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The Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are collecting bodies after the deadly takeover of North Darfur capital, US researcher says.

A researcher at Yale University in the United States says the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are digging mass graves in el-Fasher, the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region that has seen mass killings and displacement since the RSF took over last month.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale’s School of Public Health, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the RSF “have begun to dig mass graves and to collect bodies throughout the city”.

“They are cleaning up the massacre,” Raymond said.

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on October 26, after the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been fighting the paramilitary group for control of Sudan since April 2023.

More than 70,000 people have fled the city and surrounding areas since the RSF’s takeover, according to the United Nations, while witnesses and human rights groups have reported cases of “summary executions”, sexual violence and massacres of civilians.

A report from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab on October 28 also found evidence of “mass killings” since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, including apparent pools of blood that were visible in satellite imagery.

UN officials also warned this week that thousands of people are believed to be trapped in el-Fasher.

“The current insecurity continues to block access, preventing the delivery of life-saving assistance to those trapped in the city without food, water and medical care,” Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, a senior UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official in Sudan, said.

Sudanese journalist Abdallah Hussain explained that, before the RSF’s full takeover, el-Fasher was already reeling from an 18-month siege imposed by the paramilitary group.

“No aid was allowed to access the city, and no healthcare facilities [were] operating,” Hussain told Al Jazeera from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday. “Now it’s getting even worse for the citizens who remain trapped.”

Amid global condemnation, the RSF and its supporters have tried to downplay the atrocities committed in el-Fasher, accusing allied armed groups of being responsible.

The RSF’s leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, has also promised an investigation.

But Raymond at the Humanitarian Research Lab said: “if they want to actually have an investigation, then they need to withdraw from the city [and] let UN personnel and the Red Cross and humanitarians enter … and go house-to-house looking to see who’s still alive”.

“At this point, we can’t let the RSF investigate themselves,” he said.

Raymond added that, based on UN figures and what can be seen on the ground in el-Fasher, “more people could have died [in 10 days]… than have died in the past two years of the war in Gaza”.

“That’s what we’re talking about. That’s not hyperbole,” he told Al Jazeera, stressing that thousands of people need emergency assistance.

More than 68,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

There have already been numerous flight delays as the FAA slows down or stops traffic when it is short of controllers.

United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that there could be chaos in the skies next week if the government shutdown drags on and air traffic controllers miss a second paycheck.

Duffy made his comments on Tuesday as the US government shutdown dragged into its 35th day, matching the shutdown in US President Donald Trump’s first term as president and which was the longest at the time.

There have already been numerous delays at airports across the country — sometimes hours long — because the Federal Aviation Administration slows down or stops traffic temporarily anytime it is short on controllers. Last weekend saw some of the worst staff shortages, and on Sunday, flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were delayed for several hours.

Duffy and the head of the air traffic controllers union have both warned that the situation will only get worse the longer the shutdown continues and the financial pressure continues to grow on people who are forced to work without pay. FAA employees already missed one paycheck on October 28. Their next payday is scheduled for next Tuesday.

“Many of the controllers said, ‘A lot of us can navigate missing one paycheck. Not everybody, but a lot of us can. None of us can manage missing two paychecks,’” Duffy said. “So if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos. You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have air traffic controllers.”

Most of the flight disruptions so far during the shutdown have been isolated and temporary. But if delays become more widespread and start to ripple throughout the system, the pressure will mount on US Congress to reach an agreement to end the shutdown.

Normally, airlines strive to have at least 80 percent of their flights depart and arrive within 15 minutes of when they are scheduled. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that since the shutdown began on October 1, the total number of delays overall has not fallen significantly below that goal because most of the disruptions so far have been no worse than what happens when a major thunderstorm moves across an airport.

But on Sunday, only about 56 percent of Newark’s departures were on time, and the Orlando airport reported that only about 70 percent of its flights were on time, according to Cirium.

As of midday Tuesday, there have been 1,932 flight delays reported across the US, according to www.FlightAware.com. That is lower than what is typical, although the FAA did say that flights in Phoenix were being delayed on Tuesday morning because of staffing shortages. Strong winds are also causing delays at the Newark and LaGuardia airports on Tuesday.

Nov. 3 (UPI) — One of two suspects arrested at the scene of the weekend’s mass stabbing on a British train has been released, according to British authorities who continue to investigate.

Eleven people were injured in the Saturday evening attack on a train in Cambridgeshire, located about 37 miles north of London.

Two people — a 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old man — were apprehended at the scene.

In a statement Sunday night, British Transport Police said the 35-year-old man has been released, with no further action required.

“It was reported in good faith to officers responding to the incident that he was involved in the attack, and following enquiries we can confirm that he was not involved,” authorities said.

The 32-year-old, who’s been described as a Black British national, remains in police custody on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police on Sunday night identified him as a Peterborough resident.

Authorities were notified of the stabbing at 7:42 p.m. local time Saturday on the train from Doncaster to London King’s Cross. The 32-year-old suspect is believed to have entered the train at the Peterborough station.

