Donald Trump’s attorneys pushed two legal challenges before Easter weekend

His camp is appealing against a verdict from a Georgia judge allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to stay on an election subversion case.

They also aim to stop the expansion of a gag order, limiting Mr Trump’s speech, in a New York hush money case.

The Republican presidential nominee faces four legal cases, and these two are the most likely to be heard in court before the US elections.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and claimed he is being politically persecuted.

Mr Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia case, which accuses them of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, have alleged that Ms Willis financially benefitted from an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade – a prosecutor she hired to lead the case.

Judge Scott McAfee – who is overseeing the case – held two weeks of chaotic hearings that included fiery testimony from Ms Willis. She admitted to the relationship but denied benefitting from it financially.

In the end, the judge sided with Ms Willis, though he said the relationship had the “appearance of impropriety” and demanded Mr Wade or Ms Willis step down. Mr Wade did so within hours.

In a 51-page motion filed on Friday before the Georgia Court of Appeals, Mr Trump and eight of his co-defendants argued Ms Willis should also be removed – which would greatly delay the case or could lead to it being dismissed.

Mr Trump and other co-defendants’ lawyers said Mr Wade’s resignation did not sufficiently address the “appearance of impropriety” that “cast a pall over these entire proceedings”.

“The trial court was bound by existing case law to not only require Wade’s disqualification (which occurred) but also to require the disqualification of DA Willis and her entire office,” the attorneys said in the filing.

CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has reported that Ms Willis intends to play a prominent role in the case, which the judge has ordered to proceed if Mr Trump appeals.

Meanwhile, in New York, Mr Trump is embroiled in other legal battles while he awaits the start of his first criminal trial over the alleged falsification of business records related to a payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

This week, the justice in the case, Juan Merchan, granted a request from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to impose a gag order on Mr Trump barring him from making statements about jurors and witnesses or intimidating court staff.

On Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to clarify – and possibly expand – the gag order barring Mr Trump from attacking court staff and their family members.

His motion came after Mr Trump insulted Justice Merchan’s daughter in a social media post before the gag order was issued.

Mr Bragg asked Justice Merchan to “make abundantly clear” that the gag order applied to “family members of the Court”, the district attorney and other individuals mentioned in the gag order.

He also asked the judge to “warn” Mr Trump “and direct him to immediately desist”.

If Mr Trump does not, the prosecutor argues, he should face sanctions.

The former president’s attorney, Todd Blanche, denied that his client had violated the gag order and argued that the judge’s daughter was not a part of it.

He wrote that there was nothing wrong with the social media posts.

“Contrary to the People’s suggestion, the Court cannot ‘direct’ President Trump to do something that the gag order does not require,” he said.

 

Iran International TV host stabbed outside London home

A presenter for a London-based Iranian TV news channel has been repeatedly stabbed outside his home in the city, his channel has said.

Iran International, which reported extensively in 2022 on anti-government protests in Iran, said Pouria Zeraati, 36, was attacked by a group.

The Metropolitan Police said specialist counter-terrorism officers were leading an investigation into the stabbing.

The victim was stable in hospital, the force added.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s counter-terrorism command unit, said officers were keeping an open mind as to any motivation behind the attack.

The Met said counter-terrorism officers had been assigned due to “the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organisation based in the UK”.

It added this was “coupled with the fact that there has been a number of threats directed towards this group of journalists”.

Mr Murphy said extra patrols were being sent to the area of the attack in south London and “other sites around London” as a precaution.

No arrests have been made.

Nearly 18 months ago, Iran International became one of the main providers of news during the wave of anti-government protests in Iran.

In November 2022 two British-Iranian journalists from the channel were warned by police of a possible risk to their lives.

An armed police presence was stationed near the channel’s studios, and concrete barriers were placed outside the building.

At the same time in Tehran, Iran’s minister of intelligence Ismail Khatib announced Iran International had been declared a terrorist organisation by his regime.

Iran International were accused by the government of inciting riots protesting the regime.

Then, in February 2023, Iran International TV temporarily shut down operations in London and moved its broadcasting studios to Washington DC.

