Global Pulse

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  • Prince Harry steps down from African wildlife charity board

    Prince Harry steps down from African wildlife charity board

    In a move that comes amid ongoing fallout over confirmed human rights violations by park rangers employed by a leading African conservation organization, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, has stepped down from the board of African Parks, a charity he has been affiliated with for a decade. A spokesperson for the duke confirmed the exit Friday, noting that after six years serving as the charity’s president, Prince Harry joined the board of directors in 2023, and while he is leaving his formal governance role, he will continue to back the organization’s core conservation mission.

    The resignation comes barely a week after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, announced plans to relocate their family — which includes their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — from their long-time home in California back to the United Kingdom, where their children are set to begin school in early September. The timing has placed both the charity controversy and the Sussexes’ new chapter firmly in the global spotlight.

    The controversy surrounding African Parks erupted last year, when the organization publicly acknowledged that its rangers operating in Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) had committed severe human rights abuses against local Indigenous communities. An independent investigation launched following the allegations confirmed multiple reports of violence, including beatings, sexual assault, and torture carried out by guards employed and managed by the charity. In 2025, African Parks announced it had overhauled its internal safeguarding protocols both at the Congolese park and across all its operations, as part of broader organizational reforms.

    As part of what African Parks framed as a “governance refresh” of its board, the organization issued a statement thanking Prince Harry for his ten years of involvement. The charity acknowledged that Prince Harry had been instrumental in drawing global attention to the urgent crisis of biodiversity loss across the African continent, highlighting his work to advance conservation philanthropy that benefits both local communities and wildlife. “The duke remains deeply committed to this cause, and remains a strong supporter of African Parks’ work,” the statement read.

    Prince Harry’s connection to African Parks runs deeper than board service: the organization’s website records his role as part of the expert team that delivered the first phase of the landmark 500 Elephants project, one of the largest elephant translocation initiatives in modern conservation history. The project moved hundreds of elephants from overcrowded, poaching-prone habitats in Malawi to protected areas where elephant populations had been decimated by decades of illegal hunting. Prince Harry previously described participating in the translocation as an “amazing” experience, and he was photographed attending an anti-poaching demonstration in Malawi back in 2019. In his own statement released through his spokesperson, Prince Harry said he was “proud of his 10 years with African Parks” and fully supports the charity’s ongoing work to strengthen its governance and operations. “His commitment to conservation in Africa continues, and he remains a supporter of African Parks’ mission,” the spokesperson added.

    African Parks currently manages roughly 20 national parks and protected areas across 12 sub-Saharan African countries, making it one of the largest non-profit conservation organizations operating on the continent.

    The Sussexes’ impending relocation to the UK has already sparked widespread discussion about the couple’s future, particularly around unresolved questions of security arrangements. Last year, Prince Harry lost a high-profile legal challenge against the UK Home Office over the level of publicly funded police protection he and his family are entitled to when staying in the UK. No final details have been confirmed about what security provisions will be put in place for the family following their move, and the couple’s broader long-term plans for their time in the UK also remain unannounced.

    UK public broadcaster the BBC has also reported that the Duchess of Sussex is currently in talks to return to her former acting career, with a potential role in the popular Netflix series *The Gentlemen*. If confirmed, the role would mark her first major acting credit since her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.

    This upcoming relocation marks a major shift for the couple, who stepped back from full-time senior royal duties in early 2020 before permanently settling in California that same March. A spokesperson for the couple has confirmed that their official status as non-working members of the royal family will not change following the move, and they will remain private individuals.

  • Trump says to double tariffs on Canada autos as trade fight heats up

    Trump says to double tariffs on Canada autos as trade fight heats up

    A rapidly escalating transboundary trade conflict between the United States and Canada entered a dangerous new phase Monday, as former president and current US leader Donald Trump announced plans to double existing tariffs on Canadian automobiles and automotive parts starting in 2027.

    In a public post to his Truth Social platform, Trump confirmed that starting January 1, 2027, all imported passenger cars, trucks of all sizes, automotive components, and Canadian steel entering the US market will face a 50% import tariff. Currently, the US imposes a 25% duty on Canadian-made vehicles that do not meet US content requirements under existing trade rules, while most Canadian steel already faces a 50% tariff under prior US trade measures.