A knife was recovered from the scene.

Ten people were transferred by ambulance to the hospital while an 11th victim arrived later on their own.

Five of the victims have since been discharged, according to authorities that said of the six remaining hospitalized, one is in life-threatening condition.

Authorities identified the most severely injured victim as a member of the London North Eastern Railway.

Following a review of surveillance footage, authorities believe that if it were not for his actions, more people would have died.

“The actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said, though it was not clear what actions the employee took that saved lives.

David Horne, managing director of LNER, said the attack was “deeply upsetting” and that over the coming days they will continue to cooperate with authorities on their investigation.

In a statement on X, LNER said it expects to run a normal service on Monday.

The incident occurred just days after the British government announced it had seized a record number of knives — nearly 60,000 — from England and Wales through its new knife surrender scheme.

Knife homicides in Britain have fallen by nearly 20% while knife crime overall has dropped for the first time in four years, according to government statistics.

Nov. 2 (UPI) — Two suspects have been arrested in Saturday night’s mass stabbing incident on a British train, police said Sunday, while dismissing concerns it was a terror attack.

Officers were called at 7:42 p.m. local time Saturday to respond to reports of multiple people stabbed on board the 6.25 p.m. train from Doncaster to London King’s Cross station, British Transport Police said in a statement.

The train was forced to stop in the small town of Huntingdon, where police and paramedics boarded the train.

The two suspects were arrested within eight minutes of the first 911 call, police said.

Police described the suspects as a 32-year-old Black man and a 35-year-old man of Caribbean descent, both of whom were natural-born British nationals.

They have been detained on suspicion of attempted murder and remain in custody for questioning.

In total, paramedics took ten people by ambulance to a local hospital and another later self-presented. Four victims have been discharged but two people remain in life-threatening condition.

Witnesses described seeing bloody handprints as panic spread through the train cars in comments to The Guardian.

“We declared a major incident yesterday and Counter Terrorism Policing were initially supporting our investigation however at this stage there is nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident,” police superintendent John Loveless said. “This is a British Transport Police investigation.”

Loveless’ comments came after British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged people not to speculate about the attack.

The train station in Huntingdon remains closed and police said riders can see increased police presence throughout the train service on Sunday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the stabbing an “appalling incident” and “deeply concerning” in a statement on social media, while former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it happened on a line he uses regularly.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said. “Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police.”

Tens of thousands of people are converging on the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad for a commemoration of the victims of a tragedy a year ago that killed 16 people.

Regular student-led protests have gripped Serbia since the collapse of the canopy at the newly renovated railway station in the country’s second largest city on November 1, 2024, which became a symbol of entrenched corruption.

Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

Students, who called for the “largest commemorative gathering” on Saturday, and others, have been pouring into Novi Sad since Friday, arriving by car, bicycle, or on foot.

Thousands marched from Belgrade for some 100km (62 miles) and other parts of the country, including Novi Pazar, about 340km (210 miles) south of the capital. It took them 16 days to finish the march.

Residents of Novi Sad took to the streets to greet the marchers, blowing whistles and waving flags, many visibly moved.

Reporting from the city on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said local residents have provided marchers with food and shelter.

She added the student organisers of the event have stressed they want it to be peaceful and only about the victims, rather than the country’s politics.

‘I am looking for justice’

Dijana Hrka’s 27-year-old son was among the victims.

“What I want to know is who killed my child so I can have a little peace, so that I don’t keep going through hell,” she told Al Jazeera.

Hrka added: “I am looking for justice. I want no other mother to go through what I am going through.”

The protests over the station’s collapse have led to the resignation of the prime minister, the fall of his government and the formation of a new one. But nationalist President Aleksandar Vucic has remained defiantly in office.

Vucic regularly labelled demonstrators as foreign-funded coup plotters, while members of his SNS party pushed conspiracy theories, claiming that the train station roof collapse may have been an orchestrated attack.

But in a televised public address on Friday, Vucic made a rare gesture and apologised for saying things that, he said, he now regretted.

“This applies both to students and to protesters, as well as to others with whom I disagreed. I apologise for that,” Vucic said and called for dialogue.

Saturday’s commemorative rally at the Novi Sad railway station will start at 11:52am (10:52 GMT), the time when the tragedy occurred, with 16 minutes of silence observed for 16 victims.

Thirteen people, including former construction minister Goran Vesic, were charged in a criminal case over the collapse.

A separate anticorruption probe continues alongside a European Union-backed investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds in the project.

‘Sky high’ corruption

The government has declared Saturday a day of national mourning while the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Porfirije, is to serve a mass for the victims at the Belgrade Saint Sava church.

“On this sad anniversary, we appeal to everyone … to act with restraint, to de-escalate tensions and to avoid violence,” the EU delegation in Serbia said in a statement.

Aleksandar Popov, a Serbian political analyst, told Al Jazeera that “sky-high” corruption is a major issue in the country that needs to be addressed.

