NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Deadly flooding: Flash floods have ravaged swaths of Sudan for weeks, killing at least 60 people and destroying thousands of homes since late July, authorities said Sunday. The flooding also has destroyed or damaged more than 30,000 houses nationwide, the Interior Ministry said. More than 185,000 people in all but one of Sudan’s 18 provinces have been affected by the heavy rainfall and flooding, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
_2 Military drills: The United States and South Korea will begin their annual joint military exercises this week, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday. But the coronavirus outbreak has forced the allies to scale back an already lowkey training program mainly involving computersimulated war scenarios. The drills from Tuesday to Aug. 28 could still anger North Korea, which portrays the allies’ training as invasion rehearsals and has threatened to abandon stalled nuclear talks if Washington persists with what it perceives as “hostile policies” toward Pyongyang. The exercises also come at a delicate time after President Trump complained about the costs of maintaining 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to protect against North Korean threats. The allies have failed to sign a new costsharing agreement after the last one expired at the end of 2019.
_3 Corruption charges: Prosecutors in El Salvador have filed charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal conspiracy against exPresident Mauricio Funes, who has fled to Nicaragua. The charges allege that Funes, his companion, Ada Mitchell Guzman, and several others defrauded the government of almost $50 million. Funes, who was president from 2009 to 2014, allegedly paid an Italian construction company too much money after it stopped contracted work on a dam. Funes denies the allegations. He tweeted that as president, he had not decided on the contract or the payments. In 2019, Nicaragua granted citizenship to Funes, who was already wanted back home on allegations of embezzlement.
_4 Thailand protests: Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators gathered in large numbers Sunday in the capital of Bangkok for a rally that suggested their movement’s strength has extended beyond the college campuses where it began. Protesters have three core demands: holding new elections, amending the constitution and ending the intimidation of critics of the government. Protest leaders triggered controversy last week when they expanded their agenda, publicly criticizing Thailand’s constitutional monarchy and issuing a 10point manifesto calling for its reform. Their action was virtually unprecedented, as the monarchy is considered sacrosanct in Thailand, and any criticism is normally kept private. Anyone found guilty of defaming the royal institution could face a prison sentence of three to 15 years.
_5 Somalia attack: At least 15 people were killed Sunday during a nearly fivehour siege mounted by Islamic extremists at a beachside hotel in the capital of Mogadishu, police said. The attackers invaded the Elite Hotel, a new establishment popular with young people, said police Col. Ahmed Aden. Security forces later killed all four attackers and rescued dozens of people who were trapped inside the hotel, said Ismail Mukhtar, spokesman of Somalia’s information ministry. The attack started in the afternoon with a powerful car bomb blast that blew off the security gates to the hotel. Somalia’s extremist rebels, alShabab, who are allied to al Qaeda, have claimed responsibility. The attack shattered a period of calm that had lasted for a few months. Earlier this year, Somalia had a spate of bomb attacks.