The estimated number of deaths in the Libyan city of Derna after a catastrophic flood could reach 18,000 to 20,000, Derna's mayor has told an international newspaper.

Abdulmenam al Ghaithi told the Saudi-owned television late on Wednesday the estimated number of deaths in the city could reach 18,000 to 20,000 based on the number of districts destroyed by the flood.

It comes as Libya continues to reel from a massive flood that left nearly 4,000 dead and thousands more missing, wreaking havoc in the eastern city of Derna, where bodies wrapped in blankets lined the ravaged streets.

Relief missions gathered pace with Türkiye, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates among the first nations to rush aid to the war-scarred country after the disaster that also displaced tens of thousands.

The Mediterranean coastal city of Derna was hit by a huge flash flood late on Sunday that witnesses likened to a tsunami after two upstream dams burst when torrential rains brought by Storm Daniel battered the region.

Footage broadcast by state media showed an apocalyptic landscape in the city, with debris littering streets and people lifting sheets off bodies lying on sidewalks to try to identify them.

Satellite images of Derna after the surge of water showed coastal neighbourhoods almost entirely submerged.

The United Nations has pledged $10 million in support for survivors, including at least 30,000 people it said had been left homeless in Derna.

The wall of water ripped away buildings, vehicles and the people inside them. Many were swept out into the sea, with bodies later washing up on beaches littered with debris and car wrecks.

Flooding amid heating planet and war

Traumatised survivors have dug through the mud-caked ruins of shattered buildings to recover bodies, scores of which were lying out in the open before being buried in mass graves.

The confirmed death toll reached 3,840 by Wednesday afternoon, said Lieutenant Tarek al Kharraz, spokesman for the eastern-based government's Interior Ministry.

The figure includes 3,190 victims who have already been buried and at least 400 foreigners, mostly from Sudan and Egypt, Kharraz told an international news agency, adding 2,400 people were still missing.

Some media reports have quoted officials giving higher tolls.

Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday "the death toll is huge" and is likely to grow.

He added the organisation had independent sources saying that "the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far".

Oil-rich Libya is still recovering from the war and chaos that followed an uprising which toppled and killed long time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The country has been left divided between two rival administrations — the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.

Rescue teams from Türkiye have arrived in eastern Libya, authorities said. Algeria, France, Italy, Qatar and Tunisia also pledged to help.

The UAE sent two planes carrying 150 tonnes of aid.

The European Union said assistance from Germany, Romania and Finland had been dispatched.

A Kuwaiti flight took off Wednesday with 40 tonnes of supplies, the IFRC said.

Palestinian media reported a rescue mission had left from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and Jordan sent a military plane loaded with food parcels, tents, blankets and mattresses.

Climate experts have linked Libya's disaster to a combination of the impacts of a heating planet and the country's years of political chaos and underinvestment in infrastructure

Local media reported that around a dozen were feared dead. Some 70 people were rescued, over 50 of which needed hospital care due to injuries sustained.

The apartment block is believed to house some 150 residents in all.

The fire is believed to have started in the parking floor of the building just before midnight, witnesses told reporters. The area is packed with residents' motorbikes.

Footage from the scene showed flames and a column of thick, dark smoke. Firefighters were seen trying to put out the fire, using hoses and ladders.

The flames were put out by early Wednesday, but rescuers still struggled to access the building, which lies in a narrow alley in a Hanoi residential area.

Deadly fires are common in Vietnam. In recent years, several fires have killed many, including one at a Karaoke bar last year which killed over 30 people.

Trudeau arrived in India for the meeting of the leaders of 20 leading economies on Friday and was due to return home on Sunday after laying a wreath at a memorial to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

However, a mechanical fault detected during pre-flight checks resulted in the grounding of his plane by the Canadian Armed Forces and he was stranded along with his entire delegation.

Air traffic tracker Flightradar24 showed Royal Canada Air Force plane CFC01 taking off from Delhi airport shortly after 1pm local time (0730 GMT).

Trudeau’s press secretary Mohammad Hussain confirmed to AFP that the Canadian G20 delegation was aboard the flight.

Canadian broadcaster CTV said the Airbus CC-150 had a history of operational issues.