“We’re not talking about tens of millions of euros, but hundreds of millions of euros spun through large infrastructure projects, perhaps billions of euros,” he said.

“This government and the president have captured all key institutions of state, like the judiciary,” he added.

The protests have remained largely peaceful, but, in mid-August, they degenerated into violence that protesters blamed on heavy-handed tactics by government loyalists and police.

Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab says satellite images appear to show mass killings in Sudan’s western city of el-Fasher.

The fall of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in mass killings by the group, according to an analysis of satellite imagery viewed by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).

The RSF had laid siege to el-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur in western Sudan, for more than a year and a half. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the withdrawal of his forces from their last stronghold in the wider Darfur region late on Monday, a day after the paramilitary RSF seized control of the main Sudanese army base in el-Fasher and declared victory there.

The fall of el-Fasher has “resulted in the carpet-bombing of large swaths of the city by Sudan Armed Forces, an unknown number of civilian casualties caused by both sides, and almost 15 months of IPC-5 Famine conditions in areas caused by RSF’s siege of the city”, the HRL report said. The HRL determined this by reviewing satellite imagery and open source and remote sensing data from Monday.

“El-Fasher appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution,” the HRL said.

The RSF has long been accused of targeting non-Arab communities in Darfur, and the HRL, aid groups and experts have previously warned of mass violence and displacement if el-Fasher fell.

HRL’s report showed images containing clusters of objects and ground discolouration that it believes to be evidence of human bodies. The HRL appears to back up other accounts from aid groups that reported chaotic scenes on the ground, including killings, arrests and attacks on hospitals.

“The actions by RSF presented in this report may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity (CAH) and may rise to the level of genocide,” the report said.

The war in Sudan between the RSF and the SAF began on April 15, 2023 and has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands killed and more than 12 million people displaced. There are also fears that Sudan could once again split, more than a decade after the creation of South Sudan.

Darfur is an RSF stronghold while the SAF controls the Sudanese capital Khartoum, as well as the north and east of the country. The RSF advance comes shortly after talks last week by the Quad – a bloc of nations comprised of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – which laid out a roadmap aimed at ending the war in Sudan.

Dozens of Palestinian bodies have been retrieved from mass graves near al-Shifa Hospital, buried almost a year ago after Israeli forces withdrew from the area. Hani Mahmoud explains how families and aid workers are struggling to identify the victims.

Oct. 15 (UPI) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to halt firings of workers amid the shutdown, according to two labor unions that brought the lawsuit against the federal government.

The Trump administration on Friday announced that it has begun laying off 4,100 federal workers as the federal purse has run dry with Congress since Oct. 1, failing to pass a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open.

On Sept. 30, ahead of the shutdown and amid Trump administration threats to institute mass firings if the government shuttered, the American Federation of Government Employees, with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the layoffs.

Then on Oct. 4, the union filed a motion for a temporary restraining order.

On Wednesday, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with the unions, issuing the temporary restraining order they sought, stating that the reduction-in-force notices issued to the more than 4,000 federal employees were likely illegal, exceeded the Trump administration’s authority and were capricious.

In her order, the appointee of President Bill Clinton described Trump’s mass firings amid a government shutdown as “unprecedented.”

Illston outlined how some employees could not even find out if they had been fired because the notices were sent to government email accounts, which they may not have access to because of the shutdown.

Those who do receive the notices are then unable to prepare for their terminations because human resources staff have been furloughed, she said, adding that in one case at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, human resources staff were brought back into the office to issue the layoff notices only to then be directed to lay themselves off.

She then said, citing a social media post from the president on the second day of the shutdown, saying he had a meeting with Russell Vought, the White House budget chief, to determine which of the many “Democrat Agencies” to cut that Trump intended to make the cut as retribution over the Democrats opposing the funding measure.

“It is also far from normal for an administration to fire line-level civilian employees during a a government shutdown as a way to punish the opposing political party,” Illston wrote. “But this is precisely what President Trump has announced he is doing.”

Illston gave the administration two days to provide the court with more information on the issued notices.

“This decision affirms that these threatened mass firings are likely illegal and blocks layoff notices from going out,” Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, said in a statement.

“Federal workers have already faced enough uncertainty from the administration’s relentless attacks on the important jobs they do to keep us safe and healthy.”

As the order was issued, Vought said that he expects thousands of federal workers to be fired in the coming days.

“Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots, which they have articulated as in the 4,000 number of people,” he said on The Charlie Kirk Show podcast. “But that’s just a snapshot, and I think it’ll get much higher. And we’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown.”

Democrats said they will only support a stopgap bill that extends and restores Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, arguing that failing to do so would raise healthcare costs for some 20 million Americans.

Republicans — who control the House, Senate and the presidency — are seeking a so-called clean funding bill that includes no changes. They argue that the Democrats are fighting to provide undocumented migrants with taxpayer-funded healthcare, even though federal law does not permit them to receive Medicaid or ACA premium tax credits.

