Dissident Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, arrested last October for supporting the protest movement in Iran last year, has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison, his official Twitter page said Monday.

“Toomaj Salehi was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison, and after 252 days of solitary confinement, transferred to the general section of the prison,” the tweet said.

The rapper, 32, was previously charged with crimes that are punishable by death, including “propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments and forming illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country,” Iranian state media IRNA had previously reported.

Salehi’s lawyer, Reza Etemad Ansari, told Iranian daily newspaper Shargh on Monday that the rapper was “acquitted of insulting the Supreme Leader and cooperation with hostile governments.”

Ansari told Shargh the rapper will be “banned from leaving the country for two years, and his passport will be revoked” adding that the rapper will be “banned from any activity, preparation and production of music and singing work for two years.”

Salehi’s uncle, Iqbal Iqbali, said in a statement Monday that his nephew has been “unjustly imprisoned for six and a half years” and thanked supporters who have taken steps for the rapper’s release.

“Your Toomaj, Iran’s Toomaj, the world’s Toomaj, and our Toomaj was unjustly imprisoned for six and a half years. May he and all of our political prisoners be released,” Iqbali said. “Thank you to all dear ones who have taken steps for the release of Toomaj and for the release of our political prisoners.”

Salehi had expressed support online and in his songs for a wave of nationwide protests that were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died on September 16 after being detained by “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.

When nationwide protests started in mid-September last year, Salehi called for Iranians to protest against the government.

“None of us have different color blood,” Salehi posted on Instagram. “Don’t forget our amazing union and do not allow them to create division between us, in this bloody and sad heaven.”

Salehi, who himself is of Bakhtiari ethnic background, has long rapped about Iran’s multi-ethnic makeup, encouraging unity among Iranians of different ethnic backgrounds.

“Stand with us, we stood by you for years,” Salehi raps in his song “Meydoone jang” which translates as “The Battlefield.”

“It’s not enough to be rebellious, we have revolutionary roots. Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen, Mazandari, Sistani, Baluch, Talysh, Tatar, Azeri, Kurd, Gilaki, Lor, Farsi and Qashqai, we are the unity of rivers: we are the sea.”

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey told a court in London Thursday in his ongoing sexual assault trial that he touched the complainant – who is one of four men who made allegations against the actor – in a “romantic and intimate” way.

“He was funny and charming and flirtatious; over time we began … I’m assuming it was me … began to touch him in more romantic and intimate ways,” Spacey told London’s Southwark Crown Court.

The Hollywood star, 63, denies all 12 charges against him. They include three counts of indecent assault, seven of sexual assault, one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, and one of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

The charges relate to alleged incidents in and around London in the 2000s and early 2010s, during the 12-year period in which Spacey served as artistic director at London’s Old Vic theater.

Spacey went on to say in his evidence that the pair’s relationship became “somewhat sexual” but added that the two did not engage in sexual relations, as the victim “did not want to go any further.”

“That happens at times, and we just respect how far someone wants to go or not,” Spacey said.

The actor described the time he and the complainant had together as “fun” and said that he was “crushed” at the allegations made against him by the accuser.

“I never thought that the (man) I knew would, I don’t know, 20 years later stab me in the back,” he said.

Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments on Wednesday, according to the UK’s Press Association.

NBA superstar LeBron James will switch back to jersey number 23 for the Los Angeles Lakers’ upcoming season, the team announced on Saturday.

James, who has worn the No. 23 jersey in 14 of his 20 seasons in the NBA, has sported the No. 6 jersey the previous two seasons with the Lakers.

“It’s LeBron’s decision,” Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul and James’ longtime friend told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “He chose to out of respect for Bill Russell.”

Russell, an 11-time champion with the Boston Celtics and five-time NBA MVP, died on July 31, 2022, at the age of 88. After his death, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced that the Hall of Famer’s No. 6 would be retired league-wide, noting that players who sported the number at the time, would be allowed to continue to wear it.

In addition to his sporting achievements, which included having the NBA Finals MVP trophy named after him, Russell was one of sport’s leading civil rights activists and marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. He also supported iconic boxer Muhammad Ali in his opposition to being drafted into military service.

Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor, by then-President Barack Obama in February 2011.

“For us to lose such an icon, it was heartbreaking for all of us,” James told ESPN before the start of last season. “I mean, no matter if you play the game, watch the game or a part of the game. We all know what Bill Russell meant to the NBA, obviously to the Celtics, off the floor as well, as far as his heroism … and what he meant to us Black people, you know, being able to speak about issues that are not comfortable, and he did it in a time where it wasn’t comfortable for the majority.

