Thousands of young people have taken to the streets in Algeria as popular resistance grows to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s decision to stand for a fifth term. In the biggest outpouring of dissent seen in Algeria for many decades, a new wave of young activists has emerged in a country in which more than two-thirds of the population are under 30
• Algerians begin general strike against Bouteflika's rule
Continue reading...Direct clashes under way and airstrikes target weapons stores in Baghuz
Airstrikes have targeted Islamic State weapons stores as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an attack against the jihadists’ enclave in Baghuz near the Iraqi border.
An SDF official, Mustafa Bali, said the attack began at 6pm local time and “direct and fierce” clashes were under way.
Continue reading...Many citizens object to the ailing president’s attempt to serve a fifth term in office
Algerians have begun five days of general strike as protests against the rule of the ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, entered a new phase.
Shops across the country were closed and groups of workers gathered in the streets brandishing flags and signs objecting to Bouteflika’s attempt to serve a fifth term in office. Social media posts implored citizens to enact civil disobedience and refuse to attend their jobs for the rest of the working week.
Continue reading...PM has been accused of demonising Israeli Arabs in lead-up to April election
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is “not a state of all its citizens”, in a reference to the country’s Arab population.
In comments on Instagram, the prime minister went on to say all citizens, including Arabs, had equal rights, but he referred to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people.
Continue reading...Reema and Zara Iqbal – whose husbands died fighting for Isis – said to have five children between them
Two more British women who are being held in Syrian camps with their young children have reportedly had their citizenship removed.
The move comes as the home secretary, Sajid Javid, faces increasing criticism over the case of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old Londoner who was stripped of her British citizenship on his orders, after the death of her three-week-old son.
Continue reading...Former DPP accuses home secretary of treating UK like a ‘banana republic’ over decision to strip Isis bride of citizenship
Syrian camps: vulnerable children of Isis ignored by the outside world
Sajid Javid has been accused of moral cowardice and “treating the UK as a banana republic” in pursuit of his leadership ambitions following the death of Jarrah, the three-week-old son of Isis bride Shamima Begum.
A Church of England bishop and a former director of public prosecutions led the chorus of outrage directed at the home secretary as demand grew for him to review his controversial decision to strip the 19-year-old of British citizenship – a move that left her stateless and her baby in legal limbo.
Continue reading...Up to 3,000 children born to foreign nationals like Shamima Begum may be at risk in Syria
In a place the British government says remains too difficult for diplomats to reach, scores of its officials have been present for at least the past two years.
MI6 officers, as well as SAS troopers and commanders have formed strong ties with local Kurdish officials in north-eastern Syria, where two refugee camps teeming with the remnants of Islamic State (Isis) are located.
Continue reading...Sajid Javid accused of appeasing populists by ordering UK citizenship to be revoked
The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has come under fire for his decision to revoke the British citizenship of Shamima Begum, whose baby son has died in a Syrian refugee camp.
Begum, 19, left the UK in 2015 with two school friends to join Islamic State in Syria and said last month she wanted to return home. But Javid insisted he would do all in his power to prevent her coming back and ordered her citizenship to be revoked.
Continue reading...Three-week-old infant is the third child the teenager from east London has lost
The newborn son of Shamima Begum has died in a Syrian refugee camp. The baby boy, named Jarrah, was buried on Friday, three weeks after the east London teenager turned Islamic State devotee gave birth.
A Kurdish intelligence official said the infant had been taken to hospital in al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria with breathing difficulties several times in the past week. A friend of Begum said “the baby turned blue and was cold” before being rushed to a clinic inside the camp. Jarrah is understood to have been buried along with two other children who were burned in a fire on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Biggest demonstrations since 2011 Arab spring call for a ‘free and democratic’ Algeria
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Algeria as popular resistance grows to the president’s decision to stand for a fifth term.
