The arrest of a British parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for China has reignited a fierce debate about the future of the United Kingdom’s relationship with Beijing.

The firestorm erupted over the weekend, when London’s Sunday Times newspaper reported the researcher was arrested alongside another man earlier this year under the UK’s Official Secrets act.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he raised “very strong concerns” about potential Chinese interference in Britain’s democracy during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 in the Indian capital New Delhi last weekend. The Chinese Embassy in London denied the spying accusations, describing them as “completely fabricated” and “nothing but malicious slander.”

The arrested researcher, who has not been named by most media organizations, has released a statement via lawyers proclaiming his innocence. London’s Metropolitan Police said both men were being investigated by counter-terrorism police and had been released on bail until October.

Though the investigation remains ongoing, the episode has sparked calls from a number of high-profile lawmakers in the ruling Conservative Party for the government to take a harder line on China.

Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss called for the government to formally designate China as a threat to the UK. She was joined by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, as well as a number of other senior party members.

UK’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday that there was a “strong case” to officially designate China as a greater security risk than it is at present, though there is no clear indication the government intends to do so any time soon.

This view is not shared entirely across the party – least of all in the government. Despite Sunak’s condemnation of the alleged espionage, his spokesperson has strongly indicated that it wouldn’t affect immediate diplomatic relations – including whether or not China would be invited to Britain’s artificial intelligence summit in November. 

The government’s official position on China is complicated.  As Foreign Secretary James Cleverly outlined earlier this year, Britain’s approach is three-pronged. 

“First, we will strengthen our national security protections wherever Beijing’s actions pose a threat to our people or our prosperity; second, the UK will deepen our cooperation and strengthen our alignment with our friends and partners in the Indo-Pacific and across the world; and the third pillar of our policy is to engage directly with China, bilaterally and multilaterally, to preserve and create open, constructive and stable relations, reflecting China’s global importance,” Cleverly said in April, several months before his August visit to Beijing – the first by a UK foreign secretary to China in more than five years.

Under the radar

But back to the question at hand: should the events of the past few days affect the UK’s official policy?

The British government is also well aware of the fact that China — along with many other countries, both allies and adversaries — engages in espionage. Officials monitor it, they expect more of it and they raise the issue directly.

This was reflected over the summer when parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee released a report outlining in detail its view that China was seeing to target and influence people in the UK’s political system.

And while allegations against the researcher are serious ones for the police to investigate, it is not entirely surprising that something like this could have taken place in Parliament, or any other official building. 

Parliament screens people who are issued passes though a system designed to block individuals who “may be susceptible to pressure or improper influences,” “have shown dishonesty or lack of integrity which throws doubt upon their reliability,” or “have demonstrated behavior or are subject to circumstances which may otherwise indicate unreliability,” according to its website

On paper, that might look as though it should cover anyone who is alleged to have been spying on the UK. In practice, the screening procedures are “not always going to catch people who are determined to mislead,” said former British National Security Adviser Peter Ricketts.

In other words, the allegations against this person are serious, of course, but they are also not necessarily what one might imagine when hearing the word spy. If this were true, it is plausible it could have been sufficiently low-level and under the radar that security agencies failed to pick it up. 

No policy change

The culture of politics in the UK also makes it a target for people who might want to carry out spying activities.

Networking is easy for those with a parliamentary pass; not only are there multiple bars in parliament, open late and serving subsidized alcohol, pass holders can also bring guests onto the estate. It is very common to see young guests of ambitious politicos enjoying a drink on the terrace overlooking the River Thames, gossiping and taking in the impressive neo-Gothic surroundings. It is a seductive environment for the driven, some of whom are less street smart than others. 

Despite the arrests, observers believe it is unlikely there will be a sea-change in the UK government’s policy on China.

There are few at any senior level of politics who seriously believe that a more hostile approach to China is going to be beneficial to the UK in the long run.

The UK has been on a journey over the past few years in its approach to China. As recently as 2015, people at the top of the British government were talking about a “golden era” in UK-China relations. 

Beijing’s security crackdown in Hong Kong, aggression in the South China Sea, threats to Taiwan, alleged human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims, support for Russia and, of course, allegations of espionage against Western countries have all contributed to increased hawkishness in Westminster. 