“For me to be able to wear No. 6 this season – I’m not sure if I’ll continue to do it, but right now I’m going to wear it in honor of him. It means a lot to me,” he continued.

The NBA’s all-time scoring leader, James originally wore No. 23 in his first seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the No. 6 while competing for Team USA in international competitions.

After joining the Miami Heat in 2010, James switched to No. 6 during his four seasons with the franchise due to the organization having retired the No. 23 in honor of Michael Jordan. Following his return to the Cavaliers in 2014, the 38-year-old opted to revert back to No. 23, which he wore until after his third season with the Lakers in 2021.

The four-time NBA champion’s jersey was the league’s highest-seller on NBAStore.com in the second half of last season.

Phoenix Mercury superstar Brittney Griner marked a successful return to the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday, her first since being released from a Russian penal colony last December.

The nine-time WNBA All-Star Griner finished with 18 points, including scoring her team’s first six points and dunking twice, in Team Stewart’s 143-127 avenging victory over Team Wilson at the 2023 All-Star Game in Las Vegas.

“It meant everything to me,” Griner said in front of a sell-out crowd after the game. “I didn’t think that I would be here today, honestly but everybody sending letters, sending love, posting. I’m still seeing it to this day everything that everybody did. It really meant a lot to me, it gave me hope it made me not want to just give it up for anything, so it was this league that helped me out.”

Griner’s arrest last year in Russia sparked diplomatic drama between the US and the Kremlin that played out alongside Russia’s war in Ukraine. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony before being released in a prisoner swap in December.

“I just love being here, I love competing, I love just doing everything for the fans. They do everything for us. We wouldn’t be here without them,” Griner said. “I’m just honored to be on this court.”

Team Stewart was captained by New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, who finished with nine points and nine assists, while Team Wilson was led by reigning league MVP A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. Wilson finished with 20 points in the loss.

Wilson’s team defeated the Stewart-captained team at last year’s All-Star Game in Chicago.

The WNBA’s leading scorer this season, Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm, earned MVP honors after scoring an All-Star Game record 31 points and 10 three pointers for Team Stewart, while adding four rebounds and six assists in the victory.

The “Gold Mamba’s” 31 points broke the prior record of 30 points held by Maya Moore and last year’s All-Star Game MVP, Kelsey Plum.

“Threes are more than twos, I think I told Sabrina [Ionescu] that I’m going to put a lot of threes up,” Loyd said after the game on breaking the record. “It’s a special moment honestly, it’s beautiful for the league and I’m happy I was able to do it for my family.”

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced on Saturday that Phoenix will be the host city for the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game.

Soccer great Lionel Messi signed for Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami on Saturday, the club announced.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, who is under contract with the club until the end of the 2025 MLS season, said he was “very excited,” while co-owner David Beckham described the signing as a “dream come true.”

“This is a fantastic opportunity and together we will continue to build this beautiful project,” Messi, who won the World Cup with Argentina last year, said in a statement. “The idea is to work together to achieve the objectives we set, and I’m very eager to start helping here in my new home.”

The 36-year-old’s expected Inter Miami debut is scheduled for July 21 against LIGA MX side, Cruz Azul, in the opening match of Leagues Cup.

“Ten years ago, when I started my journey to build a new team in Miami, I said that I dreamt of bringing the greatest players in the world to this amazing city. Players who shared the ambition I had when I joined LA Galaxy to help grow football in the USA and to build a legacy for the next generation in this sport that we love so much,” former Real Madrid and Manchester United star Beckham said in a statement.

“Today that dream came true. I couldn’t be prouder that a player of Leo’s caliber is joining our club, but I am also delighted to welcome a good friend, an amazing person and his beautiful family to join our Inter Miami community. The next phase of our adventure starts here, and I can’t wait to see Leo take to the pitch.”

Inter Miami’s part-owner Jorge Mas told Spanish publication El Pais earlier this month in an interview that Messi’s contract is worth between $50 to $60 million per year.

According to multiple reports, Messi’s new deal includes an option for part-ownership of the club and a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass streaming service.

Messi spent the last two years playing for French side Paris Saint-Germain. Before that, the Argentine played for Spanish giants Barcelona for over twenty years, winning 10 La Liga titles and the Champions League four times.

In December last year, Messi played a vital part in Argentina’s World Cup success in Qatar, becoming the first man to win the tournament’s Golden Ball, awarded to the best player at the World Cup, twice.