The Persian-language TV channel said the decision was due to a “significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran”.

Operations resumed at a new location in London last September.

In December last year, Austrian national Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 31, was jailed for “attempting to collect or make a record containing information useful to a terrorist”.

The Met Police said he made a video in February 2023 showing the outside and security arrangements of a Chiswick Business Park building where Iran International was based.

According to the Met Police, since the start of 2022, 15 plots had been foiled to either kidnap or kill UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime.

Reacting to Friday’s latest incident, Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chairwoman of the powerful Foreign Affairs Select Committee, described the stabbing as “deeply upsetting”.

“Whilst we don’t know the circumstances of this attack, Iran continues to hunt down those brave enough to speak out against the regime,” she said on Twitter/X.

“Yet I remain unconvinced that we and our allies have clear strategies to protect people in our countries from them, and protect our interests abroad.”

Earlier this year, Lord Cameron announced sanctions on a number of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders after they were “exposed in an ITV investigation into plots to assassinate two television presenters from news channel Iran International on UK soil”.

He said the package, including the freezing of assets and UK travel bans, exposed “the roles of the Iranian officials and gangs involved in activity aimed to undermine, silence and disrupt the democratic freedoms we value in the UK”.

 

France plans mobile school force after headteacher resigns over death threats

France is setting up a mobile security force for schools “experiencing difficulties”, days after the headteacher of a Paris school resigned because of death threats.

The head was falsely accused of striking a student in a row over her wearing an Islamic headscarf in school.

Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said the mobile force was intended to reassure teachers and boost security.

Tensions in French schools are high since the killing of two teachers.

Samuel Paty was decapitated on the street in a Paris suburb in 2020 and Dominique Bernard was killed at his school in Arras five months ago. Former students who had been radicalised were involved in both killings.

“Teachers are not alone and we are all forming a shield around them, around our schools,” Ms Belloubet told reporters during a visit on Friday to a secondary school in Bordeaux.

The education ministry said the “mobile school force” would be composed of about 20 education officers who could be deployed within 48 hours from the start of the next school year, wherever local authorities needed additional support.

The team’s mission would be to provide security in a school in “acute crisis”, with the aim of providing internal security, reassurance and education skills.

In late February, the headteacher of the Maurice Ravel Lycée in Paris insisted his student remove her Islamic head-covering, in accordance with French law.

The student claimed the headteacher had struck her during a heated exchange, but police found no evidence to support her claims.

However, after numerous death threats posted on social media, the headteacher announced his resignation this week, saying it was “out of concern for my own safety and that of the school”.

Police have been patrolling around the school, and two people were detained in connection with the death threats. Police say they are not linked to the school.

Politicians on both the left and right have expressed outrage over the headteacher’s situation and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Thursday the student would be sued by the state for making the false accusation.

MPs and local officials took part in a rally outside the school on Friday morning in support of the headteacher and to demand that secular rules remain enforced in French schools.

Ms Belloubet has suspended France’s ENT digital messaging system, used by teachers and students, because of a proliferation of threats.

Education officials have reported more than 320 threats made across France since the middle of last week, which the minister blamed on students’ personal accounts being hacked. In Paris alone about 50 schools had received bomb threats through the messaging system.

The ENT system enables students to access various educational resources online and Ms Belloubet said she hoped it would be up and running again next month after the spring break.

Several arrests have been made in connection with the online threats, including a 17-year-old and a man aged 21.

 

Louis Gossett Jr: First black man to win supporting actor Oscar dies

Louis Gossett Jr, the first black man to win the best supporting actor Oscar, has died at the age of 87.

The New York-born actor won the Academy Award in 1982 for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman.

Gossett also won an Emmy in 1978 for his role in Roots, the ground-breaking TV mini-series about slavery.

His death was confirmed by his family to the BBC’s US partner CBS. No cause of death was given.

Gossett made his Broadway debut as a teenager and later starred in shows such as A Raisin in the Sun and Golden Boy.

He went on to gain critical acclaim across a six-decade career.

Gossett continued acting into later life and his last role was in the 2023 musical remake of The Color Purple.

