety and the safety of your families, you must evacuate these buildings immediately and move at least 300 meters away, as indicated on the map.”

The area is home to a number of schools. The Lebanese government suspended classes on Friday after Israel’s evacuation order, telling “all students, teachers, and administrative staff” to leave the area, according to Lebanon’s state news agency NNA.

According to an Israeli official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and other officials were convening Friday for a security assessment about Lebanon.

The Israeli military said two projectiles were fired at Israel from Lebanon Friday, triggering warning sirens along the border and testing the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. In response, Katz had said that Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel and Lebanon’s capital Beirut “will be treated the same.”

“If there is no peace in Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee communities, there will be no peace in Beirut either,” he said, according to a statement from the defense ministry.

Hezbollah has denied involvement in rockets fired from southern Lebanon at Israel on Friday, saying it is committed to the ceasefire agreement.

Tensions have risen in the region in recent weeks following the most significant eruption of violence between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group since a ceasefire signed four months ago brought an uneasy calm to the border.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November brought a significant reduction in violence following more than a year of cross-border strikes and months of a full-scale war.

Israel has conducted dozens of strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon on what it calls Hezbollah targets, since the ceasefire.

This is a developing story and has been updated.

The first time he flew his cargo plane through the clouds over his hometown of Kabul, Tauheed Khan swelled with pride.

During the US-led, 20-year war against the Taliban, Afghan Air Force pilots played a key role alongside American counterparts, some carrying out strikes that inflicted heavy casualties on the hardline Islamists.

That coalition ended in August 2021, when foreign troops withdrew and Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Khan now finds himself in neighboring Pakistan with his young family, fearing that they could be killed if they return to an Afghanistan now under the grip of the very forces he fought against.

Worsening their plight, anti-migrant policies in both Washington and Islamabad mean time is running out to find a safe alternative, including a looming deadline at the end of this month.

The war, which began with the US invasion in 2001 following the September 11 attacks, devastated Afghanistan’s civilian population, which is still recovering.

The ousting of the Taliban by the US-led coalition led to profound changes, including a return of democracy and significant improvements for Afghanistan’s women. But war and instability raged across swathes of the nation, especially in rural areas.

Tens of thousands were killed. Civilian losses escalated to 5,183 dead in the first six months of 2021, as the US began to pull out from Afghanistan and depend further on the Afghan military. A five-year study published by the United Nations in 2021 showed that 785 children died from US and AAF airstrikes over that period.

As the US finally pulled out, the Afghan army and government collapsed, allowing Taliban fighters to sweep back into power. Afghans affiliated with the former government are “most at risk” from the new Taliban administration, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch.

HRW and the United Nations have documented “extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, and torture and other ill-treatment” of Afghans who were in the security forces.

‘Pilots risk everything’

Khan’s friend, 37-year-old Khapalwaka is equally terrified. A trained aviation engineer, he worked as part of the AAF’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance program. His job involved clearing out civilian areas before they were targeted by US drone strikes.

He said he was assigned the task by his superiors, something he had often protested. “I soon became a target of the local Taliban faction,” said Khapalwaka, who had to move house every “three to four months” for safety reasons, even before Kabul fell.

Now selling wood by the roadside to feed his family, Khapalwaka – who, like Khan, was speaking under a pseudonym – said he’s concerned the Taliban could reach him in Pakistan too. “I know that they have contacts here, that they could target me here if they wanted… I just want to get out of here, so my daughters have a chance to be educated.”

The Afghan Taliban denied that former pilots were at risk if they returned.

The US embassy in Islamabad did not respond to a request to comment.

Left in limbo

Khan sat in a small room of his tiny apartment in a non-descript Islamabad building. Bedspreads shrouded windows as makeshift curtains, but slivers of sunlight poked through, making harsh blotches on the faces of his small children, who slept tucked together in frayed blankets on the floor, oblivious to the sound around them.

The youngest child was awake and constantly jumping on Khan’s lap as he spoke of the life he left behind.

In the chaos that ensued after the US withdrawal, Khan got to Pakistan in March 2022. He arrived legally and on foot, following the advice of a US pilot who had been one of his trainers.

Since then, Khan said, there has been “silence.”

In the past two months, White House policy has moved in a less predictable, more anti-migrant direction under President Donald Trump, throwing into doubt the prospects for Afghans such as Khan.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have already been caught in limbo due to other Trump administration executive orders suspending the US refugee admissions program and the suspension of foreign aid funding for flights of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders. According to #AfghanEvac, at least 2,000 Afghans who had previously been approved to resettle in the US are currently in limbo.

