As the warring country’s de facto leader attends the general assembly in New York, it’s an opportunity to exert pressure

Hearing the horror stories from Sudan, from refugees who have managed to escape or from some of the millions who have been forcibly displaced inside the country, one can only conclude that humanity is once again on trial. We are spectacularly failing not only the people of Sudan but also those who work in the service of peace. From what is happening now in Sudan, it is clear humanity has learned nothing from Rwanda, Kosovo and elsewhere.

The outbreak of the conflict, on 15 April, did not happen in a vacuum. The signs had been there; it was simply a matter of when, not if. While the 2019 overthrow of the country’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, after months of popular protests, had provided a reprieve to the population and brought hope for the future, the events in the aftermath of the revolution pointed to a country divided.

Most flood victims are being quickly buried in mass graves, leaving relatives in the Libyan city struggling to find loved ones

The site of the mass graves where thousands of people have been buried since devastating floods wiped out much of the eastern Libyan port city of Derna on 11 September is on top of a hill. Countless bodies have been taken here, washed and then wrapped in sheets, covered by red soil and quicklime to counter the stomach-turning stench of decay. There is a constant sound of excavators digging new graves.

A few survivors come here too, searching for the missing – though they are likely to have been buried. One man living in Britain, who did not want to share his name, had come from Newcastle to search for his loved ones.

Severed fibre-optic cables hamper search for survivors in eastern Libya where thousands died after dams collapsed

A daylong communication outage in the flood-stricken city of Derna in eastern Libya has further complicated the work of teams searching for bodies under the rubble and at sea.

The country’s chief prosecutor, meanwhile, vowed to take “serious measures” to deliver justice for the victims of the floods, which killed thousands of people and devastated the coastal city more than a week ago.

Logs shaped with sharp tools on border of river predate rise of modern humans and may have formed walkway or platform

Researchers have discovered remnants of what is thought to be the world’s oldest known wooden structure, an arrangement of logs on the bank of a river bordering Zambia and Tanzania that predates the rise of modern humans.

The simple structure, made by shaping two logs with sharp stone tools, may have formed part of a walkway or platform for human ancestors who lived along the Kalambo River nearly 500,000 years ago.

Che Lovelace paintings in St James’s church are first permanent art commission to honour Quobna Ottobah Cugoano

A permanent artwork to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the baptism of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, one of Britain’s most important abolitionists, has been unveiled at a church in central London.

The paintings by the Trinidad-based artist Che Lovelace are the first permanent art commission to commemorate Cugoano, a significant but largely forgotten figure in the history of Black Britain.

Mortality rate grows as animals roam long distances and clash with local people in desperate search for water

The climate crisis is pushing elephants on a forced migration across borders in southern Africa in search of water, creating problems for national parks and conservation efforts.

In recent weeks, Zimbabwe’s elephants have been crossing the country’s borders into Botswana, officials said on Tuesday. Exactly how many elephants are affected is not yet known. The development comes as a survey this month revealed that elephants are dying of heat stress.

Ariane Lavrilleux, who reported on leaked documents alleging French intelligence used to target civilians in Egypt, is in custody

France has been accused of an “unacceptable” attack on press freedom after the arrest of an investigative journalist who reported on leaked documents that alleged French intelligence was used to target civilians in Egypt.

Police arrived at the home of Ariane Lavrilleux at dawn on Tuesday and took her into custody after searching her property. AFP reported that she was being questioned by agents of the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency.

Prof Janet Hooke describes the dangers of building a city on an alluvial fan and the vulnerability of such locations to extreme weather events. Plus letters from Susan Roaf and David O’Brien

Much of your reporting of the Derna flood disaster (Libyans call for inquiry as fury grows over death toll from catastrophic floods, 14 September) has focused on the state of the dams and the political situation, together with the extreme weather event, but there is another factor that makes the town highly vulnerable. It appears to be built on an alluvial fan – a cone-shaped feature of the landscape, formed over millennia by sediment deposition from the river. These features form where steep rivers exit mountain upland, spread out and split into a series of distributary channels down the fan (like a delta).

In many cases around the world, as in Derna, the water flow has been engineered into a single, embanked channel on one flank of the fan and building allowed right up to its margins. In an extreme event, as has happened here, the enormous water flow has reverted to its natural pathways, overflowing the constrained channel and flowing in multiple pathways down the fan feature on which most of the town is built.

In isolated communities in Africa, it can take girls hours to walk to school. There’s a simple solution, writes Tim Cole, a trustee of World Bicycle Relief UK

Rishi Sunak’s decision not to go to the UN general assembly was very shortsighted. This year’s event is more important than ever, as it is bringing together the world’s leaders to review progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The climate crisis, Covid, conflict and coups mean that, without a new push, the world is unlikely to achieve many of the SDGs by 2030. In some places, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, life is tougher now than when the goals were adopted eight years ago.

