A fragile ceasefire across multiple fronts of the broader Middle East conflict remains tenuously in place this week, even as high-stakes negotiations between Iran and the United States have hit a deadlock, with Tehran pinning the blame directly on Washington as its top diplomat launches a frantic regional diplomatic tour. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Saint Petersburg on Monday, where he is scheduled to hold high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, capping a packed four-day schedule that already included stops in Oman and Pakistan – the latter serving as the host of the only completed round of direct talks between the two adversarial nations. That initial round of negotiations ultimately ended without an agreement, and hopes for a breakthrough follow-up round this weekend were dashed last week when former US President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by his top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to the region. Speaking to reporters in the Russian city Monday, Araghchi attributed the collapse of the earlier talks to inflexible positioning from the US side, saying “The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands.” Following the cancellation of his representatives’ trip, Trump told Fox News that Tehran would need to reach out to Washington directly if it wanted to restart discussions, though he emphasized that the cancellation does not mean a return to open hostilities between the two countries. Despite the public impasse, backchannel diplomatic efforts have continued behind the scenes. Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency confirmed that Tehran has conveyed formal written messages to US officials through Pakistan, outlining Tehran’s non-negotiable red lines on core issues including its nuclear program and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. The outlet clarified that these messages do not constitute formal full-scale negotiations. Separately, US news outlet Axios reported Sunday, citing an anonymous US official and two other sources familiar with the correspondence, that Iran has submitted a new proposal to end the direct conflict centered on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the US naval blockade on the waterway, with negotiations over the country’s nuclear program deferred to a later date. Iran’s official state news agency IRNA republished the Axios report without issuing a formal denial, lending quiet credence to the outline of the proposal. Beyond the bilateral diplomatic stalemate, the ongoing conflict continues to send shockwaves through the global economy, rooted in the dispute over the critical Strait of Hormuz – the chokepoint through which nearly 20% of global oil supplies transit daily. After Iran implemented an initial blockade of the strait in response to the outbreak of war, global prices for oil, natural gas, and agricultural fertilizer spiked dramatically, amplifying already pressing fears of widespread food insecurity in low-income developing nations. The US responded to Iran’s blockade with its own naval and economic blockade of Iranian ports across the Persian Gulf and beyond. Domestically, Trump faces growing political pressure as elevated fuel prices hit American consumers ahead of November’s midterm elections, with public opinion polls consistently showing the broader conflict is unpopular with a majority of US voters. During Araghchi’s earlier stop in Oman this week, a neighboring Gulf state that shares the Strait of Hormuz coastline with Iran, the question of reopening the waterway to safe commercial transit was a key topic of discussion. “The safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is an important global issue. Naturally, as the two coastal countries of this strait, we must speak with each other so that our common interests are secured,” Araghchi said from Saint Petersburg. While both Russian and Iranian officials have confirmed the upcoming meeting between Araghchi and Putin, hardline factions within Iran have already ruled out backing down on the Hormuz blockade. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s elite military force, reaffirmed Monday that control of the strait and maintaining its deterrent effect against the US remains Tehran’s definitive, unchanging strategy. Global oil markets reacted to the stalled talks on Monday, with prices edging upward as investors priced in continued supply uncertainty, though the slow climb was tempered by lingering hopes that a diplomatic breakthrough could still be reached in coming weeks. Away from the Gulf diplomatic standoff, violence has flared once again on the conflict’s Lebanese front, despite a recently extended ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Both sides traded accusations of ceasefire violations on Sunday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming that the Israeli Defense Forces continue to target Hezbollah positions vigorously, after both sides carried out new attacks over the weekend. Hezbollah first drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East conflict on March 2, launching a massive rocket barrage on Israel to avenge the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with large-scale airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. At Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu argued that Hezbollah’s repeated attacks were effectively dismantling the existing truce, while the Iranian-aligned group vowed to continue responding to Israeli violations and what it calls Israel’s continued occupation of disputed Lebanese territory. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported that Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon on Sunday killed 14 people, marking the deadliest single day of violence since the current ceasefire went into effect. Agence France-Presse correspondents on the ground reported massive traffic jams of civilian vehicles heading north as thousands of residents fled the intensified raids following new Israeli warning orders for populated border areas. On the Israeli side, the IDF confirmed one soldier was killed in combat in southern Lebanon over the weekend. Netanyahu insisted that Israel’s actions are fully permitted under the terms of the existing ceasefire agreement, saying it grants Israeli forces freedom of action not only to respond to ongoing attacks but also to preempt imminent and emerging threats to Israeli territory.
