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marcdodson · 9 months ago

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Historical Support for China's South China Sea Territorial Stance

There have been recent claims in the media that Great Britain and other nations who operate Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) in the South China Sea have taken no stance concerning the sovereignty of the three island groups that are the subject of dispute among China, the Philippines and Vietnam. However, there is overwhelming evidence that this is not the case. Instead, that evidence points to prior recognition of the islands as historic Chinese territory.

To examine this question, public statements by government officials regarding the Spratley, Paracel and Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands) were examined, a common legal practice used by the International Court of Justice to show official intent.

British Government efforts at understanding China’s history in the region were made in 1944 when preparations were underway for post war administration of occupied territories. The British Military Administration, Malaya, was making observations concerning Chinese maritime history in the South China Sea region:

“It must not be forgotten that while Europe was still relying on the galley in the Mediterranean and was only feeling towards the fore- and aft- rig in the North Seas and sailing in ships whose capacities measured in tens of tons, the Chinese were already ocean sailors with junks to be found from their own coasts to the mouth of the Indus whilst the Arabs in dhows of over 1,000 tons capacity were bringing the spices of the East Indies to Egypt and the European markets.”

Chinese ability to sail across the South China Sea region and into the Indian Ocean can be seen as recognized by the U.K. Government in this statement.

Economic exploitation of the resources in the South China Sea region was recognized earlier in Europe; among the first records in the post Roman Empire period were made in 1154. Roger of Sicily’s Court Geographer, the Arab al-Idrisi, provided early recorded details of Chinese junks sailing towards the West:

“All the Chinese ships, great or small, that navigate in the China Sea are solidly constructed of wood. The pieces of timber are disposed geometrically one over the other, protected by palm fibres and caulked with flour and fish oil. In the China Sea and the Indian Ocean there are large animals 100 yards [this is probably feet] long and 25 wide, on the backs of which grow bumps of rocks and shellfish like vegetation, by which the ships are sometimes damaged. Mariners recount how they attack these animals with arrows and thus force them to move out of their way. They add that they pierce the smallest of these animals and boil them in cauldrons, that their flesh dissolves and turns into liquid fat. This oily substance is renowned in the Yemen, in Aden, on the coasts of Fars and Oman, and in the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. The people of these regions make use of this substance for filling the hulls of the ships.”

That al-Idrisi was able to record the hunting of whales in the South China Sea region in 1154 exhibits the longevity of the practice in Chinese maritime history and the long-term presence of the history itself, rendering it unsurprising that President Xi of China would invoke an observation of Chinese maritime use since “ancient times” in claiming the islands as Chinese territory.

The history of Chinese maritime trade in the region is also based on the foundation of Spratly Islands' exploitation and occupation. The Spratly Islands have been historically known to Chinese mariners, who were observed to sail through the South China Sea to Jakarta (then Batavia) by John Crawfurd, a mariner and trader in the 1830s. It was subsequently reported in the Japan Times in 1933 that Chinese fishing parties were leaving members who then lived on the islands.

These records of historical use have been disputed, as the BBC reporter Bill Hayton noted in 2014: “On 13 April 1930, the French Warship Malicieuse dropped anchor off Spratly Island, hundreds of kilometers to the south of Pratas and the Paracels, and fired a 21-gun salute. The only witnesses to this display of imperial pomp were four marooned and starving fishermen unaware that they were witnessing the opening salvo in a still-unfinished battle for their fishing grounds.”

However, reports of rice supplies and other necessities arriving from China contradict Hayton's suggestion that there were four marooned and starving fishermen. Junks were commandeered for military operations on the Southern Chinese coastline, making them unavailable for the 800-mile voyage from Hainan that year, adding to the maritime issues related to the ongoing conflict with Japan (1930-1945).

After World War II, the Spratly Islands were noted by the British High Commission of Singapore as territory that was returned to China. In 1971, the following statement was made: “Spratly Island was a Chinese dependency, part of Kwangtung Province…and was returned to China after the war. We cannot find any indication of its having been acquired by any other country and so can only conclude it is still held by communist China. (Far Eastern Economic Review, December 31, 1974).”

It should be noted that this was outside of any major conflict in the modern period in the South China Sea (1930–1945, 1945–1956, 1974), and made after an exhaustive study was concluded by the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It can therefore can be considered a reasoned statement of recognition made by a knowing and authoritative governmental source who was based in the Southeast Asian before and during World War II.

The consistent nature of other statements made by Britain France and Japan suggest that these nations have historically taken the same position as China, and made public statements to that effect.

For example, France occupied the Paracel Islands in the 1930s during the war between China and Japan. The occupation took place over a year after France had refused to abolish its extraterritorial rights in China, which had been held since 1844. The first official announcement concerning the seizure of the Paracel Islands was made by M. Bonnet, the French Foreign Minister at the Quay d’Orsay, stating that the islands were now occupied by two detachments of Annamite gendarmes from Vietnam in 1938. Amid the Sino-Japanese conflict, the Quai d’Orsay took the opportunity to note that “the islands have been visited by Chinese fishermen for generations” (North China Herald, July 4, 1938, June 6, 1934).

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ambassador Wellington Koo informed M. Bonnet that China continued to claim sovereignty over the islands, and Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Horinouchi also made official representations “regarding the French occupation of the Paracel Islands’ (Japan Times & Mail, July 6, 1938; Portsmouth Evening News, July 7, 1938; emphasis added).

It is clear that the occupation by France of islands used for internationally-recognized Chinese historical economic life was protested by China as an invasion of sovereign territory, and was publicly repeated by Japanese officials, who wished to possess the islands for belligerent purposes that were directed towards China during their war of the 1930s and 40s. The impact today can be derived from a legal interpretation, as UNESCO and UNCLOS provide protections and rights for historic grave sites.

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alif615 · 4 years ago

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Week 9 : Fandom and Fan Communities

In today’s world, everyone has had a memory of a significant impact on pop culture with a varied choice of interest of different parts of the industry. Undoubtedly, we have all come across a point in life where we have watched our favourite cartoons/series/movies with our eyes glued to the screen or listened and sang to our favourite songs out loud or didn’t mind playing our favourite games all day or read our favourite books. We were fascinated as well as influenced and, in some way, had been affected by it in our daily lifestyle. Almost, everyone has been a fan of something since we shared a deeper connection with our favourites. This week, I will be shedding light on the topic of fandom and further elaborate with definite examples.

So What is Fandom?

Fandom simply refers to a community or subculture of fans that share mutual deep emotional interests towards a particular section of pop culture such as music band, movie, comic, video games, book, etc. According to (Rutherford-Morrison 2016), fandom is “a space where fans create their own language and communities, and where they reimagine characters and worlds into something that is uniquely theirs.” Fandom originated very early on but was official with the emergence of ‘sci-fi cons’ during the ’30s, now known as ‘the first fandom’. Then around the ’60s, the media fandom began at a ‘Beatles’ concert where “crazy fanatics” were seen. Media Fandoms are dedicated to expressing their passion through fan art, fan-fiction, cosplay, etc., through which their obsession sometimes leads them to alter their lifestyle and create their own reality revolving around their chosen fictional characters.

How Does Fandom Work?

Fans are vocal as well as loyal towards their engagement in source materials. Fandoms are the consumers/audiences also known as the ‘unofficial media producers’. According to (Distillery 2021), in 1977 when the first Star Wars movie was released, the fandom increased quickly as fan clubs were created and increasing in number as more people were influenced and wanted to be a part of the excitement. Their creative versions of fan art and fanzines and actively expressing their understanding for the movie was worthy to not be ignored. “Fans with their passion and sense of solidarity can be so powerful that they need to be managed and cared for.” (Distillery 2021). Lucas Films has dedicated an entire department for fans since then. Gradually as the digital era began, many fandoms have been committed to the unique content they create and influence on various social media sites such as Tumblr, Instagram whilst conveying their feedback or opinions through Twitter. Fandoms are a strong clan and hold a lot of power and are capable of changing not just their community but also the society in the modern world. The businesses are moulding their marketing campaigns according to the fandoms. For instance, Mary Franklin a Star Wars fanatic was contacted by LucasFilms for consultation on the likes and dislikes of the Star Wars Online Fan Club (Penas 2020). Along with being the first film to hop into marketing, after the release of the first film in 1977 “LucasFilm has licensed nearly $25 billion worth of products for action figures to videogames to books.” (Togerson 2017). This initiative was taken to have active fan participation in sales and good publicity. According to (Togerson 2017), “In the 2011 census, the United Kingdom had 177,000 people declare themselves as Jedi (followers of Jediism) making it the 7th most popular religion in the U.K.” That is really cool. Here’s a video for a more visual and elaborate understanding.

youtube

Fandom Can Sometimes Get Really Scary!

Social Media in itself is a rocky place where everybody put ahead of their candid perspectives on the table without thinking if the person might be impacted negatively. Often the use of speech is very wrong and a certain character is called out or bullied until the person takes uncertain measures due to immense stress and anxiety. Sometimes the fictional hatred can cross too many lines and the outcomes are often very unsettling. Back in 2017, the Star Wars movie ‘The Last Jedi’ had starred Kelly Marie Tran as mechanic-turned-Resistance fighter Rose Tico, had faced a fierce backlash from some fans who pointed fingers at her for her ethnicity and appearance as she was the first woman of colour to play a lead role in the iconic series (BBC 2018). The Vietnamese-American actress had been criticized her Star Wars character and directed their hatred at her personally receiving abusive comments, her character name from the Star Wars encyclopedia, Wookieepedia, was changed only to replace a racial slur used to mock the East Asian accent and also numerous comments that were critical of her weight (BBC 2018). Fandoms do help artists succeed but also pulls them down. Tran had later deleted her posts on Instagram.

In Conclusion

I believe that Fandom has its pros and cons. Specifically, in a pool of people, most of them are only expertise in the field of the shared source of interest, not vice versa. I think it is very important to put ourselves in other's shoes and give it a thought before stepping onto others. Fandom is wonderful and will continue to be so till it is kept that way but as long as the immature mentality isn’t fixed it could get toxic after a certain period of time.

