Category: War & Conflict

BRITISH FOREIGN Secretary Jeremy Hunt Visits Saudi Arabia For Talks With King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Over The Murdered Journalist Jamal Khashoggi; Yemen Crisis

Violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression,” Mr Hunt said on Twitter. “If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously — friendships depend on shared values; British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt

Turkish officials accuse Saudi Arabia of murdering Khashoggi, 59,…

© AFP/File | Jeremy Hunt’s visit comes amid an international diplomatic crisis over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

LONDON (AFP)|AIWA! NO!|-British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday where he will press King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

During a trip to the region that includes a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Hunt will also seek to build support for UN efforts to end the conflict in Yemen, the Foreign Office said.

His visit comes amid an international diplomatic crisis over the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi, a US resident, at his country’s consulate in Istanbul in October.Jamal Khashoggi was reported missing last week

“The international community remain united in horror and outrage at the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi one month ago,” said Hunt, who will also meet Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

“It is clearly unacceptable that the full circumstances behind his murder still remain unclear.

“We encourage the Saudi authorities to co-operate fully with the Turkish investigation into his death, so that we deliver justice for his family and the watching world.”

READ MORE: Macron marks WWI armistice, while trying to win back French voters

During his brief visit to the Gulf, Hunt will also meet Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Yemeni Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani.

Britain is seeking support among regional partners for new action at the UN Security Council for peace talks in Yemen. Continue reading BRITISH FOREIGN Secretary Jeremy Hunt Visits Saudi Arabia For Talks With King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Over The Murdered Journalist Jamal Khashoggi; Yemen Crisis

FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron rips nationalism as Trump looks on: ‘Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism’

Image result for macron speech on nationalism
‘Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,’ says France’s Emmanuel Macron at World War I commemoration | world news | Hindustan Times

Nearly 70 world leaders travelled to Paris to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War.

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool)
Photo by: Francois Mori
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool)

|PARIS; LUKE BAKER, REUTERS|AIWA! NO!| – French President Emmanuel Macron used an address to world leaders gathered in Paris for Armistice commemorations on Sunday to send a stern message about the dangers of nationalism, calling it a betrayal of moral values.

Image result for macron speech on nationalism
With U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin sitting just a few feet away listening to the speech via translation earpieces, Macron denounced those who evoke nationalist sentiment to disadvantage others.

“By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values.”

Trump, who has pursued “America First” policies since entering the White House and in the run-up to the congressional elections this month declared himself a “nationalist”, sat still and stony-faced in the front row as Macron spoke.

There was no immediate response from either the White House or the Kremlin to Macron’s comments.

Why we need to remember the Black and Asian people who fought in World War 1

These soldiers volunteered to help the British army despite what the British empire did to their home countries

Serving submariners hold wreaths of poppies during the Submariners Remembrance Service and Parade (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images)
Serving submariners hold wreaths of poppies during the Submariners Remembrance Service and Parade (Photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images)

|HABIBA KATSHA, i|AIWA! NO!|This year marks the 100 years since the end of World War 1 in November 1918.

Since then Every year we remember those who risked their lives for us to live a better life in Britain. However, it seems that the people of colour who fought in the war played a less significant role in WW1 and this isn’t true. 

Until recently, I didn’t know that people of colour fought in the battle and this is the case for many other British people. The lives of soldiers of colour are just as important as their English counterparts and it’s time we started telling their stories. Serving with ‘great gallantry’ During WW1, the British empire was still intact so black individuals from British colonies travelled from their respected countries to come and fight for Britain.

Britain was often referred to as “the mother country” and people came from countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, and Jamaica to help defeat the Germans.

The British West Indies Regiment (BWIR) was a unit made up of volunteers from British colonies in the West Indies. The BWIR made their mark in the military, especially in Palestine and Jordan. The name of former Northampton Town player Walter Tull is inscribed on the Arras Memorial.

Tull was killed on March 25th 1918 during the second battle of the Somme (Photo: Pete Norton/Getty Images) 

The British Imperial Governor General Allenby sent a telegram to the then-Governor of Jamaica, William Henry Manning stating: “All ranks behaved with great gallantry under heavy rifle and shell fire and contributed in no small measure to the success of the operations.”  

Towards the end of the war, in November 1918, a total of 15,600 black men, had served in the (BWIR). A Black Brit who deserves an honourable mention is Walter Tull who died serving in the war. Tull was not only a soldier but a football player too.  

The footballer was born in Kent and was the first black outfield player to feature in the English top flight. He went on join the British Army and became the first black officer to lead white troops into battle. Tull suffered from shellshock and died in action in 1918 aged 29.

South East Asians also played a significant role in the first world war. Indians had a large presence in the WW1 as it’s estimated that 1.3 million Indians served in world war one and 74,187 Indian soldiers died. Indians troops helped various divisions in European, Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, North African and East African theatres of war.

