More than 1, 000 people were killed by a landslide triggered by heavy rain on Sunday in the Darfur region of Sudan, according to an armed group that controls the area.
Sudan landslide ‘kills more than 1,000’
Rescuers focus on remote mountainous regions after Afghanistan earthquake
After a devastating earthquake that left 900 people dead and 3, 000 injured in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar region, according to a Taliban official, and destroyed villages and buildings, rescuers are attempting to reach remote areas.
The death toll is likely to rise.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, the provincial director of disaster management, announced early on Tuesday that work would be expanded to more of the mountainous areas of the area.
According to Ehsan, “we cannot accurately predict how many bodies might still be buried beneath the rubble.”
According to him, “our goal is to finish these operations as soon as we can and to begin distributing aid to the affected families,” adding that some of the injured have been transferred to hospitals in Kabul and the nearby Nangarhar province.
Eastern Afghanistan was the country’s most lethal country to have experienced just before midnight on Sunday, when a shallow earthquake of magnitude 6 struck just before midnight.
Volunteers are unable to reach remote areas along the Pakistani border, where largely mud-brick homes have been destroyed, due to the mountainous terrain.
Ehsan claims that the main challenge facing relief efforts has been getting vehicles on the steep mountain roads.
Extremely challenging
The World Health Organization (WHO) once again stated in a situational update that the destruction of roads and the remoteness of many villages “severely impedes the delivery of aid.”
The WHO claimed that more than 12, 000 people had been affected by the health system’s fragility prior to the earthquake, which means local capacity is completely strained, making them dependent on external actors.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) acting deputy head of delegation in Afghanistan, Homa Nader, stated to Al Jazeera that the road reconstruction project has become “nearly impossible.”
“There are still challenges to overcome. We had Andma, the disaster management directive that was released yesterday, along with heavy equipment to allow humanitarian organizations like the Afghan Red Crescent Society to conduct search and rescue operations, but it’s incredibly challenging, Nader said.
She continued, “absolutely likely that those [death toll] numbers will dramatically increase because we are not getting to the most remote villages as of yet,” while the organization is still awaiting a full incident report.
Due to its location near the confluence of the Indian and Eurasian plates, Afghanistan has previously experienced devastating earthquakes.
China, Russia pledge new global order at Shanghai Cooperation summit
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, China and Russia presented their vision for a new international order to countries that shared the Beijing-led economic and security agenda with new financial incentives.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made remarks that were widely perceived as criticism of the United States at the summit on Monday, claiming that “global governance has reached a new crossroads.”
Xi urged people to continue to speak out against hegemonism and power politics and practice genuine multilateralism.
Vladimir Putin’s comments echoed those of Xi, who claimed that the SCO would “revive” “genuine multilateralism” as it lay the political and socioeconomic foundation for the creation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia.
More than 20 leaders, primarily from the Middle East and Asia, gathered on Sunday and Monday for the summit in Tianjin, a city in northern China, to speak with Xi and Putin.
The 10-member SCO, which includes more than a dozen permanent dialogue partner nations, including Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Qatar, and Turkiye, is seen as an alternative to the majority of US-led international institutions. It also includes much of Central Asia, Russia, China, India, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Belarus.
Xi outlined grander goals for the bloc at the summit despite the fact that the SCO’s activities have largely been symbolic since its founding in 2001.
Xi demanded the establishment of a new SCO development bank and announced grants worth 2 billion RMB ($280 million) and additional 10 billion RMB ($1.4 billion) in loans for SCO members.
According to Eric Olander, the editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, the institution’s transition into international finance represents a significant turning point.
It has been largely ineffective with few notable accomplishments since the organization’s founding 24 years ago, according to the organization’s founder. As the membership grows and Xi backs the SCO with development finance money, which is something we haven’t seen before, he told Al Jazeera, “I think that’s going to change.”
A new “Global Governance Initiative” (GGI) was also provided by Xi.