References :

BBC 2018, Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran deletes Instagram posts after abuse, BBC, viewed 11 May 2021 <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44379473>.

Distillery 2021, The history of fandom, viewed 11 May 2021 <https://www.wearedistillery.co/we-think/the-history-of-fandom>.

Penas, E D 2020, Fan engagement: Why businesses should target fandoms, Ambidextr, viewed 11 May 2020 <https://ambidextr.media/fan-engagement-why-businesses-should-target-fandoms/>.

Togerson, D 2017, Why is Starwars so Popular?, NBC, viewed 11 May 2020 <https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/why-is-star-wars-so-popular/14225/>.

#mda20009 #mda20009 week 9 #week9 #mda20009 week9

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Monday, May 10, 2021

Higher Prices Leave Consumers Feeling the Pinch (WSJ) Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes. Price tags on consumer goods from processed meat to dishwashing products have risen by double-digit percentages from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Some consumers are feeling stretched. Costs are rising at every step in the production of many goods. Prices for oil, crops and other commodities have shot up this year. Trucking companies are paying scarce drivers more to take those materials to factories and construction sites. As a result, companies are charging more for foods and consumer products including foil wraps and disposable cups. And consumers are therefore paying more.

As US reopens, campuses tighten restrictions for virus (AP) About a year into mask mandates, nasal swabs and remote classes, the atmosphere turned tense at the University of Vermont as the school cracked down on rules for social distancing and face coverings amid a spike in student COVID-19 cases. Students were handed hundreds of citations for violations like standing in another student’s doorway or walking maskless to a hallway restroom, igniting a student-led petition that blasted “strict and inhumane living conditions.” “You start to feel suffocated like I’m afraid to leave my room,” freshman Patrick Welsh said in an interview on campus. Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines. Administrators say they’ve needed to act urgently to avoid risking an early end to the semester or sending infected students home and spreading COVID-19. In recent weeks, the University of Michigan punished hundreds of students for missing mandatory virus testing by deactivating their access cards to nonresidential buildings, and Cornell University announced that students would lose access to campus Wi-Fi, course materials and facilities for missing virus tests. The University of Chicago locked down residence halls for seven days and shifted classes online after finding more than 50 cases in a matter of days.

Pandemic gives boost as more states move to digital IDs (AP) The card that millions of people use to prove their identity to everyone from police officers to liquor store owners may soon be a thing of the past as a growing number of states develop digital driver’s licenses. With the advent of digital wallets and boarding passes, people are relying more on their phones to prove their identity. At least five states have implemented a mobile driver’s license program. Three others—Utah, Iowa and Florida—intend to launch programs by next year, with more expected to follow suit. Mobile licenses will give people more privacy by allowing them to decide what personal information they share, state officials say. The licenses offer privacy control options that allow people to verify their age when purchasing alcohol or renting a car, while hiding other personal information like their address. Having a mobile driver’s license will allow people to update their license information remotely without having to go to a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or waiting for a new card in the mail, said Lee Howell, state relations manager at the American Automobile Association. Industry leaders say safeguards will prevent anyone’s information from being stolen, but some critics argue that having so much personal data on a phone is too risky.

Why an Estimated 100,000 Americans Abroad Face Passport Problems (NYT) About 9 million U.S. citizens currently live abroad, and as the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel finally appears, immigration lawyers estimate more than 100,000 can’t get travel documents to return to the United States. Despite the State Department making headway on a massive backlog of passport applications in the early months of the pandemic, many consulates and embassies abroad, plagued by COVID-19 restrictions and staffing reductions, remain closed for all but emergency services. Travel is restarting, but for American expats who had a baby abroad in the past year or saw their passport expire during the pandemic, elusive appointments for documents are keeping them grounded. “It’s a real mess,” said Jennifer Minear, an immigration attorney and the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s a giant, multilayered onion of a problem and the reduction of staff as a result of COVID at the consular posts has really thrown the State Department for a loop.” Michael Wildes, the managing partner of the law firm Wildes & Weinberg, PC, which specializes in immigration law, estimates that the number of stranded Americans abroad is in the hundreds of thousands.

Scotland’s pro-independence leader promises another bid to break from U.K. after election boost (Washington Post) First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised Saturday to push ahead with another Scotland independence referendum after her party gained a strong showing in Scottish Parliament elections, setting up a potential clash with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sturgeon said that an independence referendum was the “will of the country,,” with her Scottish National Party and pro-independence allies taking a majority of the 129 seats after all the votes were counted. That will probably boost calls to redo a 2014 independence referendum, which could lead to the crackup of the United Kingdom under the strains of Brexit and its deep divisions.

‘Freedom’ fiestas: Spaniards celebrate end of COVID curfew (Reuters) Exhilarated Spaniards danced in streets, chanted “freedom” and partied on beaches overnight as a COVID-19 curfew ended across most of the nation. In scenes akin to New Year’s Eve celebrations, hundreds of mainly young people gathered in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square to applaud the clock striking midnight while in Barcelona revellers headed to the beach with drinks in hand. Police in Barcelona had the strange task of moving people on after the last curfew began at 10 p.m., only to let them back at midnight when it ended for good.

Putin reviews Russian military might as tensions with West soar (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin reviewed Russia’s traditional World War Two victory parade on Sunday, a patriotic display of raw military power that this year coincides with soaring tensions with the West. The parade on Moscow’s Red Square commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two featured over 12,000 troops and more than 190 pieces of military hardware, including intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and a fly-past by nearly 80 military aircraft under cloudy skies. This year’s parade precedes parliamentary elections in September and comes at a time when Moscow’s relations with the West are acutely strained over issues ranging from the conflict in Ukraine to the fate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Death toll soars to 50 in school bombing in Afghan capital (AP) The death toll in a horrific bombing at a girls’ school in the Afghan capital has soared to 50, many of them pupils between 11 and 15 years old, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. The number of wounded in Saturday’s attack has also climbed to more than 100, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. Three explosions outside the school entrance struck as students were leaving for the day, he said. The blasts occurred in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the west of the capital.

China says most rocket debris burned up during reentry (AP) China’s space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and that most of it burned up early Sunday. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An ocean reentry was always statistically the most likely. It appears China won its gamble.” People in Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia reported sightings of the Chinese rocket debris on social media, with scores of users posting footage of the debris piercing the early dawn skies over the Middle East.

Palestinians fear loss of family homes as evictions loom (AP) When Samira Dajani’s family moved into their first real home in 1956 after years as refugees, her father planted trees in the garden, naming them for each of his six children. Today, two towering pines named for Mousa and Daoud stand watch over the entrance to the garden where they all played as children. She and her husband, empty nesters with grown children of their own, may have to leave it all behind on Aug. 1. That’s when Israel is set to forcibly evict them following a decades-long legal battle waged by ideological Jewish settlers against them and their neighbors. The Dajanis are one of several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. It also highlights an array of discriminatory polices that rights groups say are aimed at pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem to preserve its Jewish majority. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the New York-based Human Rights Watch both pointed to such policies as an example of what they say has become an apartheid regime. Settler groups say the land was owned by Jews prior to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israeli law allows Jews to reclaim such lands but bars Palestinians from recovering property they lost in the same war, even if they still reside in areas controlled by Israel. Israeli rights groups say other families are also vulnerable, estimating that more than 1,000 Palestinians are at risk of being evicted.

#headlines #news

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kipperclothiers · 6 years ago

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For Shorter Men & Women Who Like Menswear: Our Guide to Small-Size Shoes

While you can wear a suit with sneakers in some instances, situations like a job interview, wedding, or client presentation call for a polished, more traditional appearance. For the average male – roughly 5 ft., 9 in. and around 170 lbs. – finding a dress shoe isn’t a challenge. You stop at the mall, browse online, or, if you’re cash strapped, hunt down an un-scuffed pair at your local consignment shop. In all cases, you expect to find something in your size.

But, what if you’re under 5 ft., 6 in.? Or, you have small feet that feel loose in a size 6? Or, you’re a smaller-sized female with a penchant for actual menswear styles – and those menswear-inspired ones feel too frilly? Unfortunately, you’re stuck: Too small for adult sizes, wanting to avoid anything traditionally feminine, and too large for the kids’ department, you’re in that grey zone where, frankly, nothing fits.

So, what do you do? Suit up and wear all-black Converse high-tops, hoping no one notices? Suck it up and look for a kids’ shoe that’s not-quite-so childish? Or, do you relent, and compromise with a jaunt through the women’s section? The answer is – none of these. We’re here to tell you that, yes, you can find shoes in your size, without compromising your personal style.

Unsure about your foot’s exact measurements? Start with this measuring guide before you shop around.

Our focus here is primarily dress shoes – or whatever you can wear with a suit. On the other hand, if you’re in the grey zone, your shoe collection is – to excuse the pun – fairly small. Maybe two or three pairs, if you’re lucky.

Where do you begin for everyday wear? In this case, any unisex brand is best. Think skate shoes by Vans, low- and high-tops in neutral shades from Converse, Dr. Martens’ boots, and styles from Palladium. For “comfort” shoes, Oofos goes under a size 6, while Clarks hits right at this line.

And, if you see no shame in everyday athleisure, Nike makes men’s sneakers down to a size 4, as does New Balance.

Shopping Online

On the department store end, Nordstrom is frequently cited as a place to find smaller-size men’s dress shoes. Of the brands you’ll find below shortly, Grenson and Saint Laurent are available through their online store. Yet, in terms of variety, you can’t beat Zappos. Although their selection of men’s 4 and 4.5 sizes yields mostly casual options, you’ll find an occasional gem: For instance, a pair of Y-3s or a set of Wolverine Heritage boots.

For dress shoes, though, you’ve got to look past the predictable choices. For instance, Stravers – the Amsterdam-based retailer with a world-renowned brick-and-mortar store – prides itself on going to extremes. More specifically, a customer will find more than a smattering of both big-and-tall and small sizes. For the latter, your selection runs typical – think brogues, lace-up ankle boots, and oxfords in brown, tan, and black hues – and less so, with patent leather and blue alligator skin being some of the standouts.