    The announcement comes just days after negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed completely, failing to avert a new round of 50% US tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods that went into effect Saturday. These new levies cover approximately 5.5% of all Canadian goods entering the US, ranging from industrial inputs like cement to consumer goods including hockey sticks.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected what he described as an unacceptable “bad deal” from US negotiators, walked away from talks, and immediately announced reciprocal retaliatory tariffs targeting key US export sectors. Carney’s retaliatory measures, set to take effect September 8, will hit US steel, dairy products, agricultural machinery, pulp and paper, and consumer electronics.

    The US has long held the position as Canada’s largest single trading partner, with 70% of all Canadian exports destined for the US market. As of 2025, US Census Bureau data ranks Canada as the second-largest goods trading partner for the US, just behind Mexico. Existing Trump administration tariffs have already placed significant pressure on core Canadian industrial sectors including auto manufacturing and steel production.

    In his post Monday, Trump doubled down on his longstanding criticism of Canadian trade policy, arguing that “Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years.” He added, “we don’t need Canada, they need us.” The Trump administration initially justified the new round of tariffs by alleging Canada engages in discriminatory trade practices against US alcohol, automotive, and dairy products. Last week, Trump delayed the implementation of the new tariffs by three days to allow for last-minute negotiations between top trade officials from both nations.

    Top Canadian negotiator Dominic LeBlanc and his delegation held marathon talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and his team in Washington across Thursday and Friday, extending negotiations late into Friday night, but the two sides could not bridge core differences. According to comments Greer gave to The New York Times Saturday, the US had tabled a compromise offer ahead of the collapse: Washington offered to eliminate a 10% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber, cut the existing 25% auto tariff, and reduce the 50% steel tariff to 25% for most Canadian steel exports. The offer was rejected by Canadian leadership.

    Public opinion polling from the Angus Reid Institute released Sunday shows broad domestic support for Carney’s decision in Canada: three-quarters of Canadian respondents back the government’s choice to walk away from the talks. At the same time, the poll found that two in five Canadians report anxiety over potential job losses linked to the trade dispute.

    As of Monday, neither side had announced plans to schedule a new round of negotiations, and Carney confirmed late Friday that he has suspended further trade talks with Washington. The ongoing tariff conflict is not the only point of tension between the two neighbors: the US is also pushing for revisions to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the trilateral trade deal that governs regional trade, and Trump has so far refused to renew the agreement in its current form. Additional friction has been caused by repeated provocative comments from Trump suggesting Canada should become the 51st US state, comments that have stirred widespread anti-US sentiment among Canadian voters.

    US automakers have not yet issued a public response to Trump’s latest tariff threat, leaving unclear how the proposed 2027 duty increase would impact North American integrated auto supply chains that rely heavily on cross-border movement of parts and vehicles.

  • Is UK’s Storm Shadow missile a game changer for Ukraine?

    Is UK’s Storm Shadow missile a game changer for Ukraine?

    The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has long been defined by the incremental impact of Western military aid, and the recent delivery of UK-made Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles has sparked urgent debate over whether this advanced weapon system can alter the course of Kyiv’s counteroffensive operations. Defense correspondent Joe Inwood has delved into the technical specifications and strategic implications of the system to unpack its potential role on the front lines. Unlike the shorter-range artillery and rocket systems that Ukraine has relied on for most of the war, Storm Shadow boasts a stand-off strike range of more than 250 kilometers, allowing Ukrainian forces to hit Russian command hubs, ammunition depots, and supply lines deep behind occupied front lines without putting their own aircraft at risk within heavily defended enemy airspace. Designed for precision strikes against fixed infrastructure targets, the missile uses a combination of GPS navigation and terrain-following radar to avoid detection, and its tandem warhead is engineered to penetrate hardened concrete structures like underground bunkers and reinforced storage facilities. While Western officials have emphasized that the missiles are intended for use on Ukrainian territory that is currently under Russian occupation, the deployment of this long-range capability marks a significant escalation in Western military support, raising questions about how Moscow will respond to the new threat. Military analysts note that even with Storm Shadow, Ukraine cannot achieve a decisive battlefield breakthrough on its own; the system is a force multiplier that can disrupt Russian logistics and weaken their defensive positions, rather than a silver bullet that will end the war immediately. Inwood’s analysis walks through both the capabilities and limitations of the technology, contextualizing its arrival against Ukraine’s ongoing push to retake occupied territories and the shifting dynamics of military support from Western allies.