The UK has subsequently shifted away from involving China in things like critical national infrastructure. However, it is recognized that simply cutting China off from the UK won’t help in certain key areas. 

For example, addressing the speed of climate change will be impossible unless China burns fewer fossil fuels. Diplomats and officials believe that disengagement with China would make that less likely.

The allegations that China is spying on the UK, in the very heart of Britain’s democracy, is of course a very real concern. But it will not be a surprise to the government, which has baked it into British foreign policy.

And right now, the UK certainly won’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it’s already walking a precarious tightrope with a country the size and power of China. 

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan met for two days of talks in Malta over the weekend, as the world’s two leading economies seek to stabilize rocky relations and potentially smooth a path for leaders Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet in November.

In separate readouts, both sides said the discussions that took place over multiple meetings in the Mediterranean island nation were “candid, substantive, and constructive.”

The US said the two governments had committed to pursuing “additional high-level engagement and consultations” in key areas “in the coming months” in a signal of the expectation of continued diplomacy.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the two sides agreed to continue high-level communication on several fronts, including consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime affairs, and foreign policy.

The meeting follows a string of high-level visits from top US officials to Beijing in recent months and comes ahead of an opportunity for Chinese leader Xi to visit the US in November, when President Biden will host world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.

Following the weekend’s talks, a senior Biden administration official said the White House had nothing to announce regarding a potential meeting between the two leaders, but noted that Biden hopes to meet with Xi soon.

Biden and Xi last met in November 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

The meeting between Wang and Sullivan comes as Beijing and Washington have been taking steps to reestablish and strengthen communication to avoid their increasingly fraught and contentious relationship veering into conflict.

China severed multiples lines of communication with the US last August after a visit from then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. China’s ruling Communist Party views the self-ruled island democracy as its own and has not ruled out taking it by force.

The island remains one of the thorniest subjects between the two, with Wang telling Sullivan over the weekend that “the Taiwan issue is the first insurmountable red line in Sino-US relations,” according to a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry.

“The United States must abide by the three Sino-US joint communiques and implement its commitment not to support ‘Taiwan independence,’” the statement read, referring to the three joint statements made during the 1970s and early 80s that helped establish relations between the two sides.

The US “noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” according to the White House’s official account of the meetings, which also said the two sides discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and global and regional security issues.

Military communication

The two sides also discussed the need to re-establish military-to-military dialogue between the US and China, the senior Biden official said following the weekend meeting.

The official said there were “limited indications” that China may be willing to re-establish those channels, but declined to elaborate further.

Beijing had previously pointed to America’s “unilateral sanctions,” as an “obstacle” that needs to be removed before such dialogue can resume, in an apparent reference to US sanctions on Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu.

Li has been at the center of mounting speculation in recent days that he has been placed under Communist Party investigation after vanishing from view for more than two weeks amid a series of unexplained personnel shakeups that roiled the party’s upper ranks this summer.

He had assumed his role earlier this year and has been under US sanctions since 2018 over China’s purchase of Russian weapons.

Asked whether Sullivan raised the whereabouts of Li, and the removal earlier this summer of then-Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the Biden administration official said the subject did not come up during the talks.

Wang, who held the role of foreign minister for a decade until the end of last year and then stepped in again following Qin’s removal, is expected to continue his diplomatic travels with a visit to Moscow on Monday.

Wang would visit the country between September 18 and 21, China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.

He is expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss “a wide range of bilateral cooperation issues,” according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry last week.

Those include a “detailed exchange of views on issues related to a settlement in Ukraine,” the Russian ministry said.

That meeting comes on the heels of a closely watched summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, which the US has warned could lead to Pyongyang supplying Moscow with munitions for its war in Ukraine.

Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani has been ruled out of the rest of the season with right oblique inflammation, an inflammation of the core muscles, his team announced on Saturday.  

The two-way superstar had already been ruled out of pitching for the season after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow on August 23, but his batting season was also confirmed to be over on Saturday.

Ohtani suffered the oblique injury during batting practice on September 4, and it is unclear whether he will have to undergo his second Tommy John surgery, which usually has a recovery time of 12 to 18 months, to repair his UCL injury.

Ohtani had already cleaned out his locker on Friday, but Angels’ general manager Perry Minasian clarified that, “it’s nothing malicious, there’s no story here.”

