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Leader Kim Jong Un chastises officials for their failure to prepare and respond to recent torrential rain.

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s warring parties have committed widespread sexual violence against women and girls aged between nine and 60, and prevented survivors from accessing health care in the capital, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
In a new report titled ‘Khartoum is Not Safe for Women’, the rights watchdog recorded testimonies from 42 health care workers and first responders on sexual violence and forced and child marriage since war erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

As the war enters its 885th day, these are the main developments.

BEIRUT: A deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has added to concerns that Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah could be sucked into a full-scale war — something they have both previously indicated they want to avoid but for which they have also said they are ready.

Some Japanese businesses are charging multiple times their usual prices amid a record influx of tourists.

Myanmar youth recount life inside a cyber-scam mill before a city’s fall brought the scheme crashing down.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to threaten military intervention against Israel, saying Turkey could “enter” Israel as it did in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Erdogan said in a televised address. “There is no reason why we cannot do this … We must be strong so that we can take these steps.”

Starting in 2020, Turkey, a NATO member, began deploying military advisors and thousands of Syrian mercenaries to Libya to support the UN-backed Government of National Accord.

Turkey also strongly backed Azerbaijan’s 2020 assault on Nagorno-Karabakh by providing weapons and political support. The conflict ended in 2023 with Azerbaijan completing the ethnic cleansing of the over 100,000 ethnic Armenians who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey denied that it intervened directly in Nagorno-Karabakh, but during the 2020 war, there were allegations that Ankara sent mercenaries recruited from Syria to fight for Azerbaijan.

In response to Erdogan’s comments about intervening in Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned the Turkish leader could be the next Saddam Hussein, who was toppled and later executed following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“Erdogan follows in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. Just let him remember what happened there and how it ended,” Katz wrote on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed the evacuation of 150 sick and wounded Palestinian children from Gaza to the UAE, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

A source told Haaretz that Netanyahu made the decision in response to the killing of 12 Arab Druze children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel blamed the massacre on Hezbollah, while Hezbollah denied the accusation and said the children were hit with an Israeli air defense rocket.

Netanyahu’s decision to punish the sick and wounded children was denounced by the group Physicians for Human Rights, which called the move a “cruel game by the Israeli government with children’s lives.”

Last week, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu instructed his government to arrange transport of sick and wounded Palestinians from Gaza to a third country for treatment. The first plane was due to take off on Monday, but the flight has been canceled.

Netanyahu also previously canceled a plan to set up a field inside Israel to treat Gaza’s children. Some children have been evacuated through Egypt for medical care, but the Israeli capture of the Rafah border crossing on May 7 cut off that vital lifeline.

Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has been a war on children, who make up about half of the Gaza Strip’s population. According to Gaza’s Media Office, 16,000 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli assault, and about 38,000 have been wounded.