  • Denmark’s prime minister blasts unsolicited beauty advice from plastic surgeon on Instagram

    Denmark’s prime minister blasts unsolicited beauty advice from plastic surgeon on Instagram

    Even the most powerful female leaders in Europe are not immune to the constant, unwanted scrutiny of their bodies and appearances — a reality that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has brought to global public attention after speaking out against a string of unsolicited beauty advice.

    The 48-year-old Social Democrat, who has served as Denmark’s head of government since 2019 and recently secured her third consecutive term, took to Instagram earlier this week to share her frustration, fresh off a high-stakes trip to war-torn Ukraine. During her visit to Kyiv, Frederiksen navigated active air raid sirens amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, only to return home to an uninvited message from a male plastic surgeon offering to correct what he called a “little spot on her nose.”

    In her candid social media post, Frederiksen revealed that the unsolicited comments about her looks are far from an isolated incident. “I’ve lost count of how many messages I’ve received over the years about my appearance,” she wrote. Critics and strangers alike have targeted nearly every part of her features: she has repeatedly been told her teeth are unattractive, her hair is too thin, and the mark on her nose is an “ugly wart” that needs removal. Well-meaning but intrusive commentators have also repeatedly urged her to get Botox injections to reverse signs of aging.

    Frederiksen shared a screenshot of the plastic surgeon’s unwanted outreach, opting not to name the individual publicly, and posted her blunt rejection of his offer directly to her followers. “Oh no. I’m happy with my body — I really don’t need a male plastic surgeon to have an opinion about it!” she responded.

    The Danish leader, one of the longest-serving heads of government in Europe and the second woman to hold the prime minister post in Denmark, has built her tenure around firm geopolitical stances: she has repeatedly pushed back against former U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempted efforts to gain control of Greenland, Denmark’s semiautonomous Arctic territory, and has maintained unwavering support for Ukraine throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now, her public pushback against appearance-based criticism has shone a light on the double standard that many women in positions of power face globally.

    In her post, Frederiksen emphasized that she has no interest in judging other people’s personal choices about their bodies, and made clear that her frustration stems from the constant intrusion on hers. “I’m perfectly fine with my body — as it is when you’re a woman approaching 50,” she wrote. She also called on followers who reach out to her to focus on policy and substantive issues rather than her physical features, adding: “if you’re going to write to me (and you’re more than welcome to), I hope you’ll use your time to talk about something more meaningful. Not my nose.”

    Frederiksen said the constant stream of unsolicited beauty tips leaves her feeling indignant, and used her platform to extend solidarity to others who navigate the same pressure to fit narrow, unrealistic beauty standards. “Today, I’m sending an extra loving thought to all of you who have to put up with the ‘perfect imperfections’ we all walk around with every day,” she wrote.

  • 2 UN peacekeepers killed in an ambush in South Sudan

    2 UN peacekeepers killed in an ambush in South Sudan

    JUBA, South Sudan – A fatal ambush targeting a United Nations peacekeeping patrol in a remote region of South Sudan has left two peacekeepers dead and seven other people injured, according to an official statement from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The brazen attack, carried out by unidentified armed assailants on Monday, has underscored the rapidly deteriorating security situation across the conflict-torn East African nation as a fragile 2018 peace deal teeters on total collapse.

  • Deportees who refused to exit a US flight in Liberia are sent to Equatorial Guinea

    Deportees who refused to exit a US flight in Liberia are sent to Equatorial Guinea

    DAKAR, SENEGAL — A coordinated act of resistance by six migrants deported from the United States has cast new light on the Trump administration’s controversial secretive third-country deportation policy, after the group refused to exit their flight in Liberia last week and was ultimately rerouted to another African nation, multiple sources confirmed Monday. A person traveling on the deportation flight and a legal representative in contact with the detainees have verified the details of the incident, which has drawn fresh criticism of a practice immigration advocates call a loophole for bypassing asylum protections.

