Since their invasion of the city more than five months ago, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have transformed a significant portion of Al-Nuhud Hospital in the wartorn south of Sudan into a military command center and barracks.
The RSF, the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) bitter rival in the brutal three-year civil war, has been preventing the hospital from fulfilling its crucial role in providing healthcare to the population, according to the nongovernmental organization on Friday.
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According to the Facebook statement, “This military use of the health facility constitutes a flagrant violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines civilians’ right to access treatment,” adding that some of the city’s doctors have been accused of working with the military before fleeing.
The hospital now has a “severe shortage of healthcare workers,” it continued, “making the remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet patients’ needs.”
The SAF and the RSF have been locked in a conflict that has not been resolved by regional and international mediation since April 2023.
The conflict, which the UN describes as the largest humanitarian disaster in the world, has resulted in the displacement of millions of people and the deaths of thousands of people.
escaping the el-Fasher’s horrors
Since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of El-Fasher last month, hundreds of Sudanese children have been arriving without their parents in the town of Tawila in western Sudan, according to a humanitarian organization.
At least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), but that number is likely much higher than that.
After an 18-month siege that had prevented residents of El-Fasher, Sudan’s capital, from receiving food, medicine, and other essential supplies, the RSF seized control of the city on October 26.
In its takeover of the city, the paramilitary group is accused of carrying out numerous sexual assaults, kidnappings, and mass murders. Sudan’s army is also accused of carrying out atrocities during the conflict.
Washington’s call for a truce
No one side has formally agreed to a ceasefire proposal the United States has recently made to Sudan’s conflicting parties.
In accordance with US wishes, the RSF unilaterally ended hostilities on Monday.
The SAF, however, announced on Tuesday that it had resisted an attack on Babnusa, West Kordofan state’s newest front line, on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan demanded that US President Donald Trump intervene.
Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal that “the Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s sincerity and work with us and those in the region who genuinely seek peace.”
Over the course of the conflict, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million, and caused the largest hunger and displacement crises in the world, Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed.
In an apparent attempt to refute perceptions that Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro is a slave to the US military, which has received a $ 50 million US bounty for his arrest, he posted a video of himself driving through the city’s streets.
For the fifth week in a row since Russia’s concerted offensive began to take its eastern city, Ukraine has waged a fierce defense of Pokrovsk while trying to finesse a US peace plan that has been heavily criticized by US lawmakers.
The Gornyak and Shakhtersky microdistricts in Pokrovsk have been completely liberated, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday.
It announced on Tuesday that fighting was taking place in the Myrnohrad district of Vostochny and Zapadny east of Pokrovsk.
Both cities are located in a box that the Russian forces have gradually tried to shut down in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Russia claims to have effective fire control over those supply routes, and supplies and reinforcements can only currently reach Ukrainian forces from the west.
Officials from Ukraine continued that the battle for Pokrovsk’s defense was still ongoing. According to Ukraine’s head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, who cited the 7th Air Assault Brigade fighting there on Sunday, “our positions are held in the center of Pokrovsk, shooting battles continue, and the enemy fails to consolidate.”
The Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad enclave has clearly seen a strain in its resources, but the presence of Russian offensive forces has not diminished their ability to attack elsewhere.
Russia claimed to have seize Petropavlovka in Donetsk, Tikhoye and Otradnoye in Dniperopetrovsk, Novoye Zaporozhiye and Zatishye in Zaporizhia, and Petropavlovka in Kharkiv, Novoselivka, Maslyakovka, Yampol, Stavki, Zvanovka, Petrovskoye, Ivan
About a half-dozen villages have been attacked each week by the Russian forces.
(Al Jazeera)(Al Jazeera)
However, some of Russia’s assertions are disputed by Ukraine.
Russian General Staff Sergei Gerasimov announced on November 20 that his forces were setting up Ukrainian units on the left bank of the Oskil River to seize the city of Kupiansk in the northern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
However, Kovalenko responded, “Russia did NOT occupy Kupiansk,” in a response to her on Telegram. “Gerasimov is just a liar,” he claimed a week later.
According to its commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, Ukraine has also had successes on the ground. The Defense Forces of Ukraine were able to carry out counteroffensive operations in the Dobropillia direction from the end of August to the end of October this year, he claimed, referring to a failed Russian flanking manoeuvre in a town to the northwest of Pokrovsk.
The units then liberated more than 430 square kilometers [166 square miles] of north of Pokrovsk, breaking up the enemy’s offensive group. More than 13, 000 people were killed and hurt in Russia.