“I think, in his mind, he thought there was a possibility for a procedure today, and that’s why he packed,” Minasian said, according to MLB.com. “He’s so focused on, ‘Season’s over, I’ve gotta get ready for ’24.’ And that was what his mindset was. He’s planning on being here the last homestand.”

Before his injury Ohtani had been enjoying one of the best ever individual seasons, leading the American League in homers, triples and walks combined with going 10-5 on the mound with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 132 innings.

The Japanese star is set to be a free agent after the season and his future in Los Angeles remains uncertain. He is likely to become the highest paid baseball player of all time.

It has been a while since Red Bull failed to win a Formula One race so the Singapore Grand Prix gave fans some unexpected variety when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz secured victory in Sunday’s night race.

Such has been Red Bull’s dominance, the last time one of their drivers failed to win a race was in November 2022, when Mercedes’ George Russell won the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Since then, the team has embarked on a record-breaking run. Max Verstappen secured a historic 10th consecutive race win last month, his 12th victory of the season overall, while teammate Sergio Perez had won the other races on the calendar, putting Red Bull on a run of 15 successive wins dating back to last year.

But a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday left Verstappen starting from 11th on the grid and Perez 13th, ruining Red Bull’s hopes of winning at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. “You can’t pass. On other tracks you can start last and win the race. But not here,” Verstappen told reporters on Saturday, per Reuters.

Red Bull’s qualifying struggles opened the door for others on Sunday and it was Sainz who capitalized, claiming victory from pole position to end Red Bull’s hopes of winning every race this year.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was second, while Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was third, finishing over a second behind the Spaniard who celebrated his second win for Ferrari.

“We nailed the race,” Sainz told reporters. “We did everything we had to do. We did it perfect and we brought home a P1 that I’m sure all Italy and Ferrari is going to be proud and happy.”

Verstappen crossed the line in fifth – extending his championship lead with just seven races remaining – while Perez was eighth.

The safety car made an appearance on lap 20 when Logan Sargeant had left debris on the track after the Williams driver had hit a wall.

Towards the end of the race the virtual safety car was used as Esteban Ocon came to a stop on the track, which allowed Mercedes pair of Hamilton and George Russell to change to new medium tires and set up a thrilling finish. Both passed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished fourth, but failed to chase down Norris and Perez, with Russell crashing out in the final stages.

Hollywood star Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson reduced University of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders to the brink of tears on Saturday, surprising him on the set of ESPN’s College “GameDay.”

“Coach Prime is changing the face of college football and he’s doing it his way but he’s also doing it in a way that is galvanizing not only a town in Boulder, Colorado but also galvanizing an entire country,” the Rock said.

“You’re going to make me cry, man,” Sanders replied before joking: “All recruits, did you hear what he said?”

Before that, it had been Sanders praising the Rock, getting down onto his knees to welcome the actor onto ESPN’s show.

The Colorado Buffaloes narrowly avoided an upset against the Colorado State Rams to take a double-overtime 43-35 win and extend their winning streak to 3-0 this season.

Sanders’ son, Shedeur, masterminded a game-tying 98-yard scoring drive from quarterback in the last two minutes of regulation time before throwing two touchdowns in overtime to seal victory.

“We played like garbage in the first half but tried to get it right in the second half offensively as well as giving up some wounds defensively,” Sanders said afterwards, according to the University of Colorado’s website.

“We did some things that showed we were resilient. We showed that we would fight, we showed that we had no surrender or give up in us.”

However, Colorado wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter was taken to the hospital following a late hit in the first quarter of the game, the school announced, and he will be “out for a few weeks,” Sanders said afterwards.

The Rock was not the only famous face in town for college football as Lil Wayne entertained the crowd and led the Buffaloes onto the pitch.

“You mean to tell me Lil Wayne is at a college game performing before the game,” Sanders said on “GameDay.” “This is unbelievable, this is what college is supposed to be…all the kids are having a good time…I love it 100%. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying life, coaching my sons in a beautiful city. The weather is impeccable. I ain’t got nothing to be mad at.”

Post-tropical cyclone Lee is forecast to gradually weaken over the next couple days before moving out into the Atlantic Ocean away from Canada, as officials in Florida announce at least one death due to the storm.