The parties continue to trade blame for the shutdown as it extends for more than two weeks, with some 750,000 federal workers furloughed.

Oct. 15 (UPI) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to halt firings of workers amid the shutdown, according to two labor unions that brought the lawsuit against the federal government.

The Trump administration on Friday announced that it has begun laying off 4,100 federal workers as the federal purse has run dry with Congress since Oct. 1, failing to pass a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open.

On Sept. 30, ahead of the shutdown and amid Trump administration threats to institute mass firings if the government shuttered, the American Federation of Government Employees, with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the layoffs.

Then on Oct. 4, the union filed a motion for a temporary restraining order.

On Wednesday, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sided with the unions, issuing the temporary restraining order they sought, stating that the reduction-in-force notices issued to the more than 4,000 federal employees were likely illegal, exceeded the Trump administration’s authority and were capricious.

In her scathing rebuke of the Trump administration, the appointee of President Bill Clinton described Trump’s mass firings amid a government shutdown as “unprecedented.”

In her order, she outlined how some employees could not even find out if they had been fired because the notices were sent to government email accounts, which they may not have access to because of the shutdown.

Those who do receive the notices are then unable to prepare for their terminations because human resources staff have been furloughed, she said, adding that in one case at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, human resources staff were brought back into the office to issue the layoff notices only to then be directed to lay themselves off.

She then chastised the Trump administration for carrying out the layoffs to punish the Democratic Party, which it blames for the shutdown.

“But this is precisely what President Trump has announced he is doing,” she said, pointing to a social media post from the president on the second day of the shutdown saying he had a meeting with Russell Vought, the White House budget chief, to determine which of the many “Democrat Agencies” to cut.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump wrote in the Oct. 2 post, which was quoted in full in Illston’s order.

Illston gave the administration two days to provide the court with more information on the issued notices.

“This decision affirms that these threatened mass firings are likely illegal and blocks layoff notices from going out,” Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, said in a statement.

“Federal workers have already faced enough uncertainty from the administration’s relentless attacks on the important jobs they do to keep us safe and healthy.”

As the order was issued, Vought said that he expects thousands of federal workers to be fired in the coming days.

“Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots, which they have articulated as in the 4,000 number of people,” he said on The Charlie Kirk Show podcast. “But that’s just a snapshot, and I think it’ll get much higher. And we’re going to keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown.”

Democrats said they will only support a stopgap bill that extends and restores Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, arguing that failing to do so would raise healthcare costs for some 20 million Americans.

Republicans — who control the House, Senate and the presidency — are seeking a so-called clean funding bill that includes no changes. They argue that the Democrats are fighting to provide undocumented migrants with taxpayer-funded healthcare, even though federal law does not permit them to receive Medicaid or ACA premium tax credits.

The parties continue to trade blame for the shutdown as it extends for more than two weeks, with some 750,000 federal workers furloughed.

Oct. 13 (UPI) — Four people were arrested Monday in connection to a mass shooting over the weekend in Mississippi that killed six people and left 10 others wounded.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests following Friday night’s deadly gunfire at a football homecoming celebration in the downtown area of Leland, a small town about 200 miles from the Arkansas-Mississippi border.

According to the FBI, Morgan Lattimore, 25, Teviyon Powell, 29, and William Bryant, 29, were charged with capital murder. A fourth suspect, Latoya Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder.

The FBI in Jackson said the investigation will continue with other arrests pending. A motive was not revealed.

“The FBI currently has brought agents in to assist in the canvassing, the interviewing, the evidence review, both video and physical evidence review,” Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff told reporters over the weekend. “We’ve had resources available, so as we identify video evidence that we will bring to bear the resources to evaluate that video evidence.”

On Sunday, the FBI established a digital media tips website to gather information, cellphone video or photos from the public to help them investigate Friday’s shooting. That website will remain active, despite the arrests, as agents continue to request more tips.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is using DNA analysis to run shell casings through national databases. FBI Jackson is also requesting witnesses submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.

The Washington County Coroner’s Office has identified the victims as Kaslyn Johnson, 18, Calvin Plant, 19, Oreshama Johnson, 41, Shelbyona Powell, 25, Amos Brantley Jr, 18, and JaMichael Jones, 34.

“We also have victim specialists that are available and they’re working with those from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to ensure that the victims and their families are cared for and understand what resources are available to them,” Eikhoff added, “and help them in their pursuit and their journey as they try to recover from this horrific incident.”

Tuesday, Oct. 14, would have been the 32nd birthday of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing political influencer murdered last summer. It is a birthday shared by George Floyd, Jr., asphyxiated by arresting police in 2020 and who would have been 52. The horror of these tragedies has roiled a divisive society, but must they now demand a political battleground of opposing memorials?/

The concept of a civic memorial has long and often been, in Western culture, the privilege of classical music. Music may be permitted to speak not of specifics but the essence of grief, a collective cherishing of existence.