标签： Oceania
大洋洲
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Learners and P-platers face tough new rules with major driving licence overhaul
Western Australia is implementing sweeping, life-saving changes to its graduated driver licensing system, introducing far stricter regulations for both learner drivers and provisional (P-plate) drivers in a bid to cut road fatalities and serious injuries. The reforms, which come after over a year of public engagement and advocacy following a high-profile teen road death, represent one of the most significant overhauls of the state’s road safety rules in recent decades.
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AFL says it needs to act patiently on the Elijah Hollands investigation
The Australian Football League (AFL) has announced it will not rush its assessment of a formal submission from the Carlton Blues regarding young player Elijah Hollands, whose recent public mental health episode has sparked scrutiny of the club’s handling of the incident. The situation is unprecedented in its public profile, league officials say, requiring careful, deliberate consideration rather than a quick response.
Hollands, a Carlton player, was hospitalized last week after experiencing a mental health episode during Carlton’s tight five-point round six loss to Collingwood. After completing an internal review of the circumstances surrounding the incident, Carlton submitted its findings to the AFL on Friday – just hours before the club faced the Fremantle Dockers in an away match in Perth on Saturday night.
AFL general manager Greg Swann emphasized the sensitivity of the situation in comments to reporters on Monday, prioritizing Hollands’ well-being over a speedy resolution. “First of all, we’re still giving our best wishes to Elijah,” Swann said. “It’s been a harrowing week for him and his family, so we’re wishing him the best. Look, we got a submission from Carlton on Friday, Laura [Kane] and her team are handling that. There’s no rush on this, this is a really delicate matter. I haven’t seen anything play out like this publicly as this instance. It will take as long as it does, but that’s been received and we’ll work through it from there.”
The incident and subsequent review have not been without controversy: following Hollands’ episode, Carlton coaching and club staff faced intense public scrutiny over how the situation was managed. Addressing the criticism last Thursday, Carlton head coach Michael Voss pushed back hard against external observers, arguing that the scrutiny of his staff had crossed a line.
Voss described the ongoing criticism of his team as “bordering on bullying”, and urged the public and media to approach the case with empathy, framing it as a deeply personal mental health issue rather than a public spectacle. “I think we’ve all been impacted in some way as families and you individually, maybe there’s a few here who have struggled with some mental health in recent times,” Voss said. “Maybe it’s been a family member, maybe it’s been a friend, maybe it’s been a loved one. All I just ask is that: What would you want? What would you want right now? And that’s all we ask.”
In a related update, Hollands’ brother Ollie, who has joined the Blues for training in recent days, was not selected for Carlton’s match against Fremantle over the weekend. As of Monday, no timeline has been set for the AFL to conclude its review and release its findings, with league officials reiterating that supporting Elijah Hollands’ recovery remains the top priority.
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Attorney-General urged to probe death of international student Bikram Lama who died sleeping rough in Sydney CBD
A devastating incident involving the death of a 32-year-old Nepali international student in central Sydney has reignited urgent demands for systemic policy changes and independent scrutiny of gaps in Australia’s social safety net for non-residents.
Bikram Lama, who had traveled to Australia to pursue a computer science degree, was found dead six days after his death in dense shrubbery near St James Station, a high-traffic area adjacent to Sydney’s Hyde Park, in December 2023. Shocking estimates indicate that as many as 100,000 commuters and pedestrians passed his undiscovered body every single day before local station staff made the grim discovery.
After falling into severe financial hardship, Lama was locked out of critical state and federal support services solely because he did not hold Australian permanent residency, according to reporting from The Guardian. His death has drawn renewed attention to a hidden vulnerable population in Sydney: unhoused non-residents who are excluded from mainstream crisis assistance. Data from the City of Sydney underscores the growing scale of the issue: a 2023 count recorded 346 people sleeping rough in the Sydney central business district, a 24% jump from the previous year, with non-Australian residents accounting for 18% of that total.