Lee, once a powerful hurricane, is churning maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as it spreads north after making landfall Saturday on Long Island in Nova Scotia, the National Hurricane Center said in its final advisory for the storm Sunday.

The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands and lashed the coasts of the northeast US and Atlantic Canada with wind and waves. It is expected to move to the northeast over Newfoundland Sunday afternoon before moving over the Atlantic Monday.

At least one death has been attributed to the conditions spurred by Lee: Officials in Fernandina Beach, Florida, announced a 15-year-old had drowned in the surf “due to turbulent wave conditions as a result of Hurricane Lee.”

Tropical storm force winds still extend about 290 miles from what’s left of Lee’s core on Sunday, the hurricane center said.

In Canada, about 50,000 customers were without power Sunday in Nova Scotia, while 8,000 in New Brunswick were in the dark, according to an outage maps by provincial utilities.

In Maine – where winds of 83 mph were recorded in Perry, and 63 mph in Roque Bluffs – more than 20,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages there peaked Saturday with more than 90,000 customers in the dark, and photos from across the state showed toppled trees near homes and on roadways as powerful winds battered the area.

Another inch of rain is expected over parts of eastern New Brunswick, according to the hurricane center. Officials there had cautioned residents to prepare for power outages and stock up on food and medication for at least 72 hours as they encouraged people to stay indoors during what they forecast would likely turn into a storm surge for coastal communities.

“Once the storm starts, remember please stay at home if at all possible,” Kyle Leavitt, director of New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization, said Friday ahead of the storm. “Nothing good can come from checking out the big waves and how strong the wind truly is.”

In the US, states of emergency were declared ahead of the storm in Maine and Massachusetts. President Joe Biden has authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in to coordinate disaster relief and assistance for required emergency measures.

Boston’s Logan International Airport saw a spike in flight cancellations Saturday with 23% of all flights into Boston and 24% of flights originating out of the city canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Many a US roadway is nothing more than a clogged eyesore or an efficient but bland way to get from Point A to Point B.

But sometimes, roadways and natural beauty meet in a harmonious convergence where driving can be a delight and even more important than the destination. This can prove especially true in autumn with the changing of the leaves.

As for when to go, timing is everything for the perfect fall drive. If you want to optimize your chances of catching the leaves in various shades of orange, red, purple and gold at their peak, check out this US foliage predictor map. Just remember peak leaf-viewing time might also mean peak traffic time; plan accordingly, especially for weekends.

As for where to go, here are six fantastic fall scenic drives scattered around the continental United States along with plenty of other things to see and do when you pull the car over.

M-119, Michigan

The Great Lakes make for great scenery. And the state of Michigan has shoreline on three of ‘em — Michigan, Huron and Superior — making for a dizzying number of choices. David Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, helps narrow down the options, singing the praises of M-119, tucked away in the northwest of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

Follow this map and turn the drive into a scenic loop of about 50 miles, or a one-hour and 15-minute drive.

Along the route or nearby:

• Travel Michigan said Thorne Swift Nature Preserve in Harbor Springs is a great stop to get fall foliage photos.
• Good Hart General Store has an early 1900s era charm.
• No fear of heights? The pedestrian SkyBridge Michigan at Boyne Mountain Resort is 1,200 feet (366 meters) long and 118 feet high. It’s about 26 miles south of Harbor Springs.
• Enjoy the 44th Annual Apple Fest in Charlevoix, about 40 minutes southwest of Harbor Springs. The festival takes place October 13-15 this year.

Find out more about the M-119 here.

Salmon River Scenic Byway, Idaho

“Was that a moose?” “Did I just see an elk?” You and your companions might be asking such questions on the Salmon River Scenic Byway, suggested by Laurie McConnell, the senior tourism communications specialist at Visit Idaho.

This 161-mile byway “goes through some of the most rugged and remote country in the Lower 48, following the Salmon River through the Salmon and Challis national forests and provides access to jaw-dropping outdoor opportunities,” McConnell said in an email.

As for visuals, “Large stands of aspen show off with fall colors in burnt yellowy gold, but expect other trees to show off with red, orange, and caramel,” she said.