Since Trudeau did not have any further diplomatic engagements with the Indian government, he stayed at his hotel along with his 16-year-old son Xavier, media reports said.

Trudeau’s presence at the G20 summit was more muted than some of his G7 counterparts and came against a backdrop of tensions between his government and host India over Ottawa’s handling of right-wing Sikh separatists.

New Delhi accuses Ottawa of turning a blind eye to the activities of Sikh nationalists who seek a separate Sikh homeland in northern India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed “strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada” during a meeting with Trudeau, according to an Indian government statement.

Canada also recently suspended negotiations for a free trade agreement with India.

Trudeau later told media that Canada would always defend “freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of peaceful protest” while acting against hatred.

It is further added in the statement, "We have consistently pursued the policy of facilitating national reconciliation and settlement in Afghanistan, as well as maintaining stability and making it a state free from terrorism and drugs. We are seriously concerned about the growing influence of ISIL and the threat of its terrorist activities spilling over into Central Asia.

We stand for sustained and pragmatic interaction of the international community with the Taliban de facto authorities. We are convinced that expanding dialogue with Kabul is in the interests of the security and economic development of the entire region.

We will continue work within credible multilateral platforms, such as the Moscow Format of Consultations, the Neighbouring Countries of Afghanistan mechanism, the regional Quartet (Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan), as well as within regional organizations, primarily the CSTO and the SCO. We have taken steps to establish a new regional Five format involving Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan.

We believe that the US and its allies, who are responsible for the critical situation in Afghanistan following their 20-year presence, should bear the major costs of the post-conflict reconstruction of the country.

We attach great significance to the activities of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, first and foremost in the context of increasing humanitarian support to the local population, creating conditions for an early unfreezing of Afghan assets and mobilizing donor funds to revive the national economy".

The United Nations estimated that some 300,000 people had been affected by the al-Houz quake — a powerful 6.8 magnitude temblor that struck a region unaccustomed and ill-prepared for such a jolt. On Monday, the death toll rose to 2,862, with another 2,562 injured, according to Morocco's Ministry of Interior.

Video continued to emerge over the weekend capturing both the extent of the devastation, and the frenzied moments right after the earthquake struck the North African nation.

The frantic effort to find survivors was still underway, as others turned to mourning their loved ones.

"We were having dinner," said Hamid Ben Henna. "I asked my son to bring a knife from the kitchen to cut the dessert, but he never did because as soon as he left the kitchen, the earthquake struck. He was buried in six feet of rubble."

The worst of the destruction is in the scenic High Atlas Mountains, where dirt roads snake into snow-capped peaks. Many of those passes have been blocked by rockslides, making it impossible to reach those still trapped beneath the debris of their homes.

Some could still be saved, but many more will need to be found and laid to rest.

"We just couldn't ever imagine something like this happening here really, It's just been totally devastating," said Helen Gallagher who emigrated to make Morocco her home. "We're just in survival mode and trying to get help out to the people who most need it, and we'll process it afterwards."

In cities like Marrakech, with its famed Casbah, medieval buildings that have stood for 1,000 years have been badly damaged. Some have fallen, and others could topple at any moment.

The need for aid is immense and urgent. The U.S. Embassy in Morocco said it was aware of a small number of Americans who were hurt in the quake, but none who were killed.

In a press briefing on Monday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that he had no specific details about Ambassador Donald Blome’s meeting with Chief Election Commissioner. However, he added that the US embassy in Pakistan could be asked for details, whcih they would be ‘happy’ to provide.

“But I think I see where you’re going with the question, and so I will reiterate what I’ve said a number of times, which is that the United States does not take any position with respect to the outcome of an election in Pakistan,” he said in response to a question about the meeting.

He added that the US does not support any political party or candidate in Pakistan and urges ‘free and fair’ elections across the world.

Miller was also asked about the dollar rate being ‘four times stronger’ in Afghanistan compared to Pakisan. In response, he only commented about support for economic reforms in Pakistan.

“I’ve spoken to this on a number of occasions about our support for reforms that would allow the improvement of the economy in Pakistan, and will continue to do so,” he said.

US ambassador Donald Blome had met the chief election commissioner on August 24, hors before the Election Commission held a key meeting regarding general elections in the country.