  • Prince Harry to leave board of African Parks conservation nonprofit

    Prince Harry to leave board of African Parks conservation nonprofit

    LONDON – A spokesperson for Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, confirmed Monday that the British royal has stepped down from his role as a trustee of African Parks, a prominent conservation nonprofit that manages protected areas across 15 million hectares of land in 13 African nations ranging from Chad in the north to Zimbabwe in the south. His exit comes just one week after he announced that he and his immediate family would be moving back to the United Kingdom to take up permanent residence.

    Prince Harry first joined the African Parks board of trustees a decade ago, and his departure is scheduled to take effect on September 30, as part of a planned governance overhaul announced by the organization in an August 19 statement. Two new high-profile figures will join the board to fill vacant spots left by outgoing members: a sitting Kenyan Supreme Court justice and the president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an organization focused on supporting small-scale agricultural producers across the continent.

    The timing of Harry’s exit, however, follows controversy that arose four months ago, when global Indigenous rights advocacy group Survival International publicly called for the prince to resign from the board. The group leveled allegations of human rights violations against park rangers employed by African Parks, claims that the organization has repeatedly denied but that placed public pressure on Harry’s position.

    This is not the first high-profile charity exit Harry has made in recent months. In March 2025, he departed Sentebale, the anti-poverty and HIV/AIDS organization he co-founded to support communities in southern Africa, following a reported breakdown in working relations with the charity’s board chair.

    Despite the controversy, African Parks board chair Vas Narasimhan issued a public statement praising Harry’s decade of involvement with the nonprofit. “We extend our thanks to all the members of the Board who generously volunteer their time in support of our conservation mission — and particularly to The Duke of Sussex, for a decade of committed service to African Parks,” Narasimhan said.

    Harry and his wife Meghan Markle first stepped back from their full-time senior royal roles in 2020, relocating to Southern California to build an independent public profile and professional career. The couple confirmed after their recent announcement that they will not be returning to official royal duties, and will reside in a private non-royal residence on the outskirts of London.

  • China Moon mission to find water ice: unlike anything NASA’s done

    China Moon mission to find water ice: unlike anything NASA’s done

    For nearly 20 years, scientists have confirmed that water exists on the Moon — but critical questions remain unanswered. How much harvestable water ice is trapped in the Moon’s permanently shadowed polar craters, where sunlight has not touched the surface for billions of years? How deep is this ice buried, and what physical form does it take? These are the mysteries China’s upcoming Chang’e-7 lunar mission aims to solve, as the world enters a new era of lunar exploration focused not just on reaching the Moon, but unlocking its resources for long-term human activity.

    Exploring these permanently shadowed craters is no small feat. Tucked at the base of deep, uneven craters near the lunar south pole, these regions sit at temperatures well below -200°C, cut off from sunlight and unreachable for most conventional exploration craft. Yet they are also among the most valuable real estate on the Moon: if the water ice they hold can be accessed and processed, it could provide drinking water, oxygen, and rocket fuel for future crewed missions and permanent lunar outposts.

    The journey to this point stretches back more than six decades, starting when the Soviet Union’s Luna-1 became the first probe to reach the Moon’s vicinity in 1959. Early lunar exploration centered on simply reaching the celestial body; today, the core challenge has shifted to navigating and studying the most extreme, hard-to-reach lunar environments, and determining whether the Moon can supply the resources future explorers will need. China has built its incremental, ambitious lunar exploration program — named for Chang’e, the ancient Chinese goddess of the Moon — over the past 20 years, and Chang’e-7 represents the next bold step in that roadmap.

    Scheduled for launch later this month, the mission’s timeline carries minor uncertainty following a recent failure of an unrelated Chinese rocket, but preparations remain largely on track. Unlike previous missions, Chang’e-7 uses an innovative multi-component design: it comprises an orbiter, a lander, a wheeled rover, and a revolutionary hopping craft that will act as the mission’s centerpiece. The Queqiao-2 lunar relay satellite, launched separately in March 2024, is already in position to support the mission, having previously served the successful Chang’e-6 sample return mission. Queqiao-2 will maintain steady communications between the exploration craft on the lunar surface and mission control on Earth.

