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Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation.

Millions of people in Sudan are in urgent need of humanitarian help, aid organisations have warned, as the war in the east African state marked its 1,000th day.

Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation in what has become one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, nongovernmental organisations said on Friday as the grim anniversary passed.

Warning that Sudan’s hunger crisis is reaching unprecedented levels, the groups called on global governments to raise efforts to end the war between the country’s military rulers and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the RSF has been implicated in atrocities in Darfur that the United Nations says may amount to genocide.

The paramilitary group’s recent resurgence in the vast states of Darfur and Kordofan has forced the displacement of millions more people.

A new UN assessment in North Darfur shows more than half of young children are malnourished – one of the highest rates ever recorded worldwide, said Islamic Relief in a statement.

“More than 45% of people across Sudan – over 21 million people – are suffering acute food shortages and a recent Islamic Relief assessment in Gedaref and Darfur found 83% of families don’t have enough food,” the statement reads.

Separately, a coalition of 13 aid agencies called on the British government, as the UN Security Council penholder, to push for increased funding for the humanitarian response and to drive action to end the fighting.

In a statement, they warned that the world’s largest food crisis has left more than 21 million people facing acute food shortages, noting that millions of displaced people have been forced into unsafe, overcrowded settlements, rife with hunger and disease outbreaks, and gender-based violence.

“The conflict has driven the collapse of livelihoods and services, with an estimated 70 to 80 percent of hospitals and health facilities affected and non-operational, leaving roughly 65 percent of the population without access to healthcare,” the statement said.

“This war cannot be allowed to go on any longer. For 1,000 days we’ve seen our country ripped apart and civilians attacked, starved and forced from their land,” said Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief’s senior programme manager in Sudan.

Brutal choices

Yet with the Trump administration in the United States having led huge cuts in humanitarian funding, aid for Sudan is forced to compete with other conflict-plagued locations such as Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar for an ever smaller pot.

The UN said last month, as it launched its 2026 appeal for aid funding, that it faced “brutal choices”. Due to a plunge in donor funding, it said it was being forced to ask for just $23bn, about half the amount it needs, despite humanitarian needs globally being at an all-time high.

“Sharp cuts in foreign assistance have further weakened humanitarian operations, stripping funding from essential programmes, meaning people won’t have enough to eat and feed their families, have access to basic healthcare, clean water and sanitation, or a safe place to live, with a heightened risk of gender-based violence,” the statement issued by the 13 aid agencies warns.

“Sudan cannot be allowed to fade into another forgotten crisis, worse, a neglected one. The scale of suffering is immense, and we have witnessed the exhaustion and fear etched into the faces of people arriving in search of food, shelter and safety,” said Samy Guissabi, country director for Action Against Hunger in Sudan.

SOPHIE Habboo has shared a collection of intimate pictures of her and Jamie Laing’s first Christmas as parents.

The presenter husband-and-wife welcomed their first child, baby boy Ziggy, at the beginning of December, and since then have been adapting to life as a mum and dad.

Naturally, this Christmas was set to be one to remember, with Sophie pulling out all the stops to make sure the holidays were extra special.

Proud husband Jamie shared a video of the effort Sophie went to for Christmas dinner, calling her “superwoman” on Instagram with an inside look at what she’d been getting up to.

He wrote on the video itself: “POV: your wife is three weeks pregnant and still creates a magical Christmas”.

Sophie was seen in the clip layout out the table before doing a dance for the camera, while other family members were beginning to dish out dinner in the kitchen.

XMAS TREAT

Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo splash on £14k a WEEK retreat with 24hr baby care

KID YOU NOT

Jamie Laing & Sophie Habboo reveal things that surprised them about parenthood

Now, Sophie has given an even more intimate look at what their festive season has consisted off, sharing a string of photographs of both her and Jamie cuddled up to Ziggy.

Among them, the new family were seen posing in front of their Christmas tree, taking selfies in their hallway mirror, and posing with their entire family.

