Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of a major camp for displaced people in North Darfur, the paramilitary group said on Sunday, after a four-day assault the government and aid groups have said left hundreds dead or wounded.

The fighting has centered around the Zamzam camp, which, along with the nearby Abu Shouk camp, hosts some 700,000 people displaced by Sudan’s war. The assault has destroyed shelters, markets, and healthcare facilities, aid groups said.

The RSF said the camp was being used as a base by what it called “mercenary factions.” But humanitarian groups denounced the assault as a targeted attack on vulnerable civilians, including women, children and elderly people, who are already facing famine.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), a Darfur militia allied to the national army, has been fighting the RSF around the city of al-Fashir, around 15 km (9.3 miles) from Zamzam, with the help of other local armed groups.

Tens of thousands of camp residents have fled to al-Fashir on foot, overwhelming shelters, and are now sleeping outdoors without food, water, or medicine, SLA spokesperson El-Sadiq Ali El-Nour said on Sunday.

The city – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur province – came under heavy shelling and RSF ground attacks on Sunday, the SLA said, calling for military support from Sudan’s armed forces and allied factions.

The Sudanese army has a base with several thousand troops in al-Fashir.

“The leadership of the armed forces must act swiftly to save the lives of approximately 1.5 million people in al-Fashir urgently,” the SLA said in a statement. “Darfur must not fight alone.”

The RSF has denied targeting civilians and, on Saturday, accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign using actors and staged scenes within the camp to falsely incriminate it.

On Sunday, it said it had organized voluntary evacuations for families fleeing al-Fashir and surrounding camps and welcomed humanitarian agencies to respond to the deteriorating conditions.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the army and the RSF, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.

The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated regions like Darfur, where the RSF is now fighting to maintain its stronghold amid army advances in Khartoum.

Gang tattoos were once a vital currency in El Salvador, just a few years ago when it was known as the “murder capital of the world.”

Some designs confirmed membership of MS-13 or 18th Street —ultra-violent street organizations that ruled with machetes and intimidation — and commemorated slain gang members while issuing warnings to the living.

Now, under the strict rule of President Nayib Bukele, suspected gang tattoos can be used as evidence of membership in an illegal organization, and lead to detention. Intelligence on those tattoos has also been shared by El Salvador with European countries dealing with gangs, and with the United States, where on Monday Bukele is set for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump.

Tattoos have been used as evidence to deport people from the US and while there are accusations the designs have been misread, El Salvador’s Security and Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said he could identify very specific meanings.

“In the past, they had to kill someone, kidnap someone, extort someone to be brought to trial. Now, having tattoos for these organizations is a crime,” García explained.

Evidence of that crime is all around him, in the communal cells where convicted men and those still going through the court process are held.

Cecot was built and opened after Bukele suspended some constitutional rights as he vowed to restore security to El Salvador. Critics say human rights have been forgotten in the mass roundup of men said to be gangsters, with innocents swept up in the dragnet, but the streets are undoubtedly more secure, and many residents say they have new freedom.

The men taken off those streets and put in Cecot — officially named the Terrorism Confinement Center — now stare at visitors from behind bars, meekly obeying orders from armed guards.

Both times we have seen former sworn enemies from MS-13 and 18^th Street placed together in cells. In former times, their tattoos would have been enough for a turf war, now they are bunkmates.

“We’re mixed up, and that’s the hardest thing,” Hector Hernandez, a prisoner, told us. “It used to be different, but today the government has taken control.”

His tattoos showed him to be an active member of MS-13, a status he said was still valid, even inside Cecot. He said each design had to be earned, mainly through murder.

“The main thing is to kill and deserve to be a gang member.”

The ink covers some faces, necks, arms and torsos, but García says law enforcement knows there are “very specific” marks that point to gang affiliation and not something innocent.

He had two men remove their prison-issue plain white T-shirts as he explained the new regulations.

“This isn’t a hunt just because a person has tattoos,” he said. “Authorities are searching for members of terrorist organizations who have specific tattoos that identify them with that type of organization.”

The clearest are the letters and numbers from the gang names: MS with 13 in regular or Roman numerals, or 18 for their rivals in the 18^th Street gang.

García pointed to the body of a man he said was a clique leader of MS-13 who had been convicted for aggravated homicide.

“He has various tattoos on his body related to MS-13. He is an active member,” García said.

On the man’s back was a large design of Santa Muerte, a female Grim Reaper that became a symbol of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico before becoming adopted by MS-13.