March 31 deadline for Afghans in Pakistan

And the days of Pakistan offering at least relative safety may be numbered.

Home to one of the world’s largest refugee populations – most of them from Afghanistan – Pakistan has not always welcomed the foreigners, subjecting them to hostile living conditions and threatening deportation over the years.

According to the UN refugee agency, more than 3 million Afghan refugees, including registered refugees and more than 800,000 undocumented people, are living in Pakistan.

Islamabad has been cracking down on Afghan refugees since October 2023. It had shown leniency towards Afghans awaiting settlement elsewhere, but that changed after an announcement this February that it would repatriate “Afghan nationals bound for 3rd country resettlement,” by March 31.

That deadline will arrive on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. It is a time of celebration, feasting and gift-giving, but for Jawad Ahmed, a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot with the AAF, it feels like “all days are melting into one”.

“I was known in my hometown as someone who worked with the US military and I was a military man myself,” said Ahmed, whose name has also been changed at his request to protect his identity.

He arrived in Pakistan legally and was in limbo for two years. He said he interviewed with US immigration officers in May of 2024 and had his medical interview on January 10 at the US embassy. Since then, like many others including Khan, Ahmad has heard nothing from any US embassy official.

Ahmed spoke of seeing Pakistani police “whisk away” his Afghan neighbors, with an increase in raids over the last two months. His children are “overwhelmed with fear and terror.”

‘Death, difficulties and horrors’

But returning to Afghanistan could be even worse, according to Ahmed. “Only death, difficulties and horrors await us there” he said.

Ahmed’s family in Afghanistan have adopted new names and identities for their safety, eking out a life in a new province.

“Nobody knows about me where they are, nobody knows that they had a son, that they had a brother, in their new world it’s as if I never existed.”

He repeatedly asks for his message to be shared with President Trump and the US government.

“You trained us, we were there for you in a difficult time, we stood shoulder to shoulder with you,” said Ahmed. “We don’t have options in Pakistan, what can we do, please for the love of God get us out of here. We don’t have a life here; we are choking with fear.”

A serving US air force pilot, who asked to remain anonymous, has been assisting Afghan pilots they served alongside.

While serving soldiers have had some success helping families escape to the US, they still “fear for” their Afghan counterparts stuck in Pakistan and other countries and have “anxiety about their current situation and their future,” the pilot said.

Abandoning former partners, according to Vandiver of #AfghanEvac, sends a “chilling message to future US allies – whether in Ukraine, Taiwan, or elsewhere – that partnering with the US is a death sentence once the war ends.”

“China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are going to eat our lunch because of this.”

A spokesperson for the US embassy said it remains in close communication with Pakistan on the status of Afghan nationals seeking resettlement in America.

As Eid approaches, Tauheed Khan and his friendship group of 27 Afghan pilots and engineers stuck in Islamabad, dream of eating meat to end their fast, of access to education for their children, of new clothes, a better home to live in with proper beds and of a way out.

“We are scared we will be dragged out,” says Khan. “We are under too much pressure, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

British police raided a Quaker meeting house in London on Thursday and arrested six women attending a meeting on climate change and the war in Gaza, according to a statement from Quakers UK.

“No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory,” said Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, according to the statement.

“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalizes protest,” Parker added.

Quakers, a nickname for members of the Religious Society of Friends, follow a religious tradition that originally grew from Protestant Christianity in the 17th century.

Quakers have a long history of supporting protest movements and non-violence is one of their core beliefs.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

According to a high-level Ecuadorian official familiar with the planning, construction of a new naval facility in the coastal city of Manta is part of that preparation, with barracks-style housing and administration offices designed to support sustained operations and US military personnel. The official requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made no secret of his desire for foreign boots on the ground as gangs unleash terror across the country – a request he is expected to reiterate this weekend. Noboa is set to meet Trump in Florida on Saturday to discuss immigration, trade and “security cooperation.”

Noboa told the BBC he wants the US, Brazil and European nations to join his war on gangs. During an interview in early March, the president claimed Ecuador is dealing with “international narco-terrorist” groups and that his country needs the “help of international forces.” In a local radio interview, he said his government was “already in talks” to receive foreign military support for provinces such as Guayas, known for high crime, but did not specify which countries were involved in the talks.

“We have a plan in place with our law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the armed forces, the Strategic Intelligence Center, and international assistance and support from special forces. That’s essential,” he told Guayaquil’s Radio City.

