survivors

A senior Sudanese diplomat has accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of committing war crimes in the country’s North Darfur state, as survivors who escaped the city of el-Fasher recounted mass killings and sexual assault by the paramilitary troops.

Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, made the allegations on Sunday as he accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of helping the RSF paramilitary group in the ongoing civil war.

The Gulf state denies the claim.

Adawi’s remarks followed an earlier statement by Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris, who told the Swiss newspaper Blick that the RSF should be tried in the international courts.

But Kamil rejected the “illegal” idea of foreign troops being deployed to his country, which has been ravaged by a civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese army since April 2023.

The calls for action come a week after the RSF seized the capital of North Darfur, el-Fasher, after an 18-month siege and starvation campaign, resulting in thousands of reported civilian deaths. The city was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the region.

In the days since its capture, survivors have reported mass executions, pillaging, rape and other atrocities, sparking an international outcry.

The Sudanese government said that at least 2,000 people were killed, but witnesses said the real number could be much higher.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the city.

“The government of Sudan is calling on the international community to act immediately and effectively rather than just make statements of condemnation,” Adawi told reporters during a news conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The envoy urged the world to designate the RSF as a “terrorist” organisation, as well as condemn RSF “for committing massacres amounting to genocide” and denounce “its official regional financier and supporter, the United Arab Emirates”.

He also said that Sudan would not take part in talks led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the UAE to end the conflict if the latter remains part of the negotiations.

“We do not consider them [the UAE] as a mediator and someone reliable on the issue,” Adawi stressed.

Mass killings, sexual assault

The UAE, however, denies allegations that it is supplying the RSF with weapons.

At a forum in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, an Emirati presidential adviser said that the Gulf state wants to help end the war, and acknowledged that regional and international powers could have done more to prevent the conflict in Sudan.

“We all made the mistake, when the two generals who are fighting the civil war today overthrow the civilian government. That was, in my opinion, looking back, a critical mistake,” Anwar Gargash said.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the US, as mediators, have all condemned the mass killings and called for increased humanitarian assistance.

As the world’s worst humanitarian crisis further spirals into chaos, residents who managed to escape el-Fasher recalled their harrowing experience.

Adam Yahya, who fled with four of his children, told Al Jazeera that his wife was killed in an RSF drone strike shortly before el-Fasher fell. He said that he and his children barely had time to mourn before they found themselves on the run from the paramilitary group.

“The streets were full of dead people. We made it to one of the sand barriers set up by the RSF. They were shooting at people, men, women and children, with machineguns. I heard one saying, ‘Kill them all, leave no one alive’,” Yahya recounted.

“We ran back and hid. At night, I slowly crept out with my children and crossed the barrier. We walked to a village, where someone took pity on us and gave us a ride to the camp here.”

Another 45-year-old woman in the displacement camp of Al Dabbah in Sudan’s Northern State told Al Jazeera that RSF fighters sexually assaulted her.

The woman, who only gave her first name, Rasha, said she left her daughters at home when the RSF seized the army headquarters on Sunday and went to look for her sons.

“The RSF asked me where I was going, and I told them I’m looking for my sons. They forced me into a house and started sexually assaulting me. I told them I’m old enough to be their mother. I cried,” she said.

“They then let me go, and I took my daughters and fled, leaving my sons behind. I don’t know where they are now,” she said.

“We just fled and ran past dead bodies till we crossed the barrier and reached a small village outside el-Fasher,” she added.

Aid agencies, meanwhile, said that thousands of people are unaccounted for after fleeing el-Fasher.

Caroline Bouvard, the Sudan country director for Solidarites International, said that only a few hundred more people have turned up in Tawila, the closest town to el-Fasher, in the past few days.

“Those are very small numbers considering the number of people who were stuck in el-Fasher. We keep hearing feedback that people are stuck on the roads and in different villages that are unfortunately still inaccessible due to security reasons,” she said.

Bouvard said there is a “complete blackout” in terms of information coming out of el-Fasher after the RSF takeover, and that aid agencies are getting their information from surrounding areas, where up to 15,000 people are believed to be stuck.

“There’s a strong request for advocacy with the different parties to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach these people or that, at least, we can send in trucks to bring them back to Tawila,” she added.

Aid organisations fear that far fewer people than hoped have been able to leave the besieged Darfur city.

Those who have fled the western city of el-Fasher in wartorn Sudan are recounting scenes of horrific violence at the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as aid workers say they fear only a fraction of the besieged city’s residents have managed to escape.

The RSF has killed at least 1,500 people in el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, since seizing it Sunday – including at least 460 at a hospital in a widely-condemned massacre.

More than 36,000 people have fled since Saturday, largely on foot, to Tawila, a town around 70 kilometres (43 miles) west that is already sheltering roughly 650,000 displaced people.

Hayat, a mother of five children, told the AFP news agency via satellite phone that seven RSF fighters ransacked her home, searched her undergarments and killed her 16-year-old son in front of her.

As she fled with neighbours, “we saw many dead bodies lying on the ground and wounded people left behind in the open because their families couldn’t carry them,” she recalled.