There happens to be another anniversary, Tuesday, to acknowledge. Leonard Bernstein, a great gatherer of differences in his music, died Oct. 14, 1990, at 72. And all around us, as we approach the 35th anniversary of his death, are reminders of Bernstein as the megastar memorializer of the 35th president of the United States, and what those tributes to John F. Kennedy might mean for us today.

The must-see Los Angeles Opera production of “West Side Story,” which closes Sunday, is by Francesca Zambello, who heads Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and where she is slated to mount her production of Bernstein’s classic musical in May. Saturday night at the Soraya in Northridge, Martha Graham Dance Company gave the world premiere of “En Masse,” which is based on Bernstein’s “MASS,” written to open the Kennedy Center, where “En Masse,” too, is headed in the spring.

Along with all that, Gustavo Dudamel caps his three fall weeks leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic this weekend with four performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Bernstein chose this epic score, known as the “Resurrection,” to memorialize Kennedy two days after his assassination in 1963. A large New York Philharmonic, vocal soloists and chorus assembled on a CBS sound stage for a live national television broadcast.

It was a Sunday and untold millions (there were no Nielsen ratings) gathered in their homes to watch a somber Bernstein begin Mahler’s symphony with gut-wrenching intensity and end it with an overwhelming sense of triumph 90 minutes later. As a legendary act of national healing, the broadcast riveted a shocked nation.

It still does. The following year, Bernstein channeled that Kennedy spirit into a famous performance of Mahler’s symphony at London’s Ely Cathedral that was televised in Britain and released on commercial video. It is that Mahler Second performance that Bradley Cooper chose as the musical centerpiece of his Bernstein 2023 biopic, “Maestro.”

Bernstein further memorialized JFK in the dedication of his Third Symphony, “Kaddish.” And then there was the Kennedy Center opening in 1971, with Bernstein doing the shocking. At the time and for the occasion, “MASS” seemed a bizarre mashup of pop, schlock, jazz, 12-tone, electronics, grand symphonic utterances, hippie currency, mysticism, traditional Catholic Mass, Jewish Sabbath service, anti-Mass climaxing with a psychotic and psychedelic breakdown of Mass’ celebrant and Vietnam War protest.

The general reaction to “MASS” was that of appall, no matter whether you worshipped Bernstein or couldn’t bear him, whatever your political or cultural orientation. President Nixon — who as vice president in the 1950s had attended a Bernstein festival of American music at the Hollywood Bowl and had accompanied Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic on a cultural tour to South America — stayed home.

In fact, “MASS,” after years of puzzled neglect, ultimately came to be heralded as a Bernstein masterpiece, a work that freed contemporary music of genre-fication. It gives permission not for anything goes but for anything goes together if you can find the right context. A slow awareness of the score’s genius has empowered a new generation, such as the conductor and composer Christopher Rountree, who made the new arrangement of parts of “MASS” for his genre-breaking orchestra, Wild Up.

The Graham company based “En Messe” on a flimsy premise, the discovery of a page or two of sketches that Bernstein made for a proposed score he meant to write for Graham in 1988. The discovery is minor. Bernstein and Graham knew and admired each other, but she was a footnote in his career.

In the end, Rountree wrote a short series on variations on two themes he extracted from the sketches that serve as an epilogue to the “MASS” suite. The themes are hard to discern and don’t matter. Rather, Rountree makes a gripping case in his variations for a way forward from Bernsteiniana to today.

The intent of “En Messe” was meant to cap a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Graham company, the oldest dance company in America. Graham 100 began a year ago with a revival of “Appalachian Spring,” Graham’s most famous piece, which also gave us Aaron Copland’s iconic score (the popularity of which was greatly helped by Bernstein’s recording).

The company has also revived another of Graham’s most important (and severe) dances, “Night Journey,” based around the last moments of the life of Jocasta (the mother of Oedipus in the Greek tragedy). The revival with Anne Souder as an imposing Jocasta, Lloyd Knight, an enthralling Oedipus, and Ethan Palma, a haunted Tiresias (the seer), retained all the work’s stunning power. William Schuman’s mostly forgotten score received a revelatory performance by Rountree and Wild Up.

“En Messe,” itself, did not serve its purpose to cap a centennial closer to the work of a seminal choreographer. It accomplished something more important by heralding a path forward. The company can’t live forever reviving Graham’s work or doing showy new dances such as “We the People” (also on the program).

Instead, Hope Boykin’s choreography added a dark intensity to Bernstein’s brightness. The stage was dim. Each dance featured a soloist in seeming personal meditation with the music, its rhythms and its spirit, and with the company’s other dancers, who appear ghostly figures in the misty distance.

Movement didn’t match music but brought you into it, while the music seemed to demand movement. It began with the score’s hit, “A Simple Song,” Bernstein at his most tuneful, even saccharine. Jodie Landau didn’t buy into its surface simplicity but sang with a fresh, cool, contemporary edge that immediately told you we were headed into unknown territory. Every discovery that followed proved her right on.

