Trump has pledged to help end the fighting in Sudan. Will it be enough?

President Donald Trump has pledged to use the "influence of the presidency to bring an immediate halt" to the two-year-old war in Sudan that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates has displaced nearly12 million people.

It's a significant development for a crisis that has shown little sign of abating, with some experts expressing cautious optimism that the US president's intervention could help stop the fighting. However, they warn that a long-term end to the brutal conflict will not be easily reached.

Trump, who has touted himself as a peacemaker, said last week that it was "not on (his) charts to be involved" in ending the war. However, after a personal request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Trump said he would engage on the issue.

"I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control. But I just see how important that is to you and to a lot of your friends in the room, Sudan, and we're going to start working on Sudan," he said at an event alongside the Saudi leader in Washington, DC last Wednesday.

The war has been raging for more than two years between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It has claimed tens of thousands of lives and given rise to the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Both sides have been accused by the US of war crimes; the Biden administration declared that the RSFcommitted genocide.

The US has been working for years alongside Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt as part of what's known as "the Quad" to try to broker an end to the fighting and establish a path to a democratic transition in Sudan. The efforts by the Trump administration have been led by Special Envoy Massad Boulos, a Trump ally and Tiffany Trump's father-in-law.

But to date, the White House has stayed out of the negotiations, which changed with Trump's direct commitment last week and has created some optimism among experts.

"I think there's a whole bunch of very needed and necessary short-term objectives that Trump can help to bring about," said Cameron Hudson, an Africa analyst and former director for African Affairs on the National Security Council. "There's no question, and I think he's uniquely positioned to do it."

Still, a week after his commitment, it is unclear how specifically the president plans to personally use his influence. Diplomatic efforts continue to stall; Sudan's top general rejected the latest ceasefire proposal this weekend and accused the mediators of bias.

"There is no sense that there's a shift in Washington. There's no sense that now there's going to be a strategy," said Kholood Khair, the director of the Khartoum-founded think tank Confluence Advisory. "It's incredibly unlikely" that there is movement on a truce before the end of the year, Khair told CNN.

Questions of pressure

The conflict has been heavily fueled byoutside support. There have been calls for the US to increase the pressure on the United Arab Emirates, which has been widely accused, including by USlawmakersand aUN panel of experts, of supplying weapons to the RSF. The UAE has denied this.

"Sudan has become, really, the theater of war for a lot of the US allies in the region," Khair said.

There are questions about whether Trump himself is prepared to exert pressure on allies, particularly the UAE.

Khair noted that the administration "has interests with Abu Dhabi specifically related to Israel," as the UAE is a member of the Abraham Accords. She argued that the accords, which Trump touts as a keystone foreign policy achievement, is "a far higher priority" to the US president than Sudan.

The Trump family also has business ties to the UAE, Khair noted. The Trump Organization ismaking millionsfrom licensing agreements and cryptocurrency deals with government backed businesses in the country, Forbes reported last month.

The US has not publicly pressured the UAE, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said recently that "something needs to be done to cut off the weapons and the support the RSF is getting."

"I can just tell you at the highest levels of our government, that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties," Rubio said in mid-November. He has spoken twice in two weeks with his Emirati counterpart.

Still, some experts told CNN that Trump is more likely to have sway over the outside actors than the warring parties themselves as the US has little leverage over the RSF or SAF.

The Trump administration is "well positioned to mediate among the outside powers, because all of those powers are their friends. It's Turkey, it's Egypt, it's Qatar. It's Saudi. It's UAE," Hudson said.

"Trump is made for that moment," he added. "He's made for the moment of striking an elite deal among big men. What he's not made for is rolling up his sleeves and getting involved in the nitty gritty of Sudanese politics."

Jeffrey Feltman, a former US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, said that Trump's comments were "promising" and "encouraging."

"I'm persuaded that the Quad countries will only take Sudan seriously… if they believe the President finds this important," he told CNN. "There has to be a serious reduction in violence, and I don't see where the US has the leverage to do that, meaning we have to use our leverage on those that do."

However, Manal Taha, a security and peace process expert from Sudan, told CNN that a ceasefire between the two warring generals "is not going to stop the war and the suffering on the ground."

The war has become tribal and ethnic, and there have been so many atrocities, the "generational trauma has to be addressed," she said.

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November 27, 2025

Trump has pledged to help end the fighting in Sudan. Will it be enough?

President Donald Trump has pledged to use the "influence of the presidency to bring an immediate halt" to the two-year-old war in...

