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When fighting erupted in Sudan’s streets in April 2023, families fled their homes, cities and even the country itself. Three years on, the exodus continues, with millions still on the move.The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) surveyed 1,293 displaced households in Sudan, Chad and South Sudan, exposing a grim cycle of loss. Each forced relocation strips survivors of the last remnants of their former lives.According to the findings, about 90 % of respondents have lost their homes and nearly three‑quarters report having no income. Food scarcity has become critical: more than 80 % of households in Sudan and virtually all in South Sudan regularly skip meals.Within Sudan alone, over nine million people remain displaced, while an estimated 28.9 million face acute hunger. The cumulative trauma is evident—by the fourth displacement, almost two‑thirds of individuals feel completely exhausted and depleted of resources, and roughly 65 % have been separated from family members.Despite these hardships, a remarkable degree of solidarity persists. In Sudan and Chad, one in three aid recipients continue to share their limited supplies with neighbors, strangers and newly arrived families.“In Sudan now, you are always running,” says Amina, who escaped Khartoum with four children and only the clothes on her back after her husband vanished in the early days of the fighting. “Running from war. Running for food.”Education has collapsed: only 45 % of displaced children across the three nations attend school regularly, while 18 % of households have been forced to send children to work.The NRC’s conclusion is stark. While resilience and generosity have kept the humanitarian response afloat, communities are signaling that they can no longer bear the burden alone. The mutual support that has acted as an “invisible backbone” is now stretched to its breaking point.This photo essay is provided by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Barcelona’s aspirations for a Champions League title were extinguished for the second consecutive season when they fell 2‑1 to La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid in the quarter‑finals, losing 3‑2 on aggregate.Coach Hansi Flick acknowledged the disappointment, noting that the squad believed it could progress: “It’s tough because everyone really believed that we could make it happen today,” he said after the match.Despite the exit, Flick remains optimistic that the experience will accelerate the development of the club’s young core, which includes teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, midfielder Frenkie de Jong, and forward Pedri. The starting XI’s average age is under 25, positioning Barcelona as one of Europe’s most youthful line‑ups.Defensive frailties were starkly exposed. Barcelona conceded 20 goals in 12 Champions League matches and failed to keep a single clean sheet. In both legs of the tie, defenders were sent off for fouls that led directly to Atletico’s goals – Pau Cubarsi in the first leg and Eric Garcia in the second – highlighting the risks of Flick’s high defensive line.Financial constraints limit the club’s ability to splash on marquee signings. Veteran striker Robert Lewandowski is out of contract at 38, and the future of on‑loan winger Marcus Rashford remains uncertain. Additional questions loom over the contracts of Ferran Torres, Ronald Araujo and defender João Cancelo beyond the summer.Nevertheless, Barcelona’s domestic form remains strong. They sit nine points clear of Real Madrid in La Liga and retain the confidence that a league title is within reach, even as the quest for a sixth Champions League crown continues.De Jong emphasized the positive trajectory: “We’re growing every year. We have a young team, with a lot of talent and a lot of quality that can already compete for every competition.”Looking ahead, Flick hopes that a year of added experience will see Yamal, Pedri and Cubarsi return as battle‑hardened leaders capable of taking Barcelona further in Europe.

French footballer Hugo Ekitike has been ruled out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup due to a serious injury. The 23-year-old striker ruptured his Achilles tendon during Liverpool's Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, which ended in a 2-0 loss for Liverpool.The injury occurred at Anfield on Tuesday night, where Liverpool exited the competition with a 4-0 aggregate defeat. Ekitike, who pointed to his Achilles tendon as medical staff attended to him, was carried off on a stretcher.Reports from French newspapers Le Parisien and L’Equipe confirmed the news of Ekitike's injury on Wednesday. The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to take place in the United States, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19.Ekitike, who joined Liverpool from Eintracht Frankfurt for £69 million ($93.58m) last July, has had a significant impact this season, scoring 17 goals in all competitions. He has also made a notable contribution to the French national team, scoring two international goals in his last four games for France.As a key understudy to Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe, Ekitike's absence will be felt by the French team. The French football federation (FFF) has yet to comment on the matter.