“En Messe” will tour the country and beyond over the next year with, unfortunately, a recording of Wild Up, not live performance. If the company gets over its overamplification, which cheapens everything it presents, that need not disastrously lessen the impact.

Will “En Messe,” or “West Side Story,” actually reach the Kennedy Center, which the federal government is attempting to turn it into who-knows-what, this spring? Both Bernstein works are exactly what the new overseers say they want — more populist art, inspirational attempts to make American art great. But they are also works that make us look inside ourselves, discover what matters beyond self-interest. That’s become a hard sell.

Israel-Premier Tech cycling team will drop Israeli ties after multiple protests at the Vuelta a Espana race.

The Israel–Premier Tech cycling team will drop its ties to Israel from the 2026 season, following repeated pro-Palestinian protests against it at the recent Vuelta a Espana bike race.

The move was announced in a statement on Monday, just weeks after pressure from its sponsors to change its name.

The team, which is based in Israel and which is owned by the Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, has been subjected to widespread criticism over Israel’s war on Gaza, in which more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, and leading experts have called a genocide.

Adams has previously said that Israel has done “miracles” in its fighting in Gaza and elsewhere, despite the devastation of the Palestinian enclave, where famine has spread.

Last month, protesters disrupted several stages of Spain’s Vuelta because of its participation in the prestigious three-week cycling event.

Amid the public pressure, the team removed its full name from its jerseys midway though the race. Later on, the final stage of the Vuelta had to be abandoned when pro-Palestinian demonstrators entered part of the course in Madrid.

Following the protests against it in Spain, Israel-Premier Tech was then excluded from the Giro dell’Emilia race on Saturday because of concerns about public safety.

Explaining its decision to rebrand, the team said on Monday that it was moving away from its Israeli identity out of a “steadfast commitment to our riders, staff and valued partners”.

“In sport, progress often requires sacrifice, and this step is essential to securing the future of the team,” it added.

The statement also confirmed that Adams, its owner, would no longer speak on behalf of the team. Instead, he will focus on his position as President of the World Jewish Congress, Israel, it said.

Premier Tech, the Canada-based multinational company that co-sponsors the team, had voiced its desire for change last month.

“We are sensitive and attentive to the situation on the international scene which has evolved considerably since our arrival on the World Tour in 2017,” it said.

“Our expectation is that the team will evolve to a new name excluding the term Israel, and that it will adopt a new identity and a new brand image.”

Factor, the company that provides the team with equipment, also warned that its involvement would end unless there was “a change of flag”.

Israel has grown increasingly isolated internationally as the war on Gaza continues, with an effort on the part of many countries to exclude Israel from sporting and cultural events, in a similar manner to Russia’s exclusion following its war on Ukraine.

Hundreds of thousands across Europe and the Middle East marched against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of people have poured onto the streets across Europe, demanding an end to Israel’s two-year war on Gaza that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left the enclave on the brink of famine.

The largest protest took place in the Netherlands, where around 250,000 people filled Amsterdam’s Museum Square on Sunday before marching through the city centre. Draped in Palestinian flags and dressed in red, demonstrators demanded that their government take a harder line against Israel and stop arms exports to the occupying power.

“The bloodshed must stop – and that we unfortunately have to stand here because we have such an incredibly weak government that doesn’t dare to draw a red line. That’s why we are here, in the hope that it helps,” said protester Marieke van Zijl, the Associated Press reported.

The protest came less than a month before national elections, adding pressure on Dutch leaders who have long backed Israel. Foreign Minister David van Weel said on Friday that it was “unlikely” the government would approve the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel amid mounting public anger.

Amnesty International, one of the protest organisers, urged European governments to act decisively. “All economic and diplomatic means must be used to increase pressure on Israel,” said spokesperson Marjon Rozema.

‘Gaza is the biggest graveyard of children’

While the Netherlands saw the biggest turnout in Western Europe, Turkiye hosted one of the most striking shows of solidarity.

In Istanbul, vast crowds marched from the Hagia Sophia mosque to the banks of the Golden Horn, where boats decorated with Turkish and Palestinian flags awaited them.

Demonstrators, many fresh from midday prayers at the mosque, called for Muslim unity in confronting Israel’s assault.

In Ankara, protesters waved flags and held banners denouncing Israel’s actions. “This oppression, which began in 1948, has been continuing for two years, turning into genocide,” said Recep Karabal of the Palestine Support Platform in the northern city of Kirikkale.

Support for Palestine runs deep in Turkiye, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as one of Israel’s fiercest critics, accusing Tel Aviv of committing war crimes in Gaza.

On Saturday, Turkish journalist and Gaza Sumud Flotilla participant Ersin Celik told local media outlets he witnessed Israeli forces “torture Greta Thunberg”, describing how the Swedish activist was “dragged on the ground” and “forced to kiss the Israeli flag”.

Similar rallies were held across the region. In Sofia, Bulgarians carried placards reading “Gaza: Starvation is a Weapon of War” and “Gaza is the Biggest Graveyard of Children”. Protester Valya Chalamova said, “Our society – and the world – needs to hear that we stand with the Palestinian people.”

