A collection of British charities have launched a new appeal to raise funds to fight coronavirus in refugee camps and poor communities in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The UK Government has pledged to match the first £5 million in donations made by the public to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

The DEC, which is made up of 14 of Britain’s largest aid charities, will spend donations on providing food, water and medical care to people in countries such as Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.

Other target countries are Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Much of the money will go to refugee camps, where overcrowding and poor sanitation gives the virus much greater opportunity to spread.

The DEC estimates there are 24 million internally-displaced people in these countries, as well as a further 850,000 Rohingya people in Bangladesh.

Donations will also be spent on providing soap to vulnerable families and on providing information about the dangers of the spread of the disease.

DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “Coronavirus has turned all of our lives upside down in ways we could never have imagined. For those fleeing violence and conflict in the world’s most fragile places, the pandemic is a new battle that they are not equipped to fight.

“These families have already lived through trauma and upheaval. Many are now living in crowded refugee and displacement camps with little access to medical care, clean water or enough food⁠ – the bare essentials they need to survive the crisis. Millions of lives are at stake. We are urging people to donate now.”

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “We are matching generous donations from the British people to the emergency appeal pound for pound, meaning your money will go twice as far in helping to protect millions of the world’s most vulnerable people from the deadly effects of coronavirus.

“Clean water and healthcare in refugee camps are essential in containing coronavirus in the developing world – helping stop the spread of the pandemic and protecting the UK from further waves of infection.”

So far, £769 million in UK aid has been pledged globally to fight the pandemic, according to the Department for International Development.

Among the DEC’s 14 members are ActionAid UK, Age International, the British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK.

Those wishing to donate can do so online at Dec.org.uk, by phone on 0370 60 60 900, or text SUPPORT to 70150 to donate £10.

A U.S. strike targeted a militant in Yemen believed to be one of the planners of a deadly bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in 2000, but the results of the strike were still being assessed, the U.S. military said on Friday.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the strike on Jan. 1 in the Marib governorate of Yemen had targeted Jamal al-Badawi, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 and was wanted for his role in the USS Cole attack. He escaped from prison in Yemen twice, once in 2003 and again in 2006.

There is a $5 million (3.93 million pounds) reward for information leading to his arrest.

On Oct. 12, 2000, two men in a small boat detonated explosives alongside the Navy guided missile destroyer as it was refuelling in Aden, killing 17 sailors, wounding more than three dozen others and blasting a gaping hole in its hull.

On the 6^th of December 2018, Channel 4 broadcast an interview with Adel al-Hassani, who used to be a commander with Yemeni forces that fought against Al-Qaeda and who fell foul, allegedly of UAE forces. His story and his alleged torture is highlighted in the Channel 4 documentary by Jonathan Rugman.

The documentary highlights alleged human rights abuses that are significant and which seem to point to sustained levels of torture. Indeed Al-Hassani suggests systemic torture was used against dissidents.

The Channel 4 documentary is important since it highlights a window on a war that is as dirty as is it is confusing. No party in this war comes out clean and what is clear is that many sides and interested parties are involved in a propaganda campaign that is deeply problematic. Yemen has become a battleground for a series of dirty tricks. The real impact and the victims are the poor and marginalized communities who pick up the pieces of this horrendous conflict inflicted on the Yemen population.

Which brings us to the following point. Adel al-Hassani, is described in the Channel 4 investigation as someone who fought al-Qaeda. No-one can doubt this or verify this apart from what is listed in the Channel 4 documentary. We simply want to highlight the fact that in the documentary, al-Hassani sings a Nasheed that has been repeatedly sung by Islamists as a rallying tune in their struggle against what they perceive against injustice. This is not to suggest that al-Hassani is an Islamist, though the song has been used by others as a rallying call for Islamists. It has therefore been used by others as a rallying call for an armed violent response.

The lyrics of the song can be translated into the following:

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا في الحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
[We are] strangers and we have chosen this to be the motto of life

إن تسأل عنا فإنا لا نبالي بالطغاة
Inta sal ‘anna fa inna laa nubaali bit-tughaat
If you ask about us, then we do not care about the tyrants

نحن جند الله دوما دربنا درب الاباة
Nahnu jundullaahi dawman darbunaa darbul-ubaa
We are forever the soldiers of Allah, our path is the path of the resistant

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers! Strangers! Strangers!

