The news this week that Elon Musk laid off Tesla’s entire Supercharger team sent shockwaves of uncertainty through the industry tasked with building America’s new network of EV chargers.

A fast and reliable charging network is an essential ingredient in getting more people to switch from gas-powered vehicles to electric, and some early types of chargers proved less than dependable. Tesla had a superior charging network long before President Joe Biden set an ambitious goal to install half a million stations around the US by the end of the decade.

Until recently, Tesla played a central role in that plan. Many EV experts and drivers think Tesla’s chargers are fast and reliable, so much so that other car companies are adapting their charging plugs to fit Tesla’s system.

Tesla has been awarded more federal contracts for charging stations than any other company – $28 million-worth – which comprises about 14% of the total awards, according to data from EVAdoption, a data consulting firm. But with Musk firing the entire Supercharger team as part of broader company cost-cutting, it’s unclear whether Tesla will be able to complete the work, or if the contracts will ultimately get awarded to other companies.

A spokesperson for the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, which runs the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, or NEVI, said 10 states have selected Tesla as a charging provider for their projects. NEVI was unable to comment on whether Tesla could fulfill the contracts, as the charging programs themselves are run by individual states.

Others in the industry said the possible loss of Tesla wouldn’t be a huge blow.

Musk’s decision to eliminate his company’s charging team has been even more baffling to industry insiders given the amount of federal money the company received, and how long Tesla had been in the business of charging.

“Charging is a difficult business, there’s no doubt about that,” the EV industry source said. “The margins are very slim and it’s quite cutthroat. They were ahead of the game, so it does strike me as odd to relinquish that a little bit.”

Since it rolled out the network in 2012, Tesla has built a reputation for having the most reliable chargers, but experts said the company’s chaos may prompt competitors to step up their offerings – democratizing US charging infrastructure in the process.

And the very fact that there are so many more players in the field of EV charging may have been one of the things that caused Musk to pull back significantly from the field, EV industry analyst Loren McDonald said.

Sadiq Khan has won a third term as London’s mayor, capping a round of local elections across England that confirmed the political supremacy of the Labour Party and spelt misery for Britain’s Conservative government.

Khan won 43.7% of the vote, beating Conservative challenger Susan Hall by about 11 percentage points to extend his control of the capital that began in 2016.

It follows a string of victories around England for Labour, who are firmly positioned to take power from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservatives in a general election in the coming months.

The Conservatives lost control of 10 local councils and nearly 500 councilors on Thursday, suffering an electoral drubbing at the hands of the public that virtually everyone – including those within the party – had expected.

Labour leader Keir Starmer told reporters on Saturday: “I am sorry, I don’t care which political party you support, if you leave your country in a worse state than when you found it 14 years later, you do not deserve to be in Government for a moment longer.”

But Sunak likely found enough slender scraps of success to withstand a challenge to his leadership, which rebellious Tories had threatened depending on the outcome of Thursday’s elections.

The party was hoping to keep hold of the mayoral position in the West Midlands on Saturday, after previously holding the same position in the Tees Valley, giving the increasingly beleaguered Sunak something to seize onto as he looks to at least unify his lawmakers in Westminster.

Thursday’s polls marked a final dry run before the general election, which must take place by January. Sunak has resisted calls to outline when he will hold that vote, and Labour leads opinion polls by a huge margin.

Starmer’s opposition party won control of eight councils, and also stormed to victory on Thursday in a Westminster by-election in Blackpool.

The results confirmed the conventional polling narrative that the group is on track to win power, though Labour could not quite pull off the barnstorming red wave that some in the party had hoped for, falling short in some of the trickiest contests it faced.

And there were indications too that discontent among the party’s position on Israel’s war in Gaza hurt Labour among voters in areas with large Muslim populations. In particular the loss of Oldham council, a north-west English town, where around a quarter of the population is Muslim.

“We do recognise the strength of feeling that there is and of course we will continue to work just as we do in every area across the country to earn votes back in future,” Labour’s shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC.

If his victory is confirmed, Khan would become the first mayor of London to serve a third term since the post was created in 2000.