In the film, a reimagining of Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, he played Ol’ Mister Johnson, father of Albert “Mister” Johnson, played by Colman Domingo.

Writing on Instagram, Domingo called him “a true great. A true legend”.

“What an honour to have been able to give him his flowers on his last day of his final film The Color Purple where he played my father,” he wrote.

“Fantasia [Barrino] sang it best … He ran his race for us. We are forever indebted. May we stand firmly on his shoulders. Lift him up today. RIP”

Barrino, who played lead character Celie in the film, also wrote: “Louis Gossett Jr, what an awesome man you were and the stories you told us, I’ll never, ever forget.”

She added that he had “paved the way for black actors and actresses”.

Gossett also starred in Backstairs At The White House, The Story Of Satchel Paige, The Josephine Baker Story, for which he won a Golden Globe, and Roots Revisited.

He also starred in the cult 1980s science fiction film Enemy Mine as the alien Jeriba Shigan, alongside Dennis Quaid.

 

Haiti: Gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier demands peace talks role

One of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders says he would consider laying down weapons if armed groups were allowed to take part in talks to establish a new government.

Groups led by Jimmy Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, are in control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince.

He predicted the violence which has gripped Haiti in recent weeks could escalate in the coming days.

However, he told Sky News: “We are ready for solutions.”

Haiti, an impoverished Caribbean nation home to more than 11 million people, has been without a prime minister since 12 March.

Ariel Henry resigned after being blocked by armed gangs from returning from Kenya, where he had signed a deal to import a military peacekeeping force in a bid to restore law and order.

Gangs have capitalised on the power vacuum and expanded their control over swathes of the country, which has effectively been rendered lawless in places.

A Presidential Transitional Council has been established to draw up a plan to return Haiti to democratic rule, backed by other Caribbean nations and the US.

Mr Chérizier – the most prominent figure in a loose alliance of gangs known as Viv Ansanm (Live Together), which is in control of around 80% of Port-au-Prince – believes his group should have a seat at the table in any future talks.

He told Sky News: “If the international community comes with a detailed plan where we can sit together and talk, but they do not impose on us what we should decide, I think that the weapons could be lowered.”

He said he was “not proud” of the spiralling violence in Haiti, and warned the crisis could continue if groups like his – which rail against “corrupt politicians” – are not part of a future government.

He also said any Kenyan forces drafted into the country to bolster security would be considered “aggressors” and “invaders”.

The situation in Haiti has been described as “cataclysmic” by the United Nations in a report issued earlier this week.

It said there had been more than 1,500 people killed and 800 injured in the first three months of 2024.

The report detailed the “harrowing practices” of the gangs, which are accused of using extreme violence and sexual abuse as a means of punishment and control.

Aid groups have reported difficulty in getting food and water into the capital, warning that millions are unable to find sustenance, with some on the verge of famine.

 

Haiti: The basics

The Caribbean country shares a border with the Dominican Republic and has an estimated population of 11.5 million

It has a land area of 27,800 sq km, which is slightly smaller than Belgium and about the same size as the US state of Maryland

Chronic instability, dictatorships and natural disasters in recent decades have left Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas

An earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and the economy

A UN peacekeeping force was put in place in 2004 to help stabilise the country and only withdrew in 2017

In July 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Port-au-Prince. Amid political stalemate, the country continues to be wracked by unrest and gang violence

 

War a real threat and Europe not ready, warns Poland’s Tusk

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned Europe is in a “pre-war era” and Ukraine must not be defeated by Russia for the good of the whole continent.

He said war was “no longer a concept from the past”, adding: “It’s real and it started over two years ago.”

His comments came after Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy system on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week Moscow had “no aggressive intentions” towards Nato countries.

The idea that his country, which has one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, would attack Poland, the Baltic states and the Czech Republic – which are all members of the Nato alliance unlike Ukraine – was “complete nonsense”, he said.

However, he warned that if Ukraine used Western F-16 warplanes from airfields in other countries, they would become “legitimate targets, wherever they might be located”.

After Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, relations with the West reached their lowest ebb since the worst days of the Cold War.

Almost 100 missiles and drones were used in the latest Russian attack on Ukraine, leaving several regions experiencing partial blackouts.

It was the second attack of its kind – in which Russia fires a large number of weapons simultaneously to overwhelm Ukraine’s defences – in the space of a week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the tactic “missile terror” and warned attacks on hydro-electric power plants could lead to a major environmental disaster.

Speaking to the BBC, the mayor of Kharkiv – where small businesses are relying on generators and industry is struggling amid blackouts – described the damage to the grid as “very serious” and said it could take two months to fully restore.

Appealing for urgent military aid for Ukraine, Mr Tusk warned the next two years of the war would decide everything, adding: “We are living in the most critical moment since the end of the Second World War.”

Delivering his stark intervention on European security, he pointed out Russia had attacked Kyiv with hypersonic missiles in daylight for the first time.

He said Mr Putin’s attempt to blame Ukraine for the jihadist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall without evidence showed the Russian president “evidently feels the need to justify increasingly violent attacks on civil targets in Ukraine”.

Relatives of Moscow attack missing seek answers

Mr Tusk used his first interview with European media since returning to the office of Polish prime minister at the end of 2023 to urge leaders around the continent to bolster their defences.

He said Europe did not need to create “parallel structures to Nato” but the continent would be a more attractive partner to the US if it became more self-sufficient militarily, regardless of who wins America’s November presidential election.

Poland now spends 4% of its economic output on defence, while other European nations have not yet achieved the Nato target of 2%.

Mr Tusk, a former president of the European Council, has warned Europe must be prepared for war before.

He revealed Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had asked fellow EU leaders to stop using the word “war” in their summit statements because people did not want to feel threatened.

Mr Tusk said he had replied that in his part of Europe, war was no longer an abstract idea, warning “literally any scenario is possible.”

He continued: “I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to the arrival of a new era. The pre-war era.”

When he was Polish prime minister for the first time, from 2007 to 2014, he said few other European leaders beyond Poland and the Baltic states realised Russia was a potential threat.

Mr Tusk was more optimistic about what he called a real revolution in mentality across Europe.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s newly appointed commander-in-chief Gen Oleksandr Syrskiy admitted in a rare interview that Russia was outgunning Ukrainian forces “about six to one” on the front line.

He said Ukraine had lost territory it would “undoubtedly have retained” had it been supplied with sufficient ammo and air defence system, and described the situation in some battle areas as “tense”.

The latest warning from Poland’s prime minister echoes what his neighbours in the Baltic states have been saying for some time; if Russia can get away with invading, occupying and annexing whole provinces in Ukraine then how long, they fear, before President Putin decides to launch a similar offensive against countries like theirs, that used to be part of Moscow’s orbit?

Defence spending per capita is noticeably higher in the Nato countries bordering Russia than it is in Western Europe.

Vladimir Putin, who critics say has just “reappointed himself” to a fifth presidential term in a “sham election”, has recently said he has no plans to attack a Nato country.

But Baltic leaders like Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas say Moscow’s word cannot be trusted. In the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Western warnings of the imminent invasion as “propaganda” and “Western hyperbole”.

 

Biden administration rolls out strongest pollution standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses

One week after rolling out the country’s strongest-ever federal tailpipe standards for the cars most Americans drive, the Biden administration is doing the same with the biggest, most polluting vehicles on the roads: buses, commercial vans and freight trucks.

The new rules for heavy-duty vehicles bear many similarities to their counterparts for smaller cars and trucks and will push the industry toward zero-emission technology. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the changes will cut 1 billion tons of planet-warming pollution by 2055.

“I’m so proud to announce that EPA is finalizing the strongest national greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty vehicles in history,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan told reporters.

The rule is technology-neutral, meaning vehicle manufacturers can meet the standards how they choose: advanced internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

However, the rule won’t necessarily mean there will be many more electric heavy-duty trucks on the roads in the coming years. By the early 2030s, EPA modeling predicts between 12-25% of the biggest freight trucks on the road will be zero-emissions vehicles. For smaller classes, like beverage or dump trucks, it could be closer to 40%.

