Category World News

Fighting was reported to be raging in the city, which sits directly across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum, for a second day on Wednesday. The army has now seized control of former RSF territories in Mansoura, Murabaat and Elfitihab, according to Hiba Morgan, Al Jazeera’s Sudan correspondent.

Fighting in #Sudan’s capital is mostly in Omdurman today, with the army taking control of former RSF territory in Mansoura, Murabaat and Elfitihab. In the past few days, RSF has used drones to try to halt or defuse the current attack in southern Omdurman. https://t.co/zLxupC1zSN

The conflict in Omdurman is a new phase of the conflict, with fighting primarily occurring in Khartoum, Darfur’s final contested state, in the sprawling western region. Millions of people have been displaced and tens of thousands of have been killed by the conflict.

Our correspondent claimed that RSF fighters have been putting drones to the test to stop the military’s gains in a social media post.

The release of three army officers from captivity was confirmed by The Sudan Tribune, who added.

It was reported that government soldiers had taken control of a flour and sugar storage facility as well as a weapons and ammunition depot owned by the RSF.

Up to 20 RSF fighters, including a commander, were killed in a special operation, according to Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah, who informed the outlet when the three officers were released.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the assertion.

The military gains come after the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” in Sudan and imposed sanctions on its leader, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.

International organizations have charged both the government and the RSF with war crimes.

Sudan has experienced the worst internal displacement crisis in the world, with the war that broke out 21 months ago forcing the country torn apart and push the country into famine.

As a brush fire soared into the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Tuesday, more than 30 000 people were forced to leave. Other areas in southern California were later threatened by additional blazes.

Fearful residents fled on foot from the nearly 3, 000-acre (1, 200-hectare) fire that engulfed an area populated by multimillion-dollar homes on one of the exclusive roads leading to and out of the upscale Pacific Palisades area.

Many vehicles were pushed to the side by firefighters who used bulldozers to make way for emergency vehicles. Many of these were left crumpled and blaring.

No deaths have been reported in the immediate wake of the chaotic evacuation, according to Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley.

Numerous people were hurt, some of whom had burns to their hands and faces, according to a fire official, according to a fire official who spoke to KTLA. A female firefighter’s head was reportedly injured.

As crews worked through steep terrain to cut back vegetation and build firebreaks, hundreds of firefighters swarmed the area, attacking the blaze from the ground and the air.

“We are not out of danger”, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, speaking at an afternoon media conference.

A second blaze broke out some 30 miles (50km) inland near Pasadena, and doubled in size to 400 acres (162 hectares) in a few hours, according to Cal Fire.

Nearly 100 nursing home residents in the city were forced to leave, according to CBS News.

As firetrucks and ambulances arrived, elderly residents crowded onto a crowded, windswept parking lot, many of whom were in wheelchairs and ongurneys.

Northwest of Los Angeles, fire officials reported that evacuation orders for the San Fernando Valley were prompted by a third fire.

Governor Gavin Newsom claimed that Joe Biden, the president, has approved federal funding for firefighters’ needs.

France’s FIFA World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps has announced that he will leave his post after the 2026 edition of the tournament.

Deschamps led France to World Cup glory in Russia in 2018 and helped them reach the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, where they lost on penalties to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

“It will be 2026”, Deschamps told French broadcaster TF1. It is planned that I will be there until 2026, the following World Cup, because I’ve been there since 2012.

It will end there because it will eventually end. It’s clear in my mind.

“I have done my time, with the same desire, the same passion to keep the France team at the highest level, but 2026 is good”.

The Les Bleus are yet to reach the World Cup in 2026.

The 56-year-old started in his role as a successor to Laurent Blanc and is France’s longest-serving national team coach.

Deschamps also won the 2021 Nations League title with Les Bleus after having won numerous awards with all the clubs he ran before taking over as France coach.

As a player, he captained France when they won the 1998 World Cup on home soil, defeating Brazil in the final.

A gunman is wanted by Thailand’s police in Bangkok after he is suspected of killing a Cambodian opposition politician in a brutal attack on Tuesday.

Siam Boonsom, the chief of Bangkok police, told reporters on Wednesday that initial investigations led them to believe the shooter had been hired to carry out the shooting. The murder of Lim Kimya came as Cambodia’s former ruler Hun Sen demanded that anyone opposing the country’s regime, now headed by his son Hun Manet, should be marked as a “terrorist”.

According to Siam, “We have gathered evidence and know who is the perpetrator.”

The police chief noted that another person is also wanted, and that the victim may have been the assassin of another person.

He declined to provide further details, citing a continuing investigation.

According to a statement from Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, Bryony Lau, “Thai authorities should immediately and thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible.”

Kimya, 74, was a member of the popular opposition known as the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was disbanded before a 2018 election due to an alleged treason plot.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party claimed at the time that the charges brought against it were made up.

Government accused

In recent years, numerous Cambodian opposition activists have fled to Thailand to avoid alleged home-based oppression. Some were detained and then returned to their home countries.

Hun Sen, the former prime minister, was in power for 38 years, and rights groups accuse him of using the legal system to stifle opposition to his rule. Although he stepped down and relinquished control of the kingdom in 2023, his son Hun Manet is still revered as a major force.

Sam Rainsy, Hun Sen’s longtime rival, accused him of being behind the killing.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Sam Rainsy&nbsp stated that “Hun Sen’s hand can be seen behind the assassination of Lim Kimya, just as it has been seen behind the countless political crimes that have always gone unpunished.

Thai authorities will handle the case, according to Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona, who spoke to AFP news agency.

Russia is accused of using gas against Moldova, according to the European Union’s head of foreign policy.

Russia is using “gas as a weapon” in waging a “hybrid war” against the small southeast European country, Kaja Kallas said late on Tuesday, pledging the bloc’s support. Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, which enjoys strong links with Moscow, has been without gas since the beginning of the year amid a financial spat between Chisinau and Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom.

On the social media platform X, Kallas wrote overnight, “Russia continues to use gas as a weapon and Moldova is once more a target of its hybrid warfare.” Moldova continues to be resilient and well-connected to European energy networks thanks to EU support.

Moldova is once more the target of Russia’s hybrid warfare, and it uses gas as a weapon.

Moldova continues to be resilient and well-connected to European energy networks thanks to EU support.

I reaffirmed our unwavering support for Moldova in my conversation with @DorinRecean.

For decades, Transnistria, a mainly Russian-speaking breakaway region along the Ukrainian border, had been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine.

Following Kyiv’s refusal to extend a transit agreement with Moscow that had endured nearly three years of hostilities, that route was canceled on January 1st, 2018.

Gazprom, the Moldovan government claims, has refused to provide Transnistria with contracted gas via an alternative and tried Transbalkan route, which the government blames for the crisis.

Gazprom has attributed the disruption to Moldovan unpaid debts, which Moscow claims are worth $709 million. Moldova disputes that claim, saying that an international audit supported its position.

In a message to Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean, Kallas stated in her post that she reaffirmed the EU’s “unwavering solidarity with Moldova.”

The disruption is now affecting more than 51, 000 households in Transnistria. An estimated 1, 500 apartment buildings have no heating, and the functioning of the economy is also under pressure.

Regime change

Since the end of the Soviet Union, Transnistria’s thin sliver of land has de facto been under pro-Russian control, but it is regarded as a part of Moldova internationally.

Moldova claims that Russia is blaming Moscow for the crisis, which it claims Russia has stoked to undermine the government ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections.

In an online briefing, Recean stated that the purpose of all of this is to cause instability in the region and, crucially, to influence the results of Moldova’s parliamentary elections. “They want to have a pro-Russian government,”