The city, home to nine million people, is more multicultural, liberal and pro-European than the UK as a whole, leading Khan to occasionally clash with successive Labour leaders, especially over the issue of Brexit.

He has prioritised emissions-cutting policies in an effort to shed the city’s reputation as a major polluter, and made international headlines during a long-running public spat with former US President Donald Trump during his administration.

But critics have attacked Khan’s record on knife crime and his recent expansion of a world-first low-emissions zone, which the Conservatives said would hit poorer families in outer London the hardest.

Panama, the Central American nation at the crossroads of international trade and migration, will elect a new president on Sunday after a campaign season mired in legal uncertainty.

“It’s a very important election, the most important since after the US invasion” in 1989, said Daniel Zovatto, a global fellow with the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center, a think tank.

“The situation is very complex and the next president, whoever is elected, is going to have an agenda overloaded with problems in a country that is very polarized and undergoing a lot of political tension and uncertainty,” he added.

At stake is the financial stewardship of a country of 4.4 million people, which is facing high inflation and a stagnating economy that has led to widespread unease. Water access will also factor high into voter’s minds, analysts say: droughts exacerbated by El Nino have made access to potable water scarce in some regions and reduced the capacity of the Panama Canal, a centerpiece of the country’s GDP.

Once a GDP leader in the region, Panama’s economy has slowed dramatically in recent years, with the IMF forecasting GDP growth of only 2.5 percent this year, down from 7.3 percent last year. In March, credit agency Fitch downgraded Panama’s rating to junk status citing “fiscal and governance challenges” that followed a controversial decision to close the country’s largest mine last year.

Among the favorites, José Raúl Mulino, a rightwing former public security minister, has pledged to return the country to its economic heyday and to tackle high unemployment with a plan to incentivize private hiring with government funds.

More controversially, Mulino has also vowed to shut down the Darién Gap, the treacherous stretch of jungle beginning in Panama that’s become a main highway for migrants making their way to the US – a phenomenon that is fueling political chaos in the United States as Americans prepare for their own presidential vote this fall.

More than half a million migrants, mostly from Venezuela, crossed through the Darién Gap in 2023, according to the Panamanian government, twice the amount recorded in 2022. The US has been working for months with officials in Panama and Colombia, where the jungle ends, to attempt to shut down the route.

Mulino has not said how he would carry out a closure of the jungle to migrants, and some analysts “question whether this would stem migration or simply prompt new routes,” an Americas Society/Council of the Americas report said.

Corruption at the top of ballot issues

For Panamanian voters, corruption is top of mind as they head to the polls, according to recent Gallup polling, followed by unemployment, unsatisfactory medical care, and the cost of living.

The case of former President Ricardo Martinelli, who was disqualified from running by the courts because of a past corruption conviction, stands out.

Martinelli was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison last year after being convicted of money laundering in the so-called “New Business” corruption scandal.

The case related to a publishing group that, according to the country’s public ministry, was purchased with funds that came from state contracts that were handled irregularly. Martinelli, who maintains his innocence, is currently taking refuge from local authorities in Nicaragua’s embassy in the Panama City, and Nicaraguan authorities have granted him asylum.

Once the favorite to win this year’s presidential race, Martinelli was disqualified from running by Panama’s electoral court in March because of the conviction and sentence. Mulino, who had been Martinelli’s running mate, then took over the ticket for the Achieving Goals party.

But Mulino’s candidacy was challenged as well and under judicial review until just days before the election, injecting uncertainty into the race. On Friday, the country’s Supreme Court decided that Mulino’s candidacy was constitutional and therefore could proceed.

There are seven other presidential candidates, including current Vice-President José Gabriel Carrizo, former President Martín Torrijos, and Rómulo Roux, another former minister under Martinelli. There is no presidential runoff in Panama and no minimum threshold to win, so an eventual victor could succeed with far less than majority support from the electorate.

Martinelli has thrown his support behind Mulino, even releasing campaign videos from inside the Nicaraguan embassy.

Mulino in turn is widely seen as having inherited Martinelli’s popular support and mirroring his plans to revive policies from the president, which is “remembered largely for economic growth and poverty reduction, which resonates with voters facing high inflation and unemployment rates,” Americas Quarterly wrote.