لا نبالي بالقيود بل سنمضي للخلود
Lan nubaali bil quyuud, bal sanamdhii lil khulood
We never care about the chains, rather we’ll continue forever

فلنجاهد و نناضل و نقاتل من جديد
Fal nujaahid wa nunaadhil wa nuqaatil min jadeed
So let us make Jihad, and battle, and fight from the start

غرباء هكذا الاحرار في دنيا العبيد
Ghurabaa’ hakazhal ahraaru fii dunya-al ‘abeed
Ghurabaa’ this is how they are free in the enslaved world

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

كم تذاكرنا زمانا يوم كنا سعداء
Kam tazhaakkarnaa zamaanan yawma kunna su’adaa`
How many times have we remembered a time when we were happy

بكتاب الله نتلوه صباحا و مساء
Bi kitaabillaahi natloohu sabaahan wa masaa`
with the book of Allah, reciting it in the morning and the evening

غرباء غرباء غرباء غرباء
Strangers… Strangers… Strangers…

غرباء و لغير الله لا نحني الجباه
Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa
[We are] stranger and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah

غرباء و ارتضيناها شعارا للحياة
Ghurabaa’ war tadhainaa haa shi’aaran lil hayaa
Ghurabaa’ – we have chosen this to be the motto of life

In the Channel 4 documentary, the narrator states the following when Al-Hassani sings the Nasheed.

“We don’t care about tyrants, we only bend our foreheads to God.”

This is only part of the Nasheed and its context, and whilst Channel 4 were right in highlighting the human rights abuses that have so dogged the people of Yemen and which have also led them to pay such a high price, we believe that a better description of the Nasheed and its context could have been provided. Indeed, Channel 4 can simply make an addition on its web-site providing some context to the Nasheed in question, otherwise it can throw up a range of questions when shown in its current format. That song can therefore provide a dual meaning to various individuals watching the same film.

This contextualization is important since if we are to understand the nature of what is taking place in the Middle East, we need to understand the complexities and nuances. In this case, we sympathise with the case of Al-Hassani and his displacement from Yemen. We also are deeply aggrieved at the heavy price that the Yemeni population has paid through significant human rights abuses. They have suffered catastrophically because of proxy wars in the region. This is not acceptable, nor can it be excused.

We hope that this request is something that Channel 4 may consider, given that it takes pride in its journalistic reporting.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday war was unlikely but called on Iran’s armed forces to boost their defence capacities, according to his official website, as the country faces increased tension with the United States.

On Saturday, Iran announced plans to boost its ballistic and cruise missile capacity and acquire modern fighter planes and submarines to boost its defences following the U.S. pullout from Tehran’s nuclear agreement with world powers.

“Ayatollah Khamenei emphasised that based on political calculations there is no likelihood of a military war but added that the armed forces must be vigilant … and raise their personnel and equipment capacities,” the website quoted Khamenei as telling commanders of Iran’s air defence forces.

“The Supreme Leader said … the air defence units were a very sensitive part of the armed forces and on the front line of confronting the enemy, and emphasized the need to increase their readiness and capabilities,” the website said in its report on the gathering, which was held to mark Iran’s Air Defence Day.

Saturday’s news of the military development plans came a day after Iran dismissed a French call for negotiations on Tehran’s future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last month the Islamic Republic’s military prowess was what deterred Washington from attacking it.

Separately, a senior Iranian diplomat met visiting UK Junior Foreign Minister Alistair Burt and urged swift European action on a planned package of economic measures to offset the U.S. pullout from the accord and the reimpositions of sanctions by Washington, the state news agency IRNA reported.

“The imposition of (U.S.) sanctions and pressures and the lack of rapid action by Europe to fulfil their commitments will have serious consequences,” Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister who heads a top foreign policy council, told Burt, IRNA reported.

Iranian officials have said they would decide whether to quit the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after studying the European package of economic measures that could help offset U.S. sanctions.

“European countries have not been able yet to take necessary measures to secure Iran’s interests under the nuclear agreement,” Kharrazi said.

“(Burt) said Britain’s position is different from that of the United States and we are looking for a European mechanism to make the nuclear accord successful,” IRNA reported.

In a meeting with senior parliamentarian Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, Burt referred to the case of a British-Iranian dual national detained in Iran, IRNA reported.

“I thank Iran for its humanitarian act to grant Nazanin Zaghari furlough and her meeting with her family, and we hope that this approach will continue until the release and the pardon of such people,” Burt said, according to IRNA.

Britain is seeking the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport as she was heading back to Britain with her daughter, now aged four, after a family visit. She was released for three days last month.

Burt, on the first visit by a British minister since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, earlier met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday the talks with Burt had involved “access to banking resources and the sale of oil”.

Iran has been seeking commitment from European signatories of the nuclear deal that it will be able to access the Western banking system and continue to sell oil despite U.S. sanctions.

In a statement before his visit, Burt said: “As long as Iran meets its commitments under the deal, we remain committed to it as we believe it is the best way to ensure a safe, secure future for the region.”

Thousands of mourners on Monday buried dozens of children killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in northern Yemen, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the three-year-old war.

At least 40 children were killed in Thursday’s strike, which hit the bus as it drove through a market in Dahyan, a town in Saada, the armed Houthi group which controls the province said.

