BBC Audio Tom Fletcher
Tom Fletcher heads the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and has been at the forefront of recent efforts to deliver aid into Gaza.
Last week, he was criticised for making inaccurate claims about the impact of the Israeli blockade.
No stranger to tough jobs, he was previously a foreign policy advisor to three British Prime Ministers and the UK Ambassador to Lebanon as the country dealt with the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
He once fought the mayor of Nairobi in a boxing match and had a mortar round land in his swimming pool at the British embassy in Beirut.
One of four siblings, he was born in Folkestone, where he attended the Harvey Grammar School before studying at Oxford University.
Prior to his UN role he was Principal of Hertford College and has written books on diplomacy as well as novels.
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Tom Gillett, Lucy Pawle and Jo Casserly
Editor: Nick Holland
Sound: Gareth Jones
Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck
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The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
Archaeologists find new evidence of ancient slave labor in southern Iraq
A system of thousands of ridges and canals across a floodplain in southern Iraq has long been believed to be the remnant of a massive agricultural system built by slave labor. Now an international team of archaeologists has found new evidence to support the theory. The team undertook testing to determine the construction dates of some of the massive earthen structures and found that they spanned several centuries, beginning around the time of a famous slave rebellion in the 9th century A.D. The research findings were published Monday in the journal Antiquity. The enslaved people from that era are known today as the 'Zanj,' a medieval Arabic term for the East African Swahili coast, although there are different theories about where in Africa most of them actually came from. They carried out a large-scale revolt in Iraq in 869 AD under the Abbasid state, known today as the 'Zanj rebellion.' The rebellion lasted for more than a decade until the Abbasid state regained control of the region in 883 A.D. Many descendants of those enslaved people now live in the southern port city of Basra in modern-day Iraq. While they are part of the fabric of modern-day Iraq, 'their history has not been actually written or documented very well in our history,' said Jaafar Jotheri, a professor of archaeology at the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Iraq, who was part of the research team. Researchers from Durham and Newcastle universities in the U.K., Radboud University in the Netherlands, and the University of Basra in Iraq also took part. 'So that's why this (finding) is very important, and what is next actually is to protect at least some of these huge structures for future work. It is minority heritage,' he said. The researchers first reviewed recent satellite imagery and older images from the 1960s showing the remains of more than 7,000 massive manmade ridges across the Shaṭṭ al-Arab floodplain. The size and scale of the network indicate the 'investment of human labour on a grand scale,' the report in Antiquity said. Sites were selected across the system to be analyzed with radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating. All four of the ridge crests sampled date to the period between the late ninth to mid-13th century A.D., situating their construction during the period when slave labor was in use in the area — and providing evidence that the use of slave labor likely continued for several centuries after the famous rebellion. Their findings demonstrate 'that these features were in use for a substantially longer period than previously assumed and, as such, they represent an important piece of Iraqi landscape heritage,' the researchers wrote. The finding comes at the time of a resurgence of archaeology in Iraq, a country often referred to as the 'cradle of civilization,' but where archaeological exploration has been stunted by decades of conflict that halted excavations and led to the looting of tens of thousands of artifacts. In recent years, the digs have returned and thousands of stolen artifacts have been repatriated.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Former Biden official Matthew Miller Israel has 'without doubt' committed war crimes in Gaza
A senior official in former president Joe Biden's administration has told Sky News that he has no doubt that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza. Speaking to the Trump 100 podcast, Matthew Miller, who, as a state department spokesman, was the voice and face of the US government's foreign policy under Mr Biden, revealed disagreements, tensions and challenges within the former administration. In the wide-ranging conversation, he said: • It was "without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes"; • That Israeli soldiers were not being "held accountable"; • That there were "disagreements all along the way" about how to handle policy; • And that he "would have wanted to have a better candidate" than Mr Biden for the 2024 election. Mr Miller served as the state department spokesman from 2023 until the end of Mr Biden's presidential term. From the podium, his job was to explain and defend foreign policy decisions - from Ukraine to Gaza. "Look, one of the things about being a spokesperson is you're not a spokesperson for yourself. You are a spokesperson for the president, the administration, and you espouse the positions of the administration. And when you're not in the administration, you can just give your own opinions." Now out of office, he offered a candid reflection of a hugely challenging period in foreign policy and US politics. 