SUDAN: The military regime warned today of potential clashes with the country’s powerful paramilitary force, saying that it had deployed troops in the capital Khartoum and other cities.

Tensions between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have delayed the signing of an internationally backed deal with political parties to restore Sudan’s democratic transition. 

The military said the RSF build-up in Khartoum and elsewhere had taken place without “the approval of or co-ordination with” the armed forces’ leadership.

ISRAEL: The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land, Pier Pizzaballa, has warned that the rise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has made life worse for Christians there.

Mr Pizzaballa said the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community had come under increasing attack, with the most right-wing government in Israel’s history emboldening extremists who have harassed clergy and vandalised religious property.

UNITED NATIONS: UN human rights chief Volker Turk has called for an expansion of regular migration channels and search-and-rescue operations following a “steep increase” in the number of migrants and asylum-seekers attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Mr Turk appealed for solidarity with Italy, which has traditionally received most of the influx. 

UNITED STATES: Justin Pearson, one of two black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives, will follow his colleague in returning to work at the Capitol, a week after they were banished for staging a gun control protest on the chamber floor.

Mr Pearson was reappointed to his position by Shelby county commissioners on Wednesday.