In Morocco’s capital Rabat, crowds burned an Israeli flag and called on their government to reverse its 2020 decision to normalise ties with Israel. Protesters also demanded the release of Moroccan human rights defender Aziz Ghali, detained by Israel after joining the flotilla aiming to break the blockade on Gaza.

Across Spain, smaller rallies followed massive demonstrations in Madrid, Rome, and Barcelona a day earlier, with marchers carrying white bundles symbolising the bodies of Gaza’s children.

Hamas said it had accepted parts of a ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, though much of Gaza remains in ruins and under siege.

US President Donald Trump blames Democrats for looming federal layoffs as shutdown enters fifth day.

The White House has warned that mass layoffs of federal workers could begin if US President Donald Trump concludes that negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown have reached a dead end.

As the shutdown entered its fifth day on Sunday, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN’s programme State of the Union that he believed there was still a chance Democrats would yield and avoid what could become a costly political and economic crisis.

“President Trump and Russ Vought are lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don’t,” Hassett said, referring to the White House budget director. “If the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere, then there will start to be layoffs.”

Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday, described the potential job cuts as “Democrat layoffs”, saying, “Anybody laid off, that’s because of the Democrats.”

Talks remain frozen

There have been no meaningful negotiations since Trump last met congressional leaders, with the impasse beginning on October 1 — the start of the federal fiscal year — after Senate Democrats rejected a short-term funding bill to keep government agencies open through November 21.

“They’ve refused to talk with us,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told the CBS programme Face the Nation, insisting that only renewed talks between Trump and congressional leaders could end the standoff.

Democrats are demanding a permanent extension of enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and assurances that the White House will not unilaterally cut spending agreed to in any deal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was open to addressing the Democrats’ concerns, but urged them to first back reopening the government. “It’s open up the government or else,” Thune told Fox News. “That’s really the choice that’s in front of them right now.”

Trump said Republicans were also willing to discuss healthcare reform. “We want to fix it so it works. Obamacare has been a disaster for the people, so we want to have it fixed so it works,” Trump said.

No deal in sight

Rank-and-file senators from both parties have held informal talks on healthcare and spending to break the deadlock, but progress has been minimal. “At this point, no,” Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego told CNN when asked if lawmakers were closer to a deal.

The Senate is set to vote again on Monday on competing funding bills — one backed by the Republican-controlled House and one proposed by Democrats — though neither is expected to win the 60 votes required to advance.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly 750,000 federal employees face being furloughed as long as the shutdown continues, with total lost compensation estimated at $400m per day. While federal workers are guaranteed back pay under the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, payments will only resume once the shutdown ends.

The shutdown comes as Republicans failed to reach deal with Democrats concerned by steep hikes in health insurance costs.

WASHINGTON — The White House is telling agencies to prepare large-scale firings of federal workers if the government shuts down next week.

In a memo released Wednesday night, the Office of Management and Budget said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse next week, are not otherwise funded and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when federal workers not deemed essential were furloughed but returned to their jobs once Congress approved government spending.

A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions, which would trigger yet another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that has already faced major rounds of cuts this year due to efforts from the White House’s cost-cutting team the Department of Government Efficiency, and elsewhere in the Trump administration.

Once any potential government shutdown ends, agencies are asked to revise their reduction in force plans “as needed to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions,” according to the memo, which was first reported by Politico.

This move from OMB significantly increases the consequences of a potential government shutdown next week and escalates pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The two leaders have kept nearly all of their Democratic lawmakers united against a clean funding bill pushed by President Trump and congressional Republicans that would keep the federal government operating for seven more weeks, demanding immediate improvements to healthcare in exchange for their votes.

In statements issued shortly after the memo was released, the two Democrats showed no signs of budging.

“We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings,” Jeffries wrote in a post on X. “Get lost.”

Jeffries called Russ Vought, the head of OMB, a “malignant political hack.”

Schumer said in a statement that the OMB memo is an “attempt at intimidation” and predicted the “unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back.”

OMB noted that it held its first planning call with other federal agencies earlier this week to plan for a shutdown. The budget office plays point in managing federal government shutdowns, particularly planning for them ahead of time. Past budget offices have also posted shutdown contingency plans — which would outline which agency workers would stay on the job during a government shutdown and which would be furloughed — on its website, but this one has not.

The memo noted that congressional Democrats are refusing to support a clean government funding bill “due to their partisan demands,” which include an extension of enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus a reversal of Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax and spending cuts law.

“As such, it has never been more important for the Administration to be prepared for a shutdown if the Democrats choose to pursue one,” the memo reads, which also notes that the GOP’s signature law, a major tax and border spending package, gives “ample resources to ensure that many core Trump administration priorities will continue uninterrupted.”

OMB noted that it had asked all agencies to submit their plans in case of a government shutdown by Aug. 1.

“OMB has received many, but not all, of your submissions,” it added. “Please send us your updated lapse plans ASAP.”