Along the route or nearby:

• The Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural and Educational Center is the perfect place to learn about the original inhabitants of the region. (McConnell calls it a “can’t-miss” stop.)
• Land of Yankee Fork State Park features the ghost towns of Custer, Bayhorse and Bonanza. And it administers Challis Hot Springs on the banks of the Salmon River.
• Redfish Lake is the largest one in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Come here for nature viewing, hiking, fishing – and swimming if you can handle the cold water!

Find out more about the Salmon River Scenic Byway here.

Appalachian Highlands Scenic Byway, Alabama

If you thought Appalachian beauty petered out in northern Georgia, this scenic byway in the northeastern part of this Deep South state will prove you delightfully wrong.

Its 80 miles is hilly and curvy in places, “but overall, it is not a white-knuckle drive,” said Jo Jo Terry, digital marketing strategist with the Alabama Tourism Department. “Fall colors will be more prevalent on the northern part of the trail. The scenery is beautiful all along the trail.”

Drivers will find lush vegetation, interesting geologic formations and quaint communities along the route.

Along the route or nearby:

• Cheaha State Park, on the southern end of the byway, is home to the highest point in Alabama and is known for its beautiful, panoramic views, Terry said.
• DeSoto State Park, on the northern end of the byway, features waterfalls and has hiking, camping and bird watching among its activities.
• Mentone is an arts and crafts community about 10 minutes from DeSoto State Park. The “Wildflower Café is a delicious and magical place to eat,” Terry said.
• The Little River Canyon National Preserve  contains “one of the deepest and most extensive canyon and gorge systems in the eastern United States,” according to the US National Park Service.

Find out more about the Appalachian Highlands Scenic Byway here.

High Road to Taos Scenic Byway, New Mexico

Who would ever want to leave charming Santa Fe? One thing that could lure you out of the state capital would be the High Road to Taos Scenic Byway, a 76-mile route north to the famous ski town.

Nicole Barker, media relations manager with the New Mexico Tourism Department, said via email that it takes about one hour and 45 minutes to drive without stops. But she suggested folks plan for a minimum of a half-day to fully enjoy the route. And what will you see?

“The route meanders through desert badlands, striking white geological formations and gold-drenched cottonwoods that line the Rio Nambe before winding through villages backdropped against Carson National Forest’s golden aspen groves and deep, dark evergreens blanketing the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo peaks,” Barker said.

Along the route or nearby:

• Santuario de Chimayó is an 1800s Catholic church that’s a National Historic Landmark. Barker said autumn is the perfect time to buy Chimayó red chile, which is only grown in the town of Chimayó.
• Folk-art gallery Eight Million Gods is In Truchas, an 18th-century Hispanic settlement turned artist enclave.
• Truchas Overlook “is also worth stopping for views of Quemado Valley and Truchas Peaks,” Barker said.
• “The High Road Art Trail makes it easy for visitors to locate studios and galleries,” Barker said. The High Road Artisans Studio Tour takes place in September 16-17 and 23-24.

Find out more about the High Road to Taos Scenic Byway here.

Mohawk Trail Scenic Byway, Massachusetts

Massachusetts and fall drives go hand-in-hand. The 69-mile Mohawk Trail Scenic Byway passes through three counties in northwestern Massachusetts, says Peter Tomyl, president of the Mohawk Trail Association – Regional Tourism Council, and fall is one of the best times to go “as vibrant hues of orange, red and yellow dance along the skyline passing by.”

“How many stops along the way visitors choose to make determines exactly how long the drive will be,” he said in an email.

“Large portions of the route wind through hills lined with lush forest landscapes [and] Berkshire Mountain climbs,” he said, adding that it passes through “quaint Massachusetts towns, passing by sprawling farmlands and a vast array of incredible restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, and historic landmarks.”

Along the route or nearby:

• Hairpin Turn in North Adams is “one of the most popular destinations in The Berkshires, Hairpin Turn is great to visit at sunset and offers breathtaking panoramic views,” Tomyl said.
• Mount Greylock State Reservation is the highest point in Massachusetts offering sweeping views.
• Susan B Anthony Birthplace Museum in Adams explores the life of the famous advocate.
• The Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown has more than 15,000 works and is free.

Find out more about the Mohawk Trail Scenic Byway here. Parts of Massachusetts have had heavy rainfall and flooding recently. Check local forecasts and driving conditions before you head out.

Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina and Virginia

This splendid, curving road threads its way through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It starts in Virginia and continues southwest into North Carolina, and the total length is 469 miles (755 kilometers).

