Tensions rise as Sudan accuses the UAE of banning its planes from its airspace
Travel plans for Sudanese citizens were further disrupted when the country disclosed that a Sudanese airplane was barred from taking off from Abu Dhabi airport in addition to the landing prohibition.
As reported by Reuters, the decision shocked the Civil Aviation Authority, which also stated that it was actively working with airlines to reschedule passenger bookings involving the United Arab Emirates.
Abu Dhabi officials have yet to provide a public reaction to Sudan's remarks.
This diplomatic disagreement comes months after Sudan broke relations with the UAE in May 2025, accusing the Gulf nation of providing modern equipment to Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during its protracted civil war.
Sudan's transitional council has been particularly vocal in its criticism, branding the UAE an 'aggressor state' and vowing to respond to its alleged interference 'by every means to preserve the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.'
Rift between Sudan and UAE and a heated UN confrontation
The Sudanese army has long accused the UAE of assisting the RSF, and in April 2025, those allegations looked to become stronger.
During the same month, UAE state media reported that authorities had thwarted an attempt by Sudanese military leaders and associates to smuggle ammunition to Sudan's army illegally.
According to the WAM news agency, security services discovered roughly five million rounds of ammunition aboard a private aircraft at an unspecified airport and subsequently made several arrests.
Sudan has also accused the UAE of supplying the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a prominent paramilitary force in Sudan, with sophisticated and strategic weaponry, which has significantly escalated the two-year-old battle.
The UAE has repeatedly denied that it armed or supported any group in Sudan's civil war.
The matter was brought to the forefront of global discussions in June 2024, during a heated debate at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Al-Harith Mohamed, accused the UAE of stoking the conflict by sending guns to the RSF.
He noted that UAE-backed fighters were responsible for widespread devastation and civilian fatalities.
The ambassador also claimed to have proof and stated Sudan's plan to deliver a report on the UAE's acts to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Business Wire
3 hours ago
- Business Wire
Vesttoo Creditors File Landmark Lawsuit Against Aon and China Construction Bank for Fraudulent Conduct Leading to Vesttoo's Collapse and Billions in Insurance Industry Claims
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Vesttoo Creditors Liquidating Trust (the 'Trust'), an independent fiduciary appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the 'Court'), today filed a complaint (the 'Complaint') in the Court against Aon plc and certain affiliates (collectively, 'Aon'), China Construction Bank and an affiliate (collectively, 'CCB'), and certain entities and individuals for alleged fraudulent conduct and other wrongdoing that inflicted devastating losses upon the insurance industry and led to Vesttoo's (the 'Company') bankruptcy. 'Vesttoo's collapse was the direct result of Aon and CCB's fraudulent conduct,' said Lawrence Hirsh, Liquidating Trustee. 'Aon knew there were serious flaws in its CPI product, yet continued to falsely market it as the gold standard in intellectual property valuation. Aon also steered its riskiest transactions to Vesttoo while ignoring glaring red flags regarding Vesttoo's collateral providers, reaping tens of millions in fees while enabling a scheme that destabilized the global insurance market. Absent Aon's false representations about its CPI product, Aon's failure to satisfy its due diligence obligations to Vesttoo and its counterparties, and CCB's facilitation of billions in forged letters of credit, Vesttoo's business would not have relied on the misvalued deals and forged collateral that led to its demise.' 'As an independent fiduciary appointed by the Court, the Trust is seeking to hold Aon, CCB, and CCB-enabled co-conspirators accountable for the manipulation of and fraud against Vesttoo,' continued Hirsh. 