Olander said Xi’s speech provides insight into Beijing’s global ambitions despite being sparse on specifics beyond promoting values like “multilateralism” and “sovereign equality.”
With the GGI, Xi basically declares the loudest that China is attempting to establish a parallel global governance system with the US and the European-led order, something that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.
He attributed the shift to the Global South’s desire for greater influence in international affairs and the perceptions of the US’s role in global affairs.
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, China’s push for multilateralism comes at a time when both countries are increasingly distrustful of one another. SCO members and sometimes-rivals, such as China and India, have shared grievances with each other.
Following skirmishes along their joint Himalayan border, New Delhi and China’s ties to one another fell in 2020.
According to analysts, Trump’s trade war has accelerated the thawing of diplomatic ties between the nations, despite the country’s relations beginning to normalize last year as a result of a border agreement.
The summit, which took place just days after Trump imposed a punitive 50% tariff on Indian goods and criticized India for its exports of Russian energy, was a chance for Xi and Narendra Modi to resolve their disagreements.
Another example of diplomatic unity was witnessed when Xi, Modi, and Putin were filmed conversing and walking together.
The majority of the world’s leaders attending the SCO will stay in China this week to attend a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to honor the end of World War II in Asia.
Afghanistan earthquake live: Search for survivors on after 900 killed
Live updatesLive updates,
Why Pakistan is rushing to mend fences with Bangladesh
Islamabad, Pakistan – On a windswept, overcast morning on August 23, when Ishaq Dar, the foreign minister, flew to Bangladesh, which had previously been divided with Pakistan 54 years ago, a senior Pakistani official made the first appearance in 13 years.
Dar, who also serves as Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, struck an optimistic tone, calling the “historic” tour the start of “a new phase of our reinvigorated partnership”.
He acknowledged the “significant progress” made over the past year in bilateral relations and praised the thaw.
In order to address challenges and realize their shared dreams, Dar urged “we must work together to create an environment where youth from Karachi to Chittagong, Quetta to Rajshahi, Peshawar to Sylhet, and Lahore to Dhaka join hands and face challenges”
His visit symbolised a breakthrough after months of diplomatic and military engagements between Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since Sheikh Hasina, a former Bangladeshi prime minister, was ousted in August 2024 amid widespread perceptions that he was close to India and forced to leave as a result of massive student protests, relations have deteriorated dramatically.
Former Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khalid, however, warned that the past is still putting strain on trust-building between the two countries.
“The new government of Bangladesh has responded positively to Pakistan’s gestures. He told Al Jazeera, “It is obvious that there were artificial barriers to close relationships that have now been eliminated.”
He claimed that the current requirement was a “framework for deeper engagement, where constructive dialogue can dispel misunderstandings.”
Military and diplomatic engagements intensify
Few analysts anticipated such a quickening of ties, or the regular, high-level exchanges that followed, despite Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meeting Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, the interim government’s leader, twice last year.
General Asim Munir, the head of Pakistan’s army, was met by Lieutenant General S. M. Kamr-ul-Hassan of the Bangladesh Army in Islamabad in January. In February, Bangladesh’s naval chief, Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, followed, and two months later, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch travelled to Dhaka.
Pakistan’s four-day clash with India in May had delayed Dar’s travel, but Mohsin Naqvi, the minister of interior, came to Dhaka in July.
General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, the head of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Lieutenant General Muhammad Faizur Rahman, the quartermaster general of the Bangladesh Army in Pakistan, were also present when Dar and the other day had discussions in Dhaka.
Delwar Hossain, an international relations professor at the University of Dhaka, said that Pakistan’s “hasty efforts” to strengthen ties are strategic.
Even under the Hasina government, Pakistan was attempting to normalize relations. They now see a chance to rekindle the friendship they had in the post-75 era, he told Al Jazeera, referring to the time following Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s death and Hasina’s father’s death.
Relations between Islamabad and Dhaka normalised under Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh’s military chief-turned-president, who led the country from late 1975 until he, too, was assassinated in 1981.