After spending his days making wine in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, Tsotne Jafaridze returns home to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, and begins his new routine. He packs goggles, a gas mask and enough water and snacks to last several hours. He has another long night ahead.

Jafaridze is among thousands of Georgians who have for the past month gathered each night outside the country’s parliament, facing down tear gas and water cannons fired by increasingly brutal police, to protest a bill they fear will torpedo its bid to join the European Union and push it further into the Kremlin’s orbit.

The ruling Georgian Dream party is trying to force through a “foreign agent” law, likened by critics to a measure introduced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to quash dissent. The draft law, which has passed the second of three votes, would require organizations in the former Soviet country that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” or face crippling fines.

Jafaridze, who also owns a travel business and says he receives 95% of his income from foreign sources, says he would “immediately” be listed as a foreign agent under the broadly-written law. But critics say the intended target of the legislation is not business owners like him, but Georgia’s independent media and civil society organizations, ahead of elections in October in which Georgian Dream, whose popularity is waning, is desperate to keep power.

Georgia’s government tried to pass the same law last year, but was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after a week of intense protests, which saw citizens waving EU flags buffeted back by water cannons. In a move widely seen as an effort to reward Georgia’s citizens – of whom about 80% support joining the bloc – and reverse the country’s drift towards Russia, the EU granted it candidate status in December.

But the government reintroduced the same bill in March and appears determined to force it through, despite protests that grow fiercer every week.

“At that moment they grabbed me, dragged me in and assaulted me,” he said, in an ordeal that lasted around 15 minutes. “They were telling me that I talk too much and they’d make sure I would not be able to any more.” Khabeishvili was seen speaking in Parliament the next day with his face wrapped in bandages.

‘This is not Belarus’

Many Georgians feel deep hostility toward Russia, which invaded Georgia in 2008 and occupies about 20% of its internationally recognized territory – about the same proportion it occupies in Ukraine. Despite recent Russian aggression against Georgia, Georgian Dream has long been accused of harboring pro-Russian sympathies and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, made his fortune in the Soviet Union.

“Not many people believe that a person who makes billions in Russia is just let out of Russia without any commitments,” Buziashvili said. Many Georgians describe Ivanishvili as a “puppet master” and believe elected officials mostly dance to his tune.

Ivanishvili, once a frontline politician but now a reclusive figure, made a rare appearance Monday night, addressing a crowd of counter-protesters after thousands of people were bussed to Tbilisi from Georgia’s rural regions, where Georgian Dream enjoys more support.

His speech showed deep paranoia, conspiracism and had an autocratic streak. Ivanishvili claimed Georgia was being controlled by “a pseudo-elite nurtured by a foreign country.” He claimed the world was run by a “Global War Party,” which he suggested was responsible for Russia’s 2008 invasion. And he pledged to persecute his political opponents after October’s elections.

“The Georgian government is clearly siding with the Putinist, anti-liberal forces of the world,” Sabanandze, the former EU ambassador, said. “It’s turning into an instrument in the hands of Russia. I cannot speculate. I have no idea whether they’re working on Russia’s instructions, but they certainly are fulfilling their interests.”

As protests swelled in Tbilisi, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual gathering in Hungary. In his speech, Kobakhidze denounced the “so-called liberals” protesting outside parliament and said they were attacking “homeland, language, and faith.” Sabanadze noted the appeal that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has to governments seeking to hold onto power.

The United States has criticized Georgia’s recent shift. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the foreign agent legislation and Georgian Dream’s “anti-Western rhetoric put Georgia on a precarious trajectory.”

Kobakhidze has hit back at the US criticism and on Friday accused Washington of attempting to stoke a revolution in Georgia “carried out through NGOs financed from external sources.”

Some have questioned why Georgian Dream reintroduced the foreign agent bill at this moment, almost exactly a year after it was first defeated. Ivanishvili explained in his speech that he had calculated the moment “perfectly:” by introducing the bill now, he hoped the energy of the protesters would be “prematurely wasted” and that their power would be “drained” before October.

In an interesting parallel, Ivanishvili said he was not like Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine toppled by the Maidan protests in 2014, when thousands of Ukrainians demanded a European future – in scenes similar to those in Tbilisi today.