Crowds gathered in Algiers throughout the morning despite train services being stopped by authorities, and huge numbers demonstrated in every other major city and most towns. Some chanted slogans calling for a “free and democratic Algeria” and shouted “peaceful, peaceful”.
Continue reading...Ebrahim Raisi accused by US of role in deaths of thousands of political prisoners in 1988
A hardline cleric once thought to be a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader has been appointed head of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, sparking concern from rights activists over his involvement in the execution of thousands of people in the 1980s.
Ebrahim Raisi was named to the post in a decree by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Continue reading...If protesters allow ‘infiltration’ by unspecified forces it may provoke chaos, says Bouteflika
The Algerian president has warned of chaos on the eve of anticipated large demonstrations if protesters challenging his decision to stand for a fifth term allow the “infiltration” of their movement by unspecified forces.
People from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds have taken to the streets across Algeria in recent weeks in what have been the biggest demonstrations in the country since the 2011 Arab spring.
Continue reading...RAF says 4,315 Isis fighters were killed or injured in airstrikes and just one civilian
The Ministry of Defence claim that the RAF killed only one civilian in thousands of airstrikes against Isis has been dismissed as ludicrous and “stretching credibility”.
According figures released by the MoD following a freedom of information request by the charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the RAF strikes between 2014 and January this year killed or injured 4,315 of the group’s fighters. It said 90% of those were killed.
Continue reading...Many of the Sudanese protesters demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s regime have known no other rule. They were not yet born when he seized power in a coup three decades ago – their country’s median age is just below 20. But they are certain they want something better.
The ruthless Sudanese president is now facing a sustained and unprecedented challenge. The killings of more than 50 peaceful protesters, the beating and arrests of hundreds more and the declaration of a state of emergency last month have, if anything, spurred on demonstrators. The protests were triggered in December by a subsidy cut which sent bread prices soaring, but fuelled by anger going far beyond the country’s dire economic straits to corruption, government sclerosis and brutality.
Continue reading...European commission combats ‘untruths’ over issue after row with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán
The European commission has declared the migration crisis over, as it sharpened its attack on “fake news” and “misinformation” about the issue.
Frans Timmermans, the European commission’s first vice-president, said: “Europe is no longer experiencing the migration crisis we lived in 2015, but structural problems remain.”
Continue reading...Kurdish-led forces have launched a final assault on the last pocket held by Islamic State in eastern Syria
The caliphate is a hellscape of smoke and fire – Isis has nowhere left to go
Continue reading...King Salman said to have been angered by recent moves by Prince Mohammed against him
There are growing signs of a potentially destabilising rift between the king of Saudi Arabia and his heir, the Guardian has been told.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are understood to have disagreed over a number of important policy issues in recent weeks, including the war in Yemen.
Continue reading...Head of southern transitional council says ignoring will of people is ‘recipe for instability’
Peace in Yemen is impossible without acknowledgement of southern Yemen’s calls for independence from the north, leaders of the United Arab Emirates-backed southern transitional council (STC) are due to tell British MPs and officials as they step up efforts to be involved in the peace talks.
The south of Yemen, briefly a communist state, was united with the north in 1990 and southern separatists were then beaten militarily when they tried to secede in 1994. Continued southern resentment at the north’s control of the country’s resources, including by the rebel Houthis, is a large undercurrent in the civil war.
Continue reading...The Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, better known as Shawkan, was jailed in 2013 for reporting on anti-government protests. Today, after almost six years, he was finally released. 'I feel like I am flying,' he said as he was reunited with family and friends
Continue reading...Sihem Bensedrine’s explosive report into human rights abuses is written. Now those in power must be persuaded to read it
When Sihem Bensedrine, the head of Tunisia’s truth and dignity commission, tried to give a speech in parliament last year, she was drowned out.
Politicians banged on the wooden desks and yelled, some standing up to hurl accusations and gesture in her direction. As the drumbeats got louder, Bensedrine left the chamber. The MPs applauded.
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