20 h. ago Sudan in ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ after two years of civil war

NGOs and UN say country is ‘worse off than ever before’ with wide-scale displacement, hunger and attacks on refugee campsTimeline: Sudan’s two years of war and its devastating tollSudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.Two years to the day since fighting erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, hundreds of people were feared to have died in RSF attacks on refugee camps in the western Darfur region in the latest apparent atrocity of a war marked by its brutality and wide-scale humanitarian impact. Continue reading...

Events

31 h. ago Sudan’s news blackout stokes fear and confusion after refugee camp attacks

Families of those displaced wait for news from Darfur amid reports of hundreds killed by paramilitary RSFSudan’s information blackout has left relatives of those in Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp struggling for news of their safety after it was overrun by militiamen at the weekend.As leaders across the globe prepared to meet for peace talks in London to pressure the backers of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army to agree a ceasefire, the RSF launched a deadly assault that led to it seizing Zamzam after weeks of tightening its siege. Continue reading...

Events

32 h. ago Satellite imagery spots North Korea's 'biggest warship ever'

Despotic North Korea spends vast proportions of wealth on its armed forces but how big is the Korean People’s Army and more importantly, how much deadly weaponry does it have?

Events

63 h. ago The identity politics of many Muslims, and critics of Islam, are deeply corrosive | Kenan Malik

Condemning them as ‘sectarian’ is only adding to the clamour that they have no place in the westA poll suggests that most British Muslims identify more with their faith than with their nation. The head of the Saudi-backed Muslim World League counsels British Muslims to talk less about Gaza and more about domestic issues. Labour MP Tahir Ali is criticised for campaigning for a new airport in Mirpur in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir; he claims the criticisms have led to “Islamophobic” attacks. After push-back, the BBC changes a headline describing converts to Islam as “reverts”, a term some Muslims use to suggest that Islam is the natural state of humankind.Just a taster of debates about British Muslims over the past week. At the heart of each of these controversies is the question of how Muslims should relate to western societies, and western societies relate to them. For some, the answer is easy. On the one side, many claim Islam to be incompatible with western values and that allowing...

Politics

69 h. ago 'When my child slammed down the toilet seat the bang would trigger me. I thought, this wasn't right'

Phil Jones served 11 years in the armed forces, and began experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder when he returned home to Wales. Now he's taking part in a ground-breaking study into how cold water immersion can help alleviate symptoms

Politics

4 d. ago London Hotels Outpace Inflation With Strong US Visitor Spending In The UK And China Travel Landscape main headline

London Hotels Outpace Inflation With Strong US Visitor Spending In The UK And China Travel Landscape main headline  Travel And Tour World

Economics

4 d. ago Israel's army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned the war

Israel’s military said Friday it will fire air force reservists who signed a letter condemning the war in Gaza and accusing it of only serving political interests instead of bringing the hostages home

Events

4 d. ago Britain announces £450million military aid ‘surge’ to Ukraine ahead of defence summit

MoD says ‘major’ new military support package will boost Ukraine’s armed forces as they continue to defend against Russian attack

Economics

5 d. ago UK trade minister visits China at same time as head of British military

Douglas Alexander’s unpublicised trip to talk with counterparts coincides with that of Adm Sir Tony RadakinA trade minister has travelled to China for an unpublicised visit this week at the same time as the head of the British military, the Guardian has learned.Douglas Alexander, the minister for trade policy and economic security, is paying a visit to Beijing this week for talks with Chinese counterparts. He is also due to visit Hainan and Hong Kong. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Head of British military makes first Beijing visit in 10 years

Trip by Tony Radakin announced only by China’s government amid strained Sino-American relations

Events

5 d. ago Head of the British armed forces visits China for first time in 10 years

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin discussed ‘issues of common concern’ with China’s military leadership, according to China’s defence ministry.