Victoria crosses The Indian troops managed to break through the German defence by recapturing the town of Neuve Chapelle after the British had lost it. The Indian army fighting in the trenches suffered 34,252 total casualties during the trenches. Victoria Crosses is the highest award for gallantry that a British and Commonwealth serviceman can achieve.

Darwan Singh Negi and 10 other Indians received Victoria Crosses. He was given the title of subedar in Urdu which is the equivalent of British captain. Both of his sons went on to follow in his footsteps to become soldiers and joined the Indian army. As a person of colour, these stories make me proud of my Black and British heritage.

These soldiers volunteered to help the British army despite what the British empire did to their home countries. At a time when race and racism are touchy subjects in the UK, stories like these highlight how people of colour have contributed to Britain and that needs to be recognised. 

English school commemorates Armistice with ‘wave of poppies’ – Remembrance Day 2018

Portsmouth school commemorates Armistice with ‘wave of poppies’ – Remembrance Day 2018

(L to R) Mikail Ghury, 7, Alice Hu, 6, Lydia Scott, 8, Acting Headteacher Izzy Lewis, Griff Harrison-Jones, 5, and Charis Hargreaves alongside a 'poppy wave' of over 1000 poppies.
(L to R) Mikail Ghury, 7, Alice Hu, 6, Lydia Scott, 8, Acting Headteacher Izzy Lewis, Griff Harrison-Jones, 5, and Charis Hargreaves alongside a ‘poppy wave’ of over 1000 poppies.

NEIL FATKIN|AIWA! NO!|CHILDREN at St Jude’s Church of England Primary school have made more than 1,000 poppies to commemorate Armistice Day. All the poppies were then used to create a ‘poppy wave’ to commemorate all those who lost their lives in the First World War.

Acting Headteacher, Izzy Lewis, said: ‘We expected to get 420 poppies as this is how many children we have at the school. In the end we have a total of 1256 poppies which make up the wave.

It became a real community even with grandparents, parents and even former pupils getting involved.’ Near Portsmouth’s naval base, and with one in ten children from service families, Ms Lewis feels the commemoration is particularly pertinent for St Jude’s.

Read more at: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/education/rembrance-day-2018-portsmouth-school-commemorates-armistice-with-wave-of-poppies-1-8698324

Syria Football Team: the side giving hope and purpose to refugees in Coventry, Midlands, United Kingdom

Team Syria: the side giving hope and purpose to refugees in Coventry

Mustafa escaped Homs three years ago with nothing but playing in the final of the Communities World Cup at St George’s Park has helped rebuild his life
Team Syria walk out for the final of the Communities World Cup at St. George’s Park
 Team Syria walk out for the final of the Communities World Cup at St. George’s Park. Photograph: Fabio De Paola for the Guardian
AIWA! NO!“I left because of the war. My city is very dangerous. I lost everything. I lost my house, my car, my work. After the war I stopped everything. Playing football, work. Everything. I lost friends. I lost 500-600 friends. Sometimes I miss them, because life in my country is very difficult and dangerous.”

The words coming from Mustafa do not really match the demeanour of the smiling, sweet man delivering them. You would never guess he escaped Homs in Syria three years ago with nothing, having gone through unimaginable horrors, eventually making it to the UK. But on a chilly night in October, he led a team of fellow refugees to the final of the Communities World Cup, on the freshly laid indoor pitch at St George’s Park in Burton upon Trent.

You have to double-take slightly when you meet Mustafa. A likeness to a certain Uruguayan forward, a big toothy smile and relentless running, might leave opponents briefly thinking they are facing the mother of all ringers. “People would tell me Suárez, Suárez,” he says, grinning that grin.

Mustafa might not be quite good enough for Barcelona but he did play football at home. To a pretty decent level too – he was a semi-professional on the books of Al-Karamah, eight-times Syrian title-winners. When he came to the UK three years ago, he started as many did by playing in the park with friends, before he heard about the Positive Youth Foundation (PYF), a charity based in Coventry.

The team who sprang from PYF started out pretty casually, kickabouts designed just for fun, and to build a community around football. Then they heard about the Communities World Cup, a tournament for teams in the West Midlands but representing nations from around the world, and the team grew and grew, almost entirely by word of mouth.

“Some boys joined the football team within three days of arriving in Coventry, before they’d even signed up for school,” says Cormac Whelan, the PYF health and sports coordinator, and the man who organised the team. “It’s great the way they’re looking after each other, and adapting into a new environment.”

Mustafa’s is one of many similar stories in this team of refugees, of fleeing across continents to escape desperate situations. Some would find their way to one of the vast, city-like refugee camps in Lebanon, with no idea of where their families were.