Noboa’s efforts are heavily dependent on April’s presidential runoff as he’s set off to face leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who opposes the presence of any foreign force in the country.

The rapid pace of construction in Manta, the official said, reflects how soon Ecuador hopes international help might arrive.

The projects are supported by the United States, documents appear to show, and a US representative was present at the signing of the agreement, the Ecuadorian official said.

One rendering for a floating dock, dated August 2024, is labeled “Southcom Floating Dock,” an apparent reference to the US Southern Command, also known as Southcom. Another rendering, dated June 2024, has the US State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) logo and the project name of “Equipped Containers for the Ecuador’s Antinarcotics Special Unit and the DEA” and describes the project as an “international collaboration with the US Embassy.”

Plans for these projects have continued under the Trump administration. On March 26, Ecuador’s government announced several US-backed investments “paused due to geopolitical factors” are resuming in the country, with hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for construction of a pier and DEA-linked base.

There is precedent; the last time US troops operated here was from 1999 to 2009, at the now-defunct Manta Air Base. Back then, they ran surveillance flights targeting drug routes in the eastern Pacific.

Noboa has also publicly asked the Trump administration to designate Ecuadorian armed groups as terror organizations, as it has already done for several organized crime groups in the region. Such a designation could potentially empower the US government to use military force abroad in combatting the groups.

From ‘island of peace’ to a country on edge

Ecuador now has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, according to InSight Crime – recording nearly twice as many killings as Mexico. The surge is fueled by drug trafficking routes, turf wars, and alliances between local gangs and foreign cartels.

Despite the sweeping operations, many officials admit the violence feels more like it’s being managed than curtailed. Still, dozens of arrests were made.

“Cartels, gangs and other transnational criminal organizations in our part of the world are engaging in a wide array of illicit activity, from narcotics trafficking to money laundering, smuggling of illegal immigrants and human trafficking, which endanger the health, welfare and safety of everyday Americans,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said during her testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday.

Ecuador’s location – flanked by the world’s top cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia – and its deep-water ports make it a key transit point for narcotics. But its vulnerability goes beyond geography.

The dollarized economy and historically loose visa policies make it easy for criminal networks to move money and people. And corruption, experts say, greases the wheels.

“It’s widespread and far-reaching,” said James Bargent of InSight Crime. “Corruption is rampant from low-level police to the upper echelons of political power, and this facilitates trafficking and provides protection to the criminal groups involved.”

In Durán, one of the country’s most violent cities, Police Chief Roberto Santamaria acknowledged corruption among police. He said they sometimes employ random polygraph testing and check bank accounts for unusual activity to try to root out corrupt officers.

Seeking global backing

Noboa has framed his crackdown as both a domestic fight and a global plea for help. Ahead of the runoff election set for April 13, he has positioned himself as a hardliner on security. In January, he and his wife were seated front and center at Trump’s inauguration, applauding as the president vowed to fight cartels and restore “law and order.”

Unlike Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has firmly rejected foreign troops’ involvement against cartels in her country, Noboa is actively seeking it. His face-to-face meeting with Trump this weekend is expected to be his most direct appeal yet for US backing.

Before leaving for Florida, Noboa also addressed Ecuador’s improving ties with the US on Friday. “We’re one of the few countries where cooperation programs are being resumed,” Noboa said to Radio Centro. “We are working on security, on providing jobs so that people don’t leave. And the US has honored that relationship.”

Ecuador’s efforts aren’t limited to government partnerships. This month, Noboa announced a “strategic alliance” with Erik Prince, the founder of the private military firm formerly known as Blackwater.

The partnership – which Noboa described as part of his plan to fight narcoterrorism and illegal fishing – was met with sharp criticism inside Ecuador, including from a former Army commander who warned of turning to a “mercenary army.” Still, it signals how far Noboa is willing to go to bring in outside support.

“They’re helping with training in urban warfare … and bringing new technology,” Noboa said Friday, speaking on Prince’s involvement. “They’ve operated in a dozen countries – including the US.”

For Noboa, foreign support isn’t a distant hope – it’s a strategy already in motion. Ecuador is expanding military infrastructure, clearing political hurdles, and making its case to the region, to its citizens, and now, directly to the United States.

Whether that help arrives – or arrives soon – remains to be seen.

Anxious loved ones waited outside a twisted mass of metal and concrete in the heart of Thailand’s capital on Saturday as rescuers searched for dozens of missing workers and the city confronted the aftermath of a rare and powerful earthquake that set skyscrapers swaying and rattled millions of residents.

Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake struck hundreds of miles away in impoverished Myanmar, but was strong enough to send shock waves through the forest of high-rise condominiums, shopping malls and offices of central Bangkok, sending water spilling from infinity pools and buckling carriages on the city’s rail network.

In Myanmar some 700 people have been confirmed killed so far and more than 1,600 injured, according to the isolated country’s military government, with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimating the final toll there could surpass 10,000 people according to early modeling.

At least 10 people have died in Bangkok, its deputy governor said, sending shock waves of a different kind through a city that sits on no major tectonic fault.

‘I kept calling’

The ground zero of the devastation in the Thai capital is an under-construction 30-story skyscraper next to the sprawling Chatuchak weekend market popular with the millions of foreign tourists that visit the city each year.

Early Saturday the loved ones of those feared buried under the mountain of broken pillars, rubble and steel sat on plastic chairs at the edge of the excavation site, watching diggers claw through the debris.

“I kept calling, but it was unsuccessful. All I kept hearing was the continuous toot… toot… of a busy signal,” she said.

“I feel like there’s a lump in my stomach, and I have no appetite to eat. I’m worried about my mom and sister still being stuck inside since yesterday. Nowhere to be found.”

She said she had spoken to her sister on Friday morning before they left for work.

“I asked her what she would have for lunch,” she recalled.

In a city where deep inequalities are on stark display, many of Bangkok’s construction workers hail from poorer parts of Thailand, especially its less wealthy northeast, as well as from neighboring Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The collapsed structure was being built by a subsidiary of the China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group, itself a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC), one of the world’s largest construction and engineering contractors, according to a now-deleted social media post by the group.

The Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited was also involved in the project, according to Chinese state media report from 2021.

In a post on its official WeChat account on April 2, 2024, China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group celebrated the completion of the building’s main structure on March 31, 2024.

When completed, the 137-meter building was to serve as the office of Thailand’s State Audit Office and other related government agencies, the company said in the post.

Broken skybridge

Elsewhere across the Southeast Asian megacity, glitzy glass-and-steel buildings home to expensive real estate swayed and groaned when the quake hit, showering dust onto the ground.

A bridge connecting two high-rise apartment buildings in an upmarket neighborhood broke during the quake, video showed.

Other videos showed the contents of rooftop infinity pools – a popular status symbol of Bangkok’s well-heeled – sloshing off the sides of towering apartment blocks onto the street below.

Bangkok has expanded at a breakneck pace, with high-rise condos and gleaming skyscrapers shooting up in recent decades.

When the tremors began, Bella Pawita Sunthornpong thought she was experiencing a moment of lightheadedness, “because I was seeing everything was swaying.”

She grabbed her phone and started running down from the 33rd floor, telling others around her to run too. As she made her way out of the building, she said, ceiling paint was falling and everything was still swaying.

“I was thinking, you know, whatever happened, I just need to keep running until I hit the ground,” Pawita Sunthornpong said.

Engineers were rushing Saturday to assess nearly 1,000 reports of “structural concerns” across the city. Authorities said buildings would be graded – green for safe, yellow for buildings with some damage which are usable with caution, and red indicating severe damage requiring closure.

Fresh misery for war-torn Myanmar

The worst damage has taken place hundreds of miles away across the border in Myanmar, a nation far less well equipped to deal with such a large disaster.

The quake struck near Myanmar’s second most populous city, Mandalay, home to historic temple complexes and palaces.

Reuters video from near Mandalay showed a multi-story building collapsing in on itself as the quake hit, sending around a dozen saffron-robed monks ducking for cover.

The city, home to around 1.5 million people, is normally popular with foreign tourists.

But a civil war has raged across the country since the military took power in 2021, ousting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ending a 10-year experiment with democratic rule.

Swathes of the country lie outside the control of the junta and are run by a patchwork of ethnic rebels and militias, making compiling reliable information extremely difficult.

The epicenter was recorded in Sagaing region, which borders Mandalay and has been ravaged by the war, with the junta, pro-military militia and rebel groups battling for control and all running checkpoints, making travel by road or river extremely difficult.

Having largely shut the country off from the world during four years of civil war, Min Aung Hlaing – the leader of Myanmar’s military government – issued an “open invitation to any organizations and nations willing to come and help the people in need within our country,” adding the toll was likely to rise.

Several aid agencies said they are mobilizing ground operations.

But the military – which has ruled Myanmar for most of its history since independence from Britain in 1948 – has a long and troubled track record of struggling to respond to major natural disasters, and in the past has granted humanitarian access, only to rescind it later.