For more technical styles, there’s BootBay.com. Born in east Tennessee in the early ‘80s, it’s another sought-after small-size retailer, with a product selection primarily covering work, hiking, and casual boots. While it’s not directly dress-shoe oriented, we all need a sturdy pair to get through the winter. As such, here you’ll find slip-resistant, moisture-wicking, and cushioned options.

Florsheim

Yes, they’ve garnered a reputation as your parents’ (and even grandparents’) shoe store, but this Chicago-originating brand has stuck around for a few reasons. One, you’ll have no trouble getting your basics – oxfords, brogues, chukka boots, and monk strap styles, with the occasional cap or wingtip detail – but its stores continue to stock more fashion-forward fare.

Case in point, at the start of the menswear craze, they partnered with Duckie Brown in 2010 to revamp some of their classic silhouettes, and five years later, they collaborated with George Esquivel on a California-influenced collection. Then, two years ago, they introduced a vintage collection, offering modern takes on their original line.

Recommendations

Richfield Moc Toe Strap Loafer ($100): All-around smooth, except for the slightly angular toe and braided detail, these loafers embody classic simplicity. Pair them with a full suit or chinos and a blazer, and in either instance, their versatile, lightly cushioned design takes you everywhere.

Como Moc Toe Strap Loafer ($110): With a name alluding to Italian construction, this hand-stitched, kidskin loafer is all about the details, from the top strap and burnishing to rich yet not overbearing burgundy undertones.

Grenson

Menswear has been on a heritage kick, and Grenson fits right in. Although sizing ends at a men’s size 6, their traditional handmade designs make your search worth it. Plus, they’re one brand with a decent women’s selection featuring some unisex-leaning designs. Added to this, their versatility and quality construction mean that whatever you choose – Chelsea and lace-up boots to oxfords, in suede or leather – will last – and last and last. If you’re thinking about building your wardrobe basics, start right here. As a note, U.K. sizing is used for all styles. Reference the brand’s conversion chart to select your size.

Recommendations

Ella Boots (Women’s, $345): Excluding summer’s hotter days, the dress boot delivers the prime combination of style and coverage. Grenson’s Ella cuts out those subtle feminine details, delivering a sturdy wingtip brogue made out of black calfskin leather that’s a sure match for your suit yet is still edgy enough for a pair of jeans.

Dylan Oxford Brogues (Men’s, $330): This traditional hand-painted leather oxford features a tan stain on top of its natural base color for a richer, multi-layered appearance. Best for matching with lighter-colored suits, its wing-tip design uses a slightly longer last than previous versions.

Paul Smith

You’ll recognize this British-based brand from Fashion Week presentations. And, much like the clothing we spotted recently, designs go either way – all while still feeling traditional. Whether you’re sporting navy or a multicolored oversized suit, pair it with brogues, loafers, lace-up, or Chelsea boots, in standard leather or nubuck. As a note, the brand uses European sizing for all styles.

Recommendations

Munro Brogues (Women’s, $495): The hybrid dress shoe – leather upper with a sneaker-like sole unit – frequently looks cheap and awkward, but Paul Smith’s Munro hits the sweet spot with vegetable-tanned leather, wingtip details, and a flexible sole with extra padding by the ball.

Gerald Chelsea Boots (Men’s, $340): Now, this is how a Chelsea boot should be: Smooth all around, from the material to the almond toe, with a fit that easily slides on. It’s ready for your suit and also adds that sophisticated rocker touch to denim and patterned pants.

Frye

Another American-based brand, Frye hasn’t quite reached heritage status, but their sheer variety – including women’s and men’s styles – definitely impresses us. Pretty much, if you’re looking to build a basic shoe collection from the ground up, you’ll come across oxfords and lace-up boots, as well as a decent, non-statement-making pair of sneakers.

Recommendations

Western Chelsea Boots (Women’s, $358): Not every dress shoe has to be super-traditional, and this music-inspired style – part of a brand collaboration with Cage the Elephant’s Matt Shultz – blends a Chelsea height and Italian leather with cowboy boot elements, like a pitched heel and stitching details.

Grady Jodhpur Boots (Men’s, $398): The jodhpur boot rarely gets enough love from the dress shoe world, we have to admit. Frye’s take definitely leans more toward casual, with its distressed, matte-finished suede and thinner, strap-accented silhouette. It presents a more laid-back version of the Chelsea boot that flows seamlessly from dressier fare to denim.

G.H. Bass & Co.

While you likely associate G.H. Bass & Co. with plaid button-ups and fleece, it’s an American heritage brand in its own right – the maker of the original penny loafer. Although, in a modern setting, the style’s a bit preppy, it’s one of those staples that’s a natural match for your chinos in a pinch. Slip on something smart casual in a range of colors and materials.

Recommendations

Whitney Mirror Metallic Weejuns (Women’s, $120): Traditional construction – a “penny slot,” stitched moc toe, and a slip-on silhouette – meet up with modern statement elements. The result bridges dressy-casual territory with red carpet-worthy style that works with your suit and pretty much the rest of your wardrobe.

Lincoln Lizard Weejuns (Men’s, $120): As another statement shoe, the Lincoln Lizard brings that oomph with lizard stamp burnished crust leather and a chain detail across the top. It’s one of those styles that manages to be current yet classic and formal without feeling overly traditional.

Saint Laurent

While Hedi Slimane’s since left for Celine, his mod rocker-influenced looks left an impression on this seminal French brand. As such, while critics have been mixed on Slimane’s vision for Celine, they can’t deny he ushered in a new era for Saint Laurent – one of thinner, more androgynous silhouettes that are ready for the boardroom yet have enough punch for an all-nighter in New York. And, as a bonus, you’ll find men’s casual and dress options down to a size 5.

Recommendations

Miles Boots (Men’s and Women’s, $1,195): This unisex-styled boot precisely embodies the post-Slimane Saint Laurent brand, from its thin profile and carefully chosen buckle detail to its clean lines and light hand-distressing.

Laced Army Boots in Kangaroo-Look Leather (Men’s, $1,095): A slightly matte and smooth lace-up upper and a low heel give these boots a light dash of military style. Yet, if you’re going to spend top-dollar on a pair of dress boots, they should also grant you the most mileage, and that’s precisely what this style does, matching everything from intricate printed suits to skinny jeans.

Church’s

Luxury, high-fashion brands aside, this is your apex. High-quality traditional designs – with the occasional trendy piece, like a military-influenced or two-tone boot – define the “cost per wear” concept. You’ll find all the usual suspects – brogues, oxfords, derbies, monk straps, and a range of boot silhouettes – in versatile shades of tan, brown, and black, complete with details in key places. While this English-based brand originally started as a family business, expansion resulted in brick-and-mortar stores throughout Europe, plus a partnership with Prada. In the U.S., you can find them through Saks, as well as through other luxury retailers like Mr. Porter and Farfetch.

Recommendations

Westerham Oxford (Men’s, $560): It’s quite literally the smoothest oxford you’ll find around, from the blind eyelets to the finished calf leather. Goodyear construction ensures it’ll give you more than a few years’ use, while the cap toe adds an elegant yet neutral finish.

Bessy Buckle Chelsea Boot (Women’s, $814): Masculine and feminine elements fluidly merge in what feels like a true either-or boot. A block heel and buckle strap give it a touch of flair, while the mid-height and finished calf leather elevate it above the typical fashion boot.

Sutro Footwear

Based in San Francisco, Sutro has strived to create a reasonably priced shoe that you’ll wear frequently and that also uses a smaller carbon footprint. To do this, the company works with artisans in Mexico to craft each pair, while the leather, from free-range, U.S.-based cattle, is tanned without chemicals. Instead, natural oils and creams bring out the material’s beauty and highlight its individuality.

Within this approach, craftsmanship remains paramount. Shoes – men’s and women’s styles, with some unisex silhouettes tucked away – are constructed out of full-grain premium leathers, with minimal finishing. For this reason, styles appear simple – lace-up and Chelsea boots, oxfords, and a handful of heeled styles – yet are made to hold up to everyday wear.

Recommendations

Vermont Boots (Unisex, $218): At a glance, can you tell this is a “comfort” shoe? From the leather to the stacked outsole, it deceptively looks like any other dress boot. Yet, this unisex shoe based on Sutro’s best-selling Alder has a few tricks up its sleeve: Mainly, ultra-sturdy Goodyear Welt construction and rubber placed at key pressure points for extra support.

Mendelle Lace-Up Boots (Women’s, $188): Utilitarian details characterize many of Sutro’s styles, and here, the taller height, seven-eyelet front, and smooth, rounded toe give off subtle workwear vibes. Yet, ultra-rugged and clunky, they’re not, and that burnished, straightforward upper makes for a solid, three-season dress boot.

Shoepassion

Don’t be put off by the name. We know it seems like a cheesy, fast-footwear ecommerce site, but behind it is handcrafted, meticulous production and some of the finest materials you’ll find around. Designed in Berlin and manufactured in Spain, this brand utilizes Goodyear-welted construction – known for superior strength in work boots – and breathable, French-tanned leathers. Although far from inexpensive, the price justifies itself: For men’s and menswear-styled women’s shoes, the durability and versatile silhouettes are meant to last you years.

N° 5225 Oxfords (Men’s, $385): It’s all in the color. Warm, almost fiery brandy tones – created through a vegetable tanning process – pop without seeming overpowering. A hand finish, applied to soft calf leather, gives it a gradient effect and elegant shine.

N° 275 (Women’s, $465): While these could’ve been an ordinary dress boots, the wing tips and other details reminiscent of a British derby certainly elevate it. Yet, there’s still something rugged about it: Beyond just the Goodyear-welt construction, a taller height, slightly lugged outsole, and seven pairs of eyelets, although decorative, have an old-school work boot vibe.

Here at Kipper, we know a suit’s not complete without the right accessories. If, as a person with smaller-size feet, you’ve come across another high-quality shoe brand, tell us about it on our social channels!