'This litigation represents an initial step toward justice for insurers and reinsurers who were victimized by Aon's and CCB's actions.' Aon Marketed a Fraudulent CPI Product The Complaint alleges Aon knowingly sold its Collateral Protection Insurance ('CPI') product to Vesttoo and other insurance and reinsurance companies based on blatantly false representations. Marketed as a breakthrough insurance mechanism that delivered accurate intellectual property ('IP') valuations, in reality, Aon's CPI product was flawed at its core and built on fraudulent representations of Aon's capabilities and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Despite internal awareness that its CPI product was inherently risky and incapable of delivering on Aon's promises, Aon aggressively scaled the offering, inducing Vesttoo and others into assuming billions of dollars of insurance and reinsurance risk. Aon Ignored Red Flags Surrounding Vesttoo's LOC Fraud to Continue to Scale its CPI Product The Complaint further alleges that Aon disregarded glaring warning signs regarding a scheme orchestrated by a small group of co-conspirators (including Vesttoo employee Udi Ginati and CCB employee Lam Chun-Yin ('Lam')) to produce forged letters of credit ('LOC') and convince Vesttoo that the LOCs were real. Meanwhile, Aon continued to persuade counterparties to participate in Vesttoo-backed transactions, despite not conducting the required due diligence on Vesttoo or its LOC collateral. The Complaint illustrates that Aon saw a golden opportunity in Vesttoo, a well-funded but inexperienced startup. Vesttoo served as Aon's primary path to scale its highly lucrative CPI product, which involved transactions that were significantly riskier than traditional reinsurance. Though Aon knew Vesttoo lacked the track record and operational maturity required for these complex transactions – and was aware of serious red flags regarding the LOCs provided to Vesttoo – Aon actively promoted the Company to counterparties to support its CPI product expansion. China Construction Bank Enabled the LOC Forgery Scheme The Complaint also seeks damages from CCB and the co-conspirators in the LOC forgery scheme, including CCB employee Lam, for allegedly fabricating over $2.8 billion in letters of credit that proved to be entirely illusory. Given Lam was licensed to conduct financial transactions for CCB's New York Branch, the perpetrators exploited his authority and used his CCB email address to send the LOCs and to convince Vesttoo and its counterparties that they were bona fide. Although CCB was responsible for its employee's conspiracy to produce forged LOCs under its name, it benefitted from the perceived expansion of its reinsurance LOC business. In particular, its provision of supposed LOCs backing Aon's high-profile CPI transactions raised CCB's profile and enhanced its reputation as a reliable player in the insurance market. Aon's CPI Fraud Triggered Vesttoo's Collapse and Wreaked Havoc on the Insurance Industry The Complaint demonstrates that Aon's CPI transactions were the primary cause of the Company's downfall and the industry-wide chaos that it created. Prior to its involvement with Aon's CPI deals, Vesttoo's insurance and reinsurance counterparties had never drawn on Vesttoo-obtained LOCs. However, as the early-stage companies that were involved in the CPI transactions began to default en masse, it was revealed that the IP collateral for Aon's CPI policies were given wildly overinflated valuations by Aon that proved to cover just a small fraction – if any – of the debt the IP was meant to secure. As a result, the insurers and reinsurers in the CPI transactions began drawing on the forged LOCs – expecting bank-issued collateral – only to learn that the LOCs were forged, resulting in hundreds of millions in insurance losses. Since Vesttoo's collapse, Aon has recognized that its CPI business was irrevocably flawed. In recent years, Aon has quietly reoriented its business away from CPI transactions. Complaint Highlights Aon Marketed a Fraudulent CPI Product '... Aon engaged in a campaign of representations to insurers and reinsurers regarding the strength of its valuation capabilities, trumpeting that Aon had 'the Largest & Most Specialized Team of IP Experts in the World' producing reliable valuations for CPI transactions.' (paragraph 4) 'At the very same time that Aon was touting its valuation capabilities in the marketplace, its employees were sounding alarms internally regarding the creation of 'potentially catastrophic' liability for Aon and 'persistent and significant cultural issue[s] … deeply embedded within the valuation team,' including 'insane' conflicts of interest, that made it 'amazing [Aon] [was] able to get a single transaction done.'' (paragraph 5) '... [Aon and White Rock] were incentivized to provide sky-high valuations of the underlying IP, which valuations could both increase the size of the underlying loan (and thus the size of the CPI policy and associated premium) and help ensure that the transaction closed by lowering the perceived risk of loss for other transaction parties.' (paragraph 69) '... In light of Aon's undisclosed inability to produce sound valuations of IP assets, when Jefferies ... received a rare peek under the hood of one of Aon's valuations, it immediately raised concerns to Aon regarding the valuation team's 'voodoo math.' As Eric Geller of Jefferies commented, '[t]he valuation team