“He thinks that this situation here is different, that he’s more in control, and that he will not allow the kind of Maidan to take place in Georgia,” said Sabanadze. “But he might be underestimating the popular outrage.”

As the protests show no sign of slowing, some have questioned whether they could swell into something resembling a revolution. “If this government doesn’t withdraw this bill now, when they still have the chance, it will be hard for them to get to the elections. It’s a spiral at the moment,” said Sabanadze.

Jafaridze, the winemaker, says he has never seen the country so united. “I don’t think it’s possible to defeat these people. This is not Belarus. This is not Russia.”

Concerns are growing for a trio of missing tourists, including a US citizen, as Mexican authorities question three people in connection with their disappearance.

A vehicle, tents, and a cell phone were found during an ongoing search in the area where the men were last seen, according to Mexican authorities.

American Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson were reported missing on April 29, according to the Baja California prosecutor’s office. The three friends are believed to have been on a surfing and camping trip near the municipality of Ensenada, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Tijuana.

“At this moment a team of investigators is in the location where it seems they were seen for the last time, where tents were found along with some evidence that could be related to these three people included in the investigation,” Baja California’s chief public prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez told a news conference Thursday.

Three Mexican nationals were being questioned in connection with the case, she said, though it is unclear if they are suspects. Baja California has been plagued by cartel violence in recent years, though it rarely occurs in tourist areas like Ensenada.

In social media posts, the mother of the missing Australians said the three friends have been unreachable since April 27 after they failed to show up at an Airbnb in the nearby coastal resort of Rosarito. She also raised concern about Callum’s diabetes and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

“Australian friends Jake and Callum Robinson have gone missing around Rosarita/Ensenada region of Baja California Norte Saturday morning,” Debra Robinson posted on Instagram alongside a photo of her two sons.

“They were likely surfing. Callum is diabetic—this is a very dire situation.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed concern over the brothers’ disappearance.

“We certainly hope that these brothers are found safely, but there is real concern about the fact that they’ve gone missing,” he told Seven. “Their mother is obviously very distressed about this. And we just hope for a positive outcome.”

Mexican authorities are liaising with US and Australian counterparts, the Baja California state attorney’s office said.

Three men have been arrested and charged in Canada for allegedly murdering a prominent Sikh separatist, according to Canadian police – a death Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has previously linked to the Indian government, drawing vehement protests from New Delhi.

The suspects were identified in court filings as Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh, and Karan Brar. The men are accused of conspiring “with others to commit the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” according to the filings. They are also charged on a second count for using a firearm “on or about June 18, 2023… to commit first-degree murder.”

All three suspects are Indian nationals and non-permanent residents of Canada, police said in a press briefing on Friday. Authorities are currently investigating if they have ties to the Indian government – the latest development in a long-running intrigue that has fueled diplomatic tension between Canada and India.

Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was gunned down by masked men last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent campaigner for a separate Sikh homeland out of India, which would be known as Khalistan and include parts of India’s Punjab state.

Last September, Trudeau said he had credible information linking the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar. The allegation outraged India, which has forcefully denied the claim, calling it “absurd and motivated.” The diplomatic fallout saw tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats from both countries.

Authorities did not specify who allegedly conspired with the accused but said there are separate investigations ongoing on Nijjar’s death.

“These efforts include investigating connections to the Government of India,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner David Teboul told a Friday press conference.

Campaigning for the creation of Khalistan has long been outlawed in India, where painful memories of a deadly insurgency by some Sikh separatists continue to haunt many Indian citizens. But it garners a level of public sympathy among some in the Sikh diaspora overseas, where activists protected by free speech laws can more openly demand secession from India.

Weeks after Trudeau’s announcement, the United States accused an Indian government official of being involved in a conspiracy to kill another Sikh separatist, American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on  US soil. A US indictment unsealed in November accused an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, of trying to kill Pannun, who is a wanted man in India and considered to be a terrorist by the government.

US prosecutors say Gupta was acting on orders from an unnamed Indian government official. India’s government has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kill Pannun.

