Ben Anderson returns to Yemen to witness the apocalyptic effects of four years of war and indiscriminate bombing of civilians. With statistics that range from 10,000 to 20,000civilians killed, and a report by Save the Children estimating that 85,000 children under the age of five have died from starvation. Where millions more people have fled their homes, and survivors are now facing death by preventable famine and disease.
The world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, created in large part by U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, using American and British supplied weapons, fuel, intelligence and warplanes, has turned Yemen into a living hell.
In his latest visit to Yemen, Ben Anderson gains access to the various fighting groups waging war for the Saudi-led coalition, and witnesses the devastating effect the chaotic fighting and indiscriminate bombing is having on civilians.
Unicef has reported that 1.8 million Yemeni children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, and the lives of 400,000 severely affected children are under threat.
Geert Cappelaere, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at UN children’s agency Unicef, “Yemen is today a living hell – not for 50% to 60% of the children – it is a living hell for every boy and girl in Yemen,” he told a news conference in the Jordanian capital.
Cappelaere added that 30,000 children die of malnutrition each year in Yemen, while a child dies every 10 minutes from easily preventable diseases.
“The human cost and the humanitarian impact of this conflict is unjustifiable,” UN humanitarian coordinator Lise Grande said in a statement to media. “Parties to the conflict are obliged to do absolutely everything possible to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and ensure people have access to the aid they are entitled to and need to survive.”
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Hasan Minhaj has a new political comedy series titled “Patriot Act”. Minhaj tackles his controversial material with humor and the perspective to credibly discuss it without sounding racist. In episode two he addresses the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the humanitarian catastrophe in the impoverished Republic of Yemen. Minhaj warns America to reconsider their attitude toward Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
This Episode has been shortened to highlight a few important observations. You can go to Netflix to watch this full episode, complete with all the jokes!
While discussing the recent history involving the United States and Saudi Arabia, Manhaj says: “Saudi Arabia was basically the boy band manager of 9/11. They didn’t write the songs, but they helped get the group together.” Adding that, “Whenever Saudi Arabia does something wrong, Muslims have to live with the consequences.”
It is time more people spoke out against the regime of al-Saud, and stop condoning the cruelty and killing inside Yemen. To learn the truth about Saudi Arabia you can read this report I wrote a few years ago, KSA vs ISIS: A Jihadist By Any Other Name Is Still A Wahhabi,
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With Isis gone, Adnan Sarwar is returning to Iraq to discover the country afresh, beyond the headlines and wars to meet everyday people rebuilding their lives. Travelling the length of the country from the snowy mountains in the north, he visits oil-rich territories still contested by different factions in the country, cities which bore the brunt of Isis’s reign of terror and the allied bombing raids against them, the country’s capital Baghdad and finally the southern marshes and deserts where he served with the army.
Along the way he makes friends, comes face-to-face with old enemies and asks if the country can ever escape its cycle of violence.
In this episode, Adnan’s journey begins in Kurdistan as he accompanies the Kurdish Peshmerga militia on a very special convoy up to Mount Gara. He is with animal activist Blen Brifkani to witness the release of two brown bears, previously held in captivity, back into the wild. Brown bears are native to the mountains, but hunting and habitat loss mean there are hardly any left – and Blen wants to change that. Leaving Kurdistan, Adnan enters Mosul, which was held for three brutal years by Isis – also known as Daesh.
Nearly 10,000 homes in the city were destroyed by 1,250 airstrikes, Isis bombs and street fighting in the battle to regain Mosul.
He joins British and Iraqi members of a mine clearance team dealing with the terrible legacy left by Isis. Thirty-three mine-clearers have been killed since Isis left and the UN estimates it will take ten tears to remove all the bombs. But alongside the mine-clearing teams Adnan meets someone else trying to reclaim the streets – Al i Baroodi – who offers bike tours around his beloved city. [01]
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This two-hour special reveals the complicated history, extreme politic, and rigid societal standards that have created a legacy of internal oppression and external aggression. As the North Korean people suffered famine, labor camp and public executions, the Kim regime spent three generations relentlessly pursuing nuclear ambitions. They operate as a criminal syndicate, using counterfeit money, drugs and cyber espionage to fund their war machine.
