Letter: Sandy Gall obituary
As Sandy stepped off the plane, he realised that he was in the middle of a full-scale revolution. When he met up with Ryan, he said: 'It's ridiculous, you reporting this all on your own.'
'Actually, I wasn't,' said Ryan. 'There was this other chap but when he sat down at his typewriter a couple of days ago, he froze with his hands above the keys. Nervous breakdown. Had to be carried off to hospital, but now you're here.'
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Eswatini opposition attacks US deal as ‘human trafficking disguised as deportation'
Civil society and opposition groups in Eswatini have expressed outrage after the US deported five men to the country, with the largest opposition party calling it 'human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal'. The men, from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba, were flown to the small southern African country, an absolute monarchy, last week as the US stepped up deportations to 'third countries' after the supreme court cleared them last month. Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique and has a population of about 1.2 million. It is Africa's last absolute monarchy and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. The government estimated the five men would be held for about 12 months, a spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, said, adding: 'It could be slightly less or slightly more.' She said Eswatini was ready to receive more deportees, depending on the availability of facilities and negotiations with the US, which has also deported eight people to South Sudan after holding them for weeks in a shipping container in Djibouti, and more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador. Officials have said the men, who were put in solitary confinement, were safely imprisoned in Eswatini. However, they have refused to disclose the terms of the deal, other than to say the US was footing the costs of keeping the men locked up and that they would work with international organisations to deport them to their home countries. Many civil society organisations and politicians were not convinced. 'This action, carried out without public consultation, adequate preparation, or community engagement, raises urgent questions about legality, transparency, and the safety of both the deported individuals and the people of Eswatini, especially women and girls,' said a coalition of seven women's groups. The organisations delivered a petition to the US embassy on Monday calling for the US to take back the deportees, for the deportees' human rights to be respected, and for Eswatini not to become a 'dumping ground for unresolved problems from elsewhere'. The groups' leaders held a protest outside the US embassy on Friday, where they sang, danced and held up signs with messages including: 'Whose taxpayers?', 'Eswatini is not a prison for US rejects' and 'Take the five criminals back to the US!!' Eswatini's largest opposition party, the People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), said in a statement: 'Pudemo vehemently condemns the treacherous and reckless decision by King Mswati III's regime to allow the United States of America to dump its most dangerous criminals on Swazi soil. 'This is not diplomacy but human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal. It is an insult to all Emaswati who value peace, security, and the sanctity of our homeland.' The coordinating assembly of NGOs, an umbrella group, said the situation was 'deeply alarming' and condemned the 'stigmatising and dehumanising language used by US officials'. It called for the Eswatini-US agreement to be made public and to be suspended pending 'genuine public consultation and transparent national dialogue'. Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a post on X on 16 July that the men, who she said had been convicted of crimes including child rape, murder and burglary, were 'so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back'. She added: 'These depraved monsters have been terrorising American communities but … they are off of American soil.' Eswatini's prime minister, Russell Dlamini, told local media on Friday that the government was confident it would safely manage the prisoners. 'Eswatini is currently holding inmates who have committed more dangerous crimes than those attributed to the five deportees,' he said. A prison service spokesperson, Baphelele Kunene, said the country's citizens should not be afraid. 'We can confirm that the five inmates in question have been admitted to one of our high-security centres where they are responding very well to the new environment,' he said. 'Even though they come from the US, there is no preferential treatment for them as they are guided by the same prison regulations, eat the same food as others and are also expected to exhibit the same and equal amount of respect for prison protocols.' The US state department's most recent human rights report on Eswatini, in 2023, said there were 'credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; [and] political prisoners or detainees'. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections, which the system's advocates argue makes MPs more representative of their constituents. In September, Pudemo's leader, Mlungisi Makhanya, was allegedly poisoned in South Africa. The party said it was an assassination attempt, which Eswatini's government has denied. The Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
CBE for journalist Peter Taylor who reported on the Troubles