Over the ridge of the mountain, across the border was the promised land, the neutral territory Spain – an escape, a second chance, a future.

Behind them was Nazi-occupied France and certain incarceration or death.

During World War II, a perilous route through the Pyrenees mountains provided a means for hundreds of thousands of resistance fighters, civilians, Jews, allied soldiers and escaped prisoners of war to evade Nazi pursuers.

For many, the journey up through rocky boulder fields and frozen glaciers was the final stretch in a long and fraught journey across wartime Europe, hiding from German military, Gestapo secret police and SS paramilitary forces.

This month, the route which starts in France’s Ariege Pyrenees, once again echoed to footfalls as 87 people climbed their way from France to Spain, including descendants of those who made their escape, walking to honor their relatives.

The Freedom Trail, whose final ascent is attacked in a zig-zag path through an ice sheet, is an annual “walking memorial,” as Englishman Paul Williams, a mountain guide and guardian of local history, puts it.

Communing with the past

Formally recognized by French presidential decree in 1994 to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings that began the liberation of France, the trek remembers those who fled to Spain during the war.

Among previous hikers is Luke Janiszewski, a 25-year-old from the Baltimore area.

Lt. Richard Christenson, a B-17 pilot, was shot down over northern France and spirited out over the Pyrenees while the war was still ongoing. But he made it back home to live out the rest of his days with Ruth, his wife.

His daughter Kathryn, 81, who has written a book about his escape, and  grandchildren Marie, 52, and Tim, 54, joined great-grandchildren Luke and Jake to walk the train in 2018, its 25th anniversary. 

“I felt in a little bit of communion with him, you know?” Luke, who never knew his great-grandfather, remembered.

That reunion with the past came alive over a dinner before the walk, where the Janiszewskis met descendants of the local family who saved Lt. Christenson.

Sitting down with them, Tim reflected on how this human drama played out against the backdrop of America’s role in bringing an end to World War II.

“We came in and saved France but your grandfather or your great-grandfather saved my grandfather as he was trying to help save you. It’s just this beautiful web and connection that makes you feel united in one with everybody.”

Local hero

On the second weekend of July each year, this walk creates its own memories. This year it was dedicated, in particular, to Paul Broué, a French resistance member and one of the founders of the Freedom Trail Association.

Born July 9, 1923, he made his escape over the Pyrenees in July of 1944. Had he not passed away in 2020, this year would have been his 100th birthday.

Broué was the embodiment of local wartime stories – not just the mountain guide “passeurs” but also the families who hid, guided and died to help men like Christenson.

Roughly 50% of British and American escapees came through this area of the mountains, according to Guy Seris, a retired French colonel who is now president of the FTA, which organizes the four-day, 40-mile hike.

Seris is also a local man, from Seix, a town in the lush wooded foothills that is the first stopping point on the trail, and where the local mayor hosts a “vin d’honneur” evening meal to mark the occasion.

This year in his speeches to the walkers, he stressed that those old enough, who fought in the war “or lived it or mostly heard it spoken about at home,” had a duty to tell younger generations about it.

It is those memories that walkers carry with them and into Spain. The two countries are bound by the shared life on the mountains – a life of pine forest flocks and herds of belled cows that a border cannot separate.

Before the outbreak of World War II, the region saw the mountain escape routes used in reverse, as Republican refugees crossed into France to flee General Franco’s rule at the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Although Franco was sympathetic to Germany, Spain remained neutral during World War II, largely because of its dependence on US imports. And so, a blind eye was turned to those crossing the Pyrenees.

Escaping Allied servicemen who did make it over would be held in the nearest Spanish town, transferred to a prison camp and freed not long after.

Goosebumps moment

US Air Force Second Lieutenant Frank McNichol was briefly held prisoner in the Spanish town of Isaba when he made the crossing in 1944 after being shot down during a bombing raid.

His son, Joseph McNichol, 64, a retired Floridian police officer, recounted making a pilgrimage in 2016 to see the cell where his father had been incarcerated.

“It was a holiday in that part of Spain but our hotel called the mayor, who they knew, and explained the situation,” McNichol said.

“He was more than happy to come that morning and open up city hall and show me the room, which was just a dusty old storage room.”

McNichol said he was only seven when his father later died of liver failure from hepatitis, likely caught from his time in France.

“I never had an adult conversation with my father about anything, not the least of which is this topic.”