Independent Member of Parliament Alex Greenwich has formally written to the New South Wales Attorney-General calling for a full coronial inquest into Lama’s death. The request aims to uncover whether systemic policy failures directly contributed to the preventable tragedy. A spokesperson for the NSW Attorney-General’s Department confirmed that the state coroner is currently awaiting a full evidence brief from New South Wales Police, and will assess whether to proceed with an inquest through standard legal processes once the documentation is submitted.
St Vincent’s Hospital, which operates a leading homelessness health service in Sydney, has joined the growing chorus demanding urgent cross-government reform. Erin Longbottom, manager of St Vincent’s homelessness health unit, explained that non-residents in crisis are barred from accessing Medicare-funded medical care, state-run emergency shelter, and most other government support programs, leaving them dependent on under-resourced charities for basic food and essential supplies. “Bikram’s senseless tragic death lays bare gaping holes in the support system for non-residents experiencing crisis,” Longbottom said in an interview with news.com.au. “We are calling on both state and federal governments to overhaul the current framework to give vulnerable non-residents access to life-saving support when they need it most.”
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McDonald’s wins appeal to build 24/7 restaurant on Melbourne’s ‘coolest street’
One of the most talked-about planning battles in Melbourne has come to a close, with global fast food giant McDonald’s securing legal approval to build a round-the-clock restaurant on High Street, Northcote — the strip recently named the “coolest street in the world” by Time Out magazine in 2024. The victory comes after the company appealed a rejection from local governing body Darebin City Council, which had blocked the project over widespread community concerns.
The council originally refused McDonald’s planning permit for the 319-325 High Street site, arguing that a large-scale fast food outlet would permanently reshape the aesthetic, atmosphere and unique community identity of the already popular precinct. Beyond character concerns, local leaders also flagged a suite of potential harms: increased traffic congestion along the busy strip, negative spillover effects on nearby residential property values, and unaddressed environmental impacts from the 24/7 operation.
Community opposition ran far deeper than council objections. A public petition launched to block the development gathered more than 11,300 signatures from residents and visitors who argued High Street’s beloved local charm and community-focused culture would be overshadowed by the global chain’s new outlet. Compounding concerns, two existing McDonald’s locations already operate within a 3.5-kilometer radius of the proposed site, leading many to question the need for an additional outlet.
But in a final ruling that settled the dispute, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) sided with McDonald’s. Tribunal member Michael Deidun clarified that VCAT lacks the authority to reject a development application based solely on the identity of the occupying business. “This Tribunal does not have the power to review the corporate approach of McDonalds, its work practices and ethics, the type of food it produces, its impact on human health, or whether it fits the ‘cool’ vibes of its context,” Deidun said in his ruling.
In a statement following the decision, a McDonald’s spokesperson welcomed the outcome, noting that the appeal had been “fairly and rightly assessed on its merits.” The proposed outlet will be operated by a local franchisee, the company confirmed, with projected economic benefits for the Northcote area. According to the chain, the construction phase alone will create roughly 100 local jobs, and once the restaurant opens later this year, it will add another 100 full-time, part-time and casual positions for local residents. Beyond employment, the spokesperson added that the franchise will contribute to the local community through skills training opportunities and partnerships with local community groups.
“We look forward to joining Northcote and playing an active role in the local community when the restaurant opens later this year,” the spokesperson said. Darebin City Council has not yet issued a formal statement following the ruling, with requests for comment still outstanding as of the latest update.
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‘I haven’t felt this much criticism’: Stephen Crichton defends Lachlan Galvin amid Immortal’s call for him to stop playing halfback
A fierce debate over the future of young Canterbury Bulldogs playmaker Lachlan Galvin has erupted in the NRL, after rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns called for the 20-year-old to be shifted out of the halfback position, drawing a staunch defense from the club’s senior leadership.
Johns, one of the sport’s most legendary halfbacks, made the recommendation that Galvin move to five-eighth, with rookie Mitchell Woods brought into the starting halfback spot to boost the side’s attacking creativity. The suggestion came in the wake of Canterbury’s underwhelming loss to an injury-depleted Brisbane Broncos side last week, a result that added to growing criticism of Galvin’s recent form.
But Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton has doubled down on the club’s public support for the young playmaker, echoing head coach Cameron Ciraldo’s strong defense of Galvin after the Broncos match. Crichton pointed to Galvin’s standout round 6 performance, where the young halfback turned in the best NRL showing of his fledgling career to spearhead a shocking upset win over premiership favorites Penrith Panthers.
Crichton argued that the swing in public opinion on Galvin, from widespread praise just two weeks ago to heavy criticism after the Broncos loss, ignores inconsistent support from the rest of the Bulldogs squad. He emphasized that the club remains fully committed to Galvin as their long-term starting halfback, noting that the young playmaker’s dominant performance against Penrith embodied the level of play the side expects from the position.
“He’s been getting criticised a lot lately for the way that our team’s been performing,” Crichton said. “Ever since he’s come to the club, I’ve always said that if you’re not getting criticised, you’re not doing your job right. I feel like he’ll be learning off this… As a young 20-year-old, he’s going to become a player – one of the greats – sooner or later. I feel like all the lessons that he’s taking right now are pretty harsh, but it’s going to build him up to be the player that he wants to be.”
Galvin, who has built a strong on-field combination with edge forward Jacob Preston since joining the Bulldogs, still has gaps in his game that require development, Crichton acknowledged, adding that Galvin was far from the only Canterbury player to underperform against Brisbane.
The position debate comes as Canterbury navigates a dramatic form slump 12 months on from a flying start to their 2023 campaign. This year, the Bulldogs have claimed just three wins from their opening seven matches, leaving them outside the NRL’s top eight, a stark contrast to this point last season when they sat atop the league table with only one loss through the first eight rounds and were considered genuine premiership contenders.
Crichton, who will lead the side against the North Queensland Cowboys this coming Friday, admitted he has not faced this level of public criticism at any point during his time at the club. But the captain said the squad is tuning out outside noise from media and social media, focusing instead on internal accountability to address their inconsistent performances.
“We’re at a big club with a big fan base. There are always going to be people with their opinion,” Crichton said. “Regardless of media attention and regardless of social media posts and things like that, as long as you have the opinion of your players and the coaching staff, that’s the only opinions that you can listen to… We know what our best is, and our worst is a long way away from that as well. We’ve just got to try and bridge that gap between our mindset and our preparation to the game.”
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Team-first Kane propelling Bayern to glory as PSG showdown looms
As Bayern Munich prepares for one of the most high-stakes matches of the European football calendar, star striker Harry Kane’s unselfish, team-first approach has emerged as the defining factor behind the German giants’ push for Champions League glory, ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final opening leg against defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in Paris.
At 31, Kane only claimed his first major senior team trophy last season, when he helped Bayern secure the Bundesliga title in his debut campaign after moving from Tottenham Hotspur. He has already added a second consecutive German league crown to his collection this term, and the centuries-old winning culture at the Allianz Arena has clearly shaped his priorities ahead of the May final in Budapest. The winner of this semi-final tie is widely tipped to go on to lift Europe’s most prestigious club trophy.
Kane’s individual performances this season remain nothing short of spectacular. Across all competitions, the England captain has netted an incredible 53 goals in 45 outings, a goalscoring haul no English player in a top European league has matched in nearly 100 years. Critically, most of his standout strikes have come when Bayern needed them most: his clinical long-range finish against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu secured a crucial away win in the quarter-finals, and his first-half opener in the return leg pulled Bayern level on the night and flipped the tie back in their favor when elimination looked increasingly likely.
When Kane left Tottenham for Bavaria in summer 2024, many football pundits questioned his decision, noting he was just 47 goals short of breaking Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League scoring record. At his former club, Kane was often criticized by observers for piling up personal goalscoring records without delivering major team silverware. But in hindsight, his consistent goalscoring at Spurs was always rooted in a desire to lift his team, a trait that has become even clearer at a title-contending Bayern side packed with attacking talent across the pitch. Unlike his spell at Tottenham, Kane now regularly drops deep into midfield to help build up play, creating space for his teammates to exploit rather than constantly positioning himself for goal chances.