Another survivor named Hussein was wounded by shelling but made it to Tawila with the help of a family carrying their mother on a donkey cart.

“The situation in El-Fasher is so terrible — dead bodies in the streets, and no one to bury them,” he said. We’re grateful we made it here, even if we only have the clothes we were wearing.”

Aisha Ismael, another displaced person from el-Fasher recounted to The Associated Press news agency: “Shelling and drones (attacks) were happening all the time. They hit us with the back of the rifles day and night unless we hid in the houses. At 3 in the morning we sneaked outside the houses till we arrived Hillat Alsheth (area in north Darfur) where we were looted. They left us with nothing, I came here barefoot, even my shoes were taken.”

But aid workers in Tawila say they’re still waiting for most of el-Fasher’s supposed evacuees.

Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the Tawila camp, told the Associated Press “the number of people who made it to Tawila is very small”.

“Where are the others?” she said. “That tells the horror of the journey.”

The United Nations moved to approve a $20 million allocation for Sudan from the Central Emergency Response Fund to help scale up response efforts in Tawila and elsewhere in Darfur, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday.

The UN was “horrified” by the slaughter of more than 450 people at Saudi Hospital, where patients, health workers and residents had sought shelter, Dujarric added.

Elderly people, the wounded and those with disabilities remained “stranded and unable to flee the area”, he said.

Shayna Lewis, a Sudan specialist, told Al Jazeera the massacre of civilians was “most devastating because we in civil society have been warning the international community for over a year about the atrocity risks for the civilian population of North Darfur”.

For 18 months before Sudan’s army withdrew from the city, an RSF siege had trapped hundreds of thousands of people trapped inside without food or essentials.

What’s most “astonishing”, Lewis added, was the ability to see the bloodshed from outer space: Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) reported satellite imagery shows clusters of objects consistent with human bodies and large areas of red discolouration on the ground.

US leader says suspected drug traffickers to be sent to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

President Donald Trump says two surviving “narcoterrorists” from a semi-submersible vessel destroyed by the US military in the Caribbean will be sent to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

He said that US intelligence has confirmed the vessel was carrying fentanyl and other narcotics.

The vessel was targeted on Thursday in what Trump described as a strike aimed at disrupting a major drug trafficking route.

Two crew members were killed, he said, while two others survived and were airlifted by US forces in a helicopter rescue operation to a nearby US Navy warship.

The US military held the survivors on board at least until Friday evening.

The press office for Ecuador’s government said it was not aware of the plans for repatriation. There was no immediate comment from Colombian authorities.

At least six vessels, most of them speedboats, have been targeted by US strikes in the Caribbean since September, with Venezuela alleged to be the origin of some of them.

Washington says its campaign is dealing a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has provided no evidence that the people killed were drug smugglers.

With Trump’s confirmation of the death toll on his Truth Social platform, that means US military actions against vessels in the region have killed at least 29 people.

The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He is relying on the same legal authority used by the administration of former President George W Bush when it declared a war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the US. This includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and use lethal force to take out their leadership. Trump is also treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.

Previous similar strikes have raised concerns from Democratic lawmakers and legal experts who argue that such operations may exceed accepted wartime authority and risk violating international law.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said the latest targeted vessel had been “built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs”.

US military buildup

The mission comes amid a sharp US military buildup across the Caribbean, involving guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear-powered submarine and about 6,500 troops. The escalation has fuelled accusations that Washington is inching towards direct confrontation with Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Trump confirmed that he had authorised the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela, intensifying fears in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro has repeatedly denied involvement in drug trafficking and accused Washington of fabricating a narco-terrorism narrative as a pretext for trying to change the government. He condemned the recent maritime strikes as “a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law”.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, has formally requested the UN Security Council to issue a determination that the US strikes are illegal and to reaffirm Venezuela’s sovereign rights.

WASHINGTON — The United States took survivors into custody after its military struck a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean — the first attack that anyone escaped alive since President Trump began launching assaults in the region last month, a defense official and another person familiar with the matter said Friday.

The strike Thursday brought the death toll from the Trump administration’s military action against vessels in the region to at least 28.

It is believed to be at least the sixth strike in the waters off Venezuela since early September, and the first to result in survivors who were picked up by the U.S. military. It was not immediately clear what would be done with the survivors, who the people said were being held on a U.S. Navy vessel.

They confirmed the strike on condition of anonymity because it had not yet been publicly acknowledged by Trump’s administration.

Trump has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by President George W. Bush‘s administration when it declared a war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. That includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force against their leadership.

Some legal experts have questioned the legality of the approach. The president’s use of overwhelming military force to combat the cartels, along with his authorization of covert action inside Venezuela, possibly to oust President Nicolás Maduro, stretches the bounds of international law, legal scholars said this week.

Meanwhile, the Navy admiral who oversees military operations in the region will retire in December, he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday.

Adm. Alvin Holsey became the leader of U.S. Southern Command only in November, overseeing an area that encompasses the Caribbean Sea and waters off South America. These types of postings typically last between three and four years.

Holsey said in a statement posted on the command’s Facebook page that it had “been an honor to serve our nation, the American people and support and defend our Constitution for over 37 years.”