Reflecting on seeing the cell in the small town in Spain, having crossed the border 72 years to the day his father was there, he said: “It gives me goosebumps just to talk about it.”

North Korea fired what it said was a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, just days after Pyongyang threatened to shoot down US military reconnaissance planes flying over nearby waters.

The launch follows several other recent tests of North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which have raised alarm among adversaries as the isolated authoritarian nation ramps up its efforts to develop weapons capable of potentially striking major US cities.

A White House statement said the launch “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region.”

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking from the sidelines of the NATO summit meeting on Wednesday, called the launch “unacceptable’” and a threat to regional stability and the international community.

Wednesday’s test was of the Hwasong-18, a powerful solid-fueled ICBM of a type that Pyongyang last launched in April, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Leader Kim Jong Un said at the time the Hwasong-18 would provide the country with a “powerful strategic attack means” and boost its nuclear capabilities.

Pyongyang tested the liquid-fueled Hwasong-17 in March.

The ICBM fired on Wednesday flew about 1,000 kilometers, staying airborne for 74 minutes, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry – a marginal advancement on the ballistic missiles it tested earlier this year.

Here’s what we know about the ICBMs in North Korea’s arsenal.

Liquid vs. solid-fueled missiles

The Hwasong-17 is a liquid-fueled ICBM unveiled in 2022, when North Korea held its first long-range missile test in more than four years. Liquid-fuel technology is comparatively easier to master.

The Hwasong-18, meanwhile, is a solid-fueled missile, according to Pyongyang – which makes it far more advanced, and would allow North Korea to launch long-range nuclear strikes more quickly.

Solid-fueled ICBMs are more stable, and can be moved more easily to avoid detection before a launch that can be initiated in a matter of minutes, experts say – compared to liquid-fueled missiles that may need hours before launch, giving time for adversaries to detect and neutralize the weapon.

North Korea’s advancement from the Hwasong-17 last year to the Hwasong-18 this year suggests its missile program is making progress, experts say, reflecting Kim’s goal of matching the military capabilities of other nations like the United States or European countries.

Successive launches allow North Korea to gather more data to refine its missile technology.

Can it carry a nuclear warhead?

ICBMs could, at least theoretically, put the entire US mainland in range of a North Korean nuclear warhead – but there’s a lot of unknowns about the missile’s capability to deliver a nuclear payload on target.

Past tests have shown the possible range of North Korea’s missiles – the tests in March and April all traveled about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). And the Hwasong-17 test last year flew 1,090 kilometers (681 miles), lasting 68 minutes before landing in the sea.

The 74-minute flight time of the latest missile is a few minutes longer than those tested in March and April.

It’s not clear what kind of payloads were involved in these tests. The weight of the payload affects how far a missile can fly, so without this information, observers cannot know for sure the missile’s actual range.

Another question is whether a North Korean nuclear warhead could survive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

ICBMs are fired into space, where they speed along outside Earth’s atmosphere before their payloads undergo a fiery reentry process, much like a space shuttle or space capsule, before plunging down on their targets.

If the process of reentering the atmosphere isn’t executed with pinpoint accuracy and with materials that can withstand the immense heat generated, the warhead will burn up before reaching its target. The angle at which the warhead reenters the atmosphere can make the process more difficult.

“The launch of Hwasong-18 shows that it has a range of about 15,000 kilometers based on the altitude, distance and the flight time of the missile,” said Yang Wook, a researcher at Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

“However, it cannot be evaluated that North Korea has succeeded in obtaining full technology of an ICBM as it hasn’t proved the functions for reentry and accuracy using multi-warheads that are required for the use of the missile,” Yang said.

What’s next in North Korea’s missile program?

Kim has laid out an ambitious plan to give North Korea a credible nuclear deterrent, meaning an arsenal powerful enough to prevent any adversary, most notably the US, from attacking.

Experts have said the leader has set a long list of weapons modernizations in recent years that he is now working through – with ICBMs only one of those items. Other goals may include launching a military satellite, or putting a nuclear-powered submarine to sea.

Previously, North Korea has announced plans to enhance the accuracy of its missiles and increase the range up to 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles).

These ambitions were made clear last year when Kim dramatically ramped up the frequency and intensity of weapons testing, which eased slightly this year, but remains at much higher levels than in past years.

The country fired more missiles in 2022 than any other year on record – at one point launching 23 missiles in a single day.