That willingness to put team ambitions above individual glory has been on full display in recent weeks. After Bayern wrapped up the Bundesliga title earlier than expected, the club shifted its full focus to the Champions League, and Kane has willingly accepted a reduced role in domestic fixtures. Back in February, following a 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund, Kane had scored four straight doubles, notching 30 goals in just 24 Bundesliga outings and putting him well on track to beat Robert Lewandowski’s long-standing single-season record of 41 league goals. Since that point, however, Kane has only started one of Bayern’s seven remaining league matches, with head coach Vincent Kompany resting him to keep him fresh for European competition.
Far from pushing for more minutes to chase the record, Kane has fully backed the decision. After coming off the bench to help Bayern stage a dramatic 4-3 comeback win over Mainz on Saturday, Kane made his priorities clear to reporters. “It’ll be tough to chase down Lewandowski’s record,” he admitted. “Obviously I’m here to try and win the Champions League and try and win the German Cup. So, ultimately that takes priority. All I can do is when I’m on the pitch, try and score, try and impact the game.” As Bayern’s biggest global star, the striker could easily demanded more playing time to chase personal milestones, but his commitment to the club’s bigger goals has kept the squad unified heading into the PSG clash.
Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund highlighted the unique cohesion within the camp after the Mainz comeback, which saw the side overturn a 3-0 deficit to claim all three points. “This team is truly something special — that team spirit, that mentality — it is truly unique,” Freund said. “That gives us a tremendous amount of energy for Tuesday.”
Kane has struck a respectful tone when talking about Tuesday’s opponents, acknowledging PSG’s status as the tournament’s defending champions. “They are the reigning European champions for a reason,” Kane said. “They’re a really strong side with some great quality and are well-coached. There’s going to be a lot of activity. It’s going to come down to moments and quality.”
One major hurdle for Bayern is that head coach Vincent Kompany will be suspended for the first leg, leaving his English assistant Aaron Danks to take charge of the team from the dugout. Kane, however, insisted that the side is well-prepared to cope without Kompany on the touchline, pointing to the team’s impressive form this season that has seen them lose just twice across all competitions. “Of course we’ll miss him on the sideline. He’s our boss and our leader,” Kane said. “But everyone knows what needs to be done, even if the boss isn’t on the sideline.”
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Pogacar vows to keep going until Seixas ‘destroys’ him
In a thrilling edition of one of cycling’s most prestigious Monument races, two-time world champion Tadej Pogacar secured his fourth career victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, outlasting a sensational breakout performance from 19-year-old French rising star Paul Seixas across 260 brutal kilometers of Ardennes climbing. What could have been a story of a veteran champion shutting down a young challenger instead became a landmark moment for cycling’s generational shift, as Pogacar openly declared that it is only a matter of time before the teen sensation “destroys” the entire pro peloton and claims the sport’s top spot.
The race’s decisive moment unfolded when Pogacar launched his signature, race-shattering attack on the Cote de la Redoute with 35 kilometers remaining to the finish line. On this iconic climb, the ninth of 11 punishing ascents on the day’s route, every other top contender including Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel faded and dropped out of the leading group. The only rider who could match Pogacar’s blistering pace was Seixas, who stayed shoulder-to-shoulder with the champion all the way until the final climb of the Cote de Roche-aux-Faucons. With 14 kilometers left, halfway up the steep ascent, Seixas finally cracked, clearing the way for Pogacar to take the solo win.
Following the race, Pogacar spoke glowingly of the 19-year-old’s performance, noting that Seixas’s already elite level at such a young age pushes every other rider in the peloton to raise their own standards. “He’s 19 now, and we all know riders typically peak physically between 26 and 30 years old,” Pogacar explained. “We’re all going to keep working as hard as we can to win as many races as we can, until he destroys everybody.”
Seixas’s meteoric rise over the past 12 months has been one of the most talked-about stories in professional cycling. Still registered as a junior just 12 months ago, he immediately excelled when stepped up to senior competition, notching eighth overall at the Criterium du Dauphine, 13th at the 2023 World Championships, seventh at another Monument, the Tour of Lombardy, and a bronze medal at the European Championships behind only Pogacar and Evenepoel. In 2024, his momentum has only accelerated: he has already won the Tour of the Basque Country stage race, plus one-day classics Fleche Wallonne and Ardeche Classic. He also took a narrow second place to Spain’s Juan Ayuso at the Tour of the Algarve, and now has two runner-up finishes to Pogacar this season, after Strade Bianche and Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In short, he has already cemented his status as the second-best rider in hilly one-day classics, behind only the all-conquering Pogacar.
