In today’s newsletter: With tens of thousands dead, millions displaced and no sign of the war abating, a ‘deafening silence of global indifference’ threatens the country’s future
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Good morning. “There is a certain kind of obscenity about the humanitarian world, which is the competition of suffering,” the UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said this month. “We must not forget Sudan.”
But with international attention largely focused on Gaza and Ukraine, that is exactly what’s happening. Tens of thousands have been killed in the civil war that broke out last year between the Sudanese army and the RSF militia, and there are now more displaced people – and specifically more displaced children – than in any other country in the world.
Conservatives | Rishi Sunak has been urged to break his silence over a mounting Islamophobia row over Lee Anderson’s claim Islamists had “got control of” Sadiq Khan. After Sunak failed to use the word “Islamophobia” in his statement responding to Anderson’s suspension from the Conservative party, Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi said: “What is it about the prime minister that he can’t even call out anti-Muslim racism and anti-Muslim bigotry?”
Public services | Britain’s stretched public services will buckle under the weight of the spending cuts planned for after the election, economists have warned, as Jeremy Hunt prepares for another round of tax reductions in next week’s budget. The expected spending levels could mean cuts equivalent to those undertaken by David Cameron’s government from 2010 to 2015.
Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskiy has given a figure for the number of Ukrainian battlefield casualties in the war with Russia for the first time, acknowledging that 31,000 soldiers have been killed and saying 2024 will be decisive for the outcome of the conflict. That figure is much lower than the US estimate of about 70,000.
Israel-Gaza war | The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450m from a budget of $880m as it confronts the biggest humanitarian crisis seen in the organisation’s 75-year history. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, said UNRWA had reached a “breaking point” amid reports that it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza, where there are increasing reports of famine.
Cinema | The owner of the stately home used in the film Saltburn has revealed he has ordered patrols of the grounds to stop trespassers making TikTok videos of themselves dancing to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s hit Murder on the Dancefloor, notoriously used in the film’s final scene, in front of the house. Charles Stopford Sackville said that the undisclosed fee for filming had “100%” influenced him to agree, but that he found the interest “quite weird”.
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