The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • David Cameron makes dramatic return to UK Govt

    David Cameron makes dramatic return to UK Govt

    David Cameron has made a dramatic return to the British Government as foreign secretary following a reshufflement triggered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to sack Suella Braverman from the Home Office.

    The former prime minister replaced James Cleverly as foreign secretary and would be given a peerage that is a seat in the upper chamber, the House of Lords.

    Cleverly takes on the job of home secretary after Sunak ended Braverman’s controversial tenure in the job.

    Sacking one of the leading figures on the Conservative right could pose difficulties for the prime minister as he seeks to get his party united behind him.

    He would be ready for a general election, expected next year.

    The appointment of Cameron was a massive shock in Westminster.

    The shock was not just because of the return of a former prime minister to government the first since Alec Douglas-Home but also because of his views on China.

    During the Cameron administration, there was a “golden era” of UK-China co-operation, something Sunak described as “naive” last year following growing tensions with Beijing.

    Cameron had also been critical of Sunak’s decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, the high-speed rail project.

    The prime minister used his Conservative conference speech to distance himself from the legacy of his predecessors.

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    But the former prime minister made clear he backed Sunak and would work with him to help the Conservatives win the general election expected next year.

    “Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable prime minister.

    “Who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time,’’ the new foreign secretary said.

    “I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the general election is held.”

    Ominously for Sunak, Braverman said she would have “more to say in due course” about her exit, which followed rows over comments about homeless people and the policing of pro-Palestinian marches.

    Braverman said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary.”

    Former minister Andrea Jenkyns said Braverman had been “sacked for speaking the truth and it was a bad call by Rishi caving in to the left.”

    News of Braverman’s exit came as Defence Minister James Heappey was touring broadcast studios.

    Minutes before she was sacked, he had told LBC that Sunak and his team in No 10 had been “very clear she (Braverman) has his confidence.

    “In that sense, one would imagine that she will continue.”

    But he was told on air during an ITV “Good Morning Britain’’ interview that she had been sacked.

    “Your viewers will be enjoying my discomfort, but it is in this case difficult to offer commentary when I just don’t know what is going on.”

    Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “Suella Braverman was never fit to be home secretary. Rishi Sunak knew this and he still appointed her.

    “It was the prime minister’s sheer cowardice that kept her in the job even for this long.

    “We are witnessing a broken party and a broken government, both of which are breaking this country.”

    In his first comments in the new role, cleverly said it was an honour to be appointed as Home Secretary.

    “The goal is clear. My job is to keep people in this country safe,” he said.

    In the junior ranks, Will Quince and Neil O’Brien both quit as health ministers, while veteran schools minister Nick Gibb also left his post.

    (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

  • James Cleverly appointed new UK home secretary

    James Cleverly appointed new UK home secretary

    James Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, has left Downing Street after being appointed the new home secretary.

    Cleverly left No. 10 shortly after amid the ministerial reshuffle.

    The permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office was seen entering Downing Street on Monday.

    Sir Philip Barton walked inside No. 10 shortly Health minister Neil O’Brien announced that he is stepping down.

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    One of the responsibilities Mr O’Brien had in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was for tobacco and addiction.

    He was due to play a key role in delivering Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s effective ban on smoking and vaping in the younger generation.

    Tweeting a picture of a child’s arts-and-crafts style sheep, the Harborough MP wrote: “It’s been a privilege to serve at DHSC.

    “Great ministerial team and spads (special advisers) and some fab officials.

    “But with so much going on locally, I want to focus 100 per cent on constituency work so have asked to go to back benches.

    “I am also keen to see more of our two small children (artwork attached).”

    (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

  • Netanyahu to Macron: condemn Hamas, not Israel

    Netanyahu to Macron: condemn Hamas, not Israel

    Netanyahu has responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s comment on Israel killing civilians in Gaza. Israel’s PM stated that: “It must be remembered that Israel entered the war due to that terrorist organisation’s brutal murder of hundreds of Israelis and holding hostage more than 200 Israelis.”

     He added that “While Israel does everything in its power to avoid harming civilians and urges them to leave the battle areas, Hamas – ISIS is doing all it can to prevent them from moving to safe areas and uses them as human shields.”

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     Netanyahu also warned that “the crimes being committed today by Hamas – ISIS in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and all over the world. The leaders of the world should be condemning Hamas – ISIS, not Israel.”

     In his interview to BBC released earlier on Friday, Macron said: “De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So, there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So, we do urge Israel to stop.”

  • Terrorists kill 100 in Burkina Faso attack

    Terrorists kill 100 in Burkina Faso attack

    The European Union has called for an investigation into the reported killing of around 100 people in Burkina Faso last week.

     ”Around 100 civilians, including women and children, were believed killed in a massacre,” said EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell in a statement.

     The United States has also condemned the attack.

     It is not clear who was behind the November 6 attack in the village of Zaongo.

     Borrell called on Burkina Faso’s military junta to shed light on the circumstances of the deaths. It has not yet responded.