#Shoes

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engelspolitics · 4 years ago

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Fake Archaeological Finds

https://www.grunge.com/131569/fake-archaeological-finds-that-nearly-changed-history/

Michigan Relics → in 1890s strange copper, clay and slate relics turned up in Michigan which seemed to point at the presence of Eurasians in America before the Vikings

Artwork depicting key biblical scenes; appeared to date hundreds of years before the Vikings

If real it meant early Christians from the Middle East had sailed to North America; this particular narrative happens to appear in the Book of Mormon, so Latter-day Saints Church had high hopes

However soon turned out to be fake

Missing link doesn’t come from England

In 1907 jawbone was found in Germany belonging to Homo heidelbergensis, a primate that was likely the common ancestor to both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

U.K. naturalists jealous, and a few years later conveniently dug up a complete skull, the real missing link in human evolution → England as birthplace of humanity

The Piltdown Man skull paired a human-sized brain with an apelike jaw and teeth → seems that regular human skull was fused to an orangutan jaw

Only in 1953 the new technique fluorine dating proved the whole scene was a fraud.

2001 relic collector said found ancient stone ossuary — bone box — carved with an Aramaic inscription reading "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."

If the James Ossuary was real, it was long-awaited proof of the historical Jesus and proof that the apostle James was Christ's brother; however while ossuary was genuine found that part of the inscription that said "brother of Jesus" was a forgery

Japan is not basis of modern man

In 1990s Japanese man gained the nickname "God's hand" when he went digging and found a bunch of intricate stone tools allegedly dating back over a half-million years

Revelation turned Japan into one of the most important sites in early human history; unearthing of array of evidence for an advanced early Japanese society

In 2000 footage of discoverer burying things right before digging them back up

Giants did not exist

In 1867 a cigar maker spent $3,000 of his own money on a giant hoax → ordered that 10-foot-tall human sculpture be carved of gypsum; shipped it to cousin's farm and buried it.

One year later "Cardiff Giant" was dug up, and people went crazy; assumed it was real ancient giant, whose rocky form was due to petrification from the nearby swamp

By the time the experts discovered hoax the culprit already made $20,000 on it

Crystal skulls not from Central America;

Crystal skulls reportedly carved by the ancient Aztec people have long appeared in major museums, and inspired e.g. Indiana Jones movie and Crystal Head Vodka

However realness long doubted → skulls were never found inside documented archaeological digs, and perfectly aligned design of the teeth is different from how skulls are depicted in traditional Aztec art.

21st century scientific techniques proved that skulls were all post-Spanish frauds

No Vikings in Minnesota

Minnesota’s origin story relies on idea that Leif Erikson came all the way to Minnesota but we know he never went further south than Canada; however 1898 discovery of the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota seemed to prove that Vikings had been in Minnesota in 14th century

However researchers pointed out that language inscriptions were anachronistic + that the runestone itself was not that old

Fake discovery of daughter of Xerxes of Persia

In 2000 someone tried to sell a "Persian Princess" mummy on the black market for millions; sarcophagus containing a genuine mummy, with an inscription identifying it as Rhodugune, daughter of King Xerxes of Persia

However research soon proved that the mummy was dead body of a present-day woman who had been murdered around 1996 but whose identity was never discovered

Fake Etruscan warrior sculptures

For nearly 30 years, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art featured exhibit of three Etruscan warrior sculptures carved out of black terracotta → their Greek appearance challenged the standard historical narrative regarding Roman artwork, which turned out to be so because they were fake 20th century forgeries

Signs were there from the beginning but people were too excited to listen until new techniques in 1960s proved what ceramic archaeologists had been saying all alone

Fake Crown of Saitaphernes

Russian goldsmith was commissioned by two strangers to create a gold crown as gift to someone → they went on to sell the piece to the Louvre in Paris for 200,000 francs, by claiming that it had belonged to Saitaphernes, the third-century B.C. Scythian king → soon came out though

#false facts #archaeology

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businessweekme · 7 years ago

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McLaren Eyes Lewis Hamilton Wannabes With $250,000 Road-to-Track Racer

Formula 1 race team and supercar maker McLaren is aiming to win over wealthy drivers keen to prove themselves on the track with its latest model — the 185,500-pound ($250,000) circuit-ready 600LT.

Street-legal but capable of sprinting to 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds, the 600LT is a match for the company’s 675LT road and race model, which cost 75,000 pounds more and was built in limited numbers through 2016. That makes the new car an entry-level auto by the U.K. group’s rarefied standards.

Would-be Lewis Hamiltons may want to shell out rather more to get the full track experience, with one upgrade adding light-weight carbon-fiber seats and interiors for about 24,000 pounds. Another 4,000 pounds buys a six-point safety harness, a wise purchase before putting a car that can reach speeds of 204mph through its paces.

“The price point is very different to any LT that we’ve done before,” McLaren Chief Financial Officer Paul Buddin said in an interview. “We hope to welcome new customers to the brand, more younger people as well.”

Track Performance

The 570S, the baseline model in the McLaren Sport Series lineup that the 600LT joins, was designed equally for road and track use, whereas the new car leans “75-25” toward the race circuit, Buddin said. “The LT just takes everything a little bit harder, a little bit faster and more away from road use and into track performance,” he said.

Beyond it’s sheer pace, the 600LT comes with aesthetic and engineering appeal in the form of a unique top-exit exhaust system featuring twin pipes that protrude from below the back window. Unveiled Thursday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, the car also has what McLaren calls an “elongated silhouette” (though it’s just 74 millimeters or 2.9 inches longer than the 570S) that’s led it to be badged as an LT or “Longtail.”

The name harks back to the F1 GTR, the racing variant of the auto with which McLaren made the leap from Formula 1 to street models in the early 1990s and which ranked as the world’s fastest road car at the time.

Woking, England-based McLaren, whose race team ranks second only to Ferrari NV in Formula 1 driver-championship wins, aims to build 4,300 cars this year, up from 3,340 in 2017 as it seeks to grow beyond its former niche status. The total should swell to 6,000 by 2025, helped by the introduction of 18 new models and variants, according to a statement Thursday.

All McLaren cars will be hybrids by that year, possibly barring the top-end Ultimate range, and the company will invest 1.2 billion pounds in the new models and a plant in Sheffield, northern England. A fully electric prototype is under development but there are no launch plans right now, Buddin said.

The post McLaren Eyes Lewis Hamilton Wannabes With $250,000 Road-to-Track Racer appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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#Automotive #McLaren

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paulinedorchester · 1 month ago

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youtube

Liza Lehmann (British, 1862-1918), Cobweb Castle (1908). The pianist on this recording is identified only as Gamma1734.

The overwhelming majority of Lehmann's output consists of songs, but I've been posting a lot of vocal music this month, so here is some piano music instead.

#music for sunday afternoon #early post for the u.k. and points east #topicality #women's history month

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marcdodson · 10 months ago

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Historical Support for China's South China Sea Territorial Stance

Chinese ability to sail across the South China Sea region and into the Indian Ocean can be seen as recognized by the U.K. Government in this statement.

0 notes

cool-cillian-murphy · 4 years ago

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IT Consulting Services - Procurement Enterprises Market Shaping from Growth to Value| Avante, IBM

Latest released the research study on Global IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope. IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market research report shows the latest market insights with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the IT Consulting Services - Procurement. The study covers emerging player’s data, including: competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are Fujitsu Limited (Japan),HCL Technologies Limited (India),Hexaware Tech Limited (India),Infosys Limited (India),Ernst &Young (U.K),KPMG (Europe),PricewaterhouseCoopers (U.K),Avante (United States),Cognizant Tech Corp. (United States),Gartner, Inc. (United States),Syntel Inc. (United States),IBM Corp (United States)

Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @ : https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/6525-global-it-consulting-services---procurement-market Keep yourself up-to-date with latest market trends and changing dynamics due to COVID Impact and Economic Slowdown globally. Maintain a competitive edge by sizing up with available business opportunity in Global IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market various segments and emerging territory.

IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market Overview IT consulting market is expected to face significantly higher demand due to factors like digitization, analytics, cloud, robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). IT consulting services involves professional business computer consultancy and advisory services which provide expertise, experience, industry intelligence to the enterprise. This industry deals with professional service firms, staffing firms, contractors, information security consultants. The IT consulting segment includes both advisory and implementation services but excludes transactional IT activities. The IT consulting services market consists of eight main divisions i.e. IT Strategy, IT Architecture, IT Implementation, ERP services, Systems Integration, Data Analytics, IT Security and Software Management.

Market Drivers Current trend on Generalization of business and operating module

Requirement of IT investment monitoring

Change in traditional IT solutions to computing solution

Transition in IT infrastructure to cloud computing infrastructure.

Market Trend IT consulting services are helping organizations to manage their investment and technology and business strategies. Restraints Security and reliability issues are hampering the market of IT consulting services. Challenges Changing and rigorous legislative and accreditation needs is the major challenge faced by this market. The Global IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below: by Application (Information protection (Data loss prevention, authentication and encryption), Threat protection (Data center and end point), Web and cloud based protection, Services (Advisory, Design, Implementation, Financial, Healthcare, IT telecom)) Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc. Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/6525-global-it-consulting-services---procurement-market Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market:

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Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region/Country 2015-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the IT Consulting Services - Procurement market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by Manufacturers/Company with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions (2021-2026)

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source Finally, IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies in their decision framework. Data Sources & Methodology The primary sources involves the industry experts from the Global IT Consulting Services - Procurement Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industry’s value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects. In the extensive primary research process undertaken for this study, the primary sources – Postal Surveys, telephone, Online & Face-to-Face Survey were considered to obtain and verify both qualitative and quantitative aspects of this research study. When it comes to secondary sources Company's Annual reports, press Releases, Websites, Investor Presentation, Conference Call transcripts, Webinar, Journals, Regulators, National Customs and Industry Associations were given primary weight-age. For Early Buyers | Get Up to 20% Discount on This Premium Report: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/request-discount/6525-global-it-consulting-services---procurement-market What benefits does AMA research studies provides?