didn't even value the business.'' (paragraph 164) 'Aon internally recognized similar problems with the output of its failed valuations team, expressing reluctance to sharing its valuation methodology externally and recognizing, as noted by Chris Rafferty in Aon's IP Solutions Group, that independent valuations by third parties might reach conclusions that 'were materially different (lower).'' (paragraph 165) Aon Ignored Red Flags Surrounding Vesttoo's LOC Fraud to Continue to Scale its CPI Product '... As Aon looked to 'make IP lending massive,' it recognized internally that 'Vesttoo is an important market to [Aon] for IP deals,' because Vesttoo was 'the only market interested' in Aon's riskiest deals for which it was 'unlikely that the more traditional shops will have much of an appetite.'' (paragraph 10) '... When Aon became aware of significant red flags concerning the LOC capacity from Vesttoo's investors, Aon not only looked the other way, but also concealed its concerns from counterparties to convince them to participate in Vesttoo-backed CPI deals.' (paragraph 10) '... When Vesttoo inexplicably was unable to provide a proof of funds statement from the bank (Santander) that supposedly was issuing a $50 million LOC for a CPI transaction, Aon did not investigate why Vesttoo's investor was unable to obtain such routine documentation. Instead, an Aon employee simply typed out language for such a statement on behalf of 'Santander & Vesttoo,' and sent it back to Vesttoo to use instead of documentation drafted by Santander itself.' (paragraph 14) '... Aon admitted that Vesttoo's delays in producing LOCs 'left a very sour taste for several parties,' and that Aon 'need[ed] to fully understand the mechanics of [LOC] approval and issuance for future transactions.' But Aon never did so. To the contrary, when another counterparty raised serious concerns to Aon regarding CCB's ability to purportedly issue a massive $228 million LOC for a transaction, Aon internally remarked it was 'not getting involved. It[']s not our issue.'' (paragraph 15) 'While complaining internally that Vesttoo was 'the most unprofessional organization,' Aon pushed its counterparties to work with Vesttoo and claimed Vesttoo was 'more similar to a bank, both culturally and operationally, than a traditional insurer.' Aon also told counterparties that Vesttoo 'ha[d] sophisticated credit and structuring expertise,' assuring reluctant counterparties that 'certainty of [reinsurance] capacity will be significantly improved by the inclusion of Vesttoo.' Meanwhile, Aon internally was grousing that Vesttoo 'simply does not have the required experience or expertise to structure these deals correctly,' and lamenting that if Vesttoo 'was less strategically important' to Aon, it 'would have to consider resigning and not working with [Vesttoo] further.' ' (paragraph 16) China Construction Bank Enabled the LOC Forgery Scheme 'Together, Ginati and his CCB-enabled co-conspirators forged documentation falsely stating that CCB had posted over $2.81 billion in LOC collateral, allowing them to collect millions of dollars in reinsurance premiums before the fraud finally came to light in summer 2023.' (paragraph 12) 'Lam also used the authority CCB conferred upon him as a CCB employee to lend legitimacy to the scheme and deceive Vesttoo's employees. On at least two occasions—once in January 2023 and again in May 2023—Vesttoo employees attended in-person meetings with Lam at CCB's offices in Hong Kong as part of Lam's efforts—in concert with his co-conspirators Ginati, Wang/Fu, and Wai—to deceive Vesttoo. Lam communicated with his co-conspirators and with Vesttoo using his CCB email address.' (paragraph 97) '... CCB's U.S.-facing LOCs outstanding jumped from $80 million on December 31, 2021, to $1.28 billion on December 31, 2022, a year-over-year increase of over 1,500%. As a result, CCB entered AM Best's top-fifteen list of reinsurance LOC issuers in the United States in the 2022 year.' (paragraph 102) Aon's CPI Fraud Triggered Vesttoo's Collapse and Wreaked Havoc on the Insurance Industry 'Aon's CPI product wreaked havoc on Vesttoo and the reinsurance industry. Because Aon's CPI borrowers overwhelmingly defaulted on the Aon-brokered CPI loans, lenders turned to the IP collateral to try to cover their losses.' (paragraph 19) '... While Aon touted default rates of between just 3% and 6% when marketing the CPI product, the actual default rates ended up being exponentially higher. Because Aon was intimately and uniquely aware of the flimsiness of its IP valuations, it was entirely foreseeable to Aon that these borrowers would default, leaving Vesttoo vulnerable.' (paragraph 19) 'Aon pushed CPI loans based on highly speculative IP valuations for borrowers that had yet to generate any revenue even while admitting internally that 'pre-revenue borrowers