Like its light-duty counterpart, the new standards will be phased in gradually, giving vehicle manufacturers flexibility and allowing more time for clean fuel infrastructure to get up and running. The standards will ramp up more stringently after 2030.

While the light-duty cars and trucks that most Americans drive are the biggest contributors to transportation pollution, medium and heavy-duty trucks play an outsized role: They represent about 5% of the overall vehicle fleet, but contribute about 20% of total transportation climate pollution, according to White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi.

Still, moving big trucks to cleaner fuels isn’t as easy as buying an EV. These vehicles – especially long-haul freight trucks – need to travel long distances and be able to carry heavy loads. Hydrogen fuel cell trucks are better for those reasons, but the technology is still relatively nascent compared to battery-electric models.

“We are making deep cuts to emissions from our nation’s transportation sector investing billions of dollars to replace older vehicles and engines with cleaner alternatives and creating thousands of good paying American jobs in the process,” Regan said.

Another issue is cost, as many cleaner vehicles are more expensive than diesel vehicles.

A female red wolf emerges from her den sheltering newborn pups at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, N.C., on May 13, 2019.

The trucking industry has been split on the new rules. Some manufacturers like Ford and Cummins are supportive of the EPA’s timeline. But several industry groups, including one representing small business truckers, have voiced concerns about meeting the regulatory timeline.

“We are concerned that the final rule will end up being the most challenging, costly and potentially disruptive heavy-duty emissions rule in history,” said Jed Mandel, president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association. To be successful in the transition, “all parties need to be better aligned on the realistic timing for delivering the products and infrastructures critical to achieving the successful outcome we all want.”

White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi pointed to tax credits that can be used to defray the cost of buying clean commercial vehicles. The Biden administration has also made clean buses a major priority, replacing diesel school buses all over the country and awarding federal funding for some municipalities to replace their public buses, too.

Officials and environmental groups said the rule is major step forward for public health and environmental justice in communities near major trucking corridors.

“Today’s announcement is a big one in terms of cleaning up the pollution from these vehicles on our roads and highways and importantly, the pollution that impacts our communities and our kids,” Zaidi said.

 

Sudan slips into famine as warring sides starve civilians

One year after the start of the war in Sudan, children are dying of hunger and sick people are not buying medicine so that they can afford food as the population slips towards famine.

In mid-April last year, a rivalry between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamad Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo broke into open conflict.

Since then, the fighting and significant destruction, paired with much lower agricultural production, have sent food prices soaring and made it extremely hard to find enough to eat.

“Civilians are dying in silence,” said Mukhtar Atif, a spokesperson for the “emergency response rooms” (ERRs), a volunteer network helping civilians across the country.

Atif’s network provides a single meal a day to about 45,000 people out of about 70 community kitchens in Khartoum North, one of the three cities of the national capital region.

The ERRs are a lifeline for thousands across Sudan, but their access is limited at times and they rely on donations, most of which come via mobile banking apps, impossible to use since a near-total communication outage began in February.

Without it, hundreds of kitchens were forced to close, and the queues got even longer at the few still functioning, people standing for hours for little more than a pot of fuul, a traditional dish of stewed fava beans.

While battles mostly centred in Khartoum in the beginning, they spread outwards as each of the parties consolidated power in the areas it controlled. The fighting has severely restricted the regular movement of food and aid convoys, and the hunger crisis in Sudan has deepened.

Nearly 25 million people – half Sudan’s population – need aid, the UN has estimated.

The conflict has forced more than eight million people to flee their homes, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

A UN source, who asked that their name be withheld due to the subject’s sensitivity, said both warring sides are posing obstacles, trying to prevent food from getting to areas controlled by their rival.

The army has imposed bureaucratic hurdles: An aid convoy in Port Sudan, under the control of the army, needs five different stamps before being able to move to reach civilians in need – a process that can take from days to weeks, the source said. In January, more than 70 trucks were left waiting for clearance for more than two weeks.