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Our Analyst is tracking high growth study with detailed statistical and in-depth analysis of market trends & dynamics that provide a complete overview of the industry. We follow an extensive research methodology coupled with critical insights related industry factors and market forces to generate the best value for our clients. We Provides reliable primary and secondary data sources, our analysts and consultants derive informative and usable data suited for our clients business needs. The research study enable clients to meet varied market objectives a from global footprint expansion to supply chain optimization and from competitor profiling to M&As. Contact Us:

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meghanmarklehd-blog · 7 years ago

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Exclusive: How Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Hid Out from the Paparazzi When Their Relationship Went Public

MARCH 19, 2018 7:00 AM

In her new book, Vanity Fair contributor Katie Nicholl reveals new details about the days after Harry and Meghan’s relationship first hit the tabloid page, and what inspired the prince to make an unprecedented public statement in support of his future fiancée.

In this exclusive excerpt from her upcoming book Harry: Life, Loss, and Love, Kate Nicholl, a Vanity Fair contributor, provides the behind-the-scenes glimpse at what happened for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at two pivotal points in their relationship: when the tabloids first reported they were seeing each other in late October 2016, and then a week later, when Harry took the unprecedented step of releasing an official statement from Kensington Palace, asking the press to respect Markle’s privacy. Their relationship had flourished in private since they first met in July of that year, but when the eyes of the world turned to the prince and his potential bride-to-be, the couple was forced to work hard for their peace and quiet.

OCTOBER 2016

Like his brother, Harry enjoyed outfoxing the media, and while he was disappointed the story had broken, he knew he was lucky to have enjoyed several months getting to know Meghan without press scrutiny. When the story broke, Harry happened to be with Meghan in Toronto. He was apparently taken by surprise when his aides called to tell him the story was going to be front-page news and knew that very soon he and Meghan would be under siege. A story was leaked that Harry had canceled a flight to Toronto to try and make it look like he was in the U.K., but photographers and reporters descended on Meghan’s home regardless.

When Meghan suggested they go to stay with her friends Ben and Jessica Mulroney, Harry agreed. The Mulroneys were two of the few friends who knew about the romance, and they were more than happy to let the couple take shelter from the paparazzi at their Toronto house. Jessica, a stylist, is one of Meghan’s best friends, while Ben is a TV host who presents CTV’s entertainment news program etalk.Harry had become friendly with them both and was a big hit with the couple’s three young children, 7-year-old twins Brian and John, and their 4-year-old daughter, Isobel.

“When Harry came to visit the family he brought a bag filled with gifts. He won the kids over in an instant. He was brilliant with them and I think what swung it for Meghan was how good Harry was with them,” says a source. “I actually think that might have been the moment Meghan really fell for Harry. He got to know the Mulroneys quite well, and they liked Harry from the beginning.”

Spread over 3 floors and with impressive 14-foot-high ceilings, the Mulroneys’ open-plan home was a sanctuary for Meghan and Harry. No one knew where they were, and behind closed doors the foursome got to know each other. Harry was fascinated when Ben, the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, recounted lively stories of how Princess Diana once stayed with his family during an offcial tour to Canada and, finding herself bored with talking politics after dinner, had ventured up to the nursery to play with Ben and his three siblings.

“Harry found them immediately kind and welcoming people, and he loved hearing stories about his mother,” a friend of Ben’s told me. “Jessica is one of the nicest, sweetest people you will ever meet, and Ben is really easy to get along with.”

It was just as well Meghan and Harry had somewhere to hide because over the following days the story snowballed. It was quickly discovered that the pair followed each other on Instagram, and as the media were eager to share, in one of the photos she had posted Meghan was wearing a blue-and-white beaded bracelet identical to one Harry wore.

The actress’s L.A.-based agency at the time fueled the rumors of a romance when they were contacted for comment and said: “Should this be confirmed by the Palace, all of us at Kruger Cowne are delighted for them and wish them well.” In fact, there was so much fervid hype about the romance that bookmakers suspended bets on a royal wedding, having previously been offering odds of 12 to 1 that Harry would announce his engagement in 2016 and 5 to 1 that he would marry in 2017.

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

By early November, Meghan asked her bosses on Suits for a break in filming and flew to London to be with Harry for what was meant to be a romantic getaway. But the trip proved to be stressful. The Sun newspaper had that week published a front-page story that some of Meghan’s racy scenes from Suits were being trailed on a porn Web site. One of the scenes included her character Rachel Zane having sex with a colleague against a filing cabinet.

Meghan was horrified, telling friends she was convinced that the British press was “out to get her.” It was the final straw for Harry who, according to a source, “completely flipped” when he read the story. He decided to issue a direct statement to the press. It was to be a warning shot to Fleet Street and all the social-media trolls whose hateful comments Harry had unwisely read on Twitter and the Internet.

Meghan, who was in London with Harry at the time the statement was released, was supportive. According to a source: “They were Harry’s words and sentiments, but Meghan was worried about her safety and particularly upset and distressed that her mother was being hounded for comment, and Harry made sure that particular issue was addressed.”

After working on several versions, Harry marched across the cobbled courtyard to Apartment 8 at Kensington Palace where his office is based, to hand the statement to his press secretary, Jason Knauf.

On November 8, just before midday the statement was released on Twitter. It was explosive, unprecedented, and highly flammable. Acknowledging that Meghan Markle was his girlfriend for the first time since the rumors had started, Prince Harry claimed that the actress had been “subject to a wave of abuse and harassment” that was sexual and racist. His anger was palpable, and he was determined to stem the stories before things really got out of control. After all, he had already lost two serious girlfriends who couldn’t deal with the pressure of being in the spotlight; he wasn’t prepared to lose a third.

The palace said Harry personally “asked for this statement to be issued in the hopes that those in the press who have been driving this story can pause and reflect before any further damage is done. He knows that it is unusual to issue a statement like this, but hopes that fair-minded people will understand why he has felt it necessary to speak publicly.”

Unsurprisingly, the statement triggered a media storm. It was one of the most powerfully worded public defenses of privacy any member of the royal family had ever issued. While some commentators commended the prince for being chivalrous and standing by his girl, others like the Daily Mail said he had been “hot headed … ring off scatter gun accusations against those who have reported and commented on his affair.” It reopened the debate about press freedom and did nothing to help Harry’s already complicated relationship with the media, and there was some frustration as to why the Palace hadn’t simply gone to IPSO, the new press regulator, to issue “desist notices.”

pages, “particularly among the young royals, to expect all the advantages that go with their birth while at the same time wanting to enjoy the privacy afforded to those of the Queen’s subjects who have to work nine-to-five for a living.”

There was criticism that Prince Harry’s team of courtiers had not done enough to convince him to issue a less divisive statement, but Harry had wanted to take a swipe at the press and truly felt that a line had been crossed.

Staff at Clarence House were said to be surprised by the overtly personal nature of the statement, as well as its timing. Charles was overseas on an important diplomatic tour of the Middle East at the time, and although aides would not confirm whether he had been consulted about the statement before it went out, it took the focus firmly off the Prince of Wales’s visit.

While Prince William, who had by now met Meghan, supported his brother and agreed that the press coverage had gone too far, he had also urged caution over the statement. From the moment the press had caught on to Kate, she had been followed everywhere by photographers, yet the couple rarely made legal complaints. It was only when a French magazine published pictures of Kate sunbathing topless on holiday in September 2012 that the Cambridges took action. Harry, however, was more impulsive than his older brother and had insisted on sending out the statement.

Just days later Meghan was photographed shopping on Kensington High Street and walking back to the Palace, confirming that she was staying with Harry at the time he issued the heartfelt missive. She was spotted by a Daily Mail journalist while shopping at the Kensington branch of the grocer Whole Foods. In her Hunter Wellington boots and Barbour coat, Meghan was attired more for a shooting than a shopping trip, but the fact that she was wearing Harry’s favorite brown baseball cap really blew her cover. It seemed when it came to outwitting the British media, Meghan Markle still had quite a lot to learn.

http://archive.is/ve3y6

Source:

vanityfair.com

#Meghan Markle #Prince Harry #kensington royal #british royal family #British Royalty #Royal Wedding #Royal Engagement #love #love wins

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Tuesday, March 9, 2021

From Florida to ‘Frisco, Americans flock to movies, bars and ballparks after winter of worry (Reuters) From the crack of the baseball bat in Florida to clinking of cocktails in San Francisco bars, the sounds of spring are in the air as Americans start to return to many of the beloved pastimes they were forced to abandon 12 months ago. With cities and states loosening restrictions as new COVID-19 cases recede and the rollout of vaccines accelerates, people are enjoying a taste of their old lives again. Over the past weekend, New Yorkers watched movies on the big screen, San Franciscans dined indoors, and baseball fans cheered on their favorite big-league players as spring training resumed in Florida. In just one month, the mood in the United States has rebounded from an eight-year low to the highest level recorded by Reuters/Ipsos polls that date back to 2012. To be sure, the pandemic, which has killed more than half a million Americans, is far from over. In fact, some health experts are warning that a decline in new cases is leveling off and potentially more virulent variants are spreading just as restrictions ease.

US child benefits? (NYT) Obscured by other parts of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which won Senate approval on Saturday, a mold-breaking child benefit plan has the makings of a policy revolution. Though framed in technocratic terms as an expansion of an existing tax credit, it is essentially a guaranteed income for families with children, akin to children’s allowances that are common in other rich countries. The plan establishes the benefit for a single year. But if it becomes permanent, as Democrats intend, it will greatly enlarge the safety net for the poor and the middle class at a time when the volatile modern economy often leaves families moving between those groups. More than 93 percent of children—69 million—would receive benefits under the plan, at a one-year cost of more than $100 billion.

Mexican camp that was symbol of migrant misery empties out under Biden (Reuters) A sprawling camp in the Mexican city of Matamoros, within sight of the Texan border, has since 2019 been one of the most powerful reminders of the human toll of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to keep migrants out of the United States. The camp has dwindled to just a few dozen in residents in recent days, after hundreds of asylum seekers living there were finally allowed to cross the border to press their claim to stay in the United States. President Joe Biden last month rolled back the program—known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—that had forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico. Biden’s wife, Jill, visited the camp during last year’s presidential campaign to witness the difficult conditions first hand. “If it hadn’t been for this camp, I don’t think they would have ever ended MPP,” said Honduran asylum seeker Oscar Borjas, one of the last remaining residents.