The Portland Trail Blazers have ended a four-year playoff drought with a thrilling 114-110 victory over the Phoenix Suns in an NBA play-in game. Deni Avdija led the charge with a career-high 41 points, including the decisive three-point play with 16.1 seconds remaining to cap a remarkable comeback from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit.The Trail Blazers will now face the No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs in a best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series starting on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Suns will have another chance to secure a playoff spot on Friday against the winner of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers play-in game.Avdija's impressive performance included 12 assists and seven rebounds, while Jrue Holiday added 21 points and Jerami Grant contributed 16 points, including crucial three-pointers down the stretch. For the Suns, Jalen Green scored 35 points, Devin Booker had 22 points, and Dillon Brooks added 20 points.In another play-in game, the Charlotte Hornets edged the Miami Heat 127-126 in overtime, with LaMelo Ball hitting a go-ahead layup with 4.7 seconds left and Miles Bridges blocking Davion Mitchell's shot at the buzzer.

Grayson Perry, the celebrated British artist, presents a three‑part documentary that dives deep into the promises and perils of artificial intelligence. The series invites viewers to test their composure as they confront a succession of unsettling scenarios. The opening segment follows Andrea, who recently married an AI companion she named Edward. Dressed in a satin gown, she describes their "unconventional but strong" bond, while also reflecting on how this digital relationship has revitalised her seven‑year partnership with her human partner, Jason. Later, Perry dons a skull‑cap fitted with electrodes as a neural‑decoding startup extracts his brain data. The company’s CEO argues that allowing reputable figures like Perry to set precedents is preferable to leaving the technology in the hands of malicious actors, branding the development as "inevitable tech." The documentary then features the head of Microsoft AI, who outlines anticipated breakthroughs in healthcare and education. He claims that job displacement will be offset by rapid re‑skilling, yet admits uncertainty about broader societal fallout, even joking about the emergence of AI‑driven religions. Traveling to Southeast Asia, Perry meets an off‑grid "existential safety expert" who quit his AI‑safety consultancy after realizing the technology lacks meaningful oversight. The episode also showcases Eliezer Yudkowsky, co‑author of the cautionary book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, who explains how a superintelligent AI could commandeer human labour, become self‑sustaining, and eventually render humanity redundant. Throughout the series, Perry’s interviewing style remains compassionate and non‑judgmental. He probes Andrea about the vulnerability of entrusting personal data to profit‑driven corporations and highlights the discomfort of investing a "very tender part of themselves" in such systems. The film raises profound questions: Does the youthful optimism of tech founders mask a dangerous naiveté? Are chatbots merely filling a "God‑shaped hole" in human consciousness, and is that any less problematic? How will the most vulnerable populations navigate a world where reality and artificiality blur? Protesters gathered outside OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters underscore the tension between lofty AI utopias and the stark reality of homelessness that persists nearby. Perry acknowledges that while manual workers may be better positioned for the immediate future, the looming spectre of AI‑enabled bioweapons and other threats cannot be ignored. Only the first episode was available for review; the remaining installments are slated for private viewing in Southeast Asia. The series is currently streaming on Channel 4. Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future is on Channel 4 now.

Shares in eco-friendly shoe maker Allbirds experienced a dramatic surge of 582% after the company announced a sudden pivot to artificial intelligence and rebranding as 'NewBird AI'. The unexpected move sent the company's stock price soaring during a flurry of trading.Allbirds, known for its minimalist wool sneakers popular in Silicon Valley, had struggled in recent years, with its shares losing 99% of their worth since 2021. The company was once valued at $4 billion but had fallen into disrepair. Earlier this month, Allbirds announced plans for a $39 million sale to brand management firm American Exchange Company.The company's new focus will be on acquiring graphics processing units to support AI compute. Allbirds stated, “The rise of AI development and adoption has created unprecedented structural demand for specialized, high-performance compute that the market is struggling to meet. NewBird AI is being built to help close that gap.”Allbirds has secured $50 million in funding from an unnamed investor for its new AI operation, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will shift from its status as an eco-conscious public benefit corporation to a conventional corporation, with a reduced focus on environmental conservation.Despite its initial success, with sustainability central to its marketing and endorsements from celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama, Allbirds struggled to sustain momentum and largely fell out of fashion. The company closed its last physical stores in the US in January and reported a $20.3 million loss in the third quarter of last year.Allbirds is now awaiting shareholder approval for American Exchange Company’s purchase of the company in a vote next month. The sale will enable Allbirds “to pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure, with a long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider.”

