Sudan in crisis

A look ahead to the world this week

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Good afternoon, Tens of thousands of people danced in the streets of Sudan in April 2019, after the Northeast African country's military removed hated dictator Omar al-Bashir from power following three long decades of rule. "New era, new nation!" chanted the crowds as word of Bashir's removal began spreading around the capital of Khartoum. Yet within two years, the hope that greeted that coup d'état had faded away. In October 2021, as the deadline for handing over power to civilian rulers loomed, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army general who ousted Bashir, staged another coup, "overthrowing the civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok and upending the country's democratic transition", said Deutsche Welle. Now, the country has tipped into violence yet again amid a fresh power struggle, between Sudan's army, headed by Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the feared paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti. Doctors estimated that around 100 civilians had been killed as of Monday morning, with hundreds more injured, as fighting between the rival factions entered a third day. Both sides claimed victories as battles raged around symbolic sites in the capital including the presidential palace and Khartoum International Airport. According to Reuters, the army "appeared to gain the upper hand" yesterday, blasting RSF bases with air strikes.  The UK and US embassies in Khartoum urged their citizens to stay indoors as the violence escalated. "We don't have any electricity," a British-Sudanese doctor visiting relatives in the city told the BBC. "It is hot. We can't afford to open the windows, the noise is deafening." Another eyewitness told the broadcaster that parts of Khartoum were engulfed in flames, adding: "Shooting is still ongoing and people are staying indoors – there is so much panic and fear."  The violence was triggered by a "disagreement over the integration of the RSF into the military as part of a transition towards civilian rule", said Reuters. The army and the RSF struck an easy truce before joining forces to oust Bashir four years ago, but that deal quickly faltered. The seeds of the conflict, however, were sown by Bashir, who created the RSF to crush a rebellion in Darfur that started more than 20 years ago. The group swiftly became "associated with widespread atrocities", said The Guardian.  In a 2015 report, Human Rights Watch described RSF forces as "men with no mercy". The group's reputation was cemented further when its soldiers killed hundreds of people and raped dozens more after being sent in to disperse a peaceful sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum in 2019. The ramifications of the current bloodshed stretch well beyond Sudan's borders. "Major geopolitical dimensions are at play, with Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other powers battling for influence in Sudan," said The Guardian. But at the heart of the conflict is a power struggle between two men, said the BBC World Service's Africa editor Mary Harper. Four years ago, there was "huge optimism" in Sudan; now, thanks to the conflict between Burhan and Hemedti, "the country is going backwards". The great tragedy, Harper said, is that the country's civilians find themselves "caught in the middle, their dreams of a new Sudan shattered". Read on for the $1.6bn defamation trial against Fox News and other global news, including the deadly fight for Bakhmut. Arion McNicoll The Week @arionmcnicoll

What to watch out for this week Fox trial delayed: The first hearing in the $1.6bn defamation lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News has been delayed by a day, amid rumours of a possible settlement. The trial in a Delaware court is now expected to begin on Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced last night, without giving a reason for the delay. Election technology supplier Dominion alleges that Fox harmed its reputation by repeatedly airing false claims that its voting machines were used to rig the 2020 election against then-president Donald Trump in favour of Joe Biden. The Wall Street Journal reported that insider sources claimed Fox had made a late push to settle the case out of court. The legal battle is expected to be "one of the most closely watched US media trials in decades", said Reuters. G7 meeting in Japan: G7 foreign secretaries began a three-day gathering in the central Japanese resort town of Karuizawa yesterday, ahead of a leaders' summit in Hiroshima in May. Discussions between the Group of Seven of the world's advanced economies were "expected to focus on support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion", The Independent said. The UK Foreign Office said G7 partners would discuss how to "help Ukrainian forces continue their progress on the battlefield and secure a lasting peace". According to The Independent, also on the agenda will be "closer security and defence ties in the face of China's growing assertiveness in the Pacific". The fight for Bakhmut: Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are locked in "bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades" in the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut, Ukraine's military said yesterday. Firefights are taking place in the "middle of the city's urban area", Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, told reporters. Pro-Kyiv forces were "doing everything" to "grind down [the enemy's] combat capability and break its morale", he added.  Bakhmut has been Russia's "main target" in an offensive "that has so far yielded scant gains", Sky News said. The battle for Bakhmut has been the longest and deadliest of the war, with the Wagner mercenary group leading Moscow's attempt to capture the city since last summer. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not mention Bakhmut in his daily video address on Saturday but reiterated Ukraine's desire to join Nato soon. California flood fears: Following weeks of record rains and historic snowfall, California is facing "a new danger", The Guardian said, as the enormous snowpack starts to melt. Temperatures are beginning to rise on the Sierra Nevada mountains, leading to deluges in reservoirs and increasing flood risks in areas "already saturated by the state's extremely wet winter". Climate scientists warn that the potential floods could be catastrophic. And many western US states are facing similar challenges as the climate crisis intensifies shifts in weather conditions following years of drought.

STAT OF THE WEEK 162 The number of mass shootings across the US so far in 2023 as of Monday morning, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence. There is "no consensus on what constitutes a mass shooting", said The New York Times, but the GVA defines a mass shooting as one in which "at least four people were killed or injured". Gun violence is "a fixture in American life", said the BBC, and "a highly political one" at that, "pitting gun control advocates against people who are fiercely protective of their right to bear arms". But away from the debate, the raw statistics show "that the number of mass shootings has gone up significantly in recent years", the broadcaster added, as the nation reels from latest attacks including the killing of four people at a 16th birthday party in Alabama on Saturday.

Briefing of the week

Arcturus: the new Covid variant surging in India The highly infectious Omicron subvariant has also been reported in dozens of countries including the UK Read more

Global round-up What you need to know about the biggest stories in world news North Korea and Japan's difficult history New missile launch from Pyongyang wreaks further havoc Read more Jack Teixeira: the alleged Pentagon leaker Suspect's arrest may have 'exposed' a larger US national security problem Read more Will Putin be put on trial for Ukraine's stolen children crisis? Russian president has been charged with war crimes for abducting thousands of Ukrainian children Read more Donald Trump: does the case against him stack up? Basic facts of former president's 'catch and kill' scheme not in dispute – but law might still be on his side Read more Pros and cons of artificial intelligence AI offers 'unimagined capabilities' but experts have warned it could serve 'nefarious aims' Read more

Person OF THE WEEK Lindsey Graham US senator Lindsey Graham has "slammed" his Republican colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene for defending the 21-year-old US airman charged with leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, Politico said. Greene claimed on Twitter last week that Jack Teixeira was being unfairly targeted because he is "white, male, christian, and antiwar", adding: "That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime." Denouncing Greene's comments as "terribly irresponsible", Graham told ABC's This Week on Sunday that "there are military members serving today from Georgia and other places who are less safe because of what this airman did". The leak is "probably the military's largest in at least a decade", said The Washington Post, and has "revealed secrets about everything from gaps in Ukrainian air defences to the specifics of how the United States spies on its allies and partners".

unexpected turn Dead birds fly again Researchers are "giving dead birds a new life with an unconventional approach to wildlife research", Reuters reported. Scientists at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology turned to taxidermy for a study of avian flight patterns after artificial mechanical birds failed to yield reliable results. "We came up with this idea that we can use... dead birds and make them (into) a drone," said study lead Dr Mostafa Hassanalian, a mechanical engineering professor . By converting dead birds into drones, the team hopes to better understand flock formation and flight patterns, with potential applications to the aviation industry. The research includes investigating how birds conserve energy while flying in V-formations, as well as the effects of feather colours and patterns on heat absorption and airflow.

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