The parkway is free to use and open 24 hours a day unless portions are closed by things such as weather or landslides. It’s free of all commercial clutter – no billboards and businesses in sight.

You don’t have to tackle the whole thing unless you want a really big trip; just carve out a portion and drive that.

Along the route and nearby:

• In Virginia, the automotive and travel club AAA suggests that you pull off and enjoy Mabry Mill at milepost 176, where Ed Mabry and his wife, Lizzy, ground corn and sawed lumber for three decades. Also check out the Blue Ridge Music Center at milepost 213.
• In North Carolina, see what life was like for the Cherokee at Oconaluftee Indian Village at milepost 469.1.
• Also in North Carolina, explore the tallest peak east of the Mississippi at Mount Mitchell State Park or check out Biltmore Estate, which looks regal in autumn.

Find out more about the Blue Ridge Parkway here.

The United Nations’ human rights body (UNJHRO) has received reports of at least 13 mass graves in the Sudanese city of El Geneina, a special envoy to the war-torn country told the UN Security Council Wednesday.

The mass graves are believed to contain civilians from the ethnic Masalit tribe who were killed in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias, according to UN envoy Volker Perthes.

Perthes, who announced he was stepping down as the UN Special Representative for Sudan, added that the human rights violations were being documented and “if verified, may constitute war crimes.”

Ethnic related killings have intensified since fighting broke out mid-April between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF.

The Masalit tribe and other non-Arab communities in Sudan are often targeted by Arab militias, with support from the RSF, according to Human Rights Watch.

A report released in July by the human rights body found that at least 28 ethnic Masalit were executed by the RSF and its allied militias during an attack on Misterei, a village in El Geneina that is home to thousands of Masalit residents.

Experts have expressed concern that the recent ethnic related killings reverberate the Darfur genocide of the early 2000s that left hundreds of thousands of people killed during an ethnic cleansing campaign by an Arab militia known at the time as the Janjaweed.

The recent discovery of mass graves containing members of the Masalit tribe is the second such discovery this year.

At least 87 people, mostly ethnic Masalit, were discovered in a mass grave in El-Geneina’s Al-Madaress and Al-Jamarek districts in July. The UN Human Rights Office said they may have been killed a month before by the RSF and their allied militia.

Sudan’s military government also issued a decree to dissolve the RSF citing rebellion, including “the grave violations they committed against citizens,” among others.

Fighting between Sudan’s armed forces and the RSF has escalated in the country’s capital Khartoum, leaving at least 5,000 people dead and over 12,000 inured, according to UN figures.

At least 43 people were killed on Sunday after a market in southern Khartoum was hit by an airstrike, a Sudanese doctors’ union said. Another 32 civilians were killed days before in a similar strike in Omdurman, also in Khartoum.

More than 4 million people have fled the violence across Sudan, with more than half having fled the capital alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.

It started with a bang at 3 a.m. Monday as the residents of Derna were sleeping. One dam burst, then a second, sending a huge wave of water gushing down through the mountains towards the coastal Libyan city, killing thousands as entire neighborhoods were swept into the sea.

More than 5,000 people are believed to have been killed with thousands more missing, though estimates from different Libyan officials and aid groups have varied and the toll is expected to rise.

Buildings, homes and infrastructure were “wiped out” when a 7-meter (23-foot) wave hit the city, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which said Thursday that dead bodies were now washing back up on shore.

But with thousands killed and many more still missing, there are questions as to why the storm that also hit Greece and other countries caused so much more devastation in Libya.

Experts say that apart from the strong storm itself, Libya’s catastrophe was greatly exacerbated by a lethal confluence of factors including aging, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate warnings and the impacts of the accelerating climate crisis.

A ferocious storm

The extreme rainfall that hit Libya on Sunday was brought by a system called Storm Daniel.

After sweeping Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, with severe flooding that killed more than 20 people, it formed into a “medicane” over the Mediterranean – a relatively rare type of storm with similar characteristics to hurricanes and typhoons.

The medicane strengthened as it crossed the unusually warm waters of the Mediterranean before dumping torrential rain on Libya on Sunday.

It brought more than 16 inches (414 mm) of rainfall in 24 hours to Al-Bayda, a city west of Derna, a new record.