1:37 Gaza disagreements Asked about Gaza, he revealed there were "small and big" disagreements within the Biden administration over the US-Israeli relationship. "There were disagreements all along the way about how to handle policy. Some of those were big disagreements, some of those were little disagreements," he said. Pushed on rumours that then- secretary of state Antony Blinken had frustrations with Mr Biden over both Gaza and Ukraine policy, Mr Miller hinted at the tensions. 👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 "I'll probably wait and let the secretary speak for himself… but I will say, speaking generally, look, it is true about every senior official in government that they don't win every policy fight that they enter into. And what you do is you make your best case to the president. "The administration did debate, at times, whether and when to cut off weapons to Israel. You saw us in the spring of 2024 stop the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel because we did not believe they would use those in a way that was appropriate in Gaza." Through the spring and summer of 2024, the Biden administration was caught between its bedrock policy of the unconditional defence of its ally Israel and the reality of what that ally was doing in Gaza, with American weapons. Mr Mill said: "There were debates about whether to suspend other arms deliveries, and you saw at times us hold back certain arms while we negotiated the use of those arms… "But we found ourselves in this really tough position, especially in that time period when it really came to a head… We were at a place where - I'm thinking of the way I can appropriately say this - the decisions and the thinking of Hamas leadership were not always secret to the United States and to our partners." He continued: "And it was clear to us in that period that there was a time when our public discussion of withholding weapons from Israel, as well as the protests on college campuses in the United States, and the movement of some European countries to recognise the state of Palestine - appropriate discussions, appropriate decisions - protests are appropriate - but all of those things together were leading the leadership of Hamas to conclude that they didn't need to agree to a ceasefire, they just needed to hold out for a little bit longer, and they could get what they always wanted." "Now, the thing that I look back on, that I will always ask questions of myself about, and I think this is true for others in government, is in that intervening period between the end of May and the middle of January [2025], when thousands of Palestinians were killed, innocent civilians who didn't want this war, had nothing to do with it, was there more that we could, could have done to pressure the Israeli government to agree to that ceasefire? I think at times there probably was," Mr Miller said. Asked for his view on the accusation of genocide in Gaza, he said: "I don't think it's a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes." Challenged on why he didn't make these points while in government, he said: "When you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion. You're expressing the conclusions of the United States government. The United States government had not concluded that they committed war crimes, still have not concluded [that]." He went on to offer a qualification to his accusation. "There are two ways to think about the commission of war crimes," he said. "One is if the state has pursued a policy of deliberately committing war crimes or is acting recklessly in a way that aids and abets war crimes. Is the state committing war crimes? "That, I think, is an open question. I think what is almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes where Israeli soldiers, members of the Israeli military, have committed war crimes." The Israeli government continues to strongly deny all claims that it has committed war crimes in Gaza. On Joe Biden's election hopes Mr Miller also offered a candid reflection on the suitability of Mr Biden as a candidate in the 2024 US election. While Mr Biden initially ran to extend his stay in the White House, he stepped aside, with Kamala Harris taking his place as the Democratic candidate. "Had I not been inside the government, had I been outside the government acting kind of in a political role, of course, I would have wanted to have a better candidate," he said. "It's that collective action problem where no one wants to be the first to speak out and stand up alone. You stand up by yourself and get your head chopped off, stand up together, you can take action. "But there was never really a consensus position in the party, and there was no one that was willing to stand up and rally the party to say this isn't going to work. "I don't think there is anyone on the White House staff, including the most senior White House staffers, who could have gone to Joe Biden in the spring of 2023 or at any time after that and told him: 'Mr President, you are not able to do the duties of this job. And you will not win re-election.' He would have rejected that outright." 1:00 On the Donald Trump presidency so far, he offered a nuanced view. He described Mr Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as "an extremely capable individual" but expressed his worry that he was being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I know the people in the Biden administration who worked with him during the first negotiations for Gaza ceasefire thought that he was capable. "I think at times he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And you see that especially in the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, where you see him go into a meeting with Vladimir Putin and come out spouting Russian propaganda… I think he would benefit from a little diplomatic savvy and some experienced diplomats around him." He continued: "But I do think it's extremely important that when people sit down with an envoy of the United States they know that that envoy speaks for the President of the United States and it is very clear that Witkoff has that and that's an extremely valuable asset to bring to the table." On the months and years ahead under Mr Trump, Mr Miller said: "The thing that worries me most is that Donald Trump may squander the position that the United States has built around the world over successive administrations of both parties over a course of decades. "I don't think most Americans understand the benefits that they get to their daily lives by the United States being the indispensable nation in the world.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Suspect charged with multiple felonies in attack on Colorado rally for Israeli hostages