Meghan accuses UK royals of racism, says ‘didn’t want to be alive’ (Reuters) Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that will send shockwaves through the monarchy. The 39-year-old, whose mother is Black and father is white, said she had been naive before she married into royalty in 2018, but that she ended up having suicidal thoughts and considering self harm after pleading for help but getting none. Meghan said that her son Archie, now aged one, had been denied the title of prince because there were concerns within the royal family about “about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”. Meghan declined to say who had aired such concerns, as did Harry. He said his family had cut them off financially and that his father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, had let him down and refused to take his calls at one point. Buckingham Palace was not expected to give an immediate response to the interview, which aired in the early hours of Monday morning in Britain.

UK schools to reopen, backed by frequent virus testing (AP) British students, backed by a robust coronavirus testing program, are gearing up to return to school Monday after a two-month closure, in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson says is a plan to get the country “moving closer to a sense of normality.” The reopening of schools is the first step in the U.K. government’s plan to gradually ease COVID-19 restrictions as the country’s vaccination drive gains critical mass, with all restrictions lifted by June. As part of the plan, millions of high school and college students coming back to U.K. classrooms will be tested for the virus for the first few weeks. Authorities want to quickly detect and isolate asymptomatic cases in order to avoid sending entire schools home. High schools and colleges will be allowed to reopen in phases to allow for three rounds of testing. Students will then get kits so they can test themselves twice more at home.

US proposals on Afghanistan (Washington Post) Worried that Afghan peace talks are going nowhere, and facing a May 1 deadline for the possible withdrawal of all U.S. troops, the Biden administration has proposed sweeping plans for an interim power-sharing government between the Taliban and Afghan leaders, and stepped-up involvement by Afghanistan’s neighbors—including Iran—in the peace process. Along with the proposal, shared with both sides over the past week by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that a U.S. departure remains under active consideration and could lead to “rapid territorial gains” by the Taliban. “I am making this clear to you so that you understand the urgency of my tone,” Blinken wrote in a three-page letter to Ghani sent to coincide with the proposal.

After historic whirlwind visit, Pope leaves Iraq for Rome (AP) Pope Francis on Monday wrapped up his historic whirlwind tour of Iraq that sought to bring hope to the country’s marginalized Christian minority with a message of coexistence, forgiveness and peace. The pontiff and his traveling delegation were seen off with a farewell ceremony at the Baghdad airport, from where he left for Rome following a four-day papal visit that has covered five provinces across Iraq. At every turn of his trip, Francis urged Iraqis to embrace diversity—from Najaf in the south, where he held a historic face-to-face meeting with powerful Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to Nineveh to the north, where he met with Christian victims of the Islamic State group’s terror and heard their testimonies of survival. In Iraq’s south, Francis convened a meeting of Iraqi religious leaders in the deserts near a symbol of the country’s ancient past—the 6,000-year-old ziggurat in the Plains of Ur, also thought to be the birthplace of Abraham, the biblical patriarch revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The gathering brought religious representatives across the country rarely seen together, from Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and Mandaeans. The joint appearance by figures from across Iraq’s sectarian spectrum was almost unheard-of, given their communities’ often bitter divisions. The pope called on them to work together and make peace.

Lebanon’s deadlock fuels seventh day of street protests (Reuters) Demonstrators burnt tyres to block main roads all over Lebanon for the seventh straight day on Monday in anger at more than a year of economic crisis and seven months of political paralysis. “We have said several times that there will be an escalation because the state isn’t doing anything,” said Pascale Nohra, a protester in Jal al-Dib.” Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai hit out at the politicians in his Sunday sermon: “How can the people not revolt when the price of one dollar has surpassed 10,000 Lebanese pounds in one day, how can they not revolt when the minimum wage is $70?”

Saudi oil terminal targeted (Foreign Policy) The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it launched a number of airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in retaliation for an attempted strike on a key oil port. Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile and drone attack on the major Saudi oil port of Ras Tanura on Sunday, although Saudi authorities reported no damage to the port’s facilities from the strike as missile defenses were engaged. Saudi state media blamed the attempted Houthi strike on the softer approach the Biden administration has taken to the Iran-aligned group, after it recently removed a terrorist label previously put in place by the Trump administration. Oil prices rose above $70 per barrel for the first time in 14 months as a result of the attack, with fears rising over threats to global oil flows.

At Dubai airport, travelers’ eyes become their passports (AP) Dubai’s airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, can already feel surreal, with its cavernous duty-free stores, artificial palm trees, gleaming terminals, water cascades and near-Arctic levels of air conditioning. Now, the key east-west transit hub is rolling out another addition from the realm of science fiction—an iris-scanner that verifies one’s identity and eliminates the need for any human interaction when entering or leaving the country. It’s the latest artificial intelligence program the United Arab Emirates has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic, contact-less technology the government promotes as helping to stem the spread of the virus. But the efforts also have renewed questions about mass surveillance in the federation of seven sheikhdoms, which experts believe has among the highest per capita concentrations of surveillance cameras in the world. In recent years, airports across the world have accelerated their use of timesaving facial recognition technology to move passengers to their flights. But Dubai’s iris scan improves on the more commonplace automated gates seen elsewhere, authorities said, connecting the iris data to the country’s facial recognition databases so the passenger needs no identifying documents or boarding pass.

An Island Stuffs Itself With Pineapple Smoothies, Pineapple Burgers and Pineapple Cake (WSJ) Like many people in Taiwan, Allen Hsueh has a newfound fervor for pineapple. The 38-year-old chef has come up with at least a dozen new recipes for his restaurant in Kaohsiung, called Pomme de Terre, including pork-wrapped pineapple with mozzarella cheese, red curry seafood with pineapple and spiced chicken breast and pineapple salad. The 20 spots for a special five-course, pineapple-inspired meal, scheduled later this month, filled up in a day. It’s not just an act of culinary bravery. These days, pineapple consumption is seen as an act of patriotism. Taiwan residents have been gobbling up the fruit since China—by far the island’s largest outside buyer—banned imports of their pineapples starting March 1, citing dangerous pests detected in recent shipments. The government of Taiwan—a democratically-ruled island that Beijing considers part of China—denied any infestation, saying 99.79% of its imported pineapples to China last year passed inspection. Instead, it issued a challenge to the island’s 24 million citizens, as well as its overseas friends, to snap up “freedom pineapples” as a form of protest and said it would support pineapple prices. The voracious response is now raising questions about whether there’s such a thing as too much of a good fruit.

Myanmar strike (Foreign Policy) At least 18 labor organizations have begun a nationwide strike across Myanmar, calling all workers “union and non-union alike” to join in work stoppages to protest the military coup. Local media report that troops have begun to occupy universities and hospitals, raising fears that wounded protesters may be subject to arrest.

Nun stands in front of Myanmar security forces to block them from shooting protesters (Reuters) A nun seen walking toward the police and begging them not to shoot has been hailed as a hero in Myanmar. Footage filmed by the Myitkyina News Journal on Feb. 28 showed a nun—whom local media identified as Sister Ann Roza—begging for police not to fire. She was later photographed on her knees, stopping the police from advancing. The nun told Myitkyina News Journal that she decided to risk her life for Myanmar’s citizens. “I can feel pain in my heart when protesters get hurt,” she said. “I can’t stand seeing them in pain.” More than 50 people have been killed since the military overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, according to the United Nations.

At least 20 dead, 600 wounded in Equatorial Guinea blasts (AP) A series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others on Sunday, authorities said. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the explosion at 4 p.m. local time was due to the “negligent handling of dynamite” in the military barracks located in the neighborhood of Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata. “The impact of the explosion caused damage in almost all the houses and buildings in Bata,” the president said in a statement.

#headlines #news

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

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New world news from Time: The Trump Administration’s Air Strikes in Somalia Are On the Rise Again—and Civilians Are Paying the Price

In the first seven months of 2020, the Trump administration conducted more air strikes in Somalia than were carried out during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, combined.

This year alone U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has acknowledged 43 air strikes in Somalia compared to 42 from 2007 to 2017. It comes as AFRICOM embraces greater transparency, issuing its second ever quarterly “Civilian Casualty Assessment” on July 28. The report acknowledged that a U.S. air strike near the town of Jilib on February 2, 2020 killed a civilian woman and injured three members of her family. The finding substantiated a March report by Amnesty International that the air strike killed Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar, 18, and injured her two younger sisters and grandmother. The target of the attack was a member of al-Shabab, an extremist group linked to Al Qaeda.

The strikes are part of a long-running military campaign to increase security in Somalia by degrading al Shabaab and, to a lesser extent, the Islamic State. The al Qaeda-aligned terrorist group has been active in Somalia since 2006, maintains influence in many areas of the country, and, according to AFRICOM, remains “resilient” despite billions of dollars of U.S. military and humanitarian assistance, ground operations involving Somali forces and U.S. advisors, and five straight years of record-setting numbers of air strikes.

The February 2 strike occurred when U.S. attacks – following an al Shabaab assault on the U.S. military base in Manda Bay, Kenya that killed one U.S. soldier and two Defense Department contractors – were being carried out at a blistering pace, averaging one air strike every two to three days. “[W]e will pursue those responsible for this attack and al-Shabaab who seeks to harm Americans and U.S. interests,” AFRICOM commander General Stephen Townsend announced in January, but experts say this mindset put civilians in peril.

“At the time, General Townsend said they were going to ‘relentlessly pursue’ those who conducted the attack, and in that rush a number of civilians were injured and killed, including those in the single case which AFRICOM just admitted,” Brian Castner, the Senior Crisis Advisor for arms and military operations at Amnesty International told TIME. “We saw the same thing after the massive truck bombing in [Somalia’s capital] Mogadishu in 2017, AFRICOM moves too fast and civilians pay the price.”

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres repeatedly called for a global ceasefire. “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” he said in March. While senior American officials endorsed the universal armistice, the U.S. nonetheless continued attacks in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere. The most recent U.S. air strike in Somalia occurred on July 29

“AFRICOM was initially slow to respond to the pandemic, with its heavy air campaign against al Shabaab continuing into mid-May. However, we did then see a welcome seven week pause, which was only gradually lifted from July 9th,” said Chris Woods, the director of Airwars, a U.K.-based airstrike monitoring group. “It’s worth noting that al Shabaab itself continued to mount terror attacks throughout Somalia’s initial lockdown.”

