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BBC World News, I'm Tom Dewsbury. Hello.
Reports from Sudan indicate many civilians have been killed in an intense artillery barrage by the paramilitary RSF against the one remaining city in Darfur outside their control. Twenty-four people are believed to have died in the central market area of el-Fasher. Julian Bedford reports. For more than a year, the RSF has been besieging el-Fasher as it seeks to drive the army from the Darfur region. During that period, it's been frequently accused of war crimes, as has the army, as the two forces fight out an increasingly ruthless civil war. Civilians are paying the price, with the RSF allegedly targeting the non-Arab population. The Sudanese Doctors Network described the latest attack as a massacre. With food, medicine and water all in desperately short supply in el-Fasher, they fear many more lives will be lost. Julian Bedford reporting. The number of people known to have been killed in last night's Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv has risen to 23. European leaders strongly condemned the heavy Russian bombardment. The White House said President Trump was not happy but not surprised. Danny Eberhardt reports. President Trump's spokeswoman mentioned his unhappiness but also highlighted recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries. Kyiv might wince at the emphasis. It's fully signed up to the idea of an unconditional ceasefire or direct talks at leaders' level. The Kremlin has agreed to neither. Ukraine, too, would argue its own attacks, targeting infrastructure, are designed to defend itself from Russian aggression. They're also on an entirely different scale to Russia's overnight barrage, which had devastating effects on civilians. The White House has chosen a new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a day after its previous leader was forced out of the job. Jim O'Neill, who currently serves as a deputy to the health secretary, will replace Susan Monarez. Peter Bowes reports. The White House has moved quickly to replace Susan Monarez on an interim basis. Her lawyers said she was targeted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because she refused "to rubber-stamp unscientific reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts." Three other senior officials have since resigned in protest of Mr. Kennedy's leadership. His deputy, Jim O'Neill, will beat Ms. Monarez's replacement. He's a former Silicon Valley tech investor and takes over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a time when some of its leading officials are deeply divided over vaccine policies. Iran's foreign ministers said France, Germany and Britain have no legal jurisdiction to reactivate U.N.-mandated sanctions on Iran. Earlier, the three European states said they'd taken the first step towards re-imposing sanctions. World news from the BBC. The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations says Caracas has written to the U.N. secretary-general to complain about the buildup of U.S. ships off its coast. Washington says they're being deployed to counter the threat posed by drug cartels. But Samuel Moncada said a greater danger was posed by the presence of the U.S. military in the Caribbean. Such a deployment, he said, was a violation of the U.N. Charter. United Nations human rights officials have expressed alarm at reports of Palestinians being seized by Israeli forces near food aid sites operated by the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Grażyna Baranowska is the vice chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances for the U.N., which has gathered witness statements from Gazan families. "We have individual cases of persons that were seen in detention by other persons that were together with them in detention and then were released. So it's really difficult to think of stronger evidence. They were together in a cell, one person was released and tells us, well, that's where I saw that person. Whereas from the authorities, there's no information back to them." President Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro says ending the import duty exemption for low-value postal packages will restrict the flow of drugs into the United States and create jobs. From Friday, all international suppliers will be required to pay a duty on shipments valued at less than $800. Such charges have already been applicable for companies in China and Hong Kong. And White House officials have confirmed the number of people held at the controversial immigrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" has been halved. It follows a judge's order to close much of the facility, designed to house 3,000 people, which opened in July in the swampy Florida Everglades to support the Trump administration's mass deportation drive. It quickly faced multiple legal challenges over alleged poor conditions and environmental damage to the fragile Everglades ecosystem, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. BBC News. |