Kim met with the visiting Chinese delegation led by Liu Guozhong, vice-premier of the State Council, the second such visit by top officials from Beijing in six weeks. The two sides announced their aims of “further intensifying the multi-faceted coordination and cooperation” between the two countries, according to a separate KCNA report.

Russian diplomats also attended the event, as well as a Russian military song-and-dance ensemble which had arrived in Pyongyang to mark the occasion, KCNA reported.

Moscow expanded its official presence in North Korea shortly before the parade, with its Pyong­yang embassy saying this week that it had been allowed to bring in 20 diplomatic and technical staff — the first such rotation of personnel since 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Kim a message marking the anniversary, KCNA said Saturday, in which he called for the two countries to “expand the bilateral ties in all respects”.

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said early on Saturday that the reported number of dead and injured was a preliminary figure.

“According to a provisional report, the earthquake killed 296 people in the provinces and municipalities of Al Haouz, Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Azilal, Chichaoua and Taroudant,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that 153 people were injured and hospitalised.

The earthquake hit shortly after 11pm local time (22:00 GMT) on Friday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The USGS estimates that the epicentre of the quake occurred in the Atlas Mountains, some 75km (44 miles) from Marrakesh, the fourth largest city in the country.

The epicentre of the quake was near the mountain town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70km (43.5 miles) south of Marrakesh.

Local media reported that roads leading to the mountain region around the epicentre were jammed with vehicles and blocked with collapsed rocks, slowing rescue efforts.

Abderrahim Ait Daoud, the head of a town in the area, told the Moroccan news site 2M that several homes nearby had partly or totally collapsed, and electricity and roads were cut off in some places.

He also said that authorities were working to clear roads in Al Haouz province to allow passage for ambulances and aid to populations affected. Large distances between mountain villages mean it will take time to learn the full extent of the damage, he added.

Moroccans posted videos showing buildings reduced to rubble and dust, and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakesh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, damaged. Tourists and others posted videos of people screaming and evacuating restaurants in the city. Shocked residents in Marrakesh and Casablanca fled out of buildings and onto the streets for safety.

One Marrakesh resident, Brahim Himmi, told international news agency that he spotted ambulances leaving the city’s historic old town. He also said that building facades had been damaged as the earth shook.”

While earthquakes in the region are “uncommon but not unexpected”, one of this magnitude has not been seen in the immediate area in over 120 years.

“Since 1900, there have been no earthquakes M6 [magnitude 6] or larger within 500km of this earthquake, and only nine M5 [magnitude 5] and larger,” the USGS said on its website.

Most of those previous earthquakes occurred further to the east as well, the agency added.

Friday evening’s earthquake was a relatively shallow one, occurring at a depth of 18.5km (11.5 miles). The USGS explained that “oblique-reverse faulting” in the Atlas Mountains was the cause of the quake.

The last major earthquake to strike Morocco occurred in 2004, killing over 600 people. That quake, dubbed the Al Hoceima earthquake, was positioned on an active plate boundary on the country’s northernmost coast, bordering the western Mediterranean Sea. It clocked in at a magnitude of 6.3.

An even larger quake struck neighbouring Algeria in 1980. Known as the El Asnam earthquake, the 7.3-magnitude event was the strongest seismic activity the region had seen in centuries. Also originating in the Atlas Mountain range, it levelled houses, leaving 300,000 people on the street and over 2,600 people dead.

At a Wednesday afternoon news briefing in Washington, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication John Kirby also highlighted US efforts to reshape and scale up multilateral development banks like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

President Biden, he said, will discuss the proposal with G20 leaders in New Delhi this weekend.

“We know that these institutions are some of the most effective tools for mobilising transparent and high-quality investment in developing countries,” Mr Kirby said.

“And that’s why the US has championed the major effort that is currently underway to evolve these institutions so that they’re up for the challenges of tomorrow,” he added.

When reminded that in October last year, President Biden called Pakistan “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” because it had “nuclear weapons without any cohesion,” Mr Kirby explained why the US was so concerned about Pakistan.

“We know that the Pakistani people continue to suffer the threat from terrorism, particularly along that border … with Afghanistan,” he said.

“And we’re going to continue to work with Pakistan — to the degree that they’re comfortable with, of course — to help address those kinds of security threats to their own people and to their own borders because it’s not an insignificant threat,” he said.