“The SOUTHCOM team has made lasting contributions to the defense of our nation and will continue to do so,” he said. “I am confident that you will forge ahead, focused on your mission that strengthens our nation and ensures its longevity as a beacon of freedom around the globe.”

U.S. Southern Command did not provide any further information beyond the admiral’s statement.

For the survivors of Thursday’s strike, the saga is hardly over. They now face an unclear future and legal landscape, including questions about whether they are now considered to be prisoners of war or defendants in a criminal case. The White House did not comment on the strike.

Reuters was first to report news of the strike late Thursday.

The strikes in the Caribbean have caused unease among both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, with some Republicans saying they have not received sufficient information on how the strikes are being conducted. A classified briefing for members of the Senate Armed Services Committee this month did not include representatives from intelligence agencies or the military command structure for South and Central America.

However, most Senate Republicans stood behind the administration last week when a vote on a War Powers Resolution was brought up, which would have required the administration to gain approval from Congress before conducting more strikes.

Their willingness to back the administration will be tested again. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, along with Sens. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, is bringing another resolution that would prevent Trump from outright attacking Venezuela without congressional authorization.

Toropin and Mascaro write for the Associated Press.

Operations go from rescue to recovery as no survivors expected to be found, officials say.

Investigators do not expect to find any survivors at the scene of a blast at a Tennessee explosives company, officials say.

The explosion, which was felt for miles, destroyed a building at the headquarters of Accurate Energetic Systems early on Friday in Bucksnort, about an hour’s drive west of Nashville.

“More than 300 people have been through almost every square inch of this facility, and at this time, we’ve recovered no survivors,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told reporters on Saturday. “It’s a great loss to our communities.”

Officials did not offer a precise death toll but have previously said 18 people were unaccounted for. Davis confirmed the operation had shifted from rescue to recovery and that investigators would use DNA testing to confirm the identities of those who died.

The factory made explosives for both military and demolition purposes.

Investigators, including agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were still working to determine the cause of the explosion, officials said. The presence of explosives and other ordnance at the property has made searching the scene complicated.

In a statement, the company called the blast “a tragic accident”.

Davis said it could be days, weeks or even months before foul play is ruled out.

Emergency workers in Indonesia have rescued five people from the rubble of an Islamic school that collapsed during prayers. At least six people have been killed, 60 are still missing, and dozens more were injured at the Al Khoziny school in East Java.

Indonesian authorities have deployed heavy machinery to shift massive sections of a collapsed school, with approximately 59 teenage students still unaccounted for, three days after the devastating structural failure.

After consulting with families of the missing students and detecting no further signs of life beneath the rubble, officials made the decision to proceed.

“In any case, we will be very, very careful when using the heavy machines,” stated Coordinating Minister Pratikno, emphasising that despite the bleak outlook, operations would continue with extreme caution.

The catastrophe occurred on Monday when the prayer hall at the century-old al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in Sidoarjo, eastern Java, collapsed, burying hundreds of people. According to officials, two unauthorised additional floors were under construction above the two-storey building, and the foundation evidently failed during concrete pouring.

Currently, five people are confirmed dead, more than 100 are injured, and more than two dozen hospitalised with serious injuries, including head trauma and fractures. The victims were primarily male students aged between 12 and 19 from grades seven to 12. Female students, who were praying in a different section of the building, escaped.

As the critical 72-hour window – when survival chances significantly diminish – passed, nearly 220 workers continued their efforts at the site with ambulances on standby. The arrival of numerous body bags, however, indicated the increasingly grim situation.

Suharyanto, head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, acknowledged, “We are no longer considering the possibility of survivors remaining, but we will still proceed with caution,” while noting uncertainty about the exact number of missing individuals. “We really hope that these 59 people are not there under the rubble.”

Hundreds of family members have maintained a constant vigil at the school since Monday, sleeping on government-provided mattresses in corridors while waiting for updates.

Among them is Hafiah, whose 15-year-old ninth-grade son Muhammad Abdurrohman Nafis is missing. “I can’t give up, I have to believe that my son is still alive, he is a hyperactive boy … he is very strong,” she said, remembering how eagerly he had eaten his favourite satay rice during her visit just one day before the collapse. With his junior high graduation approaching, Nafis had planned to study mechanical engineering in high school.

“I can’t give up as the rescue team is currently trying to help our children out,” Hafiah added, expressing her profound helplessness.

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Survivors of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, flanked by lawmakers and lawyers, spoke out at a press conference on Capital Hill Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called the fight for the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called on Republicans in the House to support the survivors by signing his discharge petition to force a vote to release all the files. But House GOP leaders are pushing members to avoid the petition and support the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is working for disclosures from the Department of Justice, The Hill reported.

In a closed-door meeting in the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called on GOP lawmakers to instead support the efforts of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., which is seeking more disclosures on the Epstein case from the DOJ, the Epstein estate, and former law enforcement officials who worked on the case.

Massie said of Comer’s committee, “They’re allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them.”

“I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference,” Massie said. “Hopefully today we’ll get two more signatures on the discharge petition, that’s all we need.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she and the others would fight for the victims.