These tests also refocused attention on North Korea’s nuclear goals, with Kim vowing to develop his nuclear forces at the “highest possible” speed last year. The US and international observers began warning last year that an underground nuclear test could be imminent, after satellite imagery showed new activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site. Such a test would be the country’s first since 2017.

Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said more North Korean tests are likely in the works.

How has the US and its allies responded?

The test on Wednesday sparked strong condemnation from neighboring countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently at the NATO summit in Lithuania, said he would call for “strong international solidarity” among bloc members in response to the launch. On Wednesday morning, he presided over an emergency National Security Council meeting from Lithuania.

US and South Korean officials met shortly after the test to share information, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). Both countries are analyzing the launch.

The Japanese chief cabinet secretary lodged a protest against North Korea through embassy channels in Beijing.

The United Nations Security Council has passed resolutions prohibiting Pyongyang’s ballistic missile testing, but last year China and Russia blocked new resolutions, which the US sees as a green light for North Korea to continue its programs.

As a series of welcoming cannon blasts rang out from a nearby colonial fort, the Russian navy’s training class ship Perekop sailed into Havana on Tuesday.

While in Cuba for a four-day visit, the Perekop’s sailors will “carry out a wide range of activities,” according to Cuba’s state-run Prensa Latina news service, and members of the Cuban public will be given the opportunity to tour the ship.

It is the first official visit by a Russian naval vessel to Cuba in years – and another sign of the reforging of the relationship between the two Cold War-era allies after the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly brought down the Cuban economy with it.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to its widespread ostracization, the Cuban government increasingly has defended Moscow.

“We are condemning, we are rejecting, the expansion of NATO towards Russia’s borders,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told Russian-controlled network, RT, in a rare interview in May.

He also blasted US economic sanctions on Russia, while heralding Russian “projects of cooperation and collaboration” under development in Cuba.

The two countries have also announced a flurry of agreements and exchanged high level delegations. The deals include allowing Russia to lease land in Cuba for up to 30 years, develop beachside tourist facilities near Havana, open a supermarket with Russian products and supply the island with badly needed fuel.

According to Jorge R. Piñon, a senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute, from the beginning of the Ukraine war, Russia has sent Cuba more oil than at any time since the fall of the USSR. So far in 2023, Piñon estimated, Russian has delivered approximately $167 million worth of oil.

The oil has been a crucial lifeline for cash-strapped Cuba this year, as shortages led to days-long waits to fill up cars across the island.

Rekindling ties

For much of the Cold War, Cuba and the former Soviet Union cultivated deep ties.

The USSR stationed thousands of diplomats, spies and military advisers on the island and built a towering embassy in Havana meant to symbolize a scimitar in the heart of US imperialism.

A generation of Cubans braved unfamiliar cold weather to study in Soviet countries. A popular TV game show called “9550” – for the number of kilometers separating Cuba from Russia – quizzed Cubans about Soviet life with the grand prize a paid trip to the USSR.

But following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba lost its main trading partner and entered a deep economic depression. Since then, Cubans either regard their once-upon-a-time closeness with Russians with deep nostalgia or with the disdain of a failed marriage.

Now, the rekindled relationship has led some Cuba watchers to lament a missed opportunity for the US.

While former US President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba and eased economic sanctions, his successor, President Donald Trump reversed much of that opening. The current incumbent, President Joe Biden, has for the most part kept Trump-era sanctions in place while demanding that Cuba release prisoners jailed for taking place in widespread protests two years ago.

“It seems that under Trump and followed by Biden, the US has all but ceded the field,” said Ric Herrero, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, which promotes greater engagement between the US and Cuba.

“There has been very modest easing of sanctions, mostly citing humanitarian concerns, and opening up travel, remittances and restaffing the embassy and consulate but we have seen a White House that otherwise has been unconcerned with Cuba,” Herrero said.

But the US’s top diplomat in Havana said the talk of a greater Russian presence in Cuba so far appears to be just lip-service.

The Russians are not the only ones flexing military might in Cuba. On Tuesday, the Cuban government blasted the US for its nuclear submarine’s three-day visit to the US Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, calling it “a provocative escalation.”

More than sixty years after the US and the USSR faced-off over Soviet nuclear missiles secretly placed in Cuba, the East and West still appear to be jockeying over who will exert greater influence over the island.

Despite the high cost of the war in Ukraine and economic sanctions, Russian officials say they are committed to Cuba.

“Cuba has been and remains Russia’s most important ally in the region,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said while meeting with his Cuban counterpart Alvaro Lopez Miera in late June in Moscow.