Underlining the seriousness of the threats confronting Pakistan, Mr Kirby said: “There is a lot of danger that’s still posed to the Pakistani people, and the President understands that, and he’s committed to continue to work with Pakistan.”

He disagreed with the suggestion that the United States had left behind about $7 billion worth of weapons and equipment in Afghanistan and militant groups were now using those weapons against Pakistan.

“There was no equipment left behind by American forces. There was a small amount of equipment and some aircraft at the airport when we finished our eva-cuation efforts, but they were all rendered unusable as we left,” he said.

“In fact, the only thing that we left that the Taliban could take advantage of was some airport mechanic capabilities: tow trucks and trucks with ladders on them, and some firefighting equipment,” he added.

Mr Kirby explained that the equipment that people were saying the Americans left beh­ind, that was transferred to the Afghan National Secur­ity For­ces before the US withdrawal.

“As the Taliban advanced on Kabul and other places throughout the country, they (official Afghan forces) abandoned that equipment, not the US,” he added.

Asked if President Biden will also discuss the held Kash­mir issue with Indian leaders in New Delhi, Mr Kirby said that America’s Kashmir policy had not changed. “We believe that the tensions there are best resolved by the parties themselves,” he said.

“Human rights are a cornerstone of President Biden’s foreign policy, and he never shies away, nor will he ever shy away from raising concerns about human rights with his counterparts overseas,” he said when asked if President Biden will also discuss the human rights situation in Kashmir with the Indian leader.

“And that was the case when Prime Minister Modi visited Washington not long ago, and it will be the case going forward. I mean, he absolutely will not shy away from mentioning our concerns and raising our concerns about civil and human rights all around the world, including there,” he said.

Asked if he would urge Indian leaders to resume talks with Pakistan, Mr Kirby said, “That’s for Indian leaders to speak to.”

Responding to a question about US efforts to reshape the IMF and the World Bank, Mr Kirby said President Biden asked the US Congress last month for additional funds that would increase World Bank financing by more than $25bn.

“The US was also working with its partners to see if they could pursue similar contributions,” he added.

Mr Kirby said that during his India visit, President Biden would urge G20 leaders as well to provide meaningful debt relief so that low- and middle-income countries can regain their footing after years of stress on their economies and their people.

However, the spokesperson said that Washington would work with Pakistan to counter the threat it faced from Afghanistan border.

At a briefing, NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby discussed Biden-Harris Administration goals and priorities at the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit and U.S.-ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

At one point, a Pakistani journalist said, “Groups like ISIS, al-Qaida, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, many others, also gained the control of the military equipment, about $7 billion, left behind by American forces.”

Kirby interrupted him with “whoa, whoa, whoa, say that last part again?”

When the journalist said that militants gained the control of the military equipment left behind by American forces in Afghanistan, Kirby stopped him there.

“Just let me stop you right there.”

He then vociferously rejected the notion that the US abandoned military hardware in Afghanistan.

“There was no equipment left behind by American forces. There was a small amount of equipment and some aircraft at the airport when we finished our evacuation efforts, but they were all rendered unusable as we left. In fact, the only thing that we left – we left that the Taliban could take advantage of was some airport mechanic capabilities: tow trucks and trucks with ladders on them, and that kind of thing; I think some firefighting equipment.”

Kirby did admit that military equipment fell into the hands of militants saying “the equipment that you’re talking about, and I don’t mean to get pugilistic here, but it’s an important point – the equipment that people are saying the Americans left behind, that was equipment that was transferred well in advance of our departure to the Afghan National Security Forces. It belonged to the Afghan National Security Forces, because that was part of the mission that our troops were involved in Afghanistan to do in the first place, which was to train up and to support Afghan national security forces as they took charge of security in their country. And they needed equipment to do that, and so there – yeah, there was turnover of American equipment to them.”

Kirby said that Afghan forces abandoned that equipment, not the United States. “Sorry to interrupt you, but that’s an important point, and I wanted to make sure I made that,” he said.

In response to another question about President Biden’s remarks that Pakistan is the most dangerous country with the nuclear weapons, John Kirby said the Biden administration would work with Pakistan to mitigate threat from Afghanistan border.