Just one day after Nijjar was killed in Canada, US prosecutors say Gupta allegedly told an undercover law enforcement official posing as a hitman that Nijjar had also been one of his targets.

“We have so many targets,” Gupta allegedly said.

He commended Canadian law enforcement for its “dedication to upholding justice by rigorously pursuing those responsible for these crimes” in a statement, adding that “we, as a community, stand firm in demanding accountability and will continue to advocate for justice to ensure such reprehensible actions are addressed decisively.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

When the Chang’e-4 mission landed in the Von Karman crater on January 3, 2019, China became the first and only country to land on the far side of the moon — the side that always faces away from Earth.

Now, China is sending another mission to the far side, and this time, its goal is to return the first samples of the moon’s “hidden side” to Earth.

The Chang’e-6 mission, launched Friday, is set to spend 53 days exploring the South Pole-Aitken basin to study its geology and topography as well as collect samples from different spots across the crater.

The South Pole-Aitken basin is believed to be the largest and oldest crater on the moon, spanning nearly a quarter of the lunar surface with a diameter measuring roughly 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers). The impact crater is more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) deep.

Scientists hope that returning samples to Earth will help answer enduring questions about the intriguing far side, which hasn’t been studied as deeply as the near side, as well as confirming the moon’s origin.

“The far side of the moon is very different from the near side,” said Li Chunlai, China National Space Administration deputy chief designer. “The far is basically comprised of ancient lunar crust and highlands, so there are a lot of scientific questions to be answered there.”

No real ‘dark side’

During a NASA budget hearing on April 17, congressman David Trone asked NASA administrator Bill Nelson why China was sending a mission to the “backside” of the moon.

“They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side that’s always in dark,” Nelson responded. “We’re not planning to go there.”

The moon’s hidden side has sometimes been referred to as the “dark side of the moon,” largely in reference to the 1973 Pink Floyd album of the same name.

But the phrase is a bit of a misnomer for a couple of reasons, according to experts.

While the far side of the moon may seem dark from our perspective, it experiences a lunar day and lunar night just like the near side, and receives plenty of illumination. A lunar day lasts just over 29 days, while the lunar night lasts for about two weeks, according to NASA.

The same side always faces Earth because the moon takes the same amount of time to complete an orbit of Earth and rotate around its axis: about 27 days.

Additionally, the far side of the moon has been more difficult to study, which led to the “dark side” nickname and created an air of mystery.

“Humans always want to know what’s on the other side of the mountain and the part that you can’t see, so that’s a kind of psychological motivation,” said Renu Malhotra, the Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professor and Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Of course, we’ve sent space probes that have orbited the moon, and we have images, so in a sense, it’s less mysterious than before.”

Several spacecraft, including NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that constantly circles and takes images of the lunar surface, have helped to shed light on the moon.

Yutu-2, a lunar rover that Chang’e-4 released in 2019, also explored loose deposits of pulverized rock and dust littering the floor of Von Karman crater, located within the larger South Pole-Aitken basin.

But returning samples to Earth would enable the latest and most sensitive technology to analyze lunar rocks and dust, potentially revealing how the moon came to be and why its far side is so different from the near side.

Far side mysteries

Despite years of orbital data and samples collected during six of the Apollo missions, scientists are still trying to answer key questions about the moon.

“The reason the far side is so compelling is because it is so different than the side of the moon that we see, the near side,” said Noah Petro, NASA project scientist for both the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Artemis III, a mission which aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. “For all of human history, humans have been able to look up and see the same surface, the same side of the moon.”

But in 1959 the Soviet Union sent a probe to fly past the far side of the moon and captured the first images of it for humanity.

“We saw this completely different hemisphere: not covered in large volcanic lava flows, pockmarked with craters, a thicker crust. It just tells a different story than the near side,” Petro said.

Returning samples with robotic missions, and landing humans near the transition between the two lunar regions at the south pole through the Artemis program, “will help tell this more complete story of lunar history that we are lacking in right now,” he said.

Although scientists understand why one side of the moon always faces Earth, they don’t know why that particular side permanently faces our planet. But it could have something to do with the moon being asymmetrical, Malhotra said.