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In brief glimpses of Tehran, an AP journalist sees a changing and challenged Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — As you enterIran's capital, it starts with only occasional glimpses — a passenger in a car speeding by or a pedestrian trying to leapfrog through Tehran's notorious traffic. But as you reach the cooler heights of Tehran's northern neighborhoods along the city's sycamore-lined Vali-e Asr Street, they are almost everywhere, women with their brown, black, blonde and gray locks.

More and more,Iranian women choose to forgo the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

It was something unthinkable just a few years earlier in the Islamic Republic, whose conservative Shiite clerics and hard-line politicians long pushed for strict enforcement of laws requiring women to cover their hair. Butthe 2022 death of Mahsa Aminiand the nationwide protests that followed enraged women of all ages and views in a way few other issues havesince the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"When I moved to Iran in 1999, letting a single strand of hair show would immediately prompt someone to tell me to tuck it back under my headscarf out of fear of the morality police taking me away," said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "To see where Iran is today feels unimaginable: Women and girls openly defying mandatory hijab."

"Authorities are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers across the country and worry that if they crack down — at a delicate time marked by power blackouts, water shortages, and a rotten economy — they could spur Iranians to return to the streets."

First trip to Iran in years

I received a three-day visa from the government to attend a summitaddressed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchias tensions remain high over Tehran's nuclear program. Access to reporting beyond the summit was limited, but the trip gave me my first look on the ground in Iran since my last visits in 2018 and 2019.

In those intervening years, I had watched from abroad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in my role overseeing the Associated Press' coverage of Iran and the Gulf Arab states as Iran was roiled by protests over the economy and Amini's death,the coronavirus pandemicand a 12-day war with Israel.

For the past 46 years, Iran's rulers have imposed the hijab rule. At the strictest times, the police and the Basijis, the all-volunteer force of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, kept a close eye on women in the streets to ensure compliance.

Whenever the atmosphere felt laxer, many women pushed their scarves further and further back on their head — small challenges to the government on how much hair can you get away with showing. But they rarely dared to remove it.

More women choosing to go without the hijab

Working remotely with my AP colleagues in Iran, I knew from their reporting, photographs and video footage from the streets on even unrelated assignments thatwomen had begun to drop the hijab completely. But I didn't fully understand the scale of that refusal until I saw it myself.

Around Tajrish Square, at the foot of Tehran's Alborz Mountains, one group of young girls who are required to wear the hijab to school immediately removed them after leaving in the afternoon. They darted between cars idling through traffic, laughing and carrying art projects. Women of all ages went uncovered at the Tajrish Bazaar and walking past the blue-tile domes of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine. Two police officers on the street talked among themselves as the women past by unremarked.

At the luxury Espinas Palace Hotel, multiple women with their uncovered walked past the signs reading, "Please observe the Islamic hijab" with the black-and-white outline of a woman in hijab.

A foreign diplomat's wife attended a dinner for the summit without one. An Iranian woman in attendance briefly put one over her head while in discussion with a hotel staff member, then let it fall fully to her shoulders a moment later.

Those sites were in northern Tehran, an affluent area that is generally more liberal. But even in a more conservative southern district, an uncovered woman walked quickly down the street among others in the all-encompassing black chador.

"All of my life I had to wear hijab, at school, at university, everywhere in public," one Iranian woman who recently emigrated to Canada told me after I returned to Dubai, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"I always tried to follow the rules but it made me feel a lack of confidence … because I wore the hijab and I didn't believe in that."

Signs of the war could be seen too. I saw one apartment building, its top-floor apartment still in ruins from an Israeli strike as well.

Dissatisfaction simmers under the surface

Hard-liners within Iran's theocracy repeatedly have called for increased enforcement of the hijab laws. Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has pushed to halt that, saying in September in an interview with NBC News that "human beings have a right to choose."

Iran's top authority, 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has so far left the hijab issue alone after this year's war with Israel, which also saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear enrichment sites. Also on hold is any change to Iran's government-subsidized gasoline prices, among the cheapest in the world, despite increasing economic pressure on the country as its rial currency trades at over 1 million to $1.

The reason likely rests in the widespread dissatisfaction of Iran's people with its theocracy at the moment. Previous government actions on both issues led to nationwide protests and security force crackdowns that killed hundreds and saw thousands detained.

In recent days, Pezeshkian's social affairs adviser Mohammad-Javad Javadi-Yeganeh acknowledged data from an unpublished survey by the state-linked Iranian Students Polling Agency. The polling reportedly suggested widespread discontent with the government, something not previously acknowledged by officials who have repeatedly contended that the country came together during the 12-day war. Fear of another war breaking out permeates conversations across Tehran.