“We know that the Pakistani people continue to suffer the threat from terrorism, particularly along that border, that border with Afghanistan. And we’re going to continue to work with Pakistan – to the degree that they’re comfortable with, of course – to help address those kinds of security threats to their own people and to their own borders because it’s not an insignificant threat. There’s a – there is a lot of danger that’s still posed to the Pakistani people, and the President understands that, and he’s committed to continue to work with Pakistan.”

The UK was set to make the Wagner Group a “proscribed” organization under anti-terror laws, putting it on a par with Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, a report in an international newspaper said.

“Wagner is a violent and destructive organization which has acted as a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia overseas,” the newspaper quoted Braverman as saying.

“While Putin’s regime decides what to do with the monster it created, Wagner’s continuing destabilising activities only continue to serve the Kremlin’s political goals.”

Under the Terrorism Act 2000 the home secretary has the power to proscribe an organization if they believe it is involved in terrorism.

A proscription order makes it a criminal offense to support the group.

“They are terrorists, plain and simple — and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law,” an international newspaper  added, quoting the minister.

“Wagner has been involved in looting, torture and barbarous murders,” Braverman added in an international news paper.

The group’s operations in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa “are a threat to global security,” she said. “That is why we are proscribing this terrorist organization and continuing to aid Ukraine wherever we can in its fight against Russia.”

Draft measures to ban the Wagner Group under the act will be laid in Parliament on Wednesday, the reports said.

In July, Britain announced sanctions against 13 individuals and businesses it said had links to the Russian group in Africa, accusing it of crimes there including killings and torture.

The people and entities targeted — which are no longer able to deal with UK citizens, companies and banks, and have any UK assets frozen — were allegedly involved in Wagner’s activities in Mali, Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan. They included the purported head of Wagner in Mali, Ivan Aleksandrovitch Maslov; its chief in CAR, Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev; and the group’s operations head there, Konstantin Aleksandrovitch Pikalov.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last month in a plane crash, had already been sanctioned by Britain alongside several of his key commanders who had participated in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Prigozhin — a Kremlin confidant turned “traitor” — died two months after ordering his troops to topple Russia’s military leadership.

Biden’s 72-year-old wife, whose symptoms were described as mild, last had COVID in August of last year. The president, now 80, last tested positive in July 2022.

“This evening, the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19,” her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement. “She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.”Biden flew back alone from Delaware on Monday evening.

“Following the First Lady’s positive test for COVID-19, President Biden was administered a COVID test this evening,” the White House said. “The President tested negative. The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Biden’s foreign travel could be affected. But Biden’s official week-ahead schedule, released shortly after the announcement of the first lady’s diagnosis, showed him traveling to New Delhi on Thursday to attend the G20 summit. Biden is scheduled to fly to Hanoi on Sunday.

Biden is running for re-election in 2024 in a campaign in which the question about his age has loomed as a key issue for voters. He is the oldest president to seek a second term, and some Republicans have said he is too old to be given another four years in the White House. Biden’s allies say he remains fit to serve as president.

Haikui initially appeared to leave the island but made a second landfall early on Monday in southwestern Kaohsiung, before it was downgraded to a severe tropical storm.

There were no reports of deaths, but destruction was seen in coastal Taitung, a mountainous county in lesser-populated eastern Taiwan where the storm directly hit the day before.

“I’ve lived here for so long and I have never seen such wind gusts,” said Chen Hai-feng, 55, a village chief in Taitung’s Donghe township, where he was with an early-morning work crew removing trees from a road.

Although Haikui is considered to be less severe than previous storms, Chen said it felt more powerful.

“It came straight through us.”

Further north from Donghe, workers ferried massive blocks to a coastal highway that had partially collapsed from the force of waves slamming into it, hoping that the concrete structures would absorb the impact.

Haikui — the first typhoon landfall in Taiwan in four years — forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 people across the island, particularly from landslide-prone mountainous regions. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and businesses were closed.

More than 217,000 households temporarily lost power through the day. By Monday morning, 58,000 homes still had no electricity, while schools and businesses remained closed in 14 cities as torrential rain bucketed down.

A forecaster with Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said Haikui initially appeared to move through the island and out to sea but made a second landfall in Kaohsiung at around 4am (2000 GMT Sunday).