Amid outrage from international human rights groups and U.N. officials, Riyadh continued to defend the raid as a “legitimate military action” intended to hit Houthi leaders, a day after it authorised a coalition investigation of the strike.

Wooden coffins, most with a picture of a child, were taken by cars and carried by pall bearers to a graveyard from a square where prayers were held earlier. “Death to America, death to Israel,” the crowd chanted, echoing the Houthis’ slogan.

The shrouded bodies were removed from the coffins and placed in a row of unmarked graves that had been dug on Friday.

“My son went to the market to run house errands and then the enemy air strike happened and he was hit by shrapnel and died,” said Fares al-Razhi, mourning his 14-year-old son.

“For my son, I will take revenge on Salman and Mohammed Bin Zayed,” he said, referring to the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Gulf Arab states are leading the alliance of Sunni Muslim countries that intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was expelled from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in 2014.

The coalition said on Friday it would investigate the strike after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called for an independent probe.

But on Saturday, state news agency SPA said Riyadh’s mission to the world body delivered a message to Guterres reiterating that the raid was “legitimate” and targeted Houthi leaders “responsible for recruiting and training young children”.

“War can’t be a clean operation unfortunately,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters in Dubai when asked about the Saada attack. “But I will say all parties need to accept their part in what they are doing today.”

TALKS PLANNED

The coalition initially said after the attack that the strike had targeted missile launchers that were used by the Houthis to attack the southern Saudi province of Jizan.

The Houthis’ health minister Taha Mutawakil said last week that the number of casualties stood at 51 killed including 40 children, and at least 79 people wounded of whom 56 were children. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported the same toll on Friday, citing authorities in Saada.

The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV on Monday quoted a health official as saying another child had died from his wounds, raising the toll to 52.

The head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, attended the funeral and blamed the United States for “this ugly massacre of Yemeni children”.

The United States and other Western powers provide arms and intelligence to the alliance, and human rights groups have criticised them over coalition air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians at hospitals, schools and markets.

A U.S. military spokeswoman said U.S. forces were not involved in Thursday’s air strike. The U.S. State Department urged the alliance to “conduct a thorough and transparent investigation”.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday he has dispatched a three-star general to Riyadh to “look into what happened”.

The coalition says it does not intentionally target civilians and has set up a committee to probe alleged mass casualty air strikes, which has mostly cleared it of any blame.

The Houthis have also been criticised by rights groups.

The U.N. special envoy to Yemen has been shuttling between the warring parties ahead of holding consultations in Geneva on Sept. 6 to try to end the conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people and pushed the impoverished Arab country to the verge of starvation, according to the United Nations.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani said on Al-Hadath channel on Monday that his government welcomed the Geneva talks.

The UAE’s Gargash said he hoped the Geneva talks signalled the start of a process that would lead to a political solution to the conflict – which is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe, the Shi’ite Muslim Iran.

The Pentagon has sent nine Yemeni men to Saudi Arabia from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, including an inmate who had been on a long-term hunger strike, U.S. officials said on Saturday, the latest step in President Barack Obama’s final push to close the facility.

The group was the largest shipped out of the U.S. naval base in Cuba since Obama rolled out his plan in February to shut the controversial detention centre there before he leaves office in January 2017.

With the latest departures, there are now 80 prisoners at Guantanamo, most held without charge or trial for more than a decade, drawing international condemnation.

The most prominent of the latest transfers was Tariq Ba Odah, a 37-year-old Yemeni whom the military had been force-feeding daily since he went on a hunger strike in 2007 and had been reported to have lost half his body weight.

His case was source of frequent legal wrangling between the U.S. Department of Justice and his lawyers, who had unsuccessfully sought his release on humanitarian and medical grounds.

Obama wants to make good on his long-time pledge to empty the Guantanamo prison before the end of his presidency. But he faces stiff opposition from many Republican lawmakers, as well as some fellow Democrats.

The transfers, which followed lengthy diplomatic efforts between Washington and Riyadh, took place as Obama prepared to attend a summit of Gulf Arab allies in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

The other prisoners involved in the transfer were identified as: Umar Abdullah Al-Hikimi, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Saleh Nasir, Ali Yahya Mahdi Al-Raimi, Muhammed Abdullah Muhammed Al-Hamiri, Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman, Abd al Rahman Al-Qyati, Mansour Muhammed Ali Al-Qatta, and Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri.

They were among a group of low-level inmates, now numbering 26, who have been cleared for transfer by a U.S. government inter-agency task force. U.S. officials have said they expect to move out all members of that group by this summer, sending them to their home countries or other nations.

Obama’s plan for shuttering the facility calls for bringing the several dozen remaining prisoners to maximum-security prison in the United States. U.S. law bars such transfers to the mainland – and Congress has shown no willingness to revoke it – but Obama has not ruled out using executive action to move the detainees.