     Burkina Faso is trying to contain a jihadist insurgency that spread from neighbouring Mali.

     The military government has been forcing civilians to join the fight against the Islamist groups, who are said to control about 40% of the country.

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     About a quarter of Burkina Faso’s schools have been forced to close because of the insurgency, according to aid agencies.

     One resident told the AFP news agency that Zaongo was one of the few villages in the area not to have been “emptied out by the terrorists”.

     ”Some suspected the inhabitants of collaborating with them,” the resident said.

     The army seized power last year, vowing to stop the jihadist attacks. If anything, the number of deaths has since increased.

    Last year was the country’s most deadly on record, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled), with more than 1,400 civilian deaths.

    So far this year, almost 8,000 people have been reported killed due to violence in the country, Acled said.

  • Putin ally threatens to destroy NATO countries with nuclear weapons

    Putin ally threatens to destroy NATO countries with nuclear weapons

    A prominent Russian TV host and noted propagandist for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Solovyov, has opined that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons “right away” in the event of escalating conflict with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

    Russian threats of a potential nuclear conflict with the West have escalated over the course of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February 2022. Numerous Kremlin officials, military leaders, and media propagandists have suggested that nuclear weapons could be deployed against Western nations—such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany—that continue to provide aid to Ukraine, though experts differ on how serious these threats actually are.

    Earlier this year, Putin temporarily suspended his country’s participation in the joint New START Treaty with the U.S., and in March announced that Moscow would build tactical nuclear weapon storage facilities in Belarus, a country run by close Putin ally, Alexander Lukashenko.

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    Yesterday, a Russian media watchdog account, The Kremlin Yap, took to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, to share a recent clip of Solovyov reacting to recent statements from NATO leadership.

    In particular, he mentioned a comment from Peter Nielsen, the commander of NATO forces in Lithuania, who suggested that Kaliningrad would be blockaded in the event of a broader Russia-NATO conflict. Kaliningrad is a key Russian port city on the Baltic Sea, notably situated in the Kaliningrad Oblast, a territory separate from the rest of Russia and enclosed by Lithuania and Poland.

    “Does he think that they will encircle us in a blockade, and we will sit and count our bullets?” Solovyov said, as translated by The Kremlin Yap. “Doesn’t he realise that we’re going to strike with nuclear weapons right away? It is beyond comprehension…We’re going to say goodbye to all these countries. ‘What happened here? I don’t know. You can’t make sense out of the embers.’”

    He continued: “NATO guys, are you really cretins? Do you honestly think that we, with all our gigantic stockpile of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, will listen to (those opposed to the use of nuclear weapons), who always say, ‘No, stop it’? We won’t even ask them.”

    Article 5 of the NATO agreement states that member nations will view an attack on one of them as an attack on all and provide the necessary military aid in response. An attack by Russia against one of these members, therefore, could lead to a much broader international conflict.

  • EU joins calls for ‘immediate pauses’ in hostilities in Gaza

    EU joins calls for ‘immediate pauses’ in hostilities in Gaza

    The European Union (EU) has joined calls for “immediate pauses” in hostilities and establishment of humanitarian corridors in Gaza.

    “The EU is gravely concerned about the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the bloc said in a statement, adding it “joins calls for immediate pauses in hostilities and the establishment of humanitarian corridors, including through increased capacity at border crossings and through a dedicated maritime route, so that humanitarian aid can safely reach the population of Gaza.”

    It called for “continued, rapid, safe and unhindered” humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through any necessary means.?

    It also reiterated its call on Hamas for the “immediate and unconditional” release of all hostages.

     Regarding the attacks against hospitals in Gaza, the statement said: “The EU emphasizes that international humanitarian law stipulates that hospitals, medical supplies and civilians inside hospitals must be protected.”

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    It also said that most urgent medical supplies should be delivered to hospitals and that patients who require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely.

    “In this context, we urge Israel to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilians,” the bloc said.

    Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip — including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship — since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.

    The number of deaths in the ongoing Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has surpassed the grim figure of 11,100, including more than 8,000 children and women, the government media office in Gaza said.

  • Over 100,000 take to the Paris streets to protest anti-semitism

    Over 100,000 take to the Paris streets to protest anti-semitism

    More than 100,000 people marched in Paris yesterday to protest against rising anti-semitism in the wake of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

    Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, representatives of several parties on the left as well as far-right leader Marie Le Pen attended yesterday’s march in the French capital amid tight security.

    President Emmanuel Macron did not attend, but expressed his support for the protest and called on citizens to rise up against “the unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-semitism.”

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    However, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stayed away from the march, saying last week on X, formerly Twitter, that the march would be a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” in Gaza.

    Paris authorities deployed 3,000 police troops along the route of the protest called by the leaders of the Senate and parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, amid an alarming increase in anti-Jewish acts in France since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.

    France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, antisemitic acts today open old scars.