    While a final landing site has not been officially announced, the leading candidate is a sunlit ridge on or near Shackleton Crater, one of the most prominent permanently shadowed impact structures in the Moon’s south polar Aitken Basin. From this landing zone, the mission’s hopper will undertake the core exploratory work: unlike wheeled rovers, which cannot navigate the steep, broken crater walls that lead into permanently shadowed regions, the hopper is engineered to leap over treacherous terrain and descend into the dark craters that have remained undisturbed for billions of years. This design addresses the key challenges of steep slopes, permanent darkness, fragmented ground, and the need for autonomous navigation in the harsh polar environment.

    Notably, Chang’e-7’s team is not searching for new evidence of water — scientists already have overwhelming confirmation of lunar polar water. Instead, the mission’s core objective is to characterize the existing water: map its exact distribution, determine its concentration and physical form, and assess whether it can be practically extracted for future use. This mission marks a key turning point for lunar exploration, shifting from mere discovery to evaluating the viability of in-situ resource utilization.

    Other global space powers share the same long-term goal of establishing sustained lunar operations, but are pursuing different approaches to solve the same challenges. NASA, the United States’ space agency, has moved away from the traditional centralized state-led mission model in favor of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which seeks to build a commercial lunar marketplace. NASA contracts private companies that own and operate their own spacecraft to deliver payloads and provide mobility and research services, and currently has 17 contracted deliveries carrying more than 60 scientific instruments.

    NASA’s commercial approach has already produced early lessons: Intuitive Machines’ Athena mission (IM-2) undertook remarkably similar objectives to Chang’e-7, carrying a drill, a mass spectrometer to search for volatile compounds including water, a small hopping exploration craft, and an experimental mobile communications network. However, the mission ended prematurely when the lander tipped over at its landing site and powered down just one day after arrival. This contrast highlights that while both programs target the same critical lunar science questions, they are testing distinct strategic models to overcome the shared challenges of polar exploration.

    Chang’e-7 is only the next step in a longer roadmap for lunar development. Following this mission, China plans to launch Chang’e-8 as early as 2028, which will focus on demonstrating practical technologies to utilize lunar resources. Down the line, crewed missions are expected to follow, leading to the construction of the International Lunar Research Station, a joint project between the China National Space Administration and Russia’s Roscosmos. On the U.S. side, CLPS will feed technological and scientific data into NASA’s larger Artemis Program, which is explicitly designed to lay the groundwork for long-term sustained lunar exploration.

    At the end of the day, the extreme environment of the lunar south pole does not differentiate between programs or nations. Any craft exploring its permanently shadowed craters must contend with the same unforgiving conditions: total darkness, crippling cold, fragmented terrain, and significant communications hurdles. Reaching the Moon was one of the defining technological challenges of the 20th century. Mastering how to live and operate sustainably on its surface will go down as one of the great challenges of the 21st century — and Chang’e-7 is set to mark a major step forward in that global effort.

  • In Sudan’s deserted Bara, blood waters its famous lemon trees

    In Sudan’s deserted Bara, blood waters its famous lemon trees

    Once renowned across North Kordofan for its fragrant lemon groves that filled the market town’s streets with sweet spring blossom, Bara now bears the unthinkable scars of Sudan’s brutal 2023 civil war. What was once a thriving community of 100,000 residents is now a desolate landscape of destruction, where the scent of rotting human flesh has replaced the scent of lemon flowers, following months of sieges, violent clashes, and targeted civilian massacres carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their occupation of the town.

    In July 2024, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allied resistance groups achieved a decisive victory, driving RSF fighters out of Bara and opening a rare window for independent observers and local first responders to access the war-ravaged town. Multiple eyewitnesses who entered Bara shortly after the SAF recapture described scenes of widespread horror: unburied civilian corpses left abandoned on roadways by the RSF fighters who gunned them down, while the few dead that received any form of burial lie in shallow graves or sealed inside destroyed private homes.

    Local engineering experts working to assess Bara’s critical infrastructure have issued an urgent public warning about an impending public health catastrophe. Bara draws all its drinking water from shallow underground aquifers and wells, which reach depths of just 20 to 30 meters. Decomposition from thousands of unburied bodies already risks leaching contaminants into these water sources, threatening the lives of any returning residents and local livestock alike.