Al Jazeera reached out to an army representative to ask whether it prevented aid from reaching areas under RSF’s control. By the time of publication, the army had not replied.

Where the paramilitaries hold sway, the RSF’s command and control structures make it challenging to facilitate access on the ground, due to a lack of communication between those on the ground and higher-up officials within the RSF.

More than 70 aid trucks have been stuck in North Kordofan state since October, the source said, in an area the army controls but surrounded by RSF. The convoy cannot leave unless their safe passage is guaranteed through some form of taxation, be it money, goods or fuel.

RSF spokesperson, Abdel Rahman al-Jaali, did not respond to written questions about whether his forces are profiteering from aid convoys as alleged.

Connectivity and desperation

The food crisis has been compounded by the nearly two-month mobile network shutdown, which has also cut people off from remittances sent by relatives overseas, a critical lifeline for many that they have been using to receive via mobile banking apps.

Over the past three weeks, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communication service has offered rare moments of connectivity.

But even that has become a business: In some areas, people have to pay up to 4,000 Sudanese pounds ($6.60) to connect for 10 minutes.

Without cash, people have begun resorting to extreme mechanisms to put food on the table.

Parents are skipping meals for their children, selling their last possessions, begging for money or diverting money from medicine to food, WFP officials and activists on the ground said.

Dallia Abdelmoniem, a political commentator working in policy and advocacy for Sudanese think tank Fikra, received reports of women forced to exchange sex for food or become mistresses to RSF fighters to ensure their families’ safety and access to food.

A second activist who has been working with female victims of gender-based violence in Sudan said survival sex has emerged as a “common trend”.

In tandem with the hunger crisis is the collapse of the healthcare system. Each week, two or three children die of hunger at the Al-Baluk Hospital, the only remaining functioning paediatric health facility in the capital, Khartoum, according to a Lancet report on March 16.

UK charity Save the Children said 230,000 children, pregnant women and new mothers could die in the coming months due to hunger.

A bleak forecast

All these factors have paved the way for a humanitarian catastrophe, experts and aid groups have warned, as May’s lean season – when food stores are depleted and prices are at their highest – approaches.

But food monitoring groups and UN agencies have warned that the season has already begun, as fighting has forced farmers to abandon their land.

Sudan’s cereal production in 2023 was nearly halved, according to a report published last week by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The sharpest reductions were reported where conflict was most intense, including the greater Kordofan state and regions in Darfur where FAO estimated production was 80 percent below average.

Nearly five million people are one step away from famine, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). Another 18 million people face acute food insecurity, a threefold increase since 2019, WFP data shows.

In December, the RSF captured Gezira state – a hub for trade and humanitarian operations and Sudan’s breadbasket that used to produce nearly half the country’s wheat and stock nearly all of its grain.

“We are expecting the situation to deteriorate with a real possibility to see hunger at catastrophic levels,” said Leni Kinzli, WFP’s spokesperson for Sudan.

In the “most likely scenario” famine will break out across most of Sudan by June, killing half a million people, the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank, reported. In the worst-case scenario, it added, famine could kill one million people.

For the most vulnerable, that scenario is reality.

A picture shared with Al Jazeera in early March showed a skeletal three-year-old Ihsan Adam Abdullah lying on the floor in the Kalma camp, south of Darfur.

In refugee camps across Darfur, families cannot get even one meal a day as they have not received aid for nearly 11 months, said Adam Rojal, spokesperson of the General Coordination of Darfur Displaced People and Refugees. And when available, food is sorghum flour and water.

A week after Rojal sent the image of the three-year-old boy, he sent an update.

Abdullah had died of hunger.

 

Woman dead and two others in hospital after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast

A woman has died and two others have been hospitalised after suspected drug overdoses on the Gold Coast.

Queensland paramedics were called to a hotel in Surfers Paradise at 10.58pm on Friday night. Emergency responders found seven patients, three of whom were in critical condition, including a 43-year-old woman who was experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.

Efforts to revive the woman at the scene were unsuccessful and she was declared dead.

Two other women, also aged 43, were struggling to breathe and rushed to the Gold Coast University hospital in a critical condition.