"When we visit provinces, we see in surveys that people are discontent about the administration," Pezeshkian recently said, without directly acknowledging the polling. "We are answerable since we cannot provide services to people."

The polling tracks with widespread voter discontent and a low turnout duringlast year's initial presidential vote.

"Years of economic hardship, inflation, currency volatility, unemployment and public frustration over environmental and social challenges have sharply eroded trust in institutions," the Washington-based National Iranian American Council said in an analysis about the reported polling data.

Yet the worry of a renewed government crackdown persists for a population exhausted by the grind of international sanctions and the widespread fear that another war with Israel will come.

"Sometimes that fear is with me," the Iranian woman living in Canada said. "Sometimes when I'm behind the wheel, I try to find my headscarf on my head. That fear is still with me."

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage fromthe Carnegie Corporation of New YorkandOutrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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November 27, 2025

In brief glimpses of Tehran, an AP journalist sees a changing and challenged Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — As you enterIran's capital, it starts with only occasional glimpses — a passenger in a car speedi...

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Trump vows to 'permanently pause' migration from poor nations in anti-immigrant social media screed

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed on Thanksgiving night to "permanently pause migration" from poorer nations in a blistering anti-immigrant screed posted to social media.

The extended rant came in the wake of the Wednesday shooting of two National Guard members who were deployed to patrol Washington, D.C. under Trump's orders, one of whom died shortly before the president spoke to U.S. troops by video on Thursday evening.

A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges for the shooting.

The president said on his Truth Social platform that "most" foreign-born U.S. residents "are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels" as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.

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November 27, 2025

Trump vows to 'permanently pause' migration from poor nations in anti-immigrant social media screed

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed on Thanksgiving night to "permanently pause migration...

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Breaking Down the Ending of 'Maxton Hall' Season 2

Credit - Courtesy of Prime Video

Warning: Spoilers ahead forMaxton Hall—The World Between Us

When director Martin Schreier was making the first season ofMaxton Hall—The World Between Us, he never imagined it would become Prime Video's most-watched international original series ever. Theteen romanceabout ambitious scholarship student Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten) and arrogant rich kid James Beaufort (Damian Hardung) may be set at an elite British secondary school, but it is adapted from a German-language book trilogy by author Mona Kasten starring German actors and made by a German crew.

"We made it only with Germany in mind," Schreier says, joking that—otherwise—maybe they would have shot it in English. But after they finished shooting the first season, which premiered in 2024, Schreier says he was pleasantly surprised to hear that Prime Video's regional partners thought it had international potential. "That was a point where we thought, 'OK, maybe it could be a bigger success than we hoped for.'"

And the show has steadily found acclaim all over the world. Even before the second season's three-episode premiere in early November,Maxton Hallstarted climbingPrime Video's Top Ten series list. No doubt buoyed byThe Summer I Turned Prettyfans looking for their next epic TV romance, the second season has charted as the No. 1 show on Prime Video in 82 countries and within the top 10 in 112 countries,according to FlixPatrol.

With the six-episode second season officially finished, let's discuss how the German TV series has become such a big hit, where Season 2 leaves Ruby and James, and what we can expect from the third season.

The magic behindMaxton Hall

As withother breakout hits, the success ofMaxton Halldoes not come down to one thing. "I think there has to be a lot of things that come together to make such a huge success—lightning in a bottle that you catch," says Schreier. One of those factors? The lead actors. "We searched for over half a year for the right couple, and did a lot of tests and had a lot of different combinations and everything. I think that their chemistry is a big factor."

Hardung, the 27-year-old actor who plays James Beaufort, was the first to be cast. Schreier says Hardung came to the audition in character, even though the role was supposed to be a secret. "Somehow Damian knew that we were casting for the books," he says. "So he came prepared as James Beaufort. He played it arrogantly and everything. He was totally spot on. Early on, we knew that he was the right one."

Hardung, who isalso currently studying to be a doctor, explains what happened. "They wouldn't tell us the name of the project, right?" he says. "They were just coming up with some random names. But then they forgot, in one scene, to edit the last names. And so I just Googled the last names." From there, he was able to thoroughly prepare, studying the book chapters written from James' point of view.

Herbig-Matten, the 22-year-old actor who plays Ruby Bell, came later. "I remember, after her audition, I turned around to the producers, and the people from Amazon, and I said, 'If we don't take her, we would be stupid. She's the one,'" says Schreier. "And it took really a long time to convince everybody that they are the right couple." As with most projects that are based on source material, there wasn't universal agreement on Ruby's casting among fans of the book series. "Everyone was a little bit afraid," says Schreier. "But now everyone loves her, and no one thinks about what they thought when they read the book. Now, she is Ruby Bell."

