“Forgotten” War in Sudan Reaches a Crisis of Epic Proportions
+ New Epstein emails released, Trump to sue BBC for $1B, and more.
GetSmart Preview: Music therapy as a cure to surgery pain?
Newsbites
Government reopens: The longest-ever government shutdown of 43 days ended this week after six Democrats joined Republicans to pass a spending bill. The shutdown left about 1.4M federal employees unpaid, significantly disrupted airport efficiency, and stalled certain low-income SNAP benefit programs across the country. President Trump signed the legislation at his desk, calling it a “great day.” The legislation covers backpay for all federal employees. (video)
More: Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 bonus checks to TSA airport security officers who did not call in sick during the shutdown and continued to work their jobs without realizing they would be paid back. (video)
President Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1B after deceptive edits making it look like Trump called for violence during his speech on January 6 were discovered. Their episode, which aired one week before the 2024 election, put two clips together that made it sound like Trump called for violence. In the original raw video of the speech on Jan. 6, Trump said the following: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” In the BBC’s edit, he said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol…and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” Those two lines were about 50 minutes apart in the actual speech. (video)
More: BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologized Monday for the crisis engulfing the broadcaster, a day after Director-General Tim Davie and News Chief Executive Deborah Turness announced their departures amid White House criticism. Trump still says he will seek monetary payback.
President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China meet for the first time in 6 years. On October 30th, the leaders of the two biggest economies in the world met in South Korea to discuss a trade deal. Tensions have been high as retaliatory tariffs and sanctions brought the two nations into a trade war. While Trump and Xi agreed to a truce last May, this recent meeting marks a significant development towards a more stable trade agreement.
More: The high-stakes, meeting between Trump and Xi was the climax of Trump’s week of diplomacy in Asia where he attended the Asean summit in Malaysia and visited Japan and South Korea.
Epstein Files Update: On Wednesday, Democrats released new emails from Jeffery Epstein that reference Trump. One refers to Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked,” and another mentions that “of course he [Trump] knew about the girls.” In retaliation, Republicans accused the Democrats of picking click-bait emails to smear Trump and released 20,000+ pages of other Epstein emails and documents. Prominent figures such as Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew are mentioned in the emails, but certain emails, particularly the ones released by the Democrats, indicate Trump may have had more ties to Epstein than previously known. The emails provide no proof of wrongdoing, and Epstein was a notorious liar with a history of manipulation. However, the emails heighten the anticipation and demand for the unreleased Epstein files. View the emails here.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa–a previous U.S.-designated terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head– met with President Trump on Monday, marking the first-ever visit by a Syrian head of state to the White House. U.S. officials announced after the visit that Syria has joined the mission to defeat the Islamic State. The visit marks a dramatic turnaround in the relationship between the U.S. and Syria. In reference to the meeting, Trump said, “We want to see Syria be successful along with the rest of the Middle East. So, I have confidence that he [al-Sharaa] will be able to do the job.” Trump also described al-Sharaa as “tough” and “attractive.”
More: Trump sprays Syrian president with his own cologne, asks how many wives he has
“Forgotten” War in Sudan Reaches a Crisis of Epic Proportions
Why it matters
While the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have dominated global focus, the two-year-long civil war in Sudan has turned into what the United Nations (UN) has called the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 150,000 people have died as a direct result of the conflict, about 12 million have fled their homes (a quarter of the population), and an estimated 15 million children require humanitarian assistance. Famine and claims of genocide plague the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
Why the world has “forgotten” this war
The situation in Sudan has been extremely dangerous and difficult for journalists to access.
The major global powers are less politically involved in Sudan than in Ukraine and Gaza.
The current civil war is a continuation of an unstable and tumultuous history of Sudan. Consequently, much of the world did not take the outbreak of the war as a novel concern until it developed into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the 21st century.
More: Read more about the history and build-up of the war here.
Some context
In the spring of 2023, war broke out between rival military factions in the country’s capital of Khartoum. The two factions are the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) lead by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) lead by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. In October 2021, they jointly staged a coup and overthrew the military-civilian government of that time, but in the resulting power vacuum, both generals refused to back down from power, leading to the bloody civil war.
Throughout the war, crimes by both the SAF and RSF have been reported, but there has been a focused concern on alleged ethnic-cleansing and genocide of non-Arab groups perpetrated by the RSF.
Satellite imagery shows “piles of bodies”
Over the past two years, the RSF has mainly been on the offensive capturing and laying waste to SAF-held cities. At the end of October, 2025, the RSF captured the major city of el-Fasher after an 18-month siege.
Thousands of civilians remained trapped in the city as the militia took control. Communication lines have been cut, and the current situation is murky. However, satellite imagery and first-hand reports from Sudanese civilians indicate that a massacre—particularly at the Saudi Hospital—has taken place.
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab has referred to satellite imagery of “piles of bodies executed en masse” and “apparent pools of blood.” The UN has confirmed credible reports of “summary executions” and sexual violence.
More: View the satellite images here.
The global interest in Sudan
Despite its general poverty, Sudan—the 10th most populous country in Africa—contains desirable resources, such as gold and gum arabic (a key industrial food ingredient) as well as strategic positioning along the Nile and Red Sea.
U.S. intelligence surmises that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been providing support for the RSF and that Egypt has been supporting the SAF. Both nations have vested interest in the resources of Sudan. Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have also supported the SAF. Russia has supported the SAF while a Russian military company, the Wagner Group, has supported the RSF.
The U.S. does not officially back either side but wants to ensure that the country does not become a foothold for adversarial nations.
Hope for Peace
In an attempt to initiate a peace treaty, the U.S. brought together Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia into a mediating group called the Quad. The RSF agreed to the Quad’s proposed truce last Thursday, but the SAF say a truce will only be possible after the RSF withdraws from civilian areas and surrenders their weapons. As numerous cease-fires have failed, the end to the war still seems far away, but an increase in alarm for the crisis and coverage of the war places pressure on leading nations to work towards an end to the conflict.
GetSmart: Music Therapy During Surgery Has Surprising Results
New study finds that certain kinds of music therapy used during surgery reduce the need for anesthetic drugs (link). “These findings show that this is more than just simple background music, rather an integration of a novel intervention into anesthetic practice,” says Dr. Tanvi Goel, principal investigator and anesthesiologist.
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