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Mar 31, 2025 - World

Only a few statues remain, with thousands of priceless artefacts from Nubian and Kushite kingdoms missingVideos of Sudan’s national museum showing empty rooms, piles of rubble and broken artefacts posted on social media after the Sudanese army recaptured the area from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in recent days show the extent of looting of the country’s antiquities.Fears of looting in the museum were first raised in June 2023 and a year later satellite images emerged of trucks loaded with artefacts leaving the building, according to museum officials. But last week, as the RSF were driven out of Khartoum after two years of war, the full extent of the theft became apparent. Continue reading...

Mar 31, 2025 - World

Brief moment of relief as rescue workers carry a woman from the rubble of a hotel in Mandalay after a five-hour operationMyanmar earthquake: What we know so farA woman trapped beneath the remains of a hotel building for nearly 60 hours after a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar was pulled alive from the rubble on Monday, officials said, in a rare moment of hope for rescue teams scrambling to find survivors.Rescuers, many of them unequipped volunteers, have spent days trying to free people from buildings collapsed following Friday’s huge earthquake, which killed more than 1,700 people in the country and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand. Continue reading...

Mar 30, 2025 - World

by Jonathan SawayaSyria's new government, dominated by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's inner circle, faces the daunting challenge of gaining the trust of Syrians, as well as that of Western countries to secure sanctions relief.The transitional 23-member cabinet -- without a prime minister -- was announced on Saturday, more than three months after Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led an offensive that toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad.Succeeding the caretaker authorities in place since December, the formation of the government follows a constitutional declaration signed into force earlier this month, which experts and rights groups have warned concentrates power in Sharaa's hands and fails to include enough protections for minorities.- Allies in key roles -Some of Sharaa's closest supporters and other figures aligned with him make up the majority of the cabinet.Most members are Sunni Muslim, reflecting the demographic make-up of Syria, ruled for decades by the Assad clan which belongs to the Alawite minority.Syria expert Fabrice Balanche said that key portfolios have been given to "former brothers-in-arms who were already part of the Salvation Government that ran Idlib province" in Syria's northwest, the rebel bastion controlled by HTS before Assad's fall.These include Assaad al-Shaibani, who as caretaker foreign minister already met with numerous Western and Middle Eastern officials, and retained his cabinet post in the new government.Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, who as a rebel commander led the offensive that overthrew Assad, also kept his role. His main challenge is building a new national army.Anas Khattab, who has been sanctioned by the United Nations, was appointed interior minister after serving as intelligence chief in a caretaker capacity.The justice ministry went to Mazhar al-Wais, also from the Idlib rebel government. He replaced Shadi al-Waisi, who as interim minister faced criticism from activists and rights groups after old footage resurfaced linking him to the summary executions of two women accused of prostitution.The leader of the White Helmets, the Syrian rescuers who worked in rebel-held areas, Raed al-Saleh, was appointed minister of emergency situations and disasters.- Minority representatives -Amid international calls for an inclusive transition, the new government has four ministers from minority groups in Syria -- a Christian, a Druze, a Kurd and an Alawite, none of whom were handed key portfolios."Mr Sharaa is seeking to broaden his support base well beyond" the ranks of Islamist groups that already back him, said Aron Lund of the Century International think tank."Seeing a radical Islamist faction coming to power and including minorities, even in a symbolic way, may not be ideal but it could have been worse," added Lund.Yarub Badr, who is Alawite and served in a government under Assad before the war, was appointed transportation minister.Veteran opposition figure Hind Kabawat, a member of Syria's Christian minority and longtime Assad opponent, was named social affairs and labour minister, the first woman to be appointed by Sharaa.- Challenges -The autonomous Kurdish-led administration in northwestern Syria rejected on Sunday the legitimacy of the new national government, saying it "does not reflect the country's diversity".About 15 percent of Syria's population is Kurdish.The sole Kurdish member of the new cabinet is not affiliated with the regional administration, which earlier this month had struck a deal with the national authorities to integrate into state institutions, eyeing unity after more than a decade of civil war.Some analysts have expressed concern that the deal was effectively dead on arrival as the Kurdish administration has since also criticised the transitional constitutional declaration.Lund said that in this context, "any government would have struggled to bring stability to the country.""The real question", according to him, has to do with the level of influence the ministers will actually have.With no prime minister, there is the risk of "extreme personalisation of power", Balanche warned.According to him, the National Security Council formed on March 13 under Sharaa's chairmanship "is the real government".jos/ami/ysm© Agence France-Presse

Mar 30, 2025 - World

International allies of President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement are starting to worry their affiliation with the U.S. president will negatively affect their own popularity, the Economist reports. According to the report, “Some leaders on the hard right are now beginning to worry about MAGA muddying their own brand.” As the Economist reports, though “Trump has had few clear wins and many chaotic policy turns ... much energy has been devoted to targeting domestic political enemies for grievances that do not resonate outside America." Any benefit Mr Trump might have given right-wing parties is “being overshadowed by an expansionist and aggressive political nationalism”, says Eric Kaufmann, a professor at the University of Buckingham (and a self-described national conservative). America First, he says, “is activating political defensiveness in other countries”. Views of America have turned sharply negative across polls in several Western countries. This “Trump effect” is seen most keenly “in countries where the American president has picked fights,” including Ukraine and Canada," the report notes. “MAGA’s international allies (who describe themselves as ‘national conservatives’) had expected Mr Trump’s victory to make radical right-wing politics more credible with voters elsewhere,” the Economist reports. “… But a populist Trump-bump has failed to materialise, despite efforts by many of Mr Trump’s lieutenants to make his administration and the wider maga movement an inspiration to and example for right-wing populists around the world.” As the Economist reports, the net effect of Trump’s presidency “has been to boost mainstream incumbents at the expense of populist outsiders.” READ MORE: Here's why Trump is really targeting big DC law firms

Mar 30, 2025 - World

Sophie Chandauka claims there is ‘significant correlation’ with drop in funders and prince’s move to the USDonors abandoned the charity Prince Harry founded in memory of his late mother when he left the UK, the chair of Sentebale has said amid a bitter media row in which she accused the prince of trying to “eject” her through “bullying” and “harassment”.Sophie Chandauka told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that there was a “significant correlation” between a drop in funders and the Duke of Sussex’s departure to the US after the controversy caused by his rift with the royal family. Continue reading...