During the night “the centre of the typhoon was almost circling” Kaohsiung, but as it moved along the coastline “the structure of the typhoon is damaged by the terrain and gradually weakens”, she said.

Local news outlets reported that the roads were flooded in Kaohsiung, and uprooted trees were strewn across streets.

Nearly 80 people were injured during the typhoon, according to authorities, though they were minor — mostly due to fallen trees and car accidents.

Haikui is now expected to bring strong winds and rain to the south and northeast, and to Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen and Penghu.

Asked about Xi reportedly not planning to join the gathering in New Delhi, Biden told reporters, “I am disappointed, but I am going to get to see him,” without elaborating.

Bilateral ties between the United States and China face a long list of problems, from trade disputes to Taiwan’s future to the expansive Chinese presence in the South China Sea.

The United States has been working to restore a more effective working relationship, sending a series of senior officials to China in recent months despite continuing friction.

On Thursday, a senior EU official said that Xi would not be at the G20, represented instead by Premier Li Qiang.

Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rare face-to-face talks at the BRICS group summit in South Africa last month, but tensions also remain high between the Asian giants.

Relations between the world’s two most populous countries have been in deep freeze since a Himalayan border clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops in 2020.

“The death toll from the aerial bombardment” in southern Khartoum “has risen to 20 civilian fatalities,” according to a statement by the neighbourhood’s resistance committee.

They are among many volunteer groups that used to organise pro-democracy demonstrations and now provide assistance to families caught in the crossfire between the army and paramilitary fighters.

In an earlier statement, they said the victims included two children, and warned that more fatalities went unrecorded, as “their bodies could not be moved to the hospital because they were severely burned or torn to pieces in the bombing”.

Since war began between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15, around 5,000 people have been killed, according to estimates from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

The Sudanese Armed Forces control the skies and have carried out regular air strikes while RSF fighters dominate the streets of the capital.

Western countries have accused the paramilitaries and allied militias of killings based on ethnicity in the western Darfur region, and the International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes.

The army has also been accused of abuses, including a July 8 air strike that killed around two dozen civilians.

More than half of Sudan’s 48 million people now require humanitarian aid and protection, and six million are “one step away from famine”, according to the United Nations.

Despite insecurity, looting and bureaucratic obstacles, the world body says it has been able to get aid to millions of those in need. The war has internally displaced around 3.8 million people, the UN says, while another million have crossed borders into neighbouring countries.

Among the displaced are nearly 2.8 million from Khartoum, according to the International Organi­sation for Migration. That is more than half the capital’s pre-war population of around five million. Those who remain shelter from the crossfire, rationing water and electricity.

In Khartoum, resistance committees have been some of the only sources of relief, helping dig survivors out of the rubble of bombed buildings, braving gunfire on the streets to deliver medicine and documenting atrocities committed by both sides.

Nearly five months in, the violence shows no signs of abating. Witnesses on Sunday again reported the army targeting RSF positions in northern Khartoum with “artillery and rocket fire”.

In Khartoum, resistance committees have been some of the only sources of relief, helping dig survivors out of the rubble of bombed buildings, braving gunfire on the streets to deliver medicine and documenting atrocities committed by both sides.

Nearly five months in, the violence shows no signs of abating.

Witnesses on Sunday again repor­ted the army targeting RSF positions in northern Khartoum with “artillery and rocket fire”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen attended an official ceremony for the opening of the diplomatic mission during a visit to Bahrain which included a delegation of businessmen and government officials.

“The (Bahrain) foreign minister and I agreed that we should work together to increase the number of direct flights, the tourism, the trade volume, the investments,” Cohen said during the ceremony.

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani said the inauguration of the embassy “signifies our shared commitment to security and prosperity for all the peoples of our region”.

The normalisation deal between Bahrain and Israel was part of a series of agreements, known as the Abraham Accords, which were also signed with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, is a small island on the Gulf where Saudi Sunni allies, the Al Khalifa royal family, rule over a Shi’ite majority.

Analysts said the rapprochement with Israel was forged partly through shared fears of Iran.

The opening of the Israeli embassy in Bahrain came as the United States is pressing its traditional ally Riyadh to sign a similar deal for Saudi Arabia, a Muslim powerhouse and home to Islam’s holiest shrines.