Now, with weapons rivaling the world’s superpowers, their aggressive rhetoric has pushed the world to a crisis point.
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“The war is changing from a war against armies to a war against people.” U.S. General John Nicholson, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan. After all these years, a trillion dollars, and 2,400 American lives — Kabul is under siege.
The war in Afghanistan has lasted over 16 years. Now there’s a new plan.
Donald Trump has sent 3,000 more troops to train and assist the Afghan army. But in the Afghan capital you don’t have to go far to see the problems. Kabul is so dangerous, American diplomats and soldiers are not allowed to use the roads. They can’t drive just two miles from the airport to U.S. headquarters. They have to fly.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rules from the presidential palace that’s occupied the city center for more than a century. The walls around him and the rest of the city have expanded and grown taller over the past three years. Some of the streets turned into tight corridors of 20-foot high concrete barriers.
General John Nicholson told 60 Minutes he’s giving himself two years to deliver major changes. But it’s hard not to be skeptical in a city where the enemy has driven American forces from the roads — into the sky. Nicholson has made securing the capital a priority. He’s ordered more special operations missions inside Kabul to target the Taliban and terrorist networks attacking the city. [01]
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Nigeria’s Stolen Daughters is a moving and terrifying insight into Nigeria’s brutal civil war. On 14th April 2014, 276 school girls aged between 16 and 18 were kidnapped form a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria. They were taken by Boko Haram, a violent Islamic insurgent movement, and hidden in the vast Sambisa forest. Following a global social media campaign around the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, featuring global celebrities and Michelle Obama, huge pressure was brought to bear on the Nigerian Government to get the girls back.
Four years later more than 100 of the girls have been freed – they have been kept in a secret safe house in the capital Abuja. For the first time TV cameras have been granted access to the girls and in this powerful 60-minute documentary we follow them as they adapt to life after their traumatic imprisonment at the hands of Boko Haram.
The Chibok Girls live in a gilded cage, cut off from contact with the world’s media and provided with education and counselling that continues as they move into government funded places at the American University of Nigeria.
Their fate could not be more different to the thousands of other Nigerian women and children who have fallen prey to Boko Haram.
In the brutalised city of Maidugari we meet some of these Forgotten Girls. They have deeply disturbing stories of their treatment at the hands of Boko Haram and their troubles haven’t ended on their escape from the forest – in Maidugari they are often treated with suspicion because of their connection with Boko Haram.
Female suicide bombers have killed scores of people in the city. And for the Forgotten Girls there are none of the privileges afforded the Chibok Girls – many live hand to mouth in the slums and refugee camps, abandoned by the Nigerian state.
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Gianna Toboni reports from the Myanmar-Bangladesh border to investigate what the future holds for Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar. Also: Aris Roussinos goes to Mali to join UN peacekeepers in the lawless Sahara desert. Includes an interview with UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Nearly 690,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled their villages and crossed the border into Bangladesh since August. The Rohingya accuse the army of arson, rapes and killings aimed at rubbing them out of existence in this mainly Buddhist nation of 53 million. The United Nations has said the army may have committed genocide; the United States has called the action ethnic cleansing. Myanmar says its “clearance operation” is a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents. [01]
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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) received 63 casualties in a hospital it supports in Hajjah, following a series of night-time airstrikes by the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition on a wedding party that took place in a remote, impoverished village in Bani Qays district in Yemen, on Sunday 22 April.
The bombing was one of at least four deadly airstrikes reported in Yemen since the weekend.
On Saturday 21 April, at least 30 civilians were killed when coalition fighter jets bombed a bus carrying commuters in western Yemen, near the city of Taiz. An additional attack on Sunday night hit a house elsewhere in Hajja, killing an entire family of five, according to al-Nadhri.
On Thursday 25 April, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed the top civilian leader in the Houthi movement. Saleh Al-Sammad, president of the Supreme Political Council that runs Yemen’s capital of Sana’a, is also the second in command of the Houthi army. Al-Sammad is reported as the most senior official to be killed by the Western-backed alliance in the three-year-old war.
