Colombian mercenary troops trained in the United Arab Emirates participated in atrocities committed by the rebel Rapid Support Forces during the ongoing Sudanese civil war, according to a recent report from nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

What happened?
The report alleges that “hundreds” of Colombian mercenaries were “trained by Emirati nationals at a military base” more than a hundred miles outside Abu Dhabi, said The Associated Press. They were then allegedly given further training “at another facility in Abu Dhabi, before being deployed to Sudan to fight alongside the RSF”.

Those mercenaries aided the paramilitary force’s assault on the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, where they “took over the city and committed widespread killings and rape”, said Human Rights Watch. The UAE has denied the claims, but rights groups are calling for further investigations and action.

The deployment of Colombian mercenaries is part of a “broader pattern” for Abu Dhabi, said HRW researcher Joey Shea. The UAE has been “intervening in neighbouring conflicts for over a decade” to “project its political and economic influence abroad”.

What is the UAE doing in Sudan?
The report is the latest evidence that the UAE is “financially and militarily aiding” the RSF forces, which have been “widely accused of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide”, said AP.

Last year, journalists investigated a captured convoy of weaponry intended for RSF fighters that included Bulgarian-made arms “bought by an Emirati company”, said France 24. The weapons had been transported through a Libyan zone “controlled by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an ally of the UAE”.

Last month, Sky News announced that it was ending its participation in Sky News Arabia, a joint TV news venture with the UAE, after executives grew “increasingly concerned” about its coverage of the civil war in Sudan, said The Guardian. The channel has been “accused of whitewashing genocide” committed by the RSF, after producing reports “suggesting there was no evidence on the ground supporting satellite imagery and testimony from survivors of the atrocities”.

“Thirty years of hurt never stopped me dreaming,” England fans sang in 1996. Another 30 years later, Three Lions supporters finally “have grounds to dream” of World Cup victory, said The Telegraph. But not all football analysts believe the picture is so rosy for Thomas Tuchel’s men.

Gnawing hope
There’s a “familiar, gnawing, feeling growing inside all England fans: hope”, said ESPN. Some believe the Three Lions just might triumph, given the “incredible depth” in the squad. England’s German head coach has experience of winning some of the sport’s “biggest trophies” and his squad selection shows he is “clearly not afraid to duck away from making big calls”. It’s not just Tuchel who has bags of experience. The “majority” of his squad can “call upon the muscle memory” of reaching finals in two of their last three tournaments.

To win, a team “must suffer, have luck on their side and improve as the tournament progresses”, said Felipe Cardenas on The Athletic. England have the “attributes”, and Tuchel “understands the players”. This time, captain Harry Kane “can lead England to the promised land”.

‘Back to reality’
I fear that “England lack flair”, said Hunter Davies in The New Statesman. Today’s Premier League coaches have become “obsessed” with set-pieces and are “guided by videos and boring stats”. This makes the players “nervous” and “scared to express themselves”, becoming “too concerned about pushing the opposition at corners”.

The trouble is that England are “always a Kane injury away from a full-blown crisis”, said the BBC. Yes, they’re the first European side to win eight World Cup qualifiers without conceding a goal, but March’s friendlies – a “turgid” draw with Uruguay and defeat to Japan – “jolted everyone back to reality”.

Even many England fans don’t seem convinced: only a fifth are backing the Three Lions to win the tournament. That places England “significantly behind” several European rivals when it comes to “domestic support for their national team”, said Anna Wise in The Independent.

Athletes compete in an arm-wrestling competition at the Palais des Sports Salamatou Maïga in Mali’s capital, Bamako. Malian arm wrestlers are among the continent’s best, finishing fifth at the 2026 Africa Armwrestling Championship in Ghana earlier this year, with 23 medals.

AFP / Getty Images

Instead of reaching for biscuits or chocolate to “combat the 4pm slump”, people are turning to a “more natural sweet alternative: dates”, said The Guardian. Ocado reports that sales of Medjool dates have soared by 100% year-on-year, and searches for date butter have shot up by 458%.

The wrinkled fruit has been “thrust into the snacking spotlight” thanks to a slew of viral online recipes and a growing demand for alternatives to ultra-processed foods. Some fitness experts are suggesting that their followers swap “additive-laden” protein bars for energy balls made with a mix of dates, nuts and oats. And TikTok is bursting with ideas for comforting yet nutrient-dense snacks such as “sticky fried dates drizzled with olive oil and served with tangy yoghurt”.

If you don’t want to splash out on pricey on-the-go packaged snacks, consider adding dates when baking cakes, said The Times. They can be “chopped or blended” and “stirred through the batter instead of sugar, substituting the weights like-for-like”. They also make a delicious caramel sauce: simply soak them in boiling water before “blending them with butter” and “adding enough hot water until you have a smooth sauce”.

Dates aren’t only suitable for sweet treats, though. “I do a simple but brilliant lemon, chickpea, feta and date traybake,” said author and cook Melissa Hemsley. “The sweetness of the roasted dates with the salty feta is amazing. I’ll have that in a wrap or toss it into a warm salad. It’s perfect.”

Keir Starmer is Britain’s last extremely offline prime minister
Sonia Sodha in The Independent
“In stark contrast” to Nigel Farage, Zack Polanski “and even the Conservatives”, our prime minister is an “analogue politician” in this “digital age”, writes Sonia Sodha. But while Keir Starmer has never “really cracked” using social media “to speak to voters directly”, there are “upsides” to being “insulated” from “online groupthink”: Farage’s “ill-judged call for rage” after Henry Nowak’s murder will have done him “no favours with wavering voters”. When Starmer goes, “we may live to miss” our “last ‘offline’ leader”.

We are optimising ourselves to death
Jemima Kelly in the Financial Times
BBC DJ Greg James has argued that “endless optimisation” is making us miserable, and it’s “hard to disagree”, writes Jemima Kelly. Focusing on making your life “more streamlined and productive” risks “forgetting about the things that matter the most”. Your smartwatch “might be able to tell you that you got to bed too late and that you haven’t moved your body for five hours straight”, but it can’t track you “laughing your head off” or meeting “the love of your life”.

Trump’s sordid regime has hit a new low
Ian Birrell in The i Paper
My late father, who took part in the D-Day landings, “would have been disgusted” by Pete Hegseth’s words last weekend, writes Ian Birrell. “The most repulsive character in” Donald Trump’s “terrible team” stood among “the graves of fallen Second World War heroes” and “lectured” Europe about “forgetfulness over freedom”. His “people preach about liberty as they assail allies and ignore the lessons of history that saw a generation of men” risk their lives “to turn the tide on fascism”.