AFRICOM did not cite calls for the armistice as a reason for the lull in strikes, however. “A variety of factors weigh in to when a strike occurs including pace of partner operations, identification of and opportunity to engage targets and targets of opportunity,” AFRICOM spokesman John Manley told TIME. “Also, weather has a big impact on operations and whether we can conduct strikes.”

Feisal Omar—Reuters. Somalis families, displaced after fleeing Southern Somalia amid an uptick in U.S. airstrikes, rests at an IDP camp near Mogadishu, on Mar. 12, 2020.

U.S. officials have nonetheless expressed support for Guterres’ proposed global armistice in the midst of the pandemic. “It would be phenomenal if there could be a ceasefire,” Tibor Nagy, the State Department’s top Africa policy official, told TIME this spring, while noting that some belligerents would “be opportunistic and use the pandemic to advance their own violent agendas.” Similarly, a senior Trump administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, echoed Guterres’ appeal and amplified it. “We’re hoping that people will adhere to the secretary-general and other leaders’ call for a ceasefire,” they told TIME, despite the fact that the administration has not only failed to adhere to the armistice – from Afghanistan to Iraq – but has, even in the face of the pandemic, exceeded the number of attacks in Somalia carried out by both previous presidents, combined.

Despite AFRICOM’s slowdown in air attacks, the U.S. is still poised to log a record number of air strikes in Somalia for the sixth straight year. “If you look at 2019 strikes, the frequency is similar to this point,” said spokesman John Manley. Last year, the Trump administration conducted 63 air attacks in Somalia, an all-time high.

The strikes continue due to the failure of the U.S. and its Somali and African Union allies to defeat al Shabaab despite nearly a decade of military operations. A report by the Defense Department’s Inspector General, issued on July 16, noted that AFRICOM concedes al Shabaab maintained its capability to conduct hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, and improvised explosive device (IED) operations and “remains adaptive, resilient, and capable of attacking U.S. partner interests in Somalia and East Africa.”

AFRICOM has launched hundreds of air and ground attacks in Somalia since 2007, but the command has admitted to killing only five civilians in three separate attacks over the last 13 years. An investigation by Amnesty International found that in just nine of those airstrikes, 21 civilians were killed and 11 others were injured. According to Airwars, evidence suggests that as many as 15 Somali civilians have been killed by U.S. strikes in 2020 alone. Airwars – whose database incorporates local and international news reports, photos, videos, social media posts, mapping, and geolocation, and other data for every known U.S. air and ground action in Somalia – contends that between 72 and 145 civilians have been killed in U.S. attacks since 2007.

AFRICOM’s Townsend, who previously commanded Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, America’s effort to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, vociferously pushed back on allegations of civilian casualties in that conflict. “I challenge anyone to find a more precise air campaign in the history of warfare,” he wrote in a Foreign Policy opinion piece in 2017. That same year, a New York Times Magazine investigation of nearly 150 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting ISIS in Iraq found that 1 in 5 of the coalition strikes resulted in civilian deaths, a rate more than 31 times that acknowledged by the coalition. “Our reporting, moreover, revealed a consistent failure by the coalition to investigate claims properly or to keep records that make it possible to investigate the claims at all,” journalists Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal wrote. The command has since admitted killing close to 1,400 civilians in that campaign. Airwars says the true toll could be as high as 13,135.

“We work hard to prevent civilians from getting hurt or killed during these operations,” said Townsend on the release of AFRICOM’s Civilian Casualty Assessment on July 28. “We are committed to minimizing civilian casualties and will continue to thoroughly assess all allegations.”

In 2019, researchers from Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute and the Center for Civilians in Conflict conducted a civilian casualty workshop with AFRICOM personnel. A review of the command’s civilian casualty assessment process revealed that, between 2016 and 2019, AFRICOM failed to conduct even a single interview with civilian witnesses of its airstrikes. Nothing has changed in the time since. “We have not interviewed any witnesses or victims,” spokesman John Manley told TIME.

“The fact that AFRICOM has still, at this point in time, not interviewed any witnesses or survivors of its strikes, is deeply disappointing,” said Priyanka Motaparthy of Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute. “By not interviewing those affected, they have chosen not to seek out valuable information about the effects of their operations in Somalia–despite the fact human rights groups have been calling on them to conduct these interviews for years.”

A new Pentagon report on ex gratia payments for death, injury, and property damage in America’s wars shows that no assistance or compensation has been provided to Somali victims of U.S attacks. “Congress has explicitly authorized the Defense Department to make payments to families for their losses, and international law requires reparations if the strike was unlawful,” said Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security with Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA. “It’s time for the U.S. to develop a better and more humane response to the harm it’s causing — and to do more to prevent that harm.”

Amnesty’s Brian Castner fears that the lull in air strikes caused by Somalia’s rainy season may soon evaporate and noncombatants will pay the price. “The fact that civilians are still dying, sometimes unlawfully, and not a single family of the victims has yet been compensated, means that, after 13 years, the U.S. government still hasn’t figured out how to fight a war that prioritizes the needs of the people they say they are defending,” he told TIME. “If the U.S. government can’t fulfill its obligations to civilians while fighting a remote war of airstrikes, then it needs to reconsider its methods.”

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paulinedorchester · 2 months ago

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Vicente Lusitano (Portuguese, ca. 1520-1562 or later), Salve Regina, performed by the Marian Consort.

Lusitano is believed to have been the first composer of sub-Saharan African birth or descent to have seen his music published (in the modern sense of having been distributed in print). He seems to have led quite a life; more here.

#music for sunday afternoon #early post for the u.k. and points east #topicality #black history month #the miking on this recording leaves something to be desired #Spotify

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marcdodson · 10 months ago

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Historical Support for China's South China Sea Territorial Stance

Chinese ability to sail across the South China Sea region and into the Indian Ocean can be seen as recognized by the U.K. Government in this statement.

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texasprelawland-blog · 5 years ago

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International Humanitarian Law And The Illegality Of The Yemen Crisis: An Overview

By Laura Fagbemi, Rice University Class of 2022

August 7, 2020

The people of Yemen, an Afro-Arab country bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman,have been suffering from the world’s worst contemporary humanitarian crisis for over five years. Due to the escalation of a war instigated by the removal of a failing authoritarian government and worsened by a military intervention staged by a coalition of powerful Gulf states, Yemenis have been subjected to multiple human rights violations that break international humanitarian law. The consequences have been severe. Ranging from widespread food insecurity to numerous civilian deaths due to coalition airstrikes to a water crisis that has caused multiple lethal disease outbreaks,innocent Yemenis have become collateral damage eclipsed by the noise of inter-state alliances, rivalries, and financial transactions.

The nation’s decline into war began in 2011 following the Arab Spring: a series of pro-democratic protests and uprisings that radiated across Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa in the early 2010s. [1] In Yemen, protesters railed against then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, focusing on Saleh’s failure to address growing unemployment, security challenges, pervasive corruption in the country’s national government, and disproportionate income gaps. [2] Saleh became the fourth Arab leader to be deposed in the region in November 2011when, following the escalation of clashes between security forces and protesters calling for his removal, Saleh agreed to a Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered deal to resign from office.Saleh transferred power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who assumed power as interim president in February 2012. [3] After Saleh’s 33-year authoritarian regime came to an end, Hadi struggled to mediate a number of significant problems in Yemen, such as attacks by extremists, continued loyalty of security and governmental personnel to Saleh, and a separatist movement in the south. [4] [5]

Hadi’s interim presidency, meant to be a transfer of power that would begin to resolve the numerous humanitarian issues plaguing Yemen during Saleh’s tenure, only worsened the socio-political state of the nation. After taking office, Hadi was confronted with a multitude of systemic issues, including mass food insecurity, economic inequality, and political instability. [6] This allowed for the Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God),to take advantage of Hadi’s floundering administration and occupy Yemen’s capital and largest city, demanding a new era of government and marking the beginning of the ongoing war in Yemen.

Beginning in the 1990s as a youth-oriented religious movement devoted to defending the religious practices of Zaidi Shia Islam, the Houthi movement developed into a military insurgency throughout the 2000s that drew power from civilians’ resentments towards Saleh’s leadership and military. Some Yemenis who had not formerly been associated with the Houthi movement but were disillusioned by the transition between leaders defaulted to supporting the Houthi forces, supplying the Houthis with growing momentum. [7] [8] [9]

After failed negotiations with the Hadi administration, Houthis occupied the presidential palace in early 2015,and Hadi and his government resigned. At this point, a coalition of Gulf states began a campaign of air strikes and economic isolation in an attempt to curb Houthi power, led primarily by Saudi Arabia and backed by American, British, and French logistical resources. [10] The Saudi-headed coalition feared that further growth in Houthi influence would giveIran a foothold in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Iran of backing Houthis with weapons and logistical support, claiming that Iran has engaged in “direct military aggression” and an “act of war”, which Iran denies. [11] Some have even gone as far to say that the war in Yemen is,in part, an extension of an ongoing “regional ‘Cold War’” between the two major Gulf powers: Saudi Arabia and Iran. Experts have hypothesized that Saudi Arabia is using Yemen to engage in a proxy war against Iran. [11] [12] The Houthis retaliated by attempting to send missiles to Saudi Arabia’s capital among other economic targets and are reported to have antagonized UN aid workers and intercepted services attempting to bring humanitarian aid into the country. [13] Soon after Hadi left office, he rescinded his resignation and reappeared in Aden later that year in an attempt to salvage his presidency. [14] Following the coalition’s launch of the air strike campaign, Houthis formed a tenuous alliance with ousted former-president Saleh, who helped them build a joint council and led them togain control over the majority of northern Yemen. [15] However, in December 2017, Saleh broke the alliance and, shortly after, was murdered. [10]

After Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor acknowledged the premeditated murder of dissident Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the eye of the American press began to shift towards the international political strategies of the Saudi Arabian government, including its role in the Yemen crisis. [16]The Saudi Arabian government is often the first to point out that it, along with the United Arab Emirates, has supplied some of the largest donations to Yemen’s humanitarian relief effort. In 2017, the two countries donated $1 billion in aid to Yemen. [17] However, this limited aid has been accompanied by a laundry list of fiscal, humanitarian, and military offenses that have further compromised the already fragile state of the country. The coalition’s periodic land, air, and sea blockades restricting the importation of food and humanitarian aid, its withholding of salaries from approximately a million civil servants, and its infrastructure-demolishing air-strikes eclipse the limited amount of conditional aid Saudi Arabia and the UAE have supplied to the people of Yemen.