“Today, we are coming forward and we are going to fight like hell for these women, because we have to fight like hell for those that are enduring sexual abuse and are living in a prison of shame,” Greene said.

Trump said in a meeting Wednesday with the president of Poland to a reporter, “So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation [assassination], we gave them everything. Over and over again. More and more and more. And nobody’s ever satisfied.”

He said Democrats are trying to distract from his successes as president.

“I know that no matter what you do, it’s going to keep going,” the president said of the focus on the Epstein files.

“I think we’re probably having, according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we’re having the most successful eight months of any president ever,” he said. “And that’s what I want to talk about. That’s what we should be talking about. Not the Epstein hoax.”

Brad Edwards, who represents some of the victims, responded, urging Trump to join the survivors.

“Back in 2009 and several times after that, [Trump] didn’t think that it was a hoax then. In fact, he helped me. He got on the phone, he told me things that were helping our investigation. Our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then,” Edwards said. “So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is, ‘I want transparency.'”

One of Epstein’s survivors, Chauntae Davies, said Epstein was very proud of his friendship with Trump.

“His biggest brag, forever, was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump. He had an 8-by-10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them,” Davies said.

Several victims expressed their pain and frustration with the lack of transparency and support at the event.

“Why was he so protected? And why didn’t anyone ever care to stop him?” survivor Haley Robson asked.

She urged lawmakers to “lift the curtain on these files and be transparent.”

Marina Lacerda said she was “one of dozens of girls that I personally know who was forced into Jeffrey mansion … when we were just kids,” CBS News reported.

Lacerda said she was 14 when she met Epstein, after being told she could earn $300 “to give an older guy a massage.”

“It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare,” Lacerda said.

She said she had “no way out … until he finally told me that I was too old.”

Lacerda questioned why Epstein was able to “go on with the abuse,” saying she could have testified earlier on to “help stop him.”

“Our government could have saved so many women, but Jeffrey Epstein was too important and those women didn’t matter,” Lacerda said. “Why? Well we matter now. We are here today, and we are speaking, and we are not going to stop speaking.”

A lawyer for some of the victims, Brittany Henderson, said the women want transparency and protection.

“The women here represent hundreds of other women who we have spoken to, many of whom were trafficked from other countries — from eastern European countries — where women don’t have the rights that we have here, women don’t have the protections that we have here. And those women are terrified that their names will be released in those files.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who is working with Massie on the discharge petition, said, “A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence, is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core.”

Khanna said there are “corrupt, special-interest forces” blocking the release of the full files, saying “There is something that is rotten in Washington.”

Survivor Jena-Lisa Jones said, “Together, we can finally make a change.”

“Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this does not matter,” Jones said. “This is not about sides.”

One survivor, Teresa Helm, spoke out against the interview that Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Her voice was elevated way before our voices were elevated here today. And that same calm, manipulative voice that she had, so polite there that day with Todd Blanche, was the same, polite, coercive, manipulative voice that I heard as she was grooming me to then send me off to the home of Jeffrey Epstein, where he would assault me.”

She criticized Blanche’s failure to counter what Maxwell said.

“Does he even have the facts to be able to push back on her? We could sit there and push back. Why didn’t we get to attend that? Why weren’t we there that day? Or why wasn’t even one of us consulted prior to that day in that meeting?” she asked.

“We all work very hard on healing and [Maxwell’s voice] still gets to us after two decades,” she said.

Annie Farmer, a survivor who testified at Maxwell’s trial, said that there are two Americas.

“At a time with record high levels of distrust in our institutions, and a perception that there are two Americas — one for those with power and privilege and one for everyone else, passing this Epstein transparency bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side with sexual perpetrators,” Farmer said.

Anouska De Georgiou, another survivor, said the issue is secrecy.

She called the discharge petition “so essential,” saying it’s “about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root.”

“The only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing,” she said.

Massie voiced the same concern.

“What’s clear is they’re not redacting just to protect victims; they are redacting to protect reputations,” Massie said. “Some of those people are probably innocent, but some of them are most certainly guilty.”

WASHINGTON — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back President Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.”

In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They demanded that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.

It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called Epstein files reached a pivotal moment in Washington. Lawmakers are battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the Republican president, after initially signaling support for transparency on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”

“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”

But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for Trump to support their cause.

“It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re here in person,” said Haley Robson, one of the survivors who said she is a registered Republican.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring teenage girls for him to abuse. Four women testified at her trial that they were abused by Epstein as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at his homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. The allegations have also spawned dozens of lawsuits.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is usually closely aligned with Trump, described her support for a bill that would force the Justice Department to release the information it has compiled on Epstein as a moral fight against sexual predation.

“This isn’t one political party or the other. It’s a culmination of everyone work together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal,” Greene said at the news conference.

She is one of four Republicans — three of them women — who have defied House GOP leadership and the White House in an effort to force a vote on their bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency.

“I think the Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads,” Johnson, R-La., said.

He added that the White House was complying with the committee to release information and that he had spoken with Trump about it Tuesday night. “He says, ‘Get it out there, put it all out there,’” Johnson told reporters.

