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US Won’t Resume Assistance to Sudan Without Civilian Gov’t

Protesters burn tires after Sudanese security forces killed dozens in Khartoum on Thursday, January 20, 2022 (AP)
Protesters burn tires after Sudanese security forces killed dozens in Khartoum on Thursday, January 20, 2022 (AP)
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US Won’t Resume Assistance to Sudan Without Civilian Gov’t

Protesters burn tires after Sudanese security forces killed dozens in Khartoum on Thursday, January 20, 2022 (AP)
Protesters burn tires after Sudanese security forces killed dozens in Khartoum on Thursday, January 20, 2022 (AP)

The United States will not resume economic assistance to Sudan, paused after the October 25 coup, unless there is an end to violence and a civilian-led government is restored, a statement issued by the US Embassy in Khartoum on Thursday said.

The statement was issued during the visit of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield to Sudan.

It said the US would consider measures to hold accountable those responsible for a failure to move forward on a political transition and create a “peaceful environment” for it to proceed. It did not say what such measures could involve.

The two senior US envoys called for independent investigations into deaths and injuries among those protesting against the military since the Oct. 25 coup.

“They strongly condemned the use of disproportionate force against protesters, especially the use of live ammunition and sexual violence and the practice of arbitrary detention,” the statement said.

The two envoys met with military leaders in the Transitional Sovereign Council, political officials, and civil society organizations.

Sudanese authorities say peaceful demonstrations are allowed and any violations against protesters will be investigated.

October's military takeover interrupted a transition that began after the ouster of former leader Omar al-Bashir in a 2019 uprising and was meant to lead to democratic elections.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s Sovereign Council agreed with the US delegation on amending the constitutional document governing Sudan’s transition to democracy to bring it into line with new developments in the country, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The Sovereign Council, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, also agreed on forming a national independent technocratic government and starting a comprehensive national dialogue to end the current political crisis.

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Arab World

Red Cross Delivers Essential Medical Supplies to Yemen’s Besieged Taiz City

Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
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Red Cross Delivers Essential Medical Supplies to Yemen’s Besieged Taiz City

Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)
Internally displaced people transport mattresses they received from a charity in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen October 29, 2026. (Reuters)

The Red Cross said on Wednesday it had delivered four truckloads of essential medical supplies to the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz after renewed fighting cut off access for weeks.

Taiz has been largely isolated for a month, with fighting preventing humanitarian supplies from entering the city and restricting the movement of civilians, after an escalation in clashes between the legitimate government and ‌the Iran-backed Houthi ‌militia.

Key supply routes, including the ‌Taiz-Aden ⁠corridor, have been blocked ⁠by Houthi militants, exacerbating shortages of water, food and fuel, while hospitals said they were under significant pressure and faced scarce medical supplies. The city hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, ⁠according to the UN.

The Red Cross ‌said the delivery ‌to Taiz of surgical kits to help hospitals treat patients ‌wounded in the renewed fighting was a ‌vital step in providing support to health facilities under extreme pressure since fresh hostilities began in September.

“For patients with severe injuries or critical medical conditions, regardless of ‌where they live or which side of the front line they find ⁠themselves on, ⁠timely access to medical care can be a matter of life or death,” said Christine Cipolla, the Red Cross head of delegation in Yemen.

She urged parties to the conflict to continue facilitating the safe and sustained access of humanitarian aid.

Hospitals across Yemen are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in war casualties, while intensified fighting along multiple front lines has cut off vital aid to around 800,000 people, humanitarian agencies have said.

Arab World

UK Ban on Palestine Action is Challenged at Top Court, Some Protesters Arrested

Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
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UK Ban on Palestine Action is Challenged at Top Court, Some Protesters Arrested

Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Supporters of Palestine Action stage a protest outside the Royal Court of Justice in London, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A co-founder of Palestine Action challenged Britain's decision to ban the campaign group as a terrorist organization at the UK Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that the move was disproportionate and undermined counter-terrorism laws.

The British government proscribed Palestine Action last year after a series of high-profile incidents mostly targeting defense firms, culminating in a break-in at the Royal Air Force's Brize Norton air base in which two planes were damaged.

Britain's Home Office (interior ministry) argues that the group's escalating actions, causing serious property damage, particularly a 2024 raid targeting Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, amounted to terrorism and justified the ban.

But the move has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups and prominent supporters including Irish novelist Sally Rooney, whose books can no longer be sold in Britain over her plans to provide royalties to the group.

There have been more than 3,600 arrests linked to support for Palestine Action between proscription in July 2025 and this June, representing more than one-third of all terrorism arrests in Britain since 9/11, according to Home Office statistics.

With the arrest of over 300 people last weekend outside the US embassy in London, plus two dozen or so outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the figure is now more than 4,000 – though any resulting charges could be dropped if the ban is overturned.

LAWYER COMPARES GROUP TO SUFFRAGETTES

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action carried out hundreds of "actions", many involving obstructing or occupying premises, or spraying graffiti and breaking windows of businesses they said were linked to providing arms to Israel.

After Israel began bombarding Gaza in response to a deadly attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023, Palestine Action's campaign escalated, the Home Office says, with the Elbit raid causing an estimated £1 million ($1.35 million) of damage.

Lawyers representing Huda Ammori, who co-founded Palestine Action, said that, at the time the group was proscribed, government officials had assessed that just three of 385 actions carried out over five years had met the definition of terrorism.

London's High Court initially ruled that the ban was unlawful, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, rejecting comparisons with historical groups such as the suffragettes who campaigned for women's right to vote.

Ammori's lawyer Raza Husain, however, said on Wednesday that the suffragettes and other groups "used tactics similar or more extreme than Palestine Action", citing the suffragettes' early 20th-century bombing campaign.

The Home Office, though, says the 2024 Elbit attack did involve the use of violence and weapons against security staff and police officers, one of whom suffered a spinal injury when she was hit with a sledgehammer.

The United States in August also designated Palestine Action as a terrorist group. President Donald Trump has described activists who targeted his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last year as "terrorists".

Arab World

Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)
This picture taken by the southern Lebanese vilalge of Zawtar al-Garbiya shows Israeli excavators demolishing homes in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya on November 2, 2026. (Photo by ammar ammar / AFP)

An Israeli strike killed a motorcyclist in Lebanon's south on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the first such death since September.

A drone carried out the strike in the Qabrikha area, killing one man and wounding another, the official National News Agency also said.