While Saudi Arabia and the Gulf state coalition are the face of military intervention in Yemen, other international actors have played key roles in escalating the conflict. In 2016, the United States assisted Saudi-led troops and orchestrated 35 airstrikes in Yemen.In 2017, it conducted about 130, reportedly as counterterrorism efforts meant to target al-Qaeda and IS operations in the area. America’s military support of Saudi Arabiain Yemen can largely be accredited to the fact that Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure and territory threaten the stability of a vital economic partner to the U.S. [10] The U.S. has a vested interest in backing Saudi Arabia because of joint counterterrorism efforts and the preservation of economic access to the choke point between the Arabian and Red Seas, through which 6.2 million barrels of oil pass per day. Because of this relationship, the U.S. has remained Saudi Arabia’s largest arms supplier for several years, responsible for 61% of Saudi Arabia’s major weapons imports from 2013-2017. [20] There has been significant Congressional scrutiny of U.S. policy in Yemen: multiple proposals to redistribute thearms sales authorities that are allotted to the executive branch have been introduced. [18] Still,the U.S. has backed the Saudi-led coalition, along with Germany, France, and the U.K. [19] President Trump has vetoed bills aiming to stop emergency sales to Saudi Arabia (many of which emerged out of caution among Western powers following the murder of Khashoggi) three times. [21]

Graphic by Henrik Petterson via CNN. Data from SIPRI.

The U.S. also fuels the Saudi forces through the provision of spare parts and technical upgrades, without which Saudi forces would be grounded within days. It has been suggested that the U.S. remains engaged in arms trade with Saudi Arabia because the Trump administration believes that a defeat of the Houthis would constitute a significant blow to the Iranian government, an assumption deemed to be a “complete fantasy” by experts on Middle Eastern policy. [21] In 2017, President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the U.S. totaling $110 billion immediately and $350 billion over a decade. Trump reportedly “emphasized the importance of […] resolving conflicts in Yemen and Syria” during the arms sale. [22] But just two years later, in 2019, the coalition attacked Hodeidah, one of Yemen’s only functioning port cities, ignoring the UN’s warnings about the devastating consequence of mass starvation it would have on the people of Yemen. In aiming to restrict the Houthis’ access to the Red Sea, the coalition cut off a crucial port of aid from hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civilians. [23] A 2019 policy brief by the World Peace Foundation concluded that the coalition is the “principle culprit” for the decline in food availability in Yemen. [24]The implications of the intersection between the Saudi-led intervention initiative in Yemen and the U.S.’s material support of the Saudi Arabian military are grim: the U.S. effectively makes hundreds of billions of dollars a year off of the numerous human rights violations and attacks on civilians that the coalition commits.

Though the air strikes and blockades in Yemen are in large part structurally orchestrated by Saudi military forces and supported by the U.S., all belligerent parties directly involved in the conflict have violated international humanitarian law in the pursuit of their respective agendas. The laws of war prohibit deliberate attacks that cause harm to civilians that is disproportionate to their projected military benefit.While blockades can be permitted during armed conflict, any aggressive parties must facilitate the “freedom of movement” of humanitarian relief personnel, which can only be obstructed temporarily during periods of “imperative military necessity.” [25] During blockades instigated by the coalition, the UN was forced to cancel over 30 flights, which stranded more than 200 humanitarian staff from almost 50 agencies. Opposing Houthi forces have also impeded the distribution of aid and restricted the movement of both Yemeni civilians and aid staff. [26]

Warring parties are also not permitted to attack objects that are indispensable to the civilian population (OIS), including food and water resources and port facilities. [27] The damage that coalition airstrikes have caused to the port city of Hodeidah has compromised crucial infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch, the coalition has also refused to allow the replacement of damaged infrastructure or the importation of parts for repairs. In early 2016, coalition airstrikes hit Ras Isa port’s Floating Storage and Offloading terminal which resulted in the closure of part of the facility. [27] The coalition attempted to justify its November 2017 blockade by claiming it was done in an attempt to prevent Iranian-made arms from reaching Houthi forces. While UN Security Council Resolution number 2216 does permit the coalition to perform inspections on packages shipped to Yemen if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that the cargo in question contains arms, it does not allow for the complete closure of ports or the total blockage of aid packages. [27]

Using starvation as a weapon is also prohibited, which is detailed in Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute as “Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions.” [24] The term “method of warfare,” according to the article, constitutes a contextual element that does not only link criminal acts to the conduct of hostilities but becomes part of the conduct itself. There has been significant evidence that coalition forces are using the destruction of OIS as a method of conducting hostilities, thus constituting a method of warfare. [24] Targeted imposition of economic policies when their impact in causing starvation is obvious – such as the withholding of income from civil servants –may also constitute the use of starvation as a method of warfare. The case for interpreting these actions as illegal is solidified by evidence of multiple systematic uses of starvation as a weapon, through clearly prohibited military initiatives such as attacks on hospitals and fishing boats done by the coalition forces and copious amounts of smuggling, corruption, and obstruction of humanitarian aid by the Houthi forces.The UN Security Council has also found that multiple coalition airstrikes on Yemen have not “respected the principles of international humanitarian law of proportionality and precautions in attack” and that “measures taken by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in its targeting process to minimize child causalities, if any, remain largely ineffective.” [28]

In recent months, there has been discussion of a ceasefire and the possible implementation of a peace agreement. [29] [30] While a ceasefire and a retraction of troops in Yemen could potentially end the main conflict, the humanitarian consequences of the war in Yemen that have already taken effect have been devastating. As of 2019, civilian casualties due to coalition airstrikes have exceeded 17,500. Fifteen percent of these casualties were children. [31] But deaths directly related to the airstrikes are only the tip of the iceberg: as of 2020, more than 3.6 million Yemenis have been displaced due to the conflict, approximately 17 million are food insecure, and more than 24 million are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. [32] The effects the conflict has had on the children of Yemen have been particularly destructive. In 2017, the UN estimated that a child under the age of five was dying every ten minutes in Yemen due to preventable causes such as hunger, disease, and violence, issues which have only advanced in the years since. [36] Beyond this, all belligerent parties involved in the conflict have recruited child soldiers under the age of 18, and some even under the age of 15. As of 2019, the total number of children recruited for war in Yemen exceeds 3,000. [37] Nearly 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished and require treatment. [38]

Not only is Yemen experiencing near-famine levels of food insecurity, but it is also suffering from a major water crisis. Over 20.5 million people have no access to clean water or sanitation because water pumps, treatment facilities, and crucial infrastructure have been damaged by airstrikes. A combination of a widespread lack of clean water and the prevalent issue of failing sewage systems has given way to an unprecedented cholera epidemic, the severity of which at one point surpassed 50,000 suspected cases per week. [32]. In only three months, the cholera epidemic in Yemen killed 2,000 people and infected half a million, becoming one of the world’s largest outbreaks in the last 50 years. [33] The country is also suffering added stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic: UN-commissioned reports predict that the death toll from the pandemic could “exceed the combined toll of war, disease, and hunger over the last five years.” [34] As the coronavirus spreads throughout Yemen, where the healthcare system has effectively collapsed and civilians do not have reliable access to food and water, the situation becomes increasingly dire. [35]

In 2018, New York Times reporters interviewed Ali al-Hajaji, a Yemeni father who lost his four-year-old son to starvation. Hajaji said “The big countries say they are fighting each other in Yemen. But it feels to us like they are fighting the poor people.” [17] While the intricacies of international policy, multi-state coalitions, power shifts, and 110 billion-dollar arms deals may seem grossly abstract to those of us who are detached from the crisis,there are real people in Yemen. There are people in Yemen who have nothing to eat, who are continuously susceptible to lethal diseases without access to healthcare, and whose “children are dying before [their] eyes.” [17] In the wake of a war kept alive by the desire of global economic superpowers to maintain the fiscal and political upper hand, all of the humanitarian fallout is suffered by a nation of people who have already shouldered decades of disadvantage. Not only have all sides of the conflict violated international humanitarian law on multiple counts, but outside actors have directly benefited financially from providing the arms used to commit these violations: almost every illegal coalition airstrike and city seizure has been executed using American, British, and French bombs and guns. Behind the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the globe’s most prosperous nations turn the home of innocent people into a battlefield.

________________________________________________________________

Laura Fagbemi is a rising junior at Rice University majoring in Social Policy Analysis and English. She works as a research assistant in the Rice University Sociology Department and is involved with several student-run initiatives centered around advocacy and policy building. She plans on attending law school after her graduation in 2022.

________________________________________________________________

1. Blakemore, Erin. (March 29, 2019). “What was the Arab Spring and how did it spread?” National Geographic. Retrieved July 18, 2020 from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/arab-spring-cause/#close.

2. Shapiro, T. Rees. (December 4, 2017). “Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s authoritarian leader snared in proxy-war intrigue, dies at 75.” The Washington Post. Retrieved July 18, 2020 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ali-abdullah-saleh-yemens-authoritarian-leader-snared-in-proxy-war-intrigue-dies-at-75/2017/12/04/b831015e-d8f4-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html.

3. (December 16, 2013). “Arab uprising: Country by country – Yemen.” BBC News. Retrieved July 19, 2020 from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-12482293.

4. Shane, Scott. (December 4, 2017). “Ali Abdullah Saleh, Strongman Who Helped Unite Yemen, and Divide It, Dies at 75.” The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/obituaries/ali-saleh-dead.html?auth=login-google.

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