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Sudanese Political, Human Rights Activist Amin Makki Madani Passes Away

Sudan’s political and legal activist and opposition leader, Amin Makki Madani. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Sudan’s political and legal activist and opposition leader, Amin Makki Madani. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Sudanese Political, Human Rights Activist Amin Makki Madani Passes Away

Sudan’s political and legal activist and opposition leader, Amin Makki Madani. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Sudan’s political and legal activist and opposition leader, Amin Makki Madani. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Large crowds gathered on Friday in Farouk cemeteries in central Khartoum to bid farewell to Amin Makki Madani, one of the country’s most prominent political and legal activists and opposition leader.
 
The former minister of the democratic government passed away in Khartoum at the age of 80 after a long fight with illness. He was one of the leaders of the opposition in Sudan.
 
Political and social organizations mourned Madani’s death. Opposition Leader Sadiq al-Mahdi said in a statement that the man was a pillar and leader of the Sudanese civil society and the opposition movement.
 
“He dedicated his time and intellect to defend national and human rights causes. He has greatly contributed to the development of opposition work,” he said.
 
Madani employed his legal expertise in the defense of human rights. He was arrested and detained due to his stances during the terms of former President Jaafar al-Nimeiri and President Omar al-Bashir. His most recent arrest occurred in December 2014, and in 2017 he was banned from travelling for treatment abroad.
 
The late activist has received a number of human rights awards, notably the Human Rights Watch Award, the American Bar Association Award for Human Rights in 1991, and the European Union Human Rights Award in 2013.
 
Madani was born in the city of Wad Madani in central Sudan on February 2, 1939. He earned a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 1970 (Comparative Criminal Law), a Master of Laws degree with distinction from the University of London (1965), a civil law diploma from the University of Luxembourg in 1964, and a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) from the University of Khartoum in 1962.
 
He has held a number of positions in the United Nations and has a blog in his name where he published many articles on human rights and international humanitarian law. He was also a member of the International Commission on the Israeli-Lebanese War in 2006 and a writer for the International Commission of Jurists’ report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan.

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Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

More than 1.2 million people filled the streets of Madrid on Sunday for a mass by Pope Leo XIV at which he called for a renewal of the Catholic faith in Spain.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia joined throngs of devotees waving Spanish and Vatican flags in Cibeles Square for a service filled with religious symbolism.

In his homily, Pope Leo said Spaniards should not look at religion as "a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today".

The mass comes on day two of Pope Leo's seven-day visit to Spain, a traditional Catholic bastion where religious observance has been declining sharply in recent years as in much of western Europe.

A huge logistical and security operation was in place for the event, after which the pope led a traditional procession along a route lined with white and yellow carnations -- the Vatican flag colors, AFP said.

Organizers said there were more than 1.2 million people attending in the square and the surrounding area.

Nico Aldeanueva, 28, who was visiting from Philadelphia in the United States, said the pope was "a very unifying force in a moment where we have division across so many different fronts".

"We have, it seems like, never-ending conflict and for the time being here you get to hit pause and get to enjoy the moment and feel the faith."

Ana Milagros, 64, who was waving a Vatican flag, said she thought the US-born pope seemed "approachable" and "very sincere".

"There is a lot of polarization and differences in politics, in social matters, in the economy," she said, adding: "The pope is trying with this visit... to help all of us."

- Focus on migration -

Later on Sunday, Leo will meet the leading lights of culture, sport and the economy at an arena, with the aim of fostering dialogue between faith and modern civil society.

Around 56 percent of Spaniards identify as Catholic compared to 90 percent in the 1970s, according to a survey last month by the Center for Sociological Research, an autonomous government body.

On Saturday, 500,000 mostly young attendees congregated with Leo outside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium for a prayer vigil that stretched into the night.

Leo kicked off his visit with pomp and ceremony at a reception in Madrid's royal palace, where he called for an end to "polarizing narratives" and "sterile simplifications".

The pope also praised Spain, whose left-wing government has sparred with his native United States as well as Israel over wars in the Middle East, for its "active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples".

Leo is due to visit Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will notably bless the Sagrada Familia basilica's recently completed tower, which made it the world's tallest church.

His trip will end with a focus on migration on Thursday and Friday in the Canary Islands, a key destination for irregular arrivals, with thousands dying in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach them.

World

Russian Drone Strikes Kill Two in Ukraine

Police experts work at the site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine June 4, 2026. (Reuters)
Police experts work at the site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine June 4, 2026. (Reuters)
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Russian Drone Strikes Kill Two in Ukraine

Police experts work at the site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine June 4, 2026. (Reuters)
Police experts work at the site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine June 4, 2026. (Reuters)

Russian drone strikes killed two people in Ukraine, officials said Sunday, as world leaders gathered in London to discuss piling pressure on Moscow over its four-year war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet the leaders of France, Germany and Britain on Sunday for talks on the way forward as Russia suffers military setbacks in the invasion of its neighbor.