  • Five U.S. troops killed in helicopter crash in Mediterranean Sea

    Five U.S. troops killed in helicopter crash in Mediterranean Sea

    Five United States troops are dead after an American military helicopter crashed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea on Friday evening, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday.

    The crew was conducting a “routine air refueling mission” during a training sortie when their aircraft suffered a mishap, U.S. European Command said in an emailed statement. All aboard were killed.

    The command first announced the accident on Saturday but declined to say what type of aircraft was involved.

    Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the downed asset was a helicopter in a statement yesterday. The Pentagon has not specified to which branch of the armed forces the aircraft belonged.

    “While we continue to gather more information about this deadly crash, it is another stark reminder that the brave men and women who defend our great nation put their lives on the line each and every day to keep our country safe,” Austin said. “They represent the best of America. We will remember their service and their sacrifice.”

    The mishap prompted an “immediate” rescue effort that included nearby U.S. military aircraft and ships, European Command said.

    The command did not provide further details about where in the region the plane went down.

    However, the U.S. issued a flight notice early Saturday noting a “search-and-rescue operation in progress” in the span of sea between Cyprus and Lebanon.

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    Flight tracker @EISNspotter posted Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter, that air traffic control in Cyprus had called in military support around midnight Saturday for a helicopter that crash-landed about 30 nautical miles from the island’s southern coast.

    Planespotters on social media flagged multiple Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes patrolling the water south of Cyprus on Saturday, as well as an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III — often used for aeromedical evacuations — departing the area.

    It’s unclear whether the aircraft was training as part of routine operations in Europe, or if it was over the Mediterranean Sea as part of a deterrent force that has arrived in the region in recent weeks.

    The Pentagon has rushed thousands of American troops to the Middle East as war unfolds between U.S. ally Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the neighboring Gaza Strip.

    Among those forces are two Navy carrier strike groups stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, U.S. surveillance aircraft gathering intelligence off of the Israeli coast and others spread around the region.

    The military is investigating the cause of the mishap. It will not release the names of the deceased until 24 hours after their families have been notified, in accordance with Pentagon policy.

     “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fallen,” European Command said.

  • Weah, Boakai seek alliances ahead run-off

    Weah, Boakai seek alliances ahead run-off

    Liberian president George Weah, 57, will face political veteran Joseph Boakai, 78, tomorrow in a presidential election run-off.

    Weah has forged alliances with local leaders, including former warlord and Senator Prince Johnson, who remains influential in the northern province of Nimba.

    Weah beat Boakai by just 7,126 votes out of almost two million Liberians, who voted in the first round in October:

    The two also battled it out in 2017, when Weah won with over 61%. But now they’re neck and neck in the last main election at 43% each.

    Weah won the election in 2017 amid high hopes brought about by his promise to fight poverty and generate infrastructure development. His goal, he had said, was to push Liberia from a low-income country to a middle-income one.

    But Weah has been accused of not living up to key campaign and ensure justice for victims of the country’s civil wars.

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    At 57, Weah, an ex-international football star, remains popular with younger people as Boakai is a much older 78.

    Boakai is a political veteran who from 2006 to 2018 was the vice-president of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was Africa’s first elected female head of state.

    He’s held many positions within the state and the oil industry.

    But there are fears that violence could break out. It’s been 20 years since two civil wars came to an end that killed a quarter of a million Liberians.

    The electoral commission has up to 15 days to publish the results.

  • Heavy fighting rages near main hospital

    Heavy fighting rages near main hospital

    Israeli ground forces yesterday battled Hamas militants near Gaza’s largest hospital, where health officials said thousands of staff members, patients and displaced people remain trapped with no electricity, dwindling supplies and some gunfire coming inside.

    The director general of hospital, Muhammad Zaqout, warned that the lives of about 650 patients are at risk due to the catastrophic situation in the Al-Shifa Hospital.

    Zaqout also confirmed the presence of “about 1,500 displaced people in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex,” warning that “accumulation of garbage and medical waste, lack of water, and power outages threaten everyone’s life.”

    Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip – including hospitals, residences and houses of worship.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected growing international calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war, saying Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza.

    Residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling, including around Shifa Hospital. Israel, without providing evidence, has accused Hamas of concealing a command post inside and under the hospital compound, allegations denied by Hamas and hospital staff.

    “We spent the night in panic waiting for their arrival,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident taking shelter in the hospital.

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    “They are outside, not far from the gates.”

    The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the Health Ministry. It said another 36 babies are at risk of dying without electricity.

    Health Ministry Undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers have deployed around Shifa, firing at any movement inside the compound. He said airstrikes had destroyed several homes next to the hospital, killing three people, including a doctor.

    “There are wounded in the house, and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera television. “We can’t stick our heads out of the window.”

    Hamas said it is suspending hostage negotiations because of Israel’s handling of the Shifa Hospital, a Palestinian official briefed on the hostage talks told Reuters.

     Netanyahu asserted to NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Israel had offered Shifa Hospital fuel to run generators but “they refused it.” There was no immediate response from the Health Ministry and others including the Red Cross.