When asked what he needs to add to his toolkit to finally beat the four-time Tour de France champion, Seixas was blunt: “Power. That seems obvious. I just have to keep improving. His level is extraordinary, it’s extremely difficult to follow him. He’s the greatest rider of all time.” The teen added that he was happy with his performance on Sunday, noting that development takes time: “There’s more work to do but that’s normal. You can’t skip the steps, so we’ll just be satisfied with that today.”
For Pogacar, the win adds another milestone to a already historic career that now includes four Tour de France titles, two world championships, and 13 Monument race victories. The Slovenian star is now set to take on new challenges in the coming weeks: he will make his debut at the six-day Tour of Romandie starting Tuesday, followed by his first start at the Tour of Switzerland in June. Few are betting against him winning both events; if he does, he will only have two major races left on his bucket list: Paris-Roubaix, where he finished in the top 10 in both of his two starts, and the Vuelta a Espana, where he took third as a 20-year-old in his only appearance in 2019.
Even with his incredible success, Pogacar made clear that the bar will only get higher with Seixas in the peloton, adding that each year competition will get tougher. “It’s just a matter of time when we lose to him,” he said.
Before Sunday’s race, Evenepoel had publicly questioned whether Seixas could maintain his elite form over the 260-kilometer distance, as the teen had never won a senior race longer than 200 kilometers before. Seixas answered all doubts by putting in a six-hour performance that proved he has the stamina and endurance to compete with the best over the longest courses. After the race, Evenepoel praised the young rider’s performance: “He showed again today that he is one of the best climbers in the world and he has a very good punch as well. The whole world can only be saying chapeau to him.”
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Dealing with the dead in the ruins of Sudan’s war
As Sudan’s brutal civil war between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group enters its fourth year, the full scale of human loss remains uncounted – but ordinary citizens and humanitarian teams are working against overwhelming odds to give the war’s victims a dignified final resting place.
Ali Gebbai, an engineer who switched careers to become a volunteer mortician, keeps a meticulous spreadsheet of every person his team has laid to rest in Khartoum. With more than 7,000 entries, each marked with a photograph of the deceased and a note of their burial location, the document stands as one of the few unoffical, accurate records of the capital’s mounting death toll. When his crew recovers an unclaimed body, they first share the victim’s photo on social media, waiting a full 72 hours to allow grieving relatives a chance to come forward and claim their loved one.
“We photograph every body. We check if there’s anything in their pockets to help us identify them, and we mark the spot where we buried them,” Gebbai explained to Agence France-Presse during an interview at the team’s makeshift Khartoum morgue, where an unidentifed woman lay wrapped in a speckled brown thobe, awaiting burial. If no family claims her, Gebbai’s team will wash her body in accordance with Muslim tradition, wrap her in a clean white shroud, and bury her locally – a far more dignified end than the majority of Sudan’s war victims receive, many of whom are left in unmarked, shallow graves dug in the dirt where they fell.
No official, confirmed death toll exists for the conflict that broke out in April 2023. While conservative estimates count at least tens of thousands of fatalities, aid workers suggest the real number could surpass 200,000. The uncertainty around the death toll itself inflicts lasting trauma on millions of Sudanese who remain separated from their families, unsure if their loved ones are alive or dead. “It’s disheartening, all these estimations. When you have a population not knowing what has happened, that trauma and the impact cannot be overlooked,” said Jose Luis Pozo Gil, deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan.
One year after Sudan’s army retook control of Khartoum, government forensic teams have exhumed and reburied roughly 28,000 bodies recovered from across the capital – and they have only cleared just over half of the city’s territory. Beyond Khartoum, the violence has been even more catastrophic: ethnic massacres in the Darfur region have killed thousands in single events, and at least 700 civilians have been killed by drone strikes in Kordofan this year alone.
Across the entire country, the existing morgue infrastructure has collapsed completely. Even before the war, Khartoum’s morgues were operating at full capacity, and all four of the capital’s main mortuary facilities were knocked out of service during the height of fighting. Many were left abandoned with bodies still trapped inside, with no power to preserve remains. The Omdurman morgue, one of Khartoum’s largest, was completely destroyed in an airstrike; its cooling compressors were looted, and bodies were left to rot throughout the building.