In addition to putting more pressure on Ukraine’s rear, Russia also launched 1, 169 drones and 25 missiles into its cities between November 20 and November 26. Zelenskyy demanded more short- and medium-range defenses after Ukraine successfully destroyed 14 of the drones and 14 of the missiles.
(Al Jazeera)
Disputed diplomacy
A 28-point peace plan presented by Donald Trump’s administration last week has been criticized as too Russia-friendly by members of the US Congress, including Europe, Ukraine, and members of the US Congress.
The original plan provided crucial details that Russia had demanded. That included the Ukraine’s promise to never join NATO and the force’s surrender of nearly all of Donetsk’s unoccupied territory. The other Western allies of the US and Ukraine would have to accept that those annexations were legal.
Within 100 days of the plan’s signature, Russia appears to believe that Zelenskyy would win. However, Ukraine would have to hold an election.
Additionally, Russia has urged Ukraine to effectively disarm. The plan’s goal is to reduce its military by about a third, to 600,000, according to the 28-point plan.
After seeing the plan, Zelenenskyy told the Ukrainian people that “right now is one of our history’s most difficult times,” and that he had to choose between the loss of our dignity and the threat of losing a key partner.
Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated in a statement that “I am very skeptical that this so-called “peace plan” will bring about peace.
It would be helpful to know for sure who the plan’s author and the location were, according to Polish Premier Donald Tusk, who was polite about it on social media.
According to the Reuters news agency, the plan heavily benefited from a Russian non-paper that the White House received in October.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that “Trump’s 28-point plan, which we have,” includes the important agreements reached at the summit in Alaska.
Yury Ushakov, a senior Putin aide, told the TASS Russian state news agency, “I would say not all, but many of the provisions of this plan, they seem to us to be acceptable.”
A Ukrainian delegation led by former defense minister Rustem Umerov met with US negotiators in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the draft document, which was being drafted by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Europe ruled out allowing territorial disputes brought on by aggression, and suggested that territorial negotiations must begin at the Ukrainian border without having to give prior consent. Additionally, it suggested that Ukraine should keep a sizable army of 800,000 people under its belt and receive a reliable NATO security guarantee.
Their final decisions will be made by Trump and Zelenskyy, according to their joint statement released on Monday, which stated simply that they would “continue intensive work.”
Zelenskyy claimed that a significant amount of work had been done to turn the original 28 points into a workable agreement. He cryptically described the work that remained as “very challenging” and said that the list of necessary steps to end the war could now become realizable.
Trump and Zelenskyy have been pushed by Ukraine to have a meeting before December, but on Tuesday, Bloomberg released transcripts of a phone conversation between Trump confidant Steve Witkoff and Yury Ushakov, in which Witkoff advised Ushakov to call him before Zelenskyy had a chance to meet him. Putin should flatter Trump as a peacemaker to influence his decision-making and work with him directly to create the peace plan, according to Wittkoff.
Following that leak, Witkoff was forced to travel to Moscow the following week to meet with Russian officials to discuss the revised plan. After reviewing the original 28-point plan, General Kellogg resigned as mediator for Ukraine, which was confirmed by the White House.
It is obvious that Witkoff is completely in favor of Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian-paid agent be more modest in his efforts? Republican Congressman Don Bacon wrote about it on social media.
It is obvious that Witkoff is completely in favor of the Russians for those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine emerge as a sovereign and democratic nation. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian-paid agent be more modest in his efforts? He ought to be fired. https://t.co/dxMsda0YV5
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, made his first significant comments on the peace proposal in Bishkek, Kyrgystan on Thursday, saying that signing documents with the Ukrainian leadership is pointless “because Zelenskyyy had outlived his mandate.”
According to him, “I think the Ukrainian authorities made a fundamental and strategic error when they gave in to the fear of voting in the presidential elections in the spring of 2025,” Zelenskyy’s four-year term was up.
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019, and under the terms of the constitution’s “national emergency,” Zelenskyy has twice been elected.
The 28 points, according to Putin, are “a set of questions that were suggested for discussion and final wording,” and do not constitute a peace treaty.
We generally concur that this could serve as the foundation for upcoming agreements, Puntin said.
Rodrigo Duterte, the former leader of the Philippines, is currently facing charges of crimes against humanity, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) appeals judges are scheduled to rule on his request to release him from detention.