A Russian drone strike killed a 56-year-old man working as a minibus driver in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

A 59-year-old man was killed in a separate attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, when Russian drones and aerial bombs rained down over two districts, regional military chief Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram on Sunday.

The attacks wounded a 35-year-old man and damaged infrastructure, Ganzha said.

Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May for the second straight month, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed earlier this month.

Russia's offensive has meanwhile led to rising prices, tax hikes, two-decade-high borrowing costs, business shutdowns and labor shortages, putting the economy in its trickiest spot since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in an open letter to the Russian leader on Thursday, saying he was also ready for a "full ceasefire".

Putin, speaking at Russia's flagship economic forum on Friday, rejected suggestions the Russian economy had collapsed, saying "we have descended to the same level at which Eurozone countries have been experiencing growth for the past few years."

World

With China’s Xi in North Korea, Kim to Project Confidence, Defiance

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands on the day of their bilateral summit in Beijing, China, September 4, 2025, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands on the day of their bilateral summit in Beijing, China, September 4, 2025, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
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With China’s Xi in North Korea, Kim to Project Confidence, Defiance

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands on the day of their bilateral summit in Beijing, China, September 4, 2025, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands on the day of their bilateral summit in Beijing, China, September 4, 2025, in this picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pyongyang on Monday, feeling in a position of strength with a firm ally in Russia, a nuclear arsenal and little apparent appetite to engage with Washington.

For Xi, leader of the world's second-biggest economy, the two-day visit to China's neighbor, his first in seven years, is part of an effort to draw Pyongyang back into its orbit.

Xi hosted Kim, among other leaders, at a massive military parade in Beijing last year, and the two countries have since resumed some passenger rail and air services.

This week's summit is likely to present a contrast to Xi's first visit to the isolated state in 2019 - months after a meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump fell apart over denuclearizing North Korea and sanctions relief.

XI'S VISIT 'A BIG DEAL' FOR NORTH AFTER 'COMEBACK'

Since then, Kim has forged closer military and trade ties with Moscow, bolstered by his dispatch of troops to fight for Russia in the ‌Ukraine war, continued ‌to build up his nuclear capabilities in defiance of UN sanctions and locked down the North Korean ‌border ⁠to stop the ⁠flow of escapees.

North Korea has sought to flex its strength on the eve of Xi's arrival, announcing plans on Saturday for a 10,000-ton naval destroyer and reaffirming its status as a nuclear-armed state on Sunday.

"Having Xi visit Pyongyang is a big deal and the culmination of a good couple of 'comeback' years for Kim," said Andrew Gilholm, an analyst at consultancy Control Risks.

In 2019 Kim gave Xi a lavish reception that included thousands of people holding up placards that formed a picture of Xi's face and the Chinese flag, and a performance of the song "I Love Thee, China".

But relations between the two have been strained at times, particularly over North Korea's nuclear program. Beijing has publicly opposed Pyongyang's nuclear tests and called for it ⁠to give up its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has been cautious about becoming over-reliant on China, with which ‌it shares an 1,400-km (880-mile) border. Support from Russia is likely providing some balance.

"North Korea ‌is certainly gaining economically from what they're able to provide militarily to Russia," said John Delury, a senior fellow of the Asia Society. "That actually puts ‌North Korea in a position where they may feel more confident to increase the volume of trade and investment with China."

PUSH FOR ‌TOURISM, RED LINE ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Any substantive outcome of the meeting is likely to be about economic cooperation, a regional diplomat said, as North Korea starts a five-year development plan that includes expanding tourism into a solid industry and building more housing.

North Korea shut its borders to foreign tourists in early 2020 as it imposed some of the world's strictest COVID-19 controls, cutting off a modest but important source of hard currency.

Before the pandemic, Chinese tourists were ‌the backbone of North Korea's tourism industry, accounting for 90% of foreign tourists by some estimates. The first known leisure tourists allowed back after COVID were about 100 from Russia's Far East in February ⁠2024, according to Russian provincial ⁠authorities and a Western tour guide.

North Korea has managed to make economic progress, Singapore's foreign minister said after visit last month. He said Pyongyang appeared to have little interest in engaging with the United States or South Korea.

North Korea has rejected reunification with South Korea, which had long been a goal of both nations, divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, however, remains keen on dialogue and has asked Xi to assist his efforts.

"Improving inter-Korean relations through the mediation of President Xi Jinping, we are hoping that President Xi would play that kind of role," said Moon Chung-in, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul who was national security adviser to a previous South Korean president.

Kim has drawn some red lines, including on his nuclear program. In addition to Sunday's announcement, he called on Thursday for an "exponential" expansion of the country's atomic arsenal.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Kim was likely to continue expanding fissile-material production, increase and deploy nuclear weapons and emphasize the legitimacy of strengthening Pyongyang's nuclear deterrent.

"Kim is emboldened," said Christopher Green, a Korea specialist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

"He feels able to publicly pursue a marked expansion of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal with a confidence that comes from knowing that as long as he doesn’t foment outright instability in the region, Beijing will not try to stop him."