Bahrain, Sudan, China
Today's three stories you should know
Bahrain
Bahraini opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif has been sentenced to six months in prison for criticizing the ties of Bahrain and other Arab states to Israel. Sharif, a popular secular leftist, was accused of "spreading false news on social media" and "making offensive remarks against sister Arab states and their leaders." Bahrain has imprisoned thousands of activists in prisons notorious for torture and mistreatment since the so-called Arab Spring protests swept across the Arab world in 2011. Bahrain was one of several Arab nations that normalized relations with Israel as part of the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.
More from Middle East Eye here.
Sudan
Sudan’s army (SAF) is reported to be preparing an assault to retake the Kordofan and Darfur regions from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. The United Arab Emirates-backed RSF, which the SAF has been at war with for more than two and a half years, controls almost all of Darfur since capturing the city of el-Fasher, which had been the military’s last stronghold in the region, after a brutal 18-month siege. RSF fighters unleashed a wave of ethnically motivated killings after they overran el-Fasher in November. Several international efforts to mediate between the sides, who were once allies, have failed.
More from Al Jazeera here.
China
China’s President Xi Jinping has warned his government will step up an effort to root out corruption, calling it a battle the country “cannot afford to lose.” Beijing began a “high-pressure campaign” to tackle graft in 2023 and since then hundreds of officials and military officers have been investigated. Last year, 65 high-ranking officials, nicknamed "tigers," were probed. Corruption is endemic in many sectors of Chinese society, with the sprawling People’s Liberation Army considered a particular hotbed of misconduct. Analysts say that, while arrests of high-profile officials appear a powerful tactic on the surface, widespread institutional reform is necessary to end corruption in the long term.
More from Reuters here.