A former BBC Panorama journalist who spent decades reporting on the Troubles has been formally made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) at Windsor Taylor, 82, from Henley-on-Thames, said covering Bloody Sunday in his 20s as his first assignment in Northern Ireland inspired much of the work in his decades-long soldiers shot 13 civil rights protesters dead in Londonderry on 30 January 1972 and Mr Taylor said he felt guilty he "knew nothing, or very little" about the conflict at the time."I remember that day thinking I better start trying to find out, so I spent the past 50 years trying to do exactly that," he said. Mr Taylor earned the trust of major figures, including former IRA commander and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, whose funeral he was also invited to the memorial for Ian Paisley, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and first minister. Mr Taylor spent nearly a decade to get permission to make a documentary inside the notorious high-security Maze serving sentences for murder "and a whole series of dreadful atrocities" were jailed there, Mr Taylor conversations with them were conducted without prison officers' oversight. "In the end, when they saw the film they were glad that they had taken part because it gave a different view of the contribution that they were potentially prepared to make towards peace," he added."You know you've succeeded when you get that kind of reaction, when they're clearly expecting to take you to the cleaners for what you've done, and they say 'wasn't bad for a Brit'."Fewer programmes like Mr Taylor's are now made because of a lack of funding, he said."My worry is that public service broadcasting and the climate in which I grew up and learned my trade is under threat," he added."It needs finances. What we do, people like me try and do, is to help people understand and make political choices and pass judgments on these extremely difficult, complex issues." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
UK admits foreign aid cuts could see deaths rise – with Africa hardest hit
The government has admitted that slashing foreign aid spending will likely see global deaths rise – as it confirmed the cuts will fall disproportionately on women and girls' education and on projects across Africa. Its own assessment of the cuts' impact said: 'Any reductions to health spending risk an increase in disease burden and ultimately in deaths, impacting in particular those living in poverty, women, children and people with disabilities.' 'The world's most marginalised communities, particularly those experiencing conflict and women and girls, will pay the highest price for these political choices,' said Gideon Rabinowitz, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Bond, the UK network for international development organisations. 'At a time when the US has gutted all gender programming, the UK should be stepping up, not stepping back.' The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in its annual report published on Tuesday set out cuts of £575 million in 2025 to 2026, The government is cutting aid spending by 40 per cent in total, from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income or roughly £6 billion by 2027, meaning the deepest cuts are still to come. The report confirmed the UK will send £1.8bn to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) - providing grants and low-interest loans to low-income countries – in part of a shift in funding towards big multi-country spending programmes including the global vaccine alliance Gavi. This means less money going from the UK directly to projects in specific countries. The African region has been disproportionately hit by cuts, while the Americas, Europe and Indo-Pacific regions all saw increases in their budgets, said Ian Mitchell, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. "Despite making cuts of roughly half a billion pounds, it's encouraging to see that the government is prioritising multilateral spend and honouring its pledge to the World Bank. Yet, it is unfortunate that Africa – home to over two-thirds of those in extreme poverty – will receive under half of FCDO's country and regional budget,' he said. 'If the government is to achieve its manifesto mission to tackle poverty, it will need to focus its budget where poverty exists and give African countries greater priority in its subsequent allocations.' Mr Rabinowitz said while he welcomed the consistent funding for certain humanitarian crises, vaccines and the World Bank, 'it is clear that the government is deprioritising funding for education, gender and countries experiencing humanitarian crises such as South Sudan , Ethiopia and Somalia.' While the government has committed to protecting spending for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, other crisis-hit countries significant cuts, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The plans also see a halving in spending on girls' education as well as reductions in spending on women's health, including sexual and reproductive health, and health emergencies. Leading charities have previously raised the alarm that programmes supporting girls and women would be in the firing line. The UK has been a leader in funding sexual and reproductive health including family planning, and the withdrawal of the US from funding these services has left a huge gap. It remains to be seen whether key programmes increasing access to contraception around the world like the Women's Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) initiative will be protected. While the government's own impact assessment makes it clear that, where cuts fall, they will negative impacts on equality, the report claimed overall spending demonstrated, 'disproportionate impacts on equalities have been avoided', Minister for Development Baroness Jenny Chapman said: "We are modernising our approach to international development. Every pound must work harder for UK taxpayers and the people we help around the world and these figures show how we are starting to do just that through having a clear focus and priorities. 'The UK is moving towards a new relationship with developing countries, becoming partners and investors, rather than acting as a traditional aid donor. We want to work with countries and share our expertise – from world leading science to the City of London - to help them become no longer dependent on aid, and organisations like the World Bank and Gavi are central to how we can work with others to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time: humanitarian disasters, pandemics and the climate crisis.'