However, Riyadh has so far resisted U.S. pressure and linked the move to the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with other demands.

Images circulating on social media showed one of the light attack training jet parked at a hanger, with IRIAF logo printed on its fuselage, Iran’s news agencies reported.

The Yakovlev Yak-130, developed by Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer Yakovlev in conjunction with Italian firm Aermacchi, is a subsonic two-seat jet trainer and light combat aircraft.

The jet trainer entered service with the Russian Air Force in 2010, and is currently employed by Algerian, Bangladeshi, Belarusian, Laotian and Myanmar air forces.

The Yak-130 aircraft is equipped with nine hardpoints, allowing for the attachment of various ordnance or fuel tanks. Two hardpoints are located on the wingtips, one underneath the fuselage, and six more under the wings, enabling a total combat load capacity of around 3,000 kilograms or around 6,600 pounds.

Its maximum airspeed is just below Mach 1, and the reported service ceiling is 12,500 meters or about 41,000 feet.

Earlier this year, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani launched the production line of homegrown Yasin training jet, which could also be tasked for close air support (CAS).

The new version of Yasin training jet that was unveiled on March 11 appears to have been much more upgraded and developed in tactical terms compared to the first prototype unveiled during a ceremony in Shahid Noje Airbase in Iran’s western province of Hamadan on October 17, 2019.

The Iranian jet trainer is said to be furnished with a homegrown ejection seat, avionics, engine, and landing gear.

The airborne weather radar installed on its radome has been manufactured by domestic knowledge-based companies.

Yasin reportedly weighs 5.5 tonnes, and is able to fly up to 1,200 kilometers.

Its wing design enables the jet to land and take off at a speed of at least 200 kilometers per hour.

The comments came during the first papal visit to the young democracy sandwiched between China and Russia, where the 86-year-old pontiff has hoped not only to encourage the tiny Catholic community but also use his presence at China’s backdoor to try to improve the Vatican’s relations with Beijing.

“Governments and secular institutions have nothing to fear from the Church’s work of evangelisation, for she has no political agenda to advance...” said the 86-year-old pontiff, during an address at Saints Peters and Paul Cathedral in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The Church’s message of “mercy and truth...is meant to promote the good of all,” he said.

In visiting the landlocked nation of Mongolia, a former Soviet satellite state that has been a democracy since 1992, the Argentine Jesuit has had one eye on geopolitics, even as the visit fulfils his desire to reach out to remote, largely ignored areas far from Rome. Beijing’s Communist Party is wary of the Catholic Church on its territory, and exercises strict control over all recognised religious institutions.

The Holy See renewed a deal last year with Beijing allowing both sides a say in appointing bishops in China, a move critics have called a dangerous Vatican concession in exchange for a presence in the country. Beijing has never extended an invitation for Pope Francis to visit.

The apparent message to China came on Pope Francis’ second day in Ulaanbaatar, where earlier on Saturday he was feted with an official welcome ceremony that included a phalanx of Mongolian horsemen in metal armour parading past the State Palace.

He waved to a crowd of more than a thousand people at the side of President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, in front of a massive bronze statue of Genghis Khan.

Calling himself a “pilgrim of friendship,” Pope Francis extolled the virtues of the country, including its nomadic people “respectful of the delicate balances of the ecosystem”.

He said Mongolia’s Shamanist and Buddhist traditions of living in harmony with nature “can contribute significantly to the urgent and no longer deferrable efforts to protect and preserve planet Earth.” But while praising the country for its religious tolerance and pacifist foreign policy, he warned that corruption was “the fruit of a utilitarian and unscrupulous mentality that has impoverished whole countries”.

Again underscoring the benefit of organised religions, he said they can “represent a safeguard against the insidious threat of corruption, which effectively represents a serious menace to the development of any human community.” Mongolia has been marred by corruption and environmental degradation in recent years, with its capital suffering from some of the world’s worst air quality and an embezzlement scandal sparking street protests last year. Vast swathes of the country’s territory are also at risk of desertification due to climate change, overgrazing and mining.

In the vast Sukhbaatar Plaza, named for a Mongol revolutionary hero, many hoped to catch a glimpse of the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.