Others showed Jamie in dinosaur pyjamas with Ziggy asleep on his chest, the red and green decor around their house, and Sophie hard at work in the kitchen as she got dinner ready.

“Christmas 2025! The best yet ❤️” she wrote.

Fellow Made in Chelsea star Rosie Fortescue led the celebrations of the pair, writing: “Too divine for words ♥️♥️♥️”

Jedward added: “Awww beautiful here’s to the new adventure”, while influencer Holly-Evelyn added: “Absolutely stunning!! Merry Christmas and congratulations ❤️”

The happy couple revealed back in June they were set to expand their family – and have been keeping fans updated ever since.

Their podcast – first called Nearly Weds before being renamed Newly Weds – was rebranded again to become Nearly Parents in celebration.

Both have been praised for being brutally honest with their experience as upcoming parents, with Sophie sharing her health ups and downs as well as their shared excitement and fear over what lies ahead.

Following Ziggy’s birth, the pair treated themselves to a £14,000 a week baby retreat at Tenth Wellness at The Mandarin Hotel in central London to unwind and adjust at their own pace.

Described online as the “UK’s leading postpartum wellness destination”, a single night in one of their locations costs a whopping £2k.

The hotel includes a spacious, salubrious, on-site nursery that’s run by top-of-the-line nurses, with massage therapists and beauty technicians on hand to treat mum.

Packages additionally include optional lessons in all areas of postpartum care, including daily educational group classes, a lactation consultant session, and incision aftercare.

Charlie Smyth celebrated his new three-year contract as he kicked 17 points in the New Orleans Saints’ 29-6 win over the New York Jets.

Former Gaelic footballer Smyth was rewarded for his match-winning kick against the Carolina Panthers with a spot on the Saints’ 53-man roster, along with a new deal.

The 24-year-old either had to be permanently promoted to the roster or released having been elevated from the Saints’ practice squad on three previous occasions.

Smyth had his best showing in the NFL in Sunday’s win over the Jets as he kicked five field goals and landed two extra point attempts.

“I want to give great credit to the offence and defence today. We are starting to play some real complementary football here,” Smyth said after the win.

“The support from everyone in New Orleans has been unreal. This team has stuck together and that is why the wins have started to come.”

In Smyth’s four NFL outings to date, the Saints have won three times and he has had a successful onside kick, which had a 7% success rate, a match-winning kick and 17 points in a single game.

The recent decision by the United States Navy (USN) to cancel the Constellation-class frigate program after eight years of development and billions of dollars in investment represents a significant setback in US naval modernization drive. The Constellation-class was meant to become a modern, multi-mission combat vessel capable of relieving operational pressure from Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and narrowing the growing numerical advantage of the China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Instead, continuous design changes, and subsequent delays changed what was supposed to be an easy-to-construct warship platform into a costly and significantly delayed project. After failure of several major projects like Zumwalt destroyer and Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), the cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate project has degraded Washington’s efforts to sustain the naval balance of power against rapidly expanding naval fleet of PLAN.

The Constellation-class project was a product of USN’s urgent need to fill the gap left behind Oliver Hazard Perry-class (OHP) frigates which were phased out from USN services in 2015. The OHPs, despite lack of built-in vertical launch system (VLS), were regarded for their reliability, and versatility in missions ranging from open-ocean escorting to anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW). The retired hulls of OHPs were purchased by navies of several US allies including Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Egypt, Pakistan, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkiye. Their withdrawal from USN created a capability void that the Littoral LCS program – comprising of Freedom class and Independent class vessels – was expected to fill. However the LCS encountered numerous mechanical failures in hulls and propulsion system, cost overruns, and capability gaps that rendered it unsuitable for missions in contested naval environments.