While it’s too early to definitively attribute the storm to the climate crisis, scientists are confident that climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather events like storms. Warmer oceans provide fuel for storms to grow, and a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, meaning more extreme rainfall.

Storms “are becoming more ferocious because of climate change,” said Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the UK.

A history of flooding

Derna is prone to flooding, and its dam reservoirs have caused at least five deadly floods since 1942, the latest of which was in 2011, according to a research paper published by Libya’s Sebha University last year.

The two dams that burst on Monday were built around half a century ago, between 1973 and 1977, by a Yugoslav construction company. The Derna dam is 75 meters (246 feet) high with a storage capacity of 18 million cubic meters (4.76 billion gallons). The second dam, Mansour, is 45 meters (148 feet) high with a capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters (396 million gallons).

Those dams haven’t undergone maintenance since 2002, the city’s deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud told Al Jazeera.

But the problems with the dams were known. The Sebha University paper warned that the dams in Derna had a “high potential for flood risk” and that periodic maintenance is needed to avoid “catastrophic” flooding.

“The current situation in the Wadi Derna reservoir requires officials to take immediate measures to carry out periodic maintenance of existing dams,” the paper recommended last year. “Because in the event of a huge flood, the result will be catastrophic on the residents of the valley and the city.” It also found that the surrounding area lacked adequate vegetation that could prevent soil erosion. Residents of the area should be made aware of the dangers of flooding, it added.

“It’s very clear that without this dam break, we wouldn’t have seen the tragic number of fatalities that that have happened as a result,” she said.

“The dams would have held back the water initially, with their failure potentially releasing all the water in one go,” Stephens also told Science Media Center, adding that “the debris caught up in the floodwaters would have added to the destructive power.”

Derna has been battered in the past, its infrastructure upended by years of fighting.

From battling ISIS and then later, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), the city’s infrastructure has crumbled and is woefully inadequate in the face of floods like the one brought by on by Storm Daniel.

A lack of warnings

Better warnings could have avoided most of the casualties in Derna, the head of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, said.

“If there would have been a normally operating meteorological service, they would have issued the warnings and also the emergency management of this would have been able to carry out evacuations of the people and we would have avoided most of the human casualties,” Taalas told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

Talaas added that the political instability in the country has impeded WMO efforts to work with the Libyan government to improve these systems.

Yet, even robust early warning systems are not a guarantee that all lives can be saved, said Cloke.

While dams are usually designed to withstand relatively extreme events, it’s often not enough, said Cloke. “We should be preparing for unexpected events, and then you put climate change on top, and that ramps up these unexpected events.”

The risk climate-fueled extreme weather poses to infrastructure – not just dams, but everything from buildings to water supplies – is a global one. “We’re not ready for the extreme events coming towards us,” Cloke said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he raised his “very strong concerns” to China’s premier regarding potential Chinese interference in British democracy after a parliament employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

Speaking to journalists at the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sunday, Sunak said he used a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to raise several concerns including over “any interference in our parliamentary democracy.”

This comes after two men were arrested under the UK’s Official Secrets Act amid reports that a parliamentary researcher with alleged links to senior Conservative Party politicians including security minister Tom Tugendhat was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

UK newspaper, The Sunday Times broke the story on Sunday, reporting that the researcher was arrested alongside another man on March 13.

According to a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police, police arrested a man in his 30s in Oxfordshire, southern England, and a man in his 20s in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“The investigation is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which has responsibility for investigations relating to allegations of Official Secrets Act and espionage-related offences,” the statement said.

After being brought to a police station in south London, the two men were released on police bail until a date in early October, according to the statement.

China’s embassy in London denied the spying accusations.

“The claim that China is suspected of ‘stealing British intelligence’ is completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We firmly oppose it and urge relevant parties in the UK to stop their anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such self-staged political farce,” the statement added.

According to the Sunday Times reporting, the arrested parliamentary researcher was also linked to the chairperson of the British government’s foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns.

Posting on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Kearns declined to comment on the alleged ties, remarking: “While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.”

A cross party group focused on relations with China, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) said in a statement on Saturday on X that it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the UK Parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.”

“It is for authorities to reveal the name of the person accused, and IPAC is united in hoping that justice is done expeditiously,” the alliance continued.