The Oversight Committee on Tuesday night released what it said was the first tranche of documents and files it has received from the Justice Department on the Epstein case. The folders — posted on Google Drive — contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein, but contained practically nothing new.

Meanwhile, the White House was warning House members that support for the bill to require the DOJ to release the files would be seen as a hostile act. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is pressing for the bill, said that the White House was sending that message because “They’ve dug in.”

“They decided they don’t want it released,” he said. “It’s a political threat.”

But with Trump sending a strong message and Republican leadership moving forward with an alternative resolution, Massie was left looking for support from at least two more Republicans willing to cross political lines. It would take six GOP members, as well as all House Democrats, to force a vote on their bill. And even if that passes the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by Trump.

Still, the survivors saw this moment as their best chance in years to gain some justice for what had been done by Epstein, who died in as New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

“Justice and accountability are not favors from the powerful. They are obligations decades overdue” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, told the rally on the Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability.”

Groves writes for the Associated Press.

Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened by an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,100 people.

The magnitude 6.0 earthquake, followed by at least five aftershocks, hit remote areas in mountainous provinces near the border with Pakistan about midnight on Sunday.

The head of the Kunar Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said on Tuesday that “operations continued throughout the night.”

He said there were “still injured people left in the distant villages” in need of evacuation to hospitals.

Villagers joined the rescue efforts, using their bare hands to clear debris from simple mud and stone homes built into steep valleys.

Some of the hardest-hit villages remain inaccessible due to blocked roads, said the UN migration agency.

The earthquake epicentre was about 27km (17 miles) from Jalalabad, according to the USGS, which said it struck at a shallow 8km (5 miles) below the Earth’s surface.

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the organisation was working with authorities to “swiftly assess needs, provide emergency assistance and stand ready to mobilise additional support”, while announcing an initial $5m in aid.

The death toll in the earthquake has risen to 1,124, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian group working in the region, said on Tuesday. At least 3,251 people have been injured and more than 8,000 houses have been destroyed in the disaster, the group said

Laghman province also has dozens of injured, according to government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Relatively shallow quakes can cause more damage, especially since the majority of Afghans live in low-rise, mud-brick homes vulnerable to collapse.

In a post shared by the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened by the significant loss of life” caused by the quake.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In October 2023, western Herat province was devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, which killed more than 2,000 people and damaged or destroyed more than 63,000 homes.

A magnitude 5.9 quake struck the eastern province of Paktika in June 2022, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

AT least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured after multiple earthquakes struck eastern Afghanistan.

A 6.0 quake, the strongest, struck the the Jalalabad area at around midnight local time, with tremors felt as far as Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, nearly 200 miles away.

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Towns in the province of Kunar, near Jalalabad, were near the epicentre.

The Kunar Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that at least 250 people were killed and 500 others injured in the districts of Nur Gul, Soki, Watpur, Manogi and Chapadare.

Rescuers are working in several districts of the mountainous province where the quake hit.

Officials have said the terrain is making it tricky to reach survivors – and they expect the death toll to rise.

The 6.0 magnitude quake struck at 11:47pm, 17 miles northeast of Jalalabad, according to the US Geological Survey,

Its epicentre was 5 miles below ground.

There was a second earthquake in the same province about 20 minutes later, with a magnitude of 4.5 and a depth of 6.2 miles.

This was later followed by a 5.2 earthquake at the same depth.

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The T visa, an underutilized lifeline for immigrant survivors of human trafficking, is experiencing a sharp rise in applications, despite increasing processing times and deportation risks.

Also known as T nonimmigrant status, the visa allows people who have experienced severe forms of human trafficking to remain in the country for up to four years if they are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of their trafficker. Approved applicants can work in the U.S., are eligible for certain state and federal benefits, and can apply for a green card after three years on the visa (or earlier if the criminal case is closed).

Julie Dahlstrom, founder and director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University, said increased awareness of the visa and the courts’ expanding definitions of trafficking may have contributed to the increase, along with mounting barriers to other pathways for immigrant relief.

Congress created the T visa in 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, intending to bolster law enforcement agencies’ capabilities to prosecute human trafficking crimes while offering protections to survivors. The same law also established the U visa, which provides legal status for victims who have suffered substantial abuse as a result of serious crimes including trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault. U visa applicants must also be willing to assist law enforcement in their investigation of these crimes.

“Many [applicants] are eligible for the U visa as well, but they’re taking now over 20 years for an individual to get access … so I think that has influenced lawyers and survivors, if they are eligible for the T visa … to go ahead and also file T visa applications,” Dahlstrom said. “Especially under the Trump administration, we’ve seen more barriers to asylum access, special immigrant juvenile status access, so I expect we’ll continue to see that move.”

USCIS updated the T visa rules in August 2024 with a process called called bona fide determination that gave survivors earlier access to benefits while their application is pending approval. It also granted them deferred action, which places individuals on a lower priority for removal proceedings.

Erika Gonzalez, training and technical assistance managing attorney from the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, explained that although early access to benefits had existed in the federal statute, it was never implemented because applications were processing fast enough to not need it.