Trapped by crossfire and artillery barrages, civilians trapped in Khartoum during the worst fighting were unable to reach public cemeteries to bury their loved ones. Instead, they dug graves in residential courtyards, public playgrounds, street corners, and even along the banks of the Nile and in city sewers. Over three years of conflict, this turned the entire capital into an sprawling open-air graveyard. “That leaves a mark on society, it destroys human dignity and it normalises death,” said Hisham Zein al-Abdeen, head of forensic medicine at Sudan’s health ministry and one of only two forensic doctors still working in Khartoum. The same crisis has played out across the country: in Darfur, satellite imagery has captured widespread scenes of mass killing; in al-Jazira, bodies have been dumped in irrigation canals; and in Kordofan, drone strikes continue to claim civilian lives with no infrastructure to recover the dead.
Most of the bodies exhumed by government teams in Khartoum are identified by families who buried their loved ones themselves during the fighting, but are now seeking a permanent, proper resting place. But hundreds of others remain anonymous. For these unidentifed remains, forensic teams collect small bone and hair samples for future DNA testing – but Sudan has no fully operational DNA laboratories to process the samples, and no secure storage facility to hold them for future testing. For now, the samples are buried separately in marked plots, to be exhumed and tested at a later date.
The ICRC estimates that at least 11,000 people are currently listed as missing across Sudan. “We know that the lack of closure for families leaves an open wound. In any kind of recovery in the future, in order to find closure, to rebuild trust, the issue of the missing has to be addressed,” Pozo Gil noted.
For Gebbai, the work is relentlessly grim, but it offers a small measure of closure to grieving families. He recalled one young man who spent more than a year searching for his father and uncle, only to learn from the volunteer team that both men had been shot dead on a Khartoum street in the first weeks of the war. Though the news shattered the man, leaving him collapsed in tears, it also gave him something he had been denied for a year: the chance to visit his relatives’ marked graves and grieve properly.
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Orangutan uses Indonesia canopy bridge in ‘world first’: NGO
Critically endangered Sumatran orangutans have reached a landmark conservation milestone, after conservation groups captured the first ever recorded footage of one of the great apes crossing a purpose-built man-made canopy bridge in North Sumatra, Indonesia. This crossing marks the first confirmed use of such a structure by a wild Sumatran orangutan anywhere in the world, according to local and international conservation organizations working on the project.
Endemic exclusively to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with their close Bornean orangutan relatives found across the shared island of Borneo, Sumatran orangutans are currently listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Latest population surveys count just over 13,500 individual orangutans remaining in the wild, with their steady population decline driven largely by widespread habitat loss and fragmentation, alongside the ongoing threat of illegal hunting.
The five canopy bridges at the center of this breakthrough were completed in 2024 through a collaborative partnership between Indonesian conservation NGO Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, UK-based charity Sumatra Orangutan Society (SOS), and local Indonesian government authorities. The structures were installed after an existing rural road — a critical economic and social lifeline connecting isolated communities in Sumatra’s Pakpak Bharat district — was expanded, cutting directly through contiguous rainforest habitat and splitting a local orangutan population of roughly 350 individuals into isolated groups.
Prior to this historic sighting, other native forest species including gibbons and long-tailed macaques had already been documented using the hanging bridges to cross above the paved road safely. But the recent camera trap footage of an orangutan making the crossing confirms the bridges can successfully meet the unique needs of the region’s most high-profile endangered species.
Helen Buckland, chief executive of SOS, called the orangutan’s crossing a “huge milestone for global conservation efforts.” Buckland emphasized that the successful use of the simple canopy structure proves that human development and wildlife protection do not have to be mutually exclusive. “Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the most effective,” she noted.
Erwin Alamsyah Siregar, executive director of Tangguh Hutan Khatulistiwa, echoed Buckland’s optimism, framing habitat fragmentation as one of the most pressing challenges facing modern conservation work. Siregar expressed hope that the successful pilot of these canopy bridges will lead to their adoption as a standard feature of infrastructure planning across the Southeast Asian region, helping to reduce human-wildlife conflict and protect endangered species as development expands into remaining wild habitats.