Bangladesh’s ties to India and Pakistan are historically a binary of friendship and hostility,” according to the government. Pakistan may also want to take advantage of the conflicting bilateral relationships between Bangladesh and India. This is a common diplomatic practice”, Hossain added.
The legacy of Bangladesh’s war of independence
Islamabad and New Delhi have been examining their ties to Bangladesh through the lens of their conflict, a force that was sparked by Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
When Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan was created as a Muslim-majority state with two geographically separated wings.
Around 34 million people from various ethnicities lived in the western region, and it was perceived as dominant. With more than 42 million Bengali speakers, East Pakistan, the eastern wing, which would eventually become Bangladesh, was more populous. India stood between the two parts of Pakistan.
India backed the Bengali liberation struggle as the east’s tensions grew. An estimated 200 000 women were allegedly raped by Pakistan’s military and allied militias, killing hundreds of thousands of people and injuring thousands more.
With India’s military backing, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League party led Bangladesh to independence. He was the first president of the nation.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 16 years before being removed last year, is viewed as being akin to India, where she has lived since last year.
Aizaz Chaudhry, Pakistan’s former foreign secretary, said that the shared grievances over India’s “regional hegemony” have spurred Islamabad and Dhaka to repair ties.
We in Pakistan witnessed Indian hegemony during the May conflict because Bangladeshis have known about it. He told Al Jazeera that both countries now understand the importance of a balance of power in South Asia.
In May, India and Pakistan fought a brief but intense four-day aerial war after gunmen killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in an attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir. Islamabad rejects claims that India is to blame Pakistan for the attack.
Despite India being a significant neighbor, Dhaka’s relationship with New Delhi was described as “lukewarm,” according to Shahab Enam Khan, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs.
“Anti-India sentiment is often exaggerated”, he said. Bangladesh has a history of avoiding bilateral relations with Pakistan through a narrow military or economic perspective.
China’s growing role
Regional dynamics are further complicated by China’s growing influence in South Asia. Although the two Asian giants are otherwise rivals, Beijing, a close ally of Islamabad, and Hasina were close friends.
Hossain of Dhaka University claimed that even after Hasina’s ouster, China managed to maintain a significant presence in Bangladesh. In March, Yunus visited Beijing, followed by Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman’s weeklong China trip in August.
He continued, referring to Chinese-made aircraft that Pakistan also had and that Islamabad used during the May conflict and that Bangladesh is considering purchasing 12 J-10C fighter jets to boost its air power. China is Pakistan’s most important strategic partner, providing both investment and economic loans as well as military equipment.
“These developments are bringing Dhaka and Islamabad closer, transforming ties into a strong partnership”, Hossain said.   ,
Trade, politics as countries seek partnership
Meetings between Dar and Touhid Hossain, the adviser for foreign affairs, and Yunus, were a highlight of Dar’s two-day visit to Bangladesh.
He also met with members of the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which led the revolts that toppled Hasina.
Those meetings were particularly significant as Bangladesh is preparing for elections in early 2026, said Abdul Basit, a former Pakistani high commissioner to India. Pakistan and Bangladesh will forge ahead, he declared to Al Jazeera, “No matter what happens between India and Bangladesh.” We have issues from the past, but they can be skillfully addressed and shouldn’t serve as barriers.
Both could benefit from closer economic relations, too, suggested Pakistan’s former China ambassador Khalid and Dhaka University’s Hossain.
Bangladesh is one of South Asia’s economies with a growth rate of 6% since 2021. Pakistan’s economy is in decline, growing by 2.5 percent last year. At the moment, bilateral trade is modest, tilted towards Pakistan, whose exports to Bangladesh totalled $661m in 2024, compared with $57m in imports.
However, Hossain claimed that if the two nations attempted to revitalize trade relations, they could each gain from the other, both as a potential market and as a source of raw materials.
According to the academic, Pakistan could gain from the importation of cotton, textiles, rice, cement, fruits, and processed foods. On the other hand, Pakistan can import jute and jute products, hydrogen peroxide, chemicals and tobacco products from Bangladesh.
