@ ArabNews.com, Oct. 16 

• Fighting has killed up to 9,000 and forced millions of people out of their homes, either to safer areas inside Sudan or in neighboring countries, says UN humanitarian chief
• The war has displaced more than 4.5 million people were displaced inside Sudan, while over 1.2 million others sought refuge in neighboring countries

CAIRO: Six months of war between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group has killed up to 9,000 people and created “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday.

Sudan has been engulfed in chaos since mid-April, when simmering tensions between military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open warfare.
“For six months, civilians ... have known no respite from bloodshed and terror,” UN Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths said in a statement marking the six-month anniversary of the war. “Horrific reports of rape and sexual violence continue to emerge.” [....]

Voters’ broad discontent with disarray in Washington transcends political parties, race, age and geography.

Jack Healy reported from Gilbert, Ariz., J. David Goodman from Houston, Jenna Russell from Bangor, Maine, and Alan Blinder from Chamblee, Ga. @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 6

[....] A survey that the Pew Research Center conducted in July found a country united by a discontent with their political leaders that crosses race, age and partisan divides. Sixty-five percent of Americans polled said they felt exhausted when they thought about politics.

Only 16 percent of American adults said they trusted the federal government, close to the lowest levels in seven decades of polling. Nearly 30 percent of people said they disliked both the Democratic and Republican parties, a record high. Yet in recent years, Americans have turned out to vote in record numbers — mostly to re-elect incumbents.

“I never thought I’d live in times like this,” said Cindy Swasey, a 66-year-old widow in Dover, N.H. Ms. Swasey, who voted twice for President Trump but thinks of herself as an independent, said she used to like Representative Matt Gaetz and the infusion of newer, younger energy he had brought to Congress — before he played a central role in the turmoil this week.[....]

“This is the best you can give us from both parties? Are you kidding me?” said Joseph Albanese, a 49-year-old technology product specialist in Chicago who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, but is considering skipping next year’s election altogether.

For people living on an entirely different coast from the Capitol — especially younger voters — Washington’s dysfunction can seem like sensational infighting in a distant world.[....]

California will begin a program next week that allows courts to require people to enter treatment for certain psychotic disorders, like schizophrenia.

By Shawn Hubler @NYTimes.com, Sept. 29

[....] Roughly a third of the nation’s homeless population is in California, and a substantial proportion suffers from schizophrenia or other serious psychotic disorders. Getting them treatment and medication, the authorities have long maintained, would make a significant dent in the state’s homelessness crisis.

But some of them resist care, and laws have been on the books for decades that make it difficult to force people into treatment, because of past abuses in state mental health institutions and coercion of mentally ill people.

Now, the state is trying a course correction, and one of the most closely watched measures will start next week.

A new program known as CARE Court — the acronym stands for Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment — will give relatives, health care providers and homeless outreach workers standing to ask state courts to compel certain people with severe mental illness to accept treatment, to be provided by county government. The measure will apply only to untreated people who have diagnoses of schizophrenia or certain other psychotic disorders.

The approach is aimed at adults who resist care and often end up in crisis, cycling through emergency rooms, jail cells or homeless shelters. It authorizes judges to order evaluations and, if necessary, to order up to two years of treatment by a team that can also prescribe medication and help the patient find housing. If a person refuses to enter treatment voluntarily, the court can order them hospitalized or refer them to conservatorship, in which a conservator would be appointed who could make medical and financial decisions for them [....]