One woman has since been declared stable, but the second remained in intensive care on Saturday.

The Queensland ambulance service (QAS) said another four people at the scene refused transport and treatment after helping paramedics to provide medical care for the other women.

On Saturday, the QAS’s senior operations supervisor, Mitchell Ware, said there was “no such thing as a safe drug”.

“Any time you take something that isn’t prescribed for you, there is obviously an element of risk to that,” Ware said.

“When people are obviously buying these drugs, there is an element of risk. Now you don’t know what’s going into them. You don’t know who’s made them. You may be told one thing, it may be something completely different.”

Ware said similar incidents “occupy a lot of [our] ambulances’ time and a lot of Queensland Ambulance services as well” with paramedics responding to similar incidents “every day”.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner on the 40-year-old woman’s death.

 

Tasmanian man jailed after AI-generated child abuse material found on computer

A Tasmanian man has been jailed for at least 10 months after police found hundreds of files depicting child abuse – including content generated using artificial intelligence – on his computer.

The 48-year-old Gravelly Beach man was jailed for two years, with a non-parole period of 10 months, in the supreme court in Tasmania on Tuesday.

Police raided his home in the state’s Tamar Valley region in May and found hundreds of files depicting child abuse on his computer.

A significant amount of it was generated using artificial intelligence, marking the first time police had located and seized AI-generated child abuse material in Tasmania, the Australian federal police (AFP) said on Saturday.

The raids came after multiple reports from the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about an Australian downloading child abuse material from a website and social media platform.

The man pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material obtained using a carriage service and using a carriage service to access child abuse material in October.

In a statement released Saturday, AFP Det Sgt Aaron Hardcastle said abuse material remained repulsive and abhorrent regardless of whether it was AI-generated or involved real exploited children. He said police would continue to target those who shared such material.

“People may not be aware that online simulations, fantasy, text-based stories, animations and cartoons, including artificial intelligence-generated content depicting child sexual abuse, are all still considered child abuse material under commonwealth legislation,” he said.

In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International.

 

Chinese investigators join probe into suicide attack in Pakistan

  ISLAMABAD: A team of Chinese investigators on Friday reached Pakistan to join a probe into a suicide attack that killed five of its nationals earlier this week, Pakistani officials said in a statement.

Pakistani official, in an official statement, said that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met the investigators at the Chinese embassy here and briefed them on the investigation so far.

Five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden car into a vehicle in the Bisham area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday when they were being driven to a construction site of the Dasu Hydroelectric power station in Kohistan district of the same province.

Two days earlier, Pakistani officials shared with the Chinese embassy the preliminary findings of their investigation into the attack, for which so far no group has claimed responsibility.

On Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a thorough joint investigation into the deadly terrorist attack on Chinese nationals, as Beijing pressed Islamabad to speed up the hunt for the perpetrators and take effective steps to protect Chinese personnel working in the country.

Till now none of the terror group has claimed the responsibility. However, rebels affiliated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) of ethnic Baloch nationalists in the past have carried out such attacks against foreign nationals.

Pakistan has blamed enemies of ties with China as responsible for the latest attack but restrained from naming any country or group.

“Pakistan and China are close friends and iron brothers. We have no doubt that the Bisham terror attack was orchestrated by the enemies of Pakistan-China friendship,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday.

This is not the first attack on Chinese nationals working on CPEC-related projects in Pakistan. Earlier, in July 2021, at least 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated the explosives in his vehicle near a bus carrying Chinese and Pakistani engineers and laborers, prompting Chinese companies to suspend work for a time.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani media reported on Friday that two more Chinese companies have stopped work on hydropower projects in the unruly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

On Thursday, the Power Construction Corporation of China suspended civil works at the Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project in the Swabi district in the province and laid off over 2,000 workers.

After the Tarbela project, the Chinese companies have now suspended civil work at the Dasu and Diamer-Bhasha dams due to security concerns and about 1,000 Chinese engineers working on both projects have stopped operations.

The local staff for both projects has been directed to stay home till further orders, The News International newspaper reported.