As USN halted further procurement and early retirement of LCS, it attempted to follow a new approach, i.e., opt for a proven design tailored to meet USN requirements. Franco-Italian FREMM frigate design was chosen as the baseline for a modern, affordable American Constellation-class frigate. At initial stage, it appeared a sound idea. The FREMM platform had already proven itself in European naval forces, and the USN specific variant was modified to carry 32 Mk-41 VLS cells capable of firing SM-series interceptors and even Tomahawk cruise missiles, alongside Naval Strike Missiles. This program committed to be a potent yet affordable and rapid addition in USN fleet while retaining 85 percent commonality with original design. But as USN continued to impose new requirements, complications in construction, and alteration in designing began to inhibit the efficiency of the program. Constellation-class frigate undertook major size increment than parent FREMM design, stretching from 466 feet to nearly 500 and increasing to over 7,200 tons. Instead of leveraging a proven design, USN trapped itself with a pseudo-original design which now shared mere 15 percent commonality with the original design. By 2024, the first frigate was already three years behind schedule, and the program’s cost enlarged well beyond initial estimations. Faced with increasing costs, long delays, and design complications, the USN eventually axed the Constellation-class frigate program too, leaving behind a significant gap in USN surface fleet which this frigate was supposed to fill.

USN now wants a new frigate class structured on proven American design by 2028. Reportedly, the design of US Coast Guard (USCG) Legend Class cutter will be used as baseline to develop a USN specific variant. These 4,600 tons class ships are capable of conducting blue water operations and support 57mm deck gun, Phalanx CIWS, and flight deck with hanger to support rotary wing operations.  Its USN specific frigate version can accommodate a 16-cell Mk-41 VLS module, 8x Harpoon/NSM cruise missiles in canisters, RIM-116 Sea RAM, and torpedo tubes. Using an American proven design for mass producing USN specific frigate of relatively smaller size and low tonnage will allow USN to produce and commission larger number of hulls in relatively less time. But on flip side, this new frigate class will be far less capable than recently cancelled Constellation-class as they are unlikely to carry Aegis CMS, and will have significantly less range, endurance, and weapon load-out.

Nowhere is this challenge more evident than in the rapid growth of China’s naval power. PLAN is now commissioning highly capable naval combatants including flat-deck aircraft carrier (Fujian), next generation destroyers (Type-055 and Type-52DL) and frigates (Type-54B), and new class of conventional as well as nuclear submarines. Chinese coast guard, and maritime militia collectively operate more than 750 vessels – more than twice the number of hulls under US control. While the US Navy still retains qualitative advantages, especially in nuclear submarines and carrier aviation, trends in shipbuilding capacity significantly favor Beijing. China commands more than half of global commercial ship production, while the US share barely registers at a tenth of a percent. This allows China to mass produce modern warships for PLAN at a pace the United States cannot simply match.

Although USN plans to expand its fleet from 296 manned warships to 381 manned warships and 134 unmanned vessels by 2045, but so far trends of decline hull strengths have been observed. Ticonderoga class cruisers are gradually retiring, next-generation DDG(X) destroyers are still in far future, Ford class nuclear aircraft-carriers and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are facing delays, and Arleigh Burke Flight-III destroyers are not producing at rate faster enough to accommodate these growing gaps. Unmanned vessels are sometimes perceived as a viable solution to fill-up the gaps but these vessels cannot replace manned warships on one-on-one basis. In sum, aforementioned projects expose the persistent limitations of ship production capacity of US shipyards. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that reviving the shipbuilding sector to meet the USN long-term needs would require annual investments of more than $40 billion for three consecutive decades—a staggering commitment that would require political consensus and sustained strategic vision.

The cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate, just like past projects of Zumwalt and LCS- thus represents a persistent crisis in US naval build-up. As China accelerates its naval production and expands power projection into the Indo-Pacific, the United States finds itself struggling to revive its own shipbuilding capacity. Whether Washington can reverse this trajectory will depend on its ability to reform procurement processes, invest in industrial capacity, and adopt realistic designs aligned with strategic needs. Without such changes USN risks entering the next decade with too few ships to meet global demands.