are not well suited to CPI loans' because '[p]re-revenue opportunities make it incredibly difficult to project the value of the IP.'' (paragraph 20) '... When CPI deal after CPI deal collapsed in mid-2023, Vesttoo's investors lacked valid LOCs to satisfy the claims and Vesttoo collapsed along with those deals. Aon walked away with its profits—leaving the insurers Aon convinced to work with Vesttoo holding the bag.' (paragraph 22) Advisors Selendy Gay PLLC and Richards, Layton & Finger, PA are serving as litigation counsel and C Street Advisory Group is serving as strategic communications advisor to the Vesttoo Creditors Liquidating Trust. Vesttoo Creditors Liquidating Trust was established as an independent fiduciary under the oversight of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to pursue recovery claims on behalf of creditors harmed by Vesttoo's collapse. The Trust's mission is to maximize creditor recoveries and to hold accountable all parties responsible for the losses.
Bloomberg
11 hours ago
- Bloomberg
UN Chief Warns Israel Over Sexual Violence Concerns
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Israel and Russia that they may be added to a list of countries suspected of or responsible for sexual violence in armed conflict. The UN's report, which was seen by Bloomberg ahead of its release Thursday, does not officially put Israel or Russia on the list of offending countries. Instead, both countries' behaviors are included in a narrative section as well as in the appendix — which includes a warning that they risk making it onto the official list in the report for 2025.
New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
How Hamas turned kids into terrorists with TV show featuring jihadi mouse, bloodthirsty bunny
American kids may have grown up with Mr. Rogers telling them, 'You are special just the way you are,' but for a child in Gaza there was Farfour—a plushy, genocidal TV mouse screaming 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Farfour, a costumed Mickey Mouse knockoff, was co-host of a kid's program called 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' which aired on Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from April 2007 to October 2009. For anyone wondering how the ideologically-crazed fanatical fighters of Hamas came to be, the show offers some answers. 15 Farfour, a homicidal Mickey Mouse ripoff who advocated martyrdom and Islamic world domination, was murdered on air by IDF soldiers in a skit. YouTube 15 Criminologists have identified the tactic of using 'the deviant peer' to recruit children into abusive situations. YouTube Billed as educational programming to teach Islamic values to schoolchildren — much like a 'Sesame Street' or 'Barney & Friends' for the Middle East — 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' was a colorful, sing-song blood orgy celebrating Jew hatred and martyrdom. The kids who grew up watching it are now fighting age men — like those who carried out the October 7 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted 251 hostages. On the show, Farfour promised the kids of Gaza that together they'd oversee Islamic world domination and liberate Jerusalem from the 'murderers.' He mimicked grenade-throwing and shooting an AK-47. 15 Nahoul, a killer bee, preached to the school kids: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived. YouTube 15 Co-host Saraa Barhoum chats with Assoud the bunny, who promises kids, 'I will finish off the Jews and eat them.' YouTube Mia Bloom, professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University, remembers 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' well from her research into terror tactics. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda that is almost impossible for a child to break out of. And so the kids grow up thinking that every Israeli should be killed because every Israeli is bad and evil,' she told the Post. The show's co-host, Gaza child star Saraa Barhoum — around ten years old when the show first aired and the daughter of a university professor mother and a Hamas spokesman father — said in a 2007 interview she wanted to be either a doctor or a martyr when she grew up. 15 11-year-old co-host Saraa Barhoum, who said she wished to be a doctor or a martyr when she grew up, stands outside the Al-Aqsa studio headquarters with producer Hazem Sharawi in 2007. Tribune News Service via Getty Images 15 Mia Bloom, a terrorism tactics researcher, says traumatizing children is a means of abusive control. Courtesy of Mia Bloom She also launched a singing career, recording pop songs with lyrics like, 'raise your sail for the sailors, and let your lighthouse illuminate the sea of blood.' 'There's a concept in criminology called a deviant peer. If I'm a recruiter—if I'm trying to get kids—I'm not going to use a 75-year-old man. I'm going to use a cool kid who's maybe a few years older,' Bloom says. 