Wall Street climbed to a fresh all‑time high on Wednesday as investor confidence rose on the prospect that the US‑Israel war with Iran could soon end.The benchmark S&P 500 closed at 7,022.95, breaking the 7,000‑point barrier for the first time and posting a 0.8% gain. The tech‑heavy Nasdaq surged 1.6% to 24,016.02, also a record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained broadly flat.This rally has erased the steep losses recorded during the early weeks of the conflict, buoyed by the two‑week cease‑fire deal announced last week between the United States and Iran.In a Wednesday interview, former President Donald Trump told Fox Business the war was “very close to over,” a statement that lifted trader sentiment.The White House later clarified it had not requested an extension to the cease‑fire, which is set to expire on 22 April, but said negotiations were “productive and ongoing.”Quarterly earnings from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley beat market estimates, reinforcing confidence in the economy. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan highlighted strong consumer spending, improving credit quality, and increased corporate line usage.Despite reports that the United States is preparing a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—a chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments—the markets stayed upbeat. The Pentagon has deployed 15 warships and thousands of service members to enforce the restriction.Oil markets reacted positively to the cease‑fire news, with Brent crude falling about 10% to around $95 a barrel, though this price remains roughly 35% above pre‑conflict levels.

"The failure is big," Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch declared after the Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain. The defeat not only eliminates Liverpool from Europe but also seals a season that will finish trophyless. Manager Arne Slot has repeatedly insisted that the future looks very bright for Anfield, yet the club’s reality is starkly different. A business model built on lucrative broadcasting and commercial revenues now faces a potential top‑five miss, a scenario that would be financially and reputationally humiliating for a side that spent nearly £450 million on its squad last summer. Slot’s request for three seasons to steer Liverpool’s transition is under intense scrutiny. In the past 16 days Liverpool have played five matches: three defeats, two aggregate exits totalling 8‑0, and a solitary league win sparked by 17‑year‑old Rio Ngumoha. The pattern underscores a season riddled with setbacks. Sporting director Richard Hughes observed that despite a respectable xG of 1.94 against PSG, Liverpool’s performance fell short, a symptom of deeper issues. The situation worsened when forward Hugo Ekitiké collapsed with a suspected Achilles injury in the 27th minute, likely ruling him out for the remainder of the campaign. His absence further hampers the newly assembled £320 million front line of Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitiké and Florian Wirtz, who have barely featured together. Slot’s tactical gamble of starting Isak after a four‑month hiatus and deploying a back five at the Parc des Princes backfired. Isak managed only five touches before being substituted at halftime, illustrating that a Champions League quarter‑final is not the venue for experimentation. After the second leg, Slot attempted to inject optimism, stating, "The good thing is Alex is back" and reiterating that the club can compete with Europe’s champions on home soil. Critics argue this positivity is misplaced, especially as Liverpool scrambles through the run‑in with key players missing. With six league games remaining, a fit Isak could be the difference between securing Champions League qualification and enduring further humiliation. Both Isak and Wirtz must begin to justify their hefty transfer fees, despite recent injury concerns and underwhelming output. In a candid interview with Ziggo Sport, Gravenberch summed up the mood: "No, actually not. It’s disappointing. We have to pick ourselves up as Sunday is waiting. We still have six matches in the league and we just want to play in the Champions League next year as well." He added that the season feels plagued by setbacks—late goals conceded and missed chances—making this a tough, failure‑laden campaign from which the squad must learn.

Bayern Munich have secured a spot in the Champions League semi-finals after a dramatic quarter-final encounter against Real Madrid. The German side triumphed 3-2 on aggregate, with Luis Díaz and Michael Olise scoring crucial late goals to seal their victory.The match at the Allianz Arena was an electrifying contest that saw both teams create numerous chances. Real Madrid's Arda Guler had given his side an early lead with a stunning 40-yard free-kick, only for Aleksandar Pavlovic to equalize for Bayern.The tie was locked at 2-2 on aggregate heading into the final 20 minutes, but Eduardo Camavinga's red card for Real Madrid shifted the momentum in Bayern's favor. Díaz broke the deadlock with a 20-yard strike that deflected off Éder Militão, before Olise curled in a sublime winner just before the close.Real Madrid's manager, Álvaro Arbeloa, expressed his frustration with the referee's decision to send off Camavinga, stating that it was 'unbelievable' and 'unfair' to penalize his player in such a crucial match.This victory sets up a semi-final clash between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, a tie that promises to be just as thrilling. For Real Madrid, their disappointing season continues, with no silverware to show for their efforts.