A man has been charged with multiple felonies after he allegedly used a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices to attack a crowd of people who were raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Gaza, injuring eight. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, is alleged to have shouted 'Free Palestine' as he attacked the crowd on Sunday, in what the FBI is treating as an 'act of terrorism'. Soliman was booked into Boulder county jail on Sunday and has a hearing scheduled for 1.30pm local time on Monday. Officials said there was no indication that the attack was associated with any group. NBC reported Soliman was an Egyptian national, and the White House claimed Soliman was in the US without legal status. Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were transported to hospitals, Boulder police said, with injuries ranging from minor to 'very serious'. The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, close to University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, a group which aims to draw attention to the people taken hostage following Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel. Soliman is alleged to have thrown the device into a group of people who had assembled in a pedestrianized zone for the peaceful rally. The Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, said the department received calls at about 1.26pm local time on Sunday of a man with a weapon near a downtown courthouse and that people were being set on fire. Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old University of Colorado student, told Reuters she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, Coffman said. She said she saw a man whom she presumed to be the attacker holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting. 'Everybody is yelling: 'Get water, get water,'' Coffman said. Alex Osante, from San Diego, told the Associated Press he was having lunch on a restaurant patio across the pedestrian mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking on the ground, a 'boom' sound followed by people yelling and screaming. In a video of the scene filmed by Osante, people could be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who Osante said had caught on fire during the attack. After the initial attack, Osante said the suspect went behind some bushes and then re-emerged and threw a Molotov cocktail but appeared to accidentally set himself on fire as he threw it. The man then took off his shirt and what appeared to be a bulletproof vest before the police arrived. The man dropped to the ground and was arrested without any apparent resistance in the video that Osante filmed. Mark Michalek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, identified Soliman as the lone suspect. 'It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,' Michalek told a press conference, citing witnesses. Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, described the incident as a 'targeted terror attack', and Colorado's attorney general, Phil Weiser, said it appeared to be 'a hate crime given the group that was targeted'. Soliman is due to appear in court at 1.30pm local time on Monday, according to Boulder county jail records. He is being held on a $10m bond. Law enforcement officials said Soliman was also injured and was taken to the hospital to be treated, but did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries. In a post on X, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, described Soliman as an 'illegal alien' who had overstayed his tourist visa. Miller criticized the Biden administration, whom he said had given Soliman a work permit. Fox News reported that work permit was valid through 28 March of this year, more than two months into the second Trump administration. Miller said the attack was further evidence of the need to 'fully reverse' what Miller described as 'suicidal migration'. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said Soliman is 'illegally in our country'. 'He entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired on February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022,' McLaughlin said. The attack comes amid heightened tensions over Israel's war in Gaza, which in the US has spurred both an increase in both antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes. The attack follows the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington DC who had attended an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel. Conservative supporters of Israel have branded pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic, and Donald Trump's administration has detained multiple protesters of the war without charge, while cutting off funding to elite US universities where protests against Israel's war on Gaza have taken place. Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people. It is still holding 58 hostages in Gaza. Israel responded to the attack by launching a bombing campaign on Gaza which has killed more than 54,000 people. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement that the Colorado victims were attacked 'simply because they were Jews' and that he trusted US authorities would prosecute 'the cold blood perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law'.