“There is some asymmetry between the side that’s facing us and the other side,” she said. “What exactly caused those asymmetries? What actually are these asymmetries? We have little understanding of that. That’s a huge scientific question.”

Orbital data has also revealed that the near side has a thinner crust and more volcanic deposits, but answers to why that is has eluded researchers, said Brett Denevi, a planetary geologist at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab.

“It has a different kind of geochemical composition with some weird extra heat-producing elements. There are a ton of models for why the near side is different than the far side, but we don’t have the data yet,” Denevi said. “So going to the far side, getting samples and doing different kinds of geophysical measurements is really important to figuring out this really long, long standing mystery.”

Chang’e-6 is just one mission heading to the moon’s far side as NASA has plans to send robotic missions there as well.

Denevi helped design a mission concept for a lunar rover called Endurance, which will undertake a long drive across the South Pole-Aitken basin to collect data and samples before delivering them to the Artemis landing sites near the lunar south pole. Then, astronauts can study the samples and determine which ones to return to Earth.

Cracking the lunar code

One of the most fundamental questions that scientists have tried to answer is how the moon formed. The prevailing theory is that some kind of object had an impact with Earth early in its history, and a giant chunk that went flying off our planet formed the moon.

Scientists also want to know how the moon’s original crust formed.
Volcanic flows created dark patches on the moon, while the lighter parts of the surface represent the moon’s primordial crust.

“We think at one point the moon was entirely molten, and it was this ocean of magma, and as that solidified, minerals floated to the top of this ocean, and that’s that lighter terrain that we can see today,” Denevi said. “Getting to the really big expanses of pristine terrain on the far side is just one of the goals.”

Meanwhile, the study of impact craters littering the lunar surface provides a history of how things moved around during the solar system’s early days at a critical point when life was starting to form on Earth, Denevi said.

“As impacts were happening on the moon, impacts were happening on the Earth at the same time,” Petro said. “And so whenever we look at these ancient events on the moon, we’re learning a little bit about what’s happening on the Earth as well.”

Visiting the South Pole-Aitken basin could be the start of solving a multitude of lunar mysteries, Malhotra said. While researchers believe they have an idea of when the crater formed, perhaps 4.3 billion to 4.4 billion years ago, collecting rock samples could provide a definitive age.

“Many scientists are sure that if we figured out the age of that depression,” she said, “it’s going to unlock all kinds of mysteries about the history of the moon.”

Time is running out to prevent starvation in Darfur, in western Sudan, a UN agency has warned, as escalating violence devastates the African nation.

People have been forced to consume “grass and peanut shells,” the regional director for Eastern Africa of the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. “If assistance doesn’t reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan,” Michael Dunford added.

Sudan has been gripped by civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It quickly descended into a brutal conflict characterized by reports of sexual and genocidal violence and civilian casualties, triggering an exodus of refugees.

On Thursday, two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drivers were killed by gunmen in South Darfur, in an attack that left three other staff members injured, according to the humanitarian organization.

The ICRC team was attacked en route to assess the crisis among communities affected by armed violence in the region, the organization said.

The latest surge in violence comes as the RSF encircles North Darfur’s capital, El Fasher.

In the city and its surrounding localities, there have been “increasing arbitrary killings,” systematic “burning of entire villages” and “escalating air bombardments,” the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Toby Hayward, said on Thursday.

Hayward added that El Fasher is the only city in Darfur that has not been captured by the RSF and hosts thousands of people who have been displaced by the war. At least 500,000 of those sheltering in the city have been displaced from violence elsewhere in Sudan, according to the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF).

More than 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in El Fasher in recent weeks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

At least 43 people have been killed in and around the city since the escalation of fighting a little over two weeks ago, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Thursday.

“Recent attacks on more than a dozen villages in western El Fasher have resulted in horrific reports of violence, including sexual violence, children injured and killed, homes set on fire, and destruction of critical civilian supplies and infrastructure,” Russell detailed.

Meanwhile, deliveries of food assistance in Darfur “have been intermittent due to fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles” and at least 1.7 million people within the region are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme.