“Attacks on civilians are a serious violation of international humanitarian law. What happened in Bani Qays is appalling; among the 63 wounded our teams have treated, 13 are children.
These people arrived at the hospital in garlands traditionally worn to celebrate marriage. None were armed or arrived in military uniform,” said João Martins, MSF head of mission in Yemen.
The wounded were initially carried away from the scene by donkeys, as the only two cars in the village were damaged in the strikes. The first responders and two ambulances from the MSF-supported hospital eventually arrived in the village, but were severely delayed because the aircrafts circling overhead raised the spectre of more strikes.
“I was inside the tent when I heard the airstrikes. After that I fell down and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw people running away from the tent. I had been inside with my brother and the groom is my friend. One of my cousins died in this attack,” said 12-year-old Kamal.
Darees, who had also attended the wedding, left 20 minutes before the attack. When he returned he was confronted with a chaotic scene and dismembered bodies on the ground, covered in blood.
Children, he said, were frantically searching for their parents.
Warning: This video shows a young boy clinging to the body of his dead father following the wedding bombing.
“Some of the dead bodies were children. Children were playing outside while their parents attended the wedding inside the tent. That’s when the attack happened,” he said.
The injured had mainly lost limbs and suffered shrapnel wounds. At least three patients required amputation, including two brothers, who each lost a foot. By early morning, many residents of Hajjah had come to the hospital to donate blood. In two hours, 150 bags were collected to treat the wounded.
“One woman arrived at the hospital in panic, searching for her son. He was attending the wedding and she doesn’t know what happened to him. Many other women and children in the village are traumatised and don’t know what happened to their loved ones,” said Sally Thomas, MSF project coordinator in Hajjah.
“Warring parties to the conflict must respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution: it is prohibited to launch such attacks which may be expected to harm civilians. The rules of war have constantly been violated in Yemen. All warring parties must commit to protecting civilians, and all parties fueling the conflict by selling arms should uphold their responsibility to ensure that international laws established to protect civilians are respected,” Martins added. [01]
To date, the Saudi-led coalition has declined to comment on the strikes.
The footage of civilian casualties emerges following the United Nations plea to end the fighting, and the U.S. Senate grilling officials over lack of U.S. accountability for arming and refueling Saudi Coalition war planes, while the Saudis continue to blatantly disregard the rules of war, of human decency and human rights; including the Yemenis right to life, and self-governance as a sovereign nation.
The following video is first in a playlist of the most recent United Nations and U.S. Senate hearings regarding policy and humanitarian aid in the Republic of Yemen.
Apparently “The House Of Saud” prefers to act like violent and ignorant wild dogs with one primal instinct – to kill the weak and dominate the pack.
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The U.S. President tries to outdo handsome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House’s first State Dinner, while Don Jr. sees an opportunity to make a new best friend.
Created by Stephen Colbert, this parallel cartoon universe opens the White House doors for a peek into the quintessentially Trumpian details of Donald J. Trump’s presidency and relationships.
Spoiler alert. Trump is still friendly with Paul Ryan and Sean Hannity. I thought that fun fact made this episode relevant! (18+) For Strong Language. Enjoy!
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In a joint meeting of the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee, Ms. Angelina Jolie, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy, and co-Founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative met with several Allied representatives to focus on NATO’s efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence, and discussed what more the Alliance will do.
Following the meeting, Secretary General Stoltenberg announced that “Special Envoy Jolie and I have decided to work together, focusing on three points: training, monitoring and reporting, and awareness.”
The following article is written by Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, and Angelina Jolie, co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg greeting Angelina Jolie (UN High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy) upon her arrival to NATO Headquarters.
All violence against women betrays the fundamental promise in the UN Charter of equal rights and dignity for women. It is one of the prime reasons why women remain in a subordinate position in relation to men in most parts of the world.
When this violence is committed as an act of war it tears apart families, creates mass displacement, and makes peace and reconciliation far harder to achieve. In fact, it is often designed expressly to achieve those goals as part of a military strategy.