“They have updated the [bona fide determination] process to now have a formal process to engage with, and it does parallel with the sharp increases in filing,” Gonzalez said.

As T visa applications rose, so too did approvals. Last year, the number of approvals broke 3,000 for the first time though it still fell short of the 5,000 cap.

Processing times for T visas have also increased, jumping from a median of 5.9 months in 2014 to 19.9 months this fiscal year.

Denial rates for T visas, meanwhile, have fluctuated.

“We were seeing increased denial rates under the prior Trump administration and then improved rates under Biden,” Dahlstrom said.

Denials can leave T visa applicants vulnerable to deportation. In 2018, USCIS began allowing removal proceedings if an application was rejected with a notice to appear (NTA).

According to a 2022 report co-written by Dahlstrom, which obtained USCIS data through Freedom of Information Act litigation, USCIS issued a total of 236 NTAs to denied T visa applicants from 2019 to 2021. President Biden rescinded this policy with a January 2021 executive order, but last February, USCIS published new guidance once more expanding the circumstances where the agency could issue NTAs.

These policies, alongside escalated coordination between law enforcement and other agencies, have heightened fear among survivors applying for the T visa, Dahlstrom explained.

“We are seeing in real time the results of including requirements around law enforcement engagement, especially when there’s greater cooperation with ICE and greater concerns about deportation,” Dahlstrom said. “These programs are being politicized and, in some ways, weaponized if you’re denied and you’re placed in proceedings.”

Since February’s policy update, at least one person has self-deported after Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied her stay despite her pending T visa application.

So far in the fiscal year 2025, USCIS has approved 1,035 T-visas and rejected 693, which surpasses the number rejected in each of the last four years.

“It’s too early to tell what we’re going to see, but if we continue to see these numbers, it’s both going to mean a rise in denials and very few cases adjudicated amidst more and more applications being filed, which is really troubling,” Dahlstrom said. “These are statutorily protected programs, but what they can do is really slow them down, make them ineffective just in the way that they’re processing applications.”

Rescuers are looking for more than 150 people who were still missing on Monday in northwestern Pakistan, which was devastated by landslides and flash floods on Friday.

Torrential rains triggered the flash foods killing at least 344 people and destroying hundreds of homes.

Most of the deaths – 317 – were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where monsoon rains, expected only to intensify in the days ahead, have driven flooding and landslides that collapsed houses.

More than 150 people are missing in Buner, where at least 208 were killed and “10 to 12 entire villages” were partially buried, according to authorities.

“They could be trapped under the rubble of their homes, or swept away by floodwaters,” said Asfandyar Khattak, head of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority.

“Separately, in Shangla district, dozens of people are also reported missing,” Khattak added.

The spokesman for the province’s rescue agency said about 2,000 rescue workers are involved across nine districts, where rain is still hampering efforts.

“The operation to rescue people trapped under debris is ongoing,” said Bilal Ahmad Faizi.

“The chances of those buried under the debris surviving are very slim,” he added.

After days without power, the electricity supply was restored on Sunday afternoon.

Flooded roads hampered the movement of rescue vehicles, as a few villagers worked to cut fallen trees to clear the way after the water receded.

The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, and Battagram as disaster-hit areas.

On Saturday, hundreds gathered for mass funerals, where bodies wrapped in blood-stained white shawls were laid out on the village ground.

Iran said it stood ready to provide “any cooperation and assistance aimed at alleviating the suffering” in neighbouring Pakistan, while Pope Leo XIV addressed the flooding with prayers “for all those who suffer because of this calamity”.

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall – vital for agriculture and food provision – but also brings destruction.

“The intensity of this year’s monsoon is about 50 to 60 percent more than last year,” said Lieutenant General Inam Haider, chairman of the national disaster agency.

“Two to three more monsoon spells are expected until the first weeks of September,” he told journalists in Islamabad.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September.

The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon have killed more than 650 people, with more than 920 injured.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency.

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in their home in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022, with roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke surviving

Friends of the two University of Idaho students who survived the brutal stabbing of four roommates in 2022 have revealed why the pair didn’t call 911 for several hours after the massacre.

The revelations come in One Night in Idaho, a new Prime Video docuseries that premiered on July 11. The show includes interviews with relatives and friends of the victims – Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – as well as insight into the surviving roommates’ state of mind in the hours following the killings.

Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who lived in the Moscow, Idaho, off-campus house where the four students were murdered, were home at the time but were unharmed. They placed the 911 call at 11:58am on November 13, 2022 – roughly eight hours after the attack, which investigators believe happened between 4am and 4.20am.

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Dylan later told police she had opened her bedroom door around 4am after hearing noises and saw a masked man with bushy eyebrows walking toward a sliding glass door before locking herself in her room, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Speaking in the docuseries, friends Hunter Johnson, Emily Alandt and Josie Lauteren shared how Dylan and Bethany contacted them that morning asking for help. “She was like, ‘Something weird happened last night. I don’t really know if I was dreaming or not, but I’m really scared. Can you come check out the house?’” Emily recalled.

