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Air and artillery strikes by the US and its allies inflicted devastating loss of life on civilians in the Isis-held city of Raqqa, according to an Amnesty International report. It contradicts claims by the US, along with Britain and France, that they precisely targeted Isis fighters and positions during the four month siege that destroyed large swathes of the city.

“On the ground in Raqqa we witnessed a level of destruction comparable to anything we have seen in decades of covering the impact of wars,” says Donatella Rovera, a senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty. She says that the coalition’s claim that it had conducted a precision bombing campaign that caused few civilian casualties does not stand up to scrutiny. She quotes a senior US military officer as saying that “more artillery shells were launched into Raqqa than anywhere since the end of the Vietnam war”.

The air and artillery strikes by the US and its allies killed many civilians – the number is unknown because so many bodies are buried under the ruins – during the four-month-long siege, beginning on 6 June and ending on 17 October last year according to the report. Citing the testimony of survivors, it contradicts assertions by the US-led coalition that it took care to avoid targeting buildings where civilians might be present. Witnesses say that again and again their houses were destroyed although there were no Isis fighters in them or nearby.

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The leader of a banned Neo Nazi terror group has been jailed for eight years today.

Christopher Lythgoe, 32, was in charge of the white supremacist organisation, National Action, which was outlawed in December 2016 after endorsing the murder of Labour MP, Jo Cox.

Lythgoe was accused of granting permission to Jack Renshaw, 23, to carry out the murder of Labour MP Rosie Cooper at a meeting in a Warrington pub on 1 July last year.

Renshaw admitted buying a 19-inch 'Gladius Machete' in preparation for the murder plot, but jurors cleared Lythgoe of granting him permission to carry out the attack on behalf of National Action.

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'Prince William has paid a courtesy visit to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though he will see little of the everyday impact of the occupation on grassroots Palestinians. Previous British Government had advised the Royal Family against such a trip, largely because it was one of the few “rewards” it could offer for peace with the Palestinians. Yet Prince William is visiting the Holy Land just when such a peace prospect has never seemed more distant. It is not just the recent loss of at least 100 Palestinian live in Gaza, or that several members of Netanyahu’s right-wing government, rather than calling for an end to the 51-year-old occupation, openly advocate the annexation of parts of the West Bank. Few diplomats expect that the plans for a “deal of the century” envisaged by Donald Trump – whose decision to move of the US embassy to Jerusalem infuriated Palestinians claiming the city as a shared capital – will meet even the most minimal of their demands.'

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'Earlier this week, health officials in Gaza announced the al-Rantisi hospital was no longer able to provide patients with chemotherapy sessions, citing medication shortages. The 80 percent deficit places thousands of patients at risk of deteriorating conditions, the health ministry warned on Monday. According to its spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, there are about 6,100 elderly tumor patients, and 460 children who receive medical care at the al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza. Another 1,700 patients with "advanced tumors" are being treated at the European Gaza Hospital in the southern district of Khan Younis. Doctors say the situation has been exacerbated since Israel cut off the supply of essential commodities last month by partially sealing off the Karem Abu Salem commercial border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Chemotherapy drugs have been prohibited from entering Gaza, along with other medical equipment needed to perform radiotherapy, molecular therapy, PET scans and isotope scans.'

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Eighty-four groups representing migrants and ethnic minorities have waded into the Labour antisemitism row by opposing adoption of the internationally-recognised definition.

Organisations including The Society of Black Lawyers and the Muslim Association of Britain claim that guidelines set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) would "silence" public discussion.

In a letter to The Independent they argue information about the plight of the Palestinians since the creation of Israel 1948 is already being suppressed.

"Public discussion of these facts, and a description of these injustices, would be prohibited under the IHRA’s guidelines, and therefore withholds vital knowledge from the public," the letter reads.

"This silencing has already begun. Today we can freely describe the racist policies experienced in the era of British and European colonialism ... but the colonial history of the Palestinians is continually erased.

"This is a dangerous breach of our own rights, and of the wider British public: we must all hear the full story of the Palestinians in order to make sense of the current discussions about racism and Israel."

Signatories to the letter include several Palestinian, Muslim and Arab groups such as Arab Labour, the Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK, and Muslim Worker's Association. The others range from Black Lives Matter UK and Justice for Grenfell to Pakistani Community Centre Oldham and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.

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I grew up in the 50s and 60s when a nuclear war was a very real and scary possibility. 50 years later with more than a few scary predictions left unfulfilled we are being warned about the dire consequences of global warming and, recently, antibiotics becoming useless in the fight against infection and illness. Yet we are still here.

Thing is, shit happens and humans have a great capacity in being able to deal with such events.

Make the most of today and let tomorrow look after itself.

Britain’s repeated military interventions have “exacerbated rather than resolved” the problem of terrorism, Jeremy Corbyn will warn today.

The Labour leader will use a speech to warn that the so-called “war on terror has manifestly failed”, adding that the world is “living with the consequences” of the botched invasion of Iraq, which he opposed. He will say that Britain risks being “tied to Donald Trump’s coat-tails” and US foreign policy under Boris Johnson.

His comments come just before Johnson hosts a Nato summit this week to be attended by the US president. Responding to the London Bridge attack in a speech in York, Corbyn will praise the “extraordinary bravery” of the public in confronting the attacker. He will say that the police were right to use lethal force, with lives at stake and the attacker wearing a fake suicide vest.

However, he will also say that while responsibility for acts of terror lies with “the terrorists, their funders and recruiters”, UK leaders “have made the wrong calls on our security”.

He will add: “The threat of terrorism cannot and should not be reduced to questions of foreign policy alone. But too often the actions of successive governments have fuelled, not reduced that threat.

“Sixteen years ago, I warned against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I said it would set off a spiral of conflict, hate, misery and desperation that will fuel the wars, the conflict, the terrorism and the misery of future generations. It did, and we are still living with the consequences today.

“The war on terror has manifestly failed. Britain’s repeated military interventions in North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have exacerbated, rather than resolved the problems.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... calisation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;