Good morning. We’re covering fighting in Sudan and an extrajudicial killing in India. |
 | | Fighting raged in Khartoum yesterday.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Fighting erupted across Sudan’s capital and in the Darfur region over the weekend after months of rising tensions between factions of the armed forces exploded into all-out battle. The violence, which continued for a second day yesterday, dashed hopes that military leaders would cede power to a democratic government led by civilians. |
Darfur: The region, where al-Bashir’s government oversaw a campaign of genocidal violence beginning in 2003, is home to several heavily armed rebel groups that analysts fear could get sucked into the fight. |
 | | Investigators at the scene where Atiq Ahmed and his brother were killed on Saturday.Prabhat Kumar Verma/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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A killing on live TV in India |
Atiq Ahmed, a Muslim who was serving a life sentence, and his brother were fatally shot at close range, while the two were being taken by the police to the hospital for what had been described as a routine checkup. |
Three assailants — one of whom extended his arm in front of an officer’s face to put a gun to Ahmed’s head — rained several rounds of bullets into the two men. Officers tackled the assailants, and as they were being taken away, they shouted “Jai Shri Ram,” or hail to the Hindu lord Ram. Afterward, two state ministers described the murders of the two men as akin to divine justice. |
Context: The killings raised concerns about how deeply extrajudicial violence — which often carries religious undertones — has seeped into the governance of the state of Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanath, a hard-line Hindu monk who is the state’s leader, praised earlier killings of Ahmed’s son and associates. Since Adityanath took over as chief minister in 2017, officials say there have been more than 180 such killings. |
Analysis: Politicians are learning that violence can yield political dividends in India, which is deeply polarized along religious lines. Small-time criminals become heroes of the increasingly militarized Hindu right wing, and leaders like Adityanath find themselves in demand as a protector of Hindu interests. |
 | | “No one is going to prohibit Brazil from improving its relationship with China,” said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.Pool photo by Ken Ishii |
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President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil met with President Xi Jinping of China on Friday, as Lula sought to rebuild his country’s ties with Beijing. The two spoke about the war in Ukraine and the need to strengthen ties amid complex geopolitical realignments. |
On Ukraine, the leaders declared in a joint statement that negotiation was “the only viable way out of the crisis.” But they avoided the words “invasion” or “war” and offered few specifics. Both have refused to take a side and have preserved business ties with Russia. |
Taiwan: Lula called for China’s territorial integrity to be respected with regard to Taiwan, a similar stance to that taken by President Emmanuel Macron of France after meeting with Xi in China this month. |
 | | Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, escaped after an object was thrown at him.Yomiuri, via Reuters |
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- Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, was safely evacuated from a site where he had been scheduled to give a speech on Saturday and shortly before an explosion was heard.
- Pressure is mounting on China to offer debt relief to poor countries.
- North Korea said it had tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, which would be a significant step for its missile program.
- Chinese car companies now sell more vehicles than do their multinational rivals, which have failed to keep up with Chinese consumers’ demand for electric vehicles.
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- Hungary and Poland banned Ukrainian grain imports after a glut of Ukrainian exports cut into farmers’ profits. The E.U. criticized the moves.
- Ukrainians say the intelligence leaks confirm what they’ve been saying for months — they need more weapons.
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 | | Protesters in Paris during demonstrations against the legal decision.Kiran Ridley/Getty Images |
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 | | A yokai created by Chubei Yagyu, a local artist.James Whitlow Delano for The New York Times |
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In Japan, yokai are mischievous, occasionally demonic, spooks of traditional folklore, but they are not frozen in classical legend. |
The island of Shodoshima hosts a yokai art contest where artists make new spooks that reflect present-day anxieties. Some fight corporate dress codes or the way subway riders get enthralled by their phones. |
 | | Stephen Speranza for The New York Times |
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New York City appointed its first ever “rat czar,” Kathleen Corradi. She will oversee efforts to drive down the rat population. In New York, it seems as though everyone has rat horror stories — so we collected them. |
One man tried to save a rat from the jaws of his dog. The rat bit his finger, and he bled profusely. “Apparently, rats have teeth that are like broken glass,” he said. |
And then there are the rats that emerge from toilets. One man, confronted with a toilet rat, weighed the lid down with George Orwell’s autobiography. Another man heard splashing, while he was brushing his teeth, and watched as a rat swam down the toilet. He did not stay in that apartment much longer. |
“But I still close the lid on the toilet,” he said. “Always.” |
 | | Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. |
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“Renfield” is a light and cheery spin on Dracula. |
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Amelia |
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