García said the other man was an assassin for 18^th Street. He had X, V, III running down one side of his torso. Both inmates confirmed their associations with various cliques and areas where they operated.

García said some symbols he had seen warned people to see nothing, hear nothing and do nothing against the gangs, while others commemorated dead comrades or other personal connections: “Women they love, women who’ve betrayed them.”

Tattoos honoring Real Madrid and depicting a hummingbird

Once Bukele’s regime started retaking control of the streets and locking up people with tattoos, the gangs stopped requiring inked bodies as proof of loyalty, García said, so law enforcement focused on other ways to identify criminals.

But elsewhere, tattoos are still seen as evidence of guilt.

Authorities in the United States have deported hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang, as well as Salvadorans alleged to be MS-13, to El Salvador, where they are now being held in Cecot.

“My brother has tattoos because he’s an artist but that doesn’t make him a criminal,” Nelson said.

From gang allegiance to art

Alejandra Angel, a tattooist in the capital San Salvador, explained: “Never in the history of this country would you see a guy with tattoos working in a restaurant or in a Walmart, never.

“After they ‘cleaned up’ the country everything has changed (with) the visibility of tattoos.”

Angel said she had been a little nervous when the ongoing “temporary” state of emergency was first imposed in March 2022. One of her arms is blacked out, she says to cover designs she no longer liked, but it could appear suspicious to police.

Another artist, Camilo Rodriguez, from a different salon, said he had been questioned twice by police about his tattoos at the beginning of the crackdown. But once he explained their significance he said he was free to go.

They said the gangs used to have their own tattooists or coerced people to ink designs.

But now people are free to choose, the artists said, and are no longer afraid of having something on their arm.

“Tattoos are for everyone,” said Rodriguez, who added his clients now included doctors and lawyers. “It’s a very personal language, and you can do whatever you want with it.”

“I was told they made a mistake.” This is the way US President Donald Trump characterized Russia’s “horrific” double-tap missile strike on central Sumy, Ukraine, on Saturday, which allegedly used cluster munitions to maximize casualties.

The Iskander missiles reportedly utilized are accurate, and the use of two of them could suggest a degree of purpose and malice, aimed at hitting first responders too as they rush in. It is unlikely the Kremlin saw the error of its ways – this tactic being now so common – and perhaps a sympathizer is instead excusing Russia to the US president.

The weekend’s strike was, to Ukraine’s allies, a gruesome reminder of Moscow’s true intent in its invasion: to terrify Ukrainians into submission. The target, Sumy, is also in Russia’s immediate crosshairs, as President Vladimir Putin claims to seek a buffer zone inside of Ukraine by pounding this thriving border city.

The attack also placed unwelcome emphasis on just how little fruit the White House’s relentless pursuit of diplomacy has borne. Trump said Friday on social media that Russia had to “get moving,” but provided no deadlines or explicit consequences if it did not, although secondary tariffs on its oil purchasers have been floated.

Trump has made similar comments before – admonishing Moscow for its onslaught on Ukraine’s civilians, while also expressing broader grief at the tragedy of war in general, rather than fury at the Kremlin’s specific massacres, say of nine children at a Kryvyi Rih playground days earlier.

The truth Trump may be reluctant to post about is that Russia’s diplomacy has predictably dissolved into a dizzying Catherine wheel of tangents. It generates the requisite light and noise, but is of little consequence, bar Moscow continuing to buy time and prosecute the war on its own terms.

American and Russian diplomats are now on a carousel of Moscow’s apparent design, with multiple tracks leaving scant chance of real progress. Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff intermittently flies to Russia, to presumably hear demands direct from the Kremlin, whose official called his Friday visit to St Petersburg “productive.” Higher-level American and Russian diplomats meet in Saudi Arabia to float ceasefire ideas and a wider detente, while lower-level diplomatic meetings began in the new venue of Turkey last week to address the technical details of embassies reopening.

And there is a separate diplomatic US-Ukraine track over peace, also in Saudi Arabia, that has so far proposed a wide-ranging ceasefire that Russia has yet to agree to. Instead, a limited 30-day energy infrastructure ceasefire – chaotically birthed and barely adhered to – ends on Friday. This first test of diplomacy, seemingly dead on arrival, is somehow yet to cast future endeavors as problematic.

The above flow chart, or lapsed Venn diagram, has the singular unifying thread of the Trump administration seeking progress from multiple different dialogues it hopes will eventually congeal into a singular lasting peace. Five different, current conversations, and that is even if you don’t count the mostly silent role of Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Gen. Keith Kellogg, or the intermittent but overarching influence that Putin-Trump phone calls take.