Despite being prohibited by international law, sexual violence continues to be employed as a tactic of war in numerous conflicts from Myanmar to Ukraine and Syria to Somalia. It includes mass rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, and rape as a form of torture, ethnic cleansing and terrorism. It accounts in large part for why it is often more dangerous to be a woman in a warzone today than it is to be a soldier.
In our different roles we have seen how conflicts in which women’s bodies and rights are systematically abused last longer, cause deeper wounds and are much harder to resolve and overcome. Ending gender-based violence is therefore a vital issue of peace and security as well as of social justice.
The Nato Alliance was founded to safeguard not just the security but also the freedom of its peoples: in the words of President Harry Truman, as “a shield against aggression and the fear of aggression”.
Sexual violence continues to be employed as a tactic of war. For nearly 70 years NATO has stood for collective defence against military threats. But also for the defence of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and the UN Charter.
We believe that Nato has the responsibility and opportunity to be a leading protector of women’s rights.
In particular, we believe Nato can become the global military leader in how to prevent and respond to sexual violence in conflict, drawing on the strengths and capabilities of its member states and working with its many partner countries.
Over the coming months we will be working together and with others to identify ways in which Nato can strengthen its contribution to women’s protection and participation in all aspects of conflict-prevention and resolution.
First, by building on Nato’s commitment to integrate gender issues into its strategic thinking as part of its values and reinforcing a culture of the integration of women throughout the organization including in leadership positions.
Nato’s senior military leaders, have a vital role to play in being positive role models, and promoting the role of women in the military.
Second, by helping to raise the standards of other militaries. Nato and Allied countries are involved every day in training partner militaries around the world. We want to explore ways in which existing training on the protection of human rights and civilians, including against sexual violence, can be strengthened.
Third, Nato has developed standard operating practices for soldiers in the field, learned through mandatory pre-deployment training. Standards and training are not the only answer, but they ensure that personnel recognize the different ways in which women and girls are affected by conflict and are trained to prevent, recognize and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.
This is a vital part of helping to create lasting cultural changes, including debunking the myths that fuel sexual violence and deepening understanding of the centrality of protection and rights for women in the creation of lasting peace and security.
Fourth, Nato already deploys gender advisers to local communities in Kosovo and Afghanistan, while Nato’s female soldiers are able to reach and engage with local communities. Stronger awareness of the role that gender plays in conflict improves military operational effectiveness and leads to improved security. Strengthening this culture can only benefit Nato’s contribution to peace and security over the long term.
Fifth, Reporting on conflict-related sexual violence is now one of the tasks of Nato commanders. Nato is also creating a reporting system to record instances of gender-based violence compatible with UN Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Arrangements.
With this data, which will be shared with the UN, Nato soldiers will be able to discern patterns and trends so that they will be able to respond more quickly to prevent potential violence. By reporting crimes and supporting work to bring perpetrators to justice, Nato can challenge the culture of impunity, including for senior leaders and those most responsible.
Nato Allies have strongly committed to put these issues front and center every day, in how they train soldiers, in how they operate in the field, and in how they interact with civilians who find themselves in combat zones.
We will also be urging more concerted action in the wider world. By working together with business, civil society, governments and political leadership writ large, international organizations such as Nato can help lead the way toward ending impunity for sexual violence in conflict.
It is humanity’s shame that violence against women, whether in peaceful societies or during times of war, has been universally regarded as a lesser crime. There is finally hope that we can change this. We owe it to ourselves – men and women alike – and to future generations.
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This video is an analysis of the arrest of Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos. It takes a look at each player’s motives, and what their testimonies could mean to the future of the Trump presidency.
Includes highlights from Sarah Huckabee Sanders White House Press Briefing on the day of their arrest.
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The day after the horrific terrorist attack in Manhattan New York last month, President Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting and launched into a political rhetoric, rather than uniting the country, he continues to create more division.
Later that morning, Mr Trump’s White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, held a press briefing, and both defended Trump’s Twitter rants, and denied reporter’s accusations that Trump was using the country’s tragedy to further his political objectives on new immigration laws.
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