Dylan told her she had been in the basement with Bethany and had tried calling Xana several times but received no response. Emily said she didn’t initially think the request was serious. “I was like, ‘Ha, ha, sure. Should I bring my pepper spray?’ Not thinking anything of it,” she said.

Josie explained that Dylan had previously called friends for support after hearing strange noises in the house. “She’s called us before and been like, ‘Oh, I’m scared. Can you bring your boyfriends over?’ But it was never anything serious… because it’s Moscow.”

When Emily, Josie and Hunter arrived at the house, they quickly realised something was terribly wrong. “Dylan and Bethany had exited the house. They looked frightened, just kind of like, hands on their mouth, like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” Emily said.

“As soon as I stepped in the house, I was like, ‘Oh, something is so not right.’ Like, you could feel it almost,” Josie added. Hunter, who entered the home first, urged them to call police without revealing what he actually saw when entering Xana and Ethan’s bedroom.

“Hunter had enough courage to tell them to call the police for not a real reason,” Alandt said. “He worded it very nicely. He said, ‘Tell them there’s an unconscious person.’ Hunter saved all of us extreme trauma by not letting us know anything.”

Dylan made the 911 call, but was too distraught to speak. “I had to take the phone from her because she was so completely hysterical,” Josie said. “They’re like, ‘What’s the address, what’s the address?’ and I was like, ‘1122 King Road.’”

Even then, Josie said she believed paramedics might revive the victims. “I mean, even when [Hunter] said they had no pulse, I still was like, ‘Oh, the paramedics are gonna come and revive them.’”

In the series, the friends say Dylan and Bethany’s delay in calling 911, and hazy memory, was likely caused by shock and confusion. “It wasn’t until the morning that [Dylan] realised, holy s***, that couldn’t have been a dream,” Emily said.

“She just called and said, ‘Something weird happened, I thought it was a dream, I’m not quite sure anymore. I tried to call everybody to wake them up and no one’s answering.’”

Bryan Kohberger was arrested nearly six weeks after the murders and charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary. On July 2, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23 and faces life in prison.

Dylan and Bethany did not take part in the documentary and have not commented publicly about the new revelations. A psychologist in the docuseries said it’s likely Dylan – who came face to face with the killer – acted in a “trauma response”.

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A frantic search for survivors is under way in central Texas after flash floods killed at least 43 people, including 15 children.

Many were asleep when the Guadalupe River rose more than 26 ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

Officials in Kerr County have said 27 children are missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river. Some 850 people have been rescued so far.

Weather forecasts suggest that more rain and, potentially, more flooding could be on the horizon for the area.

Among the areas most severely hit by the floods were mobile homes, summer camps and camping sites where many had gathered for 4 July holiday celebrations.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate “every single person who’s been a victim of this event”, adding that “we will stop when job is completed”.

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic.

The camp, where 27 remain missing, is on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC’s Radio 4 PM programme that of the 27 children missing from Camp Mystic “many of these girls are younger girls under the age of 12”.

He also said that many more people were likely to remain unaccounted for across the region, because some were visiting for the holiday weekend.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven’t been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

US President Donald Trump has said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the president was “devastated” by the loss of life and promised full federal support.

Noem joined Governor Abbott at Saturday afternoon’s press conference and said the federal government would soon be deploying the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Elsewhere in central Texas, in Travis County, officials say another two people have died and 10 are missing because of the flooding.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas that are still reeling from Friday’s deluge.

Some parents were the lucky ones, having received confirmation on Friday morning that their children were safe.

They awaited their children’s return at the reunification centre.

Rachel Reed drove five hours from Dallas to pick up her daughter. She told the BBC that members of her church and children’s school district were among the girls dead and missing.

“The families of those campers are living every parents’ worst nightmare,” she said. “My heart is just broken for those families, just in pieces. Our whole community is just in pieces.”

“Of course,” she added, “it could have been me.”

Others started returning home in the flooded area, and the damage was enormous.

The floor of Anthony’s apartment in Kerrville was full of mud and debris. His refrigerator fell on the floor, and belongings were not salvageable, except a box holding childhood photos and his baby blanket.

“I lost everything I own,” he told the BBC.

Anthony had sought food supply from a Red Cross shelter; he said he had no family in the area.

“Now I’m trying to figure things out,” he said.

The nightclub is being replaced with a permanent memorial to one of the US’s worst mass shootings in modern history.

Survivors and family members of the 49 victims killed at an LGBTQ+ friendly nightclub in the United States have gotten their first chance to walk through it before it is demolished and replaced with a permanent memorial to what at the time was considered the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

In small groups over four days starting Wednesday, survivors and family members of those killed plan to spend half an hour at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS), was killed after a three-hour standoff with police.

The Pulse shooting‘s death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas.

The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2m and plans to build a $12m permanent memorial that will open in 2027. These efforts follow a fumbled attempt to create a memorial over many years by a private foundation run by the club’s former owner.

The existing structure will be razed later this year.

“None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point, and we can’t go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened. But what we can do is control how we move forward together,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said two weeks ago, when county commissioners pledged $5m to support the city of Orlando’s plan.

The opportunity to visit the nightclub comes on the ninth anniversary of the mass shooting.