This disparate and confusing interface is, Moscow’s critics say, a standard Russian tactic to buy time while appearing engaged. The Trump administration brimmed with 24-hour to 100-day deadlines about peace prior to the rubber hitting the road. Now there is no deadline – or end to the metastasizing talks – in sight.

Why does Putin seek time? Because he believes Trump has been proven to be easily distracted and is interested in an easy win, but not a complex compromise. Putin also clearly believes this summer he can win a tangible victory on the front lines that will change the dynamic in talks.

His onslaught on Sumy is intended to buy Russia space on the border, but also drag Ukraine’s forces in. Russia is making slow yet discomforting progress to the south of Zaporizhzhia, an area where nearly two years ago its counteroffensive was meant to have broken through. One Ukrainian intelligence officer recently moved to near the city of Kharkiv described a front line quieter than expected, and anxiety as to what lies ahead.

Concerns are growing that Russia is amassing reinforcements, waiting for the ground to dry in May to escalate a spring offensive that Ukrainian officials say has already partially begun. Kyiv has hinted at an artillery ammunition shortage in the weeks ahead, and recent pledges by its allies may not have headed off that imminent crisis. It is going to be a very difficult summer for Ukraine.

This is the real rubber hitting the road. Moscow has invested all in a war in which it simply cannot afford anything less than victory. It does not see gain in forging a deal over frozen front lines now. The momentum – with a White House tearing up economic and security norms by the sheaf, and Ukraine struggling to meet manpower and resource needs – is day by day more in its favor. The Russians are stalling for time as they believe it is on their side.

Their European allies are disconcertingly readying for two unpleasant potential futures. The first is the possibility of a Ukrainian collapse and the need for NATO’s European members to hold back the Russians without American assistance. This is a more remote likelihood, but the undertone of preparations across the continent. The second possibility is more feasible and public: the British and French are spearheading preparations for a “reassurance force” to protect any ceasefire. The noise, and planning, serves two purposes: it allows Kyiv to agree to diplomacy knowing it has some security guarantees in place. And it partially embarrasses Moscow into stonewalling a peace plan that is increasingly ready to roll.

But with each rotation of the diplomatic Catherine wheel, the terms of actual peace become more dizzying. Putin seems less willing to offer even a partial pause as he believes ultimately Trump is toothless and will not punish him effectively for refusing this détente.

Trump said of US talks with Russia and Ukraine at the weekend: “You know, there’s a point at which you have to either put up or shut up.” His problem is that both he and the Kremlin are happy to keep talking. And neither wants to put up either: Trump is reluctant to impose harsh sanctions and disrupt his relationship with Moscow, and the Kremlin seems to have no desire to stop the war.

Trump added: “We’ll see what happens, but I think it’s going fine.” Ukraine must be left hoping he does not mean simply that the country’s fate will be permanently eclipsed by another crisis.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was recovering in an intensive care unit on Monday after a tricky 12-hour surgery due to recurring intestinal issues since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018.

The 70-year-old conservative firebrand was awake and doing “very well” in the intensive care unit, where he will remain during a slow recovery, doctors at the DF Star Hospital told journalists. It was his fifth surgery since the 2018 stabbing.

The former president was hospitalized on Friday after strong abdominal pains during an event with supporters in northeastern Brazil, forcing him to break off a regional tour aimed at drumming up support ahead of a trial before the Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro was transferred to the nation’s capital, Brasilia, where he lives, on Saturday night.

The surgery was difficult due to Bolsonaro’s prior surgeries and stab wound, but Sunday’s procedure did not have unexpected complications and the result was satisfactory, doctors said, adding that hospital visits for now should be limited to family.

A British man has died after falling from a viewing platform at a famed Roman aqueduct in the Spanish city of Segovia.

Emergency services were called after the 63-year-old man suffered a fall at around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Saturday, according to a statement from the Castile and León regional government.

Attempts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful and he was declared dead at the scene, according to the statement.

“We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities,” said a spokesperson.

Segovia is located around 40 miles northwest of the Spanish capital Madrid, in the center of the country.

It is a popular tourist destination that draws visitors keen to see the Roman aqueduct, which was built under Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98–117.

Still in use to this day, the aqueduct carries water from the Frío River to the city of Segovia.

The central section has two layers of arches that stand 28.5 metres (93.5 feet) above the ground.