He noted that “Bangladesh and Pakistan have a combined population of 430 million people, which is more than twice the size of West Europe.”
There are still historical qualms.
The deepest fault line in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations is the legacy of the 1971 war.
Dhaka is still pressing for an official apology for the crimes.
Additionally, Bangladesh’s more than 200 000 Urdu-speaking Muslims are at odds with one another. After the partition in 1947, the community had mostly moved to East Pakistan from Bihar in present-day India. Geographically, East Pakistan and Bangladesh were geographically closer to Bihar than West Pakistan. However, Islamabad is reluctant to accept that Bangladesh, which was founded on Bengali nationalism in 1971, has only granted limited rights to Urdu-speaking Muslims.
Bangladesh also seeks a division of the pre-1971 assets of the state of Pakistan, and the transfer of aid that was promised by West Pakistan to East Pakistan in 1970 after a devastating cyclone, in which an estimated 300, 000 people died. Many historians attribute the West Pakistan-based government’s slow and generally inadequate response to the liberation war that led to the formation of Bangladesh.
However, former Pakistani foreign secretary Chaudhry claimed that both nations’ public attitudes favor reconciliation.
“People of Pakistan are also as sad about the events of 1971 as the people of Bangladesh. People in both countries now want to move on, according to Chaudhry, and I believe this pain is common.
Hossain of Dhaka University asserted that despite the strong support from the current political parties for strengthening Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, issues relating to the conflict of 1971 continue to impede further ties.
“It is important to remember that the ouster of Hasina from power has not fundamentally changed the mindsets of the people of Bangladesh about the liberation war and an expectation from Pakistan for healing the past”, Hossain said.
He continued, adding that Dhaka did not want to remain trapped in the past.
The process of diplomacy is dynamic. Both the countries can move forward for cooperation in economic, diplomatic and cultural sectors, while they will continue to maintain the healing process”, he said.
US Open: Jannik Sinner demolishes Alexander Bublik, advances to quarters
Jannik Sinner, the defending champion, praised the atmosphere of the Arthur Ashe Stadium’s lights after defeating 23rd seed Alexander Bublik to reach the US Open quarterfinals.
The Italian tennis player made his night session debut this year with a win of 6-1, 6-1, and 6-1, never looked back after winning his 25th straight major match match against a difficult opponent.
After the match on Monday, Sinner said, “It’s always special to go on Ashe to play.”
“Night matches are a little different because there’s a little more attention, in my opinion. Around the court, there is also a different vibe. It is very loud. It’s also fun to play differently.
For me, this year marked my first time doing it. It was pleasant. If you play in the evening, you get both the good and the bad. You feel very welcome on the biggest court we have, and it’s very special.
Sinner gained retribution for the shock defeat suffered by Bublik in the Halle Open final on June 20, his only loss to a player other than Carlos Alcaraz this year, and was back in the locker room just 81 minutes after the incident.
We are well-known. We’ve had some difficult matches this year, so we’ve become better friends, the top-seeded Sinner said.
He finished late in his previous match against Tommy Paul. He did not perform as well in the service. I was able to play well after breaking him in each set.
Before Bublik could even start scoring, Sinner built a 4-0 lead before the dominant 24-year-old chased down a drop shot to score a deep backhand winner that tied the first set with another break.
Sinner drew his eighth straight grand slam quarterfinal by sliding back to his serve after Bublik’s attempts to disrupt his rhythm with more drop shots ended in futile.
Lorenzo Musetti and his compatriot will meet next. It would be a fantastic opportunity for Italian tennis, Sinner claimed.
It’s wonderful to see, I thought. Italian tennis is playing great. He said, “We have so many players and various game styles.
One of our greatest strengths is Lorenzo, according to Lorenzo. This one is something I’m anticipating. It’s great to have one Italian player in the semis, in my opinion.
“I am aware of the presence of a large crowd of Italian players. Everything becomes unique because of it.