“We are ready to render assistance to the island of freedom and to lend a shoulder to our Cuban friends,” Shoigu said.

“I was involved in the Nairobi protests. We were dispersed with water cannons, tear gas canisters, and live bullets,” Wandayi said.

“We are still verifying but so far, we have confirmed nine deaths across the country. The numbers might increase because there were many people with fatal injuries.”

Some of the protesters allegedly pelted stones at public properties and also destroyed a section of a major highway in Machakos’ Mlolongo town, Citizen TV reported.

A steep cost for Kenyans

Kenyan opposition leader and former prime minister Raila Odinga has led calls for nationwide protests over the increases.

Odinga lost the election in August last year and believes the results were manipulated and has since led civil disobedience protests against his political rival.

A Kenyan court temporarily halted the implementation of the Finance Act 2023 touted by President William Ruto as a measure to shore up public finances and increase domestic revenue.

However, the Ruto administration defied the court order and increased tax on fuel prices, which has led to a rise in cost of transport and staple goods.

“Kenyans are basically now on their knees. These new tax proposals have added serious pain to an already difficult situation. Kenyans who are on payroll are taking home negative salaries, and those who are in the informal sector are unable to make ends meet,” he said.

“Many Kenyans are unable to put three meals on the table in a day, and they are very angry at the situation as it is currently.”

The head of a United Nations agency has called for an investigation into the killing of at least 87 people who were discovered in a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur region.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has demanded a “prompt, thorough and independent investigation” into the grim discovery outside the region’s capital El-Geneina.

Türk’s demand came shortly before the International Criminal Court (ICC) said it launched a fresh investigation into alleged war crimes in Sudan, following 90 days of escalating violence between the warring factions of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan made the announcement in a report to the UN Security Council Thursday, saying “we are in the midst of a human catastrophe.”

Inside the mass grave were bodies of ethnic Masalit who along with other non-Arab communities are often targeted by Arab militias, supported by the RSF, according to Human Rights Watch.

The deceased were allegedly killed last month by the paramilitary RSF and their allied militia, the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement Thursday.

“According to credible information gathered by the Office, those buried in the mass grave were killed by RSF and their allied militia around 13-21 June in El-Geneina’s Al-Madaress and Al-Jamarek districts…,” the statement said.

The statement added that the bodies included victims of the violence that occurred following the assassination of Khamis Abbaker, the Governor of West Darfur, on June 14, and others who died due to untreated injuries.

Türk strongly condemned the killings and said he was “appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated.”

He urged the RSF and other parties involved in the conflict to abide by international law and facilitate prompt searches for the deceased, and their collection and evacuation, without discrimination based on ethnic background.

“The RSF’s leadership and their allied militia as well as all parties to an armed conflict are required to ensure that the dead are properly handled, and their dignity protected,” Türk stressed.

West Darfur remains one of the most conflict-ridden areas in the Sudanese Darfur region, with a long history of severe violence.

International aid agency Save the Children said Thursday its staff fleeing the city of El Geneina, the West Darfur capital, saw hundreds of bodies, including those belonging to children, along the road.

“We spent 49 days indoors as outside the snipers did not stop. Our only wish was to get up in the early morning hours to get one jerry can of water before the fighting starts again,” said Ahmed, who works for Save the Children in West Darfur, according to a press release from the organization.

“When we finally managed to leave there were bodies everywhere on the ground in Geneina town. There were thousands of men, women and children, no one was spared. There are flies everywhere,” said Ahmed, who recently escaped the violence and is now taking refuge in Kassala state.

The recent killings reflect the atrocities committed during the early 2000s, where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in an ethnic cleansing campaign led by the Janjaweed, an Arab militia that preceded the RSF.

ICC opens new investigation

ICC Chief Prosecutor Khan called for urgent action into the alleged war crimes, saying that attacks on civilians, particularly targeting children and women, are prohibited by the Rome Statute.

“The current security situation in Sudan and the escalation of violence during the current hostilities are matters of great concern to the Office,” he said.

“As we speak there are women and children in fear of the lives.”

Khan also said the ICC was investigating reports of fresh crimes in Darfur after the UN’s revelations about the mass grave of at least 87 people in Darfur.

The ICC has been investigating crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2005 after a referral by the UN Security Council, and the Hague-based court has charged former leader Omar al-Bashir with offenses including genocide.

Khan said the risk of further war crimes was “deepened by the clear and long-standing disregard demonstrated by relevant actors, including the government of Sudan, for their obligations.”