Fears are growing for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in El Fasher, Sudan, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said it had captured the city, which it has been besieging for more than a year in the country's civil war. The group said on Sunday that it had seized control of the army's main base in the city in Darfur, where famine was declared in a displacement camp last year.
Hundreds of patients and staff massacred at a hospital; unarmed men of fighting age separated and shot at close range; civilians trying to flee stripped of their belongings and extorted for ransom; perpetrators filming much of the violence themselves. The reports of atrocities that have emerged from the Sudanese city of El Fasher since it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last weekend follow a familiar pattern.
Rents are too high, homeownership feels out of reach, and too many families are being pushed out of the communities that raised them. Over the past three years, we've expanded affordable homeownership, funded more housing vouchers, and saved 114 units in East Boston from speculation which kept hundreds of neighbors in their homes. But the work isn't finished. I'll continue pushing for innovative housing solutions that build for the inclusion of all families while strengthening community voices in every stage of development.
Abubakr Ahmed was ready to die on the soil he had fought so hard to defend from Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). For 550 days, he fought as a member of the popular resistance, a neighbourhood group formed to help the army and aligned armed groups protect el-Fasher from the RSF, their rival in the two-and-a-half-year civil war. The besieged city was the last army stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur, until it fell on October 26.
I was in a five-storey building, she explained , speaking from a centre for the displaced in nearby Kharkiv. I don't know whether it was a Russian missile or bomb that hit the building but it started a fire, and when the flames reached my floor, I was stuck because the door was damaged and I couldn't escape. The Ukrainian military, she said, saved her life.
Now working with MSF in Ireland, Mughessib recently reflected on what it means to leave everything behind: You have nothing but your clothes, a mobile phone, a charger, and some money. You're not allowed to take souvenirs of Palestine. Not even sand. When you cross the border, you realise you've lost everything ... My soul is there. My memories are there. My cat is there.
During fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Nouhad was forced to flee her home in southern Lebanon. While others speak of loss and destruction, the 81-year-old speaks of her beloved olive grove her life's work and a symbol of resilience amid the chaos. But when the Israeli military rains down white phosphorus, burning her beloved trees, she must confront the unbearable truth of losing not just her land, but a part of herself.
Esteemed filmmaker Spike Lee received a Tribute Award at the Mill Valley Film Festival this weekend. While on stage with Oakland-based actor Delroy Lindo, who starred in four of Lee's films, Lee suddenly remembered he directed the 2004 film As the Chronicle reports, Lee was on stage with Lindo, who most recently starred in the Ryan Coogler film , when it dawned on Lee that he'd shot a film entirely in San Francisco. Struggling to remember the film's name, Lee asked the audience to pull up IMDB.
In her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift invites us into the psychological backstage of fame. One of the album's more provocative tracks, "Actually Romantic," has been widely interpreted as a diss track. While fans and critics alike often have a hard time reaching agreement on who Swift references in her bops, many believe "Actually Romantic" targets fellow pop icon Charli XCX. The track highlights Charli's reported drug use and likens Charli's critical attention to Taylor to infatuation.
At the sixth edition of the Aichi Triennale, which opened in Japan in September, wars and their effects loom large. The exhibition's title, A Time Between Ashes and Roses (until 30 November), comes from a line in a poem by the Syrian poet Adonis about the cycle of destruction and rebirth, observed through nature. It resonates throughout this year's event, where war, displacement, memory and the natural world are interwoven across venues in Aichi Prefecture, located to the west of Tokyo.
October 7, 2023, caught Israel off guard. That day, Hamas fighters and other terrorist militias overcame Gaza's fortified border and launched an attack in Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the small Palestinian territory. The experience of such vulnerability led to a trauma still being felt in Israel today. On October 8, 2023, Israel's government launched an attack on Gaza, and the two years since have been horrific for Palestinians in the enclave.