Mustafa looks to get on the ball in the final
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Mustafa looks to get on the ball in the final. Photograph: Fabio De Paola for the Guardian

Some would be reunited with their loved ones in those camps but many would have to settle in the UK knowing nobody, with no support. That is where PYF and the football team come in.

Until the summer they had not played 11-a-side as a team but came together to enter the CWC loosely under the name “Team Syria” but by the end up to 10 nationalities had represented them.

The CWC was the brainchild of Obayed Hussain, who among other things was the Birmingham FA equality officer until recently, to run alongside the other, slightly higher-profile World Cup happening in Russia this year. Teams representing 19 communities around the West Midlands expressed an interest and eight were put into the tournament.

“The whole purpose wasn’t to see how good the football was,” Hussain says. “It was about providing that opportunity to those communities to celebrate their cultures and their love for football.

 

©The Guardian

U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP gives incoherent, unhinged campaign rant — from the White House

In a desperate bid to scare voters ahead of midterms, Trump unleashed a fit of rage from inside the White House ThursdayDonald Trump

|Caroline Orr, Shareblue MEDIA|AIWA! NO!|In a presidential address that was anything but presidential, Trump on Thursday afternoon unleashed a fit of lies and anti-immigrant rage straight from the White House and onto the TV screens of millions of Americans.

The address, which was essentially a regurgitation of the same unhinged rhetoric he spews at campaign rallies, came just a day after Trump tweeted out an inflammatory video that was widely condemned as even worse than the notoriously racist Willie Horton campaign ad.

Trump kicked off the speech by stoking fears about the so-called “caravan” of asylum-seekers slowly making their way north from Central America, which has become his go-to talking point in the weeks leading up to midterms.

“Some people call it an invasion,” Trump said, referring to his own preferred terminology for the asylum-seekers.

“This isn’t an innocent group of people,” he continued, claiming without evidence that the migrants have “injured” and “attacked” scores of Mexican police officers and troops.

He then railed against our current immigration laws, blaming the so-called “crisis” on Democrats, despite the fact that Republicans control both chamber of Congress and the White House.

While the address was billed as a policy speech, Trump didn’t actually introduce any new policies as promised. Instead, he stuck by his usual script of incoherent ranting, apocalyptic fear-mongering, and unhinged conspiratorial rhetoric.

At one point, Trump floated a conspiracy theory about outside groups funding the so-called “caravan,” saying “there’s a lot of professionalism” involved in the journey. “There seems to be a lot of money passing,” he added.

That’s the same conspiracy theory that reportedly motivated the gunman who carried out the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history just five days ago.

In a particularly dark moment of the speech, Trump hinted that he may allow U.S. troops to shoot at people trying to cross the border, absurdly claiming that getting hit with a rock is just as bad as getting shot.

As usual, the entire speech was meant to stoke fear, since appealing to voters’ primal emotions is all Trump knows how to do.

With midterms just days away, Trump is more desperate than ever. And since he has no accomplishments to brag about, he is now boxed into a corner, peddling a constant stream of anti-immigrant propaganda and yelling things about “open borders,” “caravans,” “catch and release,” and “bad guys.”

For someone who claims to have the “best words,” he sure can’t seem to find many new ones.

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Yemen Girl Who Turned World’s Eyes On Country’s Famine And Conflict Dies Aged 7

Amal Hussain, who died at age 7. “My heart is broken,” her mother said.CreditCreditTyler Hicks/The New York Times

|Declan Walsh, The New York Times|AIWA! NO!|CAIRO — A haunted look in the eyes of Amal Hussain, an emaciated 7-year-old lying silently on a hospital bed in northern Yemen, seemed to sum up the dire circumstances of her war-torn country.

A searing portrait of the starving girl published in The New York Times last week drew an impassioned response from readers. They expressed heartbreak. They offered money for her family. They wrote in to ask if she was getting better.

A Yemeni child stands outside the family house which was destroyed several months ago in an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition at a slum in the capital Sanaa, on March 12, 2016. (AFP/Mohammed Huwais)
A Yemeni child stands outside the family house which was destroyed several months ago in an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition at a slum in the capital Sanaa, on March 12, 2016. (AFP/Mohammed Huwais)

On Thursday, Amal’s family said she had died at a ragged refugee camp four miles from the hospital.

READ RELATED ARTICLE: THE TRAGEDY OF SAUDI ARABIA’S WAR: Amal Hussain, 7, is wasting away from hunger. The Saudi-led war in Yemen has pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

“My heart is broken,” said her mother, Mariam Ali, who wept during a phone interview. “Amal was always smiling. Now I’m worried for my other children.”

The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen

The Khashoggi killing has cast light on Saudi tactics in Yemen, where an economic war has pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

The grievous human cost of the Saudi-led war in Yemen has jumped to the top of the global agenda as the outcry over the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi prompts Western leaders to re-examine their support for the war.

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