The judges’ decision is expected on Friday, allowing for the ageing politician’s possible provisional freedom, a move that is fiercely opposed by human rights organizations and the families of his brutal drug addicts.
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After judges determined that he was likely to decline to go on trial and could use his freedom to intimidate witnesses, Duterte’s legal team is now challenging the court’s decision to keep him in custody in October.
Duterte, who served as mayor of a southern city before becoming president from 2016 to 2022, is accused of being a part of dozens of killings as part of his alleged drug war.
According to court documents, Duterte authorized and instructed “violent acts, including murder, to be carried out against alleged criminals, including alleged drug dealers and users.”
During Duterte’s presidency, there were various estimates of the death toll.
Human rights organizations claimed there were up to 30 000 killings, while national police estimated that there were more than 6 000.
Victims’ families praised Duterte’s arrest in March. He has been held in custody at The Hague for more than eight months.
Duterte’s attorneys claim that keeping him in custody while the trial is taking place is “cruel” and that he is “infirm and debilitated.” A pretrial hearing was postponed until a full medical evaluation could be conducted in September.
His attorneys claim that Duterte’s “cognitive faculties” have declined to the point where he is unable to assist his attorneys in filings.
However, those statements were refuted by family members who had visited him while he was being held in custody.
Vice President Sara Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, had suggested that his supporters should march to his detention facility and perform a “jailbreak” in a separate visit.
Duterte will not be able to return to the Philippines, but he will be placed in another member state’s custody while the proceedings are raging.
Judges  rejected a challenge to their jurisdiction in the case last month.
Leading human rights advocate Kristina Conti, who represents victims’ families, in Manila, expressed 99 percent confidence that Duterte’s appeal will be rejected.
In a statement posted on social media, Conti stated, “There is compelling evidence that he [Duterte] should remain in jail.”
The defense is not contesting the fact that he committed crimes against humanity, according to the court. Physical and mental health are the two main components of the request, she continued.
There is no reason for the pre-trial chamber to reverse its decision in September and grant him interim release, Conti said, citing several other legal provisions.
In February 2018, ICC prosecutors made the announcement that a preliminary investigation into the violence committed during Duterte’s rule would be launched.
Duterte, who was still in office, announced a month later that the Philippines would no longer be a member of the ICC in a move that human rights activists claimed was intended to evade punishment.
A Russian launch site in Kazakhstan was damaged during a spacecraft launch carrying Russian and American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), Moscow’s space agency Roscosmos has said.
The joint Russian-US Soyuz MS-28 mission, carrying Roscosmos astronauts Sergey Mikaev and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:28pm Moscow time (09:27 GMT) on Thursday.
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The spacecraft successfully docked later that day, the ISS announced in a social media post, and the crew was on board the station in good health.
But after inspecting the Baikonur Cosmodrome following the launch, Russia’s state space agency confirmed that “damage to a number of elements of the launchpad” had been detected.
“An assessment of the state of the launch complex is being conducted now,” Roscosmos said.
“All the necessary reserve elements are there to restore it and the damage will be eliminated very soon,” it said.
Russian space bloggers, however, have claimed that the damage to the Baikonur Cosmodrome – Russia’s only launch site for crewed missions, located in the Russian-leased city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan – is more severe than authorities are claiming.
.@NASA astronaut @Astro_ChrisW and his two Roscosmos crewmates opened the Soyuz MS-28 hatch at 10:16am ET on Thanksgiving Day and joined Exp 73 crew. https://t.co/NQ7pUizkO2
Immediately after the morning launch, Russian rocket launch analyst Georgy Trishkin claimed that “the service cabin [had] collapsed” and part of the structures had fallen on launchpad 31, causing serious damage that could suspend operations for some time.
Russian space journalist Vitaly Egorov also drew attention to visible damage at the launch site that could be seen during the official broadcast.
“In the gas exhaust tray under the launchpad, there was some massive metal structure that should not have been there,” he said.
Egorov added that if the Baikonur Cosmodrome is disabled as suspected, Russia will have “lost the ability to launch people into space” for the first time since 1961.
The Soyuz crew is scheduled to spend 242 days at the ISS, returning to Earth in July 2026. Some 40 scientific experiments and two extravehicular activities will be conducted over the course of the eight-month mission.
Russia’s space programme, once a source of national pride, has suffered from years of chronic underfunding and corruption scandals.
Despite an almost complete breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine, space continues to be one of the few remaining areas of US-Russia cooperation.
