Social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney has told Sky News discussion about transgender rights should not be political.

Mulvaney, who documented her own transition in a viral TikTok series, was speaking ahead of a Supreme Court judgment in London on Wednesday about how women are defined in law.

The 28-year-old US social media personality told Sky’s Barbara Serra on The World: “I’ve seen my family completely accept me and love me. And I think that that’s why I haven’t given up on any person or any group of people.”

She also called for “transness” to no longer be a political topic – “because it shouldn’t be”.

“We’re just humans trying our best,” she said.

On Donald Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an executive order directing the US government to recognise only two, biologically distinct sexes – male and female.

And he directed the state department to change its policies to only issue passports that “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”.

The administration has argued the policy does not constitute unlawful sex discrimination, does not prevent transgender people from traveling abroad, and is vital to addressing the concerns the order raised that indeterminate definitions of sex undermine “longstanding, cherished legal rights and values”.

Asked about Mr Trump’s policies, Mulvaney said: “It’s a sad thing to see someone trying to take away the rights of humans that are just trying to live their lives. Again, we’re not monsters. We’re people that have woken up and stepped into our authentic selves. For me, that’s a very camp, fun, feminine human being who also happens to be a woman.

“And I think what I’m now excited [for] is to step into this next chapter of my life and realise that there are so many other trans people who should be speaking on those things. And I’m finding my way in right now, which is through theatre.”

What’s the background to the court case?

The landmark Supreme Court case, where five judges at the UK’s top court heard arguments last November, is the culmination of a challenge brought by For Women Scotland (FWS) over whether trans women can be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act.

Wednesday’s ruling may have a big influence over how sex-based rights are applied through the act across Scotland, England and Wales, including implications for the running of single-sex spaces.

Campaigners from FWS say sex-based protections should only apply to people who are born female.

They are challenging the Scottish government, which says they should also include trans people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

The FWS action is seeking to overturn a decision by the Scottish courts in 2023 which found treating someone with a GRC as a woman under the Equality Act was lawful.

What have the two sides said?

Ruth Crawford KC, for the Scottish government, told the court last November that a person with a GRC, which she said was a document legally recognising a change of sex and gender, was entitled to the “protection” afforded to their acquired gender as set out in the 2010 Equality Act.

But Aidan O’Neill KC, representing FWS, said “sex just means sex, as that word and the words woman and man are understood and used in ordinary, everyday language, used every day in everyday situations by ordinary people”.

Mr O’Neill called for the court to take account of “the facts of biological reality rather than the fantasies of legal fiction”.

The case is the latest in a series of legal challenges brought by FWS over the definition of “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, which mandates 50% female representation on public boards.

Beer brand ad controversy

In 2023, US sales of Bud Light fell and profits dropped following a boycott of the beer brand after it made a promotional deal with Mulvaney.

Many conservatives, including former US presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, stopped buying Bud Light after Mulvaney posted an ad for the brand on her social media account and shared an image of a personalised can.

Mulvaney told Barbara Serra that for “writing my book I really wanted to make good of a really dark situation that was happening when I took an unexpected beer brand ad”.

“And I think that while that was such a dark period of time in my life, and I think a lot of trans people’s lives, I really wanted to show that if you keep going, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m feeling happy and healthy in my life right now,” she said.

Mulvaney is starring in a new musical in London, called We Aren’t Kids Anymore, starting later this month.

On 11 April, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its affiliates attacked Zamzam camp in North Darfur.

The RSF is a paramilitary organisation comprised of militias that used to be be aligned with Sudan’s government.

For exactly two years it has been been locked in a civil war with the government’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). Both sides have been accused of human rights abuses over the course of the conflict.

After the capture of Zamzam, the RSF claimed in a statement released on Telegram that the camp was being used as a barracks, accusing the SAF of using civilians as “human shields”.

It further claimed, “the Rapid Support Forces were able to secure civilians during the liberation operation and prevent them from being harmed”.

