Your Monday Briefing: Evacuations from Sudan

Evacuation from Sudan

The US evacuated diplomats from Sudan yesterday, beginning an exodus of foreign diplomats from the country as the war there entered its second week.

Officials said nearly 100 people – mostly US Embassy employees – were evacuated by helicopters arriving from Djibouti, where the US has a base. More than 100 special operations forces participated in the operation. Within hours of the US announcing the move, many countries, including France, Britain and Germany, followed suit.

India said it had two military aircraft and a navy ship on standby to prepare for the evacuation of its citizens. China issued a notice through its embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, asking its citizens to register if they want to be helped.

As helicopters and planes sweep away foreigners, Sudanese continue to flee. They often face greater risks than diplomats or aid workers, and many try to leave via land borders, but the journey is dangerous.

Sudan Challenges: Many are still stranded in their homes in Khartoum without electricity, food or water. The health care system is on the brink of collapse, medical workers say.

Context: The evacuation comes on the ninth day of brutal fighting between the Sudanese Army and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, whose leaders are vying for supremacy. At least 400 people have been killed in the violence and more than 3,500 injured, according to the UN

China is rewriting the story of Covid-19

It is well documented that China muzzled scientists, obstructed international investigations and censored online conversations about Covid-19. But Beijing’s censorship runs deeper than pandemic researchers realize.

Chinese researchers have withheld data, withdrawn genetic sequences from public databases and altered important details in journal submissions, shaking the foundations of shared scientific knowledge, a Times investigation found. Western journal editors enable these efforts by approving such edits or by retracting papers for dubious reasons.

In particular, at the beginning of 2020, a team of scientists from the US and China published data on the coronavirus, which showed how quickly the virus spread and who died. But a few days later, the researchers quietly retracted the paper.

It is now clear that the paper is being pulled in Beijing’s direction amid a crackdown on science, starving doctors and policymakers of critical information about the virus when it is most needed.

Analysis: The censorship helped China control the narrative about the beginning of the pandemic, especially the timeline of the initial infection. Beijing has faced criticism over whether it responded to the virus too quickly.

Murder in Myanmar

A rebel group in Myanmar has claimed responsibility for the killing of a top election official for the military junta. Saturday’s attack, by gunmen on bicycles, comes as violence escalates on both sides of the country’s internal conflict.

The official, Sai Kyaw Thu, was shot dead as he drove his wife to her job in Yangon. He has worked in the pre-coup elections of 2021 and has testified in the trials of the ousted civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ousted president, U Win Myint. The junta punished them for electoral fraud.

The resistance group, “For Yangon,” targeted him for testimony and accused him of engaging in “oppression and terror” of the public. The killing was one of the most recent. It comes as the junta faces growing resistance from pro-democracy forces and ethnic rebel groups, which have long opposed autonomy.

Final context: The military has responded in recent months with an increase in atrocities, including the beheading, disembowelment or dismemberment of rebel fighters, as well as attacks on civilians.

For centuries, a family in the Belgian town of Geel has suffered from mental illness. Such an approach is often viewed with suspicion, but more recently the city needs to be reconsidered as a symbol of human alternatives to neglect or institutionalization.

Living life: Bruce Haigh, an Australian diplomat, helped provide covert support to anti-apartheid figures in South Africa. He died at 77 years old.

T Magazine asked 33 mid- and late-career female artists (the majority over 45) to identify the younger female creatives who inspire them. The artists don’t have to know each other or even be in the same field.

Hanya Yanagihara, T’s editor-in-chief, wrote that she was surprised by how many of her younger artist colleagues saw the lives of those who chose her as a model of ownership and certainty, even though the older artists themselves admitted this. not the case.

For example, two Margaret Cho, 54, and Atsuko Okatsuka, 34, imagine each other born confident. But it took him years to find his voice.

“I find it difficult to perceive, or to do, the integrity of the art, while Atsuko has reduced the presentation,” Cho said. “He knows who he is. They have a strong sense of humor that takes time to develop.