    Bara’s strategic value has made it a key battleground throughout Sudan’s ongoing conflict. Sitting directly on the primary transport corridor linking Sudan’s capital Khartoum to resource-rich Kordofan, control of the town has shifted repeatedly between warring factions since fighting broke out in April 2023. The RSF, a United Arab Emirates-backed paramilitary group already accused of genocide by the U.S. government and multiple leading human rights organizations, first captured Bara in October 2023, using the town as a launch base for repeated drone strikes on el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state located just 60 kilometers away.

    The RSF has a well-documented pattern of mass civilian atrocities across Sudan, including ethnically targeted massacres that killed tens of thousands of people in the Darfur cities of el-Geneina and el-Fasher. Osman Abdulatif, a member of Bara’s pro-SAF popular resistance committee, says the same pattern of violence unfolded in his hometown, even as it remained underreported to the international community.

    “Clashes and RSF atrocities in Bara have not gotten the same media attention as what happened in other areas, but we believe the RSF killed hundreds of civilians inside Bara and in the surrounding villages,” Abdulatif told Middle East Eye in an interview from el-Obeid. “We entered the city just a few days after SAF took control, and we found everything destroyed. Bodies littered the streets and homes, and the entire surviving population had fled to el-Obeid and other safe regions.”

    Abdulatif added that only two elderly residents, a man and a woman, were found alive in Bara after the RSF occupation, having survived for weeks without access to food after the paramilitary group cut off all supplies to the town. Beyond the urgent need to recover and properly bury civilian corpses, Abdulatif warned that Bara is still littered with large stockpiles of unexploded ordnance that pose a constant lethal threat to any civilians who attempt to return.

    Humanitarian teams have confirmed that atrocities are not limited to Bara itself. When Middle East Eye visited surrounding communities, including Gabrat al-Shiekh and Um Syala, they found matching patterns of mass destruction and mass displacement, with hundreds of unclaimed civilian bodies still left scattered across the countryside. Local authorities and non-governmental organizations are preparing to launch a mass body recovery operation, but local organizers say they desperately need additional technical, logistical, and humanitarian support from international partners to carry out the work safely and effectively.

    “Right now we are supporting local volunteers to get the process started, but we desperately need technical and humanitarian backing from morgue teams, civil defense, national and international NGOs, and government agencies to get this work done properly,” said one local organizer, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on media contact.

    A volunteer based in Um Syala, a border community adjacent to Bara, confirmed that at least 200 bodies are still unaccounted for in that area alone. Like Bara, Um Syala and Gabrat al-Sheikh hold major strategic value: they ring Bara and sit along the Export Road, a critical logistical artery that carries Kordofan’s key exports — including gold, gum Arabic, silica, and agricultural goods — to Khartoum and global markets. With the SAF’s recapture of Bara and its surrounding communities, the road is now secure, reopening a vital supply line to el-Obeid, which had been under RSF siege for months.

    Local military and resistance leaders say the recapture of Bara has shifted the entire balance of power in Sudan’s civil war firmly in the SAF’s favor. “This advance has given the SAF a much more secure position and protected el-Obeid, opening the shortest route between Kordofan and the capital Khartoum. That means el-Obeid and Omdurman are now far safer,” explained Godat Abdul Hadi, a senior leader of the armed popular resistance in North Kordofan.

    Local residents and business owners in el-Obeid have already seen tangible improvements to daily life. Mohammed Abbas, a market trader in el-Obeid, said that since the siege was lifted and the Export Road reopened, markets have resumed operation and critical supplies have started flowing into the city for the first time in months. Military sources also confirm that RSF drone strikes on el-Obeid and Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the banks of the Nile, have dropped dramatically, as the RSF lost the forward operating bases it used to launch these attacks.

    Just a few months ago, the outlook for el-Obeid was far grimmer. In June 2024, near-constant RSF attacks and threats of a full-scale invasion sparked widespread fears that the North Kordofan capital would suffer the same fate as el-Fasher, where an estimated 60,000 people were killed in RSF massacres in late 2023. The United Kingdom, France, other European governments, and senior United Nations officials issued public calls for the RSF to halt its attacks on el-Obeid, warning of an impending mass civilian bloodbath.

    But Abdulatif dismissed these international appeals as empty gestures that did nothing to alleviate civilian suffering. “If these actors were being honest, they would have forced the RSF to lift the siege instead of just asking them not to commit atrocities,” he said. “The international community has lost all credibility when it comes to what is happening in el-Obeid and Kordofan. When they only urge the RSF not to commit crimes, they are indirectly encouraging the group to maintain the siege and deepen the humanitarian suffering of our people.”