Kim writes for the Associated Press.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from Gaza City as Israel’s deadly ground invasion in its genocidal war continues.

An Israeli army spokesperson announced on Tuesday a “temporary” evacuation route for Palestinians via Salah al-Din Street, available for just 48 hours.

Avichay Adraee stated on X that residents could move along Salah al-Din Street southwards from Wadi Gaza.

“Transit through this route will be available for 48 hours starting today … and until Friday,” he said.

Israel has repeatedly struck residential areas, schools and hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip during the 23-month conflict.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Nuseirat in central Gaza, said: “More and more Palestinian families are fleeing Gaza City under the threat of Israeli attacks with no guarantees of safety at all.”

“While we’re here, we met friends, relatives and neighbours, and they told us they spent more than thirteen hours to make this difficult journey to the south of the Strip because of the vast overcrowding of roads. People say they’re totally exhausted,” he said.

“We also met a number of dual nationals still stuck in Gaza who said this is the fifth time they were forced to flee from one area to another under the echoes of explosions and the wide-scale mass expulsion orders issued by the Israeli military,” he added.

“Everyone on the ground is going through a serious crisis. It is a systematic policy by Israel to control Palestinian land and reshape it. What is still unfolding is a humanitarian calamity with no safe exits,” Abu Azzoum explained.

Sept. 16 (UPI) — City authorities in Minneapolis on Tuesday cleared a homeless encampment located on private land after a mass shooting at the site left multiple people injured.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other city officials announced the move during a press conference, saying the camp located on the city’s south side was unsafe and unsanitary, attracting drug trafficking and violence. The camp’s demolition comes a day after a shooting at the site that left seven people severely injured. It was the second mass shooting that occurred on the city’s south side and part of a particularly violent summer for Minneapolis.

The camp’s closure comes as cities across the United States have struggled with encampments as they’ve seen soaring housing prices and homeless populations. But Frey insisted the camp and others like it are not a solution to homelessness and are unsafe.

“They are not safe for the people living at the encampment, for the people going to the encampment to buy and or sell drugs, they are not safe for the surrounding community,” he said.

Roughly 75 people lived at the camp and have been offered shelter and other services, city officials said. A video of the camp’s clearing by KTSP shows a crew dismantling structures and loading debris into a garbage truck.

The camp had become a public health nuisance with people living among drug paraphernalia, garbage, spoiled food and human waste, said Enrique Velasquez, the city’s director of regulatory services. He said the property’s owner, Hamoudi Sabri, had been repeatedly cited.

Sabri said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune that his encampment was a response to what he called was city leader’s neglect to the area.

“Instead of emergency response, the pattern has been abandonment – and repeated displacement that leaves people more vulnerable to violence,” he said.

Frey said addressing the camp was “particularly difficult” because of the city’s fraught relationship with Sabri and that he was expecting both sides to go to court over the camp’s closing.

Poland’s president on Thursday said the Russian drone incursions into his country were not only deliberate, but they were a test of NATO’s ability to react to aerial threats. Meanwhile, Warsaw has ordered the closure of airspace along the border with Belarus and Ukraine, and NATO allies continue to provide additional air defense support.

In addition, the UN Security Council will convene tomorrow to take up the issue. Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski said his country plans to use the security council meeting to “draw the world’s attention to this unprecedented Russian drone attack on a member of the UN, EU and NATO.”

These actions come a day after Polish authorities said 19 Russian drones entered the country’s airspace, with some of them being shot down by Polish and Dutch combat aircraft. You can catch up to our reporting on the incident in our story here.

“The Russian provocation was nothing more than an attempt to test our capabilities and responses,” Karol Nowracki stated on X. “It was an attempt to check the mechanism of action within NATO and our ability to react. Thanks to the wonderful Polish pilots and our allies, Poland, which is in NATO, will neither fear nor be frightened by Russian drones.”

“We passed all of these tests,” Nawrocki told troops during a visit to the 31st Tactical Air Base in Poznań-Krzesiny in western Poland, according to the Polish Polskiradio media outlet. That base “is a key hub in Poland’s air defense effort,” the outlet added.

Polish authorities say Russian drones began to violate the country’s airspace at around 11:30 PM local time Tuesday night. The last incursion was reported at 6:30 AM local time on Wednesday. The intrusions came amid a new round of Russian drone and missile attacks on neighboring Ukraine. 

Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, subsequently said there had been 19 total airspace violations. He also said Poland has assessed that the drones “did not veer off course but were deliberately targeted.”

Pictures that have emerged so far show the drones that have been retrieved look to be Gerberas, a cheaper and simplified Russian-developed complement to variants and derivatives of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136s. Gerbera, which has a far shorter range than the Shaheds, can be configured as kamikaze drones or decoys. It is unclear whether the ones that flew into Poland were armed, although we have seen no evidence of that at this time, which would make sense considering their supposed intended mission. It is also unclear if Shaheds were used in the operation, as well.