Events

5 d. ago ‘Do you want to show strength here?’: Russia’s ads recruiting Chinese mercenaries

More than 150 Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, recruited via videos on social mediaThe videos are across Chinese social media. Some are slickly produced Russian propaganda about being “tough” men; some sound more like influencer advertisements for a working holiday. Others are cobbled-together screenshots by regular citizens about to leave China. But they all have one thing in common: selling the benefits of becoming a Chinese mercenary for Russia.On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that two Chinese nationals had been captured in the eastern Donetsk region and accused Moscow of trying to involve China “directly or indirectly” in the conflict. A day later, he said the men were among at least 155 other Chinese members of Russia’s armed forces. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Ukraine’s military chief ‘must go’, says commander who quit to speak out

Oleksandr Syrskyi risking lives with ‘borderline criminal’ orders, says Bohdan Krotevych, former Azov brigade leaderA high-profile former Ukrainian commander has called for the head of the country’s military to step aside, accusing him of a lack of strategic imagination and putting Ukrainian soldiers’ lives at risk with “borderline criminal” orders.Bohdan Krotevych, who quit as the chief of staff of the Azov brigade in February partly so he could speak out, said he believed that armed forces commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, “must go” and Ukraine’s military leadership must be shaken up. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy demands answers over Chinese nationals fighting for Russia

The Ukrainian president says the Chinese nationals were just two of many fighting with Russian forces. What we know on day 1,141Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government is seeking clarification from Beijing after Ukrainian forces captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region.Zelenskyy said the captured fighters were two of many more Chinese members of the Russian armed forces, and he accused the Kremlin of trying to involve Beijing in the conflict “directly or indirectly”. A few hundred Chinese nationals are thought to have travelled to fight as mercenaries with the Russian army alongside others from Nepal and central Asian countries.US state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce called the development “disturbing”, adding: “China is a major enabler of Russia in the war in Ukraine.”Russian forces staged massive drone attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv late on Tuesday, triggering fires and injuring at least 17 people, region...

Events

7 d. ago Two Chinese nationals caught fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian president says men’s capture shows Moscow is trying to involve Beijing in the war ‘directly or indirectly’Ukrainian forces have captured two Chinese nationals fighting with the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.They are two of what Ukraine’s president described as many more Chinese members of the Russian armed forces, and their capture prompted him to accuse the Kremlin of trying to involve Beijing in the conflict “directly or indirectly”. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and didn’t mention Gaza once. That’s no surprise | Judith Levine

US politicians and the media are focused on our domestic crisis. But we cannot close our eyes to the outside worldSeven and three-quarters hours into his 25-hour speech on the Senate floor, the New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker uttered the word “Gaza”. He was not talking about the war. He stepped nowhere near the 50,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli armed forces since 8 October 2023, or the US’s military and political support of the genocide.Rather, Booker was searching for a particularly ludicrous lie from a presidential administration that has told thousands. “There are lies about USAID, like, I don’t know, 5 million condoms going to Gaza or something outrageous,” he said. Considering the other outrageous things Trump has said about Gaza – such as his plan to “clean out” the strip to make room for luxury resorts – the remark felt trivializing.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago South Korean troops fire warning shots as Kim Jong Un's soldiers cross heavily fortified border, forcing them to retreat

Ten armed North Koreans reportedly chose to cross the frontier, but were forced to retreat rapidly when their southern counterparts opened fire.

Events

7 d. ago Allies at War by Tim Bouverie review – a revelatory study of second world war alliances

In focusing on the multilateral bonds that were forged to defeat Hitler, this entertaining account offers fresh disclosures about the course of the conflictCan anything new be said about the second world war? Unexpectedly the answer is yes. Here are just a few of the surprising facts that I learned from this revelatory book. The Belgian army in 1940 was twice the size of the British Expeditionary Force. (The US army in 1940 was smaller still, smaller than those of Portugal or Sweden.) Almost all the French troops evacuated at Dunkirk chose to be repatriated rather than join the Free French. In 1942 pro-Russian feeling in Britain was so strong that War and Peace became a bestseller. Even in January 1945 the Japanese still had 1 million troops in Manchuria. The Indian prophet of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, considered Hitler “not as bad as he is depicted”. And so on.Tim Bouverie has reverted to a traditional form to present the past afresh. His focus is not on the battlefield, nor on...

Events

7 d. ago Army reenlists nearly two dozen soldiers ousted for refusing COVID

Officials say the Army has reenlisted more than 23 soldiers who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine

Events

8 d. ago Young people to be trained as engineers, welders and technicians in major drive

DWP Secretary Liz Kendall and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband have joined forces to back a 'clean power army' of jobs that are to be created to deliver clean power by 2030

Science