The power struggle in the Middle East is rippling across the Red Sea and fuelling Sudan’s bloody civil war. Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has “torn the country apart” since 2023, said The Times. Each side is backed by different Gulf countries and “their network of African allies”. Now, growing tension in the Gulf could cause the Sudan conflict to spread to neighbouring countries.

How are Gulf states involved in Sudan?
The UAE has long been accused of supporting the RSF with weapons and funds. Experts believe it uses its ties to neighbouring countries, including Ethiopia, South Sudan, Libya and Chad, to support the paramilitaries. But Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the SAF, as do Turkey, Egypt and Eritrea. Even Iran has played a role, allegedly supplying Sudan’s army with drones and missiles.

What are their motives?
Access to Sudan’s ports is an advantage in the “contest for control of the Red Sea”, Ahmed Soliman, from the Chatham House think tank, told The Times. Almost a third of global container shipping flows through the Suez Canal. Sudan sits “at the crossroads of the Red Sea, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and North Africa”, said Shewit Woldemichael, the International Crisis Group’s analyst for Sudan, on Al Jazeera. The civil war is an opportunity for nations to advance their own interests “in a rapidly changing and contested regional order”.

Sudan’s “untapped” gold reserves are another motivating factor, said Middle East Eye. It is Africa’s third-largest producer, and the UAE has established itself as a “global trading hub in gold”.

How has the conflict spread?
Violence is increasing on Sudan’s borders with Chad and Libya. South Sudan – which gained independence in 2011 – is also being pulled back into civil war.  But “the most worrying theatre for future conflict” is between Ethiopia and Eritrea, said The Times. The two nations signed a peace agreement in 2022, but Ethiopia has recently sent “tens of thousands of troops” north. Alliances have “crystallised” along the same lines as in Sudan: the UAE is backing Ethiopia, while Saudi Arabia and its allies have “thrown their weight behind Eritrea”.

The mounting tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE may “overshadow” their joint peace proposal for Sudan, said Woldemichael. But the threat of Iran could also push Gulf states to “set aside some of their differences” and “revive stalled diplomatic efforts to end the war”.

“For more than 50 years, we’ve chosen to honour our greatest citizens” on our banknotes, in tribute to their “genius, courage and creativity”, said Tory MP Tom Tugendhat in The Telegraph. Now, the Bank of England is replacing them with British wildlife, following a public consultation. Swapping historical figures including Winston Churchill and Alan Turing for “badgers, puffins and red squirrels” sends a message that we “lack the courage to state publicly who we are”. It suggests “we care less for codebreakers than cuddly carnivores”. 

‘Values under attack’
It’s goodbye to the “proud tradition of honouring our greatest Brits”, said Matthew Lynn in The Spectator. “Charles Dickens, George Stephenson, the Duke of Wellington and Elizabeth Fry have all made appearances” on our banknotes. “Somehow, a red robin is never going to have the same resonance.” The Bank of England “is doing its best to kill off paper money”, and rejecting tradition for what looks “suspiciously like an emoji” will accelerate that decline.

This is “not a neutral act”, said James Price in City A.M. It will flatten “our visual realm” and “erase the uniqueness of our national story”. No wonder there’s a backlash: the “penny is dropping that our history and our values are under attack”.

Silly controversy
I think “the move is a stroke of genius”, said Emily Watkins in The i Paper. “I’ll take a badger over Winston Churchill any day.” Britain is “too various to be represented by a handful of dead people”. There is “no figure in history who can represent, let alone please, everyone”, so the Bank is “saving us all endless grief”. By “representing no one, animals represent us all”.

I can’t think of a sillier public controversy, said Oliver Kamm in The Times. Historical figures on banknotes “is not some hallowed tradition” – it only began in 1970. Presumably, the Bank was not “captured by forces of wokeness” for the 276 years of its existence before then.

With counterfeiters using increasingly “sophisticated printing equipment”, it’s in everybody’s interests that the Bank “thwarts their efforts by regularly changing the appearance” of notes. It is more important to have a paper currency that “commands trust in the corner shop” than one which “bathes us in a patriotic glow”.

Two lava flows spew across the road linking the south and east of Réunion island. The Piton de la Fournaise (“Peak of the Furnace”) volcano, on the eastern side of the French overseas territory, has been erupting for a month.

Richard Bouhet / AFP / Getty

Paddington: Hyde Park Gardens Mews W2
An elegant and secluded house in arguably the most sought-after mews on the Hyde Park estate, only a short walk to the Royal Park. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, parking. £3.25 million; Savills.

St John’s Wood: Northwick Close NW8
A handsome house with a decked roof terrace and potential for an extra floor (planning permission needed). 3 beds, 2 baths, open plan kitchen/living room, patio, garage. £1.799 million; Knight Frank.

Notting Hill: St Luke’s Mews W11
A beautifully designed house with luxurious interiors, ideal for entertaining. Main suite with terrace, 2 further beds, 2 showers, utility, kitchen/living room, garage, parking. £2.15 million; Knight Frank.

Kensington: Queen’s Gate Mews SW7
A charming house (it also occupies some of the mansion block to the rear) close to Kensington Gardens, the Royal Albert Hall and the V&A Museum. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, recep. £1.75 million; Lurot Brand.

Tottenham: Tamarind Mews N18
A striking house designed by the architects Stolon Studio, with a private walled garden close to the River Lea footpath. 3 beds, 2 baths, open-plan kitchen/living room, garden. £500,000; The Modern House.

Why a coughing fit no one was meant to see spells trouble for Putin – and his enemies
Mary Dejevsky in The Independent
Online footage of Vladimir Putin having a “coughing fit” was swiftly deleted, writes Mary Dejevsky, but that it “became public at all” means “someone wanted it” to be seen. Yet those hoping for his demise, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should “be careful what they wish for”. Putin’s “most vocal internal” opponents “think Russia should be tougher in its war on Ukraine”. That the cough heralds “not only the end of Putin but the promise of a more compliant Russia” is “an illusion”.

There’s only one thing that can stop Nigel Farage now
Sherelle Jacobs in The Telegraph
Nigel Farage is “laser-focused on his delicate route to power”, writes Sherelle Jacobs, but he has a “dangerous” weakness: he “runs away from confrontation as eagerly as he races towards controversy”. That needs to change “if the recent injection of Tory blood into Reform’s veins is to invigorate rather than poison it”. When two key colleagues championed different stances on the Iran war, Farage missed his chance to “show decisive leadership” and “set a clear direction”.

The insidious rise of Tannoy spam
Anthony Horowitz in The Spectator
Travellers “are bludgeoned” by “Tannoy spam”, writes Anthony Horowitz. “Stand on the right, let passengers off first, don’t run in the rain, don’t swear at our staff”, and the dreaded ‘See it, say it, sorted’”. I imagine the theory is that “the more we’re shouted at, the more chance we’ll remember something we didn’t learn as children”. But as I know from my copywriting days, “if you show an advert too many times, you put people off buying the product”.