Satellite imagery and footage from the ground paints a darker picture, showing the execution of an unarmed man and widespread fires within the camp at the time of its capture.

Zamzam sits just to the south of Al Fashir, North Darfur’s capital city, which has been a key target of the RSF in recent months.

Filming of an execution

Shortly after the RSF attack began on 11 April, a video began circulating on social media. It shows a group of gunmen standing over two unarmed men and a child.

One of the men squats in front of a gunman holding an assault rifle. The gunman shoots him at close range, killing him.

The child, less than a meter away, lies face down with his hands covering the back of his head.

While the footage does not contain much contextual information, the person filming turns the camera to his face before showing a close-up view of the dead body behind him.

Sky News has geolocated a second video showing the same man, wearing the same clothing and equipment, at another location within the camp at the time of its capture.

The footage shows the fighter with a group of gunmen celebrating as they enter a compound in the south of the camp.

Gunfire can be heard, and smoke rises from nearby as the group cheer.

At one point, a uniformed fighter wearing an RSF patch can be seen, confirming that at least this individual is affiliated with the organisation.

Both videos appear to have been filmed within a short timeframe.

The fighter seen in both videos is wearing the same head covering, clothing and tactical gear. The pattern on his head covering is oriented identically in both, suggesting it has not been removed in the time between filming.

Widespread fires

Available footage and satellite images show the RSF’s capture of Zamzam was closely followed by fires being lit across the camp.

In one video, a man in an RSF uniform can be seen driving on the camp’s main road while thick smoke rises from nearby fires.

Data from FIRMS, a NASA project that uses satellite data to detect thermal anomalies, provides a wider view.

Following the arrival of the RSF on 11 April, fires were detected across the south and east of the camp.

More fires were detected in the east and south on 12 April, with areas in the north of the camp being affected on the 13 April.

Satellite images form Maxar confirm buildings burned across the south of the camp on April 11, close to where fighters were seen.

On Tuesday, the African Union and European government’s including the UK called for an immediate cessation of the hostilities in which tens of thousands of people have been killed in the last two years.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Ukraine’s military says it has struck the base of the Russian missile brigade behind Sunday’s devastating attack on Sumy.

A Russian assault on the city killed 35 people and injured at least 119. Children were among the dead and wounded.

The Ukrainian military has now said it has struck a base of “the 448th missile brigade of the Russian occupiers”.

In a statement on messaging app Telegram, it said the base was “hit [and] a secondary detonation of ammunition was recorded”.

“The results of the strike are being clarified,” it added.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously shared videos of the aftermath of Russia’s Palm Sunday attack, showing dead bodies in the middle of a street in Sumy.

The Ukrainian president said “only scoundrels can act like this” and called for “tough reaction from the world” in posts on social media.

Meanwhile, Ukraine‘s foreign ministry said one of the children injured was a baby girl born this year, adding “even newborns are targets for Russia’s crimes”.

NATO on Tuesday reaffirmed its “unwavering” support for Ukraine as the alliance’s secretary-general visited the country.

As he met with Mr Zelenskyy at a hospital in Odesa, Mark Rutte said: “I’m here today because I believe Ukraine’s people deserve real peace, real safety and security in their country, in their homes.”

Mr Rutte also said he and Mr Zelenskyy had discussed the Trump administration’s peace talks with both Russia and Ukraine.

“These discussions are not easy – not least in the wake of this horrific violence – but we all support President Trump’s push for peace,” he said.

Read more:
Russia jails four journalists
Trump blames Zelenskyy for war

His comment came after Mr Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia.

Rebutting this, Mr Rutte added: “Russia is the aggressor, Russia started this war. There’s no doubt.”

It also follows Russian and Ukrainian diplomats accusing each other of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.

“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said, adding that Moscow would provide a list of Kyiv’s attacks from the past three weeks.

Andrii Sybiha, his Ukrainian counterpart, dismissed the claim saying on Saturday that Russia launched “almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 [exploding] drones, and over 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.