Herbig-Matten was unable to answer questions due to illness, but Hardung spoke to TIME about the chemistry between the two actors. "I want to think there is always some mystical, magical element that we can't quite grasp and that we don't know how to calculate," he says. "That's the magic of moviemaking, as well, that we don't know which projects work and which don't. If there would be a formula, then it wouldn't be art … And I was just truly grateful to have undergone this journey with Harriet, because she's just a wonderful partner-in-crime to have."

Schreier's directing style also brings an emotionally evocative, cinematic lens to the central relationship. "Sometimes, you don't need words," says Schreier, whose background is in feature filmmaking, including the 2019 period romanceDreamfactory. "You just need the looks in the eyes, and the beautiful music, and it tells more than all of the talking. And I think this resonates with all of us—even which language we speak doesn't matter—music and pictures together can form an emotion that might be stronger than words."

When asked about the frequent slow-motion moments on the show, Schreier speaks to the technique's potential to expand a moment. "I don't know why some people talk bad about slow motion, because I think it's beautiful," he says. "If you have a beautiful moment and you give the audience time to really dig deep into the emotion and to feel it more, it isn't rushed, I think it gives the emotion more time to breathe."

Music is another element, and Schreier shaped the soundtrack of the series, too, suggesting songs likeSYML's 'Where's My Love?'and'Moth to a Flame' by Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd, both of which were featured in Season 1.

Through Schreier's lens, the heightened, fictional emotions ofMaxton Hallcan become an escape from the anxieties of the real world. "Everyone needs something for the heart, something simple so you can forget the whole world outside, and all the trouble we have in the world," he says. "I think this is maybe another factor that helped the success."

What happens inMaxton HallSeason 2?

While the first season ofMaxton Hallchronicled Ruby and James' first meeting, their initial animosity towards one another, and their eventual coming together over six episodes, Season 2 is when everything goes to hell. When we last left the characters, James' mother, Cordelia (Clelia Sarto) had unexpectedly died from a stroke. The tragedy sends the fragile James into a tailspin. In the first episode of Season 1, he goes on a bender and makes out with Elaine (Eli Riccardi) in front of Ruby at a party.

Ruby is furious and heartbroken, but the news that Cordelia has died sends her to James' side. In one of the most raw and intimate scenes from the entire season, Ruby comforts a grieving James in the darkness of his bedroom. It's the scene that Schreier is most proud of from Season 2. "I shot it completely differently than I shot the rest of the season," he says. "The rest of the season is really loud and colorful and has a lot of music—you know, fireworks for the senses. For this scene, I toned it down: almost no sound, just the two of them in a dark room, just the pure emotion."

But the relationship cannot last like this. Ruby understandably feels she can't trust James with her heart, especially when she is so close to finally clinching her dream to attend Oxford University. She breaks up with James, and tells him that she cannot be the one who saves him.

Much of the second season's character development happens with James, as he confronts his self-destructive behaviors, including alcohol dependence. He starts therapy, and commits to becoming a healthier person for himself, for his twin sister Lydia (Sonja Weißer), and for Ruby.

The season's turning point comes in Episode 3, at a mental health charity benefit organized by Ruby, James, and the rest of the Maxton Hall planning committee. When the planned speaker bails, James steps onto the stage to share some of his own mental health struggles. It's a brave moment of vulnerability that has James proving himself to Ruby and standing up to his father, who sees emotion as a weakness the Beaufort family cannot afford. "I remember we had 200 extras in the room," says Hardung, calling it one of the most challenging scenes of the season. "At some point, they just closed the door between [us] and the extras because I couldn't really hold it back anymore. It was a really intense moment."

Heading into the Season 2 finale, Ruby and James are committed to one another once again. Still, things are far from settled. Driven even further into his controlling, emotionally abusive behavior following the death of his wife, Mortimer Beaufort (Fedja van Huêt), is determined to keep Ruby and his son apart. He will do anything, including getting Ruby's scholarship to Oxford revoked and getting Ruby's mother fired from her beloved bakery.

Hardung thinks it is that latter action that finally gets James to understand the depth of his father's ruthlessness. "It's this breaking point where he really realizes the lengths to which his father is willing to go to keep everyone in line and to destroy the life of Ruby Bell," he says. "There's just so much pain in there, but also liberation. It's empowering, but also hurtful."

How doesMaxton HallSeason 2 end?