Global cooperation is thus more urgent than ever, especially to support transformational issues such as educating girls. But getting to school can be challenging for girls, particularly in rural communities, where a staggering 1 billion people live, isolated by distance, terrain and lack of transport. It can take girls hours to walk to school, leaving them too tired to focus on their studies. Dangerous roads (or no roads) make it physically challenging, while taunting and bullying from boys make it even more difficult.

UN secretary general says no country has comprehensively accounted for the past

A UN report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners.

The report by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said no country had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years.

Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

Ukrainian president, US president Joe Biden, Brazil’s president Lula to speak amid hopes 77th annual summit will focus on global development

This year’s UN general assembly is supposed to be about the global south, addressing the social and economic development issues that many of the world’s poorer countries felt were forgotten last year in the uproar over Ukraine.

That was the intention at least, but the global rifts caused by Russia’s invasion still threaten to take centre stage. The US and its western allies have acknowledged that they cannot take the broad support of the bulk of UN members for granted in opposing Moscow’s war without paying greater attention to the priorities of the UN’s Group of 77 (G77), a loose coalition of developing countries.

Choices we make will have impact for thousands of years ahead. The time for excuses and baby steps are over.

It is hearts that move people and not always logic. Artists and musicians had a duty to communicate the need for change or else we will all have to look for a different planet to live on.

Media crackdown follows reports that police officers had detained and questioned Libyan reporters

Libya’s eastern government has ordered journalists to leave Derna after angry protests against the authorities a week after a flood killed thousands of residents.

Hundreds of people gathered on Monday outside Sahaba mosque in the city, chanting slogans. Some sat on its gold-domed roof. Later in the evening, a crowd set fire to the house of the man who was Derna’s mayor at the time of the disaster, Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi.

Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are less urgent than floods, wildfires, drought and other disasters, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

Ethiopian government is failing to protect its citizens from ‘grave’ human rights abuses, amid rising violence and hate speech – report

Human rights abuses are still being committed in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region more than 10 months after a ceasefire formally ended the bloody civil war, according to a group of UN experts.

The latest report by the UN’s International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said the nation’s government was failing to protect its citizens from “grave and ongoing” human rights abuses being committed by militias and Eritrean troops, who fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military and remain in border areas of Tigray.

Human rights abuses have led to concerns over agreement that was aimed at addressing issue of people-smuggling to Italy

The EU’s deal with Tunisia to combat people smugglers moving migrants across to Italy in often life-threatening conditions has been mired in controversy since it was signed.

Foreign affairs chief in clash with Ursula von der Leyen as he issues broadside against ‘unilateral action’

EU member states expressed “incomprehension” when the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, rushed into a migration pact with Tunisia, it has been revealed.

The concerns were raised in July both verbally and in writing, the EU’s chief diplomat responsible for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, wrote in a letter dated 7 September that has been seen by the Guardian.

Susan Murabana’s passion for astronomy was only sparked in her 20s as science was just ‘for boys’. Now she tours Kenya with a telescope on a mission to reveal the cosmos to all children

It’s 1.30am in Kenya’s parched and sparsely populated north, and 50 people are lying on their backs on the shore of a dried-up river, staring up at the night sky. Thousands of stars create a vast, glittering canvas with the ghostly glow of the Milky Way clearly visible.

These stargazers have travelled 250 miles (400km) overland from Nairobi to Samburu county to witness the Perseid meteor shower – a celestial event that happens every July and August. They are not disappointed: every few minutes, arrows of light shoot across the sky like silent fireworks, prompting gasps and arm-waving as people try to pinpoint individual shooting stars.

Fire engulfs Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company tower amid clashes around army headquarters in capital while fighting also reported in city of El-Obeid

Flames gripped the Sudanese capital on Sunday and paramilitary forces attacked the army headquarters for the second day in a row, witnesses reported, as fighting raged into its six month.

“Clashes are now happening around the army headquarters with various types of weapons,” said a Khartoum resident, who declined to be named.

Khalifa Haftar and Libyan National Army militia said to be overseeing humanitarian relief arriving in city of Derna

As search and rescue teams continue to hunt for bodies trapped underneath the mud and rubble of their homes in the Libyan coastal city of Derna, observers say the warlord Khalifa Haftar and his sons are using the disaster response as a way to exert control rather than ensure vital humanitarian relief reaches civilians.

At least 11,300 people have died and over 10,000 are missing, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, after two dams burst during a powerful storm last week.