“The latest escalation of violence around El Fasher has halted aid convoys coming from Chad’s Tine border crossing – a recently opened humanitarian corridor that passes through North Darfur’s capital,” the WFP added. Restrictions imposed by authorities in the coastal town of Port Sudan have hindered aid deliveries, the WFP said, preventing the transportation of relief via Adré, a town in neighboring Chad.

More than 8.7 million people, including 4.6 million children, have been displaced by the war in Sudan and 24.8 million need assistance, according to OCHA.

Italy’s Ministry of Health has banned the popular wellness trend of “puppy yoga” amid concerns that the puppies used in the practice could be exploited and mistreated.

Typically, sessions involve puppies roaming around a yoga class and sometimes being incorporated in poses.

Giovanni Leonardi, head of the One Health department of Italy’s health ministry, ruled Tuesday that the use of dogs during exercise sessions falls under Italy’s Animal Assisted Interventions act. This means that only adult dogs can now be used in yoga sessions to “protect the health and well-being of the animals, as well as the safety of users.”

The ruling comes following an investigation in March by the popular Italian news show “Striscia la Notizia,” which alleged that puppies were mistreated at various yoga centers and kept in pens between sessions.

The puppies used in the sessions were transported in boxes or plastic bags, were used for long hours covering multiple sessions, and were not provided water or food to “prevent the dogs from doing their business in the gym,” LNDC alleged, noting that the Striscia la Notizia investigation found that many of the puppies were only 42 days old.

“Given their age, it is highly likely that these puppies had not even completed their vaccination prophylaxis,” the LNDC complaint suggested.

LNDC’s President Piera Rosati called the practice “exploitation for commercial purposes that takes no account of the well-being and psychophysical health of creatures who are still too fragile to be treated in this way.”

“At that age, puppies should not have to face travel and stress, but stay in a calm and protected environment under the guidance and care of their mother who can teach them to socialize correctly and to face the outside world with confidence,” Rosati continued.

Allen called the practice “a sales gimmick designed to promote the breeding of ‘pedigree’ dogs – who are prone to severe physical problems later in life – and which violates the fundamental principle of yoga: ahimsa, or doing no harm.”

“While governments around the world should take heed, we must not wait to do the right thing: PETA urges yogis to stay away from this cheap ploy that uses sensitive animals as props to their detriment,” Allen said.

A prominent surgeon in Gaza has died in an Israeli prison after being held for more than four months, according to Palestinian prisoners’ groups, which decried his death as part of a “systematic targeting” of health care workers.

Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was declared dead by Israeli prison authorities on April 19, according to a joint statement Thursday from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs.

His body has not yet been released by Israeli authorities.

The prisoner associations blamed Israel for his death, saying it was part of a “systematic targeting process against physicians and the health care system in Gaza,” according to the statement.

“This is the last thing we expected, and it’s difficult for the human soul to bear this news,” he said. “Dr. Adnan loved life, was cheerful, and was loved by everyone.”

Abu Saada said he had earlier asked Israeli authorities about Al-Bursh’s detention but “didn’t receive any news.” Abu Saada was told that one of Al-Bursh’s fellow prisoners – who had since been released – said the surgeon had been tortured and was killed.

The IDF has previously said it treats all detainees in accordance with international law.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel released dozens of Gaza detainees via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel.

The release included the return of the body of Ismail Khadr, a Palestinian man from Gaza, who had also recently died in Israeli custody, the prisoner associations said in the joint statement. The total number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody since October 7 rose to 18, the statement said.

Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks when militants killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. Israel’s military response has since sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has inflamed opinion globally.

The seven-month bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 34,600 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. Half of the 2.2 million people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation and man-made famine is imminent, according to a scale used by United Nations agencies. Concerns are also heightened over an anticipated Israeli military operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah, prompting renewed calls for a ceasefire.

There has been fierce criticism of Israel’s actions in and around hospitals in Gaza, as medical groups and NGOs warn the health system in the territory is on the brink of collapse.

Israel has defended its military raids at medical facilities in Gaza, alleging that Hamas fighters used hospitals to run military activities through a network of underground tunnels. Hamas and medical staff at various hospitals across Gaza deny the allegations, and Israel has been under significant international pressure to prove its claims.