'Unfortunately, it's a common thing that happens within the child abuse space.' Disney, notorious for swooping in on copyright infringement, was aware of Farfour's Mickey Mouse likeness but chose to remain silent. They didn't have to for long: the network murdered Farfour on air during the first season. In the scene, the terror Mouse is being interrogated by IDF soldiers who beat him to death after he refuses to hand over documents. '[Hamas's] argument would be: 'These kids are already traumatized — this kid doesn't have a house, lost a sibling — the trauma is already there and the trauma is all around them.' 15 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Middle East expert Bloom says. YouTube 15 The messages of 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' were reinforced relentlessly in Gaza society, through textbooks, news programs, and magazines. YouTube 15 Western children's shows like 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' emphasize teaching tolerance and understanding, while children in 2000s Gaza were taught that Jews are descended from pigs. John Beale 'By traumatizing the children through the 'Pioneers' show, Hamas basically controlled the narrative and they could direct the trauma, instead of having this vague generalized trauma across society,' Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms: Children and Terrorism' said. On the show, Farfour was replaced by a bloodthirsty bumblebee with a squeaky voice named Nahoul, who preached to the kiddos: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived, and 'revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets.' In season two, Nahoul gets sick. The Israeli authorities won't issue him a travel permit to receive medical treatment in Egypt and he dies. Nahoul is replaced by his rabbit brother, Assoud, a mangy Bugs Bunny knockoff, who tells the tykes at home in one episode: 'A rabbit is a term for a bad person and coward. And I, Assoud, will finish off the Jews and eat them.' In another episode Assoud is tempted by Satan to steal money from his father and sentenced to have his hand cut off, 'as the Prophet Mohammed commanded.' Assoud later dies in an Israeli strike and is replaced by a bear. 15 In one episode, Palestinian children joined in for a sing along in-studio welcoming their own death. YouTube 15 Farfour was the first 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' co-host to be murdered on air. Each of his replacements were killed on screen by Israelis. YouTube 15 A still from Tomorrow's Pioneers showing Assoud the bunny and his young co-host. IMDb In another episode, children were invited into the studio to tell the hosts of their wish to die as martyrs, and then sing a song about it. 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Bloom says. 'It relates to October 7th. To have those resources and instead of making things better, you've just made things so much worse.' 15 Farfour the jihadi mouse told Hamas children 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa,' referring to the mosque in Jerusalem. YouTube 15 On Oct. 7, 2003 roughly 3,000 Hamas terrorists attacked various points in Israel, killing 1,200 civilians. Many would have grown up watching 'Tomorrow's Pioneers.' 15 Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms' compares Hamas' afterschool program to ISIS requiring children to attend public beheadings. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda.' While little information is publicly known about the estimated 3,000 Hamas fighters who conducted the Oct. 7 slaughter, ages 16-35 are considered 'fighting age' for men—meaning many of those combatants grew up watching their favorite plushy woodland creatures get executed by Jews on afterschool television. 'It's not just the 'Pioneers' TV show. It was amplified and reinforced by the textbooks that the children would read in school that demonized Jews and basically referred to Jews as apes and pigs and other dirty animals,' Bloom says. A 2008 analysis of Palestinian schoolbooks found a passage comparing Jews to 'invading snakes.' In popular media, a late 1990s Palestinian magazine article explained that Jews are the actual sons of apes and, due to the shame felt by this, the 'Jewish ape Darwin' invented the theory of evolution and applied it to all humans. Bloom, who has studied genocide, extremist movements, and child soldiers across the world, says it reminds her of the Taliban and ISIS—both of whom held public beheadings and required children of the community to attend. 'It's not exactly the same because killing Farfour was fake. But it's this idea of exposing children to obscene levels of violence. And it creates a preparedness to justify violence and to choose violence over other options.'