    “Thankfully, we managed to lift the siege ourselves at this stage, especially after the liberation of Bara and the surrounding areas,” he added.

    Despite the SAF’s recent gains, the conflict in North Kordofan is far from over. RSF leadership has not abandoned its goal of seizing full control of the region, and in recent weeks the paramilitary group has launched counteroffensive drone strikes against Gabrat al-Sheikh and targets further afield, including Omdurman, al-Damar, and even Atbara in River Nile State, north of Khartoum.

    SAF military officials claim all RSF counterattacks around Bara and el-Obeid have been successfully repulsed, and say army forces are now advancing through West Kordofan toward the RSF’s major stronghold in Darfur. But a senior source with intimate knowledge of the security situation in North Kordofan, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, warned that RSF fighters still hold territory just 100 kilometers from Bara in the Sodari and al-Mazroob regions.

    “If the SAF does not continue advancing to secure remaining RSF-held areas in North and West Kordofan, all of our recent gains could be reversed very quickly,” the source said.

  • The UK will help Ukraine make long-range missiles by sharing classified tech information

    The UK will help Ukraine make long-range missiles by sharing classified tech information

    On Ukraine’s Independence Day, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham stood alongside other global leaders in Kyiv to make a landmark announcement: the United Kingdom will share classified technical data for British-made missile components to help Ukraine establish domestic production of long-range precision weapons.

    Under the new plan, leading European defense contractor MBDA will release detailed specifications for the British-built parts of the SCALP cruise missile, clearing the way for Ukrainian engineers to assemble the weapons domestically. The SCALP missile, developed jointly by France and the United Kingdom, is the French-named variant of the UK’s well-known Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile.

    Both variants share the same core design, boasting an official range of more than 250 kilometers (155 miles). Standing 5.1 meters (16.7 feet) long, the low-observable missile is engineered to strike fixed, hardened targets such as reinforced bunkers, command centers and critical military infrastructure. MBDA confirms the weapon relies on an advanced multi-mode navigation system that delivers exceptional hit accuracy. Currently, Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles are in active service with the air forces of the UK, France, Italy and several other operator nations, and have seen combat use in past conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Syria.

    The UK’s announcement complements ongoing negotiations between Kyiv and Paris to build local SCALP assembly lines inside Ukraine. While the end goal of full domestic production would give Ukraine a sustainable, independent supply of long-range strike capability, details on the progress of construction and production timelines remain undisclosed. Experts warn that the ultimate impact of this new policy will depend heavily on how quickly Ukraine can scale up domestic manufacturing and bring domestically assembled missiles into frontline service.

    Douglas Barrie, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, noted that the decision to declassify and share sensitive technical specifications is a significant step forward for UK support, but tangible battlefield benefits will not materialize immediately. “Any impact … will in part depend on how quickly Ukrainian-assembled SCALP cruise missiles can be introduced into service,” Barrie explained.

    The announcement also comes amid an urgent short-term gap in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Sunday that the supply of Patriot interceptor missiles, critical for blocking Russian ballistic missile and airstrikes, has dropped sharply even as Russian attacks intensify. Production backlogs across the United States and allied European nations have slowed output, leaving Kyiv scrambling to shore up its air defense networks.

    Moscow has already pushed back sharply against the UK’s new policy. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused Britain of “fanning the flame” of the ongoing conflict, a rejection Burnham dismissed outright during a press briefing in Kyiv. When asked about Peskov’s criticism, the prime minister fired back: “Who started the fire?”

    This latest announcement builds on the UK’s longstanding support for Ukraine’s long-range strike capacity. In 2023, Britain became the first Western nation to supply Kyiv with pre-built Storm Shadow missiles, which immediately allowed Ukraine to strike Russian command hubs, supply depots and logistical lines deep behind front lines, including in Russian-occupied Crimea. Beyond supporting SCALP production, the UK is also partnering with British defense firms to help Ukraine develop an affordable new ground-launched strike system, with testing already underway. That system is designed to hit targets out to 500 kilometers (310 miles) while carrying a 225-kilogram (496-pound) warhead, expanding Ukraine’s future strike capabilities even further.