WhileMaxton Hallmay be an escape, it is not a particularly happy one come the end of Season 2. The second season ends with Ruby suspended from Maxton Hall, on suspicion that she had an affair with Professor Sutton (Eidin Jalali). It's a particularly ironic twist, given that the reason Ruby and James first met was because Ruby accidentally walked in on a passionate embrace between Sutton and Lydia, James' sister. James initially approached Ruby in order to buy her silence.

Heading into the final moments of Season 2, the viewer is led to believe that the affair between Sutton and Lydia has been exposed. Lacrosse bro Cyril (Ben Felipe) snapped a photo of Lydia and Sutton embracing at the Midsummer Night's Dream party in Episode 5. Elaine, who is jealous that James has chosen Ruby over her, asks Cyril to send her the picture. By the end of the party, Headmaster Lexington (Thomas Douglas) has been texted an incriminating picture.

Lydia, who is pregnant with twins, and Sutton take it surprisingly well. Sure, it means the end of Sutton's career, but they can be together. However, as is revealed in the season's final act, Elaine actually sent a photo of Ruby and Sutton from the Maxton Hall party in Season 1. In the photo, Sutton was talking to Ruby about his affair with Lydia. It looks intimate because Sutton didn't want anyone to overhear their conversation.

Ironically, James was the one who took the photo. At the time, he was gathering material to blackmail Ruby into silence about Lydia and Sutton—even though Ruby had no intention of telling anyone about what she saw. When Lexington is sent the photo, he calls a disciplinary meeting for Sutton to explain what happened, and for action to be taken. Mortimer Beaufort is in attendance.

Sutton, who thinks he and Lydia have been caught, accepts his fate. It is only halfway through the meeting that he realizes Lexington, Mortimer, and the rest of the committee have the details wrong. He seemingly doesn't correct them before being dragged off by the police. Alongside her mother, Ruby is told she has been suspended from Maxton Hall. Now, her future at Oxford—or any college—is in question. Distraught, she flees the office and runs into James' arms. The two are crying, but they are together.

The finale also includes the reading of Cordelia Beaufort's will. Though James, Lydia, and their Aunt Ophelia (Dagny Dewath) are convinced that Cordelia has left her children primary ownership of the Beaufort company, the will leaves everything to Mortimer. Ophelia, Cordelia's sister, is convinced Mortimer tampered with the will and vows to contest the outcome.

While Mortimer chooses control over affection, Percy (Hyun Wanner), the Beaufort chauffeur who has been a father figure of sorts to James and Lydia, quietly mourns Cordelia. In the finale,

we see him placing flowers at Cordelia's grave, and kissing a key that hands around his neck. Earlier in the season, during a conversation with Ruby, Percy reveals that he grew up alongside Cordelia. His family has served the Beauforts for generations. A shot of Percy looking up into the sky fades into a shot of James looking up into the sky, implying a similarity between the two. Could Percy be James and Lydia's biological father?

When constructing the final moments of Season 2, Schreier hesitated to leave viewers in such a distressing place. The first book ends with James betraying Ruby following the death of his mother, but the TV series' creative team decided to end slightly earlier than that, preserving a quasi-happy ending should a Season 2 never come to pass. "In Season 1, it was really, really important for me and for Amazon that it ended almost like a happy end. You know that they stay together. The mother dies—OK that's the cliffhanger—but the love story is finished."

When writing and filming Season 2, the team knew that they would have a chance to continue the story, hence the sad ending. "I think it's the best thing to let the audience out with the biggest emotion possible—positive or negative, but they have to feel something … I want them to be on the edge of their seat, and to say, 'I want to know what happens next.' … I hope we have achieved this with this cliffhanger."

Will there be aMaxton HallSeason 3?

Yes. Prime Video greenlit Seasons 2 and 3 ofMaxton Hallshortly following the success of Season 1. Season 3 ofMaxton Hallwill be based on the third book in Mona Kasten'sSave Mebook series, and will wrap up the love story of Ruby and James.

Schreier was sworn to secrecy about the details of Season 3, which has already started filming, but that he is "pretty happy" with how everything was going. "I think what we try to achieve with Season 3 is to bring everything to a close and to give every character a great standoff and a farewell," he says. "And I hope we will make the audience happy that, after all this drama, with how good everything turns out for everyone."

Contact usatletters@time.com.

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November 27, 2025

Breaking Down the Ending of 'Maxton Hall' Season 2

Credit - Courtesy of Prime Video Warning: Spoilers ahead forMaxton Hall—The World Between Us When director Martin Schreier was making the...

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