About 250 survivors and family members of those killed have responded to the city’s invitation to walk through the nightclub this week. Families of the 49 people who were killed can visit the site with up to six people in their group, and survivors can bring one person with them. The club has been cleaned, and lighting has been installed ahead of the walk-throughs.

The people invited to visit are being given the chance to ask FBI agents who investigated the massacre about what happened.

Mental health counsellors will be available to talk to those who walk through the building in what could be both a healing and traumatic moment for them.

“The building may come down, and we may finally get a permanent memorial, but that doesn’t change the fact that this community has been scarred for life,” said Brandon Wolf, who survived the massacre by hiding in a bathroom as the gunman opened fire. He does not plan to visit the site.

“There are people inside the community who still need and will continue to need support and resources.”

June 11 (UPI) — Orlando’s Pulse nightclub briefly will open for private tours to remember the massacre that occurred there ahead of the building’s razing and replacement by a permanent national memorial.

Survivors and family of the 49 people killed and 53 others hurt during the June 12, 2016, attack are scheduled to attend a Wednesday afternoon commemoration and take private tours of the club over the next several days.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is scheduled to speak during the event.

Nearly 250 attack survivors and family members of those killed will participate in 30-minute private tours of the nightclub, which Orlando officials hope will help deliver closure for many, WFTV reported.

The tours are not open to the general public and will include an FBI agent who will be available to answer questions.

Christine Leinonen is among those who plan to visit the site where her son, Christopher Leinonen, was killed.

“They’re letting us go through it, so, of course, I want to see it. I want to see the inside,” she told WKMG.

“It’s important to go inside because that’s where my son died,” she explained. “My son didn’t die running out of the building or at the hospital. My son literally died on that dance floor.”

Leinonen said she doesn’t know how she will react once she is inside the shuttered nightclub, but she said she is certain the tour won’t give her closure.

“I’m never going to get any closure,” she responded when asked. “There’s never going to be any closure.”

Photography and video recording are not allowed while inside the building to prevent accidental viewings on social media by those who don’t want to see its interior.

Among survivors who won’t attend Wednesday’s remembrance or take a private tour is Brandon Wolf, who said he hid in a bathroom stall when the shooting happened.

“The site of the tragedy is where I feel closest to the people who were stolen from me,” Wolf told PinkNews.

“For survivors, the last time they were in that space was the worst night possible,” he said. “It will be really hard to be in that space again.”

The city bought the property after the attack that began shortly after 2 a.m. EDT on June 12, 2016. The massacre ended when police shot and killed the shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, following a three-hour standoff.

An estimated 320 people were inside the club when the attack occurred, and victims ranged from ages 18 to 50.

A makeshift memorial featuring the photos of attack victims is in place at the nightclub, but it will be replaced with a permanent national memorial.

Federal agencies must do more to house struggling victims from January’s Eaton Fires, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and advocacy groups argued Tuesday.

Chu hosted a roundtable at the Altadena Library with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and other agencies, where a dozen organizations assisting fire survivors pleaded for more assistance.

Even with the availability of federal vouchers and other housing aid, thousands of people remain bouncing between hotel rooms, living out of their cars or in other unstable housing situations, advocates said.

“Survivors of the Eaton Fire are slipping through the cracks,” Chu said at a press conference following the event.

Chu is urging FEMA to authorize a housing program called Direct Lease where FEMA directly rents apartments for disaster survivors who cannot find somewhere to live on their own. The Times reported this month that FEMA hasn’t implemented Direct Lease in Los Angeles even though it’s commonly made available after natural disasters nationwide, including the 2023 wildfires in Maui.

Nearly 13,000 homes were destroyed in January’s wildfires with more than half the losses in Altadena and surrounding areas.

FEMA and CalOES officials have said that their data shows thousands of rental units available across L.A. County, making the program unnecessary.

“We know from anecdotal evidence that that cannot be true,” Chu said. “It is far from the truth.”

Fire survivors have faced numerous barriers to finding permanent housing while they decide on rebuilding their homes, advocates said. Landlords’ income requirements are too high. Potential tenants’ credit scores are too low. Some landlords aren’t accepting the vouchers FEMA is providing survivors. And the agency is including apartments in the Antelope Valley and other areas far from Altadena in its assessment of L.A.’s rental market.

By not taking these factors into account, FEMA officials are ignoring needs on the ground, advocates said.

“There is a huge gap between availability and vacancy and accessibility,” said Jasmin Shupper, president of Greenline Housing Foundation, a local nonprofit.

The push for additional housing aid comes amid widespread cuts to FEMA and resistance from the Trump administration for disaster spending nationwide. On Tuesday, the president threatened to strip federal funds from California if the state continued to allow transgender athletes to compete in girl’s sports.

Chu said that FEMA already has provided $132 million in assistance, including $40 million for help with housing.

She said that money for Direct Lease was available through the existing federal disaster allocation following January’s wildfires. She noted that she supported the state’s request to Trump and Congress for $40 billion for long-term recovery efforts.

FEMA and CalOES didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Chu’s request. After Times reporting earlier this month, state emergency officials said they were reevaluating an earlier decision not to advocate for Direct Lease.